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Hi everyone, I am in the market for a new Pocket PC style phone with a QWERTY style keybaord on it. Through my research I have found out that all QWERTY style Pocket PC's are also phones.
So after looking around at a number of models out there the i-Mate JASJAR phone really caught my eye. However, also while looking around I found this site and figured I would ask an active community what my best choice would be. I will buy from anywhere in the world if it will be cheaper in the end.
I have a plan with Fido currently and a sim card in my LG phone working at the moment.
The things I need in a Pocket PC Phone:
Hardware
- Fido Canada Compatability (GSM ~1900) for phone
- WiFi (802.11b) for data
- Bluetooth support
- SD Card Slot for my 1gb card
- USB port to connect to computer
- Decent processor and RAM.
Software
- Windows 2005 (or whatever the latest is)
- General Word / Excel Applications
- MSN Messenger
I'm not used to looking up information about phones and cross compatibility, and being in canada all I am used to is being screwed up the rear with cell phone costs and locked phones. So thats why I am coming here for help.
Any help would be greatly appriciated.
Thank you all in advance.
Antonio the Knight of Ni.
Hello,
If all you you need are those listed, basically you can pick any PPC that is offered today by the cell phone providers today in North America, as it will be cheaper than buying an unlocked one. Mostly the providers today offered one of the Wizard varians, like in the USA, most of the providers (Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint), all of them carry of the Wizard varians, with price around US$350 for 2 years contract. Full price without contract here is around US$500.
I'm an owner of i-mate Jasjar (Universal). Compared to a Wizard, Jasjar/Universal is much more expensive here in North America, because no provider carry it, thus we have to buy full price.
Compared to Wizard, however, Universal has the following:
1. Processor is twice/more faster technically.
2. Screen is VGA, compared to Wizard (QVGA).
3. Heavier, bulkier, etc.
4. Universal is wow when used as a mini laptop, but Wizard is wow when used a mini PPC and phone.
I can tell you, I'm always impressed with my Uni when I read PDF doc, emails, remote connecting to my PC, watching videos.
All of your requirement can be easily fulfilled by a WIzard instead of a Universal.
Well, I am willing to spend up to $800 so I dont have to be in a contract, and my goal is to get it to work on my Canadian provider Fido. So, the phone is going to have to be unlocked in order for me to beable to use it on my provider as they dont sell any pocket pc phones, only their parent company rogers does but I am on a grandfathered contract with fido that gives me unlimited calling, so i would like to maintain that.
So, as far as unlocked phones go, your saying that the Jaspar is probly the best call? Excuse the pun.
In the market
I am in the market for a ppc phone as well and I have come down to a decision between the Universal and the Wizard, but I would like some user feedback about both models. I noticed the Wizard has a 200mhz TI cpu and the Universal has a 520mhz intel cpu. What is the actual performance difference between the two? Does the wizard use its clock cycles more efficiently closing some of the gap or is the universal really 2.6 times faster? What about the resolution difference? I think this might be a big selling factor for me. Does it make a big difference? I know on a computer I can't stand to use anything less than 1600x1200. The bottom line is it looks like it is going to cost me twice as much for the universal as the wizard is the extra money worth it? I am looking at using T-Mobile here in the states. They only offer the MDA(Wizard) and not the MDA Pro(Universal) but I think either way I will probably pick one up off of ebay and try and save some money. Thanks in advance for your help.
Last year, around Oct-Nov, I was in the same place you were today. I had the plan that I did not want to lose. I did not want to sign any new contract.
I want unlocked Pocket PC so that I can use it when I travel to Asia and any where. And I decided I would not mind to pay the full price. My budget was... however, I pushed it all the way to over $1000 in order to buy the best.
I considered that single invesment to fullfill at least many years to come needs, therefore, go with the most advance one, rather than buy a cheaper one, but half way.
That's the whole reason I was finally decided to get a Universal. But if you ask me to share my opinion with you today, after using Universal more than 6 months, I think it was not the best decision I made with the purchase. Do not get me wrong, I learned and experienced many new things since I had my Uni, and its extremely well built and nice device, nothing like it really. The screen especially, may be the best you will ever see in any Pocket PC. But for daily use, for phone, for carry around, for many occasions, I do not use it, simply its not pratical. I usually swiched back to my old one. Then I would blame myself, why did you buy it if you do not want to use it? Sad
Most of the time now I leave my Uni at home to be used with my home wifi. I have seen many ppl are happier with their decision to get a smaller scale one like Wizard or Prophet. Prophet is about the same size with the Wizard, except its thinner as it has no keyboard but better button layout. They do not mind even though the screen is a quarter than the Universal and the processor speed is half of the Universal as well. And indeed, for daily practical use (phone, email, notes) it does serve the purpose. Absolutely, when you want to browse the web, then smaller screen is not as good as VGA like Universal Smile When it comes to size and easy carry, smaller size is better.
Hope I'm not making your more confused. But if I can re-decide I would pick a Prophet instead. Since I have decided with a Uni, I'm happy to live with it as I do not want/cannot afford a new one right now.
KJam and Jamin (Wizard and Prophet) are identical in term of hardware spec (procesor, memory, etc) but has different apperance.
KJam/Wizard is thicker because it has a keyboard, Jamin/Prophet does not have one, but Jamin/Prophet has a better button layout that will allow single handed use of the device.
The last thing which is very important to know as well, KJam/Wizard use Mini SD, Jamin/Prophet use SD (Full size). Many ppl (like myself) will not buy something that use mini SD as I have invested quite a lot in big size SD card and would like to continue using the same card.
keep in mind that canada and a lot of the US uses 1900 and 850 freq for cellular
that being said, the wizard will work in more places than the universal because there are places that are 850 only and the universal doesn't have it
but if you want more pda features, then you'll have to give up some possible reception
Here, check out this link:
http://www.htcamerica.net/products/default.htm
Here you can find all the Wizard variants that are being offered in the US market, by each cell phone provider. Canadian providers are also listed here.
I signed up for service with T-Mobile a week ago and just got a crappy $10 Samsung R225m for the time being. I decided I will get The Universal and if I know I am going somewhere out in the boonies where I will need 850mhz analog I will grab the samsung. Is cloning your sim legal? Like let us say I want to have multiple cards in case something happens or if i want a data telemtry device in my car which would be used rather infrequently to share everything.
Wait a minute.... I was just looking and the Universal doesn't have EDGE does it? Does anyone in the states know how widespread T-Mobile's EDGE coverage is? How much of a difference does it make in speed?
OK - due to a change of jobs and the time coming to upgrade anyway, I am looking to get a PDA phone. Previously been a nokia user.
Was looking at the Jamin, but then along came the Hermes.....
New place is all Terminal Server based so not sure if i will be able to sync with Outlook. May still want to use calendar on phone independently.
As far as I can see, the pros and cons are as follows :
Jamin - thinner - more likley to fit in pocket whereas Hermes will be a bit bigger.
Hermes has keyboard however - and jog wheel - useful especially if I use the calendar without syncing and have to enter data. (suppose i could sync with my home pc calendar and enter that way tho.) How much do people really use the keyboard on it? odd friends with them tend to say not much. But not having a keypad still concerns me.
Hermes is faster/newer, but uses micro SD cards and mini USB for headphones. Jamin uses SD and 2.5mm jack. Jamin can be overclocked a bit (seemingly with no great impact on stability) but should make it reasonable.
Both have wifi, both vibrate I assume and both can have MP3 ringtones.
I am currently on orange and their current plans suck quite honestly. Obviously T mobile have web n walk or whatever, but I still remember the days of one to no-one and have concerns - A phone with poor reception is useless to me. (mind you not sure the Jamin is available on other networks?) How much data would I really use anyway whilst out and about.
Hmmmm. Its all a bit too much and most of the shops near me don't have examples I can go in and pick up to see what they are like to even hold.
Any advice or things I have missed would be greatly appreciated.
I currently use M500, unlocked to use with T-Mobile Web'n'Walk.
I upgraded to M600 (again, unlocked it to use with T-Mobile), but it wasn't even capable of scrolling through pdf documents, so I've just got rid of it.
So, if there was a choice between M600 and M3100, I'd go for the M3100 due to the extra processor speed, even though I've never been keen on the extra thickness caused by having the thumb-board.
Another major reason for preferring the M3100 is that the M3100 has 3g and is capable of 3.5g, the best the M600 is capable of is Edge.
If I do get the M3100, I will of course unlock it and use it on T-Mobile web'n'Walk.
Incidentally, I was a loyal Orange customer for nearly 10 years, but I refuse to pay their data charges. I have had no issues with T-Mobile coverage, but then I am in London, so woulldn't really expect any problems.
Regards
Well I love my Jamin which I had for almost 3 month now. (Used regular Motorola for phone and iPaq for PDA before that).
I have a long commute on a bus each day, and it makes it pass quite fast, listening to MP3 and surfing the web at the same time.
For all my daily uses I never had a speed problem, and I never overclocked it. Although I don't use navigational software and Skype.
Yes, the full SD is a plus, but if I had the choice now I would probably choose the Hermes because of the 3G and the faster processor.
Mainly I would have suffered the microSD because the device is newer overall, but I like gadgets.
As for the keyboard, I used my PDAs for over year and a half for various stuff and never felt the need for it. Unless you intend to type word documents or very long emails, the virtual keyboard will do just fine.
Personally I would prefer a phone pad like on ASUS 525 (not out yet, unfortunately).
Well that's just another opinion for you.
Still not decided
Cheers guys, although I am still in a quandry.
I guess the remaining key questions are:
How much of a hassle is the lack of a normal headphone socket on the Hermes?
Given that I have finally concluded that I can live without a keyboard is the jog wheel on the Hermes worth the extra thickness - I have heard it is great for quick and easy use.
How much would I notice the slower speed (not bothered re Skype) - I have heard that people who have not had pda phones before notice the speed the most.
Any experiences advice welcomed again.
Cheers
C
How much would I really use the data part whilst out and about (as wifi at home) - could get a good deal with say vodafone if you exclude the data element. Am still worried about T mobiel coverage - I live in Kent and work would take me round the country once or twice a month - reception then would be useful.
Just seen main tytn thread about possible new Orange data oackage - may answer one of my questions.....
OK - the unlimited GPRS off peak only bundle is not what I was looking for.(Orange- you really don;t have a clue about this data stuff...)
Am still in a quandry, have been watching the tytn threads as well. Cost is also an issue at the mo, and looking at the other threads the device cost may be a bit steep for me.
Seems to be quite a few suspect handsets around with dodgy keys and screens that lose alignment. Byt the time the device comes out on Tmobile and Orange (imminent I know) and then gets out of stock and back in etc it will be months before I got one anyway. I am now thinking it would be better to get a Jamin on Orange and just not really use the data during the day too much. Just sign up for 12 months and look again next year.
Would be able to use existing and cheaper SD cards. 2.5mm jack is good. T mobile reception for the data still worries me as I would be travelling a bit. Hopefully most of the bugs are now ironed out of the
Jamin, and it is thinner.
Any other hints/advice would be appreciated.
So this year I've decided to spoil myself and buy a new toys, something I haven't done in a longggggg while
Anyways, I'm very seriously thinking of getting Windows Mobile smartphone because it seems to me that the technology is at such a level that they're now actually becoming computers you can carry in your pocket (pocket pc!). I travel a lot and I have to bring a lot of equipement with me so I'm looking to combine several devices into one to save weight and space.
I've been doing my homework in the last 2 weeks and I think I have it narrowed down to 2 devices: the HTC Fuze and the Samsung Omnia. There are other interesting devices on the market unfortunatly I do have a limited budget and these 2 are at the upper limit, hence why the Xperia isn't mentionned.
So far the Fuze seems more interesting because for almost the same price I get multi-touch, a real keyboard and a VGA screen however I'm wondering if it truly fits my needs.
Essentially I want something that:
-will act like a beefed up PDA almost computer like level(hence WinMo)
-be usable when a travel therefore needs quadband GSM and ideally triband 3G. I don't intent to use 3G data just yet because it's too expensive in Canada but I see that criteria as futureproofing such an expensive purchase incase GSM is one day shutdown for voice.
-has a good enough screen that I can use it as a ebook reader (been doing that with my Ipaq RX3115 for about 5 years now)
-handle a bit of multimedia, mainly mp3 but a bit of video wouldn't hurt.
And this brings me to a question: does the Fuze always come with the 3.5mm adapter? I'm in Canada so I'd most likely be being an imported ATT phone
Also, what about the warranty? Am I SOL since it's imported or could I get warranty support straight from HTC?
-act as a GPS WITHOUT a data connection. Reading on this it seem possible to use TomTom with the device in a reasonnable fashion; I don't mind waiting 2-3 minutes for the GPS to lock but 15-20 mins would be more annoying...
Basically as much fonctionnality as possible in one device.
I also understand that there are MANY roms available for this device; considering that I'm not currently a power user (but might eventually become one) can I expect acceptable performance with the stock rom? I don't mind loading up new apps, I've been doing that on my venerable old Ipaq for a while but I'd rather start slow with this.
Also, can I expect reasonnable speed running programs off the SD card? This is one major advantage of the Omnia since it has 16gb onboard storage.
What about Wifi performance? I assume it's going to be on par with my Ipaq, i.e. not as good as my laptop but still usable is the access point isn't too far away.
And finally, how long can I except the battery to last? I won't be making call all day, probably more in the lines of listening to music and sending email via wifi. Probably a bit of ebook reading as well.
Basically the Fuze seems like the idea device except for a few issues I've been reading about here which I'm trying to determine how major they are.
Anyways, comments appreciated
Cheers!
Pat
Anyone?
Pat
Welcome to the forum
I can recommend you to enter here, select the compeonents you want on a device and check the options
http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=pdachooser
Good luck,
Pat007 said:
So this year I've decided to spoil myself and buy a new toys, something I haven't done in a longggggg while
Anyways, I'm very seriously thinking of getting Windows Mobile smartphone because it seems to me that the technology is at such a level that they're now actually becoming computers you can carry in your pocket (pocket pc!). I travel a lot and I have to bring a lot of equipement with me so I'm looking to combine several devices into one to save weight and space.
I've been doing my homework in the last 2 weeks and I think I have it narrowed down to 2 devices: the HTC Fuze and the Samsung Omnia. There are other interesting devices on the market unfortunatly I do have a limited budget and these 2 are at the upper limit, hence why the Xperia isn't mentionned.
So far the Fuze seems more interesting because for almost the same price I get multi-touch, a real keyboard and a VGA screen however I'm wondering if it truly fits my needs.
Essentially I want something that:
-will act like a beefed up PDA almost computer like level(hence WinMo)
-be usable when a travel therefore needs quadband GSM and ideally triband 3G. I don't intent to use 3G data just yet because it's too expensive in Canada but I see that criteria as futureproofing such an expensive purchase incase GSM is one day shutdown for voice.
-has a good enough screen that I can use it as a ebook reader (been doing that with my Ipaq RX3115 for about 5 years now)
-handle a bit of multimedia, mainly mp3 but a bit of video wouldn't hurt.
And this brings me to a question: does the Fuze always come with the 3.5mm adapter? I'm in Canada so I'd most likely be being an imported ATT phone
Also, what about the warranty? Am I SOL since it's imported or could I get warranty support straight from HTC?
-act as a GPS WITHOUT a data connection. Reading on this it seem possible to use TomTom with the device in a reasonnable fashion; I don't mind waiting 2-3 minutes for the GPS to lock but 15-20 mins would be more annoying...
Basically as much fonctionnality as possible in one device.
I also understand that there are MANY roms available for this device; considering that I'm not currently a power user (but might eventually become one) can I expect acceptable performance with the stock rom? I don't mind loading up new apps, I've been doing that on my venerable old Ipaq for a while but I'd rather start slow with this.
Also, can I expect reasonnable speed running programs off the SD card? This is one major advantage of the Omnia since it has 16gb onboard storage.
What about Wifi performance? I assume it's going to be on par with my Ipaq, i.e. not as good as my laptop but still usable is the access point isn't too far away.
And finally, how long can I except the battery to last? I won't be making call all day, probably more in the lines of listening to music and sending email via wifi. Probably a bit of ebook reading as well.
Basically the Fuze seems like the idea device except for a few issues I've been reading about here which I'm trying to determine how major they are.
Anyways, comments appreciated
Cheers!
Pat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the fuze is a great device however the Touch Pro 2 (the successor to the Fuze) should be out in a few months, it is superior to the Fuze in many meaningful ways, my suggestion would be to hold off on your purchase until the Touch Pro 2 comes out in the US (make sure you get the US version) it would suck to buy the fuze (which is a great device) and then 3 months later a superior device come out (at the same price)
aaronsmckee said:
the fuze is a great device however the Touch Pro 2 (the successor to the Fuze) should be out in a few months, it is superior to the Fuze in many meaningful ways, my suggestion would be to hold off on your purchase until the Touch Pro 2 comes out in the US (make sure you get the US version) it would suck to buy the fuze (which is a great device) and then 3 months later a superior device come out (at the same price)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must be missing something because I looked up the Touch Pro on the website suggested earlier and pretty much the only difference I see with the Fuze is a bigger screen and a slightly different GPS chip. Am I missing anything?
Also, I'd like to have triband 3G (which the Fuze has) because I'm in Canada and judging from the Touch Pro launch it's probably going to take a while before there's a NA version of the Touch Pro 2.
One thing that really has me a litlle worried with buying an imported phone is the warranty because the store I'm looking to buying it from is on the other side of the country from me.
Does HTC provide international warranty support?
Thks!
Pat
Hello everyone,
I looked around all of the internal forums and general appeared to be the best.
In short I am looking for a good dual sim phone that doesn't need a soft reboot to switch between sims. I have to be able to get calls on both, essentially looking like call waiting is working.
Here are must haves:
Unlimited ring tone assignment (the dual I have now limits me to 10 ringtones). I have a ton of referral sources calling as well as personal calls and I need to know who I can ignore by sound and who I have to answer.
External memory SD or Micro (for the ringtones) unless it has a large enough internal
Dual sim of course...
AT&T service currently, and would prefer to stay but not married to them. Lesser of 5 evils basically (1900MHZ)
My preferences:
I've had my fun playing with all of the stuff from here for windows mobile, but I just can't take the slow speed anymore. I am open to a smartphone or non smartphone, but if it is a smartphone I need it to react nearly instantly.
I would prefer a flip phone, mainly because I'm getting frustrated with applying new screen covers to protect my screen so often. So I guess I should say, if it's a touch screen non flip then I'd like to be able to buy 50 precut screen covers out the gate (not really concerned about price). (currently have a Fuze and I'm sick of the snail speed and still can't find the precut screen covers - although I have determined how to increase speed, and will do so once I get my new phone... drive 80 MPH and throw it out the window!)
I really think that about covers it. When I do a Google search for a dual sim I just end up at one of a hundred Chinese wholesale sites, and most of their phones have their own OS with tons of limitations.
Thanks ahead of time! (btw price isn't a big issue, although less cost is always better)
So in browsing through old posts here I found Expansys and in looking at them I found this...Samsung B5702 ... it may very well be what I want. The price seems pretty over the top for a non smart phone, but I'm guessing it's cheaper elsewhere... Does anyone happen to have this phone who could give me their take on it? Thank you,
So I bought the LG Ks660 from Amazon... could have paid about $30 less through another lesser known, but I figured it's worth the $30 to know I'd get it and it would be easy to return if it blows.
I paid $260 for it, which is about $160 more than your typical dual sim/dual standby Chinese cells but I hope it has what I need. The one dual I have from China limits the ringtones, which to me is a must these days on phones.
I'll post the results of my first few days of testing in case anyone else has two cell lines but is sick of carrying the two phones. Due to arrive tomorrow... I had to choose impatient shipping...
I haven't found any discussion about using Android devices without a phone carrier at all, is this possible or must the device be activaed on a carrier before it does anything at all? What I'm thinking of is basically the Android equivalent of the iPod Touch. It's still a smart device, still does wifi, still runs all those apps, but there's no phone service at all. More than blocking data plan that I have seen discussed, I want no voice plan either.
I know that some people think it's stupid enough to want a smartphone with no data plan on a carrier, you guys will probably think I'm retarded to want to leave out voice service as well. Well, I'd use it as a phone if I didn't have to pay for data plans and stick to wifi, as those other discussions want to do, but now that the monthly fee is absolutely mandatory on my carrier, well, I'm just not willing to pay that much. I've thought about buying an iPod Touch to compliment my dumb phone, but I'd rather have the Android equivalent so I'm not limited to apps approved by Apple.
I suppose some might say the Phillips GoGear Connect is what I should get, but I'll be annoying and say I want a front facing camera so maybe Evo 4G with no carrier service is even better so I can video skype with it. Would the Evo 4G work for me, or is it a useless zombie util it's activated on a cell carrier? What about other smartphone devices, do they all work or all not work?
Well you can buy uncontracted devices like I have and there are also plenty of tablet android devices that dont come with a plan. as for actual phone devices most of them come with a plan because its presumed that you will use it to make calls. Thats where tablets come in, usually contract free (Galaxy Tab exception) and allow for full use of the device using WiFi or another connection source.
Captainkrtek said:
Well you can buy uncontracted devices like I have and there are also plenty of tablet android devices that dont come with a plan. as for actual phone devices most of them come with a plan because its presumed that you will use it to make calls. Thats where tablets come in, usually contract free (Galaxy Tab exception) and allow for full use of the device using WiFi or another connection source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My only problem with tablets is they are too big. I want something phone sized or iPod Touch sized. (which is about the size of a phone)
As long as the device is running 2.0+ (I think) , you won't need it tied to a carrier to use it. You can do it with older FW too but it would need a data plan so you can sign in and get to the home screen and use it. Newer FW, you can activate wifi during setup so you can log in to your gmail account.
Once logged in, you can use it like a iPod touch, download from the market, etc.
I have a Captivate, Incredible, and a Fascinate that I've been able to use while not hooked up to a carrier. I've even had a G1 without a carrier. Just had to borrow a friends SIM to log in to my gmail for activation but then works after that without it.
Did this with my HD2 running Android
So I'm an adventurous 19 year old guy living on Maui in Hawaii. I'm also a sponsored almost professional scooter rider. So I look up behind me and what do I see? a 10,023 foot tall volcano called Haleakala. So I was looking around for something to do and saw my scooter. The nearest skatepark is too damn far so I hiked 13 miles up this volcano all the way to the summit at 10,023 feet and took pictures then bombed down the perfectly smooth paved rode 28 miles to the bottom at about 45 miles an hour on my kick scooter.
Blah blah blah, anyways...
I jumped over a nice dip in the rode and my HD2 which was just bought the day before flew out of my pocket at about 25 miles an hour and hite the ground once on the corner then flew off in to the grass. I found the battery, cover and phone itself after about 30 minutes of looking. The screen was good besides a few deep scratches and a nice sized dent in the battery cover. The plastic of the phone was pretty scratched as well.
Mad? Nahh not at all. I was looking for a reason to get a new phone already after 24 hours and this gave me a good reason to go get that sexy looking G2 I saw...
So Now I am happy with my G2 and also use my HD2 as my mobile computer with the Ubuntu and android OS on it. Ubuntu is for word processing since I am a writer. Android is for my camera and music and games. It works out amazing and I love the look of peoples faces when im messing around with two phones on the bus...
Go for it. You wont be dissappointed and it beats the IPOD touch hands down. Sorry I capitalized ipod, it didnt deserve it...
Now that's a story! You better take care of your G2, did you sell your HD2?