Is a Symbian or Windows Mobile Phone very useful/important?

Well Ive used mostly Sony Ericsson phones so far along with a couple of nokias but they've all been java phones. Currently on a Sony Ericsson W810i and was thinking of buying a new phone now, for arnd 10-15k. Was looking at getting a Sony Ericsson W902

So my basic question is, is it a better idea to buy a phone with Symbian or Windows Mobile. The phones are all user friendly right? And what kind of applications can be installed and are they really useful? I dont really use my phone for much other than calling, messaging, music and camera. So if i have to say sacrifice music and camera features in the interest of Symbian or Win Mobile, does it make sense?

Please pour in your advice and suggestions

Thanks!

You don't have to sacrifice Music and Camera, now most of the Symbian and Windows based cellphone have both good quality Camera and Music Player. It just depends on your budget and which model you pick.

I have used Symbian and Java based cell for over 5 years and am now moving on to windows based cell just to see what all it has to offer.

AFAIK installing apps and handing Symbian is easier than Windows OS but may be I am wrong.

As Roxtin said, you don't have to sacrifice anything.
But I think that you may have to sacrifice a bit of the camera and music quality if you go for a Windows Mobile based phone in that range as no phone in that range comes with a 3.5mm jack and camera better than 2MP.

If you prefer multimedia and camera quality, it is better to go with Nokia phones running on S60 as they have dedicated hardware audio decoding chips and native 3.5mm jack and camera around 3MP in that range.

If you wantto have a look at the applications that are available for S60 phones visit Mobile Phone Applications Mobile Games and Mobile Programs On Dotsis.com (it is down for maintainance presently) and see the posts in the S60 v3 forum and S60v5 forums.

well as others mentioned, a winmo phone in that range wont have a really good camera, or the music player, but the no of apps u can find for the winmo phones is limitless, i ve been using the HTC Touch since 2 years, currently upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.1 with Onyx Ult 4.6 and the customization options are endless, but then again it totally depends on how much time u wanna sped on the phone tewking it, if u want a no nonsense phone, then Nokias are the best, but if ur like me, continually experimenting with different apps, skins, and loads of other stuff i guess winMo are the best, m looking forward to replacing my age old touh with a Touch Diamond 2 very soon.
neway hope to have somewhat answered ur question.

The following is comparism of Symbian and Widows phn which i had
Nokia N73 + N95 - VS - HTC touch
+ many nokia symbian and widows phn ive used previously incl Jasjar ,imate ,jam etc ..

User Friendly - Symbian
Good Models - Symbian for ur 10-15k budget
Variety Games n Software - Symbian
File Support - Both are Equal
Software Installation - Symbian damm easy with Nokia Pc suite
Better sound - Symbian Nokia phnz

datz all i can think of now
if u want detail comparison abt some some particular feature ASK

Symbian ftw

And if ur going for symbian then go and find N82 quickly..

If you have all those basic operation in your mind then sticking with SE is what my advice is, but if you are ready to take on the adventurous path then go for windows mobile. I am using Touch Pro myself & I am quite impressed with its performance all over be it camera,music or whatever. I got 3.5mm jack so no problem with that.

But if you are ready to explore applications for a limited basis & dont want to take pains too much in your normal use then I suggest you to go for Nokia. WM is outright office yet technical related phone which is employed to bring pc experience on your mobile.
Hope I have cleared ur doubts a bit. Dont dare to use WM if you dont want all those things I have mentioned above, you will either waste your money or else u will end up having an obsession with its user interface.

Good Luck

Symbian FTW