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Buying a new phone

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?

T-Mobile Wing vs Tilt vs Nokia N95- Advice please?

After spending much time searching your forums (my goodness you're all so knowledgeable and generous!) I haven't been able to quite answer my questions. I am in dire need of a phone as my crappy motorola is on it's last legs (we're talking buttons falling off, the works) so I've decided to spend some actual money on a decent phone. I've looked around for a while now and have been lusting after the Tilt for some time now. I would have to buy an unlocked one as I am on the T-mobile network and soon moving to Canada and switching to yet another network. My worry, however, is that I've heard and read some really terrible things about the Tilt. RLoD anyone? So while I am very drawn to it, I need a reliable phone, not one that craps out a couple months after I drop $500 on it. The numbers of malfunctioning Tilts/Tytn IIs seem quite high or am I wrong?
I've come to you, oh wise ones, seeking your counsel learned from many hours of alternately cursing and lauding the HTC name, no doubt.
I need a phone that offers me some productivity, email, messaging, multimedia (mostly, I'd like to be able to listen to music). It must have wifi. I would prefer it not drive me to putting my head through a wall. It would be nice if it had a gps receiver (like the Tilt and the N95) as I would like to run garmin mobile on it but could deal with using an external receiver on the Wing, if it turned out to be the best phone for me.
The reason I love the Tilt and Wing models is primarily the keyboard and touch screen. However, the problems people are having with HTC products have left me quite leery of buying one of their phones. Which is why I was also looking at the N95, most of it's reviews have been favourable although the learning curve to get it to the right level of productivity with 3rd party apps seems steeper. I've had Nokia phones before though- those Finnish build for Vikings, I guess. Never had one of those crap out on me.
Anyhow, I've rambled enough. Any advice or information you might want to throw at me would be appreciated. Thank you so much

My thoughts....
Given what you are after, I would stay with the Wing or Tilt. While I don't own a Tilt, I have used it a fair amount and I can see where reliability could be an issue. If that is a concern, the Wing (or Herald / P4350) has proven to be a very reliable phone (passed my "Wife" test ). It does not have built in GPS or 3G and the processor is slower, but I think you would be happy with it.
I hate the N95. It is a good (not as good as I expected from the "Carl Z" lens and 5MP) camera, good music player and good reception phone, but most of the other functions suck - IMO. The two way slider drives me crazy because if you accidentally slide open the media controls the screen goes to landscape and the only way to change it back is to slide the keypad section up and then back down.
Personally I like the Touch XL (Elfin). It is SOOO much smaller and lighter than the Tilt and Wing and really the only thing you loose from the Wing is the hard keyboard. There are some great soft keyboards avail. for the Touch that allow me to type just as fast on it as my other devices with the keyboard. Take a look at some of them that I have customized in my signature, for example.
Good luck!

You know, I haven't looked too much at the Touch models. I suppose I just figured if I was willing to go the soft keyboard route, I would take my chances with an unlocked iPhone. I figured I would either get my qwerty keyboard or give it up entirely. There seem to be a few variations of the Touch, and you recommend the XL? I shall have to do some research.
The camera features on the phones are the lowest on my list of needs. More of a bonus than a necessity. Nokia has splashed the Carl Zeiss name all over those N Series phones but at the end of the day, a camera phone is a phone, not a dedicated camera and will always fall short for me as I play with dSLRs, so most of the time I just don't bother with the camera on my phone.

Tilt.........

There have been several threads on this...
in a nutshell, if you need great multimedia / (even 3d hardware accelerated) gaming / call recording / camera / a great phone / being light and small, get the N95. If you need Windows Mobile / a touchscreen / a strcitly built-in keyboard and don't need gaming / multimedia / a good camera / call recoridng capabilities etc. and the much higher weight isn't a problem either, get the Kaiser.
I myself would go for the N95 but that's just because I already have the iPAQ 214 as a WinMo handheld (with which the N95 works together very well) and I use the MM features and the camera (which is just great) of the N95 a lot. But that's me.

I realize there have been several threads on this, but what wasn't fully addressed was the reliability issue. There were more than a few threads on this very site that made the Kaiser sound like a rather lovely, briefly useful, piece of crap.
I suppose I'm wondering how likely it is to die on me (I really haven't been able to find out anything solid on how many/often they malfunction) and for those people that did have it die on them, why did you keep going back for more?
The reason the Wing was in the running (in spite of not having all the featues of the Tilt) is that I haven't read of any huge reliability issue with it as with the Tilt.
So I suppose my question is being posed to those people who have had problems. Would you actually still recommend this phone? (If there is somewhere else I should have posted this, please let me know).

Is the HTC Fuze the right device for me?

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

Which Smartphone?

Hi Guys & Gals.
First, a thanks for the website. It's a good read, and I've got some useful info off it. Don't know enough in this field to contribute though.
I've got a generic "which phone" question for you all.
I currently have an Orange SPV C600 (HTC Tornado), upgraded to WM 6.1. I use it mostly for phone calls, e-book reading with Mobipocket (probably 95% of the time I actually use the thing for), and sat-nav using TomTom 5 and an external Holux GPSlim 236 (which I've had to re-solder the BT module, due to the dodgy batch of receivers).
The phone is now showing its age (I bought it 2nd hand almost 3.5 years ago). It won't always start TomTom (only about 20% of time will it start properly) , it'll randomly flatten itself overnight, hangs mysteriously etc.
I now want a newer phone. Money is tight though, so I can't justify spending large sums (e.g. >£80/$130) of money on a new phone, even on a contract (my mobile bill is typically £8 a month: £3 calls, £5 data).
I'm currently looking at...
SPV M700
SPV M3100 (Hermes?)
HTC TYTN II (Kaiser)
HTC Touch Diamond (1st version, only if going for silly money on ebay)
HTC Touch Pro (1st version, only if going for silly money on ebay)
Wish list...
GPS
3G
WiFi
Touch screen
Keyboard would be nice.
Better res than 240x320 would be nice
My thoughts on the list are...
M700
Can be quite expensive on ebay (can be cheap though). Fits all of the important stuff though. Not too old.
M3100
No GPS, but has keyboard. *Can* be bought fairly cheaply, because it's quite an old model now. I've borrowed an O2 XDA (which is AFAIK the Orange SPV M3000, which is a 3100 less the 3G and WiFi). Getting on a bit.
TYTN II
Has everything, but have read many bad reviews online about graphics performance (has this been fixed?) and battery life.
Allowing for the down sides, this (so far) is my favourite, in that it ticks all of the boxes.
I *think* I've even seen a video on Youtube of someone getting TouchFlo 3D working on it.
It's getting on a bit too, but Expansys still sell them new (oddly enough for more than a Touch Pro!)
Diamond
Gorgeous screen, No keyboard, no expansion, ticks all the other boxes. Main downside is the cost. Even a broken one went for £52 on ebay!
Touch Pro.
As Diamond, but including keyboard, got expansion, ticks all boxes. Even more expensive than Diamond.
Are there any other phones I should be looking at? Have I missed a point somewhere? Am I better of sticking with my ancient flaky phone and waiting for the Diamond II prices to push the Diamond prices down? I need help here!
Thanks.
Pete.

Welcome to forums
I think 1st you have to have clear what is your main use for a device, said that and taking your list, I would choose Touch Pro.
Also will depend on how much $ you want to spend
If you are looking for something much cheap include on your list Universal, it´s a great device!
Good luck,

if you already have an external gps you should get a wizard they are really cheep an pretty good. they are a lot more responsive than the specs would have you believe. also you can get a tytn II for pretty cheep these days and the battery life is really not that bad if the wizard had an internal gps and more ram i would pick it every time over the tytn II.

Hi.
Thanks for the feedback.
I'd discounted the Universal (SPV M5000), mainly for 2 reasons.
1) It's an old design (12 months older than the M3000, and about the same age as my current phone)
2) It's just too big. Even though it's got a good size screen, I need a pocket phone.
I'll be using the device mostly for reading e-books (it saves carrying around huge numbers of physical books!). I don't find the screen size of my current Tornado sized device a problem. The other thing I'll be using it for is sat-nav. Again, the screen size isn't an issue, because I mostly follow the voice navigation, not the screen. Finally, there's the normal phone stuff of voice calls and texts, occasional web browsing etc.
Ideally it'll be 3G. I'd really like it to have WiFi.
My budget is tight, about £80/$130
josefcrist: You've echoed my own thoughts. Do I keep my existing BT GPS receiver (which gets flaky when it's hot), and go for the Tytn, or do I spend a bit extra, and go for the Tytn II with built in GPS.
One thing that makes me nervous about the M3100 is the ease with which you can brick it. Upgrading my last phone was very easy, but the Hermes forums are full of people who've bricked their phones. I'm a constant fiddler, and if there's a chance of upgrading an OS, or cooking my own, I'll give it a go.
I've found that http://pdadb.net/ allows side-by-side comparisons of phones, so I can now compare my targets, and choose the most appropriate one (e.g. I now know there's been a change in processor from Tytn to Tytn II, both ARM based. The II has double the RAM and ROM.
This page compares my existing phone with the 3 main contenders in my list.
Does anyone here have a Tytn II? I've been using a Wizard (borrowed), and I find that even though the resolution's the same as my existing phone, the pixels have quite a gap between them, giving quite a pixellated appearance.
Many thanks,
Pete.

Htc 7 pro - warning - do not buy !

Hello
I just want to warn everybody that want to buy HTC 7 PRO. It has been 5 days since it arrived from UK. It is already packed and ready for a journey back to reseller. It suppose to be a business tool but it with that kind of battery life it is just a joke. But U can somehow manage the juice usage and it is not the worst part. The worst thing about it is sliding mechanism. There are "reviews" all over the internet saying that great and durable. But it is a lie. It is weak designed and the build quality is also not so good. It makes "spring like" sound when it tilts and what annoy me the most is that after 5 days front part of mechanism wobbles. The keyboard is awesome but in combine with such poor sliding mechanism it is not a thumb up at all. I can not imagine how this mechanism will behave after couple of months with heavy business usage and seriously I really do not want to know. If You will add to this poor built headset Windows Phone 7, which is in my opinion awesome but still have a lot missing the HTC 7 PRO it is not a good choice. And I seriously do not recommend to buy it. The most funny part is the HTC customer support. I shared my concerns with them and they replied:
"all I can advise you is to use both hands when sliding the mechanism"
I expected the answer like "we tested the mechanism in advanced tests and it is designed to take a lot of hard usage"
but noooo they just advised me to use both hands. I wasn't quite sure if I want to send it back, but after I read their reply I will send it back for sure.
Of course the HTC BH M300 which was free gift has to be sent back also
I do not care that I spend a lot for delivery both ways I do not want to have this phone in my pocket, it is not worth even half money it costs.
Cheers
Pawel

Thanks for the heads-up. Have been wanting a landscape slider and looked at the Quantum, but I couldn't type good with it so I passed it by. If not knowing the user experience of the 7 Pro, I like its looks well enough to consider it. But thanks to you, I can discard it.

marianoitalianoo said:
There are "reviews" all over the internet saying that great and durable. But it is a lie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever think about the possibility that you've simply got a broken device?

I agree, I just got my hands on one and it's terrible... the battery life is at best on par with the HD7 and the keyboard though decently laid out feels cheap. the sliding mechanism is gritty and I do hear that spring noise...

I received mine from O2 Germany three days ago and I'd like to share my opinion that is much more favourable than the above posts.
On the hardware, I will not mention things that we all could miss such as a front camera, a micro SD card slot, I'll concentrate on what we have:
- tilt screen, I love this! You will hear a spring noise when sliding and tilting the keyboard out, yes. So what? Usage will show if it has been badly designed and cannot resist prolounged usage (and if so, it will be my pleasure to send it back to O2 during the warranty period to get a replacement phone).
- the screen is crisp, has a good contrast and is very responsive, I do not have any complaints here
- the sound is much better than past HTC phones I had such as Qtek S200, HTC Touch Pro, Blackstone and even HD2
- the material of the keyboard is of the type "grip" plastic and suits my taste. The keyboard is rather well designed, BUT we miss the ability to change language from within the hardware keyboard itself (the Touch Pro allowed this and it was very useful) and the ability to get CAPS LOCK - both issues very annoying. In comparison, the smileys key is really useless in a business phone and could have been replaced with a more useful feature!
- as far as the battery is concerned: as I am currently roaming, I have chosen to be in 2G mode, no wan access and with w-lan always on. I have the phone sync with 4 email accounts, three calendars, three contacts databses, and facebook + windows live. I managed to have the phone on with no recharge for two full days, with one hour of calls and approx. 40 internet pages browsed! I suspect that in 3G mode, with wan access an wlan on, this will drastically fall and result in the phone surviving less than a day on an intial full charge (same as with HD2 or similar devices, actually). I shall report when I have tested this.
- Before receiving the device, I was a little bit concerned about weight. Although it would be nice to have it 60 grams lighter, which would be quite a performance for its format, it is actually not an issue: the phone is simply big and I know this before buying it
- Speed is always very dependent on the OS. With WP7, it feels more responsive than a HD2 with Sense
- Mass storage: 8 Gb of which "only" 5.6 available is enough for my needs, but definitely too tight for those who want to carry 20 music albums and 5 full films with themselves (which is not an unreasonable expectation). The good surprise however is the speed at which files are being transferred from the PC to the phone (I did not measure it but it was definitely quicker than my class 4 SD Card with 64kb cluster size)
On the software (sigh):
- first feel of a system that is straightforward to understand and to use but...
- no copy paste. Other WP7 limitations such as lack of customization possibilities or lack of flash support or limited landscape support. We were warned. I personally can live with it.
- typical windows narrow-minded approach: exchange does not work if the certificate of the server is not matching its IP address, although iOS and Android support this with no problem, this makes me crazy!
- need to use exchange or windows live to replicate contacts and agenda, no active sync anymore. Lots of time lost to find a way to get Outlook synchronyze with the Phone via Outlook Connector. Need to copy paste contacts and calendar between Outlook main account and Windows live, no automatic synchronization between the two within Outlook - very very very poor design of the whole ecosystem
- need to use Zune. Cute programme but redundant with Windows Media Player WMC. MTS video format (used by my Lumix HD camera) seemingly not supported. Android does.
- only English, German an Spanish languages supported by the phone delivered by O2. I need more languages such as Italian and French
- no smart dial nor the possibility to jump to a contact by entering the first letters of it - you have to scroll the contacs or use the search functon, a real pain!
All in all, I think it is a good bit of hardware for business purposes, even if not at the forefront of the current possibilities (amoled screen, tegra processor, storage). You can live with the OS but it has to improve quickly to live up to its ergonomy promises. The reasons I did not buy the Desire Z were the processor, the three rows keyboard (instead of four) and the screen not tilting. The reason why I would not buy the HTC 7 Pro is... WP7. I've hesitated long and I've decided to stick to the device in the hope that WP7 improves soon, but I also hope that we will soon be able thanks to the XDA community to load other OS such as Android on it should Microsoft not deliver

Thanks,
I saw your reply and ended up with HD7. great device.

Prophete said:
Usage will show if it has been badly designed and cannot resist prolounged usage (and if so, it will be my pleasure to send it back to O2 during the warranty period to get a replacement phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I asked HTC what if in time the sliding mechanism will fail to deliver high usability let say and just break.
They said that warranty do not cover "wear and tear" , so if it will get damaged, You will get nothing from O2, maybe some stickers or key chain

it's the same thing htc singapore told me before
i went to replace the keyboard on my touch pro twice
the same keys failed both times (0, space bar, backspace)
guess what? they told me to use the onscreen keyboard more! if so, what is the point of buying a phone with a physical keyboard?

I am ashamed to say that It turns out that the only thing that actually works as supposed to is iphone :/

I have a love/hate relationship with HTC.
Most, if not all of their devices are very beautifully-looking. But I will always question their build quality, and that's ultimately their downfall, because it's ****. I mean, it's hit or miss with their devices. They either knock it out of the ballpark or fail at something that makes you scratch your head and wonder. For example, something as simple as their power buttons. But I won't get into it. I wouldn't be surprised if the keyboard on the HTC 7 Pro fails after prolonged use.

Hello All,
I just wanted to add my 5 cents...
I bought an HTC 7 Pro almost as soon as they were available from O2 Germany since they are not available in Luxembourg.
I have to say that the device is great!!
The tilt mechanism is smooth, and works really well. The battery life is fantastic!! I have sync with my exchange server running all day and with that, phone calls (not too many), using the GPS etc, I have so far never gone below 50% battery.
I wonder if HTC have manufacturing problem because you seem to be less happy, but I can honestly say that I find the phone to be GREAT and would HIGHLY recommend it!!

Hi, I also do not agree. The phone is great.
Indeed you need to slide with two hands, but a springy sound does not bother me. It probably is a spring If anything breaks than I expect normal warrenty.
WP7 is a blast! I needed to set my PC to US to trick Marketplace, but otherwise it is great. Many apps already and more on the way.
That was my 5 cts.

Maybe my problem is that I expected much more for the price. The price is only a bit less then Iphone 4 which costs in UK 510 quids. But the build quality of i device is a lot better.
I really like WP7 and iOS looks childish a bit

Just posted to Clove cheers

Just picked up mine from Sprint today and I have to say it is well built and I'm loving WP7 so far!

I to just got the Arrive and I have to say, it is definatly worth changing over from my Evo. I've been playing with this all day and havn't had to charge it yet (going off the initial charge it had from factory).
The keyboard works great, device tilts wonderful and while i'll admit, it's not the easiest to open one handed, it's still possible.
Nothing like the TP2 if anyone is wondering, it's alot slicker, feels better, works better.

WARNING!!!
Do NOT install and run the free HTC app "Connection Setup" with the Sprint Arrive.
I had to hard reset multiple times until I narrowed it down with Sprint Tech Support (who said they had an HTC Tech Rep on site during this launch). If you run it with Sprint as your carrier it will lockout your data connection until you hard reset (wifi will still work though). It took me a while to figure out which app screws up while on the phone with them, but it's definately this app and they confirmed it with an Arrive they had on hand. They still haven't removed it from the Marketplace yet, so here's your fair warning.
Hopefully this will save someone a lot of time and frustration after setting up your phone, only to have to redo it all over again. Cheers.

I am the Arrive advocate at my Sprint store, and I can confirm that I had the same issue with the HTC connection setup program. After hard resetting the phone my data connection came right back, but DO NOT download that program as of this point.

I was getting download speeds between 71kbps and 300kbps. I used the HTC connection setup and it also borked the data. It took me 2 hard resets and like 8 tries forcing data provision until it worked again.
I'm still getting piss poor download speeds and so it my TP2 that is on the same plan. I'm calling Sprint tomorrow to have an engineer look at my account settings. The Sprint store employee said he could do nothing if it was working at all. Had mine since 3/18.

Thanks Savage for the heads up! I was looking at that app until I read your posts.