Hi,

My current mobile contract is expiring soon and to get me to sign on for another 2 years (which I will be doing anyway) they're offering me a choice of free phone.

I've narrowed down the choice to the Nokia E71 and the BlackBerry Curve 8520 and I would love to hear people's opinions.

Personal preferences:
- First and foremost it has to be good at what a mobile phone is meant to do: calling (i.e. intuitive phonebook, volume controls, etc) and texting
- I'm not particularly concerned with additional apps which are 'cool' but will never be used by most people
- Email should work well, be easy to retrieve and read
- A good still camera would be nice, but I'm not particularly concerned and don't care about video whatsoever
- Aesthetics are valid points, if one phone looks ridiculous to carry around then I don't want to be carrying it around
- Small/light phones are preferrable (the Nokia is about 2/3 the thickness of the blackberry)
- I won't be using my phone for music so that shouldn't play into it



Any insight, personal experiences, opinions, or random off-topic comments are very welcome.

Thanks!

well, first of all I'm biased. but if its ONLY these 2 phones go for the blackberry. if you want/need email, BlackBerry is your best choice. Also the keyboard on this model is like the second best ever (best being the 8300 series IMO)

I've also found Blackberry keypads to be much better to type on than Nokia's E series (My dad has an E71 which I find rather difficult to type efficiently on, whereas my friend's Blackberry is very good to type on).

I would say Nokia E71, they are very reliable phones and strong phones. I know that because my friend has one and hes dropped it and treated roughly many of times. Also its got a pretty decent processor in it, ARM11-based single-core Freescale processor running at 369 MHz.

depends what network/carrier you go with in Australia. but if you dont require email on your phone, just get the E71.

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Originally posted by Volv
- Email should work well, be easy to retrieve and read

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Originally posted by ICQ
depends what network/carrier you go with in Australia. but if you dont require email on your phone, just get the E71.

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I'm leaning towards the Blackberry at the moment because of the keypad and the slightly cooler looking GUI on the photo of the blackberry (oh god i'm superficial)

My friend bought a blackberry (i can't remember exactly which one it is) and she is having a crap load of problems with it. Mainly its lack of simplicity and having to go the long way around to do simple things.
go somewhere and test it out. new telstra stores and virgin stores now have working models rather than dummies.

I ended up getting the blackberry posting from it atm

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Originally posted by MeEtc
if you want/need email, BlackBerry is your best choice. Also the keyboard on this model is like the second best ever

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I can definitely see what aznangel was talking about, it can be quiet complex to do simple things but I like the overall feel and look of the thing.

Thanks for the input guys!

Blackberry...............9700

Shoulda chosen an Android-based phone

Yep, if for using email, Blackbarry is the one.

I like Nokia E71 in red.

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Originally posted by azn angel
My friend bought a blackberry (i can't remember exactly which one it is) and she is having a crap load of problems with it. Mainly its lack of simplicity and having to go the long way around to do simple things.
go somewhere and test it out. new telstra stores and virgin stores now have working models rather than dummies.

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Well, from a technical point of view, I work for blackberry tech support for Rogers (a Canadian service provider), and the 8520, so far has been the more reliable of the blackberrys we provide (common blackberry's i'm comparing to being the 8310, 8900, 8220(the worst), 9000, 9700, among others).

Speaking with a co-worker that handles our PDA calls including the E71 and the BB 8520(when we're busy), it looks like the E71 seems to have a higher percent of manufacturing defects, as well as being a little more fragile.

the blackberry also includes a very reliable and stable network for enhanced security(also known as the BIS, Blackberry Internet Service)

personally i own the iPhone, however if i were to choose another phone, it would most likely be the 8520.

if i think i choose Blackberry cause blackberry have many function for internet and business purpose ...
email,chat,connectivity and speed..also support office aplication

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Originally posted by NiteMare
Well, from a technical point of view, I work for blackberry tech support for Rogers (a Canadian service provider), and the 8520, so far has been the more reliable of the blackberrys we provide (common blackberry's i'm comparing to being the 8310, 8900, 8220(the worst), 9000, 9700, among others).

Speaking with a co-worker that handles our PDA calls including the E71 and the BB 8520(when we're busy), it looks like the E71 seems to have a higher percent of manufacturing defects, as well as being a little more fragile.

the blackberry also includes a very reliable and stable network for enhanced security(also known as the BIS, Blackberry Internet Service)

personally i own the iPhone, however if i were to choose another phone, it would most likely be the 8520.

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Originally posted by segosa
Shoulda chosen an Android-based phone

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