Cloudane
09-03-2007, 10:20 PM
I know this forum is for handset reviews, but I have a lot to say about Three too. I trust this is okay.
Back to the soap bar mobiles for moi! Just upgraded to a Nokia N73 (http://www.nseries.com/index.html#l=products,n73) with Three's X-Series (http://www.three.co.uk/xseries) addon.
Excellent deal from Three, I get to stay on my £25/month tariff (750 texts, 150 mins, 25 mms, £5 of content/games, etc) for just another 12 months. This is surprising as the other networks (and Three if you're a new customer) seem to be asking £40 with a whopping 18 month contract!
X-Series is the reason that despite their problems in the past, I'm still very much "in love" with Three. They're very competitively priced and keep adding more and more, pushing the boundaries further ahead of the competition.
It's a £5/month addon which features unlimited: internet access, MSN messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype calls, audio/video podcasts and other bits. It's only available on this handset and 2 others, and it's brilliant. How the heck they can afford it I don't know, I just hope they keep it up! I suspect they actually make a loss with people like me these days but make it up through people daft enough to pay their premium download prices (you know, for ringtones etc)
The way Skype works is clever (from what I've been reading, as opposed to personal experience as mine's not activated yet). It logs on via data as you'd expect. But if you make a call, it actually dials a voice gateway operated by Three. This means you get crystal clarity and no latency issues even if you're only in a 2G area - if it were over a data connection, even in a 3G area it would probably be choppy, laggy and unreliable. Smart thinking Three, or whoever came up with the idea, fantastic.
The camera is one of the best in the business at the moment (one of the things that attracted me to it apart from the X-series addon. I practically *always* have my phone on me, so a decent camera is a major plus)
3.3mpx, 2048xsomething resolution images, Carl Zeiss optic (this is very good news, since when do you get Carl Zeiss on a mobile!), adjustable ISO settings, yada yada. Very good indeed. The results are astounding (ok not literally, but I mean for a mobile), it's not fantastic indoors... a little blue.... but they never are. But much better than others. My test shots:
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007.jpg
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007001.jpg
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007002.jpg
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007003.jpg (if you're confused - my dad upgraded at the same time)
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007004.jpg
You'll see what I mean by "blue" (which is why I included the blurred one too). Believe it or not, that fire in the pub is a natural blazing orangey one and not some sort of plasma fire from Star Trek! It's annoying I must admit, the n73 camera is very overly blue at both ends of the exposure scale. I'm just pleased at the detail and quality of the photo itself - the blue can always be removed later. It's far from fantastic (I am a spoilt SLR user after all) but I've never seen or expected this kind of quality from a camera phone so all's well.
I was worried due to the fact that they said it would be a "refurbished" one. Needn't have been (well, the battery didn't fit properly but I think that's a separate issue. I grabbed a cheap compatible to keep me going while I whinge at them for a replacement.)
My knowledge of the process is very little, but from what I've gathered from word of mouth (so please do NOT take it as fact): They don't give you handsets that have been reported as faulty, only ones that have been returned unused. Even still they go back to the factory and get new casing, new firmware (first time I've ever seen the latest firmware on a phone I just bought, I usually end up upgrading it myself), factory reset and repackaged as-new with all the protective plastic film and such. The only reason they don't just call it "new" is they legally cannot do so.
Slight bonus - whoever rejected it, did so after shoving his 512MB memory card in and leaving it there. This went unnoticed and thus it reached me. Cheers mate!
Usual bells and whistles that are common with today's mobiles - MP3 player, FM radio etc.
Very chuffed with it so far, love the X-series features, text messaging is a HUGE relief after the diabolical text messaging of the Moto v3x, it's speedy enough, the interface is consistent (same Symbian Series 60 interface from years ago, spruced up of course. Good idea, Nokia.). The proof of the Guinness is in the waiting, or something, but thumbs up so far.
Oh, one more thing... although it's specific to Three. X-series is activated, but Skype won't let me make a call yet. Although the Indian call centre seems to have improved *vastly* over the past year or two, they still don't seem to know what answer to give other than "just wait, it'll be active soon". I've been waiting for the full 8 hours that they cited at one point and it's still not working. But I'm sure this will be resolved, even if it's just through me being patient.
UPDATE: Patience was the key with Skype. It seemed to activate at Midnight. Just tested it, and it's exactly how the other reviews say - it's just like normal telephone call, just as clear, the phone rings as normal if you get an incoming call... marvellous!!
UPDATE 2: Contacted Three regarding the battery. They're sending me a replacement, and told me to keep hold of this one (so I'll just file the bad one down a bit and see if it'll fit as a spare. Yes I know the risks, I'll be careful). Yet again, excellent customer service from Three - I'd never have said that 2-3 years ago!
Back to the soap bar mobiles for moi! Just upgraded to a Nokia N73 (http://www.nseries.com/index.html#l=products,n73) with Three's X-Series (http://www.three.co.uk/xseries) addon.
Excellent deal from Three, I get to stay on my £25/month tariff (750 texts, 150 mins, 25 mms, £5 of content/games, etc) for just another 12 months. This is surprising as the other networks (and Three if you're a new customer) seem to be asking £40 with a whopping 18 month contract!
X-Series is the reason that despite their problems in the past, I'm still very much "in love" with Three. They're very competitively priced and keep adding more and more, pushing the boundaries further ahead of the competition.
It's a £5/month addon which features unlimited: internet access, MSN messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype calls, audio/video podcasts and other bits. It's only available on this handset and 2 others, and it's brilliant. How the heck they can afford it I don't know, I just hope they keep it up! I suspect they actually make a loss with people like me these days but make it up through people daft enough to pay their premium download prices (you know, for ringtones etc)
The way Skype works is clever (from what I've been reading, as opposed to personal experience as mine's not activated yet). It logs on via data as you'd expect. But if you make a call, it actually dials a voice gateway operated by Three. This means you get crystal clarity and no latency issues even if you're only in a 2G area - if it were over a data connection, even in a 3G area it would probably be choppy, laggy and unreliable. Smart thinking Three, or whoever came up with the idea, fantastic.
The camera is one of the best in the business at the moment (one of the things that attracted me to it apart from the X-series addon. I practically *always* have my phone on me, so a decent camera is a major plus)
3.3mpx, 2048xsomething resolution images, Carl Zeiss optic (this is very good news, since when do you get Carl Zeiss on a mobile!), adjustable ISO settings, yada yada. Very good indeed. The results are astounding (ok not literally, but I mean for a mobile), it's not fantastic indoors... a little blue.... but they never are. But much better than others. My test shots:
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007.jpg
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007001.jpg
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007002.jpg
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007003.jpg (if you're confused - my dad upgraded at the same time)
http://www.cloudane.com/stuff/09032007004.jpg
You'll see what I mean by "blue" (which is why I included the blurred one too). Believe it or not, that fire in the pub is a natural blazing orangey one and not some sort of plasma fire from Star Trek! It's annoying I must admit, the n73 camera is very overly blue at both ends of the exposure scale. I'm just pleased at the detail and quality of the photo itself - the blue can always be removed later. It's far from fantastic (I am a spoilt SLR user after all) but I've never seen or expected this kind of quality from a camera phone so all's well.
I was worried due to the fact that they said it would be a "refurbished" one. Needn't have been (well, the battery didn't fit properly but I think that's a separate issue. I grabbed a cheap compatible to keep me going while I whinge at them for a replacement.)
My knowledge of the process is very little, but from what I've gathered from word of mouth (so please do NOT take it as fact): They don't give you handsets that have been reported as faulty, only ones that have been returned unused. Even still they go back to the factory and get new casing, new firmware (first time I've ever seen the latest firmware on a phone I just bought, I usually end up upgrading it myself), factory reset and repackaged as-new with all the protective plastic film and such. The only reason they don't just call it "new" is they legally cannot do so.
Slight bonus - whoever rejected it, did so after shoving his 512MB memory card in and leaving it there. This went unnoticed and thus it reached me. Cheers mate!
Usual bells and whistles that are common with today's mobiles - MP3 player, FM radio etc.
Very chuffed with it so far, love the X-series features, text messaging is a HUGE relief after the diabolical text messaging of the Moto v3x, it's speedy enough, the interface is consistent (same Symbian Series 60 interface from years ago, spruced up of course. Good idea, Nokia.). The proof of the Guinness is in the waiting, or something, but thumbs up so far.
Oh, one more thing... although it's specific to Three. X-series is activated, but Skype won't let me make a call yet. Although the Indian call centre seems to have improved *vastly* over the past year or two, they still don't seem to know what answer to give other than "just wait, it'll be active soon". I've been waiting for the full 8 hours that they cited at one point and it's still not working. But I'm sure this will be resolved, even if it's just through me being patient.
UPDATE: Patience was the key with Skype. It seemed to activate at Midnight. Just tested it, and it's exactly how the other reviews say - it's just like normal telephone call, just as clear, the phone rings as normal if you get an incoming call... marvellous!!
UPDATE 2: Contacted Three regarding the battery. They're sending me a replacement, and told me to keep hold of this one (so I'll just file the bad one down a bit and see if it'll fit as a spare. Yes I know the risks, I'll be careful). Yet again, excellent customer service from Three - I'd never have said that 2-3 years ago!