Need Advice Picking PPC Phone Please - General Topics

I'm getting ready to buy my first PPC phone and wanted some advice from people who have used these devices.
I've owned a cell phone for about 3 years now (a basic one). I'm a heavy computer user (mainly PCs with Windows or on rare occasions Linux). I love to tinker and build my own PCs.
What interests me the most about a PPC phone is making my life easier. I buy the computers for our school (I teach 5th grade). I'd like to get a phone that can keep my Google Calendar and Gmail on it plus browse the web from time to time. I'd also like to be able to do other stuff on it, like watch video clips, listen to MP3s, and take the occasional picture. Games might be fun too when I'm waiting around. I don't have much use for GPS at this point (though I admit it would be fun to play with sometimes). I like the idea of getting after-market applications and games to make the PPC phone more productive/enjoyable. Being able to have control over how it handles phone calls is another plus. Size isn't too important to me. I'm more interested in functionality and smart design. I like the idea of a big screen and a QWERTY keyboard.
I've thought about Palm OS. It seems very smartly designed, but I don't like that it can't multitask. I will use my device for a variety of tasks at the same time (like I'm doing with my PC at the moment. I don't know much about the other OSes beyond the Windows flavors.
Right now I'm leaning toward getting a Treo 750 when Cingular comes out with it or a Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes). From what I've read it appears that the Treo is one of the best designs (easier to use and more functional). The 8525 has better hardware specs and a bigger screen. So, I'm not sure which way to go.
I'd love to hear some of people's opinions and advice. At this point I'm not even sure what things I need to focus on.
Thank you in advance for your input.

I'm getting the Hermes next month when my contract upgrade is due.

Well I Like "enough to recommend to you" The QTEK 9100, since i got mine and thanks to this forum, i can tinker till the cows come home., I've flashed it, unlocked it, downloaded and experimented with its ROM and external ram, upgraded the phone skin, completely made it into a totally different beast from when it was shipped from vodafone...
I can connect without cost using wifi (54G) to: internet, msn,skype, pocket news reader (spb insight), and internet radio.
I can sychronise with active sync, my documents, calender,contacts and others, I can setup many email accounts for downloading to the device
watching films, jurrassic park is 113megs at QVGA resolution, and can be viewed full screen too, the keyboard ejects out the side of the device and lights up in dark. comes with office suite, and windows mobile 5 devices today are very good, you can use gprs too the whole package is the best device i've previously owned the following devices.
nokia N91, HDD corrupted after 4 days, crashed more times than Barry Sheen!
Nokia 6630 good phone but boring...it was symbian os
HP Jornado 928 (ppc 2003) crashed a lot, eats battries like hell
Nokia 6600 good phone bit basic really
Nokia 9310i good phone, good screen, poorly made
Nokia 9110i well made, black and white screen, liked it then
and the Qtek 9100 has satisfied all my demands and given me great freedom
TOM TOM 6.010 runs flawlessy for 7 hours continuosly without a charge and there was still 10% battery left, what other device will do that for you eh!!!!
The device is not perfect but out of all the other stuff out there, it's the best i have owned yet.

whoster69, I have similar needs to you and I have gone for the Palm treo 750v. After using it for 3 days I can say I have not needed to use stylus even once this is how good one handed usage of this phone is. This is the only WM device that has been designed for being a phone. Wizard and Hermes seem as if phone functionality was added as an after thought.
Battery doesn't seem to be as bad as some people said it is (still haven't needed to recharge yet), coming from Wizard and Magician screen took some getting used to but now its ok.
One of the reasons I didn't get Hermes was of the sliding keyboard. I used to loathe Wizard keyboard as everytime I needed to type something I would have to slide the keyboard and wait for the OS to adjust itself. I am very happy with Palm keypad. Although the keys are smaller but the shape and tacitle feedback means they are very practical.

Related

Market Demand: Pocket PC Vs Smartphone

HI all,
The users of this forum seem to be at the cutting edge of technology.
We embrace Windows Mobile in all it's shapes, forms & glory.
What I'm asking you, is what do you prefer ?
And why ?
It's almost a survey, but not quite.
I'm not asking many specific questions, there's no a) b) or c), no right or wrong.
What I want to know is why you use the device that you use ?
What are you perceptions of the PPC operating system Vs the SP operating system.
I understand that each of these devices meet certain requirements for certain people, but I'd like a view, a global view on where we, as users/engineers/developers, see the direction of PPC & SP heading.
I'll start off:
I prefer Smartphones.
I receive alot of email, but do not have to respond to all of it immediately.
I spend a fair bit of time away from my desk.I don't do alot of web browsing, so screen real estate is not so much of an issue.
So a qwerty keyboard is not essential to me.
The smartphone Operating system is what suits me best, as I prefer a small form factor and would rather not use a stylus.
The smartphone I'm currently using is an imate SP5, MotorolaQ.
I have in the past used:- SP2, SP3, XDAII, JAM, PDA2K, JASJAR, KJAM, JAMin, Motorola MPX/MPX220. ( and some others that I can not remember )
I have used many devices, as you can see.
To me, the SP5 is a standout device.
It does exactly what I want.
So, please, spare some time and tell me why you like what you like.
Thanks.
Nice to have someone with the same curiosity as me
Take a look at this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=55256&highlight=
Anyway, I'll have my say.
I prefer the PDA phone. If you were to get the smaller version (e.g. Magician, Wizard sized) phone, it doesn't make much of a difference in terms of size and weight as to compared to smart phone.
For PDA phone, the screen may be big, but the size is not the most important thing that I had in mind, rather it is the touch-screen that is what most attract me.
However, smart phone are within the area of my consideration as I've been with normal keypad entry phone for quite a long period of time that I seems to have better input speed on a keypad than of any other method (including virtual keypad).
However again, as most of the PDA applications (of which may not be useful to me) are design with touch screen in mind, I'm quite reluctant to use a non-touch screen version of the WM5 as to avoid incompatibility. Unless there is a system of consideration of non-touch screen (e.g. Symbian), then I may consider a smart phone.
Anyway, there are some application that you may not be using but good to have around, which only a touch screen can give you. Example, the scratch pad or note pad where you can scribble things on it, draw stuff as like a map to a location or a very very ultra quick note, which you cannot done without.
Anyway, I think the PDA makers should make best of both world (HTC is slow on this matter) like those you get from Asus, and the newly O2 stealth. For me, it would be better if you were to give me a keypad and a touchscreen rather than a qwerty and a touchscreen.
My view. Hope others will join in.
Well my opinion is similar to hanmin's.
At my work place I get to play with all kinds of WM based devices so I had a chance to try out SP5 an other smartphones.
Just scrolling through the endless menus using the keys gives me the feeling of luck of control and leaves me very annoyed (not to mention my thumbs haven't had this much workout since I last used my trusty old GameGear console - first color handheld from Sega). It is so much nicer to be able to just click on what you want.
Also the apps for Smartphone version always seem more constricted then their PPC counterparts. I like the robustness even at the cost of stability (some times).
Still, while I wouldn't give up my Jamin for anything less the a TyTN or better yet the soon to come ASUS 535 that will have it all (WIFI, BT, GPS)
I think Smartphones have their specific market.
Namely, people who don't want to carry a complex gadget, but need just a little more then a simple cell phone.
Although I think that as soon as some company incorporates push mail into a 'dumb' phone (just the outlook push, non of the other WM5 stuff) the Smartphones will loose their market share. Question is will MS let this happen...
Well that's right.
It's no so much a matter of "What features do I want?"
It's more, for me anyway, "What features do i need?"
I guess a stylus comes in handy in some instances.
But more often than not, I'm just answering calls, reading emails, responding quickly to those emails or sending sms.
And I love be able to just put the thing in my pocket, without the feeling of having a brick in there.
I really don't like the belt holsters.
Having said all of this, I've just started using one of these
http://www.1gadgets.com/images/products/pda/hpipaqhw6965.jpg
...and I'm quite liking it.
Because !
I can use it and not have to get out the stylus if I don't want to
It's much improved from the previous ipaqs, in that it has the soft keys now on the front, which make things 100% accessible ( along with qwerty keyboard ) with out the need for getting the stick out !
It also has a built in GPS receiver, so I'd say this devies has everything
HP 6965?
That thing is almost the size of the Universal, talking about a brick.
But to each his own.
One thing I forgot to mention: I think Asus have the right formula with the P525. It's a full PPC but with a phone pad (basic candy-bar form factor) and only slightly bigger than SP5. I found that with proper T9 there is no need what so ever for a full QWERTY keyboard, even for those who don't like using the stylus.
Hi guys,
Well for me,i had a compact(magician)which was small for a pda but big for a phone,
it suited my needs but when i changes depts at work and found myself away mon-fri living in hotels,
the compact went wrong so i used the chance to risk a chnage, i then went to an exec suited me perfectly,alhto' a bit put off due to size iw as able to use as a mini laptop,for email web browesing and moslty msn messngers so a large screen and keyboard were perfect and i learned to live with and love the exec and also pop in my pocket when done unlike a laptop
so for me depends on your needs, for me at the mo wel think il get the flipphone htc next,then use that as a phone.sms,email and keep the exec for weekends away and when i need a mp3.broweser wtc wtc just chuck it in a bag and go
so id like best of both worlds tbh
Today's pocket-pc phones have reached a size that doesn't make them significantly more cumbersome than smartphones (in my opinion). Following from that fact, I have to say I prefer the full-blown functionality of the PPC phone in my pocket.
Simple!
levenum said:
HP 6965?
That thing is almost the size of the Universal, talking about a brick.
But to each his own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using it because my SP5 is in for repair.
It got stuck in headset mode.
Did a hard reset, even reflashed the ROM !
Still started up in headsetmode, couldn't use the phone without earplugs.
Warranty job
Well, first of to say, good taste, being you were a user of the MPX series like me .
Well for me, I prefer the PPC. The smartphone cannot do enough for me. The PPC is powerful, touchscreen, HUGE screen, more customizable. And there is more software for it. Plus I need the hardware keyboard most PPC include now.
I suggest you use the Motorola MPX300 if you want a "SMALL" pocket pc. If was great for me when I use it, but I gave it away at work.
I started with the XDA2i, loved it (except the occasional freeze) as it had the functinality I needed.
I use the Sync feature to keep on top of my calendar and contacts while also bein able to check the web and download e-mail at the same time. The large screen allowed a good use of Tom Tom Navigator which is vital for me as I tend to work all over the country.
I recently upgraded to XDA Mini and find the actual qwerty keypad a much better way of using the system than the stylus. All in all, with the Windows Mobile package I'm more likely to be able to link with my Windows PC (especially with the transfer of Word/excel docs and the use of Outlook) than the potential issues of cross o/s synchronization. I love the XDA Mini. as it suits me perfectly and saves me carrying 2 devices (shame I can't get a cradle for the XDA to sit on the bike with TomTom)
I started off using an mpx200, then the mpx220 and they were good, lightweight, stylish, and packing windows mobile which was great for checking emails and running low level apps.
Like alot of users I then upgraded to the XDA Mini and havent looked back, the larger screen, the capacity for more features, for better applications and also whilst I dont use the features as often, the ability to turn a pocket pc into a media centre of sorts is appealing.
Overall for me at the moment the main reason behind my recent purchase of a TyTN was due to the keyboard. The jasjar was more machine then I needed once I had left my previous job, but going to a 6828 I missed the keyboard, and thats then where the TyTN stepped in.
In any case I think these devices will become more converged themselves in the future and the line between smartphone and pocket pc will diminish, in one part because of the pocket pcs becoming more functional yet lighter and cheaper and also in particular with the next version of Windows Mobile which is meant to unify the two platforms.
my view
Well the world is surely moving towards a large screen vga display device which fits snugly in ones pocket ,I use a o2 XDA IIs and the range it offers in usablity is terrific.just dont go by the weight in grams and so on ,see if a device can do all your work and still comfortably slip into your shirt pocket well ,this form factor will be the future of all phone at some point of time.I would say a 4 to 4.5 ich screen with all the essential keys built around the phone and many are soft keys on the screen like the phone dialer.so what is today a smartphone will morph into a shirtpocket PC one day.Just imagine such a device with an intel duo processor running at 3 ghz and all the apps.on a note book,well this will be the future pocket PC phone one day very soon!!
Mukund
India
I am all for pocket pc's as opposed to Smartphones. I started out with a small PPC6700 and then decided that all the features of an Xda Exec would better fit my lifestyle. I was mainly attracted towards it because of the full qwerty keyboard (none of that tiny crap where you cant press the buttons properly) and the VGA screen.
Now I am working where I need to have a second line so at first I thought I would get a smartphone to complete the pair but after better analyzing the situation there is no way I can go without a touchscreen anymore. Im thinking a Exec and Artemis combo

treo vrs other pda's

have any of you guys had other products,exec,charmer etc etc etc
basically,im considering a treo after my exec,but im really off windows after all the resets abd frezzes etc,but on another forum(3g),a guy told me he had other htc devices and they had been the same but his treo had one reset in 8months and was far more stable
have you found this to be true?
thanks
I have had an Magician and a Wizard prior to my 750. I was fed up with them not functioning as I would have liked and bought a Symbian (SE M600). I quickly realized the the UIQ3 OS is not nearly as well fleshed out as the UIQ2 and it too provided more problems than I was willing to handle. After giving a non smart phone a try I decided to give WM one more shot and bought the 750.
I can say, without a doubt, that the 750 is the best smartphone that I have used to date. Previous WM devices felt like pocket pcs with phone functionality tacked on. The 750 feels like the phone operation of the device wasn't just an afterthought, but integrated from the get go.
As far as stability, I very rarely have to soft reset my device, perhaps once every three weeks. I tend to think that phones shouldn't need to be soft reset but once in a blue moon, but as far as WM devices go this one still holds the stability record.
I have outright purchased 3 phones in the 6 months leading up to my 750 and by my preference there isn't a better phone on the market, WM or not.
brill reply mate thanks so much,
the main issue i had before was getting out the exec to find it had frozen up and id missed calls,
i think im deffo gonna go with a treo ,i guess its just deciding which
if i may ask mate,how do you find the battery life and are they touch screen? i was under the impression that as a smart phone they are not touch screen but then they have a stylus?
thanks mate youve really helped
The Treo is in fact a pocket pc. Why do they call it a Smartphone then? No idea!
But I must say that I hardly use the stylus of the device, maybe that's why?
Concerning the battery life, I can use the device for 2 or 3 days.
I've owned multiple PocketPC's and must say that the Treo is by far the most stable of them all
hmm 750 or 680 or wait for the new 755p ,i dont know which but thta made my mind up 100% thanks guys
im due an upgarde on tmob uk,ill get a n95,then sell it on unused and get a treo
if anyone else can offer any info,compereing treo and other pda's I'd be really greatfull
thank you
i've been using the 750v since november - definitely the most stable windows mobile device i've ever had. prior to the Treo I had a tytn which was a pain, a treo 650 (which i've still got - palm os is still a really good os but doesn't support 3G), an eten m500....... etc.
Palm just seem to get the balance right - they work!
the more i hear the better it gets ,thanks for your input mate
I can attest to the 2-3 day battery life. It takes a couple of weeks of use to break in the battery, though. The first couple of days, maybe week, the battery only held a day. The only downside is that the Treo uses the same proprietary charge cable that--to the best of my knowledge--all previous Treos have used. Gone are the days of a standard mini USB cable in the backpack.
Sorry for the smartphone confusion. Smartphone as described by my experience ( wikipedia has my back on this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone ) is any high end phone that has personal computer or PDA like characteristics. (P990, M600, the original Palm OS Treos, all WM convergence devices) Microsoft had to go and make things confusing by redefining an already defined term.
Long story short; The Treo 750 is a full fledged, touch screen implementation of Windows Mobile 5. Some software may have problems with the 240x240 resolution square screen, although the popularity of the Treo has helped to push problematic programs to minority. The vast majority work just fine.
Oh, as mccune touched on, the one handed operation of the phone (ie, sans stylus) is great. The thumb keyboard is small enough to type with one hand, but still large enough to use 2 if you like. Navigating menus and through the vast majority of programs works flawlessly with the hardware keys. I only use the touch screen for the occasional game or for configuring phonealarm.
amazing feedback everyone seems to love there treo,shame its not on more networks in the uk

I'm officially done with windows mobile

2006 was my 1st attempt at the Palm OS and I hated it after a loooooong month never to return again. 2007 is the 1st time I tried windows mobile, 1st with the HTC Wizard (8125) and then with the HTC TyTn.
Both of my experiences with the 2 devices and the windows mobile OS was horrible. For one HTC has terrible phone hardware, you could barley hear the person you are talking to on the phone and the antenna in HTC phones suck completly.... This is on BOTH 8525 (TyTn) AND 8125 (Wizard).
Combined with the poor phone hardware is a OS that is to hard to use for novice users plus takes you to too many menus just to get to an option. Pocket Internet explorer sucks. On howardforums.com which is mostly text with little images the pocket internet explorer lags soooo badly.... Dont even mention sites like gizmodo.com and engadgetmobile.com. Typing is a nightmare and with a 400mhz processor programs still lag and hang. My N75 loads up the camera app faster with less RAM than the HTC TyTn (Cingular/ATT 8525)!
Office mobile sucks also. I have anethesia notes for class that I have on my SD card on my nokia E62 that I wanted to see how they'll come up on word mobile and it didn't even open the document! Mind you this is windows mobile 6 and they're .doc files created on XP while my E62 can handle .docx files created on Vista!
All in all my windows mobile experience has made me appreciate Symbian and show'd me what multitasking with little effort means....
I'm selling my mint condition, 3 week old, windows mobile 6, unlocked ATT 8525/HTC TyTn. Private message me with offers. THANKS.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out! j/k haha
If you ever decide to try it again I'd suggest the Touch. Different league. You just don't get all the super specs(unless you get the Sprint version). But what it does, it does well.
please separate what is PDA and what is phone
your N75 is a nice phone, but, phone is phone, not PDA and cannot be compared with PDA.
Symbian system is suck with Touch screen.. u can see how Sony Ericsson P series work.....really suck...
Why do you have to make an official announcement? I've switched back and forth between Palm, WM, and Symbian - or more than one at a time and switched between smartphones and pocket pc's. Notice no announcement posts for me nor do I need sympathy
I think it is a matter of personal preference and how much patience you have to familiarize a new environment.
I have been using windows mobile for 4 years now and am generally impressed with the the power of the operating system as well as the quality of HTC hardware. A few months back I attempted to switch over to the Nokia E90 but the lack of quality 3rd party software and the poor hardware quality were enough to prompt me to get rid of the thing in less than a week. I am back to windows mobile for good
shannoncole05 said:
Why do you have to make an official announcement? I've switched back and forth between Palm, WM, and Symbian - or more than one at a time and switched between smartphones and pocket pc's. Notice no announcement posts for me nor do I need sympathy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... and I use both Symbian and WinMo at the same time. The Nokia N95 has a definitely superior hardware for 3D gaming & multimedia to any HTC device out there; therefore, that's my music source. And, I use my Universal when need to browse the web in hi-res (if low-res is OK, I prefer browsing on the Nokia because it's lightweight - as opposed to the Universal). I also read my mails on my Nokia - it's far faster to load new mails than WinMo from POP3 accounts with more than a thousand mails.
Finally, I use a cheap HTC Oxygen (s310) for calls because it's sturdy, cheap and is the very few HTC phones to allow for call recording. (The Nokia also allows for the latter, but it's too expensive and I am afraid of dropping it when used as a phone.)
ive been a windows mobile user since the very begening and have gone to symbian and other forms as i have frequently got hacked off at the crap software, but if you stick with it u soon realise there are enougth fixes n hacks to make WM devices become far superior to anything, i love my athena at times and sometimes i hate it but i know that nothing can beat it yet as a single device to do everything i need. just have a little patience
Well, the Symbian platform is a great platform. But as it grew more advanced, it also got less stable: my Psion 5mx NEVER crashes, my Nokia 6260 sometimes just kills its modem process or just hangs. That being said, it still is one of the more stable platforms out there, allows for a huge amount of free softwares, but runs on IMO more limited hardware.
I always intended to stay with Symbian, but did choose for a HTC TyTN as I liked the form factor, and as I needed to run one particular software that is Windows Mobile exclusive. I have my gripes with Windows Mobile (it looses points on the functionality as a phone, e.g. lack of profiles, but also on easy taskswitching and in user friendlyness), but I'd rate them quite similarly now: each has their upsides and downsides.
Still, for an advanced phone, nothing beats Symbian. For a PDA/phone the edge currently is with WM6, but Symbian is catching up (new S60 ought to support touchscreens as well, and S60 is IMO more mature than UIQ).
Jörg
I must admit that, for the first 3 months of windows mobile PDA ownership I felt the same way as you. I kept wondering why I had given up my trusty P900 smartphone to come over to endless lockups and freezes, poor reliability, etc, etc.
A year down the line my views have changed enormously. OK, I have had to flash to WM6 and use cooked roms and other technical solutions from off here; however I have also moved away from the MS standard/office/web browsing apps and gone onto more fit-for-purpose items.
The fact is I now would not move back to a Symbian platform. I can do so much more with the PDA phone, customise it to my hearts content and beyond, use it for business with a reasonable degree of confidence, use it for fun whenever I like.
Yes, I have had to work at it and spend light years of my life on this forum to get to work out how one gets round some o the issues, but its been worth it.
You can only speak as you find and your comments are valid; however its always a case of you pays your money, you takes your choice.
All the best.
WB
Its always irritating when somebody moans about how a PDA is not like a phone. Duuuuuh! Symbian definitely got more free stuff,something had to make up for the lack of true functionalism. Theres an entire shift in mindset required to adjust to moving from another OS to windows mobile. Some struggle more than others I suppose.
Interesting, my 8125 is great! I don't understand what you mean about hardly hearing someone. With my volume on max its so loud sounds like Im on speaker phone.
I get an awsome signal anywhere I go, then again could just be my service and area I live in?
To bad the devices are not what you perfer but glad you found something that works to your needs. Just a couple of points I wanted to make on this reply,
1.You do not have to discredit the phone hardware or functionality because you can't find a way for it to work for you. My phone has been dropped etc.. used a lot and functions like it did day 1 without having hardly any blemishes on it.
2. It's a windows mobile phone, you can get just about any software and install it to fit your needs! I'm sure there is some simple solution to the .docx? But these phones are not meant for your everyday normal phone user. Best fit for those who are always on the go on a corporate level needing to be able to pull up real time email push etc.. and organize.
PS: I will have to look up the E62 to see what its about to compared to wm6.
Well, I like my Touch a lot but my first WM (than still called Smartphone 2002) experience was very bad as well. I owned an original SPV with smartphone 2002. Man did it suck! It was so bad that it would sometimes actually crash when my phone rang while listening to music. Opening the sms inbox also regularly made the phone hang. Manually clearing memory was needed a lot, nothing would launch when the phone had been on for more than a few hours.
Still it had some good things other phones didn't have. Apart from crashing, the sms inbox was really nice for a phone. I still like pOutlook on WM standard a lot, better than on WM pro.
To sum it up. The SPV, and MS smartphone, was so bad I decided never to get a WM phone again. I only changed my opinion this summer after checking out a Touch.
Maybe he needed a phone all along. Run on home,Forrest! You cant be a serious business person and sat things like that with a clear concience. WM is as comprehensive as its gets.Every now and then it'll play dressup with the Cube and iPhone,but its more than about sms and pictures.
I am interested for your tytn?-where are you from? (can you send by DHL?)
And Tell Me The Price Of Course..........
I used symbian for a long time. I made my first experience with the Siemens SX1 which was for that time more than great. Even the camera made very good pictures. I was totally satisfied in that time. But after phones god faster and smaller I switched over to Sony Ericsson K700i. I used it a long time and I have to say it was really fast. I just missed my StorageCard.
After a while I also missed the possibility to install programs so I switched to the Samsung SGH-D730 which also has symbian. But what i noticed on all symbian devices is that it tooks a long time to open the contacts and menu.
Of course you have a lot of different programs to install, but i personally think that windows mobile has just better apps.
After i got in touch with a touchscreen I decided to buy a Himalaya and after that the Hermes. Right now i am very happy I made the decision to switch to windows mobile 6!
To sum it up:
Symbian feels very slow to me and hasn't the features windows mobile gives you.
for me, once i started using wm phones, i find its not possible to go back to normal phones. even new symbian phones doesnt attract me.
my first wm5 was the Prophet and i used it for 1.5years, really satisfied me, i didnt thought of changing phone at all.. then i decided to try the htc tytn. even better with a keyboard!
i think ive fallen in love with wm ppc. never gonna go back to normal phones. haha..

So which is your favorite WM6 Pro phone?

Good morning. About 2 months ago my AT&T "Hermes" 8525 died, and I found myself without a touch screen pocket pc. Wanting to get something quickly, and not wanting to spend $700 on a Touch Cruise that there was little info about, settled for a BlackJack II from my local AT&T store.
Thanks to a friend with one, and other forums... I've managed to get it to tether to a laptop, install Garmin XT, and can do MOST of the things I could do with my Pro unit.
However, there are annoyances. Lack of Wifi, can't set reminders for 2 hours, smaller keys, etc. I'm making due for now, but all the while I've been keeping my eyes open for a new phone.
Last weekend, I went into the Apple Store and played with an iPhone for about 10 minutes. It really is something. The lack of GPS and turn-by-turn directions for when I travel, and slower Internet connection speeds are a concern. But then I realized maybe I could get by without.
I've heard about an app that lets you use your WM6 Pocket PC work as a wireless router. And if that's the case, I could carry two devices and do EVERYTHING I want.
iPod Touch for:
Pictures
Weather
Web Surfing
Phone/Pocket PC for:
Phone (syncs with my Outlook profile)
GPS (already own iGuidance and LOVE it)
E-mail
Unlimited Data Plan
The question remains, what phone do I want to handle those functions?
One thing is for sure. Having the Blackjack II for a backup allows me to hedge my bets, and have a decent backup device if I have another problem like the "white screen" issue I had with my 8525.
Sorry about the length, but thanks for your time!
Seems like such a waste and such a step backwards to have two devices. Esp when one WM device could do all of those things...
Show me one with as cool of a picture viewer, web browser, and overall cool package, and I'd be happy to stick with one phone. But the fact remains that WM6 devices sometimes:
Need rebooting that other phones don't
Interface is still a little clunky
Haven't seen one that graphically competes with an iPhone/iPod Touch
As I mentioned before, I'm interested in the Touch Cruise, and have looked at the MWg Flame, Atom Life, etc. But I'm just not sure any are as impressive as the iPhone, especially when browsing the web. Safari's experience is pretty sweet.
But the original Subject says it all. Which WM6 Pro device is your favorite? If you don't post, it doesn't suggest there is much competition.
Look into the leaked Opera Mobile 9.33. Thats app says everything.
But why don't you just get an iPhone.
Both OS have very good apps support.

Best WM device for its money?!

Hey there guys,
New to this great Comunity, still new to Windows Mobile.
I'm a tech geek alright, and I love having all the newest tech gadgets around. I've wanted to get a WM phone so many times throughout the last few years but they were always behind in lots of aspects compared to the Symbian ones. Then HTC released its TyTNII with its holy specs, great design and somewhat compact size. This was my phone! Yeah, right! Then I found out about this huge issue with the video performance and followed it for about three monts waiting for a solution either from HTC or XDA. And OK - HTC had some problems with Qualcomm support for its stolen from Broadcomm chipsets whatever. So they released Diamond (and announced Raphael) with a new chipset and "3D GPU" which "processor enhances the user interface". And then again it needs tweaks to make it - not better, but just usable. Then all the other bugs and flaws users say about in this forum.
Can't HTC build a quality device that just works out of the box?! Then leave it to us mostly to customize it and somehow improve its usability!? Man, everyday I read about newer and bigger bugs and flaws. May be most of them will be overcomed thanks to this comunity, but were is HTC with its support for its high-priced devices!?
And again I'm about to leave the idea of having WM phone.
I've looked around for any other brands and models but found none more appealing. What do you think? What's the best WM device I can get in the next few months?
Any opinions are much appreciated.
To be honest, I've grown quite tired of Windows Mobile. I used to like it more, but it seems like I spent way too much time getting things to work. Also, the interface is very user UN-friendly, which makes doing simple tasks like calling someone too time consuming. Then there is the random freeze ups like the one I had today, which caused me to miss 5 calls and no warning lights or anything.
I like the cusomizabilty, but sometimes, I just want something that works right out of the box. Also, performance wise, all of the HTC/WM phones I've used are sluggish. (My mogul, friend's 6700, another friend's Kaiser/TyTnII). The redraw time when you flip out the keyboard is rediculous, specially if you have a few plugins.
Overall, I may give one more WM phone a try, if I am impressed by it at the store. But I doubt it. I just don't see Microsoft doing any innovations since they hold the crown as far as market share goes in the U.S. Maybe when an Android phones comes out...
partyhardy said:
To be honest, I've grown quite tired of Windows Mobile. I used to like it more, but it seems like I spent way too much time getting things to work. Also, the interface is very user UN-friendly, which makes doing simple tasks like calling someone too time consuming. Then there is the random freeze ups like the one I had today, which caused me to miss 5 calls and no warning lights or anything.
I like the cusomizabilty, but sometimes, I just want something that works right out of the box. Also, performance wise, all of the HTC/WM phones I've used are sluggish. (My mogul, friend's 6700, another friend's Kaiser/TyTnII). The redraw time when you flip out the keyboard is rediculous, specially if you have a few plugins.
Overall, I may give one more WM phone a try, if I am impressed by it at the store. But I doubt it. I just don't see Microsoft doing any innovations since they hold the crown as far as market share goes in the U.S. Maybe when an Android phones comes out...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give blackberry a chance They've never failed me. Infact, I had my HTC Touch Dual for about a month before switching back. lol.
calling someone is too complicated?
1.) hit the green button
2.) start tapping away or choose speed dial
3.) hit the green button
its similar to what other phones want from you in order to know who you want to call. If thats too complicated, you may also try voice commander?
that beeing said, I am very happy with my new i-mate 9502, but I also considered the samsung i780 and it looks like people who bought it are very happy with it, especially with the form factor and performance.
edit: key for me with winMo devices are things like hardware keys, to reach functions quickly, using a good launcher/today setup like pocketplus +
phoneweaver + todayagenda, etc. and a nice hardware keyboard.
partyhardy said:
simple tasks like calling someone too time consuming. Then there is the random freeze ups like the one I had today, which caused me to miss 5 calls and no warning lights or anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Calling is simple, one button... de ding "call simon mobile" etc.
The no error message and not getting calls though is an issue i dislike.
I want a "nippy" device we need better hardware to run the software and better software optimisation for the hardware.
i just bought htc touch enhanced couple of days ago, and for the price it's great. Now with the Diamond coming out, htc touch is getting cheaper, but it's great to use nontheless.
Installed some stuff on it, not enough to make it sluggish but enough to make it a pure pleasure to use and i would definitely recommend it.
Prekrasen telefon za tzenata si.
partyhardy said:
To be honest, I've grown quite tired of Windows Mobile. I used to like it more, but it seems like I spent way too much time getting things to work. Also, the interface is very user UN-friendly, which makes doing simple tasks like calling someone too time consuming. Then there is the random freeze ups like the one I had today, which caused me to miss 5 calls and no warning lights or anything.
I like the cusomizabilty, but sometimes, I just want something that works right out of the box. Also, performance wise, all of the HTC/WM phones I've used are sluggish. (My mogul, friend's 6700, another friend's Kaiser/TyTnII). The redraw time when you flip out the keyboard is rediculous, specially if you have a few plugins.
Overall, I may give one more WM phone a try, if I am impressed by it at the store. But I doubt it. I just don't see Microsoft doing any innovations since they hold the crown as far as market share goes in the U.S. Maybe when an Android phones comes out...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But why cusomizabilty has to be at the expense of stability? Is it imposible to have a device that is performing great out of the box and has the potential to get improved usability by applications and custom tweaks? That would be the device for me. Don't get me wrong. I'm no mass user, I would consider myself as a techie business user and as such I need a device that I can rely on from the moment I buy it. I don't have the comfort to spend a small fortune and experiment weeks, even months with tweaking it just to make it work properly. I've always thought of WM as of business devices but I guess I was wrong.
demonizator said:
But why cusomizabilty has to be at the expense of stability? Is it imposible to have a device that is performing great out of the box and has the potential to get improved usability by applications and custom tweaks? That would be the device for me. Don't get me wrong. I'm no mass user, I would consider myself as a techie business user and as such I need a device that I can rely on from the moment I buy it. I don't have the comfort to spend a small fortune and experiment weeks, even months with tweaking it just to make it work properly. I've always thought of WM as of business devices but I guess I was wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note that the people that use this site are not those that are going to say "my device is great" and then go away... The kind of people here are either those not satisfied, or those that want a little bit more from the hard ware and are not representative of all the device users.
The Diamond is an immensely powerfully device, and even with the UI stacked on top, it ticks away far more reliably than the iPhone (which for me just locked up a lot). If you don't like the UI, disable it and you'll have one of the most powerful WM devices there is...
WM devices don't need tweaking, but this site is devoted to tweaking them. I ran my Prophet perfectly happily on the stock WM5 ROM for over a year, before discovering this site to get it unlocked when the contract ended. I didn't need to tweak it or flash countless ROMs, but I wanted to...
I really hope you're right. I'm gonna wait a little bit more and get the Touch Pro version. It's just all these flaws I read about that stopped me from buying WM the past few years. But I guess I have to give up something to gain something more.
Maybe you want to take a look to the new Samsung. It seems as it's going to be a good device.
http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1039
WM6 for the money?
I bought a Dash on ebay and upgraded it to WM6 for $150.00.
I have a Mogul now, but the Dash was way easier to use.
In terms of bang-for-the-buck I think the Samsung i780 takes the cake. It is the most specced out phone in that price category. And if you buy one today it will have the newer firmware so it shouldn't have any real issues.
Oh and calling people on a WiMo phone is far easier than any other phone. Voice Command baby. It's the reason I can't leave the WiMo platform even if there are other great choices like the iPhone, Blackberry or even the all-but-dead Palm Treos. And if you DON'T like using Voice Command come on it's very easy to call someone as mentioned. In fact, back when Nokia had crap for menus and directional pads to get to your contacts WiMo phones had touchscreens that made it really easy in comparison. Today the touchscreen is still easier to use than the various jog dials, joysticks or what not that conventional phones have.
+1 for the i780. It is by far the quickest and most responsive PPC I have ever used, and the form factor is perfect. No rotating screens to wait for, all the keyboard shortcuts you could want, terrific build quality, good battery life, bargain price, and none of the HTC Flo-bloat that turns their machines from reasonable PPCs into lagging, crash-happy iPhone wannabes.
I gotta add a +2 for the I780 as well.
I was holding out for a touch pro myself, in fact i cut out a picture of it and put it on my wall at the office. Iv'e owned quite a few HTC models over the last while as well as a I600, and i gotta say the I600 altho it had less functionality far outshined all but my tytn 2, altho the tytn 2 could not match the I600 im picture quality with the camera.
Last week i was in vodacom shop and saw the I780 demo model, picked it up and played with it for a while and i must say it has been a long time since a phone made me go "wow" , i was totaly amazed at the speed of the thing, the look and feel of it is great, samsung put alot of work into making the menu's just right for any user from beginner to power user. I made up my mind right there and then and bought one on my credit card, that was 7 days ago.
my experience so far :
Proprioty connector sux since i have a bunch of standard usb cables lying around, but still its not a train smash since you get usb cable, car charger, spare battery as well as a seperate portable battery charger as well with the phone.
Speed is AWSOME, 624mhz of power you will definitely notice, i have not found a single movie clip that has once lagged or was out of sinc with video/audio. this phone is really FAST, even when multi tasking it doesnt slow down. i have 2 friends who own tytn 2 and both commented on the speed, they both think i tweaked it to make it faster, they refuse to believe its the stock speed. ofcourse i did not tweak it.
Plenty of memory, i have 152mb free memory space on the phone and i have around 20 apps installed. the phone can also technicaly take up to 32gb cards i have read, altho most users use 1gb-8gb.
GPS is great, i had a bit of problem setting it up as i didnt bother reading the manual etc, but once i figured it out it worked like a charm, it pin pointed me in seconds. google maps work great as well. Garmin XT which comes with the phone is in my opinion far better than tomtom could ever be so i am very happy with samsung's choice of gps software.
Touch pad mouse was what put me off buying the phone in the first place, but after 6 days i find myself using it more than anything else, it was weird to use the first few days but it is second nature now and the phone just wouldnt be the same without it.
the keypad looks really tiny and i have biggish fingers. I dont know why, maybe its because they are beveled quite a bit or something, but i find it very easy and comfortable to use, do yourself a favour and try it on a demo model, you will see what i mean. the phone has a bunch of shortcut keys that sit in all the right spots, thumbs up to samsung for doing a good job there. one thing i would have liked was a jog dial for easy up and down scrolling in opera, I downloaded a app that changes volume up/down to scroll up/down and my problem was solved.
Screen is nice and bright, even in sunlight i dont have a problem. 320x320 at 128dpi is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. 95% of software out there works flawless at this resolution, since the release of the phone software developers have all been upgrading to support it. its mainly only HTC home that is a problem, but spb mobile which has more funtions works perfect so i am not bothered. I have installed all 20 of my favorite apps and all work nicely so im happy. there are some games that might be an issue tho, but its mostly old titles, every new game being released supports this resolution.
3G. Wireless, HSDPA etc : with my tytn 2 i had 1 bar to my router from the living room, with this phone i have almost full signal, i was really surprised with that. in the bathroom i used to get gprs only with the tytn 2, with this phone i get 3G+. anyway, that is how i have compared it to my old phone and found this one to have far better signal quality.
overall i love the phone, i am convinced i made the right choice. i would have loved a flash to be included with the phone, but other than that i just cant find any flaws.
I cant really comment on battery life as i am still playing with everything alot and using more battery life than i would on avarage, but currently battery lasts me almost 2 full days and trust me, i put it under alot of stress plus you get a second battery with the phone for free. but i estimate 3 to 4 days if you dont put to much strain on it.
O also forgot to mention, video calling worked out of the box much to my surprise. phone came with the E1 rom installed.
Software currently on phone and working perfectly :
Skype
SmS Chat ( threaded sms app )
google maps
Opera
core player
real player
Esmertec Jbed
Advabced config Tools
Adobe reader
Fun contact
Keyswop
Pocket IRC
Pocket Rar
PqzII
Safemode 2
Garmin XT
SPB Mobile shell
WKTaskL
Samsung today plugin
Astraware Casino
Tetris
Machines of war
Flash player
Total commander
Call firewall.
And no i did not install realvga, i am using the default 128dpi resolution i got the phone with.
Anyway, hope this helps with your descision. what you really need to do it test the phone yourself, i warn you tho, once you pick it up you wont want to put it down
In my country the HTC Tytn 2 is selling for R8900, and its already an dated model.
the I780 is selling for R5200 which is ALOT cheaper and this phone blows smoke in the tytn 2's face. so in my opinion this is by far the best bang for buck out there.
Its kinda like buying a 9600gt when everyone else is buying the 8600gts .... just love seeying their faces when they realise they just pissed away a chunk of cash on the wrong thing
If all else fails read this : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411053
The best windows mobile device for it's money is undoubtely the HTC Shift, for a mere 1000 dollars you'll get a run-down WindowsMobile OS, but also Vista. So you'll have a hybrid for the price of just a good laptop.
Isn't is great ?
I think the HTC Touch PRO will blow the competition away, seriously!!!
I was a symbian freak for years untill I bought my current device, the HTC S710 "Vox". Before the Vox I went trough several Symbian S60 devices including Nokia 7610, 6630, N70 & N73.
At first I thougt wm was a complete mess... and the UI looked terrible imo... I was also a bit shocked that there was no copy/paste (at least in wm6 standard). In S60 there was a dedicated pencil key used for just copy/paste actions + other stuff..
Things have changed...
Now after using my Vox fox exactly one year there's no way I'd go back to only using symbian S60 again.
Even though I'm only using the non-touch version of wm I've noticed all the advantages of wm compared with symbian S60.
Let me list a few of them:
1. Messaging: Sending SMS & MMS with a S60 device is OK but nothing more, the whole messaging interface in a S60 3d edition device is inferior. It's hard to explain but it's just doesn't compare to what it feels like on a wm device. It's like using a 3310 with a color screen if you know what I mean. Oooold T9 (forget about xt9 with word prediction & etc), the whole interface looks like a joke, and the S60 MMS editor doesn't even have a 3'rd of every options you can find in a standard WM device these days.
2. Email: OMG, If you wanna check your mail on a S60 device you'll be seriously depressed. Reading emails on a S60 device is like reading a standard SMS. You can forget all about HTML email and everything looks incredibly boring. Yes there are some really good 3rd party apps like profimail but still they're no match for the built-in mobile outlook when it comes to displaying your emails.
3. Calendar: There's no comparision here, WM6 calendar thrumps the S60 one, nothing more to say!
4. Contacts: S60 is far far behind, there's so much easier and faster finding a contact in WM6, especially when you can search contacts quickly just by typing there first letters using xt9... And with Live messenger integrated (love it or hate it) with contacts it's a nice addition imo.
5. Office applications: OMG... This is overkill for S60!!! Even WM6 standard edition nowadays includes Office mobile which beatifully renders word, excell & powerpoint files. It's a shame it doesn't allow you to create new documents (on WM6 standard) but that can easily be fixed with a simple patch from modaco forums... S60 includes quickoffice, it's not a bad application at all but documents rendered in quickoffice doesn't even look nearly as good as they do in office mobile.
6. WIFI: No competition here at all... WM is superior in remembering hotspots and connectivity.
7. ActiveSync: Says it all doesn't it??? Nokia have PC Suite, it's a great app but it's no match if you're using outlook... It works ok but doesn't sync everything like activesync does so wm is the winner here as well....
8. Live Messenger: Probably not very important to a lot of people but for me it's very important. With WM6 I can use the native WM Live messenger client completely for free. There's no way to do that on Symbian because MS is charging for using it on other platforms
There's probably more I could add to the list but I must mention all my troubles with wm in the beginning have been solved, I'm using Vito Copy/Paste for the copy & paste issue & I've also added celetask to a hardware key so my phone actually works better in this apartment than I could ever wish four... Of course Symbian S60 also have advantages, like better cameras & video recording, more display colors & better gaming with the new N-gage platform etc... but in the end I think WM is a more advanced & better platform. I think WM is more appealing for geeks & techheads because you can tweak your device to infinity. And I'm still only talking about WM Standard, WM6 PRO is even more versatile.
S60 is fun for a while but in the end it gets boring as hell...
partyhardy said:
To be honest, I've grown quite tired of Windows Mobile. I used to like it more, but it seems like I spent way too much time getting things to work. Also, the interface is very user UN-friendly, which makes doing simple tasks like calling someone too time consuming. Then there is the random freeze ups like the one I had today, which caused me to miss 5 calls and no warning lights or anything.
I like the cusomizabilty, but sometimes, I just want something that works right out of the box. Also, performance wise, all of the HTC/WM phones I've used are sluggish. (My mogul, friend's 6700, another friend's Kaiser/TyTnII). The redraw time when you flip out the keyboard is rediculous, specially if you have a few plugins.
Overall, I may give one more WM phone a try, if I am impressed by it at the store. But I doubt it. I just don't see Microsoft doing any innovations since they hold the crown as far as market share goes in the U.S. Maybe when an Android phones comes out...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Performance issue of WM are device specific. After being a HTC hardcore for many years, and after quite a number of frustating moments I decided to switch.....almost bought myself the new Nokia E71 and abandon WM altotgether BUT - I decided to give it one more try with WM and now it's with a Samsung. And that's how I ended with the i780.
With the i780 (DXHE1 Rom), it's like a rediscovery for me. After getting used to HTC sluggishness and sporadic freeze-ups, I was genuinely astounded by how nimble and steadfast this i780 is. I can recall until now I have not encountered any freeze-ups no matter how I abuse the programs running back to back. Yes some buggy program may screw up but the nice thing is it won't freeze the whole phone unlike HTC devices where a single program fails it will bring down the whole phone.
And for the price, the i780 is a steal. It has all the arsenal one could expect from HTC flagship models yet it cost way cheaper - that is a real deal to me.
If you are done with HTC, don't blame it on WM. Try different make, like i-Mate Arima build or Samsung or even Asus.

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