Ok, Sorry to obsess on this, but tomorrow is decision day and now I've noticed that the n80ie will also do everything I want and seems to be more settled.

Anyone have any thoughts on that model?

Looks to be the same OS/version but no complaints and have all the features listed above... Anyone have one?

Thanks!

-R

Not sure what you mean by more settled. The N80 has been around longer than the E65. The N80 is a multimedia phone while the E65 is positioned more as a business phone. If you plan to do video calls the N80 has a second camera on the screen side for that but the E65 doesn't.

N80 dimensions - 95 x 50 x 26 mm, 97 cc
E65 dimensions - 105 x 49 x 15.5 mm, 74 cc

Go to GSM Arena to compare the phones.

I personally prefer the thinner E65, which is why I bought it.

There is a difference between the N80 and the N80ie. So if you are not buying new beware. If you buy a used N80, it can be upgraded to the N80ie but it will take you some work.

SonyEricsson is much worse than Nokia on support. The P990 is still critically flawed in many ways yet SE is dropping support on it. Some of their devices are great but based upon that there's no way I'd buy a smartphone from 'em.

As for the E65, I love it. I now have the E90, the E61i and the E65. Out of all of 'em, the E65 is the fastest. Mind you, speed is relative. Some people complain about sluggishness on E series devices yet I've NEVER had one overall seem as slow as a Windows Mobile device. Where Symbian bogs down is when you have a lot of messages stored (like, over 1,000 Emails which with 6 email accounts on Blackberry easily happens). Forgot to mention, the E65, of course, supports Blackberry Connect.

If you do even medium duty messaging, it's not the device for you but for voice it's wonderful. Subjective voice quality on both SIP and GSM is great. The phone has more than sufficient volume and sounds full. In comparison, the E61i has very poor audio quality. I've had the earpiece replaced by Nokia HK and also swapped with my father who has an 'i as well. No difference.

Downsides are that the phone's a bit more difficult to operate than other S60v3 devices I've used (lack of keyboard) and the battery life is somewhat less than I'm used to. It's still a solid two days but doesn't have the stamina of it's larger brethren.

In short, if you like S60 as an OS, you'll love it. I love S60.

Was referring to the lack of firmware upgrade on the E65 that I've seen many people online complain about.

As it turns out, a friend has an N80 that he's going to give me that I'll try out for a while. I'll flash it to make it an IE and see hoe that goes. Of course, I'll covet the smaller e65 for a while, and maybe pick that up in a few months.

Thanks again for all the info.

^

R

What was the last WM device you used? My TyTN on WM6 is by far the fastest phone I've ever had.

At present: HTC Touch and X7500.

The Touch is only 200MHz, but your Advantage should be blazing...

Just a few questions to E65 users. The phone is available on a basic plan and Mrs BB is very interested.

The Nokia E65:
Is the text messaging fast enough not to be annoying?
(Out of my own interest) Is Wifi useful enough for basic web browsing (e.g. news, FT!)?
How about e-mail> Have you tried the 'push' Exchange or BlackBerry e-mail; or 'normal SMTP e-mail' via gmail etc?

The phone is now coming onto a basic plan as a free phone, so it's almost a no brainer <I think...>.

The alternative bundled 'free' phone, a SonyEricsson W880 'walkman':
The W880 is smaller/lighter/newer/normally higher-priced but it isn't a Nokia, doesn't have the screen, Wifi, nice keypad for texts - did I mention Mrs B strongly prefers Nokia?
(Yes I know this one is triband/3G not quadband/3G and may not work in the US, so it may not be known by many FTers)

I don't use BB or push exchange so can't comment on that. I have used the E65 with IMAP and gmail and it works great. I have had no issues surfing with the wifi, using VoIP to/from my own Trixbox and Syncml with my.funambol.com (for syncing calendar, contacts, etc). The text messaging I haven't had any issues with the speed of text messaging. Overall I am very pleased with my E65.