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Upgrading from Magician... what to get now?

My magician has developed a hardware fault with it's sound. It's time to upgrade.
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It was my first Pocket PC phone, and although I liked the size, I've decided I want something a little better
I'm not sure what to get. The TyTN looks like overkill for me. I don't use my phone much, it's more of a PDA that conveniently doubles as a phone.
I think transcriber is the best input system for text, as long as you know how to write. The idea of typing with thumbs irks me, so I don't really want a keyboard, unless someone else here can say that transcriber sucks vs a thumb keyboard.
Oh, and it's gotta be VGA. QVGA is cute, but yeah, I want VGA.
So, anyone got any recommendations?

Hi Jed.
I was going to recommend the Jamin which is the 'natural progression' from the Jam, but the I got to the end of your post and saw the 'must be VGA'
As far as I know there is only one VGA phone out there today and that is the Universal/Exec/Jasjar.
Personally I'd never get something that size to double as a phone. It's a great gadget (2 cams. BT WIFI 3G) but has the form factor of a brick.
I think you should reconsider the TyTN or Hermes. I love my Jamin but it lucks 3G, and if you're going to upgrade, might as well think of the future.
As for VGA, what can you really do with it on a 2.8" screen?
Well that's just some thoughts for you.

Hey, thanks for your reply.
The reason I want VGA is
a) I don't want to have to recompress movies to watch them. I dont' care how big they are.
b) I use my magician extensively for Japanese. QVGA is just too small for Kanji, which is really hard to read at that res. I have to copy it to Pocket Word and jack up the font size to be able to read it.
c) Higher res wallpapers are sexy ;D
As for the future, I plan to move to Japan in the next six months to a year, and I don't want to spend heaps on a phone that I'll just have to ditch when I move. I know how finnickey their phone system is.
I've been looking around, and I read somewhere that the Wizard was VGA. But from what you've said... it's not? Urk, it isn't. Lucky, I was about to get one, heh.
EDIT: Looks like you're right. Oh well, I'll give up on the VGA and go for a Jamin.

Why does our 6.1 have a different Today screen?

Hi, just wondering why all the ROMs on here for WM 6.1 don't use the new WM 6.1 Today screen seen elsewhere?
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See http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,1206,l=225995&pg=0&s=1647&a=225987,00.asp for more.

This is just a guess, but the link you provided said that the device they were using was a "Samsung Blackjack II" which is a smartphone (non-touchscreen).

xanth said:
This is just a guess, but the link you provided said that the device they were using was a "Samsung Blackjack II" which is a smartphone (non-touchscreen).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are perfectly right.

Thats for Smartphone, not PocketPc.

Why not Pro? This looks pretty good!
Why wouldn't they make this available for Professional? This looks pretty good to me...just my opinion. Why would they make the smartphone version have functionality that the Pro. version can't have?

spizzo03 said:
Why wouldn't they make this available for Professional? This looks pretty good to me...just my opinion. Why would they make the smartphone version have functionality that the Pro. version can't have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smartphone's handle Today screens very differently to PPCs. With a PPC, you have a theme that controls the background image and colours, then you have individual Today plug-ins that you can move and control independently.
With a Smartphone, you install the theme and that determines the background image, colour, and EVERYTHING that is displayed on the front screen - it sets where your unread messages notification goes, where your missed calls display, etc. You cannot install anything else onto your front screen, you'd have to make and install a different theme. This makes an integrated, attractive front screen easier to make on a Smartphone, but makes personalising yours a lot harder.
I think what MS is trying to do with this aspect of WM6.1 is make the Smartphone front end more user-friendly and, crucially, useful so you don't have to go delving into the menus to do things (that we can already do on PPCs by downloading a plug-in). I've reading this as MS's attempt to bring the Smartphone's front screen closer to the usablility of the PPC's, rather than it moving ahead.
[disclaimer] I haven't looked at a Smartphone since I moved from my Typhoon to my Magician, so it might've all changed since my day! [/disclaimer]

Here you can see the different devices thats running mobile 6.1
You see the TyTn II at 5 minutes

Diamond owner looking for stylish wm device with gps

Hi, I didn't want to post in the diamond section as there seems to be lots of anger at people posting their frustration with the diamond phone...
Anyways, I recently recieved a diamond, i've only been using it around a week, and i do like it, however, the biggest thing for me is the speaker phone and general volume of the phone, i keep missing calls because its so quiet, and speaker phone is practically unusable unless your in the libary(in which case you shouldn't be using it anyway!)
My previous phone was an o2 orbit, which still feels faster than the diamond, but it looks so outdated now, and the qvga screen (which never bothered me before using a vga screen) seems so ugly to look at, overall i feel the orbit was a much better phone and was wondering if any of the newer wm devices are built more towards quailty than fashionable?
I'd need a device with gps, wm, preferably vga or higher screen.
one of the major things that prevents me from going back is that tomtom seems a lot smooooother with the diamond, its always the correct position on roadsabouts, the only gripe i had with the orbit was the slow processor which is the only thing i can think of that made some confusing junctions more confusing as the location was slowly updating on the gps.
sorry if people think this post is a waste of peoples time, i was just hoping someone could offer a good suggestion for a future upgrade, I shall live with the diamond for the time being, after all, its a very nice device, its just it seems half finished
*edit*
ok i've just found the o2 zest, 624mhz processor...and its made by asus, not as pretty as the diamond, but the few reviews i've found seem promising
http://www.4winmobile.com/forums/4wm-reviews-hardware/18459-o2-xda-zest-review.html

Check out the blackstone (touch hd)
from what i here its really nice. it has the large screen you are after (and of course it has gps)
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are you selling your diamond???

Worth moving to Diamond2?

Hello all
I have option to buy the Diamond2 in UK in a week as it comes out, its very tempting but I'm not sure cause the Diamond2 is not so much better than my Cruise as I see. I don't want devices like Omnia HD or Toshiba G01 cause they are very big & don't want to leave this forum.
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Diamond2 pro's over the Cruise:
-looks better + steel
-size, lightness & weight
-little bit faster CPU (I don't know about the video & graphics drivers)
-very fast response as never seen on HTC devices (rumor?)
-screen size & resolution
-more ram & rom
-5mp camera (not much difference from my 3mp)
-TF3D 2 (will be ported sooner or later to qvga)
-accelerometer
Obvious Diamond2 is better device but the differences are minor and the most annoying thing is that devices like the old Omnia maybe faster (i read that D2 response so fast as never seen on HTC devices - is it rumor?)
Anyway no device worth buying without the support like this forum so don't know if Diamond2 worth buying or keep waiting for HTC to make something really good...
Please help me decide any opinions, thoughts or advices are welcomed!

Well, I have just decided to do exactly the same and ordered mine. What makes it easy for me is that I'm changing jobs, so I have to return my company Cruise anyway. I think the Diamond2 is way better looking and the screen is much bigger and VGA. TF3D will not be ported to QVGA I think. The cruise just can't handle the 3D graphics. Touch HD's TF3D wasn't ported to the Cruise either in an every day working manner.
I think the Omnia and Xperia are just plain ugly, when it comes to the finishing of the housing, buttons, edges around the screen etc. I don't need a keyboard, so the TP2 is just needlessly thicker and more expensive for me. HD is just too big for me, so I end up with the D2.

Signal strength, LTE, 4G, getting signal, etc

Hi everyone,
Smartphone reviews are more and more complete as the competition between review websites increase but there is always a test kind of missing: signal reception.
Indeed it's hard to find data about it over the net. Some phone makers are happy to communicate about some technology they develop, and some just don't.
Nowadays it seems that all that matter is photo quality, design, autonomy and the screen. At long as you got a "bar" (which doesn't mean anything as we know) consumer seems to be happy... lol.
I found some comparisons that AndroidAuthority made, but that's about it (I can't post outside links yet...):
- Xperia Z5, LG G4, Galaxy Note 5, iPhone 6S, Moto X Style ( /best-lte-xperia-z5-x-style-note-5-iphone-6s-lg-g4-648755/ )
- Galaxy S6, LG G4, Huawei P8 ( /best-4g-galaxy-s6-v-huawei-p8-v-lg-g4-612827/ )
Over here they look at signal strength (near -60dBm being perfect, and near -110dBm being call failure), network switching rate, drapped calls, etc, which give you some clues.
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The point is to find with what phone you really have a change to get a nice signal (just to receive a call or to get stable data coming through), when some will just drop. Apparently Huawei got a little something better with their Signal + technology, when Apple seems to do good too, but the "king" Samsung seems to be quite crappy about it, even if review websites do not reflect it.
What do you think? Any trouble with your Samsung? Huawei owners do you really see a difference? (and not just about "bars" at home).
I guess it should be a good selling argument stating that your phone is having a better signal than the others (if you are traveling a lot, when hiking, during highway drive, using less battery if your antenna is less stressed, etc).