Which smart phone with GPS?

[TopshamLad]

I'm looking to buy a new 3G phone with GPS that's ideally cheap(ish) and relatively robust. Can anybody recommend a suitable make/model/tariff?

 

[Garz]

I have a HTC Magic, with voda on a £22.50 montly contract that I use for logging too.

 

[blazed]

Get an iphone.

 

[gaz]

I would say get the iPhone if money was no object. As it's one of the best phones available at the moment, with a great least of features.

Second on my list would be the HTC Magic as Garz has already mentioned, a phone which is very good and pretty much on par with the iPhone and a growing user base is only going to make it better. and a fair bit cheaper.

 

[blazed]

I would say get the iPhone if money was no object. As it's one of the best phones available at the moment, with a great least of features.

Second on my list would be the HTC Magic as Garz has already mentioned, a phone which is very good and pretty much on par with the iPhone and a growing user base is only going to make it better. and a fair bit cheaper.

Yep the iphone is expensive think i paid £380 for my 3G but its a great phone. I just downloaded the tomtom sat nav app, £60 but thats still a fair bit cheaper than a stand alone tomtom and its pretty much just as good. There are other satnav apps available from around £30 i think.

 

[yorkshiregoth]

iPhone

 

[John the Monkey]

Nokia N82 - nice candy bar form factor, free sports tracker application, super little camera with excellent Xenon flash. Were coming down in price recently too.

(Sure the iPhone is good too, I'm just fed up of everyone who has one buttonholing me and telling me how f* great they are (they seem to do the same things as my S60 phones, far's I can tell)).

 

[MePower]

nokia 5800 on orange 15 quid. Have had 2 i phones and the 5800 gets my vote. Very quick, simple to use, and everything you need. Sat nav is the biz, and its far cheaper than i phone

 

[peanut]

nokia 5800 on orange 15 quid. Have had 2 i phones and the 5800 gets my vote. Very quick, simple to use, and everything you need. Sat nav is the biz, and its far cheaper than i phone

I'll second that +1
Mrs roasted and I both have Nokia 5800 and they have some excellent features. Get them free with a £15.00 contract.
The MP3 players are fantastic and the built in stereo speakers are impressive. Great camera great video and simple Nokia operation Wi-Fi GPS whats not to like.

 

[chonkers]

I'll second that +1
Mrs roasted and I both have Nokia 5800 and they have some excellent features. Get them free with a £15.00 contract.
The MP3 players are fantastic and the built in stereo speakers are impressive. Great camera great video and simple Nokia operation Wi-Fi GPS whats not to like.

same as the 2 posts above using nokia 5800 and is very good satnav works a treat or u can put tomtom on etc

cheers

ian

 

[Lozatron]

I have an iphone and love it...however one thing you need to be really aware of, it can only do one thing at a atime - so if you go from whichever satnav application you're using to the music player, say, it stops doing it's satnav thing. Most other devices of the type do more proper multitasking.

I guess it depends what you want GPS for - don't forget most smartphones (and certainly the iphone) will only be able to download maps for the area if they're in mobile phone coverage - if you are going to visit those beautiful parts of the country which don't have perfect mobile phone reception - and you are going to *rely* on your GPS unit rather than use it to get you out of a pickle - you are probably going to need a solution which allows you to download all the maps onto the device.

I don't know if any other smartphone solutions do this (I wouldn't be surprised if some let you do this on a memory card as the maps tend to be quite big...) but my beloved iPhone certainly doesn't.

I got myself a garmin 705 which I'm really happy with - it is pricey though.

 

[nigelnorris]

I have an iphone and love it...however one thing you need to be really aware of, it can only do one thing at a atime - so if you go from whichever satnav application you're using to the music player, say, it stops doing it's satnav thing. Most other devices of the type do more proper multitasking.

I guess it depends what you want GPS for - don't forget most smartphones (and certainly the iphone) will only be able to download maps for the area if they're in mobile phone coverage - if you are going to visit those beautiful parts of the country which don't have perfect mobile phone reception - and you are going to *rely* on your GPS unit rather than use it to get you out of a pickle - you are probably going to need a solution which allows you to download all the maps onto the device.

I don't know if any other smartphone solutions do this (I wouldn't be surprised if some let you do this on a memory card as the maps tend to be quite big...) but my beloved iPhone certainly doesn't.

I got myself a garmin 705 which I'm really happy with - it is pricey though.

S60 based phones eaily toggle between satnav, music, calls etc. As for the maps I have TomTom with UK and main roads of Western Europe package and it's tiny, something like 150 megs, so could easily fit detailed Euro maps on 1/2 gig of space. N73 takes up to 2 gig cards so that leaves plenty of space for music and other apps, though more up to date phones will hold a lot more - the other Nokia phone mentioned above is 8 gig I think.

 

[magnatom]

+1 for HTC magic. Excellent phone.

 

[TopshamLad]

Thanks for all your replies..

.. I have gone with Nokia 5800 - comes out very well in recent Which? review at half the price of an iPhone (which I'd probably get if money was no object!).

Will be using it on my imminent LEJOG trip (departing 1 Sep) - yikes!

 

[Garz]

+1 for HTC magic. Excellent phone.

Ahh the doc has one, makes me feel all cosy inside now!