Mobile without Camera
If you have read my last post (if not you can read it now), you can see that how I am in need of a good mobile which has good Internet capabilities but does not have a camera. I had been researching on Internet (on univercell’s site actually) looking for a mobile that suited my needs. I have simple needs. They are:
- GPRS Facility (EDGE if possible)
- NO CAMERA (Should be first but I wanted to have GPRS on first)
- Big Screen (Good when you are viewing web pages)
- Crisp Display (which is obvious since I want a big screen)
- Should have support for 3rd party softwares
- Support For Java Applications
- MP3 ringtone support
Now anyone who reads this might think that there would be no mobiles on earth that would have all this and not have a camera converged (I kind of hate this word now) into it. Even I thought so but then I definitely needed a mobile like that, so I thought of searching for a very good mobile with nearly all the features that I mentioned. My search has yielded some good results and I thought why not actually list them for people who might be interested in it. So here they are; I have listed them in three categories: Expensive, Over-budget and In-budget . I am listing two prices, one is the Indian price(approx) and the other one is the US price of that mobile. The US price is mostly nowhere near accurate since it’s taken from some websites that I found through froogle, so bear with me on that. I actually wrote this article mostly for many others like me in India. I categorised them according to their Indian prices and not their ebay prices. So here they are:
| Expensive | ||||
| Model Name | Indian Price* | US Price* | Notes | |
| Nokia 9300 | Rs.21,393 | $ 239.95 | Nokia Communicator | |
| Sony Ericsson W950i | Rs.28,172 | $329.99 | Walkman phone with touchscreen | |
| BlackBerry “Pearl” 8800 | Rs.28,837 | $539.99 | It’s Pearl | |
| BlackBerry 8820 | Rs.30,760 | $499.99 | Wi-Fi | |
| Over-Budget | ||||
| Sony Ericsson M600i | Rs.14,807 | $235.00 | Touchscreen and Opera Mobile | |
| BlackBerry 7130 | Rs.14,143 | $399.99 | Intel XScale Processor | |
| BlackBerry 8700g | Rs.14,413 | $499.99 | Mediocre PDA | |
| Nokia 9300i | Rs.16,364 | $359.99 | Excellent Widescreen (640 x 200) | |
| Nokia E61 | Rs.15,865 | $349.99 | 16M colours(58 x 45 mm) | |
| i-Mate JAQ | Rs.12,114 | $299.99 | Windows Mobile 5 and Tochscreen | |
| SE G700 Business Edition | Rs.12,000 | $270.00 | Similar to m600i | |
| Under-Budget | ||||
| Nokia E62 | Rs.9,375 | $209.99 | No Wi-Fi. Toned down E61 | |
| Samsung F200 | Rs.6,874 | $175.00 | Very bad resolution | |
| Motorola L2 | Rs.3,653 | $84.99 | The cheapest | |
You can have a look at the picture of the mobile by clicking the icon next to the phone name (icon made by yours truly).You can click the model name to see the picture of the mobile. If you want to know where I got the US prices from then you can click at the price to know it. There might be more mobiles that I did not list here which comply to all the points that I wrote so if you know anymore do tell me through comments.
Update: Just updated some Indian prices and also added Sony Ericsson G700 business edition to the list.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I know exactly how you feel.
I’ve decided on the no-camera version of the Nokia E51 for my next phone. VOIP over wifi/EDGE looks super cool.
all this for a street price of Rs 12.2K
specs here: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e51-2106.php
The king of funtionality and connetivity @ 12mm thickness. Read the review if you doubt me.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Hmm.. first quarter of 2008 debut of no camera E51. Yeah I agree it is an awesome phone.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Oh yeah thanks for giving me the info on no camera E51, will post it credits to you once it comes to India.
April 19th, 2008 at 2:58 am
[...] to look for the camera free variant of Nokia E51 ever since I was told about it by Vimal George on my post about camera free mobiles. I was confirmed that it might never arrive in India but was sure I will search and get it from [...]
May 25th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Hi,
Pl. let me know if this E51 camera free is available in India?
Thanks
Sanjay
June 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Hey guys, could anyone tell me where can I get this camera free Nokia E51. I don’t see it on the Nokia site, nor any other site. I am in India and any help on where to find this piece will be greatly appreciated.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Sandeep and Sanjay
From what I had heard nokia was not going to release the E51 without camera in the Indian Market. Seeing now that it just released it in Singapore so far, confirms the fact that the phone won’t be available in all the markets.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Guys, all of u those who are interested in the camera free version of the E51, keep pestering and sending mails to NokiaCare
http://www.nokia.co.in/A4535016
Please keep pestering them… They might ask u to complete a Survey, do that again ask for the cam-free E51 there also…
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Can anyone tell me other than E51 without camera in brands like HTC, SonyEricsson coming up with good business phone without camera??? Even Nokia communicator is discontinued…
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 pm
@Nitin
I guess you should take a look at the Sony Ericsson G700 business edition.
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_g700_business_edition-2440.php
The camera version of G700 costs around Rs. 15,000 so I guess this one should be a bit cheaper.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
dear karthi
hello
Sony Ericsson G700 business edition.
where is this modelin delhi or anywhere else is available
pls pls do advise
thanks + wishes
July 29th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
@Dinesh
The phone was supposed to release this month end. And as far as I can say that was its international release date. There is no specific news on when it will be released in India.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
did u try Sony W950 walkman phone? tht’s a gud 1 with mp3 without camera.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:37 am
thanks a lot for the info.
yes i tried for W950, but this model is not available infact contacted directly the sony dealers..
wishes
July 30th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Thanks for the info…
I woul like to know when SE G700 Bussiness edition will be available to India.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:17 am
@Satish and @Dinesh Khanna
W950 is a really old phone. And I had asked about it here in some places and was told no one has a stock and that the last price it was sold at was Rs. 28000. It seems W960i has been launched in other parts of the world but its a camera phone
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_w960-2008.php
@Prashant
As I said there is no release date on G700 business edition for India as of yet.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:52 am
hello friends
as written earlier my company does not allow camera phone. FINALLY i bought W270 motorala. good phone i got a good deal for inr2500.
BUT FRIENDS DO LET ME know whenever a good phone w/o camera is released in india ( esply G700 business edtn)
best wishes
September 4th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Please let me know when the E51 or G700 camera free phone is available in India.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Hi,
This post is quite old now for the information relating to mobile phones without cams.E-61 is extinct in India you cannot buy it off the shelf anymore.
Can you suggest some cell phones that i can buy which do not have a camera but have all the other features.
Thx in advance
Davinder.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
freinds
moto w270 is okay infact good u can say.
as it has mp3 w/expandable memeory to 2 gb + fm
sound is good
it’s les than 3 grands.
cheers
September 9th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
@davinder
Actually you can still find E61 being sold here. I guess but the non camera one is out of stock.
Its mobile business they stop selling mobiles if they feel its getting old even if its just 1 month after its release.
@Dinesh
I had read about it in the paper there was some ad. But I am a bit wary of Moto since the L9 my friend had just died one month after purchase but I have heard positive reviews about this phone.
September 14th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Kartik,
Thanks for the fantastic list. I am going through pain of finding a good camera-free phone. My company doesnt allow the camera phones too.
I am looking for a Without Camera BUSINESS phone (preferably Qwerty keyboard) where I can access Internet in the best way.
I cant find E61 in the market. I saw someone with Black E61 and it looked awesome.
Can you suggest me the best deal here? I am planning in next one month… Any new good camera free phone expected to come.
Thanks…
September 17th, 2008 at 1:32 am
@Gaurav
I would have suggested E61 but since it has been out of stock for sometime, I would say try and find Nokia 9300i or Sony Ericsson m600i.
I have personally handled a SE m600i and I can say that it is very similar to a P1i and does a pretty good job and its also qwerty. I am not sure if its still in stock though.
Unfortunately our options here in India are very limited so its hard to find a really good phone without camera that is not by Blackberry.
September 28th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
ok….after having gone through ur post in the blog i have got to say that the se g700 looks the most attractive non-cam business phone.however having said that it’s still sluggish as the g700…
my choice out of the phones you have mentioned would easily be e62 though there are limited or no stocks,simply because it’s a full-qwerty keypad n packs a lot of features for a very reasonalble price…..as for the e51 without the cam,i wen through cnet site n read that it was n is only available in singapore…as it happened i had to visit the country n when i enquired the prices i was really amused by the fact that it costed 40 singapore $ more than the one with the cam….e51 without the cam should easily be the best buy,but i would still go with an e62….as for m660i,which i should admit that i absolutely loved, has got loads of bugs,n well the phone is now history….i do wish the e61 costed lesser…n i really am disappointed that thew g700 non-cam version has no wifi option..n it’ still called a business phone!i’ll disount the e62 in this regard ‘cos it’s not a complete pda or a business phone as it was supposed to be…..
my choice would be e62 n i wouldn’t actually buy one ‘cos my dad has one =))