Database Info

New Phone - Help me decide: Prophet, Magician, wizard, TyTn?

So my phone (SPV m500) was nicked and even though Orange could see who has my phone (IMEI + SIM network tracking) they won't tell me anything or do a thing about it and the police even though they were happy to take my report, "don't really get involved with stolen phone enquiries"..WTF?
I have looked at the Vario on T-Mob, XDA mini S on O2, SPV M600 on Orange and want some advice from seasoned users as to which phone and company comes up trumps.
I need built in wifi, a decent-ish camera, very very small amount of internet useage, the ability to stream audio to a headset (mono if poss) and cos I only make a small number of outbound calls, a very cheap 12 month package. Any ideas?

Re: New Phone - Help me decide: Prophet, Magician, wizard, T
phatphat said:
So my phone (SPV m500) was nicked and even though Orange could see who has my phone (IMEI + SIM network tracking) they won't tell me anything or do a thing about it and the police even though they were happy to take my report, "don't really get involved with stolen phone enquiries"..WTF?
I have looked at the Vario on T-Mob, XDA mini S on O2, SPV M600 on Orange and want some advice from seasoned users as to which phone and company comes up trumps.
I need built in wifi, a decent-ish camera, very very small amount of internet useage, the ability to stream audio to a headset (mono if poss) and cos I only make a small number of outbound calls, a very cheap 12 month package. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm partial to the TyTN/Hermes/Vario II, but it ain't out yet, so have got a monthly contract that I can cancel at anytime in the meantime.
If you wanna stream audio, for good quality, stereo or mono, make sure the device does A2DP.
If you'll be using data, the £7.50 for relatively unlimted data bundle on Tmobile is hard to beat.

Thanks for that
The only problem is I need it now, and I just got back from visiting the carphone warehouse, O2 shop and T-mobile shop and all of them had no clue about the Hermes/TyTn/VarioII and looked at me like I had just questioned their parentage!
Is the vario/XDA mini S a good choice as it's available on a £20 per month contract (all I really need) for £49?
The SPV M600 (prophet) is always out of stock and much more expensive to buy and you have to have it on a expensive tarif.
Which one is better/worse?

phatphat said:
Is the vario/XDA mini S a good choice as it's available on a £20 per month contract (all I really need) for £49?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a bad deal, but again, make sure you get unlimited data - maikes such a device much more usable. Having to curtail my own data usage with O2 by disabling push email, turning off images on browsing etc, is a PITA.

Good point(s), but is the 02 XDA mini s a better handset than the Orange SPV m600?

New Phone
phatphat,
I just received my new Atom, and I frickin love it!!!!!!! I went from a Magician to the Atom and what a difference. Way better sound than on the Magician, both through the earpiece and on the built in speaker phone. A little smaller phone physically, and WM2005 rocks. My phone came pre installed with the newest Rom so no issues there either. I have read some negative stuff about the Atom, so I was a little concerned. That all dissapeared when I used it for the first couple of days. I never thought that a phone could ever top the excitement I first fealt when I used my Magician for the first time, but the Atom topped it......by far!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Todd

New Phone
phatphat,
I just received my new Atom, and I frickin love it!!!!!!! I went from a Magician to the Atom and what a difference. Way better sound than on the Magician, both through the earpiece and on the built in speaker phone. A little smaller phone physically, and WM2005 rocks. My phone came pre installed with the newest Rom so no issues there either. I have read some negative stuff about the Atom, so I was a little concerned. That all dissapeared when I used it for the first couple of days. I never thought that a phone could ever top the excitement I first fealt when I used my Magician for the first time, but the Atom topped it......by far!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Todd

I know what you mean about the first time you get a magician, (which was also the first PPC phone I had).!
I am considering the Prophet, but I'm not hearing great things about O2 even though thay have some cheap deals for tarifs/handsets, and orange want £179 for an m600.
I see the spec are quite similar in terms of functions (BT, WM5, Wifi etc) but Is the prophet/atom much better than the Wizard(XDA mini s / vario)?
and what are the technical differences between the Atom and prohet? (i know they are based on the same HTC reference but are there any differences in features/performance?)

Which model should I buy second hand? Blue Angel?

Hi there!
I have recently discovered the HTC line of smartphones and have gotten really keen on buying one. I generally love smart devices that allow me to do a lot of things. I'm mostly interested in the phone functionality (obviously), Wifi connection, music playback and preferably playing videos (xvid etc).
The Blue Angel seems really nice and from what I've read it can play video decently without transcoding. I like to watch documentaries and stuff, and wish to be able to stream from my share over Wifi or just easily copy over to the memory card.
For the stuff that I want to do, would you say that the Blue Angel is the best one (I don't have that much money to spend on this so I'm looking around the second hand market).
It would be a big plus if the smartphone could handle SDHC, but that doesn't seem too common. I would hope that some smart person enables support for SDHC in the Blue Angel one day
Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance!

i would say a universal or a axim x50v or x51v(htc made but just a pda)
the universal i have not tried but seems like a good device(i should of bought it, i saw it in a pawn shop for $90 dollars) and i think theirs a cooked rom for it the updates it to wm6 and has SDHC support but you should check the forums for each device to check or the XDA-wiki to see the specs

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. Unfortunately, after a very quick browse it seems that the units that you mention are _far_ more expensive than the Blue Angel (even second hand) and very much out of my price range.
Yes, I'm on a tight budget here, so I guess the question is more Blue Angel vs Wizard, etc.
Thanks!

Blue Angel vs Wizard? Oh easy ^^ BlueAngel, the name sounds hotter and its a hell of a lot faster. (And the screen doesnt die after a while, the wizard has some issue with the keyboard thingy, thin kabel attached to it that after a while tends to give some fancy stripes on your display.. reset fixes that tho.. but still anoying.)

how much you got to spend?

From what I read, the Blue Angel does not support Edge and the wizard does (I'm sure someone will let me know if that's incorrect)...both can have wm6 installed on them but the Blue Angel comes with WM2003 and the wizard comes with WM5 by default.

He didnt mention he needed EDGE and wm6 is easy to get running on the Blue Angel.. but true, it doesnt come standard with it (well he is going to buy it secondhand, so chances are that it will tho )

sorry about that. i have a htc wizard and so far it still works and has had many drops and has gone through many flashes so i would say a wizard is a good device to start with like i did. just keep in mind that you should get g3 ver. and not g4 because g3 you can flash the radio and other stuff more easy.(G3 = IPL/SPL:2.xx or 3.xx | G4 = IPL/SPL: 2.xx.x.xx or something like this but you get it, more numbers )

That's all right, thanks for the tips!
What about the HTC TyTS (Hermes)? It seems very powerful and much newer than the Blue Angel. What do you think?

I'd go with the Hermes myself. It's the poorman's kaiser.

Cool, thanks!
From what I've read (recently discovered it) it seems to have more and newer features than the Blue Angel and it's also quite plentiful on the second hand market here in Sweden. It seems I will be able to get one for not much more than a Blue Angel, also.
Other cool things is that it seems to handle SDHC-cards (right?) so that I can put 8 GB in it.
Also it seems to play video at least as well as the Blue Angel. Can anyone confirm this?
Incidentally the Kaiser (TyTN II) because of bad drivers has really bad video playback, according to what I've read (not that it would be an option for me anyway. It seems quite expensive. I'd go for the poormans Kaiser then )

Unlocking TyTN
Ok, I've got a HTC TyTN that I'm very interested in buying. It is, however, operator locked to a 3G operator. Is there software available for unlocking it on my own, or do I have to pay for that?

time to update wizard? diamond, cruise?

my wizard is getting old and slow so I thought yesterday when I saw new htc P6500 and touch diamond that I need newer phone. should I wait and get diamond or just get cruiser now? what about other htc phones? no real need for keyboard since i got bluetooth one.
cruiser seems nice and low priced. gimme ideas and thoughts about those phones and maybe other.

diamond dont have a sdslot så you cant expand it's 4GB or use sdio devices

Between those two? the diamond obviously, if it's not too expensive for your needs. It's more advanced than the cruise, and has a much better UI that won't show its age as soon as old TouchFlo will (yes I know it's only one year old, this is a crazy world).
But my real advice is keep waiting. There are more new htc devices coming soon, and some from other brands too. If you don't need to change now, hold on and you'll have more new stuff to choose from.
Cheers!

I've got the LG KS20 coming tomorrow - that's just replaced my MDA Vario that 1) I was totally bored of and 2) I bricked anyway
I wanted something without a keyboard, unlocked, WM 6 out of the box and this one fitted the bill for me. Looking forward to a change.
Love the look of the HTC Diamond it looks stunning, but the price won't be, especially in the UK - it's currently listed for £480 without a contract and £200 on the contract I'm on.
There's always going to be something newer, bigger, better round the corner, so I always look at what my requirements are and then find a device that fits it that doesn't cost too much! Early adopters always pay the price and all that.

I'm due an upgrade - Whats new on the market?

Hi there all - I currently have a MDA Compact III through T-Mobile and am due an upgrade next week. I don't mind moving networks. Whats better than what i currently have? Does anyone know if there are any new PDA's out on the market shortly? If so, what do they do and should i hold on or just go with whats out there now! I'd really appreciate your help and i'm totally open to all options.
Cheers and thanks for reading
Regards
Daddy H

yep the mda compac IV, stay that few extra months, itll bring the price of the device down, its also known as the HTC Touch Diamond. Comes out in june sometime on sim-free, probably july on T-Mob.
If you wait those 2 months, yoll probs get some loyalty bonus or at least a discount.
Definitely the best phone ive seen thats upcoming
Rory

Thread moved to general as this is not NEWS for most of us that is.

I might be wrong, but the Diamond doesn't have qwertry, memory card slot or a flash on the camera right? Hardly an upgrade from the previous MDA range. In fact that seems massively lower spec than the MDA Vario II to me. aGPS and VGA screen do look a treat though.
It is pretty, but if I wanted pretty I'd get an iPhone. Also, the back is hideous and looks like it would be seriously uncomfortable in your pocket.
I have an i-Mate 9502 (pretty much brand new out) which is lovely, but until i-Mate get their arses in gear with patches/updates it has no SDHC support and it doesn't play videos so well (no worse than the MDA 3 mind). These features are supposedly coming though. It looks a bit like a sidekick which you can either take or leave.
Sony Ericsson X1 is what I'm waiting for with baited breath, although its looking like its not going to be out until the end of the year now :/

I hid money from the wife just so i could save for the raphael as long as my money doesn't corrode waiting for it.

If you can cope without the external memory card slot then the Touch Diamond (MDA COMPACT 4) is definitely the one for you: particularly given that you currently use a non-qwerty MDA Compact 3. The interface looks superb and the only drawback seems to be the lack of a memory card slot. There is no flash on the camera either, but IMHO you wouldn't buy a Winmo device for its camera anyway as they're all crap!
Another advantage is that its release on the T-Mobile uk network is imminent.
The Raphael should also be released on T-Mobile given their record of releasing wizard and Magician upgrades but you could be waiting an awfully long time for something that may not offer you any more benefits than the Touch Diamond. Its size and weight will certainly be greater too.
As regards other networks, well in the UK there is no advantage of going to another network for your windows mobile devices as no-one offers as much choice as T-Mobile, nor as good a package as Web n Walk.

leoni1980 said:
If you can cope without the external memory card slot then the Touch Diamond (MDA COMPACT 4) is definitely the one for you: particularly given that you currently use a non-qwerty MDA Compact 3. The interface looks superb and the only drawback seems to be the lack of a memory card slot. There is no flash on the camera either, but IMHO you wouldn't buy a Winmo device for its camera anyway as they're all crap!
Another advantage is that its release on the T-Mobile uk network is imminent.
The Raphael should also be released on T-Mobile given their record of releasing wizard and Magician upgrades but you could be waiting an awfully long time for something that may not offer you any more benefits than the Touch Diamond. Its size and weight will certainly be greater too.
As regards other networks, well in the UK there is no advantage of going to another network for your windows mobile devices as no-one offers as much choice as T-Mobile, nor as good a package as Web n Walk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The camera on my 9502 is excellent! Obviously not as good as an N95, but definately useable. I could happily take it on a day out instead of a camera.

"Also, the back is hideous and looks like it would be seriously uncomfortable in your pocket."
it's just paint it's not a real "diamon" crystal shape

Thanks for all your replies!!!
Cheers All for your comments - as a matter of interest, does size matter? I know the qwerty keyboards are bigger and bulkier but are they worth it?????????? what extra do you get ?
Cheers Again
Daddy

as a matter of fact i've been using the fingertouch onscreen keyboard most of the time with my universal, however if you do a lot of typing it's very useful to be able to turn to a qwerty keyboard. from experience of owning a Universal, Athena and Tytn 2 i would say that the tytn 2's keypad easily beats the Athena's mushy and unlit metal jobby, though the Athena is the best for touchscreen typing owing to the screen size and shape of the device. if you only send quick texts, and quick email responses and you're not bothered about expanding the memory of your device beyond 4gb then i'd say the Touch Diamond is the perfect upgrade for you. let's face it, if you're happy with your mda compact 3 is it really worth taking the chance of a bigger or vastly different device when you've got a natural upgrade(the Diamond) already around the corner waiting for you? it might not be to everyone's taste but the Diamond DOES look like a slick and capable bit of kit which you could do no harm by trying out.

Cheers Leoni, just ordering my HTC Touch now. thanks for all your help!
Regards
Daddy

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.