Orange C600

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

It is from Orange's press team yes, but it IS retail boxed.

P

[Guest Chris Edwards]

I got the same retail boxed c600 last week as well. All boxed up with the pretty box and manuals.

:) Paul can't kick everyone while they're down by himself, so I'll give him a hand.

[Guest iflya]

Been into an orange shop today looking to upgrade my C500, and the C600 is on their list with early november release date ... they just dont have any pricing yet ... but i think its on its way ..

my question is ... upgrade to a C550 or C600?

E : )

[Guest thelondonthing]

Paul, any ideas if/when this little puppy will be available on PAYG? I've (finally) upgraded to an M5000 on contract, but I'd like to replace my C500 as a leisure phone. Yes, I'm greedy, but I just can't get enough of that SPV goodness.

[Guest vwilsonuk]

Bizarrely the scan of the recent Orange brochure showing the C600 states that the phone does not have voice dialling.

I'd have thought this was a standard WM feature by now. Can anyone confirm whether voice activated dialling (eg through a headset) is available on this handset? Its not present on my current NEC e338 and I have definitely missed it for use of the phone while on the move.

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

C600 over C550 EVERY time, by a mile!

P

[Guest GingerNinja.net]

Heh, just ordered the C600 on my corporate Orange UK deal. Didn't even realise it was available until a colleague said "Hey, is the SPV C600 any good?".

Did I shoot out of my chair to check or what?

[Guest vwilsonuk]

You can get the C600 from France where it is available on Pay As You Go.

The handset on their lowest PAYG tariff (you get a €5 PAYG voucher included) costs €299, which is just over £200 (exchange rate €1 = £0.6837 from Yahoo Finance). You will need to A) travel to France (go on, suggest a romantic weekend in Paris to the missus ;-D) or :) have a shipping & billing address in France.

I would like to emphasize, I have not done this yet. Right now I'm stumped at the "French delivery/billing address" stage. If anyone has better French than me (or any, since GCSE ten years ago) please do review the notes below.

Here's how to find the phone. Go to the Orange France shop (boutique) and in the "Par marque" drop down (top left) select "Orange". When you see the C600 listed, click the link that says "Sélectionner" to select that handset.

You can then choose (from the drop downs) "Votre offre" and select "[sans engagement] La Mobicarte", and under "Votre formule" choose "La Mobicarte" which appears to be the cheapest PAYG tariff. When the link "Suite" click that, and it will take you to a confirmation page. Your choices will be:

Votre terminal: Orange SPV C600

Votre offre: [sans engagement] La Mobicarte

Votre formule: La Mobicarte

"Sans engagement" is "without a contract". On the confirmation screen you will see the radio button selected "je ne souhaite pas m’engager", which basically means "I am not choosing a contract". Choose "Ajouter au panier" to progress. On the next screen you will see another summary. "Durée d'engagement" is the length of your contract, and will show as "0 mois" (zero months). The "Acheter" link will take you to the T&C page. Please ensure you read and understand the T&C if you are going to part with cash here!! I haven't yet, but I will endeavour to if I actually go ahead with this - will check some more prices and stuff first.

Once you've read, understood and accepted the T&Cs, click "Accepter les conditions". The next page prompts you for your billing address, for the payment card you will use. Enter the address, and if you would like the goods to be delivered elsewhere click the tickbox at the bottom of the page - "Adresse de livraison (si différente de celle indiquée ci-dessus)". Click "Valider".

Now, I've not got to the next page as I don't have a French billing address, but I'm fairly sure it will ask you for payment card number and then just to confirm, and you will then have bought your phone for €299.

I am guessing that WM5 will come with the standard "couple of European languages" installed, and that switching from French to English is a straightforward config setting. I'm sure someone with more experience of WM can confirm this though.

Will be interested to hear how anyone gets on with this, or what responses anyone gets from the Orange UK call centres given the question "Why is this phone available in France and not in England almost one month after the announced UK release date???"

[Guest spvdreamer]

Just off the phone from Prodigy, Orange's PR agency. Very helpful. They assure me after much checking that this is the true version of events:

C600 will be available to buy at the beginning of December.

The delay is nothing to do with testing of the handset. It is a result of "managing stock space", whatever that means (perhaps shifting bucketloads of C550s?)

There is no official information on pricing.

Earlier availability in France is due to their supply chain being different (and the fact that Orange France has a different parent company).

And that's it really. My only worry is that it won't be available on PAYG straight away (I had to commit to a new O2 contract, and I want the phone PAYG so I can unlock it). Worringly I was told by a Customer Services advisor that the C600 won't be available on PAYG for "some months"... although I'm hoping that this was pure conjecture on his part.

[Guest vwilsonuk]

Just off the phone from Prodigy, Orange's PR agency. Very helpful.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh, we obviously have posters in high places!! Cheers for that info, much appreciated. It does seem like a plausible sequence of events, so I guess we should wait and see what happens in December.

[Guest Swampie]

The delay is nothing to do with testing of the handset. It is a result of "managing stock space", whatever that means (perhaps shifting bucketloads of C550s?)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That might explain why Orange dropped the upgrade price for OVP Virgin customers on the C550 from £89.99 to £49.99 - to get rid of stock!

For those out there who don't know of OVP Virgin, it's an OVP tariff which matched the Virgin tariff of £0.00 monthly line rental. In the past Orange have refused/over priced/not subsidised upgrades on OVP Virgin because of the lack of line rental.

However, it seems that Orange are now doing on-line upgrades for these accounts, although a bit of a lottery as some people processing them are cancelling them, and calling the guy back saying they'd need to pay the full price of £200+ (for K700i for example). I got my K700i upgrade (for £29.99) a week or so ago (and went straight on eBay!).

I have another OVP Virgin account waiting to be used for an upgrade (if they don't pull the plug) - and I'm *really* hoping for a C600 - but their phones listed on upgrade aren't that new, and most are out of stock (whereas in stock for new customers).

D

[Guest peekie]

Problem if you manage to get a french C600 is yes you can select english but all the help appications and settings are french , plus if it did break down how would you get it replaced :?: its better to wait for the uk version atleast you know if it does go wrong you can walk into the orange shop or phone the helpfull :) helpdesk :D if you want wifi on the phone then go for the mini sd card with wifi , only problem there is you will need to store everything on the phone ;)

[Guest GingerNinja.net]

Got my C600!!!

Downsides?

1. Internal memory appears to be less as when I copied across my ringtones, photos etc from my C500 to my new C600 I ran out of memory about 90% of the way through. Had to ditch some music from my 512MB miniSD card and put stuff on there.

2. None of the programs written for the C500 work on the C600. SPV Pacman & SPV Invaders do not work. CellDoom works but it has a third of the screen in black border mode.

3. Orange Developers SPV unlock website does not work with the C600.

4. Zero proliferation of Homescreens at present.

5. MP3 ringtones not supported despite being resolved in a previous ROM update on the C500.

Upsides?

1. The display on the C600 is gorgeous.

2. The joystick is really easy to use.

3. The default Orange theme isn't bad. I also like the "Expert" mode on my business edition which allows me to replace the Camera icon on the Orange homescreen bar with my own programs list.

4. Ratings on WMP10.

[Guest generationgav]

EDIT: Apologies for my stupidity, you got it on a corporate account.

Where/how did you get it? Is it out on public release yet?

Got my C600!!!

Edited November 30, 2005 by generationgav

[Guest GingerNinja.net]

That's OK - yes, I did get it on my corporate account.

I can also confirm that whilst SPV Invaders will not run on my C600 for some reason, SPV Pac-Man WILL - so I am half happy.

The memory thing is really annoying me though. I have had to move everything off of the internal phone memory and put it to the Storage Card which is very frustrating. Not a lot of room left for new homescreens etc.

[Guest penguin]

at least you've got one GingerNinja :), starting to get very fed up waiting now...

[Guest Disco Stu]

In today's Guardian Ashley Norris says...(in effect)...nice phone...new menu grid is cool.....lack of wifi is pants....not much of an improvement on C550...'swap your previous SPV ?'......(actual quote)..."Something beter is just around the corner."

Well yeah, but does he have something specific in mind I wonder :-k

[Guest vwilsonuk]

"Something beter is just around the corner."

Well yeah, but does he have something specific in mind I wonder  :-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He probably means the Moto Q which is due out in Q1 2006. Its WM5 with a qwerty keyboard (something he notes as lacking on the C600). However, latest reports suggest the Moto Q will also be lacking wifi (which he also mentioned) even though initial bumph said it might have it. Perhaps the reporter hasn't cottoned on that wifi will be lacking on the Motorola handset too.

In any case with a comment like that I bet he won't be getting any more "free preview" handsets from Orange!! Or perhaps he decided to stick the knife in because he got fed up with waiting too ...

... it is now December, and I see no sign of the C600. Where is it, Orange?

Edited December 1, 2005 by vwilsonuk

[Guest AaronW]

He probably means the Moto Q which is due out in Q1 2006. Its WM5 with a qwerty keyboard (something he notes as lacking on the C600). However, latest reports suggest the Moto Q will also be lacking wifi (which he also mentioned) even though initial bumph said it might have it. Perhaps the reporter hasn't cottoned on that wifi will be lacking on the Motorola handset too.

In any case with a comment like that I bet he won't be getting any more "free preview" handsets from Orange!! Or perhaps he decided to stick the knife in because he got fed up with waiting too ...

... it is now December, and I see no sign of the C600. Where is it, Orange?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think they are ever gonna bring it out for personal customers and if they do my guess it Jan or Feb time once they clear out some of the C550s. :roll: :evil:

[Guest EggZenBeanz]

You can get the C600 from France where it is available on Pay As You Go.

The handset on their lowest PAYG tariff (you get a €5 PAYG voucher included) costs €299, which is just over £200 (exchange rate €1 = £0.6837 from Yahoo Finance). You will need to A) travel to France (go on, suggest a romantic weekend in Paris to the missus ;-D) or :D have a shipping & billing address in France.

I would like to emphasize, I have not done this yet. Right now I'm stumped at the "French delivery/billing address" stage. If anyone has better French than me (or any, since GCSE ten years ago) please do review the notes below.

Here's how to find the phone. Go to the Orange France shop (boutique) and in the "Par marque" drop down (top left) select "Orange". When you see the C600 listed, click the link that says "Sélectionner" to select that handset.

You can then choose (from the drop downs) "Votre offre" and select "[sans engagement] La Mobicarte", and under "Votre formule" choose "La Mobicarte" which appears to be the cheapest PAYG tariff. When the link "Suite" click that, and it will take you to a confirmation page. Your choices will be:

Votre terminal: Orange SPV C600

Votre offre: [sans engagement] La Mobicarte

Votre formule:  La Mobicarte

"Sans engagement" is "without a contract". On the confirmation screen you will see the radio button selected "je ne souhaite pas m’engager", which basically means "I am not choosing a contract". Choose "Ajouter au panier" to progress. On the next screen you will see another summary. "Durée d'engagement" is the length of your contract, and will show as "0 mois" (zero months). The "Acheter" link will take you to the T&C page. Please ensure you read and understand the T&C if you are going to part with cash here!! I haven't yet, but I will endeavour to if I actually go ahead with this - will check some more prices and stuff first.

Once you've read, understood and accepted the T&Cs, click "Accepter les conditions". The next page prompts you for your billing address, for the payment card you will use. Enter the address, and if you would like the goods to be delivered elsewhere click the tickbox at the bottom of the page - "Adresse de livraison (si différente de celle indiquée ci-dessus)". Click "Valider".

Now, I've not got to the next page as I don't have a French billing address, but I'm fairly sure it will ask you for payment card number and then just to confirm, and you will then have bought your phone for €299.

I am guessing that WM5 will come with the standard "couple of European languages" installed, and that switching from French to English is a straightforward config setting. I'm sure someone with more experience of WM can confirm this though.

Will be interested to hear how anyone gets on with this, or what responses anyone gets from the Orange UK call centres given the question "Why is this phone available in France and not in England almost one month after the announced UK release date???"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, i've taken the plunge an ordered one from France. I will report back with my findings!! - fingers crossed! :)

[Guest markdotpeters5]

Bah, if only I knew someone French :)