Pauls C500 Review - Updated 12/08 23:45

[Guest fozzie]

Use Google to Search for Binarys Smart Explorer. Go to their web site and download it ^_^

[Guest Brody]

Forget Google, MoDaCo applies a smart link to the words Smart Explorer so click them!

[Guest andysurferdude]

Hi,

Is there anyone out there who knows how to play mp3 files as a ringtone? I have transfered some from my pc, they play fine from my windows 9 media player but there not avaliable to select from the ringtones in the sounds section........ :cry:

Also whn i try to change the time and date via.... start>settings>date and time a message pops up saying "The settings could not be opened." any help would be much appreciated..... ^_^

[Guest andysurferdude]

Do i need to download software to the c500 in order to play mp3's as ringtones?

[Guest Disco Stu]

The C500 will not play MP3s as ringtones and there is no software to make it possible. ^_^

[Guest Confucious]

Convert the Mp3's to WMA to use as ringtones ^_^

[Guest andysurferdude]

Convert the Mp3's to WMA to use as ringtones ^_^

They do play as a midi file (which sounds crap compared to mp3) How do i convert the mp3 to WMA and will they sound better than midi.

Ta for the help fellas :wink:

Andy.

[Guest Confucious]

WMA files are similar to MP3s there is a thread on how to convert MP3s to WMAs here.

HTH

[Guest andysurferdude]

BRILLIANT !!! all my lifes problems are now solved, THANKS....

....apart from one little one..........

Also when i try to change the time and date via.... start>settings>date and time a message pops up saying "The settings could not be opened."   any help would be much appreciated..... ^_^

Andy.

[Guest Confucious]

There's a thread on this as well somewhere...

Do you by any chance have your date format set to dd.mm.yy? If so change it to any other format and it should work.

HTH

[Guest andysurferdude]

date format set to dd.mm.yy......now sorted

thanks for all your help, your signature speaks the truth my friend.

[Guest neilwillis]

Nice review.

I have to admit I have not read all the posts here, but I have only had it out the box for an hour and from what I can make out there are very few services for Bluetooth. Is this correct?

I wanted to send a photo and ringtone from my old phone, but it didn’t work. In the same way there are no options for sending a photo from the C500 to another phone via Bluetooth.

Please tell me if I am wrong, but it’s a BIG let down if this is the case.

Apart from that its looks like a nice phone. I like the msn feature... Might end up costing me lots of money :roll:

Cheers

Neil

[Guest Disco Stu]

I'm no expert, but I did send a video file to a mate's (non-Smart)phone using Binary's essential Smart Explorer.

It was very easy indeed.

[Guest DaveJ]

Hi, I'm new to MoDaCo and to the world of smartphones. I have an annoying newbie question of a general nature, please skip if you hate those!

I'm on the lookout for a new phone and am considering, among others, the SPV C500 and the Sony Ericsson K700i. Chalk and cheese, some might say: one's a smartphone, the other isn't. But what can the C500 can do that the K700i can't? HTML browsing is the only biggie I've found so far, but I'm wondering if that's worth bothering with on a 220x176 screen; I'd be interested to hear whether people here find it genuinely usable and useful. Other enlightenment concerning the pros and cons of smartphones would be warmly welcomed. I imagine, possibly wrongly, that core phone features such as T9 will be more solid and polished on the K700i.

If this is exactly the sort of posting you don't want on this forum, just let me know, I'll leave quietly! :wink:

Thanks, Dave.

[Guest fozzie]

Welcome to the forum :lol:

Given that this is a Smartphone forum then you're unlikely to get an impartial response ;) Just save yourself the aggro and get the C500. Why? Search the forum and find out all the great things it does :D I don't even know what the K700i is and quite frankly don't even care; the C500 does just about everything I need.

[Guest chucky.egg]

Someone else has already been discussing this same choice at length here:

http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=116991

[Guest simonainley]

Paul's report suggested that it is not possible to voice activate dialing and this is confirmed by the Orange website and brochure?

However the staff at the Kingston, Surrey branch assure me that it is possible. Can anyone confirm this?

For a 'business tool' it is essential. :?: surely

[Guest barrybryce]

You certainly can with a bluetooth headset. Don't know about otherwise.

[Guest argh]

You can directly from the handset by holding one of the volume buttons if you have set a voice tag.

Or for an alternative voice dial, you could try Fonix VoiceDial (very cool - can dial names and numbers without any voicetags set).

There is also Cyberon VoiceCommander that has some other nice features such as starting applications, reading out SMS and appointments. I don't have as much luck with the speech recognition though, especially when reading out numbers or with any background noise.

[Guest simonainley]

Many thanks chaps :lol:

[Guest xerxes]

I'm on the lookout for a new phone and am considering, among others, the SPV C500 and the Sony Ericsson K700i. Chalk and cheese, some might say: one's a smartphone, the other isn't. But what can the C500 can do that the K700i can't? ... I imagine, possibly wrongly, that core phone features such as T9 will be more solid and polished on the K700i.

Thanks, Dave.

DaveJ,

It probably depends what you want the phone for. For me a mobile is primarily a business tool but also with the ability to pass a little leisure time when I'm travelling etc.

One thing that C500 can do is sync all my 1100 contacts from Outlook. Each contact has 3 or 4 phone numbers, an email address, a URL, a postal address (or 2), and usually a long text note that records all my interactions with the contact over the last 6 years.

Compare this a K700i which allows a maximum of 500 phone numbers.

There are a whole load more things about the C500 that are very powerful and flexible but it really depends what you want. If you are after a business phone I don't think there is anything on the market to touch it.

And by the way, T9 on the C500 is a lot better than my old T610 and Siemens S55. I don't know what T9 is like on a K700i.

[Guest simonainley]

Can anyone help!

Is there much to choose between the SPVc500 and the P910? This may be a daft question but I really am not techy in any way.

Both are bluetooth and can have voicedial, both appear to sync well with outlook. Both have MP3 players. Both appear to have lots of software that can be downloaded off the web.

It strikes me that the advantage of the SPV is size but the disadvantage is data inputing text message style.

On the other hand the P910 has a stylus for inputing but is a bit big (even with the key board removed) to fit in your pocket and to be carrying around Waitrose.

I do not play games and do not need anything that's too clever. I just want a phone that works really well with Outlook. Anything else is a bonus

Is it just down to personal preference and the stylus verses size issue, or am I missing smoething really obvious?!

Many thanks

Simon

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Well the obvious one is that the p910 is somewhere in the region of 3 or 4 times the price of the c500...

Also, if you want flawless outlook integration then you won't want anything but the c500 and activesync combo...

[Guest simonainley]

And another quick question that I forgot to ask. Is it possible to search for a contact or diary entry easily on the SPV in the same way as you would on a Palm or Outlook?

I presume this is possible on the P910?

Simon

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Calaendar entries, not so easy. But you can quickly browse through the month by month view to see which days have apointments. The contacts database on the C500 uses the t9 engine to cut down the list. Eg, 2-6-2 for "bob".

Couldnt say about the p910...