C500.. overhyped?

[Guest Br1an_g]

good post so far.

i have to say i dont think the phone is overhyped, purely as i purchased it on comparison of features and not on any advertising i had seen (although i hadnt seen any)

I would agree that things can always be better. it is not a perfect phone, but if it were, we wouldnt need to purchase another phone in our lifetime, and where would be the business logic in that? afterall, phone companies are there to make money, whats the best way to do that??

Nokia:a prime example of holding back features to allow them to release a new phone sooner than normal. I had a 6230 prior to my C500. it was a great phone, but screen was too small.

i had thought about the 6600, but it didnt have MP3, nokia 'fixed' this with a new phone (albeit the same one with MP3 feature)

I think if you want something you buy it, i dont think we are getting conned any more than with anything else you purchase. a business is there to make money, they all do it in different ways.

as i said in my first sentence, i bought the phone on comparison of features. there was nothing else to compare it to that had everything i was looking for.

Does this mean that we have no choice, or does this mean that it is ahead of the technology game?

depends how you look at it. :)

Brian

PS: I have experienced no crashes, hangs, or difficulties with my handset, even after installation of third party software, homescreens and app unlocking. build quality could be better (dust, no-joystick), however, i dropped my phone onto concrete and it is still in one piece, with only a few scratches.

[Guest cyrilthefish]

what a strange thread :shock:

anyways, overhyped? it's the complete opposite, the SPV range is incredibly under-hyped.

at least two-thirds of people who have seen my C500 have never even heard of the SPV name, let alone know about all the features it has. they are generally quite shocked :)

for stability, it's only ever crashed because of third-party programs going wonky, otherwise it's been rock-stable (much better than other non-smartphone phones i've used before).

battery life is a bit worse than basic mobiles, but excellent for a smartphone. it all depends on usage, it can very from less than a day if you're constantly running resource-intensive things on it, to nearly a week if left idle. i personally get around two days usage out of the battery with bluetooth on 24/7, around 1-2 hours GPRS/calls per day and 1 hour of pocketmusic usage a day (very CPU-hungry app)

you also mentioned the signal strength. i also find this very odd as the office i work in is in a signal-strength blackspot, but my phone is often the the only phone that will allways work, even if the signal meter is registering no signal at all...

you do make a very good point about the earphones though, the design sucked to begin with and has been exactly the same the entire way through the SPV range. :(

I find it strange you actually brought the phone though, as you seem to hate every single aspect of it...

Judging by the reactions, it would look like everyone else is sponsored by HTC/Orange...

no, we just really like the phone.

I personally think there is nothing major wrong with the phone at all, just a few minor points that are a bit annoying.

but overall there is no other phone on the market i actually want at the moment, as this does everything i need in a small compact unit (phone/organiser/internet/email/music/video/occasional games).

[Guest CB-Dave]

conversely you seem to be a bit of an ipod/apple fanboy bronksy. why is that? the ipod is a nice designed but poor and flawed bit of kit - at least the smartphone is extendable and doesn't stop you using anything other than a very small selection of files.

The ipod is closed-format, ie it only works with iTunes to download music direct to the device, that's the major flaw with it and it is one that will end up being the straw that broke the camel's back.

you're not stirring up debate - you're simply a troll trying to provoke a flame war and it's simply not going to happen - take your fanboyisms off to a nokia site or whatever, hell - go and post on esato that the k700i is an "average" phone and it's overhyped and you'll get exactly the same reaction...

I think the ego trip has been fuelled enough now.

[Guest ChemNerd]

I first off must say congradulations to you for sticking to it. I know people have disagreed with you outright and yet you still post.

I do understand where you're comming from.

Personally I will agree that as a PHONE it is average. I would even go so far as to say it's a rather poor phone. It's slow, has horrible battery life, I keep hearing this damn buzzing noise in my ear when I use it, the startup time is a JOKE, the speakerphone isn't worth a damn to me (no one can hear me half the time - the other half it works fine), simple menu things take forever to get to and personally I think the keyguard sucks (doesn't alow the screen to light up for alarms, etc). So yeah I have my complaints.

Before I get hatemail and yelled at - those are just my opinions and more importantly I don't think any of us bought this to be a "phone" it is a smartphone. I have windows media player, IE, messenging, my e-mail, my desktop contacts, my tasks, my calender (THANK YOU) and I can also install nifty as hell applications - like allowing me to controll slide shows from my cellphone via bluetooth or to control media player. To me that is just amazing.

Personally I like the rocker thing - it's not good for games but I don't really want to play games on my cellphone - I own a laptop and I own a Gameboy and a DS - if I wanted to play games I'd own an N-Gage and all the horror that it is.

And as far as orange forcing the phone on you and offering you no other choices I can say to you "What other choices". I mean what else is there really? And consider yourself lucky - I had to buy the phone from AT&T and unlock it to use on T-Mobile - I didn't even have the option to get the damn phone. So don't you dare complain to me that there were no choices because I personally don't want to hear it from you. If you wanted another phone you can easly buy another phone but if you want a smartphone there are VERY few other choices and any of those can be imported to you (for a higher price yes) but be thankfull you had the option to get a smartphone at all.

good day to you sir.

[Guest colinp]

I think this phone is over-hyped. It's small, yes and compared to early smarftphones its quite good. It's not THAT great.

Yes the battery is better, it's still not great. I find that a day of bluetooth on and off.. sending and receiving mails, composing a few texts rally pulls the battery down. 

I leave work at 6pm with a fully charged battery, leave BT on and sync at home for 20 mins, install a couple of programms, swap some files to and from my PC etc, I use the smartner Duality push email thing for about 2 hours.

When i get to bed at about 2am the battery is down to about 50%

is this good? This is not a full day really.. ok it's 8 hours. .but thats not making any calls really. I don't think its that good. 

Well i have to agree with you i think that u should get a phone that sends emails has bluetooth on all day

i will recomend ..

Nothing until you can find a phone that can keep ya trap shut!

the joystick is far better than on the e200 unless u were playing games it was absolutly awfull i had trouble where scrolling through the menus acidently clicking stuff i diddnt want

the best joystick so far has to be on the orignal spv with the seprate bit in the middle you click as i dont use my c500 as a games console and have had it since day of relece i cant fault it

im kinda in a void now coz i have no idea what new phone i can get 2 replace it with out taking a down grade

[Guest bronksy]

ok a few points...

I am not a nokia 'fanboy' i Have not owned a Nokia for about 5 years.

I dont admire Ipods.

I think that the Ipod is an overrated bit of kit. Design wise it's a classic. Everything else you can get better and cheaper on other portable music players. All the Ipod has shown is that how viral perceived coolness can be. For me, the fact that every sod has one stops it becoming an exciting commodity, and just something that everyone has got.

In it's favour though.. like Nokias, is a very user friendly interface, high design values and so on. and more importantly, and hear me people, they perform what they're meant to do with aplomb. The ipod plays music, syncs music and works as a music player (yes iphoto etc yada yada not discussing that) Nokias mass market mobile phones, that work as mobile phones, and do it well. Unless things have changed over the last 4 years then I would say this is still true.

Personally, I think putting what is at most 1gig of music on a phone is poor, video on it is poor no matter what you encode at. It's a very average framerate and you can't get that much music on it. 1gig is nothing these days.

I'm not forcing my opinions, mainly because they are just opinions. I still stand by the fact that we are to complacant about accepting a products limitations and justifiying its problems..

The joystick is better than the xxx.. well perhaps it is, but the xxx was useless too.

I can take music with me....yes you can, and unless you butcher some headphones or buy an adapter thatsticks out the bottom of the phone which you have to remove to accept a call because th supplied ones are absolute gash, is not acceptable.

[Guest Confucious]

You have not sugested anything better.1Gb is plenty for all my music and video. i don't know what video you're watching but mine is smooth and flicker free. if I wanted more music I'd by an iPod or similar - I don't.

You have a poor opinion of something most of us appreciate as being the best there is. At what it does it is, quite simply, the best available. If you want a separate phone/games player/organizer/musicplayer/GPS/etc/etc go out and buy separates. No one forced you to buy the C500 - or were you brainwashed by all the "hype" (of which I have seen very little.)

You are entitled to your oppinion just no-omne else here seems to share it.

[Guest Pondrew]

At the end of the day it's a bloody phone, and it should be designed to be just that.  Perhaps my cynicism isn't really appreciated. 

I am not trying to re-invent the wheel.. I started my making an observation that I thought that the phone was over rated. I still think that as early adopters we get a kack hand of the stick when it comes to technology. We DO suffer, and it costs us to suffer, we spend HUGE amounts of cash on new kit and it should perform its duties well, out of the box without having an upgrade within weeks.

Strange, I seem to think the opposite to most of your posts (as it seems everyone else does too, funny that! :wink: ).

Hate to break it to you but most people don't think it's a phone but a smartphone. There's a world of difference my friend. Maybe you should get yourself a nice SE T300. That's a phone (and nice and basic too but with your favouite SE branding! 8) )

Oh, and having had the original Smartphone (HTC Canary) I don't appreciate you suggesting you are an early adopter of this technology. You're anything but. And spending huge amounts of cash? This is the cheapest Smartphone yet!? £140 on pay as you go! The E200 didn't even come out on pay as you go to start off with as it was considered too advanced and too expensive.

The Microsoft Smartphone hasn't got that big of a bandwagon (HYPE? What hype?!) so if you don't want to be on it then please do us all a favour and get off!

[Guest Pondrew]

Oops. Forgot to add Merry Christmas to the end of the last post! :)

[Guest beersoft]

ok, so a gig isn't much compaired to a harddisk mp3 player

which is a rubbish argument anyway, ohh my phone can't hold my mp3 collection, boo hoo", can your ipod send emails?

i don't quite understand why anyone would need to transport 20gig of mp3s about with them or to make it a bit more understandable 6660+ sonds (average song 3 minuites @ 3 meg) or 20,000 minuites of music thats 23 and a bit days playing all the time before it repeats a file.

and anyone got a harddisk mp3 player that can play all its content (when full) on one set of batteries? no, ok

later

Owen

[Guest wez1981]

Seems to me like your trying to convince yourself more than anything that the phone isnt all its supposed to be...

Had mine a month now - does everything and more i ever wanted it to....

. No crashes (maybe yours are user related :)

. No hangs

. No slowdowns on apps

. Case is firm (dropped it twice and not a mark)

. I listen to MP3's at work all day and only have to charge it every 3 days tops..

Why are you so bothered that your the only one who thinks its not what its worth?

If you dont think its worth it follow my simple guide..

1) send the phone back

2) Get a phone 10 years old which does "only phone calls"

3) stop moaning

- and lets us continue being happy with ours :(

Out of the poll i would say the majority wins... u will always get 1 or 2 "stuck in their ways".

[Guest bronksy]

Ladies ladies..

Think about this.

People don't want 9inch drills, they want 9 inch holes.

>Oh, and having had the original Smartphone (HTC Canary) I don't >appreciate you suggesting you are an early adopter of this technology.

You don't 'appreciate' it? Why, does my honest opinion offend you, how can anyone possibly know more about the wonderful Smartphone than you?

Do me a small favour people, don't take it so personally. I'm sure you're all cracking chaps and chapessess, but perhaps, and this is only an obsercvation.. you're a little too emotional about this, bordering on farce.

Well perhaps my English is not so good, or my grammar is poor, but I didn't say that I was an early adopter because I have an overrated C500. I said WE are ALL early adopters. Thats why most of us are on these forums, fo find out when the technology is available, when it's goig to be released. Hell.. some people even buy unreleased handsets off Ebay etc.. thats desparate to get your hands on it. I'd say that was early adopting.

I too had the first version, then the second then the 3rd, on the subject of smartphones I also had a useless Erisccon R380, and a Motorola Accompli & SEP900,before they had been released. I think, therefore as far as smartphones go I guess I must be somewhat of an early adopter.

The fact is, if you can stop getting emotional about a phone. I find all of your love(s) of this handset a tad disturbing, and now i'm enjoying the post even more...

All I was asking was for some unblinkered educated comments. I'm not asking for a defense case to be written. I don't really care that much. I just don't know what all the fuss is about.

Now go and eat some turkey. :)

[Guest Pondrew]

:) Appreciate your post Bronsky, even if I can't empathise on your disappointment in the C500. If you remember the bugs and design issues of the early Smartphones how can you possibly not be impressed at how far the products come?

Anyway, peace to all men and all that.

Laters guys.

[Guest sparkisgti]

my views are totally unblinkered.. if something better come along that does everything my C500 does and more then id change to that in an instant..

but for now the C500 does everything i want it to.. and theirs no other phone on the market that does..simple as that

[Guest namiran]

i've read this thread from the start, at first i thought bronsky had a point, this phone isn't All that. just as most others had said, it does have minor bugs and so on, the phone funtions may be bad and you might not enjoy the controller, that is your opinion.

But bronsky, can you honestly say there is a better smartphone out there for you? Even if you were not bound to use yor orange contract? Cuz it is a smartphone you want right? Or maybe you dont know what you want? Are you complaining at a smartphone with bugs or a phone with functions you use but dont seem to appreciate?

Do you just want something better than this? then im gonna say it to you, think OUTSIDE the box, there are NO other smartphones out there that:

1.costs that little

2.is that small

3.does that much

personally to bronsky:

i honestly dont think your opinion is valid any more cuz your view of things are too strict and narrow minded. further more i think you've made your point wich is that this phone is overhyped, fine, you got that off your chest. You've said your opinion now listen to others, and since thats just what they are, opinions, you shouldnt feel like needing to defend yourself from them by writing "ladies" at the start of each post and such things. You can have a discussion in a forum, but then dont put it under a Poll where you critisize everyone that doesnt share your opinions, wich by now should be clear, is Everyone

Merry Christmas to you all :)

[Guest tha_neo]

GO NAMIRAN!! WIHHOO :) (jude hahaha)

Merry x-mas :(

[Guest ddocta]

I think bronksy makes several good points and points out a lot of the problems that are with this phone. The battery life is not as good as several older phones, and it crashes and is buggy. As a cellular phone, this phone is overhyped and I would not recommend it for many people.

The problem that bronnksy failed to realize is that this is a Smart Phone. That means that your sole purpose of the phone is not to make calls. It means your willing to give up the ease of making a call for additions like outlook, internet explorer and the .NET framework. The fact of the matter is this phone is marketed as a Smart Phone and is not overhyped as a Smart Phone.

I am in college now, and worked at MS in the cellular division this summer. People love my phone, but I would never recommend it to anyone who isn't "tech-savy". As a regular phone this phone fails, because making calls is not the only function it is goos at.

I hope this can help calm all the argueing, because people are argueing different points, and I hope no one already said this. Joined the thread late.

[Guest Br1an_g]

just to add a point...

teh gadgetry magazines i have checked, Stuff, T3 etc have seperate sections for Mobile phones, and Smart PHones.

C500 is the top of most smart phone lists..

[Guest john.-h]

I have read all notes previous to my reply and i think your question and your idea of the c500 is totally wrong..

first of all the c500 is definitely not over hyped as most of us users have upgraded from earlier versions of this phone ,the only reason why so many are out there is we are all aware of the phone and its capabilities before release date which is mainly down to forums like this, most people that see my phone say to me who made that and when you say its an orange spv c500 they say no i mean like nokia?????? come on we have all had it ..

secondly its a smartphone.....thats it ..if we want a super long battery life great bluetooth etc etc we would buy a phone that suits our needs. we do not we want a smartphone so we have the best the c500, its like buying a transit van and saying this car is crap it doesn't do as many mile /gallon or isn't as fast etc etc as my old fiesta correct but a transit van is a bit more than just a car???? and so is the most important point that i think you have not got ... this phone is more than just a phone. it is a smartphone and if they were that poor why would we all get the latest ones available.. my personal reason is yes previous versions were not as good as they could have been but still what a bit of kit still way ahead of anything else so the latest c500 why not get this, i could have had any phone ( within reason ) from orange but there was no way i could use a nokia again or any other make again.