I've been using windows mobile for two years now. I started with the I-Mate Jamin for a year (Which I hated because of its weight and size) and then upgraded to my current mobile – the O2 XDA Orbit, which I have been using for the past 12 months. I love this phone, the only minor annoyance again being the size – I like to have as little in pockets as possible but there's been no better alternative to this device and its been a million times better than the Jamin.
Anyway...it's upgrade time again, only this time I'm struggling to find anything that looks like it might be worth upgrading for (apart from the Orbit 2...)
does anyone here think its worth it? Has anyone moved from the Orbit to the Orbit 2 and would like to share their experiences? I'm starting to think I may better off saving my money and sticking with the original Orbit as I'm not sure what the advantages of upgrading will be, they look very similar and I'm not having any major issues with my current phone...apart from its starting to look a bit tatty!
Does the improvement in weight and size make much of a difference? and is it much more responsive? Also compared to the rest of the market at the moment, what are the better alternatives (if any) to the Orbit for weight and size?
At the moment I'm thinking of holding out in case something better comes along because I'm not totally convinced.
I'm suprised I haven't found much talk about the upgrade from the Orbit to the Orbit 2 around here already!...
I see the Orbit 2 has got double the RAM, ROM and CPU speed and according the specs is marginally bigger and weightier than the orginal
Thanks for your thoughts!
I upgraded from the orbit to the orbit 2 and I can tell you theres not much difference. If anything it is slightly worse!
The main camera is choppy whereas the orbit 2 had no problems there
Missing video drivers means slow video playback.. no problems on the orbit
Barely notice the speed difference (Well for me)
The jog wheel is known to come off, whereas the orbit one stays on
And it is not worth what O2 are charging you. The orbit 1 is much cheaper and has no problems with it and does what the box says. The orbit 2 is just a rushed model that has been poorly constructed and doesnt even include the proper drivers.
I recommend you stick to your Orbit 1, its much more reliable.
Just my opinion though, some people might not have all of the problems I have listed (except for the video drivers they are definately missing)
Thanks, I appreciate that.
Any software issues - such as drivers can obviously be resolved and normally are so that would never be a deal breaker for me. However, takeing on board the price for what might not be much of a difference in useability as you've pointed out will probably put me off upgrading.
Upgrade day is tomorrow and it looks like I wont be bothering at the mo!
Is it noiceably much different in size and weight?
Thanks again,
Size wise its the same...it might be slighty heavy...but can't really tell....
Aesthetically is looks better....I like the touch screen...really responsive...and nobody has really compained about the touch screen, it works really well....Its faster than the Orbit...camera is fine for outdoors..indoors gets tricky...touch keyboards work a treat (there is so many to choose from).
The downsides are:
Camera in low light
No video drivers at this moment (future is also a question mark)
Screen hard to see in direct light if backlight is set to low.
If you get a good deal Its definately worth upgrading
I got mine on a very good 12 month deal with O2.
The mirror finish to the front of the device is a real pain when in the car if its sunny, I want a screen protector capable of blocking this mirror area out. Speed wise it is adequate, although I am not impressed with the internet speed, compared to my Advantage it is too slow - Mike
Well guys, I've been on to O2 and got it for free for £30 p/m for 12 months. Can't argue with that, there's a 14 day cooling period so if I'm not happy I'll send it back.
I'll post my thoughts!
If the breadknife hadn't run off into the distance with my old artemis, my orbit 2 would probably have found its way on to Ebay by now.
Having said that, I would have had the buyer on my case about the jog wheel falling off and the headphones packing up.
On reflection it's probably not reliable enough to put on ebay!
I've had it a couple of hours or so now, put my SIM in, sync'd my data and put my old SD card in and set my apps etc up.
So far I'm impressed and think it’s worth the upgrade for anyone who's had the original orbit for a while and are ready for a replacement.
First impressions are that it’s noticeably a lot quicker and more responsive - this makes it feel much more comfortable to use. The rom it comes with is actually excellent and the touch flow, for scrolling through folders using the touch screen works really really well. It feels like a huge improvement.
I don’t know if this is a common thing but the vibrate feature seems to be a lot more discreet than it was on my previous Orbit which is nice.
The front side camera is pretty cool and the camera SW is good, the camera itself is a good improvement.
The big OK button is great. On the original orbit I always struggled to get in to the corner of the screen with my finger to push OK, that’s been resolved with this.
SD card access is obviously a huge improvement!
A bonus of the screen not being ridged is that it won’t accumulate lint and stuff as easily as the original did - the screen is a 100% improvement in my view.
Overall, I wasn't expecting this to be as much of an improvement over the original as it actually is, I'm a bit blown away by it.
If I had to pick one issue with it, it would be the size and weight. I'd still like something slimmer and lighter but then I wouldn't want to sacrifice any screen space and I know there's nothing like this device on the market at the moment that is thinner and lighter (I'm not including the I-Phone there!)
I'm a happy bunny, this wont be getting returned and I'm selling my old Orbit to a mate for £50 because I can't be assed with the whole EBay thing anymore!
Thanks for the review my orbit died yesterday, Was hanging out for a bit until something else came along but had to take the plunge.
Orbit 2 ordered today!
Media playback, etc.
Thanks for the comments above - I myself am thinking of upgrading to the Polaris from my Artemis.
One thing that particularly annoys me about my current phone is how slow it gets when I'm listening to music.
I use Audio Manager and a set of Bluetooth headphones with the music stored on my SD card. Whilst playing the music, the rest of the phone slows to a complete crawl.
I also quite often like to send my music via Bluetooth to my car stereo, but then I can't really use TomTom at the same time for the same reason...
So far, have you any indication that this would be improved on the Polaris?
Does the faster processor make this device much better? How about the extra memory, does this improve things too as it seems like the Artemis performs much much better when there's barely any software on it - as soon as you install 3 or 4 bits of software it seems to impact performance...
Thanks guys...
I'd say, along with the flush screen, the fact that you can run more programs at once without the phone grinding to a halt is a definite improvement. I remember my artemis used to struggle with running tomtom and the phone at the same time, but the orbit 2 will happily run tomtom, audiomanager, and a few other bits as well as running the phone.
In other ways, I find it less responsive than older slower phones, and it's certainly the most unreliable phone I have every owned, three hardware faults in six weeks.
Less responsive?
Thanks fishes234.
Sounds as though those things that annoy me on the Orbit 1 are OK on the new one but then you say some things are less responsive? Apart from the known problem with the video drivers, what specifically do you mean?
And the build quality really is that bad? That doesn't sound so good as I quite often have the device in my back pocket...
Cheers for your comments - much appreciated
I didn't have any HW related problems whith it since early february... Only one, I managed to is scratch the screen whith my fingernail...
Related
:!: Sorry for the shameless attempt to get you here with a dreamy subject but it's relevant to the topic - honestly. :!:
I'm after a PDAPhone with built in everything. But looks so far like I'm going to have to compromise and get an external GPS receiver, however was just hoping someone might have a little gem that I couldn't find anywhere else in the forums.
I have owned and loved the O2 XDA range ever since my first XDA years ago and have since lugged around an XDAII. I damaged my II recently and have a nice cheque for £550 burning a hole in my pocket courtesy of the insurance company. This means that for the first time ever I don't need to go to a subsidised model. My initial thought was that I'd stump up a few extra quid and get a JamJar :lol: from expansys but now I'm a bit more mature I decided to check out the options first.
So far I've found (Ignoring Naming Variations):
Prices quoted are from expansys - they could be cheaper elsewhere. Pls let me know if you find any (UK Only though)
:arrow: iPAQ hw6515 - Looks a bit crap, small screen and no wi-fi listed but DOES have GPS & 1.3Mp Cam - Anyone know of any Square Aware issues with programs?
:idea: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=120563
:idea: £439.95
:arrow: i-mate JAM - Small and sexy but no Wi-Fi and no GPS but would stop people asking if I've got a brick taped to my head. + 1.3Mp, COuld afford external GPS with this one.
:idea: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
:idea: £359.95
:arrow:Qtek 9090- Has everything But GPS but would leave enough money for a BT GPS - No camera spec but I think it's 0.3Mp like the XDAIIs - Could be upgraded to WM5, My Mate has one and the Thumb Keyboard is easy to use whilst walking - If I use my head not my geekometer this is my favourite.
:idea: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=QTEK_9090
:idea: £414.95
:arrow: i-mate JASJAR - Dogs balls but still no GPS and not much more than the 9090 + v Expensive & Getting Bigger - 1.3Mp Cam I think. (I have no 3G service anywhere near me so that's not a bonus) I really like the 3.5mm Jack - Overall a severe number of geek points! NO CRADLE Still needs GPS Seperate, not sure how useable while walking the keyboard will be. I really want one.
:idea: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=119353
:idea: £669.95
:arrow: i-mate K-JAM - WiFi, BT etc, Smaller and lighter than Universal, WM5, 1.3Mp. I like the keyboard. Maybe my new best choice. JUST leaves enough money to think about an external GPS. Thanks JamiJam
:idea: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=125518
:idea: £504.95
My criteria to consider are as follows, argue with them and persuade me otherwise with reasons if you so wish:
Phone + PDA Essential (Tri Band+)
Camera - Prefer 1+Mp
BT - Must Have
Wi-Fi - Optional but Preferred a lot
3G - Not required
Keyboard - Like to Have (It's awkward using handwriting when travelling)
GPS - Very Nice to Have I Drive a lot and would like to use TT in the future.
OS - Not Bothered, these can be changed
I have 1 Month to decide before I burst and spray money all over the place so I'd really appreciate any comments you might have.
Don't go off on any obscure tangents though please, post them in a new topic and link to it if you wish.
Wizard...
(aka K-Jam, aka Qtek 9100)
Not sure when it will be out but Orange are going to release the Wizard and call it the SPV M600. If you can wait then you'll have it subsidised. :wink:
hmmmmm
Ok, so far the Wizard is my favourite now. I'd completely forgotten about that. What's the keyboard like though? I'm not too fussed about the size (the one on the XDA III is smaller and still useable)? It's more the key action I'm bothered about.
Does it have those rubbish 'rubbery' 'spectrum' style keys? It looks like it does.
I'm still yearning for a Universal cos none of my mates will have one but my head is still saying I don't need it and one of the others will do everything I want.
AFAIK HTC has some kind of arrangement with compaq - HTC will not make a phone with GPS as it competes with a model HTC makes for compaq that does have GPS or something like that (the hw6515 maybe ?)
I have a Blue Angel (O2 XDA IIs) and it does all of this.
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=I-MATE_III
WM5 now available and working fine on it.
It has a keyboard too, it's those blister things (more like a ZX81 than a spectrum) but it is useable, although the keyboard layout is a bit ****e.
What with the newer models coming out you should be able to pick one up cheapish.
I run mine with a Globalsat Bt-338 Bluetooth GPS and Tomtom 5
oh, and FYI, this PDA holder from halfords holds the BA perfectly and can be mounted to your dash. It obscures no ports.
(The pic is upside down BTW)
http://www.halfords.com/opd_product_details.asp?id=16600&type=0&cat=397
The keyboard on the wizard is excellent, in my humble opinion!
It also snaps in and out in a way that makes you feel it won't break down easily.
Finally, it automatically turns the phone's display into landscape mode, which is very handy.
Wizard or BA
I have to say I'm still impressed with the Wizard. Just made a scale model out of card (how sad is that) and it's tiny!
I like the BA but if the keyboard doesn't let the Wizard down I think it'll be my PDA of choice. The one thing I really didn't like about the Jam was its lack of Wi-Fi and that's solved in the K-Jam.
I assume the screen's readable, I like to think that I'll have good eyesight for a couple of years yet so I don't think the size will be an issue.
iPaq HW6515
I have tried without success to get details of the built-in GPS. The one authoritative source to whom I spoke was scathing about its performance. So whatever you do choose, I do not recommend the iPaq.
On a separate note I saw my first Jasjar close up today. It is lighter than you might think, but heavier than is reasonable for prolonged use as a phone. A bluetooth earpiece was being used that included a display for caller ID. As a data device it is pretty impressive.
I too run a GlobalSat BT-338 GPS, in my case with Mapopolis.
if you are going GPS, make sure it is SIRFstar III chipset (the current latest-and-greatest), especially if you live in a city as they are really good at "urban canyon" reception.
I have seen new BT-338s on ebay for £65 "buy it now" recently
plus another thing to think about...
a seperate BT GPS unit has various advantages:
1) Battery
It won't drain your PPC battery when operating, except the charge needed to communicate via BT.
2) Upgrading
If a new improved GPS unit comes out and you have an onboard GPS unit, you are carrying useless baggage and can't sell the old one.
Also bear in mind there will likely be new features added to GPS units.
one example: digital compass. At the moment, if you stand still and rotate, a GPS unit has no clue which way you are facing until you move. A GPS does already transmit heading AFAIK - it works out which way you are facing by assiming you are looking in the direction of travel. Integration of a digital compass therefore would probably require no changes to the protocol. This does exist ( see http://www.xemics.com/internet/solutions/compass.jsp?productID=108 )
3) Switching.
BT GPS units work on laptopss too you know
4) Safety. I use my GPS for a sport called mountain boarding. Same kinda deal as downhill mountain biking, I trace a route I have done using GPS software. I ride with my XDA in a reinforced case with foam in, but find the GPS reception suffers, so I keep the BT GPS unit in my bag and the XDA in the case.
Seeing as the XDA is MUCH more valuable than the GPS this makes sense.
5) Reception versus viewing position.
Sometimes the position with best reception is not the same as the position you can see the screen of your PPC best.
????
Good point.
Ok, more questions on the K-Jam
Camera: Says 1.3/2 Is this 1.3 with software to 'frig' it to 2?
Keyboard: Is the expansys keyboard silver ( http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=125518 ) or black ( http://www.expansys.com/zoompic.asp?type=item&code=125518 )
Silver ones look plastic whereas black ones look rubbery. Which have you got JamiJam? Is it from Expansys?
Processor: 200Mhz? Is that right? Seems quite a drop. Do you have any problems with media playback? I remember my XDA I used to have a problem playing big avi files.
Ta Very Much
Camera is 1.3MP, and it is ****.
Yes, it's better than the Magician, but it's still pretty bad. I wouldn't buy the Wizard hoping to use the camera for anything useful. In my opinion this is the #1 point on which HTC is lacking. They've worked on everything else, now they need to start putting decent cameras in these devices.
I have the silver keyboard and I bought my Wizard in a store. I believe that if you order from expansys you'll get a silver one.
Processor is 200MHz (different CPU architecture) but it seems to be on par with the Magician in practice, maybe 10% slower. So yes, you should be able to watch full screen movies, once you find a bit-rate/resolution/format that works for you. Not sure which XDA you had, but I would expect similar ballpark performance.
Hope this helps.
Ta
The 'performance lacking' XDA was the original XDA I and I'll take your word for it that performance is ok. I don't use it for anything too hot and my XDA II never had a problem with films.
To be honest, every camera phone I've had from the XDA Range was ****ty quality (Very grainy) but I spend a fair bit of time on site collecting info on wagons and stuff for my job and it's always handy to be able to snap a quick video or pic of something. The only reason I want a higher res is so that when some tit with a Sony Ericson goes on about his 2Mp camera I don't loose too many 'top trumps' points. I never print the pics and my main contract doesn't support GPRS so I don't often send MMS. You'd be surprised how easily you can still get by with just plain old WAP.
Good news on the silver buttons. I prefer them. Has anyone bought one from Expansys who can verify?
Sweetness & Joy
Just thought I'd post my decision for those of you who like seing things through to a conclusion.
After much ponderation and constructing various cardboard models I have decided on the HTC Wizard, purchased from expansys (i-Mate K-Jam). There's a delay on delivery at the moment (3 Days!!!! I can't wait) but once it arrives I'll post back with my oppinions.
I've also heard that my mate is buying the JasJar so I'll be able to make a comparison and post it back.
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:!: Come on Friday! :!:
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D'oh! Just a note not say the expansys delivery has been put back but they've dropped the price too.
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:!: Come on Some-Day! :!:
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Just been looking at some larger photos of the buttons
http://forum.xda-developers.com/files/keyboard-flash.jpg
I take back my spectrum comments, they look pretty good.
Hurrah!
Ok! I've got my Wizard at last. I ended up buying the Qtek 9100 rather than the K-Jam. Looks like I'll miss out on Club i-Mate. :-(
Thought I'd post my views on the phone here just to give closure to anyone reading this thread.
The screen is very sharp. Everything obviously is smaller because the pixels are closer together but the overall effect is a very good screen. The guy in our office with really bad eyesight liked it and he's normally a miserable git when it comes to gadgets.
I take back my comments about the keyboard, it looks fantastic, the action is really great and you can use it to type replies to text messages on the move, which is something I've always struggled with before using the Transcriber. People are also really impressed when the screen rotates thru' to landscape.
I've used it for playing some music and although the speakers built in are tinny as you'd expect, the headphones are really good. I don't know if they'd be the same for the i-Mate but they fit comfortably in my ears and have a very good sound compared to the old XDA & XDA II headphones (Not that that would be hard)!
I miss having a cradle. It was nice to be able to display your phone on your desk while it was charging. Just using a USB cable makes it all feel a bit less sexy as an experience but then you can't have everything I suppose.
The coolest thing I found was the Stylus. It's about 50mm long when it first comes out of the phone. Then you give it a little pull and it extends to... hold on let me get a ruler... 85mm. It's not as comfy to use as the XDA/XDA II styli but since i haven't used it for writing much it doesn't matter. The keyboard is so easy to pull out and use that I've only really used the stylus to point at stuff so that my fingers don't get the screen dirty. The softkeys in WM 2005 also mean that you rarely need to touch the screen.
It's a bit chunkier than I expected but still not big. It's only marginally bigger than my girlfriends Nokia 6230 and compared to an older XDA model it feels like it's tiny!
Voice recognition button on the side works really well so far. I've got about 10 contacts programmed in and it seems to be picking them up ok, even in the car.
Overall, i'm yet to find much of a fault with it. I'll try to get some piccies of bits posted sometime next week.
Feel free to ask any questions.
JASJAR II
When the damn thing releases.....of course
I really wouldnt auction my spare kidney and buy it, and then suffer with a RAM deficit! My xda 2 currently running on wm5, has 128megs ram and 32megs rom....compared to 43megs ram & rom of jasjar........one word.......RIDICULOUS!
i cant believe seeing a 7MB RAM free on a device, and i dont ever want to see it! HTC/ IMATE/ Whoever claim they put in less RAM for extended battery life....bucket of crap! I really dont care for those couple extra hours that i'd probably get, and i dont mind carrying a spare battery or a charger wherever i go....
Its a handicap which is BIG! Besides this, the Jasjar is divinely irresistable, and i cant stop oggling at it :shock:
So, i guess i'll wait for a JJ II to come out with same form factor, and somemore ram which would make the device practical....
HTC do you hear me??????
San
weeel
:shock:
RAM isn't everything. I have been using the device for a day now (Non-stop), often running WMP10, Outlook, PIE etc also playing Tomb Raider. I haven't noticed any diference between this and my XDA II which had I think 64Mb and a 400 odd MHz processor. The odd app is a trifle slow to load up but nothing more major than that.
If the battery life sacrifice is true, then it's not for this little puppy. All this usage (with wi-fi on but not actually using a wi-fi network) and the battery didn't drop below 60% yesterday (Using lightly whilst at work and heavily in the evening. I even synced using bluetooth).
Memory has crept down to 1Mb program mem free at times but I assume windows is just doing its thing because this comes back up after a while and I don't notice any drop in performance.
Re: Hurrah!
eayuwna said:
I miss having a cradle. It was nice to be able to display your phone on your desk while it was charging. Just using a USB cable makes it all feel a bit less sexy as an experience but then you can't have everything I suppose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This site: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/5735.htm claims that this desktop charger/cradle is compatible with the K-Jam so if that's true then it should be OK for your QTek. 8)
Hi people...
i was wondering if any one in here own any of those phones and had any experience with them... I know they are not HTC but i would like to hear someone opinion about it, performance and know problems since they are a bit recent... Any help?.... Thanks...
bandit2xx said:
Hi people...
i was wondering if any one in here own any of those phones and had any experience with them... I know they are not HTC but i would like to hear someone opinion about it, performance and know problems since they are a bit recent... Any help?.... Thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the x800. It is a good phone as long as you make sure you keep it clean. It only has, like many other phones, 64mb of RAM. I love the screen and with the wm6.1 ROM that has been created it is a very smooth phone.
Some say that he camera is bad but I have had no problems with it. There is also complaints about the 3G not working to its full potential. I cannot confirm this as I do not use the internet on my phone.
It is a sleek and quick phone. It is very light and has a beautiful screen.
Unless Eten learns to build 128 MB in their high end phones I am not even going to consider those
do most of the commonly used apps work ok with the vga screen such as opera mini, tom tom etc is use theese mainly
I have been using this phone for 3 months now and what can I say, it's a superb phone.
Screen is real nice and sharp, though the white is a bit weak versus a x500, but just slightly.
It's fast enough too, not as fast as qVGA but the buildup is pretty fast and you hardly ever see noticable delays.
The 3G /Hdspa speeds have no problems in Europe, it's just the States because of theit cell towers, the hardware used there isn't 100% compactible, more phones suffor from that and yes I got a source but not at hand.
The camera is real bad, real hard to make decent pics with it but if you shoot at the highest resolution and crop them afterwards you still have a very decent pic, I use it for blogging and stuff.
The ram is another story, 64 mb is really the only major downside, you can set the pagepool to 4mb which solves all problems, but with the currenst firmware there's still some memory leaks, like windows live, navigation, oxios only recovers about half.
Probably it gets fixed in the next official rom as 6.1 has better control over the memory.
Another probably slight downside only few care about are cover/housing cracks, on the back near the middle there are a few, I solved it with a bit of paper between the batery cover and the battery.
About all programs do work well, ironically most of the htc apps don't run or don't run well.
Another thing not all today plugins seem to be vga compatible but the most popular ones are.
Future wise it's ok too, you got the vga screen, hdspa, about everything that can be put into a phone (I'm not taking a mobile tv receiver from the v900 into acount), even wlan which htc recently disabled in most of their pda's, the only thing you don't have is dedicated 3D hardware, but it's just a question of do you need that and when do we see usefull apps for it, personally I don't think for quite some time.
The last downside is probably the e-ten support, no they release patches equally fast, maybe faster than HTC, roms too, but ig you send the phone to them communication can be a bit of a problem, they got to work on that.
There are few custom roms but lately as e-ten grew more and more populair more people are working on it and even wm6.1 has been ported already.
Overall if you ask me this phone is better than htc currently has to offer, they have no candybar pda with a high resolution screen, just the athena and universal which aren't real competitors.
I would personally recommend e-ten to anyone that's fed up with htc, been using pda's for about 10 years now and the last year I've had a x500 and now an e-ten x800, and I don't regret switching over, no htc for me for the next year/twi years at least.
i agree
I perfectly agree with iruja, the eten pda are great. I have a X500+ with vga screen and i love it, and with the sirf star III receiver it's a perfect navigator (not assisted-gps like htc kaiser), it's more sensible and quickly to connet than my car navigator (more).
Mark
well im torn between an x800 and a touch cruise, is the 64mb ram really all that bad, my tytn has 64mb and runs fine
beermonster65 said:
well im torn between an x800 and a touch cruise, is the 64mb ram really all that bad, my tytn has 64mb and runs fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any problems with the 64 meg of RAM. I have tried 4 different versions of GPS software out there and all of them work fine. I just make sure I recover my memory every now and then.
I think the memory issue people have is kind of funny. If you use a M$ product then get used to it. Yes there seems to be memory leaks with the Eten ROMs so far but I am using the wm6.1 ROM that was cooked and it seem to be better.
I think the X800 is a great phone and PDA.
64mb is fine, because of the vga resolution it uses some more, but still it's sufficient.
It seems the leaks are mainly the core, and a few programs.
It has been worse, the first rom was a disaster, but the 402 version is pretty stable, and has a lot less memory leaks.
I wouldn't worry about them to much, but if you're a hardcore user you may encounter them sometime, but remember, the worst thing that could happen to you is just a softreset, that's all, which I haven't needed in 3 months due to memory problems.
I second that
iruja said:
I have been using this phone for 3 months now and what can I say, it's a superb phone.
Screen is real nice and sharp, though the white is a bit weak versus a x500, but just slightly.
It's fast enough too, not as fast as qVGA but the buildup is pretty fast and you hardly ever see noticable delays.
The 3G /Hdspa speeds have no problems in Europe, it's just the States because of theit cell towers, the hardware used there isn't 100% compactible, more phones suffor from that and yes I got a source but not at hand.
The camera is real bad, real hard to make decent pics with it but if you shoot at the highest resolution and crop them afterwards you still have a very decent pic, I use it for blogging and stuff.
The ram is another story, 64 mb is really the only major downside, you can set the pagepool to 4mb which solves all problems, but with the currenst firmware there's still some memory leaks, like windows live, navigation, oxios only recovers about half.
Probably it gets fixed in the next official rom as 6.1 has better control over the memory.
Another probably slight downside only few care about are cover/housing cracks, on the back near the middle there are a few, I solved it with a bit of paper between the batery cover and the battery.
About all programs do work well, ironically most of the htc apps don't run or don't run well.
Another thing not all today plugins seem to be vga compatible but the most popular ones are.
Future wise it's ok too, you got the vga screen, hdspa, about everything that can be put into a phone (I'm not taking a mobile tv receiver from the v900 into acount), even wlan which htc recently disabled in most of their pda's, the only thing you don't have is dedicated 3D hardware, but it's just a question of do you need that and when do we see usefull apps for it, personally I don't think for quite some time.
The last downside is probably the e-ten support, no they release patches equally fast, maybe faster than HTC, roms too, but ig you send the phone to them communication can be a bit of a problem, they got to work on that.
There are few custom roms but lately as e-ten grew more and more populair more people are working on it and even wm6.1 has been ported already.
Overall if you ask me this phone is better than htc currently has to offer, they have no candybar pda with a high resolution screen, just the athena and universal which aren't real competitors.
I would personally recommend e-ten to anyone that's fed up with htc, been using pda's for about 10 years now and the last year I've had a x500 and now an e-ten x800, and I don't regret switching over, no htc for me for the next year/twi years at least.
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Click to collapse
Hi Guys,
I've not been on here for a while. I'm a relatively happy Trinity user, I've flashed the ROM a couple of times to upgrade to WM6 & to turn on GPS initially but apparently I'm eligible for a free upgrade.
So WDYT is the Orbit 2 a good bet? I have this or the 'Stellar / TYTN II' as my options I think.
I'm quite happy not having a keyboard but does anyone know is it the kind of thing you appreciate when you have it?
I've also read about issues with the volume button but not necessarily with the Orbit 2 (reworked O2 version for the UK).
Is there anything I should be wary of. It seems like a decent bit of kit but I have not seen one in the flesh yet.
Thanks for any help.
A
i would prob read this thread which is pretty much about what you are tinking about....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=374046
thanks, yes I've seen that one.
I think the key difference is both are free to me and it would be the reworked orbit2 rather than polaris.
Does anyone know if the orbit2 fixes the vol slider issue with the Polaris?
Thanks,
A
Hi Mushroom,
The Vol slider is not really an issue on the Orbit. Ok it make rattle a lil if you shake it voilent and can be a lil hard to slide as its really smoothe with little raised part in the middle for gripping. To me this isnt an issue as i harldy use it.
Nogs
I would recommend orbit 2. I upgraded from orbit 1.
The Orbit 2 is much, much better. Fast, great touch screen, lots of memory.
O2 rom is good, I like the input screens, e.g expanded keypad. I doubt I would ever use a hard keyboard.
Volume button is no problem on my phone.
Great GPS functionality, I can pick up a signal sitting inside at a desk by a window.
I've upgraded the sd card to 8gb and bought a stereo bluetooth head set.
A2DP STEREO BLUETOOTH HEADSET.
Excellent phone
Orbit II
I owned a Stella for 2 months, the build quality is awful and the size of the phone makes it feel clumsy. The keyboard is actually to small to be of any real use and the symbols almost impossible to get to easily. When the directional pad came loose I had a massive argument with o2 who finally relented and let me exchange it for an Orbit II which apart from a couple of loses of the storage card memory is the best XDA to date and I've owned the entire series!
Get the Orbit II
cheers for the info guys.
I am now a happy Orbit 2 owner. Lovely piece of kit and with O2 it came with an in card holder, SPB GPRS monitor, Copilot the lot. I've since installed all the bits from my previous machine and made it mice and it runs very nicely.
There is still room for improvement, the camera lag is very poor, FM reception not good but there are still great improvements over the Trinity so I am a happy bunny. Web browser seems slow too but I might have had other things open at the same time.
I will just keep watching to see if there are any issues reading memory cards over the next few weeks like there were on Trinity before I go out and buy a new one.
I agree with the comments about the stellar, after seeing one they just don't appear in the same league unless you are a serious keyboard addict but with the input options on the Orbit 2 you wouldn't need the keyboard.
Thanks for the help.
I had the HTC Hermes and moves to the UK Orbit 2 - Best decision.
There are just two problems in my opinion with the Orbit 2; Camera is slow (you need to hold a shot for at least 3 secs AFTER you press the capture button so that it captures the picture). Secondly Video playback is slow though I hear HTC are working on a fix for both.
The pro is that this is one sexy-ass piece of equipment. Looks expensive and people are in awe at its capabilities.
Agree that the volume slider rattle is a non-issue on the orbit 2.
Camera is quite good (for 7 by 5 prints), but not if viewing at full resolution but then I didn't expect anything approaching my SLR's
The thing that really annoys me about the camera is that the button is so hard to press.
Half press (for focus lock) is OK, but you have to apply so much pressure to get the full travel on the button that you often end up with camera shake.
You can modify the settings so that it takes a picture on half press - but then the photo lag ensures you hardly ever get a picture of what you were aiming at!
Orbit 2 Owner
I got the Orbit 2 from Ebay because I HAD to have one and i havent regretted it since. I did have a Tytin II but I just didnt need the keyboard. The orbit is sleek, stylish, light, not bulky. I deleted CoPilot and installed Tom Tom and it works great, fast. The first time I loaded Tom Tom I was inside a building and all of a sudden I had 4 satellites!! Only complaint is the video playback. The volume slider is not an issue and havent noticed anything with it. I do love the touchscreen also. I am waiting on a program that will allow you to change the touch flow cubes to whatever you like instead of getting into the registry. I paid the price getting this unit but am not disappointed at all.
How did you get Tom Tom to work, cus i thought it wasn't compatible with internal GPS ? also what issues are you having with the video playback, is it when watchung videos ? I had a dellaxim x51v before and was hoping this would be a repalcement for it
I currently have a Blue Angel and I'm considering upgrading to an Orbit 2.
How would the performance compare between the 2? They're both 400MHz, but I just wondered how the Qualcomm is compared to the XScale?
Apart from the video driver issue, are there any other problems with it? I'd mainly be usig it for a phone, and running Tomtom.
Thanks!
Seriously... Don't bother!
LOL...it's that bad?
Can you explain why?
You will miss your qwerty. I don't know your Blue Angel, But my TC (i think all PocketPCs) has a delay when somebody calls you. Your phone will ring/vibrate after the one who calls you hears the first ring. So if somebody just gives you a call with one ring (bip) you won't hear it! Is it the same in your case, or mine is special? Maybe somebody else with TC can confirm/infirm this...
Yea, mine sort of have that sort of dealy.
I don't use my QWERTY keyboard anyway so that's not a problem.
the_scotsman said:
LOL...it's that bad?
Can you explain why?
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Click to collapse
Just everything about it...
The build quality is terrible. Feels like a new hobbyist threw it together in 5 mins.
It seriously underperforms compared to my Old SE P990i and older XDA's
The modifications o2 have made to the software are rubbish.
I'm miffed I didn't hold out for the SE X1i
^ In your opinion, yes its not perfect, the screen is less than ideal but the build quality is great I think. Much better than my old SE P series phone which used to creak whenever squeezed etc and the flush screen is better than orbit 1
But I would hold out for the Diamond
I want the built in GPS, and the Diamond prices ae too much for what it is...
Any other decent HTCs with built in GPS?
the_scotsman said:
I currently have a Blue Angel and I'm considering upgrading to an Orbit 2.
How would the performance compare between the 2? They're both 400MHz, but I just wondered how the Qualcomm is compared to the XScale?
Apart from the video driver issue, are there any other problems with it? I'd mainly be usig it for a phone, and running Tomtom.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just switched from a Hermes/Tytn to the Orbit2. HardSPL'd it and installed the WM6.1 that's been floating about here and installed TomTom.
Losing the keyboard is a bit annoying (on screen is usable, but nowhere near as good) - but I realized I very rarely typed anything and smaller sized massively outweighs it.
GPS works very well - especially as Quick GPS which really does work.
Downsides:
Lost keyboard.
Upsides:
GPS - now just not having to lug around and charge my BT GPS module, but now much faster and lets me do all manner of stuff (geo-tag photos with a reg tweak), GPS trackers allowing me to see where I've been in google maps blah blah.
Much better camera - not so much the 2M -> 3M change - but AUTOFOCUS.
SMALLER - now it's not a small phone, but it's not an f'in brick like the last one.
No real difference noticed between the processors. Latest 6.1 I put on my Hermes made it lovely and snappy - and performs exactly the same on the Polaris. Only reservation I've got with the polaris is the screen res (i.e. same old rubbish). Not entirely convinced Hi-res WM is much better though after playign with colleagues PDAs - I've got an ipod touch and THAT is what i'd want somehow wedged into my phone..
In summary, if you want a phone now, I'd definitely get the XDA. If you can wait maybe see how Diamond and 3G iPhone stack up.
#edit - and build quality on my XDA (at least) is perfect. Nice solid feeling thing, love the slightly rubberized case.
Thanks very much for your opinion...I think I might just go with the Orbit 2 after all...a VGA screen would be nice, but I'm happy enough to have the standard one...and it's a little smaller than my BLue Angel so that's always a benefit.
Seriously this is an outstanding device. Software is software and any issues can 99% of the time be sorted with it and normally are, especially when you browse around these forums. Also bare in mind that all these devices now use windows mobile so I don't understand why someone would fault the Orbit 2 over another windows mobile device because of the software it comes with.....anyway the hardware itself is exceptional, I've posted a mini review if you look through my post history and there's plenty of in-depth reviews out there.
Losing the keyboard is a good thing in my opinion. A keyboard isn't necessary, its just as easy (if not easier) to use the software input (my personal preference is a T9 style pad that learns words and is very quick to use with just one hand like a normal phone) and obviously you save on weight and bulk.
The Orbit 2 looks great, is extremely responsive and comfortable to use and in my opinion is the best windows mobile device availible at this time.
Quick edit! - regarding the SW, the rom that the O2 Orbit 2 comes with is actually fine anyway, i've never encountered any issues with it - it would be nice to have the threaded SMS that 6.1 has but aside from that its fine and works great. Cheers!
SOunds like you're pretty damn happy with it then
So the 200MHz processor isn't an issue? Still responds well? Thing like TOmtom run well?
The Orbit 2 has a 400MHz CPU, it was the original Orbit that had 200 -it also has twice the amount of memory. TomTom was perfectly useable on the original Orbit but it noticeably runs smoother on the Orbit 2 - The Orbit 2 is a lot better at managing multiple tasks at the same time.
I was in two minds before upgrading becasue I had the original Orbit and wasn't sure if I'd get my money's worth. I was going to send it back if I wasn't happy with it. I'm more than happy with it though as you can tell! its a great device. You've always got that 14 day cooling period with O2 anyway so you may as well give it a go for yourself.
doh...you're right...I was thinking of the original Orbit.
No 14 day cooling off for me..I'm in Australia so the only way to get at a decent price is eBay.
I think I've been convinced to get the Orbit 2...just a pity it doesn't have VGA...and the diamond will probably be a fair amount more than the Orbit 2
Actually a the Diamond will be cheaper then the Polaris/Orbit2... But my oppinion is that the VGA is too much on a 2.8" screen...
The Orbit 2 is a damn good toy... after tuning the cache and graphic settings..speed was even better than before..
also gps works great...a lot of stuff in a small little case...
I am also happy with my orbit 2, copilot in mo is better then tomtom i have both installed.
I like golive's interface and extra settings plus the website for tracking is a good feature.
The Software available is none stop from here and other sources, unlike the iphone i had that you could only load decentish software if you hacked it..
a couple of minor gripes, the screen is a little shiny for sunny day use and the camera could be alot better.
apart from that i am very happy with it, let hops the diamond touch flo 3d becomes available then that will make this device look great.
the hsdpa speed is great when in the right areas, 50k download speed from my laptop...
the gps seems acurate enough, fast on a warm start as well.
its performance could be a little better but overall its very good.
I would install opera mini as i have found this much better then ie and opera mobile for day to day use.
as for the missing keyboard, try touchpal or the diamond keyboards, also make sure you adjust the sensivity of the screen do a search on here, i think the keyboard is great been software as you can load loads of different types and type quicker with the stylus on some over a flip out keyboard.
the flip out keyboard types can be a little thicker as well you cannot replace or remap keys like a software keyboard so there are plus's and minus's to both concepts...
if you type alot then get a bluetooth keyboard, or a laptop.....
i don't think you will b unhappy with your purchase...
Actually imho any HTC device when just introduced will very rarely be upto my expectation and initially i am always dissapointed,for the first few days,its just a matter of customizing(a heart felt thanks to this forum for teaching us how too) to our personal choice and then i just can't seem to live without them.When i took the Cruise i returned it the next day,very dissapointed with the handset,nothing it could do(and in the factory state it could'nt domuch)was enough,I thought that my Kaiser was far better,then after going through the Cruise forum went and picked it up again,customized it and now wonder how did I ever think negatively abbout this handset,I just love it the feel of it in my hand and also the perfomance,ended up keeping both the Kaiser and Cruise without regrets.
Hey guys,
Although I am not among you, I think it would be extremely helpful/eye-opening to conduct a poll of all current HTC Touch Pro owners who have had their device for enough time to make an initial assessment of the device's quality. That means probably at least a week--but use your own discretion. Just a few suggested guidelines:
Don't let the initial euphoria blur your judgment
Think for a few moments before submitting a vote
Compare, if possible, the quality of the device to, say, that of an iPhone, if you've ever owned one or used it extensively, to provide a point of reference.
I look forward to hearing everyone's input!
-Steve
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
It's the best i've used, and the best there is on the market at this moment. I've shut off TF3D though and replaced it with Mobile Shell. Now using it with great pleasure.
With the exception of the "sleeve" and somewhat slow GPS, I am very pleased with my TP.
Great device, and i bet there is more to come with some updates in the near future. That's the reason I voted Above Avarage.
As far as functionality goes, it has all I want: telephone, mail, internet and navigation. Next to that there is a lot of software out there.
A few quircks here and there ofcourse. Like almost instant fixes with Google Maps...and 15 to 20 minutes GPS fixing time with Tom Tom 7.
Battery life could be better as well
I would have liked to add some today plugins into TF3D, or be able to add new tabs
fhsieh said:
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
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Click to collapse
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
othersteve said:
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, maybe not with the poll, but at least for any comments. I mean everyone has different needs and expectations for the device so it'll be hard to judge the poll accurately without seeing some objective testimony.
But what am I babbling about, here's some of my thoughts:
- Not the most solid handheled device I've had (my old iPaq hx4700 was a tank), but it comes very close and is definitely not a cheap build. Better than the Blackjack and some Blackberries, but I haven't spent very much time with those and I certainly don't know how well the TPro's build will last over time.
- WM6.1 isn't perfect, but then XDA is very active. Plus there are apps for just about anything you need. I spent some time with a Nokia N800, and while it's nice that Maemo is (almost) completely open-source -- which makes for an equally active community -- you're plain out of luck if no one is developing something you need. Namely, the software probably exists on standard Linux distros, but very little of it has been ported to Maemo. This is the same reason I decided not to jump on the Android bandwagon right away.
- Finally, I now have one device that does everything I needed my old devices to do. US phone (Nokia 6300), Japan phone (SE W43S), electronic dictionary (hx4700), internet device (hx4700/N800), mp3 player.
- Same observations as others: GPS is laggy, though not really an issue since I only use it as a pedestrian; battery life isn't impressive. I will probably buy a USB battery pack later.
So far v.happy, just need to solve the backlight issue when in call, and the Sim contacts list.
I've had my TP for almost 3 weeks now - it was one of the first on the market. I have used HTC qwerty based devices for several years now and this is by far the best device. I dearly loved my Tytn II but the hardware in this device is much better.
I own a 3G iPhone also and while this device is definitely a joy to use it is far from ever replacing my TP as my preference business device.
I decided to continue to run the 3D flow against other utilities but it's far from perfect - however developed with the correct user feedback it will be a great tool.
While 6.1 runs quite smoothly on the device the interface obviously lets the device down. I also have had a few lockups but no more than other devices.
The battery is pretty shocking to be honest. I use a scheduler to shut down BT and even the radio stack at night to preserve battery but to be honest if I were going away for anymore that 24 hours I would have to take a charger.
GPS has has been quick to locate a signal but I've encountered issues with TT6 \ and or Googlemaps. I currently run IGO8 and it runs very well.
Finally this device has a half-decent web browser on it - Opera mobile is great. IE mobile is a shambles.
Micro SD is essential - currently running an 8GB card with all my music, apps and vids. No idea why they left it off the Diamond - crazy in my opinion.
If anyone has any quick questions I'd be happy to answer them.
I was hoping by going with a non-American device (which has three times the processor of its American counterparts), I would have a more stable device. Overall, best phone I've ever had. A little disappointed that I need to soft reset every couple of days.
Don't regret it...leaps and bounds over my previous device.
Wow guys, thanks a ton for the feedback so far. This is extremely informative stuff to all of us prospective buyers. Personally, I'll be getting the phone through our Sprint corporate account, but as with everything that's a significant investment I have been trying to read up as much as possible on it beforehand to accurately set my expectations and prepare myself for problems that will need to be solved.
I use SPB Mobile Shell on my Mogul right now, and while I like it, I love the flair of TouchFlo3D... I just hope it is equally useful and quick (so far to that end it seems to be not quite as useful). I think I will try replacing the default contact manager on my Pro with Finger-Friendly Friends provided that will work all right. I also hope that the US release a month or so from now will see additional improvements in terms of software stability and speed (though probably not battery life).
Apart from that, I'm quite excited about everything I have read about the device. And I've always been a sucker for statistics, so having a poll on such an educated and active forum is of remarkable interest.
-Steve
The best device that I ever owned.
Like others I´m having some troubles with the GPS (reception time) and other issues like the screen going of of on a call.
So far I kinda like it.
Nevertheless I'll vote in the pole and give a complete feedback as soon as HTC repairs it (I have a sound problem...)
Hows the sound quality of the internal speaker?
Greetings
LordK
The only problem of the internal speaker is that the volume is a little bit low (compared to my colleagues' blackberrys)
Rated it Above Average!
I am using the TP for 2 weeks now. I've experienced the 'broken glass' screen and the grey-screen once.
The device is pretty quick and TF3D works nice although there are some moment when it does something completely different than what i wanted it to do.
Issues i like to see solved:
- Album cover view in TF3D music tab
- Fix for lag with TomTom
- Battery usage
Things I love:
- Memory
- Speed
- Screen
- Keyboard
I've had mine 3 weeks so far, upgrading from my beloved HTC Universal. It's a great machine but I'm not blind to it's faults, I Like Touch Flo a lot but it's just a thin layer over old ugly windows mobile.
As powerful as it is it just isn't as responsive as an iPhone, way too sluggish, expect the usual windows mobile pauses and spinning wait cursor.
The screen is too small, I liked my big screened Universal but the screen is such high quality it goes some way to making up for being small (it really is crisp).
The keyboard is ok but it's a thumbboard, I won't be knocking out the emails I used to on it. The slide action is distinctly wobbly to me, not bad, but not the decisive slide movement I expected. The onscreen keyboard is surprisingly usable much more so than the bigger IPhone one.
Memory is fantastic, loads of it, I never bother shutting things down which I was always doing on the universal.
Lockups, yup a disappointing number but a definate improvement on the universal.
GPS, not really a problem, it seems fast, but as far as I can see tomtom5 doesn't initialise the built in gps reciever so I start googlemaps, get a fast lock then switch to tomtom I notice tomtom6 has an option for built in GPS.
Lack of headphone socket is a crazy omission, it's driving me crazy and was almost a factor in not buying it, it's only 10 quid for an adaptor but just something else to carry.
The opera browser is pretty good and responsive but the icons it uses are way too chunky considering the screen is so small, talking of chunky, the menus are all pretty huge, I found how to make the start menu smaller but most menus now eg messaging, need arrows at the top and bottom to scroll the duplo vision menus into place. Also needed a hack to get googlemail working and is so small that almost every site needs a zoom to read it whereas I found I could read a lot of sites on the iPhone without zooming.
I also hate the mini sd card being hidden inside the case, it makes changing cards a pain, I'd also rather have an sd card, for the sake of a little bit bigger unit.
I never considered the IPhone because it has no physical keyboard and it was unable to run GotoMyPC but the difference between the IPhone and the Touch Pro is responsiveness, given it's a more powerful machine it's a damning indictment of windows mobile that it's so sluggish.
I just hope that there's an Android rom released for the Raphael. I'll be getting the ATT Touch Pro (or is it still considered the 'Fuze'?) when it's available as I've been drooling over the TP for a long time now. I'll deal with WM6.1 as long as I have to, but I really like Android, and would switch to it in a heartbeat.
veljko.m said:
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
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Click to collapse
Vote 1 from me
Touch flow is nothing to write home about either.
using people favorites and Active Sync hates the photos you asign to them so that becomes a waste of time.