Confused about which Nokia phone to get. Need WIFI and HSDPA

[petkow]

Can anyone help me make up my mind? For my next phone, I am looking for something with HSCSD and WiFI for a change. I am hooked to Nokia, and on my plan I can basically get any of the following handsets for free:

Nokia E71
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Of these two, I think I prefer the E71 by far just for the keyboard. However, I can also get the the N95 8GB at only a little more per month which I am also quite tempted by. Is the N95 8GB really worth a lot more than the E71?

Has anyone got anything outstanding to say about any of these? I am especially interested if anyone has any experience of using Betamax VoIP on them (e.g. via WiFI)? How is the sound quality? Has anyone got experience of placing VoIP calls via 3G or 3.5G data?

Would be extremely grateful for your comments, because I am absolutely useless at coming to a decision.

Thanks in advance

[petkow]

Sorry... I meant HSDPA rather than HSCSD! I can't edit the original!

[djmonsi]

E71 dont have accelerometer like N95 8gb. Tryed to set up voip on my E71 and it dint work. Alternate solution is to install fring.Voip on 3g and 3.5g is good ( tryed it twice only ) never got a chance to use it maximum because no unlimited datapack in my place.

[inquisitor]

Hi petkow,

I'm owning a N95 and since yesterday a brandnew E71. Also I played a bit with the 5800.

Firstly I do strondly advise you against the 5800. As Nokia's first touch screen phone it's still crude, lot's of Symbian applications won't run on it and I don't like it's form factor at all.

Regarding the N95 8GB and the E71 I would certainly go for the E71. Except for the better camera, the more or less useless accelometer, the convinient media player controls (those that appear when pushing the slider downwards) and the possibility to turn the screen format, the E71 has all the functions which the N95 has. However the E71 has a higher battery capacity, it's way more elegant as it's super thin and is partly from stainless steel (at least the battery cover). The most important reason, why I swichted phones, is the keyboard of the E71, that now allows me writing eMails quickly and convinient. The only disadvantage of the E71 which I discovered so far is, that you need to type phone numbers also on those tiny buttons, which is difficult while drinking and while driving. Also I like the landscape screen format of the E71 way better than the portrait format of the N95. Sure, you can turn the screen format of the N95, but then all the keys are in an unusable position.

Regarding VoIP, that was the main reason why I've chosen a Nokia device over a HTC Touch Diamond 2 and the Android-powered HTC Magic, which I also considered to buy.
Nokia's VoIP-stack is superb and it is highly integrated in the firmware, which means it can run permanently in the background and you can place VoIP-calls from the regular dialer without the need to start a separate VoIP-application, which is the case for any other device I've seen so far.
Voice quality of VoIP-calls is really good, but it depends on the quality of your internet connection. If you're on a congested 3G-cell, call quality may drop, but usually it's nearly perfect. I'm regularly calling through poivy, which is a Betamax brand, too.
Nokia supports VoIP-calls over WiFi as well as over 3G, but it won't work on GSM, allthough EDGE does provider enough bandwidth for VoIP.
The VoIP-stack of the E71 and N95 seems to be identical - so in terms of VoIP there's no difference between both phones.

Btw yesterday I found an application called "SIP VoIP settings" from Nokia, which allows some additional VoIP settings including changing the priority of VoIP-codecs. If you're on a volume-based data tariff it makes sense to place PCMU (G.711 μ-law) PCMA (G.711 A-law) in the last ranks:
SIP VoIP 2.x Settings

There's also a version "3.0", which didn't work on the E71, as it didn't appear anywhere in the menus after installation, only the above worked:
SIP VoIP 3.0 Settings

There are some other minor things, that are better on the E71, but I need to leave now, as my girlfriend is getting angry. So, buy the E71!

regards,

Inquisitor

[djmonsi]

Yah for E-mails and SMS E71 is way better. 2 or 3days learning curve and you can be a pro! with those keypads. Best part of the keypad is it never make any unwanted noice when you are typing. Dint like the loudspeaker mode on E71, the speakers are not that powerful.

5800 is based on the new symbian 9.4 and the software is slow if you compare it to E71. (Touch screens make a mess if you like texting and E-mailing a lot)

N95 got a better Wi-Fi ( what i have noticed ) and is more of an entertainment package and it got TV output like N79 but no Fm-transmitter.

E71 plays it simple and sleek. Apart from TV-output, Fm-Transmitter, 5mp cam and accelerometer it got pretty much everything.

[inquisitor]

Wow! I just discovered, that the E71 can read aloud eMails! I'm absolutely amazed! Germany's roads have become a bit saver today.
Of course the E71 can read aloud callers' names while ringing, as the N95 can.

[petkow]

Thanks a lot guys! You guys really have spent some time selling me the E71. Apologies for me checking back here a bit later than planned, but your input has swung me to the E71.

I hope you don't get into too much trouble with your lady over writing me that long post inquisitor!

I really do like the email to text conversion! That is amazing! I was in an Alfa Romeo Mito on the weekend that read out my SMS's via bluetooth. I was very impressed! Now to be getting a phone that will do it for me will be even better. Not only are Germany's roads going to be a bit safer! Anyhow, I think Spain needs it a bit more, with these loco drivers down here!

[hkr]

Someone mentioned problems with VoIP. I have not had any difficulties with my E71, it works very well over WiFi and HSDPA, but I do not really use it over HSDPA a lot because that drains the battery quite fast. But it is always registered to my Asterisk PBX via wifi at home and office as well as some friendly places automatically. And it is easy to get it work wherever there is need. I also have fring and nimbuzz (latter works better for me) for skype calls and instant messaging. But for SIP, I prefer the inbuilt Nokia client.

[Effendi]

I can suggest the E71 as well, I have it since several months and I simply adore it! It's the perfect "business phone", I love the keyboard and it simply works well.

[Malkav]

Originally Posted by Effendi

I can suggest the E71 as well, I have it since several months and I simply adore it! It's the perfect "business phone", I love the keyboard and it simply works well.

you could wait for the n97......