C550, impresions

[Guest the_ape]

Got my 550 thismorning, and must say, NICE SCREEN! the screen is so clear!

Anyhow, some nice new bit's and bob's like the time on the unlock screen.

Anyone else got there's yet, what do you think?

Anyone played with theming it yet as well?

Cheers

Ashleigh

Compatible App List (add more as you test them, i'll move them here)

-----------------------

TomTom 5 - No Good

Papyrus - Works Fine (uses full screen see pic)

Total Soccer - Works Fine (does not use full screen)

Worms - Works Fine (does not use full screen)

OTA App Unlock - Works Fine

spv-developers unlock - Works Fine

PHM Reg Editor - Works Fine

Smart SS - Works Fine (Capture whole screen)

Sprite Backup - Works Fine

TCPMP - Works Fine (needs setting to use GDI instead of GAPI)

Opera - Works Fine

Theme's - Work ok (some issues over sizes)

HotButton Plus - Works Fine (does not use full screen)

iMenu - Works Fine (text font very small)

Clearview Apps - Works fine (File loader menu a bit iffy)

MobiLuck - Works Fine (does not use full screen)

Edited July 18, 2005 by the_ape

[Guest DomConway]

Would be interested to hear exactly what differences there are between the C550 and C500 other than cosmetic ones. Apologies if there's already a thread on that, couldn't find one. Time on unlock screen looks like a nice change for starters!

[Guest ptwilliams]

Got my 550 thismorning, and must say, NICE SCREEN! the screen is so clear!

Anyhow, some nice new bit's and bob's like the time on the unlock screen.

Anyone else got there's yet, what do you think?

Anyone played with theming it yet as well?

Cheers

Ashleigh

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mine's due tomorrow or Friday... :)

[Guest ah5150]

quick question - the battery. is it the same as the c500 - i.e. when u wanna play as soon as you get it can you charge the new battery in the c500?

[Guest mbeattie]

For the people who have received there C550's....

Is it worth upgrading to it if you are already a c500 owner?

Just thought id ask

[Guest spark9990]

And does it have the dreaded tss sound when playing mp3s?

[Guest the_ape]

Couple of Q's answered

550 uses the exact same model battery as the 500, but mine came fully charged anyhow

Comes with a 128Mb miniSD

Rom Info as follows

Operator : 8.1.1.10

Manufacturer : 1.0.1.12

Microsoft : 4.21.15159.0

Weight : about the same

Keypad : little fiddly to start with getting used to it now (basically the green/red keys are where the 1/3 buttons where on the 500, so a little getting aclimatised)

Looks : Def more sexy than the 500

Screen : Amazing! best screen I've seen on a phone!

Screen 2 : Slight annoying, untill get used to not pressing 9 for next page and instead using # or 0 (1 more line in the menu's i.e 10 lines instead of 9)

Fonts : The font there using looks really good on the screen

Sound : not got my sennhiesers with me but cant hear a tss, plus the new headphones that come with are greatly improved (vol and dial button on the headset)

Media : 10 rox, but you allready know that, the media key is setup for Orange Media so change that in the options to mplayer (EDIT : Does not play AAC files)

Joystick : Why did the 500 have a rocker, this is WAY better!

Multipress : Seems to work ok, not tried anything taxing though

Feel : more comfortable to hold, plus has the wrist strap point on it the 500 did not have

Try Card : Why are they using PVPlayer for the film clips, the phone has media 10 on it!, Also has some Dave Clark tracks for Fireplayer on it as well as some other uninteresting (read business) apps :)

TomTom5 : EDIT : TT5 From my TT miniSD Does NOT WORK AT ALL Screen corruption and v small screen, however the current beta I'm trialing does work in some parts, some of the screens are still too small and show up in the middle of the screen, So class TT5 as a no go for now.

Rubber cover : over the headphone/usb jack keep it all clean

IR Port : On the top is HUGE!????

Light's : around the earpiece for BT (right side) and charge/sig (left side) is kinda nice touch

Theme's : Dont work directly (new screen size), so modification is required. (however they do Sort of work)

Camera : EDIT : Just noticed even in top resolution (1280) there is still zooming available upto 2x with 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2x setting's, obviously digital zooms but don't look too bad even at 2.0x

Video : EDIT : 176 mode has a 2x zoom on it as well, also audio pickup seems to be much better than was on the 500.

Memory : Has 32mb of user ram for running apps, instead of the 10ish that the 500 has!

Build Quality : Definatly feels better bolted together than my 500

All in All a good piece of hardware, once I get over the screen (seeing is believing) I'll delve around at what else is new.

All in all, if you can upgrade your 500 (I have spent a fortune with O since I got my 500 hence the reason I could 'ask' for an upgrade) I would, the 600 with Mobile 5 will not be out for a while yet, and you can allways then upgrade the 500 to mobile 5 for 'testing' after your all set with the 550.

Image is a quick snap from outside, I was standing under the shade of a tree hence the odd colour balance.

Ashleigh

Edited July 13, 2005 by the_ape

[Guest gpcarreon (MVP)]

@the_ape

Thanks for the info :)

Any comments regarding the Camera program? Have you tried photo and video recordings? How is it compared to C500?

[Guest ah5150]

32mb memory - thats one thing new i've learned. sounds gr8 - gonna ring 150 soon

[Guest machiavell1]

Does your version of WMP10 play AAC files as well as MP3? The version I had on a Qtek 8020 did, but my C500 WMP10 doesn't.

Wanted to know if this is an operator issue or to do with the current orange firmware...

thanks

[Guest sSword]

Im getting the chap from the orange shop to come to my work tomorrow with a C550

Gonna give multipress a proper test :)

if my c500 had a decent joystick and multipress worked I would not need to.... :roll:

[Guest morpheus2702]

Ape - nice teaser review! Any chance of some piccies?

[Guest the_ape]

Ape - nice teaser review!  Any chance of some piccies?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What piccies do you want, the phone, or the phone taking shot's?

[Guest morpheus2702]

The phone itself would be nice mate.

[Guest the_ape]

Some Piccies......

Oh one thing I did not mention above the camera now captures them the same way as the XDA etc does and put's the images in a folder in you images/videos folder's with the folder name as the capture date.

Anyhow, Some images showing the various zoom levels at 1280 and a video capture from the phone.......

VIDEO_00001.zip

[Guest the_ape]

Some piccies of the phone (with it's sister)

These taken with my work XDAII as that's the only other camera I have here.....

You will see also the other thing I forgot to mention, there is another button above the volume buttons on the left side, that launches IE.

Also You can see what I mean about the IR port on the top view, it's massive!

[Guest morpheus2702]

Nice one! 8)

[Guest ptwilliams]

Cheers for that matey! Looking forward to receiving mine tomorrow or Friday!

One question, did you renew your files using Orange Backup ?

Wondering if its possible to back up the C500 and restore to the C550 or would there be data incompatibilities ?

[Guest techdave]

Still looks fugly. Will be waiting for the C600 :|

[Guest gpcarreon (MVP)]

@the_ape

Thanks for the pix attachments and video sample. :)

The video you provided have these info:

Lower fps but higher data rate compared to a normal C500 MPEG4 recording.

[Guest RT87]

Still looks fugly. Will be waiting for the C600  :|

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You having a laugh? It looks awesome.

I wonder how much they will be on PayG? mmm :).

[Guest the_ape]

Backup, used activesync for my Contacts / Calander, then reinstalled applications, never used O Backup, Can't see the point?

Anyhow.....

So Far.......

iMenu - OK

TT5 - No Good - Beta is getting there.....

Sprite - OK

Worms - Sorta Ok

Got other stuff on it but can't remember........ Will do that later

I think some games may need to be tweaked as they have changed the size of the screen resolution.

[Guest baileymp]

If you have media player running in the background and are, for example, reading emails, if you press "forward" does the screen cut back to media player or not? ideally you would be able to skip to the next track without going back in.

Also - joystick wise, will I be finally be able to play total soccer once more? Losing the ability to run diagonally completely ruined that one. :|

Then again it probably won't work anyway due to the resolution change...

[Guest NX5]

Ape, have you been able to sync any wma from WMP10 on your pc to the C550. I have trived both DRM protected and non protected an niether will sync.

WMP10 on the pc sees the device ok and starts the sync which gets to 10% on the first track then aborts. My SD card is littered with partial track that I cant delete without fromatting!! Im wordering if its just me or is this a general problem?

[Guest ads52]

And does it have the dreaded tss sound when playing mp3s?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah I'd like to know this too...