What mp3 phone to get?

K

Karyn O

New member
Please recommend me a phone that satisfies the following requirements:

1. Can play mp3's with GOOD music quality (read: as good as decent mp3 player)
2. Should be a slim/small phone that easily fits into my pocket
3. Good call quality

Optional (but nice):

1. Lots of internal (flash) memory on the phone; it seems like most phones are limited to 2gb microSD cards + < 100mb internal, but I'd love to be able to carry ~8gb of music with me (and no, i don't mean 4 microSD cards )
2. Bluetooth, EDGE, Wifi
3. Good battery life
4. Decent camera (very low priority)
5. Possibly some "smart phone" features like email, word docs, web surfing (very low priority)

Here are the phones I'm considering so far (all, obviously, have mp3 players):

Sony Ericsson W810i
* Pros: seems to have excellent sound quality and appears to be fairly small (can't really tell if it's "slim" from pictures though). Has bluetooth, 2MP camera, and supports *EDIT* memory stick pro duo *EDIT* and supposedly decent battery life. anyone know what is the biggest memory card you can use with this phone? 2gb? 4gb? 8gb?
* Cons: the on board memory is < 30MB, I'm not sure how the call quality is, and it seems very expensive (~$300 w/o contract?)

LG CU500
* Pros: quad band phone, very thin, 1.3MP camera w/ rotating lens, microSD slot, seems to be very cheap (
 
Based on what I read, the Nokia N91 has a 4gb (not 8) HD, good mp3 player, good screen and is a solid smart phone (integrated wifi is sweet). however, it looks really big and heavy and expensive (is it even available in the US?). I'll keep it in mind though, thanks.

also, the availability of 4gb cards makes the w810i stand out even more in my eyes...

thanks for the info so far folks... keep it coming

EDIT: according to memorystick.com , 8gb is on the way as well... will prob be pricey as hell, but that makes it even sweeter...
 
w810i is pocketable thats y i took it over the k790, and i have a 4G pro duo on it, loaded with music and pr0n lol. u can get for $240 on ebay....
 
If you happen to live in Chicago or New York, you can go to the Nokia store and check the N91 out in person. It does have 4gb (the newer version has 8gb but I don't know if its out yet) and it's not as big as I thought it would be.

Other than that, the W810i seems to be your best choice
 
i was actually thinking of getting it for free (AR) from amazon w/ a new 2 year contract. of course, my current contract hasn't expired yet, so we'll see if i'm patient enough to wait

however, on second look, i noticed that the memory cards are quite expensive... that is, the price/gb isn't too bad, but they add a significant cost to the phone that i overlooked.

the cheapest i've seen is $88.39 shipped (AGCO) for 4gb, which means i'd have to spend at least ~$180 to get the 8gb i want. not a big deal if i do get the phone for free, but not cost effective if i pay for the phone as well.
 
it's not an absolute requirement to have 8gb, but i'd def. prefer it to 4... i have lots of music and if i got an mp3 phone, i'd listen to it:

* twice a day in my car (via a tape adapter, most likely) during my ~35min commute
* while at the gym (4 days/week for ~1hr)
* during work (while coding)
* random other times

i'd need a whole lotta music on there to avoid hearing the same stuff over and over again. an extra ~1000 songs goes a long way towards that goal
 
How is the MP3 player interface/GUI on the LG CU500? Lotta w800i owners have praised its player... I'm looking for an inexpensive music playing phone myself
 
Sound quality and volume are excellent on the CU500. Interface has some limitations but I have adjusted to them and it is now the only mp3 player I use. There is a limit of 10 playlists and only its own format, doesn't support m3u or wpl. This seems very shortsighted and hopefully will be addressed in a firmware update. You can conveniently play music with the flip closed including select playlist or song, pause/resume, previous track/next track, but oddly enough, you must open the flip to completely stop the music. Receiving a call when the player is on works well and pauses the music when you open the flip to answer the call. Creating playlists and adding songs is easy. You can store music on the microsd card in folders but your play options are limited to individual song or playlist. Shuffle works well. I leave my equalizer set to 3d surround which provides excellent audio quality. I use my Sennheiser headphones with a small adapter to convert to small plug.
 
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