Good ol' days designs - General Topics

What ever happened to the age of 3.5" LCDs and decent, sensible designs?
I wish manufacturers would give us an OPTION for a "good ol' days" design with a 3.5" LCD, extra capacity battery option, memory card hot swap etc paired with current technology ie 600+ MHz processor, 256 M ram, etc
I'm sure many wouldn't mine a slightly thicker (around 17-19mm?), wider pocket PC-phone design if there's a 3.5" VGA display there.
Mind boggling questions:
1. Why is there no PDA phone which features a 600+ MHz processor (ie the latest HTC Diamond still uses 500+ MHz) when their non-phone counterparts do (ie HP 200 series)? I understand that overclock exists but why not put a fast processor straight from the factory...Cost reasons?
2. What happened to 3.5" displays on PDA phones? Again, the non-phones seem to have 3.5 inch or bigger. Battery life reasons? Or is it because of the 'small and thin' is 'in' market trend? I don't think a buyer of a business PDA phone with a qwerty keyboard and all would care much, if at all, about how stylish or aneroxic their device looks.
3. High capacity batteries...what happened to them? It should be available as an optional accessory!!
4. Hot-swappable memory card slots. I'm very disappointed that everytime I find 'that perfect PDA-phone', I find out in the end that it doesn't have hotswap (HP iPaq 600) or it doesn't have an memory card slot (HTC Diamond). Why? In fact, with the tiny size of MicroSD's nowadays, these things should have DUAL MicroSD slots...
5. Headphone jack. Back a few years, we had nice 3.5mm headphone jacks so we could plug in headsets directly. Then manufacturers moved to 2.5mm which made life a little harder having to get an adapter. And now they want to drive people crazy putting a single do-everything mini USB port (means we can't charge the battery while headphones are plugged in)? Take note NOKIA is doing the exact opposite - adding 2.5 or 3.5mm jacks as they release phones
6. Design compromises... please, no more exposed SIM card when sliding out the QWERTY keyboard... and please include a flash + self portrait mirror (ie HTC Diamond)!!
Conclusion, there seems to be no perfect PDA-phone. It's not impossible to make one, or close to perfect, but for some odd reason, manufacturers are not doing it. HTC makes lots of innovative phones but each one seems to have a compromise of sorts. HP makes very nice PDA phones but only launches new ones ONCE a year! Dell is dead.
And I refuse to support Sony Ericsson and Apple because both make VERY overpriced items

Related

HTC Wizard

In case you missed PocketPCThoughts!
Pocket PC Italia has just revealed a bit of information on the HTC Wizard. Although it is subject to change, here's the buzz: Windows Mobile 5.0, GSM/GPRS (with EDGE) - Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900MHz, a Texas Instruments OMAP 850 processor (interesting choice?), 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, a 2.8" QVGA display, Bluetooth, 802.11b Wi-Fi (rejecting earlier reports of this device having 802.11g), IR, a 2.1MP integrated camera with Flash LED, dual speakers, a QWERTY keyboard, mini-USB, and a miniSD slot. Here's a Google translation if you need it.
Yeah, it looks kinda fake, and I personally think it looks so IPAQ, but I don't care as long as it is an HTC device...
What do you guys think about it in case it's in fact true?
Yeah, it looks a bit fake, but the concept with the landscape keyboard is cool! I always miss my Keyboard while surfing in landscape mode. Landscape Keyboards have the advantage of leaving more space for the keys. I'd like to see it in this way.
But i've read of two devices: Wizard (without keyboard) and Galaxy (with keyboard).
no 3g or video conference though :/
nice that it have a blizt but it's bound to be a stealer of minuts
Nice specs, BUT:
-Mini-SD? What? Why? This doesn't make any sense. Why not SDIO?
- TI OMAP 850? That thing runs on 200 MHz. So then we have a device with integrated Wifi, but no way Skype can run on 200 MHz.
Seems HTC made a little error in the specs, hope they correct this and turn out a killer device.
BTW: of course no 3G, or the Universal would be in trouble in terms of sales. If this Wizard/Galaxy had 3G as well, what would there be for the Universal to compete on? Bigger, more expensive, but with the same specs and a less MP camera?
faster cpu and sdio and more ram and bigger screen
this device was ment to be a replacement for magic to limit the stuff to make it small
and it's not like other phone companies ever narrowed their range so they only had one 3g device
there are other things to change between devices then the network they are using like the specs you dont care for....
Are you guys sure there's no 3G? Note the camera lens upfront the device.. Only 3G phones have that..
the specs say EDGE
which is pretty much 2.5G
have yet to see any phones supporting both EDGE and 3g
and if it did i guess they would state it as specs
its looks ok, but it better have a fast processor, and a sdio slot? else it may be useless to me.
I found this one as the htc wizard :
The rumor that broke about this last week wasn’t particularly reliable, so we exercised an unusual amount of restraint (for us at least, since we are total gossip hounds) and didn’t publish anything, but a pic and some plausible details have surfaced on Howard Forums about the HTC Wizard. This one is supposed to be HTC’s new smallish Pocket PC Phone that’s about the same size as the HTC Magician/i-mate JAM/XDA II mini and have quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11g, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, and a QVGA quality, 320 x 240 pixel LCD screen. Will supposedly be out in Q3 of this year, possibly OEM’d by HP.
thereaperman said:
its looks ok, but it better have a fast processor, and a sdio slot? else it may be useless to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out Nokia 6630 and 6680 They are 3G as well as EDGE supported....
It looks yucky....I'm not gonna be swayed from my Universal!!!!

which PDA you suggest? [phone edition]

my minimum requirement:
-attractive in look
-vga [so that i can read pdf files in good quality]
-wifi & bluetooth
-good multimedia [atleast better then nokia n 70 ]
-atleast 2MP camara and unlimited video recording capacity
-no ram problems or memory full problems like sucking nokia s60 phones
-basic applications should be available [compatible] for that pda
- Pocket Office(Word, Excel, Outlook, PDF viewer)
- Java MIDP 2.0
-good speed [atleast better then nokia s60]
-price around 14-18000INR [350-450USD]
-4gb memory card should be available
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually i wanna buy iphone but it's not launched in india yet and not sure when it will be launched..so cant wait more then 1-2months for it now
what do you say about htcs710? any other phone better then this in my price according to my requirement?
Thanks to all to take your time to guide me..
HTC does not have many VGA offerings. but its not the end of the world with qvga.
I started a thread recently for my self that could answer some of your questions.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1970736
maybe flame
maybe sonyE's upcomming x1
I've been looking hard to find a device to upgrade my Trinity to a VGA device and the sad thing is there really isn't anything decent out there right now and hardly anything worthwile coming out, at least from what's been announced.
HTC, forget it they don't have anything in a small form factor that's VGA. Too bad, the Touch Cruise would have been absolutely perfect if it had a VGA. The only thing that could have made that better was if it had a Capacitive VGA touch screen.
E-Ten has some VGA devices but they only have 64 Megs of ram and it's poorly used, you end up with an average of about 12 Megs running which can make it painful to use. Not to mention its quirks like not being able to power off the device like HTC devices by holding the Power Button down, lots of little things like that.
Imate Ultimate Series, all except the 8502 are VGA but most are lacking in GPS if that's a feature you are looking for and they are bigger than most devices if size matters. Not to mention Imate seems to be in trouble, their current rom is very buggy, support seems limited and the battery life is terrible.
O2 Flame as mentioned by Rudegar is a posibility but I believe it's TriBand, that's a problem for me as I'm in North America but if you don't need the extra band, it's worth considering.
The Xperia also mentioned by Rudegar pretty much has everything and goes behind VGA with an 800x400 resolution but it's not available yet. Personally I'm not a big fan of slide out querty keyboards, I find them to big and combersome to use with two thumbs but given the deminsions are about the same as the O2 Flame, I'd choose this over the Flame if I couldn't find anything smaller.
The Gigabyte GSmart MS808 has potential, don't know the diminsions but the current specs seems to indicate it has everything you are looking for. Haven't had any experience with Gigabyte but people seem to like them so it's worth taking a look at. Again, it's not available until later this year though.
Bottom line, nothing out there that's really worth it right now in the VGA market. If you can wait I'd hold off until later this year, I think we'll be seeing a lot of new devices coming out with VGA, even HTC should be moving towards VGA as their leaked new Touch Flow (Manilla) seems to indicate.
Personally I've been seriously considering jumping Windows Mobile and moving over to an Iphone for a while. Now that they are building in ActiveSync support with push email into the next firmware. I'd have to get used to a lot of limitations, no camera, gps, basic functionality ect. that I don't have know but the capactive touch screen!!! I really wish there was a Windows Mobile device out there that used this technology. Once you use it, it makes it really hard to go back to a resitive touch device almost unbearable!
I'd really wish there was a VGA Windows Mobile device that had it all for me the absolute minimum of any device should be
Small Slim Form Factor
Good Battery Life
TriBand HSDPA/HSUPA
Quadband GSM
400 Mhz Proc.
VGA Display
256 Megs Rom
128 Megs Ram
GPS
3Mp Camera/VGA Camera (Video Calls)
Bluetooth
Make that screen Capacitive and it would be the best device out there!
" Personally I'm not a big fan of slide out querty keyboards, I find them to big and combersome to use with two thumbs but given the deminsions are about the same as the "
nor am i a fan of keyboards but other then that which one could just not use the x1 looks pretty sweet so far
a non VGA device thats interesting is the new
MWg Atom V.
http://www.expansys.ca/d.aspx?i=164854
its an all-in-one with an attractive design.
draw backs are:
qvga
64 ram
minimalistic 6 buttons- 2 for calling
and maybe price.
--
Aside recent rumors that SE Xperia will be on At&T so that will give us in NA the option of plenty unlocked X1's in early 2009.
ASUS is also bringing exciting new devices that that are the size of an IPhone with a 2.8" screen

Asus Glaxy7 - 800x480 Omnia competitor?

Hey guys
anyone know anything or heard about this device which is alledgedly due for release in October? Anyone used Asus devices? Are they good quality? Seems to be exactly what I'm after (Omnia with a proper screen)
http://wmpoweruser.com/?tag=asus-glaxy7
GSM Connectivity : GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA/HAUPA
GSM Frequency : 850/900/1800/1900
WCDMA Frequency: 900/1900/2100 (Sorry US readers )
Screen: 3.5 “WVGA 800X480 / 65K Color TFT
System: Microsoft WM 6.1 Professional
UI: Glide 1.5
Camera: 5MP (2592×1944px) from autofocus
Video: MPEG4, H.264 encoding & decoding - resolution unknown
Communications: Bluetooth 2.0, Wifi, USB
aGPS
Audio: AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, EVRC, QCELP, AAC + + EAAC, MP3, MIDI, PCM, WAV
Working time:
Standby : 200 hours
Talk time: 4 hours
Memory: 4GB flash
Expansion: microSD
Dimensions: 115×59x13.8mm
Tracking ball
Accelerometer
Construction: stainless steel
Interesting eh?
Asus devices are of good quality, little worse then Samsung maybe though (I have both i900 and ASUS p525 now to compare).
As time goes on, better and better devices are announced. This one will be officially announced in October, so expect to be able to buy it around Christmas. At this time no doubt that some other better device will be announced from some other manufacturer, and so on
hehe yeah, as is all things with technology in them
This does finaly look like the device for me though
After some googling it looks like it will be released in October and not just announced .... i hope!
****, now I don`t know which one to get, this, touch hd or xperia.
if this has better video recording and playback I just might get this instead of Touch HD & Xperia.
Great phones coming for Santa`s bag
indeed, we seem to be overflowing with choice however, for me its simple.
Xperia, Touch HD == HTC manufactured so NO.
Omnia = odd and small screen res and apparently very buggy
So that leave me with the Asus.
That makes sense and I can see why
Tho I am leaning towards this piece of power, I`ll wait for the reviews
Monty Burns said:
indeed, we seem to be overflowing with choice however, for me its simple.
Xperia, Touch HD == HTC manufactured so NO.
Omnia = odd and small screen res and apparently very buggy
So that leave me with the Asus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen issues with HTC not providing proper drivers for their devices... What else do you have against HTC ? Do you think other manufacturers are really different ? I'm about to change my phone, so i'd like to have your advice about this...
Thanks
Hey
HTC hardware build quality is awefull in my experience. I have not had one HTC device that I have not had to return at least once. I treat my devices like the expensive equipment they are and do not keep them in pockets with objects such as keys or money etc.
Its a real shame as HTC design and specification is awesome, just they seem to use awefull and cheap components to build them.
I have a Toshiba G900 which is an awesome device but sadly lacks RAM and GPS. For these reason i did something I said I would never do and changed back to a HTC device - Touch Diamond (which is a downgrade on the awesome screen of the tosh) and without fail, the Diamond is letting me down. The coating on the top of the tempered glass is so easily scratched, its getting scratched by just putting in on a desk. The buttons have scratches, the back panel paint is wearing off and the bezel around the screen has what looks like a silver/metal patch showing through. All this I could expect from a device thats a year old - like my G900 - but not a one month old phone. Oh and the other BIG issue is that I cannot play music without a skip, pause or song chop! (this is all Touch Diamonds) This is not just my issue, everyone gets it, and if anyone says they don't, lots of us would like to know what your doing and how your doing it!!!!
I can only say that my Toshiba was excellent build quality but I cannot vouch for any other manufacturer, only to say that they can't be any worse than HTC!
p.s. remember, the X1 is being MADE by HTC and branded/customised by Sony, chances are, it will be rubbish build quality as well.
edit: the Driver issue is not just a HTC issue. For some reason lots of manu's put the Nvidia chipset into the devices and never actually "drive" it - including Toshiba. Just bizzare.
Does anybody know something about the cpu and ram?
http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1480
CPU 32bit Marvell PXA930
RAM 128
ROM is marked up at 4gig but I think they mean memory card. Not sure about the actual "rom" size.
Details are still sketchy and im not sure where PDADB got a lot of this from to be honest.
At this moment I've a HTC TyTN II, maybe this would be my new device too!
Since I've seen this device I'm doubt between the HTC Touch Pro and the Glaxy7. Should I miss the hardware keyboard? I'm still writing on the screen mostly because I forget my keyboard.
The Touch Pro has 288MB Ram vs the Glaxy7 with just 128MB, the Touch Pro has a keyboard, the Touch Pro has a bigger user community.
-click-
Other models I've been doubting but no go because:
- HTC Touch Diamond; no card slot
- HTC Touch HD; 25% more pixels but same cpu, only touchscreen no buttons, too big device?
- Samsung Omnia: too glossy for me, crappy case, no good experience with Samsung phones (no experience with their PPC's)
- Sony Ericsson: I'don't like the buttons of the keyboard, I was always a Ericsson fan (later SE) but with this don't know. Beside if I've to choose between the Touch Pro and the Xperia l'll choose the HTC. More RAM and bigger community.
The camera is for me no point to choose. At least, that would be my last point. It's reasonable the camera is one of the choosing facts. But remind that Windows Mobile isn't good with photo's.
E-ten has new devices too, but that is Acer. My experience with the Acer notebooks are not good. Cheap silly things!
your forgeting that the Glaxy has a 5mp camera as well.... this is important (at least to me)
Black-Rose said:
At this moment I've a HTC TyTN II, maybe this would be my new device too!
Since I've seen this device I'm doubt between the HTC Touch Pro and the Glaxy7. Should I miss the hardware keyboard? I'm still writing on the screen mostly because I forget my keyboard.
The Touch Pro has 288MB Ram vs the Glaxy7 with just 128MB, the Touch Pro has a keyboard, the Touch Pro has a bigger user community.
-click-
Other models I've been doubting but no go because:
- HTC Touch Diamond; no card slot
- HTC Touch HD; 25% more pixels but same cpu, only touchscreen no buttons, too big device?
- Samsung Omnia: too glossy for me, crappy case, no good experience with Samsung phones (no experience with their PPC's)
E-ten has new devices too, but that is Acer. My experience with the Acer notebooks are not good. Cheap silly things!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You forgot sony xperia.
+there should be some phones based on android, and some new phones with nvidia chips
Actually i don't want a suck CPU in my phone that make it slow enough for dialing, browser internet / photos and watching movie lagging same as an old-style projector in classroom.
Yes, the qualcomm having ATI Imageon, but also no HW support both 2d and 3d, so no VGA now.
If this machine really using intel cpu, this should be cool and the greatest PDA phone ever.
asus quality..
i used to have an asus p535 and it was one of the best pocket pcs that i owned.
it was very powerfull and it does not hang.
the built quality was excellent and the color does not peel because it is melted with the plastic itself.
the GPS was sirf III one of the best reciever in the world.
what i want to say is that asus products are very good but asus lacks the marketing touch to sell its products.
galaxy 7 will be a great device ,i am sure and i am looking forward for its release.
its good to hear from someone who has actually used a previous Asus PDA. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I must admit, i'm already sold on the Glaxy even though I am growing positivley towards my Diamond again - despite its poor hardware build quality.
Is this a new fashion? WVGA and WQVGA?
I like big screens, but I don't like software incompatibility...
My old (Now) G900 had an 800*480 screen and I only found issues with older versions of TomTom. Like it or not, I reckon this will become the new "standard" screen res and as such, people are/will develope code to handle it.
I have been using a Samsung Omnia for a few weeks now, and previously I used an Asus P525 for a little over 1 year. I still have the P525 (keeping it as spare).
Build quality: Asus is top notch as far as I am concerned, on par with my previous SE phones (P800,P900). High quality material all around on the P525.
Omnia is not bad at all, although the plastic case and back will get scratched quite fast, I think. There have been a number of complaints about Omnia units having to be returned for some sort or other hardware problem. Difficult to evaluate how serious it is as you only hear from the people having problems, not those that have not had any.
Software: This is where I think the Omnia is weak at this point in time: there are still a number of bugs in the OS (some major, some minor), whereas the P525 was rock solid (went from WM5 to WM6 no problem). Is it a result of rushing to market ? Nonetheless, Samsung is releasing ROM updates just about every month, so they are certainly trying... Flashing an Omnia is not an easy (or safe) process (no booloader method found to date), and a hardware initiated hard reset is very difficult to achieve (the only time I really had to use it it took me 30 minutes of button pushing to finally initiate the Hard Reset).
If the upcoming Galaxy7 is anything like my P525 and has the right specifications, and Samsung does not clear up a certain number of things that are important to me, I may very well switch.
My 2 cents...
"WCDMA Frequency: 900/1900/2100 (Sorry US readers )"
so it works in 1900umts in USA 3G, right?
i know it should works, but i just want to make sure. haha

130 Dollar Android Laptop

Just came across this news that a laptop named Doel running Android has been produced in Bangladesh...and its running Android.
Here are the specs:
Doel 2102
10.0″ LCD Panel
(1024*600)
VIA 8650 800MHz
512 MB RAM
Integrated 0.3 MP
Webcam
WiFi 802.11b/g
2 USB 2.0
SD Slot for Max 32 GB
Google Android
Integrated
Price- $130
News Source: http://techspyre.com/doel-a-laptop-for-130-made-in-bangladesh/
Interesting, that price is about one month salary for the average worker. Compare that to here (USA) a computer is 3-4 days of an average workers salary. I great start to helping the 8th largest population to become digital
there are lots of those similar ones on deal extreme
all of those android "laptops" are more a Netbook than an actual laptop.
I hope they open it for the international market...may be at a higher price so that the government can further subsidize the local price and make it more affordable
AllGamer said:
there are lots of those similar ones on deal extreme
all of those android "laptops" are more a Netbook than an actual laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But see it is something huge for a country like Bangladesh...
If it's any good and doesn't have any mjaor problems, i would buy one.
here's a semi decent one like the one OP mentioned
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-resi...c-with-wifi-tf-hdmi-white-arm-cortex-a9-67193
again only 512 RAM, froyo, ARM 9, 4GB internal, 7" screen, sd card slot, 3.5mm Audio,2 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI, Earphone, power adapter included
another one http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-touc...d-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-tf-arm-v9-800mhz-70508
8" instead
Getting one of these is something that I need to look into
i've been keeping my eyes on many of those
waiting for a dual core model to pop up
Screw it and get a decent tablet and a blue tooth keypad, I love my gtab and with all the development going on I can have anew device in a few mins .
IM looking for a cheap but rather reliable pad for a 10yo and occasionally a 4-5yo
I would buy one, thats a heck of a deal for the average user.
Resistive screens are terrible unfortunately otherwise it's pretty decent.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using XDA App
I think that is a good price for something like that. but what is the HD space? and you cant do much of anything major with 512MB ram but its probably a descent piece of harware
Again I'd like to stress that there are scores of such tabs already available, but it is something big and commendable for a developing nation like Bangladesh.

[Q] Ultrabook or Laptop

I will be getting a new laptop In a few months primarily because mine is very outdated (4 yrs old running c2d) and it freezes occasionally but besides that I asked on another forum for laptop recommendations and someone suggested that I look at some Ultrabooks for their portability (I want a laptop that's not very heavy, less than 6lbs). I'll also need it for college, Im planning on going into animation, so I'll need it for that too.
Specs for the laptop that I'd want:
Lightweight:< 6lbs
13-15" screen
Budget: 1K-1.5K
1gb+ dedicated graphics card
Core i7 processor (multi-core)
6+ hrs battery life
The 2 things keeping me from getting an Ultrabook are the lack of a disk drive (minimal effect) and storage space as most SSD's are 256gb max. That being said what are some Laptop/Ultrabook recommendations based on my specs (The specs given are what I'm looking for, anything else is optional).
dkris2020 said:
I will be getting a new laptop In a few months primarily because mine is very outdated (4 yrs old running c2d) and it freezes occasionally but besides that I asked on another forum for laptop recommendations and someone suggested that I look at some Ultrabooks for their portability (I want a laptop that's not very heavy, less than 6lbs). I'll also need it for college, Im planning on going into animation, so I'll need it for that too.
Specs for the laptop that I'd want:
Lightweight:< 6lbs
13-15" screen
Budget: 1K-1.5K
1gb+ dedicated graphics card
Core i7 processor (multi-core)
6+ hrs battery life
The 2 things keeping me from getting an Ultrabook are the lack of a disk drive (minimal effect) and storage space as most SSD's are 256gb max. That being said what are some Laptop/Ultrabook recommendations based on my specs (The specs given are what I'm looking for, anything else is optional).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HP Folio us the best non-apple Ultrabook out there, impressive specs but the memory expansion on all of them is very limited so i would suggest a regular laptop/notebook with higher specs such as HP G-series very light with an optical drive. honestly i dont remember the lat time i used an optical drive for anything but thats just me.
ahkhands said:
HP Folio us the best non-apple Ultrabook out there, impressive specs but the memory expansion on all of them is very limited so i would suggest a regular laptop/notebook with higher specs such as HP G-series very light with an optical drive. honestly i dont remember the lat time i used an optical drive for anything but thats just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't have an i7, but I was able to find a laptop with the things that was lightweight and had what I wanted. For some reason I tried to stay away from HP because I keep hearing negative things about their products.

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