2008's top three music phones

The mobile phone may not have killed the MP3 player, as some pundits prediced, but that hasn't stopped it trying. So if you're going to put music on a mobile, which give the best performance? Apple iPhone 3G Apple 3G iPhone It's overall score may suggest that the iPhone 3G shouldn't be our top-of-list music phone, but we …

[The Avangelist]

no wonder this site has a white background

Could you love Steve Jobs any more already?

Jees

I look forward to next weeks articles:

2008 best design for a glorified phone

2008 top 3 overpriced micro computers

2008 top 3 phones that have expensive contracts that only rich tossers can afford

2008 top 3 Gadgets that will possibly become the greatest gadgets of all time - even better than penicillin, bread, clean water and Jesus.

The winner of all will of course be Apple iPhone.

Play another record

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh

I guess it's actually justified this time. The music player on the iPhone is very good. I'd deduct points for it having to use itunes to get music onto it though.

[Tony Hoyle]

El reg can't win...

El reg can't win...

They produce a review of top 3 touch phones, apple isn't first so they're flamed by fanboys for not praising apple enough.

The produce a review of top 3 music phones, apple is first so they're flamed by fanboys for praising apple too much.

[Joshua]

@The Avangelist

You must be new here.

El Reg actually have a fairly sceptical view of anything produced by Cupertino California. Might have something to do with them being blacklisted by Apple a few years back.

You should also take a look at their smartphone roundup, where the iPhone incredibly came last.

[bygjohn]

@ The Avangelist

Considering that El Reg seems to spend half of its time spent covering things Apple being yelled at in the comments about how anti-Apple it is, and the other half getting yelled at for being pro-Apple I'd guess it's actually pretty neutral on balance.

As for the iPhone getting listed in multiple "best of" lists, well that's because it's actually rather good. Sorry you can't handle that, but there we are.

And as for all the nonsense about the iPhone being expensive, I would agree if we were still talking about version 1. The 3G, however, isn't badly priced. Check the Reg's round-up of the top 3 smart phones and you'll see it's the cheapest of the three...

[Dave]

What About Windows Mobile

you go on and on about the ipod touch features but what about the HTC touch HD, Diamond and Pro. All of these have a music on the front screen which can be accessed without going through any silly menus.

Don't forget that unlike the ipod you don't have to rely on itunes to do your bidding you can drag and drop music on and you get the added bonus of syncing up your play lists and music through media player should you wish.

Also you scored the touch HD as the phone of this year :P

[Sentient]

huh?

It's clear you don't have to pay for these phones

And even when taking price into account #3 has proprietary memory cards and no 3,5 earphones.

[Monkey]

Oh come on The Avangelist

I'm no fan of the iPhone for genuine technical reasons and as a matter of principle because of Steve Jobs thinking his consumers are all idiots, but for what the article is scoring it FOR, the iPhone deserves that No1 slot.

Way to go to miss the point and foam at the mouth with rabid reaction.

[Jared Earle]

@ The Avangelist

I suppose you missed the smartphone review where they marked the iPhone down to third for silly reasons, or the thousands of Apple-bashing articles El Reg spouts at every opportunity.

The Register is not a Pro-iPhone site in any way, not since Cade Metz didn't get invited to the release party. While most of the journalists writing for The Register use Macs and a large portion of them use iPhones, the tone of their writing would suggest otherwise.

[Dazed and Confused]

I hope the N96 is better than the N95

Coz the sound on my 8GB N95 is a bit like listening to a gramophone

[Bad Beaver]

@ The Avengalist

Well, sorry to say, but looking at the competition, Apple being in the top 3 of everything... seems pretty much justified. Face it, there is a lot of crap out there.

On the other hand you are correct about the iPhone contracts issue but you could be much worse off. Here in Germany, the cheapest tariff is

€29 / month for 24 (!) months

€169,95/249,95 for the iPhone 8/16GB

with

50 minutes included, then €0,29/min

200 MB HSDPA included

no free hotspot usage

no free texts

The O2 tariffs are a WET DREAM compared to that. Go compare

http://www.t-mobile.de/iphone/tarife/0,17181,21410-_,00.html

http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/paymonthly

You'll see that for £30 you get a fully usable iPhone (as in flat data) with decent minutes and texts, and £35 will get you more minutes and texts than you should have time to use up. T-Mobile on the other hand is most stingy with the minutes, and their text-policy is a blatant "we want to rip you off". The 16GB phone is still €20 even if you cough up €89/month (1000 minutes, 300 texts). They can go and shove it. There is no way I overlook the devices other issues at those prices.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Avangelist, re: no wonder this site has a white background

I know this is principally a UK site, but nevertheless the iPhone is available in different countries and in some of those countries, you don't need a contract at all. Sucks to be forced to, I know - I wouldn't consider one until I could get it contract free.

Mine's the one with the small computer in the pocket that just happens to play songs and make phone calls.

[Matthew Coulson]

Of course

Gloss over the N85, N79 and W980i - with the FM transmitters built in, and no need to use wired headphones as an antenna. The only real innovation this year.

And who gives a sod if a phone has a standard 3.5mm jack? On a regular player, great idea, but without a microphone you're going to have a hard time making calls. Score 1 for stereo bluetooth headsets and the daft Sony Ericsson connector that dongles into a 3.5mm jack after the mic.

[Gordon]

Is the Avangelist Job's love child?

Or maybe Job's just shot his puppy?

Thats the only reason I can see for such bitterness.

How does the Iphone coming 3rd in best 3 touchscreen phones fit into your slanted worldview?

[W]

"And who gives a sod if a phone has a standard 3.5mm jack?"

Me.

My reason: My mobile gets used more like an mp3 player with a phone function rather than vice versa, so headphone/earphone choice is more important *to me* than - gasp! - the oh so arduous hassle of yanking the 'phones from the mobile and speaking into the handset itself when I take the occasional call.

There's your answer. Happy now? Guess what? "You" are not "everybody".

Following on...

Q: Who gives a sod if a [object] has a standard [interface]?

A: Most folk prefer non-proprietery equipment. Except those who don't know there's an alternative, those who have money to get around the limitations of said proprietery equipment, or those who didn't understand the question.

[Bill]

I find the Nokia 6500 Slide and....

WH-700 Stereo Headset combo to make for a very potent music phone.

I've used the SE W series music phones. And, while they're nice, SE tend to screw them up as good all-round multimedia phones by limiting the camera functionality.

When my beloved SE W810 got pinched I opted for the Nokia 6500 Slide and WH-700 Combo as a replacement.

The insurance company initially tried to offer me a SE W910 as a settlement. However, after feeling how flimsy the damned thing was I wouldn't accept it. Luckily, for me, the 6500S got discounted the next day, and I was able to get that instead. And, since I only had to pay a $150 (NZ) excess charge for the whole package, I was supremely happy with it.

I've read a lot of negative reports regarding the 6500S' buggy firmware. However, I immediately upgraded to the newest when I got mine and have had no problems with it.

The music player is quite good and takes a lot of it's functionality from the XpressMusic series player - not the "say and play" function though. It does all that I want it to: sorts and selects by album, artist, genre; allows for custom play-lists and custom eq settings; shuffle and repeat; displays the album art, etc..

The WH-700 Stereo Headset I can't praise highly enough. The sound quality is fantastic and competes well with anything SE would include in their packages. And, it definitely blows away that crap that comes with the iPhone. It has volume and player forwarding controls built into the mic dongle, a nice storage box with a somewhat odd cable management system, and is made of very stylish chrome and black material. Nokia was even thoughtful enough to include a 2.5 to 3.5 mm adaptor in the kit.

Another bonus for me was the appearance of the whole kit: A lot of music phones tend to be geared toward teenagers. So, they're brightly coloured and made of plastic. While I personally don't mind this, I'd look like a tool with such a phone, as I'm a 46 year old man who needs to project a certain image because of the industry I work in. However, I needn't concern myself with this when the 6500S is within the sight of others. The stainless steel casing, with high gloss black accents, looks very flash without being over the top and outlandish.

Anyway, enough of my praise-singing. ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

bah@jesusphone

Can't even find them on sale locally.

As for music phones, I agree with some of the posts prior, HTC does make quite a number of music-oriented phones. Heck, my TyTN pipes out good quality sounding music too...

Penguin. Because I long to liberate my TyTN from the clutches of Redmond and run Linux on it.

[Kieron McCann]

Fanboys - I dont get 'em

First they whinge that the Jesus phone doesn't win the smart phone category and then they whinge when it wins the music phone category.

They wont be happy until we build a giant shine and sacrifice 1000 virgins at the alter of the great Jobs.

Thankfully if this were to happen those virgins are likely to be Jesus Phone Fanboys because apparently they go to parties and discuss phones and never get laid.

[Ramazan]

ROKR kill'em a... both

I'm surprised MOTO ROKR E8 wasn't even mentioned by el'reg here. The E8 is definitely better than N96 and that blown up Plymouth^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Sony&Ericsson of yours :)