[Editorial] 'MoDaCo Approved' - submit your criteria!

[Guest Maverick]

We should have a joystick and keys MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) test.

My E200 joystick just failed... I get right sideways movement when I press it for downward movement :P

[Guest bradmatejo]

I think the biggest criteria should be Overall Useability. Are the keys small and hard to use (SPV)? Are they so flat they're hard to navigate by touch (MPx200)? Do you have to take the battery off to get to the sc card? Is it too easy to hit the record/volume button accidentally (MPx200)? Does it use a proprietary connector (miniUSB rocks!)? And of course, does the software perform well or is it buggy? Those type things are what will really give someone an idea of whether they will be pleased with the phone.

Another criteria should be Is the phone a good value for it's targetted users. As the smartphone market grows, we're going to see more models differentiated by intended uses and levels of use, a la PocketPC/Palm market. Not everyone is interested in a camera phone and not everyone needs bluetooth. Probably won't be long until we see a series of phones that will be virtually identical except for the presence of bluetooth or a camera. Once that happens, we'll have to evaluate a phone based on it's intended user's interests. It would be unfair to knock a phone for not having bluetooth if the model is aimed at users who don't need it.

[Guest midnight]

Some years ago, one of the main benchmarksfor PCs was its FPS on Doom. As we have a Doom port, maybe a FPS figure for Doom would be a good test.

theres may more things to test other than just framerate, such as blit speed, 3d performance, sprite performance, scroll performance etc. :D

[Guest nvkid909]

on the spv units... 5 way key - horrible!!! don't know how long they thought this setup would last for, being an 'internet & gaming' phone; too wibbly wobbly

ive had mine apart to stop it scrolling all by itself. i think if people need to do this then they could have made 'em with replaceable fascias & funky keypads! also not have bothered with 5way key, instead opting for seperate pads clumped together in a neat design like on some motorolas & nokias.

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Asthetics:

SD or MiniSD: Type of external memory and the quality of it function are important. I personally prefer SD over MiniSD as I can transfer it to multiple devices, but who knows what tomorrow may bring. Maybe there will be a MiniSD to SD converter.

There is a convertor that lets you use a mini-SD card in a normal SD slot.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

How about an SD to Mini SD converter? ;p

[Guest siu99spj]

How about an SD to Mini SD converter? ;p

Thats simple, just get a knife and cut in half! Only problem is you end up with two half size cards as well (i.e. A 256MB card becomes two 128MB cards).

NOTE: siu99spj holds no resposibility for your trying this at home and realising it doesn't work! This includes "/you"

[Guest neilg]

my personal view is that with the wealth of information already available in terms of general reviews/ratings that we would be better concentrating on some of the key points that the expertise on this forum can look at specifically. eg focussing in on the detailed changes/ratings between different smartphone devices, comparison, compatibility, detailed things that can be quantified (eg signal strenghth in dB compared to a reference handset in different locations on different networks, GPRS throughput, Class A, B, C etc (htings that may need an app written to test) - perhaps compiling a master review from all the newsfeeds and other reviews available.

I would certainly trust the reviews of the team here more than some other review sites who have often been shown to mis-understand or get things wrong but think that whatever goes in here should differentiate against the other reviews available - I'll think some more!!

[Guest SMYKUL]

It might be nice to start all the included apps at once and then start a third party game to see whether the OS is functioning correctly, and also to see how much the phone can handle before you get the infamous "Loading Square" of doom :twisted: and your phone freezes. might also be good to do a rating based on how many third party apps you need in order to do most basic things. For example whether the phone has a built in notepad/file explorer/Reg editor or whether they must be added manually to the phones compliment. You could also bombard the phone with installs without restarting to see if it has that prob where it erases ur reg for no reason. :P i get that last one ALOT !

[Guest live4life]

Posted from my SmartPhone!

it could be usefull to divide users into categories. ie fun-users and business users. different people, diffent demands...