PocketMatrix posts e200 review

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

PocketMatrix have posted a VERY thorough E200 review here.

Featuring lots of screenshots and photographs, it's a worthwhile read!

P

[Guest Vector]

Nice review! :lol:

It has a picture of the phone from every angle! :D

[Guest blewer]

Very good review :lol:

[Guest drblow]

Interesting that he mentions the "buzzing" issue, but disappointing to see that HIS one doesnt buzz!! :evil:

That sounds wrong - disappointing for ME to see that the issue was merely passed over, if not actually dismissed. IT will be rather disappointing for anyone who buys an e200 based on reviews like this, and gets a "buzzing" handset, the chances of which seem to be relatively high!

Funny, he mentions "courtesy of Orange, I got to try ..." So, someone in Orange "selected" a "non-buzzing" handset to send. Mmm ...

[Guest Chris Edwards]

Thanks for the comments!

Perhaps this buzzing issue is network related? With the Fido/Microcell 1900MHz GSM network I've been using it on I've had no issues. I read somewhere here on MoDaCo that someone said that Orange told them the issue was with how the phone communicated to the Orange network.

Perhaps it has to do with the band that the phone is on? 1900MHz vs. 1800MHz/900MHz?

The serial number of the phone starts with HT343D -- I've read several other complaints from people with the same batch number in regards to the buzzing issue. So, it's either a completely random issue, or maybe it's just not something that I'm hearing as a buzz?

My phone has the following ROM versions:

Operator: 1.1.1.4

Manufacturer: 1.6.0.0

It's not an updated ROM or anything.

In any case, I can't hear the buzz, and I felt mentioning the buzz as a possibilty in the review was all that I could do. If I would've gone on a rant about the buzzing sound on the phone if I can't even hear it then I don't think that would be very fair to Orange.

I don't mean to say that the issue doesn't exist--many people on the forums here have experienced it. I was just stating that I'm not experiencing the issue.

How would you have approached this in a review if your particular phone didn't have the "buzz"?

[Guest Gorskar]

put a bee in my phone!

lol no your review was pretty thorough, and I'm glad you tested some games on it!

[Guest drblow]

No stress there Chris Edwards! :wink:

I was pointing out the fact that you HAD mentioned the buzzing, and hinting at the fact that as you say you got the phone "courtesy" of Orange. That would appear a little strange to the several e200 owners who have recieved 4 or 5 replacements all with the same buzz.

You obviously have a good handset, coz if it had the problems the rest of us have, believe me, you would know about it!

I would not suggest that you should write anything in your review that was not your experience, & I was pleased to see that you at least had made mention of the buzzing issue, even though you did not experience it personally - that shows that you HAVE researched the phone!

It's just that there IS a large amount of phones that buzz out there (according to the amount of posts here about them), and in my opinion, it would have only been fair to point any prospective e200 customers in the direction of the posts here. There are several MAJOR issues with the e200 (I notice you did not make any mention of the bluetooth issues reported here), which have been discussed at length on this forum - and for a review to be TRULY unbiased, IMHO, it should not shy away from putting across all sides of the story. To me, your remarks about the buzzing issue on the e200, gave it very much less gravitas than any of the users here who HAVE a buzzing handset would feel appropriate.

You say "Some people have reported that there is a distinct "buzzing" sound during calls with their E200's. My phone does not seem to have this problem. When calling a land line from the E200 the person receiving the call did not notice deterioration in voice quality. Receiving calls on the E200, the voice quality is not up to par with a landline, but it is still very good."

Personally speaking, I think that gives the impression that the occurance of this problem is rare. The actual facts are that people here have reported up to 5 replacement phones with EXACTLY the same buzzing problem (I've had 4 myself!).

I would refer you to this thread here where an overwhelming majority (57% to 27%) said they DID have a buzzing handset, with a further 14% saying "sometimes". This would make the chances of getting a faulty e200 handset more than 1 in 2. This means any prospective customer is MORE THAN LIKELY going to get a handset that has the buzzing issue. & if that turns out not to be the case now, then why? Why should the initial customers, who paid more money for the handset, get the faulty batch, if there is a better batch now available? & If there is a better batch, then why don't Orange replace all the faulty ones with working models??

You mention the possibility of the buzzing issue being network related, or the band the phone is on ... if any of these were the case, do you not think that Orange would have identified that by now, and released some kind of statement about a fix for it??

Right now, I am one of a large amount of e200 owners, who are in possession of a phone which has been diagnosed as faulty by the Orange faults dept. The fact that a replacement (or several in my case) has the same issue, means that Orange send the issue to be dealt with by their tech support dept. There has been no statement from them about the nature of the problem, nor any ETA on a fix, or even any info about whether or not a fix is EVER going to be possible. There is NO equivalent phone available on the Orange network currently, so any e200 owners who decide they would rather NOT have the phone, are left with only 1 choice - to DOWNGRADE their phone again! This is clearly not a very palattable option.

Now, don't get me wrong Chris Edwards, I'm not saying you should have slagged the phone off, and I'm not saying your review was not good, or thorough - it was! I was merely making the point to the forum about the dismissive way the buzzing issue was dealt with.

[Guest Chris Edwards]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend.

I notice you did not make any mention of the bluetooth issues reported here

I discussed the problems with Bluetooth that I was having exhuastively in the review. My headset had trouble pairing at times, and getting PPC to connect to the phone is hopeless-both of which I mentioned at least once in the review.

Thanks for your feedback, now let's all hope that Orange's next ROM update fixes all of this :lol:.

(I guess coming from an SPV background where almost everything was broken made some of the problems the E200 has seem like nothing :D)

[Guest drblow]

Chris -

Please don't get me wrong, you didn't offend or anything like it! As I said, I thought your review was thorough, well researched, & good! The points I raised are based on my personal experience, and are aimed at this forum as a whole (to spark more debate, & if possible, make Orange take notice somehow :twisted: ). My posts were in no way intended to make you feel you had offended me, or anyone, and I can completely understand that from your perspective the issues I raised were not as significant. I also just felt that any prospective e200 buyers who had access to your review through this forum, should be made aware of other perspectives on the issue. & I have to admit that it really does annoy me that Orange send YOU a nice, working, non-buzzing e200 for review (not your fault of course), leading you to review it positively, meanwhile in the real world, over half the current e200 owners on this forum report a buzzing handset. OVER HALF!!?? :evil: Know what I mean? It just smacks of a marketing whitewash, doesn't it?

As far as the bluetooth thing is concerned, I was more referring to the numerous complaints people have raised with the actual distance from which bluetooth is useable. Its not something I use myself (fry your mind all those microwaves :lol: ). But it does appear to be a major grumble with others.

& I'm intrigued by your statement about coming from an SPV background ... that's exactly what I did! I had the SPV original, e100, then e200 - and my overwhelming feeling is that yes, the e200 is a cracking phone for features etc, but it still is riddled with bugs, showing that Orange have learned nothing from their SPV escapdes, except that us punters will buy any new gizmo they throw at us, and when it doesnt work they can sit on their arses while we all jabber for fixes & updates, which we'll be lucky if we see any this side of christmas, coz they get us tied into 12 month contracts. If there was an equivalent phone running SP2003 I would change from the SPV e200 immediately without hesitation.

Orange has proven themselves to be a company with truly limited capabilities as regards testing. There has been no improvement whatsoever in the amount of bugs with the e200 and the original SPV. Infact, I think the e200 is worse. It is well known on this forum that Orange has had a prescence here in various forms (including an official role from the now seemingly acrace Mr. Orange), and they were well aware of the problems with the SPV & e100. It took until December 2003 (with the SPV being released in what ... Oct/Nov 2002?) to get an update that even attempted to resolve issues like battery life & gprs connectivity. & the release of the e200 with so many bugs is either down to absolute incompetence on the part of the entire testing dept, or simply a company that a) does not care what it's market perception is because it is arrogant enough to believe it will sell anyway ... or :( is not very good. Simple, I reckon! :D

& the fact that so many phones have been replaced by similarly faulty ones leads to the belief that there are entire faulty batches. How does that happen in a company the size of Orange, unless their testing procedures are totally incompetent?

As I'm sure you can tell, I'm fairly disenfranchised with the SPV range ATM, and I think that is down to the poor performance of Orange! The company appears to me to be out of its league, incapable of actually delivering the products/services that it promises, incapable of supporting its products - infcat incapable of even recognising the need for support, or the opportunities that presents. I refer you to the entire Mr. Orange situation. Orange had a golden opportunity to completely corner the support of smartphones with their "official" prescence at modaco, the world recognised home of smartphone on the web. The situation got so bad a poll was created to see how many members of this community thought he was "ineffective", because he was simply incapable of delivering any relevant information on bug issues people had, and after promising fixes/updates, would disappear form site once the promised release date had come & gone by, oh, say a few weeks!

Another shame. I personally felt that until I found Modaco, I didnt even know my smartphone - and this forum opened up a whole new world of possibilities. I felt that Modaco was the centre of all knowledge smartphone, & if Orange could have gotten their "official" prescence here to become an integral part of that, then surely all the good people of modaco would come to see Orange as the only company with the vision to get involved with the best smartphone site on the web, and gain the status of most "smartphonest" mobile company. :( Jeez, they're tech support dept might even have learned how to work a smartphone! But it was not to be. & Mr. Orange seems conspicuous by his absence these days.

Its funny, but its directly BECAUSE of coming from an SPV background that I feel this way. I truly thought the e200 would be everything we dreamed the SPV would be, but bigger, better & without all the teething problems - but I have been proven sadly mistaken. & I can't even now change my mind about the phone & say "stick it", because the only other handsets available as a different model replacement are DOWNGRADES, and if I switch to one of those & don't like it, I would have to PAY for an upgrade back to the e200?? Now you tell me, does that seem to you like a good marketing initiative, aimed at customer retention in a "churn" heavy market, from a forward thinking company??

Its a shame, coz I am addicted to customising my SPV's, and the e200 homescreen plugins have much more scope than the previous SPV's. Its pretty much the only reason I have kept the e200 without going to an mpx200. & Its odd ... there is obviously a dept within Orange who are programming these plugins, which outstrip the microsoft efforts by miles. The new plugins for the e200 are leagues ahead of anything previously done, and they are definately Orange property coz they only come on the Orange phones. Just seems strange that a company that is clearly putting budget requirements into a dept to make fabulous new homescreen plugins, can be so lax in testing & approving & supporting those same products?? Know what I mean? :?

Like I said before, I'm not getting at you, or your article - I'm getting at Orange & their poor performance on these issues. As you can see, I like to go on at length about them! But please, don't take it as an attack on you. Like I said, I wouldn't have expected you to go on at length about an issue you hadn't found personally. I just wish I knew EXACTLY which box, in which store room, in which branch, your phone came from! :twisted:

Anyhow Chris, other than that stuff, man your article was great! :wink:

[Guest Mike Wagstaff]

Perhaps this buzzing issue is network related?

Maybe it's that higher quality Canadian air? :lol:

Which would make sense because I don't have a buzzing issue, and I live in the completely unpolluted natural beauty spot that is, er, London... :D

[Guest Pondrew]

For those in London, Ontario, he actually means London, England! :wink:

[Guest Pulse]

What is that naughty E200 doing to that sweet, innocent SPV?

http://www.pocketmatrix.com/reviews/spve20...ge/P1010069.jpg