Mobile with Symbian Operating System

**Moscow Mule** · 7 July 2008, 15:09

Originally posted by TonyEnglish View Post

I'm looking at getting my son a mobile as he is off to high school this year so we need to have a means whereby he can contact us in an emergency. Because he is blind he has to have the following on it.

1 - Symbian operating system - the screen reader requires this
2 - Buttons as touch screen is useless to him
3 - The ability to use memory cards or have a reasonable amount of storage as standard (8gb)
4 - The operating system has to run at a reasonable speed as the screen reader he has to buy to run on top of it is a bit on the hefty side.

So what would you lot recommend? He's been playing with my n95 this weekend but £350 is a lot to spend on a phone/MP3 player - especially as the software is another £150. My wife has a N73 which would be cheaper but that struggles to run the operating system, so I doubt it would be much use putting a greater load on it.

If it's an emergency only phone, why not just get a cheapy phone and program the speed dials for him?

If it's an N95 (which sounds like what you're after) he's going to want to use it a fair bit more and a contract will be required, which will spread the cost of the phone for you anyway.

**NickFitz** · 7 July 2008, 15:10

Have you checked out the RNIB web site? They have a good amount of useful information on mobile phones - their Accessible mobile phones FAQ is probably a good place to start.

**BoredBloke** · 7 July 2008, 15:17

Yes been through the website - What I was hoping for was what you lot had as a preferance. The trouble is, when you go into the shops they want to flog you the ones whith all the best features, most of which are useless to him. Like the N95 - the big screen which gobbles up the battery life is there because of the video player - something he doesn't need/want. As I said, my wife has the n73 which can take SD cards and so can be used as a MP3 player but her's is soooo slow to use that I doubt it could handle the screen reader. We looked at the N81 but the buttons on it are a bit too flat which means he can't use it properly.

What would be ideal would be a N73 which ran the software at a reasonable speed.

**NickFitz** · 7 July 2008, 15:35

Symbians's web site has a list of phones running Symbian - after all, it doesn't necessarily have to be Nokia

**basshead** · 7 July 2008, 16:42

I've got an E51 which runs Symbian - all the buttons are on the front/side/top, no slider etc to get in the way, and they can be remapped to whatever function you like, although the buttons aren't huge. The E51 seems to run a little faster than my wife's N95 although is not quite as feature packed. The buttons on the N95 keypad seem smaller too.

**Archangel** · 8 July 2008, 06:54

The battery life on the N95 is appalling. I listen to the radio for 8 hours a day, very few calls (billy no-mates), a bit of surfing and its dead.

Otherwise, its a great phone.

I wouldn't spend £350 on one, they are free on new contracts.

Have you visited the Symbian forums? Plenty of helpful folk on there.

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/

Good luck with your search.

**Charles Foster Kane** · 8 July 2008, 08:26

Tony, what about the P990, it's a fully featured phone and has been out from some time now so should be quite affordable.

Mobile with Symbian Operating System