Smartphones Annoyance (c550)

[Guest JonnyBennett]

But to be honest the phones a pile of crap if you ask me, Well I wouldnt say its crap in the sense of the capabilities but compared to the c500 its nothing better really, The camera is still crap, the battery life is no way near the standard it should be and the price is a rip off, to be honest i still think the rocker is better than the joystick as my joysticks always don't last long from my experience with the qtek 8080. I wouldn't bother waisting your money on this phone as its no major improvement considering the hype and ammount of time they took on bringing it out, I wouldnt wait till they improve the technology and stick with the c500 as its virtually the same, I mean alot of people do get excited about the fact its a new phone and they think its cool but at the end of the day its their bad on waisting their money on a product that probably took the company a small ammount of time to make better.

It doesn't look like much effort has been made in making this phone anything special in regards to the c500.

The technology for a phone is obviously on the up all the time but there is a long way to go, well come on 1.3mp is crap. and even if the phone lasted a week battery its still crap compared to some real old nokia phones i've had that last up to 10 days.

its all good saying the technology drains the battery but this issue should have been dealt with and the battery should have been upgraded and made better,or atleast the hardware and software should be programmed better to save battery life, to be honest there are alot of suckers out there who like to part with their money, the companys in question here don't care about customers, they just want to make big bucks selling products that dont add up to the price they are sold for.

there is obviously alot more the companys can do to work together and improve the quality build and resolve issues with the phone, but they know suckers will buy the item regardless. Until the day orange make a significant improvement on the builds then there is no point

I dont see how all the time they have had on this phone, that they can only produce this, it doesnt justify the amount its worth or show any significant improvement.

I mean the heck can they go backwards in talk time to 4 hours from the previous 5 hours, and i don't see how they can say standby 6 days because whats the bloody point of having the phone if its constantly in standby, i mean it doesnt last that long from what i've heard and from what i gather, my c500 was constantly being charged every other day.

web browsing is still bollocks, no one would use dial up now so why do we still have this crappy slow gprs that orange want to rip people off by saying you gotta pay major ammounts of money for this slow service, its all well and good connecting via bt or usb via activsync to use it free but whats the point in that when you can use a friggin P.C, a phone should never be for web-browsing at this poor conception.

Do the companys in question ever listen to their customers, the answer is YES, they listen alright but they take the facts and requests and think, "hey now, we will listen to some of the things the user requests but we will make sure we don't do everything they want so when they get the phone they can moan in the hope that in 6 months time they will purchase the c600 as more issues are resolved, and Ohhhh no they finnally upgraded to 4mp camera, just an incentive to make buyers purchase the phone, and it always works.

Everyone needs to face the fact that technology isn't as advanced as it should be and i doubt this is because technology can't push forward faster but its due to the fact that companys are so slow and just want big bucks.

Another plus point is they've even managed to give us more plastic and garbage for our money this time buy adding an extra few grams to the phone weight. I thought people want to get away from the brick like phones but from what i see here the fashion is to now add more weight to the phone and for what reason it makes no sense.

I doubt the screen dust issue is sorted, i doubt the phones camera is better protected, I know the battery life still suck and i bet the case of the phone still scratches easily, now come on there is no innovation involved in improving these things and they should know the customers want this.

the friggin idiots are suppose to be "pro" but their is still loads of bugs users have found, I mean how hard is it to give it a good testing, after all they have had ages to do this and its not like the phone is as complex as a personal computer.

Im not doubting the fact that i would purchase the phone if it was majorily better than other phones on the market and they actually made some effort to improve the phone a bit more.

I can presume the phone still runs at the speed of a donkey computer,menus slow, need to hard-reset lots,

And also the fact its still only a 4 way jostick, people can say bla bla bla its a hardware/software issue but thats not the point, the point is customers have wanted this extension for a long time now but they don't listen.

I mean these smartphones also take so bloody long to boot up its a joke. and I wouldn't put it past the c550 being the same. Someone from microsoft also needs to get their acts sorted and make a decent GUI that actually allows the user to get things done quicker, the task manager doesnt manage applications well enough as when they are in the task manager the phone acts like a snail. I know this issue is also down to the physicals of the phone but why the hell don't they make the phone faster, and its not down to the fact they can't because its been done with other smartphones and its obviously possible.

smartphones at the moment are more of a gimic and a computer or even a pda is more efficient in productivity, how anyone can say a smartphone is anything compared to a pda is wrong, a pda can be used in a business environment to produce data, i wouldn't trust a smartphone to keep my data safe like i would on a personal computer, these smartphones at present are purely a "fun thing" that allow users to experiment with making and trying games and software and the main use a phone is for "telephone calls and texting"

Its nothing more than this, people need to understand this, just because they feel they can go around saying oh wow look what my phone does, but people should think oh no look what technology has done to your head, no offence to anyone here but there is no real reason to purchase this technology yet, this isnt something that should go in the history books, they really need to get their acts together and do what the customers want rather than selling products that have a 6 month shelf life and then the user gets an upgrade, i know the companys want to do this to make money but jesus can they not atleast think of the customers and atleast make the improvements suggested.

Obviously improvements have been made but nothing dramatic enough to give good reason to purchase this phone. if this is put in the context of a computer you would expect the computer to be turned into a 4mhz from a 3mhz and a 1gb of ram to 2gb ram so on within a year but this doesnt seem the case with phones, even if it is new technology they shouldnt give all the hype and so on if they don't produce the goods.

Anyways I've said enough on how I feel about the phone, I am ofcourse a fan of the smartphone technology and most times fall into the trap of buying them, but it just beeps me off to the max sometimes when they can't produce the goods and everytime i read the forums it seems like each new addition is not much better than the last, I was excited for ages on this new c550 but now I'm deffinately not buying the phone as their is not enough positive evidence that this phone is much better, if worse in some cases.

people are in the defence of these companys too much and believe the phones are great but its all crap.people who speak the truth on how awful and fed up they are, are the ones in the right, customers need a say and need to be listened to, there is alot they could have upgraded here but didnt bother.

Please leave your comments here if you wish so, This is just my feelings so please don't get harsh with me but I do stand by what i believe and I believe the c550 is probably a waiste of money, the c500 was a major improvement to the previous addition but this upgrade from c500 to c550 seems pointless.

Thanks for reading.

p.s - maybe I am wrong in taking such an aggresive approach but most of you cannot say some of the facts presented are not true, these companys need a kick up the arse and make the upgrades how we want them, after all we are the customers.

Edited August 26, 2005 by JonnyBennett

[Guest Seraphic]

True as some of your facts may be, if you don't like the phone you don't have to buy it, simple as that.

[Guest Radeon12345]

I owned a C500, that was my first smartphone and was very impressed with what it could do and the features on it, I am on the Orange contract, so had the phone for free :)

But just a few weeks after I had the phone I so the announcement for the C550, and it looked very nice, my favorite feature was the high res screen, I really wanted the C550, but because I was still in a 12 month I had to pay a £117 upgrade fee :cry: but it was worth it, I am very happy with the C550, the screen is a huge improvement and I find the speed a tiny bit slower than the C500, probably due to the phone has to use more processing power to render the higher screen res

Much prefer the joystick over the rocker any day, much better for games and navigating menus

I am happy with the phone and think it was worth every penny to upgrade it and will definitely upgrade to the next smartphone, the C600 if they call it that

The only thing I am disappointed and would love to have seen on the C550 would have been

1 ) 2 mega pixel and flash on the camera

2 ) A faster CPU, 400mhz CPU at least, the would have vastly sped up the phone

3 ) Windows Mobile 5, why didn't Orange include this, this was a stupid mistake, and hope they give it to people in a free ROM upgrade, but very much doubt they would do that

But overall, best phone I have ever owned ;)

Edited August 26, 2005 by Radeon12345

[Guest Maxrom]

I agree in part with what you say here JonnyBennett - sometimes it does feel as though the consumer is taken for a ride. It's not just the Smartphone market that is affected by this approach though - I remember buying a few shocking portable minidisc players back in the day that were terrible, in particular one Sony unit that I dont think should ever have seen the light of day.

I think the problem probably is slightly worse with phones than other devices as they are often seen as disposable items due to the common free yearly upgrades offered to most contract users. Because of this approach, the phone manufacturers have to sell them to the mobile operators as cheap as possible, hoping that their profits will come through high volume sales, assuming that per unit, they actually dont make a huge amount of money considering the costs involved in bringing a new phone to market.

If this is the case, then continous and frequent development of new phones is the only way they're going to keep the money coming in, which is probably why they are more concerned with knocking out new phones than spending more time getting a specific device as close to perfect as they can.

I'm not defending the hardware manufacturers here, but I can understand to a point why we will sometimes get hardware that doesnt quite meet expectation. In many ways, my old K700i is superior to my C500, but I'd never go back to using anything other than a smartphone now I've tried one. The C500 can be slow, and it can be more unstable than my old SE, but I'm happy to support this technology now as I see a bright future for it. Whilst we might have to suffer some rough edges at the moment, if the companies like HTC didnt sell any phones now, then they wouldnt have any incentive to further develop and improve the technology.

I have some friends that think a phone that does anything more than make calls is totally unnecessary. Nothing at all wrong with that view, and for those people, it would probably be worth waiting until smartphones have matured a little more before they get involved with them. However, for me, I've chosen to take the good with the bad, and support the technology and the smartphone scene, because for me, my C500 is more than just a phone, it's an interest too. At the end of the day, as with everything, you need to pick a phone that best suits your needs, and be aware of what you're getting into. Smartphones arent for everyone, but I honestly think that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages if you're willing to spend a little time with them, and take the rough with the smooth.

Edited August 26, 2005 by Maxrom

[Guest JonnyBennett]

Yes, I do feel smartphones are the way forward I just wish they could have implemented more in the c550 like a 2mp camera or higher, faster GUI, Wifi, Longer Battery Life, Better Bluetooth, Faster ( 400mhz and above) and blatently Windows Mobile 5, I mean its no hardship to inc windows mobile 5 really is it. Also an 8 way joystick, Better IE that atleast challenges Opera,

The fact is that all the hype about the phone doesnt justify the actual product, I myself have a c500 and will stick to this for now, I felt when this phone was out it was a big step in mobile technology but i don't see much more advance with the c550, I mean I don't see what more the c550 has to offer apart from a few upgraded features. I am more than willing to support smartphone companys in general if they actually listened to customers more and added these features, after all their is so much more that can be done and even after all these implementations are complete there is so much more that can be done to make the smartphone superior to any other mobile device.

The incentive for the companys is the fact they want to make more money, why can't they jump in our shoes and see the incentive as making customers happy with their products by building a model that is superior to the generation, all the features on the c500 and c550 are "been there, done it" type features now, it becomes borring and it would be nice to see more new features included.

The joysticks rubbish really because a 4 way joystick doesn't make gameing amazingly great as you can only go left, right, up and down, so in this respect it is the same as a rocker, but we all have our own preferences, but the job is still the same with the joystick, why can't they make it 8 way so this allows programmers to expand on the capabilities of the phones gameing.

as it stands with software for phones, well we cant evolve much further with this c550 as it doesnt offer much more, programmers cant make more sefisticated games that have 8 way navigation as the hardware doesn't allow this for one and software is limited due to limited expansion when it comes to Operating system updates and more capabilities.

I understand your point that its more of an interest with smartphones, but why can't they atleast listen to customers and provide these bare essentials, some people will be more than willing to part with money then knowing its a good investment to help the smartphone technology evolve.

I mean we are far from the smartphone to be, but can they not atleast ask customers what they want and provide some of these features, there is plenty more requests from people but i'm not going into major detail, I just wish things moved a bit faster and we as customers had more say in what goes on, if they want the smartphone technology to be the best they have to listen to us the users, after all they can't even spot their own bugs and they have been in the business for a good few years now when it comes to smartphones, this just proves that "us" as the customers show more concern into the development of the smartphone. I know its unfair to say that as lots of software has bugs but the smartphone OS with c500 etc is far from bug ridden its actually quite bad in this matter.

I say they need to make sure the next version, if its c600 should include a better camera, faster ROM, More RAM, 8 Way Joystick and a 4 way joystick for the plonkers who prefer that, if any, The Latest Windows OS ( which they have failed to do this time), and people say they are not worried but i noticed alot of people expected this update and didnt get it ( I don't put no hope in orange offering an update neither). Also a better battery life, Faster GUI system, IE that actually compares to Opera, Wifi and maybe a few other things

But to me all they offer is Media Buttons, A still crap camera, A slightly different design, better screen res and a few other features including a slower phone, This to me doesnt weigh up fairly on the user. The phone is virtually the c500's slightly, but not much older brother.

If all the features i've mentioned was included then I would feel more happy to purchase the c550 knowing that they have listened to the requests, and come on people its not much to ask for really, because in the end we all know that even with them features the smartphone would still have a massively long way to go.

I mean we can compare this with ps1 and ps2, if the ps2 wasnt much better than ps1 we wouldn't buy it and we would get the xbox instead or neither, and thats where i feel we are at in this moment in time. I don't see how this upgrade will make much difference. But its my views as I say. I mean you have to ask yourself this question, " what more can you do on the c550 that you couldnt do on the c500?.

I appreciate the fact that this technology is taking place but personally I will wait and see what the c600 has to offer if thats the case and if the companys involved thinking of us as the incentive for once and make us happy by offering more then that would be nice, after all if all these features was included then you would choose this phone over the c550 without a doubt, and its possible, we need more companys challenging smartphone companys and i feel that may just push technology a bit faster.

And im sure some companys could make the c550 look like a ps1 by bringing out a ps2 quality build. then im sure the c600 would be more like a ps3, this is the state we are in and i believe this will happen and that will make technology with smartphones evolve into big and wonderful things in the future. I am a smartphone fan and want to see this technology progress or i wouldn't care about the development. and to be honest i feel its their bad to as i don't see how making more effort can lose them money, surely more people would buy this phone if it was superior to any other phone and had the wow factor .after all technology never stops improving and they can easily do alot more if they want.

P.s - sorry if any of this is not understandable as its quite early in the morning, Let me know your views and opinions, Im not here to slander the companys or dis-respect their technology in any way i just feel its a topical subject of interest to me and i want to find out what others think, whether good or bad.

Edited August 26, 2005 by JonnyBennett

[Guest TheBadger]

I agree that if you have a c500 a c550 probably isnt worth the cost. But if like me you don't have a c500, the c550 is a nice little phone. The high res screen looks way clearer than the c500.

Also, as with all techonolgy there is bound to be problems early on. Early adopters of technology are going to be the ones who notice this, but without them and their suggestions the technology would just flounder and stagnate. Although I'm not sure how much this applies to smartphones as they have been around a while.

[Guest beersoft]

ok, who pointed a gun at your head and made you upgrade?

and since when has a from free to £150 upgrade been expensive? (and you have to be a special kinda of stupid to have to pay £150 for a c550 on upgrade)

so the c550 isn't 1000000000000000000000000000000 times better than the c550, you seen the 6630 and the 6680 thats the same phone in a different case

and WM5 isnt an option till september when microsoft allow wm5 to be released into the wild, so instead of bitching about its not got wm5 you would be bitching about "boo hoo no upgrades till september/october/november"

and yes, your post does make you sound like an idiot

later

Owen

[Guest Seraphic]

ok, who pointed a gun at your head and made you upgrade?

and since when has a from free to £150 upgrade been expensive? (and you have to be a special kinda of stupid to have to pay £150 for a c550 on upgrade)

so the c550 isn't 1000000000000000000000000000000 times better than the c550, you seen the 6630 and the 6680 thats the same phone in a different case

and WM5 isnt an option till september when microsoft allow wm5 to be released into the wild, so instead of bitching about its not got wm5 you would be bitching about "boo hoo no upgrades till september/october/november"

and yes, your post does make you sound like an idiot

later

Owen

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As subtle as ever :) I do agree though, nobody is forcing anyone to buy or upgrade to the phone. How many phones have Nokia released that are almost exactly the same or with very minor improvements? Too many. So why don't you go bitching at them about it? Fact is, nobody ever said the C550 was going to be a revolution in smartphone history, hence why its not called the C1000. Do you go complaining to AMD for releasing processors that are slightly faster and better than the previous? No. And for £150 on pay as you go the C550 is nothing short of a bargain in my opinion.

[Guest Confucious]

I think anyone who upgrades from a C500 to a C550 is stupid!

Oh, wait, I did and I love my C550.....

:)

[Guest JonnyBennett]

well how people can say how is a 150 upgrade not expensive has more money than sense to be honest.the fact is if you don't have either the c550 or the c500 then you might aswell just get the c500 as its cheaper and virtually the same. My mate has the c550 and i still have the c500 and to me i don't see whats better about it apart from a few things. And the company's have let it slip as the c500 was a big step forward compared to the smartphone before it, but the c550 doesnt compare to this at all. its all good if people want to waiste their money and have a biast opinion on the c550, probably because they have brought it and think it does wonderful things.

and by the way im not an idiot for expressing my opinions.

face the facts, it don't do nothing a c500 can't do and its slower and crap.even the media buttons are a waiste of time end of story. how anyone can say spending hundreds on a phone is good, one day they will end up charging as much for a friggin phone as a personal computer, now that would be stupid, these phones should be a maximum of 1oo quid. because at the end of the day they are just a gimic and don't act anything like a pda, they are not productive and mainly as others say its just an interest and fun to have, but its all good if everyone feels an upgrade is the best option but i know many people who wouldnt upgrade to this c550 because its not worth it.

[Guest Confucious]

You are entitled to your opinion but

face the facts, it don't do nothing a c500 can't do and its slower and crap

It has a better camera and a far better screen. Well worth the extra for me and mine is costing me £110 for a year including contract.

Mine is also faster than my C500.

I am very happy with my C550 but obviously after reading your opinion I have changed my mind and will go back to using my C500 (even though every time I turn it on now the screen looks all washed out and blurry compared to the C550).

I will be throwing my C550 away now you have shown me the light :)

[Guest rand]

I can see some of Jonnys point and also agree with most of the posts here, if you want a phone buy it. As smart phones cost you will get your money from it 10 times over in the features and use.

I bought the C550 and liked the phobe design, but found the buttons a little too small. I really wanted to see a slight improvement in the OS so sent it back and am waiting patiently for the new OS.

I have had so many phones now i think we all demand too much from them and should take the plunge and stick with 1.

[Guest phil-t]

Hmm.. interesting babble..

Now lets see..

1. C550 has 2 days more standby time, thats a 50% increase

2. C550 has a larger screen with 320*240 resolution, a huge increase in real- estate

3. C550 has a joystick rather then a rocker

4. C550 has a 1.3 MP camera versus VGA, that's 100% increase

5. C550 has more button access to features (Music Buttons)

So I would say the C550 has some extremely good improvements over the C500..

But, and its a big BUT, why the hell did you upgrade?, the specs are available everywhere, and there is nothing you have found out after upgrading that you wouldn't have known about before...

It runs the same OS, with the same processor, etc.. what did you expect?

Battery life is excellent for a Smartphone of this size... they could make the battery life double, but you would complain its too big!!, in fact it'd be about the same size as your old nokia POS.

On the camera front.. 1.3MP is more then you need, the lens systems on these phones are crap.. full stop, even the so called SONY autofocus phones are still absolute piles of dogs eggs.... Megapixels does not in any way indicate quality.. Decent camera phones will come along in a year or two, but they will be digicams with phones hardware added on... just be patient, and even then they will be equal to the lowest quality digicams..

If you had no smartphone and had the choice of a free C550 or C500 on contract, I think the informed man would purchase the C550.. hands down...

I can't think of any manufacturer that has made drastic changes to an incremental model number??

Keep it real....

Now.. the M5000, that ticks most of your boxes, go and have a look, a bit pricey on contract, but it has 10days standby, VGA screen, QWERTY keyboard, faster processor, 3G, video calling, but it only has a 1.3MP camera...

[Guest JonnyBennett]

but its better to demand and moan about things i think, after all i'm british and no one will ever be 100% content, but i just feel they could have done more with the c550 than they have done. I mean the designs they have come up with are nice without a doubt i just dont feel they have done enough. I mean they have taken a long time to bring out the c550 after all i just doesn't seem as good as it should be. Even if it seems faster to everyone the specs are not much better really. And if we all want better software for the phone then this is going to slow the phone down and we need more to do more.

the camera doesn't come close to some of the phones on the market i've seen yet its still lagging behind and we should be expecting 2 megapixels by now and better video quality.

I only get annoyed at the fact that we don't have the new Windows 5 because most people was expecting it to be on this version of the phone and i believed it would be too, but its not on the phone. Also as i've already said, why have the specs got worse when it comes to talk time, from the previous 5 hours to the present 4 hours, that seem strange to me. and its still only 1.1 usb.

I would have got the phone if it included Windows 5, 2 mp camera, 8 way jostick and a faster phone. Thats the minimum this should have considering all the time we had to wait for it to be on the market, and then the companys took ages to put it on the market and it didn't come out when they said it would at 1st.

I know im very negative here but i am happy about some things including the chance to expand on the memory via mini sd, good resolution screen and the design of the phone. There are alot of reasons I like the smartphone, i just wish they listened more as this is the future of mobiling for me and at the moment its not got very far. I mean if there is a c600 then how is this going to be better than the c550 or c500.

At the end of the day if the listened and added more functions and upgraded it better then they would be 150 quid or so better off.

I know people can say its cheap to upgrade but thats because your on a contract and to be honest i cant afford to have a contract as its too expensive. I only top up a tennor a month and get 300 texts on an 02 genie and thats all i need.

I feel the c500 had a much bigger improvement to the e200 but this concistency doesnt seem to be present in the difference between the c500 and c550. I really felt the smartphone was taking a big leap after the upgrade from e200 to c500 and I had both of these phones.

The phone also looks slightly bigger and is obviously slightly heavier but thats not exactly a worry as long as they don't make it bigger and bigger as time goes on. the phone is a perfect size i feel and fits in your pocket nicely, so im not really bothered about that.

I wish they provided a better battery though as the usage does suck when your using the c500 alot and i presume its the same with the c550 when you leave bluetooth and other various things on.

and a faster phone would be nice as then i wouldn't be afraid to turn my phone of knowing that its a joke waiting for it to come back on.

I am keen to see what the next version offers from this c550 but personally as i've already said i will stick to my c500 for now as it basically does the same as the c550. Maybe the c600 will be for me but the c550 deffinately isn't worth my hard earned money. Don't get me wrong i like the smartphones but i just feel my c500 will do for now until something more evolutionary is created.

and ofcourse you would purchase the c550 over the c500 im not saying you wouldnt, I KNOW THE PHONE IS BETTER but its not good enouh considering all the hype, the camera is still crap, there is better phones on the market with better quality cameras, they say its 1.mp or whatever it is but the quality doesnt look much better to me, just look on coolsmartphone at the picture comparisons, YES its better but not amazingly better really, its still bad quality.

the joystick may be better but a 4 way joy stick still isn't good for gameing. we need an 8 way joystick

the music buttons are just a gimmick, you don't have to have them, come on are we really that lazy that we cant navigate menus and have to press buttons, its not that hard it just bulks the phone up more, if they wasn't there they could have more screen room. and i would prefer a massive screen to some stupid media buttons, i mean this aint an ipod is it.

it might have more standby but if your a business man and use the phone alot then the fact is the talk time has gone down hill by 1 hour, thats not an improvement.

Why would i complain if they increased the battery life?, im sure i wouldn't i would be happy. They could make batterys the same size with more battery life, after all the e200 battery isnt much different in size to the c500 and the c500 is way better battery life.

I didn't upgrade and i don't plan to upgrade until i see what the c600 offers, I will always complain, YES i would complain but i would have purchased the phone if they actually listened and included what i wanted, its hardly much to ask for is it.

[Guest LadFromWales85]

even the so called SONY autofocus phones are still absolute piles of dogs eggs....

Oh right...

[Guest JonnyBennett]

before anyone continues with this i would just like to say i dont want any of my views to seem aggresive, im just trying to have a healthy argument for what i believe. Sorry if ive beeped any of you off im just letting out what i think about the whole smartphone technology as it stands

[Guest PaulT]

I think it would be foolish of anyone to buy a phone and then six months later buy another one thinking that it will be vastly improved. The C550 is just an upgraded version of the C500.

I don't think that the PS1 and PS2 comparison is fair considering they were released 3 years apart and the C500 and C550 just 6 or 8 months (or however long it was). A better comparison would be the Original SPV and the C550 which were released about 3 years apart. I recently upgraded from the Original SPV to the C550 and I can say that the improvement is huge., battery life is vastly improved (day 3 and still 56%, was lucky to make 2 days with old SPV), camera is much much better, it is faster, screen is a great improvement, Bluetooth, video recording, browsing is also greatly improved, you could spend an afternoon browsing one page on the Original SPV! But I won't be buying another phone in six months (or even a year) thinking that I will be getting a much better phone, it just doesn't work like that in any area.

All the phones are expensive on Pay as you Go, which is perhaps why you should stick with your phones for longer.

Edited August 28, 2005 by PaulT

[Guest MECX]

If you want an upgrade go the hell and get your self an IMate JAM (O2 XDA mini) now that puppy has features ;)

Ive just got a job with Sony-Ericsson (oooh the dark side) so no there phones are not 'eggs' :) (*goes through all his posts to delete any SE flameing*)

[Guest Confucious]

If you want an upgrade go the hell and get your self an IMate JAM (O2 XDA mini) now that puppy has features  :)

The iMate JAM is the Orange M500 which is the best PPC phone (until the M5000 is released - now that does have more features than you can shake a stick at!) but the C550 is still the best SmartPhone available.

[Guest MECX]

Suppose your right the M500/JAM isnt technically a phone, i went from a E200/MPX200 to it and it does work great as a phone, if your upgrading to the C550 for features i wouldent bother, go get yourself a JAM ;-)

[Guest Dumdidum]

2 ) A faster CPU, 400mhz CPU at least, the would have vastly sped up the phone

:) The new OMAP 830 195Mhz-CPU is way better than a XScale 400Mhz! With a 400Mhz-CPU the device power would last 12 hours max...

3 ) Windows Mobile 5, why didn't Orange include this, this was a stupid mistake, and hope they give it to people in a free ROM upgrade, but very much doubt they would do that

Sorry but WM 5.0 IS NOT READY that's why it was not released on SPV C550!

Sometimes I really believe that some of you people think that Orange/HTC/microsoft do want to chicane us users! comeon they have reasons to include or not include things that we don't know!

[Guest phil-t]

Oh right...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While that looks much better then a C500/C550, it is an extremely poor in terms of 'quality'..

I mentioned the Sony's because I would rate them as the 'best' camera phones.. but what I mean is quite simply a £60 digicam would wipe the floor with it.

I think it will be a couple of years before Phone's cameras could even hope to match entry level digicams, advances in folded optics will no-doubt find their way onto the phones.. as this seems the weak point at the moment, the softness and blooming on your examples is an example of poor lens quality..

Edited August 29, 2005 by phil-t

[Guest LadFromWales85]

Oh right....

Taken with a cheap 3MP CMOS camera. Daytime pics actually arent too bad, but inside the pics go all blue.

You obviously have never taken a look at pictures taken by a K750i or S700i, because they quite easily wipe the floor with £60 cameras. I can't help but feel that people that say the pictures are crap or 'dog eggs' just don't actually bother looking into it, and just assume that the camera is crap, when infact they are not. Much like the true SE fanboys that slag off windows smartphone just because it isn't on an SE, they say its un-intuitive, ugly, slow etc etc, even though they have never given it a look at.

Take a look here for pictures taken by the K750i's 2MP auto-focus camera http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php...&page=140&pp=15

Either way, every single WM Smartphone has an appauling camera with a very poor lens, and Sony Ericsson's recent high end models (S700i and K750i) have high quality cameras derived from actual Sony cameras.

No doubt you'll come back with "those pictures suck, my £50 camera takes better quality photos"...

[Guest SimonRobinson]

Oh right....

Taken with a cheap 3MP CMOS camera.  Daytime pics actually arent too bad, but inside the pics go all blue.

You obviously have never taken a look at pictures taken by a K750i or S700i, because they quite easily wipe the floor with £60 cameras.  I can't help but feel that people that say the pictures are crap or 'dog eggs' just don't actually bother looking into it, and just assume that the camera is crap, when infact they are not.  Much like the true SE fanboys that slag off windows smartphone just because it isn't on an SE, they say its un-intuitive, ugly, slow etc etc, even though they have never given it a look at.

Take a look here for pictures taken by the K750i's 2MP auto-focus camera http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php...&page=140&pp=15

Either way, every single WM Smartphone has an appauling camera with a very poor lens, and Sony Ericsson's recent high end models (S700i and K750i) have high quality cameras derived from actual Sony cameras.

No doubt you'll come back with "those pictures suck, my £50 camera takes better quality photos"...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Milford Haven?

And put that cat on a diet.

[Guest LadFromWales85]

Yes, Milford Haven :)

Not my cat...my two cats are about half the size of that one, lol