Samsung i8510 Innov8- Where have you gone?

So I'm in the market for a new phone... after much consideration and researching I've decided I want the Samsung i8510 Innov8.

Now unlike most, I know what I will and won't use- If I could have it my way, I'd have a digital camera with good video capabilities that had a phone feature. But they don't make that.

So instead I want a phone that can text, but has a really good camera for stills & video. I don't need internet or facebook or IM- yes I use them, but I'm basiucally on a computer much of the day and don't need this for my phone. And since I'm a brute with my gadgets and have bigger fingers, I don't want a touch screen. Thanks, keypads and a control pad will be just fine.

In the end it was either the Innov8 or Sony c905-- I don't like Sony & I've been using Samsung phones for the last 7 years, my choice was easy.

But where hath the Innov8 gone???? Only 3 seems to sell this phone now. (I won't go into my feelings on 3 here or why, but this is NOT an option).

The Innov8 got an 8.9 rating & CNETs Editors Choice!

Most of the public feedback has been really good (outside of dust in the screen).

So why the hell has this phone disappeared after only 8 months?!

The OmniaHD is TOO expensive, the Tocca Ultra only has 80mb not 8 gigs, and the others are just touchscreens not worth considering.

Uggh this phone market is SO fickle! To ebay I go...

this happened to me when i was JUST about to get a contract. I was going to get a Nokia N82 Black, probably the best phone I've ever tried out, and then just two weeks later it had vanished completely. Now I've ended up with an LG Viewty, hating every second of it

The Tocco Ultra is a very nice phone though, you can always expand the memory by buying a cheap microSD card from amazon or play.com - they were selling 8GB SDHC cards for around £20

I hope your not locked on a long contract with that, it seems pretty bad.

the only annoying thing with it is the battery life is very sporadic, sometimes lasts a week, other times 2 days or less, even though I'm not using it any differently. Got it until next January I think...

You know I thought about that actually- but right now I have samsung with a 2 gig card- the problem is YOU have to transfer the pics/vids/txt messages to the card card manually. The phone fills up VERY quickly- so imagine you are taking video- you would be limited to the space on the phone- so if you record something in high quality it may only be 30secs to a minute. And then you have to take the time to copy it over to the card, erase and then go again.

Worse with pics because the phone (or at least my last 2 samsungs) automatically downgrades the quality as the memory gets closer to being full- not asking you if you want to- it just does it! So if you are using this phone and forget you have other pics on there, you may get a crappier pics- plus 80 megs- that's what, 10-15 pics at highest res. Again forcing one repeat the copy process as mentioned before.

Hey if I can be choosy, I'll choose my features- memory + pic quality are at my top.

Now I could be wrong on this- maybe they record directly to the card now, I don't know because no one mentions this. If so, I'd consider it...

I'm really sorry to ask- but I too want this phone and was on the brink of buying from 3 before seeing this comment. Could you enlighten me as to why you hate 3. I would be ever grateful. Thanks

Don't be sorry to ask... I'll give you the very short version. Their customer service is NON EXISTENT! Basically when I first moved to the UK from the US (we're talking 2nd day here) I went bought their mobile broadband usb stick. Paid in store £15 for a 5 gig/30 day access (now they offer it for 15 gigs) top up code and went home. Sadly in the US when you buy a code, it's specifc, you can ONLY use it for 1 thing and if you buy a top-up code, you type it in the top-up box. My lovely rep didn't tell me that instead of choosing "top-up" I needed to choose the correct gig plan and enter the code. I typed into the top-u box, it accepted it and away I went. EXCEPT it then registered as £15 for phone use and proceeed to charge me £1 per mb of use!

Obviously a few uploads of photos and a couple emails later my allowance was gone. After along while I figured out what happened. Went back the next day. Got the run around from the store rep who sold me it. Then called, while in-store to the customer service HQ- and I am not joking that after 45 minutes I got a manager who proceed to call me an idiot, yes used the actual word "idiot" and said I learned a "tough lesson" and didn't care if I reported him. I then returned everything and got my money back for at least the USB stick wrote a letter to 3 and NEVER heard a thing from them again. They didn't even acknowledge I wrote them.

To give you an idea, I've been trained customer relations by Disney and don't insult people on the phone/in person/ etc when I'm trying to get something solved. Especially a BIG misunderstanding as this was. If this is how 3 treated me, I can only imagine how they handle REAL problems.

So yeah, 3 is up there with the entire city of Paris for things if they burn down and the ashes are blown away I'll never miss them.

Obviously others have not had that type of experience, so be your own judge.

Hi Gatorrock - have you got a new phone yet and if so what did you go for? I'm interested because I'm also in exactly the same position as you! I want a good cameraphone, doesn't have to have thousands of megapixels but take decent pictures and be intuitive to use, xenon flash would be nice etc. Apart from that I only need it for calls, texts and very occasional web-browsing. I'm just at the end of my 3 contract (and won't be staying with them!) with a now elderly N95 which has served me well but don't know what to choose next. I want to like the Sony C905 but like you i'm not a Sony fan and even these seem to be disappearing now along with the i8510! The i8910 is just too big and expensive and I'm also not convinced (yet) by touchscreens; there just doesn't seem to be anything else out there that interests me! I had a quick play with an N97 today and was surprisingly impressed by it (it has left me completely cold up to now) but couldn't really get an idea of what the camera was like in the shop - but was impressed that it has a lens cover - another "must-have" for me I'm afraid. Has anyone got any experience of its camera yet? Cheers and sorry for the long first post!

By the way sorry to hear about your experience with 3's customer "service" - that's unbelieveable, regardless of whether you were in the "wrong" or not! I had a similar experience when I first joined them and stupidly decided to buy a game from them online. NOWHERE did it mention that it wasn't compatible with my phone until I tried to install it. Several lengthy phone calls followed with rude and unhelpful staff before they finally relented and gave me a refund as a "goodwill" gesture. In contrast with their shop staff who I usually find quite helpful. Anyway it's too late for 3, they're about to lose me as a customer!