Hi,
I still intend to obtain this smartphone, yet I thought I could get some opinions from people who actually own S730. I've read a bunch of reviews, but I am aware that reviewers might have skipped some issues (as proven with this driver issue and what TyTN II owners wrote on this topic). I mean - plain opinions, what do you like/dislike about the phone.
I newer owned a smartphone before and I am attracted to the keyboard+keypad idea (I own Nokia 6820), which leaves me with quite a narrow set of choices. S730 looks good and gets some nice reviews (negative ones typically center on how it is not so great upgrade from S710, which is irrelevant to me).
For example - I know that S730 is one of those devices affected by lack of proper drivers, but is it so painful? Despite possibility of resolving this problem by HTC - I never read anything about it being seriously lacking in terms of rendering graphics (which again - doesn't mean it isn't).
All opinions very welcome.
Thanks.
Fertesz said:
Hi,
I still intend to obtain this smartphone, yet I thought I could get some opinions from people who actually own S730. I've read a bunch of reviews, but I am aware that reviewers might have skipped some issues (as proven with this driver issue and what TyTN II owners wrote on this topic). I mean - plain opinions, what do you like/dislike about the phone.
I newer owned a smartphone before and I am attracted to the keyboard+keypad idea (I own Nokia 6820), which leaves me with quite a narrow set of choices. S730 looks good and gets some nice reviews (negative ones typically center on how it is not so great upgrade from S710, which is irrelevant to me).
For example - I know that S730 is one of those devices affected by lack of proper drivers, but is it so painful? Despite possibility of resolving this problem by HTC - I never read anything about it being seriously lacking in terms of rendering graphics (which again - doesn't mean it isn't).
All opinions very welcome.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I changed from HTC TyTN (I). I am really satisfied. TyTN was very good, but I hated touch screen. Now I am completely accustomed to non-touch screen and am satisfied. I don't play games so I even didn't check out that graphics driver issue. The only one thing I dislike about this phone is the lack of RAM. But it's also not so bad - I just have to restart my phone once a day. Also this was the same about TyTN, it went better with ROM upgrade (which I am now just waiting for). I know Nokia and Sony Ericsson (I had also P910) and you can't compare any other OS with Windows Mobile, it's best. I can absolutely recommend this phone to all men who use phone to work or to geeks.
HTC S730
I have had mine for about a month now and find it to be a little anemic. There is a memory leak problem which may or may not have a resolution. There are also features in these phones which do not seem to be activated ie... GPS (which is neither here nor there to me), but what does concern me is the lack of HSDPA services which this phone is advertised to have. There are several permutations of this phone including the Softbank X03HT which seems to have more of the radio active than the models being pushed on the market by HTC direct. I am about fed up with mine and am going to go to something with a more robust chip set such as the new HP models which are more business centric. It is unfortunate because you get roped in to paying a lot of money for features that you expect but do not get.
On a positive note though the senior members of this form are very adept at manipulating the software and documenting what can be done to make this phone more useful.
I really like mine, the memory issue is starting to slow me down in some places since I got used to actually having a smartphone (first one for me too) I watch video's and play games on it. Compaired to my old phone its night and day better so I cannot complain about that yet. Could it be better for the specs? Of course it could but until HTC or someone cooks something up what is is. Just keep the memory clean and you will be happy I love the keybard, I started texting heavily near the end of my old phones life and it was killing me. Same for online usage. A few days ago I learned that I can hold the button down for the secondary press instead of having to hit function... Small things that you wouldnt think about make it good.
I am happy with Edge speeds here in Texas, my old phones CDMA speed was slower than edge so eh, and I think last month I used almost 120 megs of data. Not a lot but enough.
As to their lack of HSDPA support, it never was advertised to have 3g here in the states, a few seller sites miss represented it but on HTC's site they never said it had the radio for the states. Stupid I agree but its not for the states and they never said it would work on 3g here.
If I was coming from the s710 which had better drivers or another well supported phone then I might be less satisfied, but I really enjoy this phone.
I'm really satisfied, love it for being a smartphone with no touchscreen. I hope the few bugs I've found so far could be resolved with a future upgrade. I have just two weeks on it and very happy, resolved the memeory issue with oxio closeapps, so pretty satified.
I like it, I changed from a nokia n91 8gb. I wanted to try windows mobile on a phone. It's a small phone, that looks normal, but it has great features. WiFi, 3G, fast processor, keyboard, high res screen, bluetooth,...
Imo it has everything a phone should have, except for the gps(it would rock if they fixed that!). The memory is not such a big issue, if you would run out of memory, you can use the taskmanager to close some apps.
I must say that WM6 is a little bit buggier than symbian, but it's not annoying.
I also love the program coreplayer, I can play high quality divx-movies without converting, like the prison break episodes. On my previous phone, i had to convert those, because the program(smartmovie) and the phone couldn't handle such files.
It's a very good phone. a bit too bulky but the keyboard is REALLY good. I makes a lot of difference. You can type anywhere in a very user friendly fashion.
The well publicized memory problem is just a concern, not an issue. I run a free RAM application once in a while and get on with life.
Video driver is good enough for small movies. It runs approx at same speed as my old Qtek8310 which had a slower clock.
Could be a bit faster with the menus but it's not really annoying. It's windows under the hood...
I use it for GPS tomtom and it's cool with external BT receiver. G3 in Europe is a blast!
I would recommend that device.
My only concern so far, besides the lack of gps, is its responsiveness. Considering the S730 is supposed to be a pretty powerful phone, I find it a bit slow opening menus, turning the screen, etc.
Arcano said:
My only concern so far, besides the lack of gps, is its responsiveness. Considering the S730 is supposed to be a pretty powerful phone, I find it a bit slow opening menus, turning the screen, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that was my first impression too: a bit on the slow side. But... surprise surprise... after getting a SDHC memory card (and not the standard old-fashion SD card I used to have earlier in my wings) all went much faster! and i really mean fast!!! Overall I am very happy and fully satisfied with my wings. just keeping a constant eye on the memory, and using an external gps, and all goes very well...
hey all!
i use my S730 since 1 month here in europe. it works pretty fine with HSDPA, WIFI etc.
i use it as a real business-tool every day. speed and memory is okay for me as i use a 2GB memory-card.
the only really big problem i have with that device is the battery-run. i have to use 2 batteries to keep it alive for the hole day without charging. specially when you use HSDPA the battery runs so fast.
all together a nice tool for daily usage of communication (phone, mail, chat ...)
hope the developers will solve that battery problem for the future.
So, if I make the results from contributions above - poor battery life, speed is not so fast as we expected, we are waiting for new ROM to solve the memory lack, we are waiting for new ATI graphics drivers, we are frustrated that GPS is really not working as HTC announced - and we hope that HTC will be so polite, that they cook the new rom which maybe solve some described problems - in that case S730 is really great smartphone.
rooomish said:
So, if I make the results from contributions above - poor battery life, speed is not so fast as we expected, we are waiting for new ROM to solve the memory lack, we are waiting for new ATI graphics drivers, we are frustrated that GPS is really not working as HTC announced - and we hope that HTC will be so polite, that they cook the new rom which maybe solve some described problems - in that case S730 is really great smartphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, altough what you mentioned above - yes, it is. Probably because these problems are little blown up. I migrated from TyTN which can be considered to be "top class" and I am really very satisfied.
rooomish said:
So, if I make the results from contributions above - poor battery life, speed is not so fast as we expected, we are waiting for new ROM to solve the memory lack, we are waiting for new ATI graphics drivers, we are frustrated that GPS is really not working as HTC announced - and we hope that HTC will be so polite, that they cook the new rom which maybe solve some described problems - in that case S730 is really great smartphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you in everything except one detail: I don't recall HTC announcing that the S730 would have gps (at least not in my country).
The phone was never advertised as having GPS, but since it shares the chip with the TYTNII it has GPS abilities. Now like with some other phones they could choose to support it, but thats kinda lame, they would sell a whole lot more of these things if it supported it out of the box.
Thanks guys
So, I assume that this RAM issue works kinda like in case of PC - computer becomes less responsive after several days w/o restart? Despite my ignorance on what technically causes this problem, I guess that this is common to pretty much all smartphones/PDA'a/whatever - I mean those 'more powerful' devices (gimme a break - my first PC had a processor few times weaker than S730!).
And as I understand, there is software that helps you deal with lack of free RAM. Is it build-in (don't think so...),or you have to buy/download it?
(OK, I googled up Oxios, mentioned by Litoven and I see it's freeware Funny thing - the post that mentioned it was the first thing I got when searched the google)
Another thing that I don't get: vrolok71 mentioned that his device's speed improved after getting a SDHC memory card... Could someone please explain what is so special about it - isn't it just an additional space, like most memory cards?
As for battery life - I already asked it in another thread and I believe that those conectivity options (3G, WiFi, bluetooth, etc.) are the ones that drain bettery most (this was kinda confirmed here too). So it seems that I can extend bettery life when I have too (trips?), by using standard connections, right? Some people reported a reasonable battery life, extending to few days w/o recharge. They weren't sitting on 3G and WiFi (not all the time at least) though.
As for upgrades from HTC - this whole classaction thing (I am impressed with this - I really am) resulted in, as I believe, an upgrade coming. Regardless if it means the drivers (as it seems - not, and that kinda makes HTC.... "unfriendly" company, and this sucks), it will supposedly affect S730's performance. In a good way I hope
Thank you for all the replies You have a great community here. All replies help really - nothing beats honest user opinions. Glad I found this forum
Oh - and about GPS: I don't believe it was advertised as having GPS, but certainly HTC (intentionally I guess) allowed some rumours to arise (pre-production model), which surely made S730 more interesting. Marketing I suppose.
Somewhat, but just like a computer you can keep your memory clear. I leave my PC on for months at a time without reobooting and dont run into problems. And most of what I do is memory intensive.
The program I use to keep my memory clear is build in taskamanger for closing things that dont have that option, and SK Tools (free to download) which has a good memory cleaner that will go in and free up the other stuff that isnt being used. But yes eventaully a quick reboot is the easiest way to just free it up again.
Some of what can speed it up with using the memory card is installing programs to this, or dumping your temporary internet files to the memory card instead of the phones memory / storage space. That type of thing can help performance a little.
When actively using those connections they will drain the battery a little faster, but without using them they dont affect it too much. Even using Edge I can drain my battery in a day easily, just depends on how much your using the phone.
OK, maybe I need to clean my CPU memory more intensively, or maybe it's just Microsoft Thanks for the reply anyway
I guess I'll have to get used to new routine - keeping memory clean. Not sure how painful this'll be, but it sounds like a reasonable thing to do. I mean - closing after you're done (with particular app).
Yeah, I'll never really now what battery life will be for me, unless I actually use the phone on day-to-day basis. Info gathered here gives me hope though.
Nice day to you all.
Fertesz said:
I guess I'll have to get used to new routine - keeping memory clean. Not sure how painful this'll be, but it sounds like a reasonable thing to do. I mean - closing after you're done (with particular app).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But remember - that is just the first half. Second is to free memory. To this you can use some "hibernator". E.g. Oxios Hibernate (freeware) or some task manager which has this feature built in - e.g. Smarttoolkit (freeware). Otherwise you help yourself just a little.
10332007 said:
Somewhat, but just like a computer you can keep your memory clear. I leave my PC on for months at a time without reobooting and dont run into problems. And most of what I do is memory intensive.
The program I use to keep my memory clear is build in taskamanger for closing things that dont have that option, and SK Tools (free to download) which has a good memory cleaner that will go in and free up the other stuff that isnt being used. But yes eventaully a quick reboot is the easiest way to just free it up again.
Some of what can speed it up with using the memory card is installing programs to this, or dumping your temporary internet files to the memory card instead of the phones memory / storage space. That type of thing can help performance a little.
When actively using those connections they will drain the battery a little faster, but without using them they dont affect it too much. Even using Edge I can drain my battery in a day easily, just depends on how much your using the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have found that when I use a memorycleaner like SKTools or Oxios, it crashes the cellphone: I cannot get any network and I cannot make phonecalls anymore - SMS is still functional.
The only thing I can do is reboot to get it going again.
Anyone has the same experience and/or a solution?
jvlerick said:
I have found that when I use a memorycleaner like SKTools or Oxios, it crashes the cellphone: I cannot get any network and I cannot make phonecalls anymore - SMS is still functional.
The only thing I can do is reboot to get it going again.
Anyone has the same experience and/or a solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems weird to me.. Does it happen every time you use Oxios or SKTools, or just sometimes?
Related
Hi all,
Just got myself an O2 XDA(ii). I have heard people banging on about WM5 and how I should upgrade the OS.
However, one question - why do it?
What will I gain by doing the upgrade?
Will it consume more system resources and therefore have an overhead performance?
What woes will be introduced by upgrading - will it break anything?
Is WM5 really as stable as WM3?
I hope I can get answers to these questions!!
Many thanks!
why use windows when dos works fine?
Windows is a GUI, dos is a CLI.
Both human interfaces are radically different.
The questions I posed are reasonable.
Try this..
borrow a WM5 device from someone for a day and dont use ur WM2003 device.
If u like something in that device, install WM5 on your BA and test it, try it
I thought that this was a technical website for developers - I had hoped for some slightly more in depth answers, like contrasting for example:
consumption of system resources
bugs
reliability
speed
new system features
security
power management
etc...
WM5 VS WM3
Hi,
It is a true question,
- I have just used WM5 a week. So I hope my experience will be useful for you.
Fist, the WM5 store all data on it's ROM so you won't lost you data example: instaled program in device, contacts, SMS, MMS... if it run out of energy, hard reset... But, that causes the speed is slower than official WM2003 Version 1.42.
It still remain some bugs example: sometime freeze when you turn it on, BT and wifi sometime need a softreset to turn on.
The energy consumsion is the same (waiting phone mode). Others depend on backlight, % CPU usage.
Certainly WM5 have much more feature. I really don't known what I should advice you now because I still often reset 1-2 time/day like my laptop. But I don't like thing which is the same forever expecialy softwares.
I hope you can have your answer.
Daeljan said:
I thought that this was a technical website for developers - I had hoped for some slightly more in depth answers, like contrasting for example:
consumption of system resources
bugs
reliability
speed
new system features
security
power management
etc...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for that answer!
To be honest, I got the XDA because I need something to keep me organised time-wise, so I'm more interested in stability than eye-candy. I don't want to fall behind the times either, but I may hold out untill WM 5 matures a little more. What you said about hanging when you switch on is off-putting enough - I had heard similar things about WM5 related to connectivity, but I've never had the chance to hear about it first-hand.
If anyone else would like to add something of similar content to this thread, I'd be very happy to read about it.
Cheers.
This is xda-developers so the question of why use WM5 on BA sort of answers itself by the simple fact that M$ has not given it to us in the first place (well this could also not be true as M$ did make a copy but none of the providers gave us a rom so that we all go out and by a new WM5 Device).
So why not? In the long run its more of a matter of taste, some have gone for and stayed with the WM5 on a BA, others have gone back and others have gone and brought a REAL WM5 device.
Its up to you, if you read the threads (of which there are many) you will find reasons to stay away and reasons to install it. Like I say its sort of personal.
Oh yes DOS was and is cool, still to this day I use it.
Dude
why don't you just flash to WM5 try it out
Dude
why don't you just flash to WM5 try it out, and if you don't like it go back 2k3, makes the most sense. You seem like a smart chap i'm sure you can figure it out, no harm to the device, and you'll get all your answers bra
My two cents if you like command line and stability learn linux, bash away!
Daeljan said:
I thought that this was a technical website for developers - I had hoped for some slightly more in depth answers, like contrasting for example:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Daeljan,
Welcome to the community! I'm sorry if some of the guys answered like that, but you have to understand that this question pops in from newbies every couple days "Why shall I do it?", "What's the difference", etc... So some of us just get tired of answering!
I am sure however, that you'll find many extremely interesting, highly technical threads.
So, to answer your question: WM2K+3 vs WM5
- I believe that part of doing it was actually to try to see it could be done, I mean the operators left us with an exceptional device (the BlueAngel) without upgrade, so many of us felt "betrayed" and wanted to get the latest, and greatest despite the lack of official support for a release.
- The LATEST version of WM5 (Helmi v3.2) is much more stable that the early versions, I'm currently running it and never think about downgrading back to WM2K3. Amongst the things I find interesting:
- The OS is almost as fast as WM2K3, in fact I run all most of the new versions of software flawlessly.
- WM5 has flat memory and no sharing between the "Storage" and "Execution" spaces (Which is something you will immediately notice on your old OS), so you get more running memory for your applications.
- Because of the above, WM5 has "resilient" storage, i.e. a reset will not erase your data, that alone is a great advantage.
- Some apps that do not run anymore on WM2K3 are now accessible for our community.
- Some applications are natively available on WM5 (Like Mobile PowerPoint) for example, and are not there on WM2K3.
- Better synchronization with your desktop device (You can, for example see your contact pictures directly synchronized, whereas with WM2K3, you can't).
On the other hand, we have a few issues (That are getting fixed with every new release), like:
- Slightly higher power consumption.
- A very, very ugly bluetooth protocol stack... People are doing an amazing job there, and the problem is almost over.
- Other minor issues that you'll discover while browsing the links.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
W.
1) click search, type an abbrevieted version of your first post in it.
2) be swamped with a massive amount of posts ABOUT THE SAME THING.
3) repeat in future.
(sorry if im being a bit harsh but i myself have awnserwed this question many times before, just search in future!)
Thank you all for your answers, and sorry for making you repeat yourselves.
I suppose that this is an obvious topic for discussion that many people naturally want to know about.
So why not post a summary of it all somewhere where people can find it without having to mine the forums? I searched the FAQ for WM5, Upgrade, Windows Mobile 5, in various combinations and nothing came up.
The bluetooth problems are a little scary though if the XDA is to be used as a GPS, connected to the antenna via bluetooth.
Anyhow, thanks again.
Hic
You can try, it is easy to downgrade, not compelex as in the instruction.
1. Change to bootloader mode, connect USB run Ship file,
2. After the instaltion procces finished, softreset your BA.
3. The first start maybe get mistake, cause ExtraRom could be changed, softreset again, your BA will run in a pure state, unhide ExtraROM-softreset, copy all files in the ExtraROM of Ship file (extract from Ship file) to the ExtraROM, you can also change ExtraRom as you want.
4. Hardreset---everything is OK.
Wzaatar
Very nice post you did there old chap, thanks. You almost got me to try it all over again.
I use the ROM in my signature and I find it great apart from the odd problem but that could be from the 50+ apps I have on it.
Go for it...
Daeljan said:
Thank you very much for that answer!
To be honest, I got the XDA because I need something to keep me organised time-wise, so I'm more interested in stability than eye-candy. I don't want to fall behind the times either, but I may hold out untill WM 5 matures a little more. What you said about hanging when you switch on is off-putting enough - I had heard similar things about WM5 related to connectivity, but I've never had the chance to hear about it first-hand.
If anyone else would like to add something of similar content to this thread, I'd be very happy to read about it.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I'll try to give you a different slant on things....
WM5 utilises persistent storage (as stated above) which means that, should you find yourself in the unfortunate position that your BA has run out of juice you'll retain all your data (even the RAMDisk contents contrary to some other peoples posts). This is not the case in WM2003SE. If you let the battery run down in WM2003SE it's adios amigo! And start all over again.
WM2003SE while quite stable, is not perfect, especially once you have several apps installed and use it aggressively. WM5, while technically only in beta for this device (as they are mostly hacked/patched/ported ROM's) can prove to be a very stable platform. I have used nearly every version of WM5 on this forum to try and find the 'right' one... and I use my BA constantly, for business purposes and satnav guidance.
Comparing the 2 OS's is like comparing Windows XP and Vista... XP is a proven system, Vista is not, so direct comparison would be unfair to either... as for performance, with the tweaks now found in the newer WM5 ROM's I find my BA responds as well, if not better, than with WM2003SE, battery consumption is a little higher but that can be resloved with any of the CPU throttling apps available...
I wholeheartedly recommend the AKU 2.6 version of Helmi's ROM. I went away on business recently with WM2003SE installed and while away flashed this version of the ROM. My reason for being back with WM2003SE prior to this was the sluggishness of my BA after a while of running WM5. During my absence the Page Pool fix reared its head and all seemed to be good in the world. While AKU3.2 is the newest version of WM5 it has inherent compatability issues with much of the software available for WM5, even Microsoft's own such as Voice Command (an app I actually make use of!). The AKU2.6 ROM doesn't have these issues, and with the paging fix does not become sluggish at all.
9 weeks on and my system has only frozen once, and that was with a 'hacked' piece of software so I don't blame the system... I have not had to reflash once, and I honestly don't remember having to soft reset... I have yet to find a WM5 compatible app which doesn't work with it, and I use it day in, day out.
In short, I jumped on the WM5 bandwagon some time agao and was very disillsusioned at one point, so much so that I returned to WM2003SE... However I missed the smoother GUI, the much better handling of popups and alerts, the tighter integration with Outlook, the better operation of ActiveSync and so forth, so I came back to the fold, and I will not be downgrading again...
If you use Push Email anything after AKU2 (or is it 2.3?) is a Godsend, and believe me, the overall feel of the OS is much smoother, it feels like a 'pocket pc', rather than a really gucci phone!!
I use my BA to play media, read newsfeeds, browse the web, check/send email, and all the other stuff my mates do on their laptops, and if you have the right settings for your provider there should be no issues with connectivity... I have A2DP set up as well so I have a stereo BT headset for music/video etc... I run TomTom, Garmin Que, OziExplorer...
Oh! And I use it as a PDA/Organiser, my life is on that brick, and believe me, it gets hammered!!
I also have an XDA Exec now and to be honest I prefer the BA... although I do love my IQ (but Smartphone is a whole different kettle of fish)!!
I hope this gratuitous plug of WM5 helps sway your decision
I personally like WM5. The issue for me, and the reason I bought the SX66 in the first place, was screen size and muscle. Alot of the affordable WM5 devices out have small screens compared to what I am used to in a PDA. I cannot afford and Jasjar (wish I could) so I looked for something with a decent screen size and processing power.
The SX66 was the only choice for me, EXACTLY because I could flash it too WM5 Haven't looked back since. I run my games (Morphgear - SNES), work with my files without having to squint too much, play my music and get phone calls. Coolest thing in the world.
I have compared it side by side with the 8125 and the windows Treo, it kept up easy enough. Out did them in some area's, lost in one (no camera)... but in the end its just as functional as the new ones.
Flash it and see!
Daeljan said:
Thank you very much for that answer!
hi Daeljan,
Just reiterating what people has said before
To be honest, I got the XDA because I need something to keep me organised time-wise, so I'm more interested in stability than eye-candy.
-- if this is what you need, then you definitely need to upgrade to latest WM5 (Helmi, Xplode - both are great). The sole idea of "persistent storage" itself is a must to upgrade. I am using IIs (Helmi's rom) and I actually found my BA is more stable than when I used 2003SE. I had this hard reset issue when I pressed the green button to receive phone call. It annoyed the hell out of me. It happened to me about 3 times... Now this problem is gone. Just imagine yourself is out of town for a business trip and suddenly our "stable 2003SE" hard reset by itself and the back up file is at home in your pc... what a bum huh? it happened to me.
I don't want to fall behind the times either, but I may hold out untill WM 5 matures a little more. What you said about hanging when you switch on is off-putting enough - I had heard similar things about WM5 related to connectivity, but I've never had the chance to hear about it first-hand.
-- This is a subjective comment from me, I think the current version of WM5 out here are good enuf. I dont think it will "mature" too much cause people WILL be busy playing with WM6. As far as I know, more and more developers make new softwares for WM5/6 and less make them for 2003.
Yes, WM5 still has some issues now, but I have not found 1 piece of software that is perfect. even 2003SE had issues. However, these are acceptable issues (for me anyway).
Just a happy user of WM5 and I would never go back to 2003SE (unless I want to sell my beloved BA, then i might have to flash it back to factory rom ).
If you want to wait, dont wait for WM5... wait for a more stable WM6.
Like other happy users, I still have hopes the geniuses from xda-dev would find a way to make WM6 work on BA... whatever solution that is...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WM5 allows me to install apps to my storage cards - very useful! There is also the "device lock" feature which has saved me $$$ in phone bills from calls I didnt make.
I am a SPV M3100 (Tytn 1) owner at the moment running Schap's 4.30 Full ROM and the handset runs very well.
On Monday I am out of contract and can either upgrade to the Tytn2 with Orange free of charge or move to T-Mobile and their version for practically nothing (Orange or T-Mobile will be dependent on Orange offering me a decent data package instead of 30Mb for £8).
My main question is really, is it worth upgrading from a Tytn1 to a Tytn2?
On paper it seems to (camera/rom & ram/gps/tilt screen/thinner), but I been scanning through some articles and posts and lots of driver problems have been mentioned? Whats going on with this?
I saw an iPhone the other night and was very impressed with the interface but it lacks 3G/HSDPA and the camera is 2MP and doesnt do video and and and, not to mention having to shell out £269 and an 18 monther on the contract.
Whats the HTC Touch Cruise like and do any UK networks sell it yet?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts...
Will shortly be in same position so am interested in any responses.
I don't see Orange coming up with a decent data plan so I expect to have to leave them for Vodafone/O2 (Tmobile have a reception blackspot just about over my house)
Will probably upgrade so that I can reduce the time to the next upgrade if you see what I mean -not sure I see anything out there in the V near future to make the Kaiser obsolete.
Re Iphone - yeah looked at it but I need the hardware keyboard and have become a bit of a flashaholic etc.
That and I will get the Kaiser free. Don't like the excessive Apple control over everything.
I am with Orange and pretty annoyed myself... I think I'd be leaving too
Well O2 and Vodafone's dataplans are as bad as Orange's. (Voda unlimited = 120mb cap).
Orange did have a Orange World Unlimited package for £8 a month which gave you a gig of use a month which would be enough for me.
Can't really help in regards to whether it's worth the upgrade, as I've never used a TyTN I before, however, in regards to video driver issues, this seems to be hit and miss.
My TyTN II has never had any problems playing video's or games, and for the record, to play my video files I use Kingdia Video Converter to convert to avi, then use Ashampoo Movie Shrink and burn to compress file to QVGA (small file size, great quality). I then use TCPMP with the FLV 0.4.2 plugin to play them.
Not sure if it's because mine is UK bought with Original HTC ROM, but I don't mind as long as it works
Question really is....what do you want / need your phone to do?
I came to the Kaiser (o2 Stellar) from the HTC Universal (o2 XDA Exec) a month ago. I do miss the bigger screen and keyboard of the Uni. Apart from that the Kaiser is better in every way. So much nicer not having to soft reset every other day cos I'm running out of RAM (I have yet to soft reset the Kaiser for any other reason than installing software). So much nicer not having to juggle where I install stuff, it just all goes onto the device in the huge memory available (no sarcasm, after getting by on 30MB, suddenly having nearly 100MB to play with is huge!)
Camera, its a PDA not a SonyEricsson. I was hoping for better pics with a 3MP camera on board but it's no replacement for a real camera. It will do if you have nothing else, and I doubt you'd be disappointed with the results as I suspect the Tytn I camera is no better than the Uni's.
I suppose I do miss the flash on the camera, mainly cos it was a handy torch. I did miss the IR port, but got off my butt and set-up the BT on my PC and now use that instead for file transfers when I don't want to plug the sync lead in.
I have used the Kaiser with a SonyEricsson HBH-100 BT handsfree, it works fine. I also use a SonyEricsson MBR-100 BT thingy to connect to my car stereo and home audio system. Likewise this works perfectly. Finally I have a Nokia 610 car-kit and it connects to that via BTSAP, no problems. All of it straight out of the box, no patches, updates or hot-fixes. BT driver issues? Not in my experience. Only thing that doesn't work with the phone is my older HBH-10 headset. It is about 10yrs old, and is probably just too old to be compatible.
Video? I converted loads of videos years ago to wmv files to use with a HP Ipaq 5450. They play just fine, little jumpy, but this is due to the compression (25mb for 45 mins of video) rather than the device itself, they are jumpy on my laptop too.
Audio? Built in loudspeaker is poor. But what do you expect from something that small that was designed (I guess) for voice, not music. MP3's play well, and when connected to headphones or an external sound system, its great! I bet the type of people that can hear the difference (and care about it) between 192kbs and 320kbs encoding will argue the toss...
GPS. IMHO, no problems. Used it with several apps, gets a fix quickly, holds onto the signal well and is accurate enough. Bench testing against my Garmin standalone GPS (Kaiser plonked on the dash, Garmin with an external roof mounted antenna) both get a good signal and the tracklogs more or less match, good enough for sat-nav anyway (yes the Garmin is more accurate and gets stronger reception but it does have that powered, amplified roof antenna to help it remember! The Kaiser has never failed to get a fix)
WiFi and other data (GPRS, 3G, HSDPA etc) works well. I have the Opera Mini browser as well as PIE. No problems surfing the net, checking email, using MSN or Skype.
Just have a look at the threads in this forum, how many are from newbies asking for help, or moaning something doesn't work when they haven't tried to fix it, or just plain don't know what they are doing?! I'm not saying the Kaiser doesn't have issues for some people, but seriously, if you can get the Kaiser for little or nothing, just upgrade already and if it's really not to your liking stick it on Ebay and make a few hundred! I have a collection of old phones and PDA's so I don't have to use the Kaiser. If it sucked, I would have gone back to my Uni in a heartbeat. The only time I don't use it now is if I'm going out and want a phone with me I don't mind loosing or breaking.
Hope that helps?
It depends what you want out of a phone. My comparisons are between my Vodafone 1605 (unlocked Hermes) and my HTC TyTN II (unlocked Kaiser).
Camera: Useable but crap. Needs one of the cooked roms and cab update to get any real use from it.
Camera Flash: Missing on Kaiser. I used to use this a lot as a torch when taking instrument reaings outside in the dark.
Wifi: My Kaiser is better.
GPS: TomTom is brilliant and sold the Kaiser to me.
Video: Mine seems ok but I'm not a heavy user. Many people seem to have driver problems so I assume they use video more than me - also, I don't use streaming video so I can't comment - this may also be where all the video driver problems are.
Tilting Screen: A bit of a gimmick for normal use, but ok for watching a movie on a plane.
Speed: With Dutty's ROMs my Kaiser feels faster but this may just be imagined.
Memory: I'm a heavy user of space. I have 51 add on programs including converters, dictionaries and translators etc. Kaiser definately better.
All in all I'm glad I upgraded to the Kaisr, but despite that I haven't got the heart to get rid of my Hermes yet...
I will seriously miss the flash, especially with the camera.
And my Hermes does everything I need it to do right now, but things like more ROM/RAM, better camera (in MP), etc would be nice. But I dont fancy wasting an upgrade. (UK people will know what I mean by that).
My vodafone 1605 is a TyTN 1 and I upgraded to a TyTN 2. In most areas I don't think that there is much improvement with the new phone.
If you're happy with the TyTN 1 I wouldn't bother yet unless GPS becomes a real necessity, of unless you're a gadget freak who needs the latest and greatest. Maybe you should wait a while and then when you become less happy with your TyTN look at upgrading then - it won't be too long before the Kaiser comes down in price or there are newer versions available.
Well money isn't really a factor. In the UK we can upgrade our phone at the end of the contract term, normally for free. If I don't upgrade then I will just be wasting an opportunity.
That is my thought exactly. I think it will be a year at least before anything fantasticaly better comes out so then allowing time for initial bugs to be worked out, I think I will upgrade to the Kaiser so when contract ends in 18 months it should be about time for the next big thing.
Incidentally, I do have the 1gb Orange data bundle but it expires sson and cannotbe renewed.
120mb or 200 on O2 should do me quite well - 30mb however is just too little.
I upgraded from the Hermes to the Kaiser. Never looked back since.
Apart from the ****e Orange data packages. Currently using unlimited off-peak for £5 a month. Not ideal, but I work office hours anyways.....
Been There Done That
Had been with Orange for a while but was a very devout Nokia "Smartphones" Fanboy.
Had a free upgrade due and already had 2 of Nokia top phones at the time and instead of wasting the upgrade I upgraded to the SPV M3100 (Tytn I) just over a year ago. And boy was it something different. The hardware keyboard was a massive god sent. And just the sheer functionality of the phone coupled with the wide amount of apps you could install on it, plus the so much more useful roms I upgraded to courtesy of everyones fave developer forum. Really started becoming a massive tool and made my commuting time into Central London from the outskirts really productive and enjoyable.
Last week was due the annual upgrade and having checked out the features of the new Tytn II online, dived in without a second thought. After the initial transitional period and all the rom installations and getting the settings to suit my own individual needs. I can safely say that the beloved M3100 is been on a window sill gathering dust. Installed Duttys Dual Touch Rom II, a few apps, a few games, set up Windows Live and my own work emails and now just waiting on the 8GB Micro SDHC card i order and i should be all set.
Play Dvdrips and TVRips on TCMP with no lag and Dutty's rom doesnt seem to slow down too much, so havent reallly felt the affects of the missing graphics drivers. Just feels so natural now. I can safely say that if someone created a better Internet Browser solution right now I would definitely stop using the laptop for casual use. At the moment using a combination of Picsel, Opera, and IE and none seem to be doing a complete job. Picsel is awesomely fast and useable but its still in early development and doesnt support complete web solutions.
As for Orange, their data packages have never been the best but i usually use the net heavy apps like Windows Live Messenger, Youtube streaming and Net browsing in the Office or at home where theres a Wifi connection. But to be honest none of the other Network Providers have great deals and i've been with all at one point or another T-Mobile Web n Walk is good but they've started blocking certain ports that limit what you can do or so i have heard. The off peak data package (if you work 9-5) doesnt seem too bad.
But hopefully they'll come out with better packages soon.
Hi, interested you have skype working on your Xda Stellar - I can't seem to get this working? I downloaded the windows mobile version of skype and get a "this is not a valid pocket pc application" message and it fails to install.... Do you have any ideas?? Thanks
I am with vodafone and in a position to upgrade to which will be my first HTC phone. I was looking at kaiser but am thinking of hanging on for a couple of months for the HTC touch pro.
Kaiser audio quality
Hi,
I just upgraded from Hermes to Kaiser, and I'm comparing the two units at the moment.
I noticed that audio quality of Hermes is better, especially when listening to mp3s.
Does anyone agree?
I'd try and get a HTC Touch Pro if possible, just make sure it's the Pro and not the Diamond as you'll get the better (larger) battery and not have to give up the keyboard. The feature list of the Touch Pro is much better then the Kaiser.
The Kaiser is after all just an "update" that only new features are a slightly larger storage (not much of an issue with an SD-Card though) and built in GPS (but an externall bluetooth GPS gives you more battery.) On the downside of the Kaiser you have to convert videos to play just on your device where as with the Hermes I could use the same vids for my PC - which is basicly a downgrade.
Without meaning to sound defeatist, I have been looking into alternative devices, given the current issues
The Eten X800 is fairly similar in specs to the TyTN2. Has GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, no keyboard though (but VGA screen). But reading reviews, users are very criticial of the build quality, stability, usability, and customer support/ update frequency. The recent M800 has similar specs but with Qwerty keyboard. Again, I am reading bad reviews about stability and poor quality - apparently the key markings is rubbing off within days.
Other similar specced device is Toshiba G900. Again, seeing a lot of negative reviews, and lots of users sending theirs back. Apparently the interface and usability are appaling.
These seem to be the most directly comparable devices. There is the Samsung Imate range but I'm not too keen on the clamshell form factor for a PDA.
From what I am reading, HTC's devices are actually the most stable and well built devices with this sort of feature set. I realise there are huge issues with support and implementation of some features, but overall there is a reason why HTC stills keeps coming up again and again in "Top 10/Most wanted/ Most popular lists". Of course, they know that too, which is probably why they don't really care about the issues we are trying to highlight. They know that they are at least equal to any direct competition, even if no better.
Which is why I am sticking to my TyTN2 for now. It certainly does most of the things I want it to do, and does them fairly well, if sometimes (graphically) slowly. Put it this way - I bought my TyTN2 in October 2007 and have only ever soft reset it after installing cabs etc, never due to system freeze or crash. And I have certainly never had to hard reset. Have never had a device of any class I could say that about before. (course, guess what's going to happen in the next 24hours....!)
Anyone got any other comparable devices I missed out? As happy as I am with the TyTN2, if there was another device with same features but proper display drivers, there would be no question about swapping.
The at&t tilt is another name and the T-Mobile MDA Vario III.
+1 from me. Add the tilting screen, I'm not sure any other device has this and it's very practical. Likewise the QWERTY keyboard, limited competition for that. True you could get a bluetooth, or external keyboard, but that kinda defeats the all in one nature. Videos are fine with re-encoding (Ican live with that), sat-nav, perfect for the applications I run, I have tried TomTom now, and the jumpy screen really isn't that bad (IMHO) (however route calculation requires a bit of work, my 8yr old Garmin gives better, more direct routes. The Kaiser is quicker on calculation, but still has the same map errors the 10yr old map set on the Garmin has)
fisha21 said:
(course, guess what's going to happen in the next 24hours....!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Optimistic ain't ya?! I'd be surprised if you lasted the day....
Hi all,
Today is the time to depart the formums as an existing Kaiser owner and help out only as a once windows owned device person
I've not contributed THAT much - atleast not using this name but I had another and was forced to change it due to a "run in" with a moderator on here who got kicked out soon after - this was a while ago though so it's been an interesting ride.
So not much of a story - Been a windows device owner since the first Ipaq in B&w screen and slowly moved onto the windows phones as soon as they came out (starting with the XDA). While my main job revolves around business intelligence, I still have a "side job" in repairing phones/electronics and the company I do this for gives me 15% on products hence changing my phone everytime a new one comes out!
I stop at the kaiser purely for a handful of reasons. While the bluetooth issue was somewhat sorted by reg changes, it still was not enough and it was heavily impacting my main job in where consultants require to be mobile on the phone wherever I go. In the car, it became dangerous at high-speeds where I was having to undock the phone and hold it - something now illegal here.
The other reason was purely down to the whole HTC Suit going on and rumours (not one to listen mind you) about HTC stopping production on the kaiser until this blows over.
I thought, while the price is high, get rid of it, migrate to something else and see what the future holds!
What did I get?
Well, last sunday, I was given two N95's to fix, one hardware, one software. The software was easy enough, hardware was interesting as it was my first N95 to rip open to its bare bone (liquid damaged).
Once I got it working, I started to play around with it and before handing it back to the customer, I have to ensure EVERYTHING works - minimum 48 hour testing.
I instantly decided I would want this IF I did not have the Kaiser...a few days later, I had a call in the car and again, could barely hear the person... I decided to use the customer's N95 and it was perfect.
I decided then to buy one and get rid of the Kaiser.
Thats pretty much it! I now have a N95 Nokia in Black (8GB version), loaded what I would use on the kaiser and so far, not had to pick up the kaiser once in 2 days.
Differences?
The biggest is the touch screen... I sometimes get frustrated I cant just select text and have to use keys to do it...something I'll get used to.
The other biggest is the keyboard. I used to be a typical txt'r on the nokia phones when I was a kid and thought it would be fine now - WRONG!
I would say it took me 3 times longer to txt then it would have on the kaiser!
Other than that, phyically, the screen is the same size (2.6") but much sharper and clearer on the N95 (I think the N95 has a much better resolution). And then theres the weight, while size doesnt make that much of a comparison, the weight is very noticable.
Software:
Ok, again biggest is windows vs symbian but speed-wise, no difference at all. It's a bit "noddy" in symbian to have everything in icons almost to spoonfeed even those who know the system but I can live with it.
Bluetooth is excellent, satnav is also good though it cannot handle TomTom unless used with an external reciever (something apparently waiting to be fixed)
Alarms work and is not limited to 3 like Windows. Small things like SMS on rejecting a call, having a delivery reports folder for SMS and so on is default on the N95, something windows still cant seem to grasp (despite numerous requests).
At the same time, you dont have the luxury of the proper Office, you have to go quite deep into symbian to change a theme, windows you dont, then theres the wonderful scrollwheel, something missing in the N95.
Overall, they both are excellent, what windows missed out, symbian got and viceversa. For me, I require bluetooth to work properly and not sound like I'm listening through a glasswindow. As long as this is the case, and GPS/satnav works... I'm happy. The n95 has a lot more features - one of the biggest being the accelometer which is like a motion detector - I can make my phone go landscape simply by moving the phone that way or I could navigate through menus simply by moving the phone in the direction I want to go in.
It's a gimmic but still, its there and its for the consumer to use .. or not to.
Hope this isnt too long and boring you but I didnt want to be like the typical leaver on the forum to say kaiser is crap, nokia is better because on the whole, I still would prefer the windows one if they fixed the issues, but now also if they made it ligher and more ergonomic (not that it already is!)
Based on the closing paragraph above, don't bother replying if all you're going to say kaiser is the best blah blah blah, though constructive comments are also welcome.
WIll pop in now and again and I think I have a few donations to make too!
(I could type the above on the kaiser, but I'll be damned if I have to type that on a normal N95 keypad...another user for the kaiser keyboard )
Yeah. Sorry to say, mine's hitting the road as well, but I'm not a smartphone kind of guy, i need a full-blown mobile office. so I got an E90 instead. Guess Nokia's getting the better side of things, eh?
Im the same mate ! Ive gone back to the Treo 750 and if not anything else , backto a rock solid phone thats works well all the time.
Just carried out HSPDA update on it and the speeds on net is fine . Email collection is spot on .
And on going back ive realised that i should never have jumped from it in the first place .
Still a HTC handset , but one thats working 100% for me
Can't comment on Symbian - never tried it. I used to use Palm OS and switched to PPC a few years ago.
Had a Dell X50v with VGA screen. Going to the Tilt/Kaiser was a step way down on screen resolution, but many steps up in other ways (like it fits better in my pocket and I don't have to carry a separate phone anymore, GPS, HSPDPA, nice keyboard, up to 32 gb memory card, lots of custom roms, ect...).
If I could do it over I would stick with the Tilt. Treo 750 lacks too many features (screen size, screen resolution, keyboard, GPS and doesn't sit nicely on a table for reading, 2GB max storage card). I want a Pocket PC 1st and a phone 2nd. But I'm not a business user. I could care less about talking in the car. Proven dangerous anyway, even when hands free, and those bluetooth headsets make you look like a cyborg.
I just came to the Kaiser from the S620. The Kaiser is really lacking in usability while "on the go". It was much easier to navigate the S620 I could respond to a text message with barley a glance at the phone. The S620 was also faster for most common tasks like making a phone call replying to an email etc... I find that I really like the kaiser as a data device and am very happy with it in that capacity. Surfing the web with opera mini is great much better experience than O-Mini on the S620 The keyboard is nice if you are using it with 2 hands the extra flexibility of WM6 on the PPC vs WM on the SmartPhone is also nice.
I can appreciate why you are peeved with the kaiser, I would be too if I was trying to use it as an all features phone.
However I do not, and I always view windows devices as a PDA with a phone built in, or as an add on in the software. Therefore it will never out perform or match a well specified Nokia mobile phone for example.
My solution is this:
Run the Kaiser as a device, for email internet and controlling your diary, schedule and files etc. Run it on a data only tariff, for example for £15 a month at the moment with vodafone uk you can get 1GB a month.
Then run a well equipped Nokia mobile phone as your phone, you get great call quality, good handsfree support when in the car as well as being able to leave the Kaiser at home if you do not want emails etc.
I do this, I run a Kaiser on data only, it does my gmail via imap as well as outlook email and internet plus in control my diary on it.
I then run an Nokia E65 which does my phone, test messaging etc etc etc. I also run my gmail via the Symbian onboard email client which means if I am out I can check headers and download an email if I need to read it.
I think for the small extra monthly outlay the kaiser is a fantastic device for what its designed for and I am not going to blether on about that.
Food for thought.
Tom
Tom Williams said:
My solution is this:
Run the Kaiser as a device, for email internet and controlling your diary, schedule and files etc. Run it on a data only tariff, for example for £15 a month at the moment with vodafone uk you can get 1GB a month.
Then run a well equipped Nokia mobile phone as your phone, you get great call quality, good handsfree support when in the car as well as being able to leave the Kaiser at home if you do not want emails etc.
I do this, I run a Kaiser on data only, it does my gmail via imap as well as outlook email and internet plus in control my diary on it.
I then run an Nokia E65 which does my phone, test messaging etc etc etc. I also run my gmail via the Symbian onboard email client which means if I am out I can check headers and download an email if I need to read it.
Tom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you could just get a laptop with a built-in 3g card from whatever provider you want. I heard they have pretty nice qwerty keyboards on those. If that's too expensive, there's always an EEE PC + USB card, especially since those cards are usually free if you sign a contract.
Then you could drop the smartphone and just get your choice of free crappy samsung/motorola flip phone for phone and text.
The point of these devices is convergence. To re-split them is to go backwards in time.
Hmm.. if HTC doesn't fix this soon, I'll get the Meizu M8 (IF it will be released that is..).
Finally a sleek WM phone, 16 million colors baby!
akash_84 said:
Hi all,
Other than that, phyically, the screen is the same size (2.6") but much sharper and clearer on the N95 (I think the N95 has a much better resolution). And then theres the weight, while size doesnt make that much of a comparison, the weight is very noticable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate your story, but just a little note - the N95 has the same 320x240 screen resolution as the Kaiser, and the Kaiser is 2.8 inches of course (same as the latest N95 of course)
I wish the kaiser had a better camera, and proper graphics acceleration, (and that accelerometer seems more and more useful each day) but mostly I appreciate the N95 is more of a phone than the Kaiser.
After years of WM however I find other phones (and especially the N95) completely unintuitive, and cant really see myself switching away from the rich ecosystem soon.
Surur
meorah said:
The point of these devices is convergence. To re-split them is to go backwards in time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldnt have said THAT better myself.
who in their right mind would carry loads devices for music, taking pictures, sat nav, a mobile, a pmp, thats just stupid
I'm sorry that the Kaiser didn't work out for you, but each person is an individual, and what works best for me, may not be good for you. That's why we have hundreds of models of phones available. Personally I love my Kaiser, and I think its far better than my old PDA phone, the HP iPAQ hw6515. The RF reception is just as good as a good regular handset, not like the iPAQ which was only good in urban areas where you were surrounded by plenty of towers. I used to keep a Motorola A845 and a V551 in my truck and when in rural areas I'd have to take my SIM out of the iPAQ and put it into another phone to be able to make a clear call. I haven't had to switch my SIM card once since I bought my Tilt.
Sorry this hasn't worked out for you, and I wish you luck in finding the perfect device for your needs.
-Jay
That was an interesting read. It's a shame that the kaiser isn't all everyone wants it to be. I like my kaiser, sometimes I love it other times I find it incredibly frustrating. For example when sitting in my living room playing around with it, it's great.
But I was out and about over the weekend, standing on a very cold football touchline texting the results to my wife. The kaiser was running like a dog. Sloooowwww to update while entering contacts into the search as you type 'To:' field. Then the text failed to send (despite a full signal). I really started to think about other options such as the N95 or SE P1i - you know, devices that just WORK!
But last night I was traveling on a coach to the Wales v Normay match and decided to play with my google maps and built in GPS on the Kaiser and I fell in love with it again. I arrived at the game and shot some images on the camera and blogged to through Shozu. It all worked well. I then turned to Opera Mini to check the England v Switzerland scores and the thing froze on me. SR later and I couldn't get a data connection on T-Mobile despite my sons' N73 having a full signal and gprs connection. (also on T-Mobile)
I know I am going to have a love/hate relationship with this phone, but hey! Thats Windows Mobile.
Now....... how much is that P1i on Expansys....Hmmm £284
Haven't bitten the bullet yet but seriously considering E-Ten X650. Won't satisfy those wanting a fast data connection or a keyboard, but it does have an FM Radio and VGA screen. My biggesst concern is smaller RAM. Anyway, I am looking to get something a bit smaller with better video and it seems like it will fit the bill. Before the driver thing came up, I was thinking of going to the Touch Cruise, as I don't use the keyboard all that much but I since have vowed to never again buy an HTC device. I think the lack of drivers may have been excusable if handled properly, but the disrespect they have shown their customers and this community is in my opinion deplorable.
Now if we could just get E-Ten devices into this forum. Maybe they would appreciate the awesome support this community provides.
I have to say, I'm surprised that the E-Ten devices don't get much credit around here. I've never used one (maybe that's why I'm surprised!) but on paper it seems like devices like the M800 have the Kaiser pretty much licked. I mean, not only do they appear to have the drivers and performance, but VGA too? Okay, they don't look quite so nice, and maybe the button arrangements aren't so good, but surely they're Kaiser killers apart from that?
I kind of got my Tytn II by accident, and stumbled into the world of Windows Mobile, and on the whole I'm happy with it - but if I was putting serious research into it now I'd definitely have to take a serious look at e-ten.
I left, then came back at the refurb price.
I love the phone, but not worth $400....I'll take $150 tho
Note: for anyone considering E-ten. don't get it. First and foremost, build quality sucks. and it's... I don't even want to go there.
Hey im thinking of leaving the kaiser 2 can any one sugest a few devices that might make a good replacment? checked out the P1i metioned above really im thinking iphone after they give it 3g but will it have hsdpa? xda had to unlock it on the kaiser didnt they?
there may be hope yet:
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/7085.html
I put my Tilt on the shelf for now and picked up a Blackjack II. It works for now, but I still visit the forums hoping for a fix. I am kicking myself for selling the 8525. That thing was really running great with the latest cooked ROM's.
Dave
very interesting comments, I was half expecting immature comments about my own thoughts on why I was leaving windows/kaiser but these were very good constructive comments
So I've been using the N95 for almost a week now.
I've still not had to use the Kaiser once though I have kept it at arms reach just incase.
The only time I used it was for TomTom until I get my Garmin software for the N95.
What do I think so far?
Well after a week of intensive use... I do really prefer it to the Kaiser. Yes I still miss the keyboard which still takes 3 times longer to type an SMS compared to an N95 and I miss the touch-screen time2time but aside from that, I've got used to it and it does everything I need to.
For those who considered the Ericsson P series... I used to be a P series fan a while back having owned a P800, P900, and a P910. I was not however impressed with the P1 at all and found it more of a chore to use than anything.
But each to their own- I've just gone of the UIQ symbian software yet I still like the Nokia s60 symbian software.
If anyone wants more information about the N95, Kaiser or any other phone that exists - do let me know and I can try and answer them.
I work part-time as ahobby in a phone repair place so I get a chance to mess around with a lot of the units!
I just purchased a Tilt last week. I did not know about all the issues with slowness and lack of video drivers till after I brought it home. After reading through this forum I have determined that I should probably take advantage of AT&T's 30 day return policy and return this phone.
The problem is I do not know what the alternative from AT&T is. My new employer is requiring that I have a PDA/smartphone that supports MS activesync. So that eliminates the iphone. What is the best alternative from AT&T? Treo? Moto Q?
Thanks for the help.
I have had my TyTN II for two months now.
I have NO issues with slowness or anything else. I play full feature movies, games and many apps and it is definitely much faster than my iMate KJam (Wizard).
My advice is keep it and enjoy it.
There are many posts here that don't slate the device.
Some people want live feeds from Mars etc.
I can honestly tell you that I am very very happy with mine, but then again I don't fix things that aren't broke.
It is the best business tool on the market at present IMHO, and I did lots of research before buying the TyTN II.
Yes please take advantage of the 30 day return policy by taking 30 days to get to know the phone.
madmos said:
I just purchased a Tilt last week. I did not know about all the issues with slowness and lack of video drivers till after I brought it home. After reading through this forum I have determined that I should probably take advantage of AT&T's 30 day return policy and return this phone.
The problem is I do not know what the alternative from AT&T is. My new employer is requiring that I have a PDA/smartphone that supports MS activesync. So that eliminates the iphone. What is the best alternative from AT&T? Treo? Moto Q?
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My brother once told me of the phenomenon of being awakened to negativity of something while being completely ignorant of it before. in other words, from the way it sounds, you did not really notice all the "bad things" associated with the product until someone told you of them.
I sometimes fall into the same trap. I got my phone right around when it was released, and I was completely blown away by it. I've never really had a pda phone before and it was just amazing for me. I then read all the negative comments about it then got worried and wanted to blindly replace it for the "perfect device".
I know realize that it doesn't exist and most likely, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. play with the phone and if you are happy with it, keep it regardless of what other people say is wrong with it.
BTW, you most likely won't get helpful advise about what other phone to get on a fanboy forum about the product you want to get rid of...
just my 2 cents
Oh this is a good one. I'm sure you won't have any performance problems with this one.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...y+Ericsson+Z310a+-+Jet+Black&q_sku=sku1020097
Integrated VGA Camera
Bluetooth® wireless capable
Unique external hidden display
Colored light effects for caller ID
Polyphonic MIDI and MP3 ringtones
Multimedia messaging - Send text, photos, and sounds
Instant messaging - AIM®, Yahoo!®, and MSN®
Day and evening themes change at preset times
Illuminated keypad with color light effects
Download ringtones, games, and graphics
Vibrating alert, calendar and calculator
High-speed EDGE capabilities
Internet and email capable
Tri-band world phone
Superb battery life
Preloaded games
Rated for Hearing Aids: M3
Thats the lick
It's all about gamez and ringerz
You will also read that some of us with the Tilt do not notice the issues you are speaking about. I don't feel that my Tilt's driver issues affect what I use it for. I don't watch movies all day long and play games with it, if I did I might change my tune...
No matter what, it's a step up from my 8525!
I looked through AT&T's VAST selection of PDA/smartphones and read the reviews there and elsewhere, and came to the conclusion that the Tilt would do what I needed. Mostly Office functions and what not. The Wifi was another major reason. I didn't get the phone for it's multimedia reasons.
IMO, stick with the Tilt, and if you want to watch movies, get a portable DVD player.
man I stream movies and watch them on the SD. It all works well enough for me. I just think the damn thing could run a bit smoother.
A lot of these posts are niggly things and not majors.
I see both sides and whilst this is slower than my Wizard for screen orientation flips, its got GPS built in. Big win immediately.
That alone wins for me, and ok, some things are slightly longer but let's face it, these are PDA's with phone functions, not phones with PDA functions (in which case look at s730 from HTC as an alternative).
Joe
ChumleyEX said:
Yes please take advantage of the 30 day return policy by taking 30 days to get to know the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds like the best advice to me...
Don't flash a new rom or hard-spl (in case you want to return the phone - instead try as many programs, games, videos etc over the next week or 3 and see if the phone works ok for you - stress it a bit. If everything works ok and you want to keep the phone then you WILL get better performance from a cooked rom - if not then you've lost nothing except for a bit of time.
FWIW, I love my Kaiser - a few niggles but I know my way round them - I'm not going to change and will probably upgrade to Kaiser 2 or whatever in the future.
Here's the thing... there is no perfect phone on the market!
If you visit the forums for any phone on the market, you'll find things ranging from minor nits to severe bugs.
The best thing you can do is ask yourself if the issues of a particular phone are things you can deal with. Some are fixable with utility programs (tweaks) and some need new drivers. Some just plain won't ever be fixed in the lifetime of the phone.
What's a severe limitation to some, is not an issue to others. For me, the video driver issue isn't a problem, since I don't use my Tilt that way. But, for others, it's a show-stopper.
So, yes... do your research (preferably before buying the phone) and use your new phone for everything you can think of during the trial period. Ask yourself what your requirements for the phone are, and if you can live with whatever limitations/issues it comes with.