iPhone vs Windows Mobile, Vodafone vs Telecom

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WH0A

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#335319 26-May-2010 23:27

GBristow: Wait for the fourth generation iPhone. You'll see a price drop with the current models, if you're that way inclined, and the 3GS and newer iPhone will come with the iPhone 4.0 OS. It'll allow multitasking to a degree, folder organisation, and more than one exchange profile.

Hi GBristow. Yup - definitely waiting for the 4th generation phone if I do make the move.

Thanks,
Mark

allan

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#336086 29-May-2010 14:56

Bit late to the party here, but I'm a user of both a WinMo HTC Touch 2 device on Telecom (personal) and iPhone 3GS on Vodafone (work). I've personally used an HTC Titan for a number of years and when it died, decided to replace it with an HTC Touch 2 (couldn't stretch to a Pro2). A week later my work decided to replace our mixed bag of Vodafone Nokias with iPhones across the board.

Is iPhone's on-screen QWERTY any good for longer and frequent emails? I've read lots of mixed reports. After a hardware keyboard I fear that this will be a big step backwards

Actually I've found the iPhone experience to be pretty good. The major annoyance to me being that it attempts to serve a different keyboard depending on what you are doing and while to some extent I've found it useful to have a @ and a full stop presented to me on the main layout when typing an email, the slightly different layout in different circumstances is confusing. It's nice how it expands to a larger layout in landscape mode. By contrast the onscreen keyboard on the Touch 2 is cramped, has no landscape mode, but does give a very nice tactile "buzz" when you hit a key.

Is it true that iPhone on Vodafone sucks and that it's better on Telecom XT (no jokes please)? I can choose either with my company, but probably need to stick wtih Voda for the family plan.

Well given the fact that it's an 850/2100 device in 3G mode vs Vodafone's 3G 900/2100 network yes it's very slow when outside the main centres and falls out of 3G mode. I made a road trip up to Taranaki and found the whole data experience underwhelming and slow, slow, slow while on the road. My Touch 2 on the other hand, was blazingly quick. If you are in a main centre most of the time however - not a problem.

How do Apple people survive without external storage?! I just don't get that missing from the iPhone, still ... !

Haven't really noticed this as an issue, as the iPhone has more built in that my WinMo devices, but on the other hand, not being able to see your music and videos as real files is annoying and as someone else commented - you are locked into iTunes as a delivery platform.

How integrated with PC Outlook via Exchange is iPhone really - is it the same as WinMo integration or a retrograde step?

No real difference in setting Exchange up for over the air sync. It's as easy on the iPhone as it is on WinMo. In use, the iPhone doesn't sync your Tasks, but can sync your Notes (I think that's over the air)and it's the other way round on a WinMo device, although you can do Notes via PC sync of course. Both allow synch only to a single Exchange account.

The iPhone's larger screen makes it considerably easier to read attachments, but not as much flexibility in dealing with emails - e.g. you can't mark read/unread, you can't sort by Sender/Subject. No indication of message size.

Anything else I should be wary or aware of?

Lack of multitasking - e.g. there's a great NZ Radio Stations app for streaming radio, but the moment you start doing anything else, away it goes. This annoys me a bit more thann I thought it would.

Would I be making a big mistake and would this change require me to wear I Heart Apple t-shirts and react violently whenever anyone hints that Apple is not always perfect, that yes they're great designers but could possible, maybe, perhaps be somewhat control-freakish at times ... ?!

Well I've resisted the urge for the t-shirt so far, but I guess it's horses for courses. You can't deny Apple's design flair, but it is their way of doing things, or not at all. On balance, I'm a satisfied user - not a fanboy, but happy with what I've got.

WH0A

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#336119 29-May-2010 17:47

allan:

2. Is it true that iPhone on Vodafone sucks and that it's better on Telecom XT (no jokes please)? I can choose either with my company, but probably need to stick wtih Voda for the family plan.

Well given the fact that it's an 850/2100 device in 3G mode vs Vodafone's 3G 900/2100 network yes it's very slow when outside the main centres and falls out of 3G mode. I made a road trip up to Taranaki and found the whole data experience underwhelming and slow, slow, slow while on the road. My Touch 2 on the other hand, was blazingly quick. If you are in a main centre most of the time however - not a problem.

Hi Allan

Thanks a heap for your comments. Your experience with both devices is very valuable, even if your HTC doesn't have the hardware keyboard. (And I can understand you preferring iPhone for on-screen QWERTY, btw. HTC has tried hard and is better than most WinMo devices, but without that hardware keyboard I don't think I'd like my Touch as much as I do. Whenever I try it I give up frustrated very quickly!)

Re the comment quoted above on Vodafone vs Telecom, this week I contacted Paul Brislen of Voda via Twitter and asked the question. He's very good I find and makes up for some of Voda's other customer service (service? hah). While he steered clear of iPhone speed outside main centres - fair enough, I didn't expect him to diss his own company - he did clarify that there are 19 3G "main centres".

Some in this thread have mentioned that Voda 3G coverage is limited to just the big 4 (Akl, Wlg, Chc, Dun) so, although I appreciated getting their comments, it looks like it's perhaps not quite as bad as they thought on Voda. Nonetheless, bad when you're on the road on 2G though. I think I can live with that - I reside in a main centre and mostly travel to main centres only.

Anyway - thanks again.

Cheers,
Mark

WH0A

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#339457 8-Jun-2010 17:28

Regarding my item #2 ...

WH0A:

2. Is it true that iPhone on Vodafone sucks and that it's better on Telecom XT (no jokes please)? I can choose either with my company, but probably need to stick wtih Voda for the family plan.

... I see that the new iPhone 4 supports UMTS 900 (http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html).

So the new iPhone will be fully compatible with Vodafone NZ's network as well as XT.

Regs

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#339578 8-Jun-2010 22:09

Is it true that iPhone on Vodafone sucks and that it's better on Telecom XT (no jokes please)? I can choose either with my company, but probably need to stick wtih Voda for the family plan.

Well given the fact that it's an 850/2100 device in 3G mode vs Vodafone's 3G 900/2100 network yes it's very slow when outside the main centres and falls out of 3G mode. I made a road trip up to Taranaki and found the whole data experience underwhelming and slow, slow, slow while on the road. My Touch 2 on the other hand, was blazingly quick. If you are in a main centre most of the time however - not a problem.

I have trouble using *any* phone on vodafone 3G both at home, and at work. Calls are often dropped and data is fast/slow/fast/slow/dead. I'm in the middle of Auckland. I barely get one bar of signal on an iPhone, Palm Treo 750v, Palm Treo Pro or Sony w705. I get better 3g signal on a nokia 3120c but its still up and down between 1 and 2 bars. The only way to get reliable service in both locations is to lock the phones to GSM only, which defeats the purpose of owning a smartphone.

In contrast, I get 4-5 bars of signal with 2degrees, TelecomXT and Telecom CDMA networks in both locations, on all the phones i've tested.

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WH0A

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#339597 8-Jun-2010 22:39

Regs:

I have trouble using *any* phone on vodafone 3G both at home, and at work. Calls are often dropped and data is fast/slow/fast/slow/dead. I'm in the middle of Auckland. I barely get one bar of signal on an iPhone, Palm Treo 750v, Palm Treo Pro or Sony w705. I get better 3g signal on a nokia 3120c but its still up and down between 1 and 2 bars. The only way to get reliable service in both locations is to lock the phones to GSM only, which defeats the purpose of owning a smartphone.

In contrast, I get 4-5 bars of signal with 2degrees, TelecomXT and Telecom CDMA networks in both locations, on all the phones i've tested.

Wow, what a pain! I sympathise, must be frustrating. I do know what you mean though - when Vodafon'es 3G gets to the weaker edges of its signal it's a pain. At my home and work (central Wellington) I have areas that are fine in 3G and others where it's hopeless. strangely, though, it's not consistent.

Vodafone could certainly do with more network infrastructure upgrades.

If someone else offered calling plans that included Vodafone (for my family who are stuck wth Voda ... for now), I'd change in the blink of an eye!

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rovente

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#339611 8-Jun-2010 23:22

I'm in no way a fanboy but am an iphone 3gs user. On paper the iphone is far behind its rivals. But I find it very user friendly and mostly does what it says on the tin.

The qwerty is nice to use and you can become a pro very easily. Quite a few awesome apps make it compelling to use. Voda coverage isn't all bad but my nokia (e66) has better signal strength than my iphone. The exchange sync is really smooth and easy to use.

I don't see a reason to wait for the 4g if the 3gs is going to be offered out at a good price. And I don't know many who have bought an iphone and been greatly dissapointed.

WH0A

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#339682 9-Jun-2010 09:00

Thanks for the comments, Rovente. I'm going to wait for the iPhone, but it's good to know people have found it so usable.

Cheers,
Mark

chiefie

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#339697 9-Jun-2010 09:54

Definitely recommend iPhone4 if you can wait for July-ish. with pentaband, it will be good on Vodafone's network.

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#339700 9-Jun-2010 10:00

chiefie: Definitely recommend iPhone4 if you can wait for July-ish. with pentaband, it will be good on Vodafone's network.

Except where Vodafone 2100 MHz and 900 MHz don't exist, where you will still be thrown back to 2G. Remember the networks don't necessarily overlap each other.

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bonkiebonks

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#339701 9-Jun-2010 10:05

I'd still stick with Telecom XT even with the iPhone4 supporting UMTS 900. As I understand it, not all of Vodafone's cell towers are fibre fed, so UMTS 900 or not, it's still pointless to be on their 3G network when the backhaul is the bottleneck.

I recall listening to streaming radio all the way from Auckland to Wellington on SH1 on Telecom XT. How cool is that?!

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