Coming Soon: Paul's C500 Review

[Guest midnight]

all this comes down to is O do need a better form of testing, testing where they could test thoroughly every part of the device, even test as many games as possible. So i do agree, O should be testing aswell, but you would have thought HTC, being the manufacturer, would have spotted this even if O didnt. (which does question, did HTC know about this and just kept it quiet just as Mitac did?)

anyways, they WILL fix it, they DO know about it, and i'll still be getting me one of these lovely phones :P

[Guest Blakey]

So Paul, is the nav button easier for navigating menus? I do find with my E200 that occasionally when I go to press the nav button in to select an option I also press it down (or up) at the same time and end up selecting the option below the one I want. Not a total disaster obviously but annoying none the less.

Blakey

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Yeah, that won't happen any more because of the really deep - distrint 'action'... it feels quite odd at first tho!

P

[Guest Dr Who]

I do remember that 'back in the day' you could buy a really cheap joystick for a ZX Spectrum that just strapped over the keys. Then as you moved the stick it would press the keys (yes you had to map the correct keys). Anyone REALLY into games and with a workshop and a few hours to spare could give it a try...... ;0)

[Guest Blakey]

Sorry for the crap question Paul but I can't find any specification of the C500 anywhere.

It uses a Mini-SD card, right? And does it have a 2.5mm or 3.5mm stereo headphone?

Is there a link to a page with the full spec?

Thanks

Blakey

[Guest muff]

slightly OT, but following the general thread of conversation...

my 2 cents...

at the end of the day, both the hardware manufacturer and seller should be testing - the sellers should not be selling phones that they have not tested as being up to the purpose for which it is being sold, and the hardware guys should never let it out of the building with problems

after all it's not exactly the first time that Smartphones have come out with problems

the more often they produce phones with known problems, then the more it damages the brand of 'Smartphone' in the marketplace - after all who is going to buy one if all they ever hear is how it has bugs?

I frankly dont accept that there will always be bugs in these phones, that's the whole point of testing - there are plenty of products out there that function perfectly, first time, every time - you cannot tell me that a mobile phone is more complicated than some of the other consumer products we all take for granted

so far the award for worst testing has to go jointly to the E200 team for not discovering the missing diagonal capabilities (though that is often argued as a feature:/) and the MPX200 boys for the joystick that doesn't go down and left at the same time, as well as a host of key mapping issues

these are hardware issues (the MPX200 one not being a non-defendable case) and so cannot be fixed by patches

the most annoying one in software is again on the MPX200 where they know what the problem with their GAPI support is (thanks to guys here) and just dont bother to fix it - there is simply NO excuse for that

if the companies involved cannot test their products properly then what are they doing selling them? and can u imagine a car manufacturer still launching a car that they know has problems? "Dont worry madam, we'll fix that axle at your first service"

personally I'd rather the phone's launch was delayed or even have the phone cancelled than for people to keep launching these 'Beta' phones (as people are so aptly calling them) up the public

the argument that they are not 'gaming' phones is moot - wether or not you personally use it for games is irrelevant - the OS has the capabilities, and so it should work

as consumers we wouldn't stand for it in any other object that we buy, so why do we accept it in this range of phones?

..... and breathe......

ahhhhh, just needed to get that off my chest - back to the code now :P

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Mini SD, same headset as previous SPVs.

P

[Guest maxh2003]

STOP BLAMING ORANGE

But:

i) they're selling it to you, not HTC, so your contract as a buyer is with them;

ii) they've put their logo on it, which suggests they're buying into the responsibility themselves.

Surely we should complain to Orange - we're their customers - and Orange should complain to HTC, because Orange is HTC's customer.

Anyway... all computer products have bugs, it's a fact of life:

products out there that function perfectly, first time, every time

which just means the bugs aren't very significant and you haven't found them yet, not that they're bug-free. But releasing a phone with a bug *this significant* is pretty indefensible. It should have been caught by the testing the delivery guy carried out when he dropped off the first engineering sample, never mind Orange and HTC's test teams. I mean, seriously, shouldn't someone be a little embarrassed by this situation? If it was my name on the testing sheet I would be.

[Guest midnight]

maxh2003, yes, abvsolutely, complain to Orange cos they are the ones selling the phone, but.... people on here know better than to say it's Orange's fault the software/hardware doesnt work, that simply is not true, in fact, look at the people blaming Microsoft for this, it is not Microsoft's fault either, Motorola MPx220 is identical OS to the C500, but that (as far as I know) has no problems with games. So, by all means complain to Orange that the phone has problems (thats what we've done), but just remember it isnt Orange who make the software/hardware. As I already stated, we told Orange about this bug and they didnt know about it, we only found the bug a week ago, so its a bit late to fix the bug before its released.

[Guest Jakob]

Paul;

Does the UK rom feature danish t9 ?

/J

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

It does.

P

[Guest jbrare]

Does the C500 allow sound in MMS's - AMR format to playback, record and send?

Cheers

JB

[Guest battletank]

it is interesting that companies are allowed to release buggy phones etc if we gave a drug to a patient under restraint that was buggy or didnt work properly we'd all could get a serious kicking or the patient could die so obviously we only buy in licescened drugs maybe the same laws  should be applicable to all technology that we have in the medical proffession then we wouldnt have this problem.

Are you seriously suggesting that a company releasing a phone which initially has some issues playing games should be penalised in the same manner as a company releasing pharmaceuticals that kill?

[Guest dearsina]

I have a dream, that one day, the first thing that comes to mind when getting a Orange/HTC/MS phone is NOT 'is the update out yet?'. Maybe not me, but maybe my children will one day experience that dream.

sina

london

ps. muff: you're very much on the money with your post.

[Guest beersoft]

battletank, most drugs the drug companies release will kill you if you dont follow the instructions :S

What would you prefer

1) Orange bury there heads in the sand and say "its not a problem"

or

2) Orange take it like a man and say "Yep, we missed that bug, we will have a fix ASAP, the person who devised the tests has been beaten with a large stick, it wont happen again, thank you for flying orange"

this bug should have been found months ago, but thanks to paul we know about it, and we can wait for the fix.

Later

Owen

[Guest Simon Desser]

I have a dream, that one day, the first thing that comes to mind when getting a Orange/HTC/MS phone is NOT 'is the update out yet?'. Maybe not me, but maybe my children will one day experience that dream.

If Dr. Martin Luther King had have owned an Orange MS Smartphone, I'm sure that's what he'd have said :P :wink:

[Guest nickcornaglia]

I just think it's odd that most of the software out there for Smartphones is (unfortunately) probably games. I would have thought they would test MOST of the apps out there in some actual usage tests. What are the odds that all of the testers only play Solitare and Jawbreaker?!

But I say....I'll take it with the bugs and wait for the update. Count yourselves lucky in the UK & Europe that you have so many smartphones to choose from. So far in the US we've officially had only TWO! And one (the i600) is crap!

As an outsider and non-Orange user...I only wish we had a network provider here in the US that provided so many cutting edge phones and services to it's subscribers, for a very decent price. And they rush to get new products out to you as soon as they are made. I wish we had Orange here in the US.

You are lucky to have them by comparison to what I'm used to here. Lack of phones, lack of service. If Verizon were to adopt this phone, it wouldn't come out until 1-1/2 years later due to "testing" and it will already be out of date by the time it actually arrives.

Orange kicks serious butt when it comes to the services and phones they provide, and the quick intervals in which they provide them. You have to appreciate that and be willing to accept one or two bugs as a price for riding that cutting edge with them.

Additionally....they have always been committed to providing updates for every Smartphone made so far...in a relatively quick timeframe.

In short...Bravo Orange! Keep up the great work!

Sincerely,

A non-Orange user

[Guest kevlar]

I was waiting for the mpx to come out, now this has appeared which has me thinking twice. Well atleast now this bug has been discovered I won't have to jump in and get one straight away, by the time the fix is out ( orange aren't known for their speed when it comes to updates!) the mpx may be available so I can then decide. It is very tempting though with the faster cpu and much longer battery life.

Am I right in thinking you can upgrade after 9 months if you spend more than £50/month?

Kevlar

[Guest efjay]

"]Mini SD, same headset as previous SPVs.

P

Paul, I recently found that the handsfree headset with the E200 wont terminate calls, as its the same headset does this function work with the C500? Thanks

[Guest keni]

He's probably busy playing, lucky bugger!

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Yes, you can now terminate calls from the headset.

P

[Guest Blakey]

This phone sounds too good to be true. :-) Especially as I don't play games on my phone (unless you count mapopolis and mobipocket reader and betaplayer as games?) :-)

I've only just got an E200 about 2 months ago and I'm already seriously considering upgrading. My biggest problem is that I have a 512 MB SD card for my E200 which I won't be able to use in the C500 - I like all my gadgets to have interchangable accessories where possible. I suppose I can at least stick the SD card in my digital camera (if I use that again, seeing as how the C500's camera looks pretty sharp).

Do they make 512MB mini-SD cards yet?

Blakey

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

I did have some BetaPlayer oddities, but it actually seems to be OK now...

P

[Guest Gears]

I'll say one thing. It doesn't matter about it being a Signature phone, or that it's being targetted to professionals, or that it's not totally meant for games.... At the end of the day.. it's small, it plays movies, MP3s, has great ringtones, it's customizable - so it's attractive to people who also want ... GAMES.

It doesn't matter who you target, it's the majority that end up buying it that matter. Look at the MPx200 - I've seen kids with these phones just 'cus they "look good and play music". They don't care about the why's and how's - they just wanna play games.

I'm worried that things are going to get a bit fragmented... "This game works on Windows Mobile 2003 on an E200, but it doesn't work on Smartphone 2002 - that's the MPx200 and SPV, SPV E100. We have a problem with it not working on the C500, although we've tested it on Windows Mobile 2003 SE and should work fine..." Eh ? Wha?

Customers are going to be confused - all they want to see is "Works with Windows Mobile for Smartphone" - and it should run on ALL Smartphones with that logo... regardless. No excuses..

We have three players. MS, HTC and the network. Something went wrong somewhere - we need for this to NOT happen again. You can test Windows Mobile all you want on one handset, and it'll work fine, but when the handsets change it can put a spanner in the works. Each handset needs to go through some sort of test or vetting procedure to see if it'll do what it did when MS built the OS for it. It's like me giving someone a recipe - they can follow it to the letter, but if their cups are smaller and their spoons are a bit bigger it comes out all wrong - even though everything was done right.

At least.. at least.. and the major, major strength with this platform is the fact that it can be fixed in time. Yes, it shouldn't have happened, but it can be sorted.

[Guest MaximilianWeisheit]

So Paul,

what's your favorite?

Silver or Black?!