Am I doing the right thing?

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

OK so I've got an E200 and the handsfree has broken, bought a battery but that's not working anymore, so I'm looking to buy another SPV, I'm 22 months in a new 12-month contract (i.e. didn't upgrade or anything), on Orange OVP T-Mobile Freetime 750, (so that's 13.99 a month although tends to go up to £19).

I'm VERY happy with my SPV E200 overall, but would enjoy the C500, so shall I buy it? For me, it's £49.99 plus an extra 12 months. I'm really happy with the fact that it is practically identical to mine, because I don't want any changes, and unfortunately the C600 will probably cost around £150 on contract (what about PAYG, will it come out and be around £150?).

Another thing, the C600 I'm worried about having to change the image sizes mainly, and it being different to mine (as I'm so happy with mine), and my apps not being compatible to it, so what should I do? Buy the C500 or C600?

I'm thinking just get it over and done with and buy the C500, but what do you suggest?

Thanks for your time ;)

[Guest chucky.egg]

C500 was (is) a great phone, it's one hardware fault being dust under the screen.

From the C550 onwards the screen resolution is higher (QVGA) meaning that most current Smartphone apps will appear as a small window (generally, with a thick black border around them) which put me right off.

I'd say yes - a C500 is a good choice. If you like your E200 you'll love the C500

[Guest magic_peanuts]

I'd get the C500, but I'd barter with Orange a bit first. I always got a better deal by telling them I'd quit my contract if I didn't like what they were offering. Give them a call.

The C500 when it was released on PAYG Sept 04 was £189 from the Modaco shop, I would expect the C600 to be similar to start but as with any phone will drop in price over a period of time.

In addition to what chucky said about the C550, the C600 will also run WM5, so the number of apps that will run well on it will initially be very limited.

[Guest monkeygadge]

Check out this post

Orange UK

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

Hello all, thanks for the advice, I don't have internet access so this is a really fast thankyou reply, I will think about all comments but have to go right now, appreciate all comments. ;)

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

OK I'm back (I'm surprised myself).

"In addition to what chucky said about the C550, the C600 will also run WM5, so the number of apps that will run well on it will initially be very limited."

Yeah, my E200 is perfect, I love all the apps on it, so I don't really even want any new apps, so that supports me getting the C500.

Plus, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and it's the small things I'm sure will annoy me of the C600, e.g. I can't use my own themes, cos the bottom bar has gradients etc.

Another issue of the C600 would be that I'm at college and I really should not be spending much time adjusting things on my phone, I've spent hours on my E200, and I don't want to be spending another huge set of hours on the C600, I'd rather just plonk everything onto the same phone.

Worried about the rocker, notice how from the joystick (E200) HTC went to rocker, (C500) and now back to joystick (C550 and C600), hope I will enjoy the rocker as much as the joystick...

The dust - it's not with all handsets is it? Some have it fixed don't they, for example the newer ones (e.g. if I bought one from the O shop tomorrow, it would be dust-proof wouldn't it?)

Aren't we all so lucky to have the most advanced phones around? I mean I can easily beat most in my college with my veteran E200, I mean the games just blow people away!

(That was a thought, for some reason... anyway) about the camera, I'm fairly happy with the E200 camera, I know the C500 improves upon it and I'm sure I don't essentially need the 1.3MP, so that supports me getting the C500 too.

OK so any thoughts, please do reply ;), I'm not sure when to get the C500, maybe tomorrow.

One problem though, there's no 7-day return, I have to buy it and stick with it :D

[Guest chucky.egg]

Buy online and you get the 14 days money-back-if-you-dont-like-it and can probably still get next day delivery = in your sweaty mitts Friday

All the E200 apps will (probably) work. I don't know of any that dont personally, but I only had an E200 for about 2 days.

The C500 takes miniSD, not SD like the E200, so you'll want a hefty new card. And you'll need to install all your apps onto the C500 - I'd be surprised if you can do a Sprite-type restore from the E200 to the C500

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

Thanks chucky.egg, I've already got a miniSD card of a size I need, I use it at the moment with the E200 with the Sandisk adapter supplied with it.

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

Hey everyone, I got it! Over a full year, it will cost around £230 which, I think, is pricey...!

It's got 4.2.1.1 ROM and after 3 full days of usage, I'm happy with it :D

It's looking pretty much like my E200 which is what I wanted, but a couple of questions (I've briefly searched for the answers but no luck so far so maybe if you know, that would really help ;) )

1. I've got the Xetra thermometer installed, but the temperature displayed seems to be a multiplication of 10 of the real temperature - it shows as 260 degrees C, or 270 etc. Can I fix this?

2. For the saved photos and videos, I'd like IA Album to save them in My Documents rather than My Documents\My Photos and My Documents\My Videos - is this possible,perhaps using the registry editor?

Thankyou :D

EDIT: Another quick question, I've just seen an article with the SPV4 charging, and the LED is red. In the manual it says it should be red. But mine is orange, so does this mean mine shows green, orange, and blue, but no red (i.e. when battery is low - hasn't been low yet) or does it mean when battery is low, it's orange? Anyone know??!!!

EDIT2: Another question- T9!!! I don't like it, can't I use the 0 button like on the E200?

Edited November 8, 2005 by Toyota-F1.com

[Guest Griff_FFOC]

If you really like the E200, you can go into the Orange menu on the phone, choose Downloads, and if you search for new downloads you can download an E200 homescreen. ;)

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

Yep thanks, I've done that lol, but I never actually liked it,I have my own extremely simple one with the iconbar, date, time, MRU, hidden menus for entering SMS, profiles, and viewing calendar.

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

Hello, any replies for my mini questions ;)

[Guest chucky.egg]

1.  I've got the Xetra thermometer installed, but the temperature displayed seems to be a multiplication of 10 of the real temperature

Yeah, I think that is fixable (I can't honestly remember because I never bothered with it). Try searching for "+thermo +xbar"

2.  ... I'd like IA Album to save in My Documents rather than My Documents\My Photos

Er, sorry, dont know. I know there's a tweak for the date-stamped folders, but I don't know about this one. You'll have to search

EDIT:  Another quick question, I've just seen an article with the SPV4 charging, and the LED is red...

Dont know. Orange when charging, never saw red once on mine

[Guest GRussell]

I'm in a similar kind of boat really.

Had a SPV for a while now started with the original SPV and have had an E200 for two years I think now, not sure.

I am looking for a new phone as E200 has a few battle scars and the blue tooth hands free thing doesn't work anymore on the little joystick thing keeps locking up. It also disconects with my computer for no reason, so it is time to move.

I've been with Orange for years (maybe 10?) and am considering changing. As I am on a low tarriff they quoted me over £300 for the C550. This was a while ago and I never got around to looking any further.

Now I am a bit more motivated to get a decent deal and phone... I would like the new SPV bit from reading a bit on hear, it has had mixed reviews, is it worth it?

Is a new model in the pipeline?

I use my phone for checking my emails, and normal phone use really. I am looking to get integrate the phone with a sat nav system hopefully...

Any help will be great,

-Graham

[Guest gilesjuk]

IMHO, it's C500 or the SP5(m), nothing else cuts the mustard. C550 was a stopgap measure and unless it gets WM5 it'll be a quirky cousin of the C600/SP5.

[Guest Pondrew]

IMHO, it's C500 or the SP5(m), nothing else cuts the mustard. C550 was a stopgap measure and unless it gets WM5 it'll be a quirky cousin of the C600/SP5.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not sure how you can suggest the C500 and then write off the C550/SDA II which has QVGA resolution (something the C500 doesn't).

[Guest cold_fire]

C500 was (is) a great phone, it's one hardware fault being dust under the screen.

From the C550 onwards the screen resolution is higher (QVGA) meaning that most current Smartphone apps will appear as a small window (generally, with a thick black border around them) which put me right off.

I'd say yes - a C500 is a good choice.  If you like your E200 you'll love the C500

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Best advice anyone could give !!!

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

"Not sure how you can suggest the C500 and then write off the C550/SDA II which has QVGA resolution (something the C500 doesn't)."

The screen is what actually put me off the C550, because I didn't want major changes really, e.g. changing wallpaper etc. Plus, on the SPV3/4, unlike on MANY other phones e.g. Samsung E720, Nokia 6230, SonyEricsson W800i, you can read a text on one screen without having to scroll down, so for me, it's big enough ;)

[Guest gilesjuk]

Not sure how you can suggest the C500 and then write off the C550/SDA II which has QVGA resolution (something the C500 doesn't).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The C500 is cheap, loads of them are around, the OS is a tried and trusted combination, it has official Tomtom support. The OS was designed to run a 220x176 screen and that's what it has.

The C550 is a bit of a mutant, it's running an OS which was never designed to run QVGA and unless it gets WM5 it will lack decent support. If you're just using it as a phone then fine, but it's when you come to want to play games and run applications. 2003se apps will assume 220x176 and not everyone is going to want to buy a C550 just to test when they could just buy and test the C600/SP5 instead.

[Guest GRussell]

IMHO, it's C500 or the SP5(m), nothing else cuts the mustard. C550 was a stopgap measure and unless it gets WM5 it'll be a quirky cousin of the C600/SP5.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So should I be looking towards the C600 then?

-Graham

[Guest Pondrew]

The C500 is cheap, loads of them are around...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If only. The SPV C500 and Imate SP3 have been discontinued. It's already becoming difficult to find them new from online retailers.

Don't get me wrong, I think the C500 is excellent but anyone who buys one now will soon be suffering from new software not supporting the device...

So should I be looking towards the C600 then?

-Graham

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you want a new Smartphone whose spec isn't outdated then yes, although you could also go with Imate SP5/SP5m or the Qtek 8300/8310.

[Guest rodg98133]

Hi all,

I hav recently joined the smartphone craze with a C500. I first wanted an m2000 or some sort of PDA phone but now I have my C500 I am happy with its performance. I havn't had a problem with it yet. (3 weeks)

I would recomend this to anyone, although I havn't really had much to compare it to!!

[Guest Toyota-F1.com]

Right, I'm learning my C500, but I have a few questions:

1: It self-charges! I charged it once to 79% (using USB) and left it over night, and it had decided it was actually on 96% in the morning. SO, is it actually charging to 96% but showing 79%, therefore is it maybe over-charging? Or, are there other explanations?

My battery has a strange personality - are all the same? -From 100% to about 50% it'squite slow,i.e. good battery life, but then it speeds up and is not as quick.

2. When I attach my headset, I want it to play the ringtone (of SMS and call) in my earpiece, NOT on the phone aswell, is this possible? On the E200, for calls, both earpiece and device ring (although would like just earpiece) and SMS was earpiece only (which is excellent). So can I change this?