In a year or 2, when my Kaiser is up for replacement, I wonder what the state of the art PPC will have:
Better screen resolution (beyond VGA, but how much beyond?)
Better screen readability
A battery that would allow 2 full days of power usage
Decent System performance (at least the same as my 3 year old SE P910i!)
More intuitive user experience (at least the same as my 3 year old UIQ-based SE P910i!) and preferably one that allows your fingers to do all the work.
FM Radio
Better tactile feedback on keyboard
A keyboard that allows numeric entry and decimal places without switching modes
MS office applications that don't remove content they don't understand and that remember the zoom level when last saved (at least the same as Documents To Go in my 3 year old SE P910i!)
A synchronisation system for a PC that doesn't randomly use 100% of the phones resources whenever it feels like it -this preventing calls being answered when the phone is plugged in
A synchronisation system that doesn't frequently decide that a server problem requires a complete resync (no fun with a 6000+ entry calendar !)
A weight that is considerably less than 190g
A camera with a flash, a lens cover and a real-time performance that means the picture is taken when you press the button and not a second afterwards
Other than the above, my Kaiser is perfect!
So you want all these features AND for the device to stay the same size AND be lighter? How much are you willing to pay, because realistically even if anyone ever releases a swiss-knife of all multimedia/business phone, its not going to cost $400 even with a 2 year contract. I think that 3G is simply a power hungry monster by design, maybe a year or two from now they'll come up with more efficient radio chips, until then we can all keep hoping. Come on Sony, haul ass.
come back to xda developers in 15 years when, such a device may be available! thats asking a lot, would u like it to have wireless n networking, DVB tv reciever and a coffee maker as well?
I think in 2 years the devices will look quite different - remember that at the moment the smart phone market is currently being invested into heavily and so more competition brings more competition. Whereas before, it's been the same kind of thing with just 'as you like it' upgrades.
Now with the competitive edge, HTC has to directly compete with the iPhone and such. Just look at the new SE X1 - made by HTC not long after the kaiser.
I think rather than a plethora of new features - we've already got HDSPA and such now - it's going to be focussing on how the user interacts with the device. I mean, the iPhone is selling like hotcakes because of the UI yet has barely any features. The first release you couldn't even send messages to multiple recipients.
This is what the business brains of HTC and it's competitors have to acknowledge - consumers want devices that can do all the fancy stuff, but are also nice to use. There are a lot of devs out there, but no doubt now they're picking up EEE Pcs - the PPC is become mainstream and has to adapt to those tastes.
I would expect the stylus to be phased out, no keyboard - all through touch interface. Possibly tactile response touch screens, high resolutions and colour, powered by capable graphics processors. Homebrew apps will be less popular with more proprietry apps that work seamlessly together - 'HTC Office', anyone? More internal storage, longer battery life - it's not unreasonable to expect especially if you follow developments in other tech areas. Some new batteries are being developed that have much much longer lifes than current ones - but atm are car battery sized .
Also expect the camera to be a proper camera - possibly some collaboration with a camera manufacturer?
arabbitte said:
In a year or 2, when my Kaiser is up for replacement, I wonder what the state of the art PPC will have:
Better screen resolution (beyond VGA, but how much beyond?)
Better screen readability
A battery that would allow 2 full days of power usage
Decent System performance (at least the same as my 3 year old SE P910i!)
More intuitive user experience (at least the same as my 3 year old UIQ-based SE P910i!) and preferably one that allows your fingers to do all the work.
FM Radio
Better tactile feedback on keyboard
A keyboard that allows numeric entry and decimal places without switching modes
MS office applications that don't remove content they don't understand and that remember the zoom level when last saved (at least the same as Documents To Go in my 3 year old SE P910i!)
A synchronisation system for a PC that doesn't randomly use 100% of the phones resources whenever it feels like it -this preventing calls being answered when the phone is plugged in
A synchronisation system that doesn't frequently decide that a server problem requires a complete resync (no fun with a 6000+ entry calendar !)
A weight that is considerably less than 190g
A camera with a flash, a lens cover and a real-time performance that means the picture is taken when you press the button and not a second afterwards
Other than the above, my Kaiser is perfect!
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Click to collapse
Well, some of your points are realistic, others don't. VGA, FM radio, lighter weight... E-Ten M800, for example, have them all, so why not? A better solution for sync, also should be a must.
The only points unrealistic to me are the battery and the performance, specially because they are in contradiction mutually.
Mr B
It all starts with a dream.. next thing you know - you're holding it in your hand.
Well this thread is about our dream kaisers or how we imagine ppcs will be in 2 years time?.. I'll answer both:
Dream Kaiser: Nothing unreal realy, PointUI kindalike gui, fully working, till the end of every bit of the gui..
working video drivers ofcourse and all those skyfire promises come true..
That's all.. aah.. last but not least, though I know it ain't coming anyways:
A 3.5 mm audio jack for every music fan outhere.. Jesus everybody here is not a wall street employee.. we are people and it we enjoy our lives and we are listening to music you know..
2 years time ppc: Xperia X1 working correctly.. It's the ultimate machine but SE takes a year to fully optimize firmwares for P1s and W950s..
I don't think many of these are too unreasonable. As other posters have said, some of this is already available, albeit perhaps not in just one device. Some other points that I raised just need some more efficiency. In turn:
Better screen resolution (beyond VGA, but how much beyond?) Already available in the new Sony XPERIA X1.
Better screen readability Ability to read outdoors
A battery that would allow 2 full days of power usage. If battery technology can't deliver, then we just need WM 7 to use all CPU cycles to do real work rather than thrashing around inefficient code. This could fix the problem.
Decent System performance (at least the same as my 3 year old SE P910i!) As above, more efficient OS needed
More intuitive user experience (at least the same as my 3 year old UIQ-based SE P910i!) and preferably one that allows your fingers to do all the work. I could list all the unintuitive parts to WM6, but don't get me started. UIQ is not perfect, but it better in so many ways.
FM Radio Almost standard now, no biggie.
Better tactile feedback on keyboard. I'm an old Psion fan. This is all doable.
A keyboard that allows numeric entry and decimal places without switching modes. Really! What genius assigned the same key to "0" and "." in the Kaiser keyboard - Ian Integer? And why is there no CTRL key for copy/paste?
MS office applications that don't remove content they don't understand and that remember the zoom level when last saved (at least the same as Documents To Go in my 3 year old SE P910i!) As above, my 3 years old DTG does this better than my "state of the art" WM6 device. Oh, and the fact that DTG is not made by MS makes this more amazing!
A synchronisation system for a PC that doesn't randomly use 100% of the phones resources whenever it feels like it -this preventing calls being answered when the phone is connected to the PC. This just needs somebody to acknowledge that what is there is rubbish. Mind you - just so nobody thinks I should just go back to Symbian-land - this synchronisation software was even worse!
A synchronisation system that doesn't frequently decide that a server problem requires a complete resync (no fun with a 6000+ entry calendar !). As above.
A weight that is considerably less than 190g. Already possible as per the Sony XPERIA X1
A camera with a flash, a lens cover and a real-time performance that means the picture is taken when you press the button and not a second afterwards. I'd settle for a flash and real time performance.
Somebody else mentioned cost - sounding like $400 on contract over 2 years was too much. I kept my last phone - a SE P910i - for 3 years and it cost about the same as my Kaiser. €750. €250 a year is not too much. Let's make it sound better - it's only €5 per week! Hey, that's less that €1 a day
tranaee said:
A 3.5 mm audio jack for every music fan outhere.. Jesus everybody here is not a wall street employee.. we are people and it we enjoy our lives and we are listening to music you know..
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I Do.
Battery life would be great, and quicker gps response. I dont care about the weight, Its a mini laptop basically, I'll live with the weight/performance/utility ratio.
BTW, I dont think the stylus will ever be phased out. Digital signatures are a part of modern offices to stay. I wouldnt want to have to do that with my finger.
My 2 cents.
I agree that 3g is hungry but in Japan which is a small area compared to US their technology in phones are way superior and they are past 3g. I heard they were like on 4g. My buddy went down to Japan and said they have cell phones that are linked with your credit card. You just go to the store and pass your phone through the reader and it charges your account. They have potential to make high efficient batteries but everyone wants to make money. If we had a battery in a cell phone that could run for 2 days they wouldnt make money. See if companies were smart they'd make a battery with a high efficiency but only make it good for like 1000 charges. I'd pay 150 maybe 200 dollars for a battery that I know i'd have to replace after 1k charges. HTC is a good company I have to say and I read here and there about people complaining about video drivers. Most of these people didnt start complaining until that one person made the thread. I like the phone for the everyday uses I use it for. This phone is my life. I love it more than I do my girlfriend. Sorry to make this long but it's my two cents.
> This phone is my life. I love it more than I do my girlfriend.
Easy now
Anyone have any views on reducing battery usage and increasing performance by having tighter code? I would say there is a lot of scope here in the WM environment. My old P910i is much faster at certain things than my kaiser even though it has a slower CPU and less memory. Why? Because a lot of the Symbian OS code came from the Psion Epoc family which was written from the ground up for a PDA environment. Some of my old Psions would run for a full week on 2 AA batteries and would never need a reset. My P910i inherited most (although not all) of it's Psion cousin's OS characteristics. I understand that WM7 will be very different from WM6, will have a fundamentally different architecture and will probably "break" binary compatibility with WM6 and ealier versions. Surely a good opportunity to clean out a lot of the dead wood that has accumulated over the years?
Or even better implemented code? One Example: I don't do any demanding video activities on my Kaiser, but as others have said here, if the video drivers were written to use the graphics accelerators on the Qualcomm chip, video operations would be faster and use battery power.
At this moment battery technology is changing very fast. Because of nano technology it is posible to charge batterys in seconds. Yesterday i went to a presentation of the dutch company Epyon at my university. This company will starts to sell a super fast (seconds) chargible batterypack in de USA in a few weeks from now, which can be used for any type of phone.
http://www.epyon.nl/products.html
mrVRB you are a god! i will be buying one when it comes out. I have a problem with my USB charging port it doesn't charge so I have to keep taking my battery out and putting it into my friends tilt to charge. Limiting the functions that I normally use it for because I'm scared to run the batt before the days end. I love forums man
andaroo said:
come back to xda developers in 15 years when, such a device may be available! thats asking a lot, would u like it to have wireless n networking, DVB tv reciever and a coffee maker as well?
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LOL I found that to be hilarious
This is a picture of the FlashPack. The super fast chargible batterypack wich a mentioned before.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eelkedekker/2059764820/sizes/o/
my dream ppc would be the XPERIA in the hands of actress Claire Forlani riding in the pasanger seat of my ( i actualy own this part of the dream) BMW 545i with 18 inch M-wheels !!!!!!!!
Related
From what I've seen there is not a lot more that the Ifoon can offer over what the BA has.
I like the look of the ifoon, but other than edge what else does it offer?
A bigger hole in the bank account.
Agreed.
Apple, welcome to 2004.
Heh, they've just announced that it won't be able to run third-party apps unless they are certified by Apple.
no ways yoz
fraser said:
Heh, they've just announced that it won't be able to run third-party apps unless they are certified by Apple.
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haha bros that's an apple patent.. we all know this!! software support always been an apple downfall. Not only that but no physical buttons?!? What happens when the 'super apple' touchscreen goes out? ouch! You got that bar of soap it so much resembles!
I dig my BA, but it's too big and bulky, get a hermes for that price! Apple and Jobs built a POS. They're just jealous that M$ is getting so much recognition with new smartphones. Last year at this time it seemed half the world didn't even know what a smartphone was.. until the release of these smartphones like the Q/blackjack, every lil 16yr old cries to their parents for one. What a crock! My opinion.
Apple needs to stick to software, the Intel macs are tearing up the G5's all around.
I have watched the introduction of the iPhone over the net.
This is the best device of this class!! It is lightning fast, it is operated with fingers only (no stylus!!!!!) it is a unique Softwae/hardware simbiot!!! After all how many IPods have crashed or needed soft reset, hard reset and so on? If Apple release this wonderfull device I'll get myself one for sure!
This is personal opinion!
OrionBG, I'm not convinced. I know at least three iPod users that have had serious problems. Dodgy batteries, music db corruption (complete loss) and other issues with iTunes have left me quite unimpressed. The mere fact that they force you to use iTunes bites the big one. My friend had to reset his whole library after his PC hard drive crashed. Well, he would have if it hadn't been for the "illegal" utilities I helped him use to recover most of it.
Apples "Just Works" thing is largely a marketing myth. Pop over to any unofficial apple forum to see the real issues that their hardware has. You can't discuss these things on their official forums; if you raise a bug that they can't be bothered fixing, they'll just delete the thread everytime you raise it. Check the discussion in that link; they have a long history of this.
They also sue websites and threaten them if they say anything bad about apple. If this forum was larger they would be complaining about my current post. Paul over at Modaco had to remove a Today screen for Windows Mobile that looked a little like the apple one announced. If you announce any Apple "secrets", they will threaten to sue you even though you have never signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement. They have bigger lawyers than you and more money to spend so people rarely fight back.
Apple suck. This is not the right way to run a company IMHO. They are a bad company guilty of anti-competitive practices and this has been consistent over the past five years. Their recent hardware has been very anti-consumer and of poor quality. The only reason they get away with it is because their main competitor has a worse track record in these regards and that they have a fantastic marketing department.
Have u heard about piratebay activity called http://buysealand.com/ they've just decided to buy small "island" - no lawyers problem anymore.
... and one of the greatest tactic is "how something is amazing" post by "ordinary people" together with deleting "the wrong one".
I read jobs' debut of the ifoon. There's some neat ideas there. I like the large screen. This is also the reason I've kept a BA. I also like the idea of the device sensing the orientation of the device and changing the screen orientation. I don't possibly see how the keyboard is going to work, especially if one's fingers are large.
I love the slide out keyboards by HTC. The keys stick out enough to feel.
Concerning the OS, I used to hate MS OSs. Win98was aweful. However I've been using XP Pro on an HP laptop for almost 2 yrs with very little problems.
I also use an HTC Wizard with Gamescans Mr. Clean AKU2.3 is completely stable. It is the most reliable phone/pda I've ever used and I've had a Treo. The Wizard needs a larger processor and UMTS/HDSPA - hence the Hermes.
I haven't bought the hermes yet because I keep hoping to see HTC give us a large screen, processor, and 3G. I'm getting older and like the big screen.
The perfect phone would have the Dash's rubbery non-slip outer surface with a 3.5" hires screen, at least a 400 processor, a slide out keyboard, AM/FM radio, SD card slot and maybe a HD, UMTS/HDSPA, quad band, headset jack, BT 2.0, add GPS and WiFi. The device has to go at least a day with heavy UMTS surfing.
I may settle for a Hermes (TyTN or xv6800) if AKU3.** is available. I want to tether my phone & Laptop at 3G once in a while
rambo6 said:
I read jobs' debut of the ifoon. There's some neat ideas there. I like the large screen. This is also the reason I've kept a BA. I also like the idea of the device sensing the orientation of the device and changing the screen orientation. I don't possibly see how the keyboard is going to work, especially if one's fingers are large.
I love the slide out keyboards by HTC. The keys stick out enough to feel.
Concerning the OS, I used to hate MS OSs. Win98was aweful. However I've been using XP Pro on an HP laptop for almost 2 yrs with very little problems.
I also use an HTC Wizard with Gamescans Mr. Clean AKU2.3 is completely stable. It is the most reliable phone/pda I've ever used and I've had a Treo. The Wizard needs a larger processor and UMTS/HDSPA - hence the Hermes.
I haven't bought the hermes yet because I keep hoping to see HTC give us a large screen, processor, and 3G. I'm getting older and like the big screen.
The perfect phone would have the Dash's rubbery non-slip outer surface with a 3.5" hires screen, at least a 400 processor, a slide out keyboard, AM/FM radio, SD card slot and maybe a HD, UMTS/HDSPA, quad band, headset jack, BT 2.0, add GPS and WiFi. The device has to go at least a day with heavy UMTS surfing.
I may settle for a Hermes (TyTN or xv6800) if AKU3.** is available. I want to tether my phone & Laptop at 3G once in a while
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Nobody will build a perfect phone : )
!! M$ !!
Sure everyone hates M$ but what are the most widely used OS variants in the world.. Without a doubt...Windows products! Eat that Apple/Linux/whatever users
Plus like I stated, the need for physical buttons are a must, no? That must be one super touchscreen on the apple it will be the one way to navigate? Not even a scroll wheel like relatively cheap smartphones? OUCH! hope you have absolutely clean fingers no matter what that screen will be soo smudged up with nastiness!
Apple jealous of M$ tearing up the mobile market, can't stand it! hahaha I love it!! They're hardware is behind, only thing they've got going for them is the camera.
Apple ish*t specs
Technical Specifications
Screen size 3.5 inches
Screen resolution 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method Multi-touch
Operating system OS X
Storage 4GB or 8GB
GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera 2.0 megapixels
Battery Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
Up to 16 hours Audio playback
Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams
I have never had apple stuff, but I watch apple closely. And I must admit, they build good stuff.
It's easier to shrug off the iPhone, especially if you don't have the money to buy it
cutting through the grituitous bashing, as well as the hype, I have seen good and bad things.
GOOD:
No doubt it has a hardware platform powerful enough to perform at least as good as our BAs, and probably better. Yeah, it could have 3G, but it would add too much to the cost of the machine.
INTERFACE. Don't spit this 'I can do the same with 15 taps on my screen' style of crap. The machine has MULTITOUCH. That opens a whole window of possibilities for interactivity. like the demoed zoom, where you hold two fingers together and slide them apart on the screen to zoom in a map.
It's not like our touchscreens which can only detect a single coordinate on screen.
Not to mention all that eye-candy OS X is famous for. OK, you may scoff on eye candy, but used wisely (and apple knows how to do it), you can have visual clues of what's happening and this actually improves usability. Otherwise just pick up your Nokia 1110 with its black-and-white matrix and shut up.
They have no legacy to keep compatible, so they can really innovate. And I believe they are really innovating on this area.
Another nice touch is the orientation sensor which automatically changes from portrait to landscape when you rotate the machine. no buttons.
THE MIXED:
Apple's choice of software model. It will have a final say on what's available for the machine and what's not. I bet the apps will be available only through iTunes. It's good in the sense that they can ensure that software complies to a certain standard, which means good quality.
It's also probably a bane for the warez crowd, because pirating software will be much more difficult, if not impossible.
It will probably be bad for the hobbyst crowd, which would like to code for fun for their devices, and probably won't be allowed to. Unless Apple releases some open IDE a la Carbide, but since they are already closing up the door on software availability, this possibility is remote.
I think it's more bad than good, but at least we can hope this will be a death sentence for software developemnt for this platform, and that this will actually result in more security. Not that we have many actual threats out there, but smartphones have the potential to be hacked into, become zombies for spam botnets etc. etc. When the spammers/crackers start to tap on this, we might start to see Windows Mobile get into a nightmare...
THE BAD:
It lacks 3G, it does not have direct iTunes access (you have to cradle it to sync and add stuff);
It has no SD card slot. Now THAT's a ****up, it has a screen big enough to play videos, but not enough space to carry them.
No removable battery? WHAT did they have in mind? OK, I don't usually swap batteries around, but I tend to buy extended batteries (my BA has one). I only this machine has GOOD battery life, this might not bite as much.
It would be good to have a GPS throwed in too... hey, let me dream!
Cingular only... Hmm, I believe this won't last long. Other companies have launched branded products, but eventually they open up for the market after some time. I believe there have been t-mobile onlys before, after some time they will allow everyone to buy it. Remember, it's all about PROFIT. Apple will not close their market that much. If they can sell more, they will. They are probably working first with the operator which was easier to work with, they gave more of how apple wanted to control the device and the network. And they will probably use this to scrub on other operator and say 'Ok, if you don't do it the way I like it, I won't do you the favor of selling my devices to you' (Yeah, Apple is a bit like a diva). They will try to use the Cingular-only argument to try to drive the operator into submission. It's a reversal of roles, where usually the operators dictate what they want and don't want on their devices. And maybe they can pull it off.
IT's EXPENSIVE. Apple/Cingular is really 'stretching the thong' on this one. Either Cingular is not subsidizing AT ALL (have you thought of this possibility?), or the machine is really expensive.
I don't think the BOM justifies anywhere close to this price tag. The screen is the same size of a LifeDrive, which is not anywhere near the cost of this machine. 4-8 GB flash? look at the iPod nano's price tags. ARM CPU + radios, there are plenty out there. motion/orientation sensor? Hmm, look at the Wii controls, I think I have read something about them, those things are not expensive nowadays. The only exotic stuff is the multi-touch sensor, and those things exist for quite some time, they are just not popular. and lacking stuff like 3G radio, SD slot and... a removable battery cover (sigh) helps driving down the cost.
The profit margin is fat here! yeah, there is all this 'pay for R&D blah blah', but they are going to make a few good bucks.
BOTTOM LINE:
It's the first generation. I will wait and see. 1 year from now the price tag will be sane, I will probably be able to buy an unlocked one, and even better if I can find a 2nd generation device which has GPS and a SD card slot.
pda...of course
in primis...here in hungary every apple stuff is sold for a double or triple price as in the US, this means, that the ifoon would cost minimum 1000-1200$...that is not affordable...or, of course, it is, but the ifoon doesn't worth that much...
pro secundo...the operator lock...well...it's discussed on many forums, that it wont be easy to crack it, so if it ever would be sold here, you couldn't change operator easily, and if not at all, it sucks...
pro tertia...the multitouch...say anything, that it's better than a single stylus...but i can't imagine, that i'll use my thumbs to scroll an ebook, or play minesweeper ;]...but anyway, if the software range is limited, than it matters no...sending an sms could be easyer, maybe, because, you could type...but you should use full screen keyboard...which is annoying, and anyhow, you could take it in your hand like a psp, so you could use only thumbs, that are big...and as mentioned...you will mess the whole screen with fingerprints all the time...that suck again
the thingy has no IRDA, this way you cannot use it as a remote control for tv, or what...
and, and as mentioned above...no gps, no sd, no changeable battery...anyhow 3G is said to be installed in it, till it will be merchandised...
Brazilian Joe said:
I have never had apple stuff, but I watch apple closely. And I must admit, they build good stuff.
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I disagree. Sure, their PCs will get you on the net but as soon as you try to do something more complex they fall down. Their support is rubbish and they regularly delete bugs and forum posts about issues they can't be bothered fixing. Their computer hardware and QC have been slated regularly. About the best thing they have going for them is their legion of fanboi's (and astroturfers) convincing people that their computers "just work" when it's not the case.
They also threaten sites like xda-developers as a general rule. They probably have more lawyers than developers, basically a small Microsoft during it's evil phase.
About the only thing they've done right lately is the iPod, and even it has all the "all apple, all the time" idea where you can only buy music from iTunes and get it on to the device. If you try to write software so that people are free to use something else other than iTunes, they'll sue you for that.
Oh, and now they are charging you for patches and feature updates and calling it "an accounting quirk".
Apple suck, most people are just too blinkered by their dislike for Microsoft to see it.
INTERFACE. Don't spit this 'I can do the same with 15 taps on my screen' style of crap. The machine has MULTITOUCH. That opens a whole window of possibilities for interactivity. like the demoed zoom, where you hold two fingers together and slide them apart on the screen to zoom in a map.
It's not like our touchscreens which can only detect a single coordinate on screen.
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It's nice, but I'm not all that impressed. Sure, most of us will have seen the multitouch proof-of-concept videos last year on a full PC, but this is on a phone. There isn't all that much room for more than one active finger. And what about one-handed operation? You'd need to have it on a table for multi-touch. And what, on a mobile, can it actually be used for that's superior to any other UI component?
Not to mention all that eye-candy OS X is famous for. OK, you may scoff on eye candy, but used wisely (and apple knows how to do it), you can have visual clues of what's happening and this actually improves usability.
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It's most redeeming feature IMHO.
They have no legacy to keep compatible, so they can really innovate.
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Nope, built of OSX and it uses iTunes. That's quite a legacy there alone.
And I believe they are really innovating on this area.
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I could not disagree more. All they've done is take a standard device and slap a pretty UI on it. We could get that via a software update on old hardware right now. In fact, we had it and they forced hanmin to remove his post via bogus legal threats. One good thing about all of this is that MS will have to rethink their UI and play catchup a little.
Another nice touch is the orientation sensor which automatically changes from portrait to landscape when you rotate the machine. no buttons.
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My digital camera has that, it's very useful and intuative. You see it happen once and from then on it's instinctive just to rotate it. However, on a phone when it has to send redraw events to the running applications and deal with resolution changes, I'm not convinced this is something you want switching everything you move your arm.
Apple's choice of software model. It will have a final say on what's available for the machine and what's not. I bet the apps will be available only through iTunes. It's good in the sense that they can ensure that software complies to a certain standard, which means good quality.
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That's fine, but IMHO if you visit the xda-developers website often, this is not the phone for you. If you visit "hello" magazine and read about Paris Hilton, maybe that's the software delivery model designed just for you.
It's also probably a bane for the warez crowd, because pirating software will be much more difficult, if not impossible.
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Not sure, signing doesn't prevent piracy, it just prevents tampering and provides a trust mechanism. Unless they generate you an unique key-pair for every purchase which I seriously doubt.
It has no SD card slot. Now THAT's a ****up, it has a screen big enough to play videos, but not enough space to carry them.
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Stream via WiFi, via iTunes and your credit-card? Standard Apple practice, charge 'em where possible.
No removable battery? WHAT did they have in mind?
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Making money. Officially when your iPod battery dies (often 1 year old), you have to buy a new iPod.
Cingular only... Hmm, I believe this won't last long. Other companies have launched branded products, but eventually they open up for the market after some time.
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Don't hold your breath, it's a two-year (!!) contract.
I don't think the BOM justifies anywhere close to this price tag.
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No, but the Apple logo does apparently. All of their stuff is at least 30% over market value.
It's the first generation. I will wait and see. 1 year from now the price tag will be sane, I will probably be able to buy an unlocked one, and even better if I can find a 2nd generation device which has GPS and a SD card slot.
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Agreed. Might even get one myself, but I reckon that it'll give the other mobile platforms a kick up the butt and they'll be well ahead by then.
The subject is iphone versus BA
Nobody actually talk about BA at this thread.
Obviously, iphone wins.
Apple's real advance is draw all ppl's attention, media focus, even they build a ****.
Jobs yells, Look at our new ****!!
yoz my last post as a BA user
Heck I have cingular and i'd take a $200 BA over an $499 iphone anyday!! My last post as a BA user, I loved it, great, fast, versitile device. 3.5" display can't beat that.. widescreen at 240x320.. amazing hardware when it released. Lets seea crossbow leap to the BA.
! Long live HTC !
A friend of mine is very Iphone-minded; so from the moment he get's it, I'll have a look at this "device".
I can tell you this much: you will only be able to do with it what apple wants you to do with it - modifying, installing apps? forget it!
I can't imagine a iphone-developers.com
Hmm, there is an iSupply review estimating the BOM (hardware cost alone) to be around 250/280 for the 4/8 GB iPhones.
Even if I lived in the US, I wouldn't rush into the iPhone. i'd wait and see.
I like to see all technological advancements, and I am not a fanboy of ANY brand.
For example, while I have always preached AMD over intel since the K6, now I am recommending Core 2 Duo to anyone who asks. The performance speaks for itself. Since I acknowledged what the Centrino was doing, I kept a close eye on the Intel developments... When They announced that the Core 2 Duo would have an average 20% better performance over the Core Duo, I seriously doubted about it. I have read the technical articles, but I still was skeptic, believeing that they were trumpeting a 'best case' as if it were THE performance. But I was wrong. Core 2 Duio is really all that, and it will be interesting to see AMD catching up.
personally, I actully think AMD will pull it off, with the 'specialized cores' approach. They will embed a GPU (I believe it will be generalized and simply called a 'stream processor') in a multi-core package this year, and soon I believe we will see a Crypto core, and who knows what else. maybe AMD even ecides it's a good idea to have a FPGA as an extra core, and that would open an incredible number of possibilities.
Back to the iPhone subject:
I see the iPhone design as the antithesis of Nokia, nothing is more antagonic to the 'buttons only' approach of S60 than a touchscreen-only.
UIQ and Windows Mobile stay in-between, playing both games, but apparently losing on both. I would like to have a hands-on test drive on the iPhone, but I believe they got it right on the interface.
I really believe the software model they are trying to impose is on of iPhone's greatest risks, the other one is being locked on Cingular for too long, and those could cause its demise.
I really hope it suceeds though, because there is at least one thing it brought to the market, and I really, really hope Microsoft adds it to Photon (WM7): MultitouchScreen.
Competition is good.
well. I have read a great deal on the new i phone. My own opinion is simply that they will NOT corner any part of the mobile phone market let alone come anywhere close to the BA or HTC models of any description.
Apple are already running into stupid problems already if the BBC news here in UK is correct. Apparently the "i phone" name is already a no go thanks to a previous copyright name came from a different company. And as far as being original and up2date....apple are always very close to the mark when it comes to this. Remember last year towards Nov Dec time when LG showed up with their version of what they say as the interactive mobile phone. And how close
the apple phone is in comparison to the LG. I say no more.
OS X maybe pretty to look at, but I much prefer the adaptability and personalizing of the modern Windows Phone edition etc. Have what you want, when you want, HOW you want. AND then....carry ALL your media content including movies mtv clips cartoon....oh yes...AND music (mp3 ogg files etc)it all about (if you prefer) on you OWN memory card.
I digress...
Well, Apple is not that much of a stupid company.
They negotiated and researched before trumpeting the iPhone name.
More recently, after the 'what did they had in mind' reaction, it came up that complaints were filed both in the US and in the EU, in attempt to revoke Cisco's copyright over the iPhone brand for lack of use.
Seems they picked one of their existing products and just badged it as an iPhone, to try to keep hold of the name at the expiry date.
the productitself was released much later and is not what they showed previously, so Apple is trying to free up the name.
Well, it's a gamble, but they would't even try if there was no chance to win on trial.
It will depend on convincing the judge that Cisco was sitting on the name and not using it for too long, so long that they lost their rights over it.
It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
What a great example of the media's double standards. They give the Diamond 2/6 stars and heavily criticize the battery life for not lasting through heavy use over a weekend. Their review of the iPhone 3G, a 5/6 star device, mentions that you'll need to charge the device every other day even with moderate use. So why is one product slammed and one product just barely criticized? It's like everyone is terrified to criticize the iPhone. Ridiculous.
However, on the speed of the Diamond, which is his primary complaint, I have to agree with him somewhat - even with the latest ROM update from a couple of weeks back, it's still too slow. Sometimes moving from element to element happens reasonably quickly, but there's still a delay where nothing happens at all. That might have been acceptable three years ago, but it's not acceptable today. Too often, it will stall out moving from one thing to the next. The funny thing is that even with that criticism, it's still the best Professional device I've used overall, at least one without a keyboard. On the stability front, even with no third party applications installed, I've had to soft reset it once after about a week of using it, which was a bit disappointing. Since then it's been two weeks without need for a reset, which is pretty good - although I'm spoiled by my T-Mobile Dash; I might have to reboot it once every three months at the worst.
On the looks front, the HTC Touch Diamond does very well. I took it to an AMD event in Austin a couple of weeks ago, and the "wow" factor it had when people looked at it was interesting - everyone loved it, until they started using it and guess what the first thing they said was? "Hmm - it's not very fast, is it?". That's an unfortunate reality about the state of the Touch Diamond right now - I'm really hoping that over the next few months, HTC's software engineers can optimize the Touch Diamond further and eliminate some of those delays.
Shockingly for any of you who know how I feel about most Apple products, I'm probably going to pick up an iPhone (likely a used one) so I can get more hands-on time with Apple's on-screen keyboard - I want to understand the subtleties of their approach vs. HTCs, because I can't seem to get any comfortable degree of accuracy with the Diamond's on-screen keyboard...I make error after error and I'm longing for a physical keyboard again.
Touch Diamond owners: how's your experience with the device so far? Do you agree with this review and rating of 2/6 stars?
(please note: I didn't write this..came from a pocket pc source)
I find my Diamond fast enough, loads of features in such a small device, GPS is very accurate and I find that outdoors it tends to average 9-10 sats which is brilliant, my Tytn 2 managed 7-8 outdoors.
Wi-Fi is fast and connects quickly, overall I would give this phone a 9 out of 10. The only thing that lets it down is the lack of storage, 8gb should have been the minimum, if the iPhone has 8gb and 16gb why the bloody hell did they only put 4gb in I don't know, it's not that the 8gb chips are expensive
Considering you can pick up 8gb micro sd cards for around £18, this was a really stupid decision.
PCPRO are a bunch of Iphone Fan Boys - I wouldn't take much notice of such a biased review
The on screen keyboard is rubbish. PCM keyboard is better but there is no decent VGA skin and I have now switched to cootek touchpal which is pretty good.
I still would prefer a hardware keyboard though so it looks like my hard earned cash may be going the way of a touch pro.
I think it is too slow and I have one with the old rom which was rubbish and a new one which is slightly better but still miles slower than my touch cruise.
I think touch flow 3d is way crapper than the interface on a touch cruise. Way too fiddly to select things. I also preferred more hardware buttons. The battery is rubbish.
On the plus side the screen is amazing and web browsing is pretty good now. Lots of other things can be resized e.g. fonts in emails using the scroller which is pretty neat.
stuartforrest said:
...
I think it is too slow and I have one with the old rom which was rubbish and a new one which is slightly better but still miles slower than my touch cruise.
....
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Hmmm. Funny. I had the cruise and I found the Diamond (even with the eariler rom) to be faster - enough to keep and be happy with (the Cruise went back to the store for being too slow- dialing was impossible, as you needed to wait long seconds before entering the next digit). I can't use Opera. Not a positive experience. I use IE.
So this tells me it's all VERY VERY subjective.
VGA skin for PCM keyboard. Resco Keyboard is a good alternative too.
http://pocketcm.com/phorum/read.php?14,1813
Personally if you are going to use your fingers, PCM is better
Its the Mac Versus PC arguement all over again!!!!!
I saw only one, extremely true and valid review up till now, and that was at Phonearena.com.
http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/HTC-Touch-Diamond-Review-review-r_1956.html
i think the IPhone was very pushed by the press, they say to everyone "that thing is best, you need it!" bu i think there it will be soon a few people how see that the iphone is not all and it is to expensive for what it give. all these brandings, sim locks and many other is stupid. ok they ca be removed, but then the waranty is lost. but everyone who will the iphone shuld get one, i was lucky with my diamond, and with any other htc.
and about the rating on pc pro is unrealistic, i think they love realy the iphone and won't accept that are other phones are available and are as good as the iphone!
whys everyone so shocked? its like the video game industry and every other industry. they get paid and are given incentives to give good reviews (early test models, etc..)...that way everyone rushes out to buy the product..
They really need to try dutty's new ROM.. and if battery life is a problem for them, they could always go get the beefier battery. I'm happy with my Diamond - 2/6 is rediculous rating.
Hey guys, possibly a biased place to be asking this but is it worth me buying this phone? I would get it on Orange for £25 a month when they get it back in stock
Unlimited texts, fair few minutes as well.
What are the APPS like for it? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Easy to type?
Sorry for the noob questions but I really need a new phone and this looks good.
I was originally thinking the LG Renoir but even with custom firmware it still sounds buggy.
Just wanna hear the opinions of people who have had the phone for a while and had to time to play about a bit
Thanks
Jacob
Shoud you buy it?
I had a SPV M700 for a while but it had limited internal ram (50mb useable) which restricted use of 3rd party software so i upgraded to a diamond.
I have been using it for a week and I am not impressed.
Its advertised as 198 / 256 ram depending on the version but actually only has 105mb usable ram.
There is a lot of lag when switching programs and you miss a lot of incoming calls due to lag in the slide to answer function.
It does not have a dedicated camera button. The camera is slow to take a pic as it has to autofocus before the shutter clicks.
My biggest gripe is the navigation pad. It is very low quality and awkward to manouvre that it is almost unusable. The M700 has a high quality precision pad which is a delight to use.
Battery life is particularly poor, lasting about a day and a half.
If you flash it with good cooked ROM Diamon becomes a good device but if you want only Stock SW else it isn't impressive...
"...I would get it on Orange for £25 a month when they get it back in stock
Unlimited texts, fair few minutes as well how you pay now." the question is: How much do I pay now?
D'rath
Well I would flash it with a cooked ROM
Does anyone have a site or thread which explains all about having a phone with Windows Mobile because I have never used the software before and would like to gain a basic understanding of modding the phone.
But still, do the pros outweigh the cons?
If not what would you recomend in the same price range?
Thanks
Jacob
Read XDA forums
WM is hard the first time: you must change a lot of things, registry hack etc... if you won't do that else buy iPhone or a basic cellphone.
D'rath
Well this is one of the best phone to have...
Infact i had HTC TOUCH before...then i got Diamond...this piece of art is so cool and delicate that initially you bound to take utmost care while using it...but in couple of weeks u will fell in love with this device...according to me its one of the best device to own
dont think 2ice go for it
vishalkishnani said:
Well this is one of the best phone to have...
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Click to collapse
I'd second that. Having owned one for about 9 months I am still impressed by my HTC Diamond even (or particularly) when comparing to Iphones, Omnias, Palms etc.
Why? Mainly because it is VGA resolution, the SMALLEST Smartphone usable I found and cute.
Main thing is to get a good ROM ( I used the NAKED 2.03 one) and software of your choice and you are done. Costs around 100 Euros for me in terms of software but now it does EVERYTHING I need and want: Calendar Thumbcal, SBP Mobile Shell, G-Alarm, Lingvosoft Dictionaries, AudioTouch, Coreplayer, and Most Importantly: TouchPAL keyboard with Multi language support, plus some freeware tools). On Top TomTOm and you are done.
Battery life is around 3-4 days for me. But the UNIQUE SELLING PROPERTY is definitively the excellent small form factor and its beauty ;-)
Plus, now you should get it quite cheap (got mine for 180 Euros on ebay MINT).
Are you sure you get that much battery life.
Cause i had heard it doesnt last long, maximum a day.
Battery life is my major concern otherwise i am getting this phone.
The best is HD (big display makes diffence!!!)
2 days could be normal but if you call a lot, web, road Nav etc battery run away
On my HD 2 day with normal use
D'rath
In all honesty, I would say do not buy it.
Not because the phone is crap; I love my diamond, there are still parts I dislike but overall it's a keeper. My battery, with normal use, some gps, googlemapping, exchange direct push, 2 other mailboxes, 2 days on battery is certainly doable. The camera sucks though...fps is too low except in the best of lighting conditions. It is certainly NOT what the marketing shows it..
But, they are about to release the update (I thought they already did in europe?)
The new HTC google phones look nice, and will have all the functionality of this phone (including exchange).
The palm pre is nice also..a coworker just bought one..it doesn't have full exchange support yet (security policies). It really does seem like a nice phone..I wish I made more money I'd just buy all the cool phones and try them out. hah
Windows mobile is too outdated...they need to really get on the ball. HTC shouldn't have to create a layer on top to make it functional. And even then..the engine running behind the scenes is too slow, compared to the competition. I really think, unless you need an app that is only on windows mobile, get one of the other 3 phones (gphone, iphone, pre), or wait.
I dont care about the camera(coming from touch), so its still better for me.
Battery life is ma major concern, if it gets 2 days of normal usage than i am getting this phone.
OK its important question, please answer it.
How much time will the battery last if playing FM radio continously????
And is it worth buying used diamond for 200 USD??
Hmm, don't use FM radio much, but a lot of MP3 which should be similar. Though continuously??? probably a cheap radio for 10 $ is more suitable??
Anyway, with about one hour MP3s per day mine lasts 3 or four days depending on WIFI and HPS usage mainly.
Moreover, you can get a 30 Euros Battery which just adds 3mm thickness but 50% more battery which I will buy for sure once mine dies.
Compared to the PRE, I or G Phone, obviously they are nice, just in my opinion TOO BIG since you cannot write a novel anyhow on the device so I prefer one which compoares to very small phones, easily sits in the shirt pocket and is lightweight. Other than that, obviously go for a newer version, you get bit more speed and screen size.
In the end, its all a matter of taste and yes, Windows Mobile is crap but with Mobile Shell and other software, i hardly see it on my device.
Should you buy it?
It all depends on the type of person you are
If you are a gadget geek and like experimenting with new software etc then this is an ideal phone because there is lot of support, free, hacked and commercial software available.
Also
If you use Office software at work and need outllook / excell etc. on the move then buy it. The GPS and wifi functions are brilliant on this phone. The GPS coupled with TOMTOM is mile better than Iphone and for a lot less dollars.
On the other hand if you want a 100% reliable and user friendly phone then go for dedicated phone as this is a jack of all trades and will occasionally let you down.
The best analogy one can give is playing games on a PC and a playstation / xbox. The PC will occasionally freeze and need restarting whereas the PS/xbox will run the games flawlessly everytime BUT that is all they will do.
I have had my Kaiser for over two years now and have used it on a daily basis for all kinds of tasks. It has not let me down so far. I have looked at other phones, such as the touch pro 2 and Omnia 2, but I can't think of a good reason for replacing my Kaiser. Its simply a great phone - built like a brick **** house (as we say in the UK) and packed with useful features. Its the best phone I have ever owned.
Good phone, shame about aspects of the company
I still use mine daily and it was delivered on 1 Oct 2007 so I have much the same view about the device, not the company though. I tried the WM 6.1 updates and went back due to bugs and broken GPS (which they still didn't address in the newer WM 6.1 upgrade). I also hate the fact HTC didn't include proper video drivers to use the onboard GPU hardware acceleration (and didn't listen when loads of people complained - a patch to speed up screen orientation changes is not the same as proper drivers to give better video playback and snappy GUI functioning). They also tried to deny the phone even had the hardware to perform grapics acceleration. These are reasons why I wont buy another HTC device - especially given there's no easy way to tell if they've done the same thing again to penny pinch on drivers with newer models. This behaviour and the fact I never received replies to my letters about it sent special delivery to the regional company manager, left a very bad taste in my mouth about the company.
Ill have to third that ^_^ I hacked up the iphone and sold it after 2 weeks.. Blackberry lasted ONE DAY! And my search for a "transformer phone" continued! I bought a Kaiser used on CL and I havent put it down since and after finding this forum I cant help but showcase it to the world!
Hail to the Kaiser!
Gotta say, the Tilt 2 is looking mighty tempting to me Although I can get top-notch snappy ROMs on my kaiser, and true web surfing is for computers anyway, so why upgrade?
Plus then I'd be forced to get a real data plan lol.
I tried to love the kaiser for a year, but in the end I hated the thing. Slow, bulky, terrible OS, poor screen, awful keyboard, dire video and multimedia, barely usable camera, it simply does nothing well. I kept it on purely as a TomTom in the car, but it's not even much cop at that, especially with the 6.1 ROM which - as Flying Kiwi points out - ruined the GPS.
I'm thankful to it for one thing - it convinced me that Windows Mobile was a dead platform and I should give the iPhone a shot. 14 months later that's still the best phone/pocket computer I ever owned.
So I just signed a 3 yr contract with Rogers and they are sending me an X1 in the mail. I'm having second thoughts about X1, after hearing about all the problems about it. I might send it back when it arrives and grab an Iphone 3G for the same price under the 15 day grace period. I've had a jailbroken Ipod touch for a while now, and I'm really impressed at what I can do with it and all the incredibly useful apps that you can get. i might add that I'm generally an Apple hater, but I loved this product. I initially got it for personal/car music, but it has been great as an organizer, surfing web, video, games, etc.
I thought the X1 looked like it would be an Iphone killer. It had better battery life, better camera, higher network speed, and simply looks better. The crumbling housings, and keyboard failures are HUGE turn-offs for me. I don't mind a couple of aesthetic cracks after prolonged usage, as long as it doesn't affect the functionality of the device, and if the keyboard problems aren't major.
If I do trade it for an Iphone 3G, I could jailbreak it. I could then get rid of the Ipod touch and ultimately have a good all in one device with it. I worry about the battery life because of this though. Also, the Iphone has the great "Navigon" GPS app.
So what I'm asking is:
1. are there any counter measures you X1 owners take to make it last for a very long time? (i.e. keyboard, housing)
2. would you guys have preferred a jailbroken Iphone over an X1? (can anybody comment on the battery life of the Iphone compared to the X1?)
3. how would you guys compare both devices' features, app availability, and just sheer lasting quality? (it seems like SE is cutting off support for the X1)
Overall, I love the X1's form factor, look and feel, specs, but I need this phone to last. The Iphone on the other hand, has an abundance of useful apps, smooth operation, reliability, customization, and continued software updates, but I heard some things about bad battery life, and I really hate that signature "Apple Iphone" look.
I'm sorry for the super long post, but this is an important choice I need to make, so any insight would be appreciated.
1. the cracking issues are mostly aesthetic, and internal ones at that. They don't impair functionality (unless the crack is in the stylus slot or something). You usually don't even see them unless you remove the battery cover. speaking of which, the battery cover's paint peels of easily, but they're cheap enough to replace, or you can easily refinish or repaint it. My X1 is now black and candy apple red (inspired by the Satio). Looks really, really, really great.
the keyboard wears out after about 6 months or so. All you need to do is clean it (from the inside, which can be a hassle if you don't want to) and it's good as new
the flex cable, though, is a more serious problem. if it wears out, you absolutely need to replace it or you won't be able to use landscape mode
2. Given the above, I still prefer the X1 over the iPhone. Better apps (75% of apple apps are "fart" apps), better screen, multitasking, stylus support, Flash, battery life, customizable look (manila, SPB, pointui), XDA support, etc. However, since you're used to your iTouch, you won't need to learn a whole new OS.
3. I plan to use the X1 for a year more or so. I get enough support here at xda-devs such that my phone has yet to be connected to SEUS at all (my old k850 would get SEUS once a month). I'm using WM "6.6" (6.5.3) while the newest phone that you buy right now only comes with 6.5.
4. I agree. I also don't like the iphone for the main reason that everyone wants one just to "look cool"
If you're into customizing/tinkering, get a WM phone. If you just want a phone out of the box with minimal fuss, get the iphone. And if you decide to go the WM route, I suggest you take the iphone, sell it, then get an HD2. the X1 has depreciated so much that it's only worth $200
I got my X1 earlier today. I haven't activated it with my sim yet, but I've been playing around with it all day. I really do love the look and feel of the unit overall, and the keyboard is great. It's a 09W44 batch and has a black plastic frame under battery cover instead of grey. It also has the "new design" frame; did I get a good unit?
I can see myself using the keyboard a lot for text, so I don't want it to fail. I really want to like this phone, but keyboard and flex cable failures sounds ridiculous for such an expensive phone. Are these occurrences uncommon, or are they inevitably going to happen to all units?
The iPhone's on screen keyboard works great, and I can't see of that ever failing. So what can I do with the X1 that makes it better than a jailbroken iPhone? The iphone has a lot of useful apps such as one for traffic in my city, and a public transit schedule; does windows mobile have good apps that can do this too? Also the ipod music player transitions between tracks a lot smoother than the X1. Battery life on the X1 has been great so far.
I really do want to keep the X1, and if I do, I might get a nice case to protect it. I've been using Sony Ericsson phones for years until my last one broke and was forced to use an old moto razr (which is VERY durable phone compared to my last SE). I might just go ahead and risk keeping the X1 and fix whatever happens down the road. Is this what most of you guys are doing as well? Is it worth doing this over getting and iPhone?
Rydock said:
I got my X1 earlier today. I haven't activated it with my sim yet, but I've been playing around with it all day. I really do love the look and feel of the unit overall, and the keyboard is great. It's a 09W44 batch and has a black plastic frame under battery cover instead of grey. It also has the "new design" frame; did I get a good unit?
I can see myself using the keyboard a lot for text, so I don't want it to fail. I really want to like this phone, but keyboard and flex cable failures sounds ridiculous for such an expensive phone. Are these occurrences uncommon, or are they inevitably going to happen to all units?
The iPhone's on screen keyboard works great, and I can't see of that ever failing. So what can I do with the X1 that makes it better than a jailbroken iPhone? The iphone has a lot of useful apps such as one for traffic in my city, and a public transit schedule; does windows mobile have good apps that can do this too? Also the ipod music player transitions between tracks a lot smoother than the X1. Battery life on the X1 has been great so far.
I really do want to keep the X1, and if I do, I might get a nice case to protect it. I've been using Sony Ericsson phones for years until my last one broke and was forced to use an old moto razr (which is VERY durable phone compared to my last SE). I might just go ahead and risk keeping the X1 and fix whatever happens down the road. Is this what most of you guys are doing as well? Is it worth doing this over getting and iPhone?
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as much as i don't like the iphone - it would be the better choice. and harveydent's idea is good: get the iphone, sell it and buy a hd2!
apart from the hardware-issues already mentioned, with the x1 you get outdated specs and no more software-support by SE. (no firmware-update, no upgrade to winmo 6.5.x) they let this phone die end of march 2009 (last firmware) to protect and sell the x2. (you don't get the new x2-panels officially for example)
apart from officially running winmo 6.1 and the (in my opinion) useless panels the firmware is the major problem: it still has performance-problems. (meaning slow graphics drivers etc...) this is not really fixable with custom-roms. there's room for some tweaking (a lot, actually), but if the foundation isn't right...
sure, you can flash the newest winmo-leaks with the newest sense 2.5 (i know i do). but be prepared for a steep learning curve and lot of frustrating bug-fixing. (more often: wait for the cook to fix it with a new rom-version) there's always something not working, one bug get's fixed, another shows it's ugly head. and the endless flashing and hardreseting...
it's only for the past two weeks that for the very first time i have a rom where really everything works and which is running at great speed. but: i own this phone since march 3rd, 2009!
sure, i know a lot now about winmo 6.x, i can edit "light stuff" in manila-files, i have completely customized this phone to my likings. but apart from selling it i didn't really have a choice.
to think i'd have to start fresh now, with all these different winmo-branches and manila-builds out there - i wouldn't do it, knowing what i know now.
get the iphone and stay with it. or sell it for the hd2, it will get all 6.5.x-updates and maybe even an update to winmo 7.
The iPhone has more functionality these days due to its app store and accessories. Whether its making work related databases, or doing offline reading of the NY Times or most big periodicals, the iPhone can or can do it better than WM.
Just to drill into the 2 examples I used: I developed database software for medical research, and did so exclusively using WM. The software side of WM is terrible thesedays! The most recent database applications for WinMo are seriosly old, and developed when WM5 was around. On the other hand, database applications are new, easy to use, and much cheaper.
Example 2. You want to read the NY Times on your airplane ride? Have fun with RSS, and only picking up 2-3 lines of articles before you need online access. The nice thing about the iPhone is the major support for it from every company, so you just download the NY Times app, and all content for the past few days or however long you specifiy is available for free.
Yes, these are specific examples, but they should shed light on the current situation. The flip arguement whcih I'm sure will be expanded upon is mainly agaisnt iPhone lack of customisation, lack of standards support for thigs like bluetooth stacks, microSD, homescreen widgets, and being locke down by Apple.
Its up to you to figure out what's most important. Altough, if I were on Rogers, I would wait for the X10, which should have the best of both worlds...
i just got an x1 from rogers as well, and i too was concerned with the flex cable and keyboard problem but i decided to keep it anyway. One thing i did notice was that the flex cable seems to be reinforced now, not 100% sure though. Ive seen many pictures of the flex cable and its supposed to be yellowy orange. I used a flashlight to peek under the screen and its exactly that, except 90% of it is covered with a grey vinyl looking tape. Dont feel like taking it apart to make sure though.
I am selling my X1a right now. I got the iPhone 3GS last weekend
What a sigh of relief... speaker sounds great, no chance for cable issues, no possibility of phantom cracks, lots of apps, don't have to make 5 clicks just to turn my Bluetooth on/off, fast and lots of storage space. Best of all, I won't have to deal with incompetent SE support reps!
dorkster007 said:
I am selling my X1a right now. I got the iPhone 3GS last weekend
What a sigh of relief... speaker sounds great, no chance for cable issues, no possibility of phantom cracks, lots of apps, don't have to make 5 clicks just to turn my Bluetooth on/off, fast and lots of storage space. Best of all, I won't have to deal with incompetent SE support reps!
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Speakers are terrible on both devices, no cable issues, the Xperia X1 has lots of storage space too.
Rydock said:
I can see myself using the keyboard a lot for text, so I don't want it to fail. I really want to like this phone, but keyboard and flex cable failures sounds ridiculous for such an expensive phone. Are these occurrences uncommon, or are they inevitably going to happen to all units?
Click to expand...
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I don't know about the flex cable but I'm facing problems with the keyboard (and so are a lot of people from other forums I've been to as well). Got it repaired before the warranty expired but once again it's giving problems, such that I have no confidence in getting a X2. As much as I like having a keyboard, I might just go for a phone without a keyboard next, and the X10 and iPhone are two possibilities. So personally, I wouldn't recommend keeping the X1.
Thanks for all the great replies guys. Everybody (on here and IRL) is pretty much telling me to get the iPhone. One friend told me to just swallow my pride and get the iPhone because of its huge support base. After playing with the X1 some more, I found I really love this unit. It feels solid in my hands, but there are WAY too many reports of it's durability for me to trust it. It would be the best device, IMO, if it weren't for these problems.
I almost decided that I was going to keep the X1 for strictly phone, text, email, GPS, and mobile web purposes. And since I already have an iPod touch, I could use it for music, movies, and apple apps. I'd just be missing out on the GPS and 'away-from-wifi' web browsing, but the X1 does these just as well, right? Again, this gives me more to carry, but what I gain is a better multimedia player on the iPod, and better hardware on the X1 (camera, 3.5G phone, keyboard). I also won't be wasting battery listening to music on my phone. Almost the best of both worlds.
BUT after reading more replies, I just find it hard to justify having two devices when I could get everything I need on one simple unit (the iPhone). And the fact that they are both the same price, but you get way less hardware specs on the 3G. I'm now completely on the fence about this.
PsychoAssasin said:
One thing i did notice was that the flex cable seems to be reinforced now, not 100% sure though.
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Can anybody confirm this? This would be great news!
Also, I found the speaker on the X1 sounded clearer, but the iPhone speaker was louder but lacked clarity.
X1 over iPhone
Well - that new design which is being delivered for a couple of month now does have a stronger keyboard-cable. We did order 4 devices for my employees a couple of weeks back and they all have the new design and the new cable. So if you have the new design, I would not worry about durability.
Since X2 has been announced the x1 has really dropped in price so it was a cheap pick up. Here in Germany the iPhone is much higher in price and only comes with ridigulous bundles.
I had my casing replaced (slight cracks) after almost two years of hard work every day and the keyboard-cable has been replaced also (warranty). I did not have any functunality issues up til now - the crack was just optical, but they replaced the casing anyway. Thanks SE.
Support personal from SE is not worth a call - but that is what XDA is for
Apple does have cool looking stuff (my wife got an iphone as a gift and is cursing because she misses the keyboard), but for my day to day work (Appointments, contacts, gathering data in Word or Excel...) I always would prefer WiMo up til now. Taking a look at the app-store does not make me jealous - most of it is unneccesary or just a waste of time.
So I stay with my X1 for now and wait for the next generation WiMo phones with WiMo7 or iPhone 4 - both should arrive end of 2010 or start of 2011.
Every step in between is covered by XDA
Rydock said:
3. how would you guys compare both devices' features, app availability, and just sheer lasting quality? (it seems like SE is cutting off support for the X1)
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Don't know if this will help but I wrote the following 10 months ago. At that time, I had both units, Iphone and X1A. Sorry for my english.
POST 1: some of the main X1 pro and cons
I have the american version (X1A) for 3 months now. This is my first WM phone and I am very picky with technology.
I wanted that phone so bad that I spent a lot of time and money to get it.
I really like that phone for all the reasons mentionned above and more. What I couldn’t find when browsing the reviews was a comprehensive list of the cons of this model. Here are my points:
1- Camera:
Not good enough: too slow to load, too slow to take a picture, requires favorable ambiant light condition to take a sharp picture.
Video acquisition is undersampled making your video files not very smooth.
2- Battery Life:
I usually disconnect the charge in the morning. I use the phone every day. I’d say average of 200 Mb of data per day, 30 minutes of voice per day, 15 minutes of gaming. At this rate, my battery drops dead at 6 PM. I should lower my data usage but this is why I’ve purchased the phone, I don’t want to minimize the data consumption accordingly to the specs of the phone.
Edit: same thing with the Iphone, actually same thing with any phone I know
3-WVGA screen:
By far the best screen ever, but too few applications supporting this resolution so far. This is actually frustrating because most of my apps runs VGA on 2 third of the screen, leaving one third blank. Ugly.
4- Speaker phone quality:
Mono… Sound quality is poor. I’ve compared side by side with the N95, it’s night and day. You'll also find an app to crank up the volume if you need it.
Everything else besides that is great. It is the best phone I have ever seen and I do not regret it. It is really fast, the keyboard is great, perfect for e-mails, internet browsing (Skyfire browser supports flash!!!), media handling and playing. Resistive touch screen is better than capacitive touch screen (you have to install a couple of apps first that give you feedback when you touch the screen and that minimize the pressure you have to put on the screen).
I have looked for this phone for months, I’ll be glad to share my experience to anyone who has questions about it.
POST 2: Iphone VS X1
It’s a difficult comparison. The two phones are very different because of the operating system. You can’t really compare them. The X1 is definitely orientated for business use and computer nerds that like tweaking their phones. The Iphone is orientated toward users that likes having a finished well working product
It is like comparing a PC and a gaming console. The gaming console will always have better game versions but you will be able to do more stuffs with the PC besides gaming.
To summarize:
Iphone apps and responsiveness is faster. Which makes it more comfortable
Iphone screen is larger, more convenient for movies and watching pictures.
X1 has a better resolution allowing it much sharper screen details.
But the Iphone OS is limited. As always with Apple, the product is a black box. Even if you jailbreak it, there is too many frustrating issues. The copy paste was one of these frustrating examples (fixed in 3.0).
I think all Iphones users experienced this frustration at least one time. There is something we’d like the Iphone to do but it can not because of limitation on the OS. Like GPS navigating, Skype, copy paste, TV streaming, custom ring tones, customs background etc etc… We have to wait Apple to fix them and that’s the big difference with Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile users will have these frustrations sorted out by themselves. There will be always a way to fix this and that , thanks to XDA-developper .Users will download the right patch or the right application. Finding it and installing it might be a nightmare for some users. Can be fun for others. But it will never be as easy as the Iphone app store.
Finally, I prefer my X1 because I am using it for business. I couldn’t do that with the Iphone.I like the X1 behaving like my PC. I have all my sales products/ customer databases / pricelist and Presentations on my X1.
Because it is Windows Mobile, I am browsing the files as I do on my PC and I like that. I instantly answer customers and attach brochures or documents along with my e-mails. I don’t use my laptop as I used to.
These are things I couldn’t do with the Iphone.
I would go back with the Iphone if Iphone would have a keyboard and Windows Mobile on it. But that will not happen so I am staying with my X1. It freezes sometimes, I have to reinstall some apps, I have to constantly monitor what goes in and where to optimize its speed. That sounds microsoft ****? Well it is, and I am so used to it that I feel good with it. Because it offers me endless possibilities to tweak it.
Cheers
Yann
I ♥ my X1.
It's so flexible to my needs i just can't live without it.
no idea about if its reinforced
but after i sent mine in for warrenty repair, i decided to put a bit of tape on mine to reinforce it anyway! i only did this because i was changing my housing as well. (nothing wrong with it, not a single crack after a year, i just scratched it up when i dropped it on the floor xD
I love my X1, and XDA keeps it updated, who cares about Sony Ericsson Updates.
I say keep the X1, and use your iPod too!
@RacloOne I agree a 100% what you say, Although Alot of your problems you mentioned with the X1 have easy software [email protected] I've had my X1i(My first WM phone ever) sense October 2009 and have never regretted the decision . This is my personnel opinion of the Iphone, I respect the gaming of the I-phone and how smooth the UI is but other than that it's a over hyped fashion statement. Majority the apps are useless and another way Apple can drain money out of you something they do best, The way they lock down/ Limit their OS is restarted. I find it silly to buy an I-phone when your Ipod touch is the same thing except it doesn't make calls. I'm was coming from the Rokr E6(A linux based phone/my first touchscreen phone ever) and people warned me about how bad WM is Bla Bla Bla, But I went ahead and bought it anyway because once I learned the ins and outs of WM like I did with Linux I would be able to have the phone live up to it's potential and it has. I'm not going to lie when I first got my phone it froze alot but that was because of the the sh!tty 6.1 after I got rid of 6.1 all that has stopped, As for the scratches I have dropped my phone a couple of times so I obviously expect scratches lol. Reading this thread is the First I heard of this Flex cable issue but looking at it seems mine is reinforced so idk but no problems at all up to now. Honestly bro I say keep your X1 because it's worth it and if you do I would personally help you with any issue because most likely a new user like yourself would have similar questions/ issues like me when I first started off.
Here is my summary of my major problems with the X1 and the fixes. You can see that for me, the only big problems that can not be fixed are the sluggishness and the camera.
1. Finger unfriendliness --> SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 + WM 6.5.5 (great combo)
2. Screen sensitivity --> X1 SoftTouch tweak
3. Small messed up screen area and messed up LED --> Repaired by SE
4. Keyboard letter repeat problem --> Repaired by SE
5. Sluggishness --> Tried all tweaks (slightly helpful), tried overclocking (great, but unstable), but still takes too long to accomplish certain tasks
5. Blurry indoor photos --> Set to sports mode + LED on but pictures too dim
Overall I'm very happy with the X1, but wish the X2 could have nailed all those problems. Oh well, waiting a year or two...
Thanks to you guys, I've decided on keeping the X1. The fact that I can come to XDA for support, potentially stronger unit, and that I have the iPod touch to feed my apple needs. I'm just glad to hear that some of you have owned the X1s for a long time and still working.
Viper139 said:
I had my casing replaced (slight cracks) after almost two years of hard work every day and the keyboard-cable has been replaced also (warranty). I did not have any functunality issues up til now - the crack was just optical, but they replaced the casing anyway. Thanks SE.
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How did you get a warantee repair after two years? Or was that only for the keyboard cable?
Thanks to everybody who replied and help me make my decision and also for the iPhone comparison and the list of fixes.
Viper89 said:
Honestly bro I say keep your X1 because it's worth it and if you do I would personally help you with any issue because most likely a new user like yourself would have similar questions/ issues like me when I first started off.
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I'll keep that in mind, thanks! I think I'm going to enjoy my stay here.
@Rydock I'm glad to hear your decision, Ya just Pm any time I'm always glad to help.
Same here. Enjoy!
Welcome to WinMo, and have fun obsessively tweaking and flashing your phone!