Returning the Phone Yay or Nay

[Guest nowimboard]

Hi!

So, the 7 day cooling off period finishes on Friday and I'm having doubts about whether to keep the phone or not. I wanted to ask you guys what your thoughts are.

It seems some people are going to wait for the s730 to come out, personally I don't like the look of it, but at least it's not a step backward in technology!

Pro's about the phone:

1. Good design
   
2. Nice looking phone
   
3. QWERTY Pad
   
4. Its a gadget
   
5. Its nice to have a smartphone again after using a Sony phone
   
6. Simpler to use than the M500 I had before
   
7. General good feeling about having the phone
   
8. Good calender, much easier to use than the Sony phone
   
9. Syncing of pictures and music files
   

Cons:

1. Lower spec camera that's not as easy to use
   
2. Slow when operating
   
3. Having to keep clearing the RAM
   
4. A2DP not (yet) supported - I say yet as it "might" be in the future
   
5. Gallery is so hard to use, Each picture is displayed as an icon and you have to wait for it to load the picture as a thumbnail
   
6. Camera never saves taken pictures to the Sync folder. Saves it straight onto the storage card - No option to change this
   
7. Mobile 6 - not much written for it yet, no obvious advantage to having apart from picture syncing - Is this done by mobile 6 or Sync 4.5?
   

I cant way up myself whether I should take it back or not. I just feel that the phone itself is a step back. Orange not including standard things like A2DP. I don't want to get hung up about it, but its a prime example of what's wrong with it! Its something that's included on all other phones.. ever ones from two years ago, EVEN a cheap PAYG mobile, yet its something that's missed of a brand new release!

So what are your impressions of the phone and what do you think I should do?!

[Guest Griff_FFOC]

I had an M3100 and sent that back as didn't care much for it.

I think i'll keep this one. The only issues I have is the 'up' seems a little stiffer than the other threee directons, and I have a little bit of play on the screen section when it's closed (is this normal due to the positon of the two slides?)

One little thing I like, is the option of the alarm being set to only weekdays. My previous was a C600, and this does what that did, plus a little more so mine will probably stay with me.

I also found it will play the audio from a video as a ringtone too. Although when someone rings me the call info screen that appears is just an icon in the middle of the screen.

Most of the things that are missing I don't use too often, if at all, so it's ok so far for me.

[Guest Polariz]

I'm looking at buying one guys - comments on the battery life?

Ta.

[Guest zen123]

Is the cooling off period not 14days for contract phones as it says in the Orange T&C. 7 days is for accessories.

[Guest nowimboard]

Is the cooling off period not 14days for contract phones as it says in the Orange T&C. 7 days is for accessories.

14 days apparently is if you are going from a None 3g phone to a 3g phone?!

Btw love the SL45 too! Still have mine with box, cradle and all! ;) Also bought a spare case/cover and made it black, so can change it over when ever I want!

[Guest Stuart_S]

3 out of your 7 cons are about the camera and pictures... Its worth considering if you need a smartphone if this is your biggest gripe.... N95 maybe?

[Guest Samsonite]

whilst i agree that there are some shortcomings - no IM client (only on Orange it would seem) and its slower than i would expect - i am very happy with it.

Luvving the WiFi, luvving the slidey keyboard, built in MP3 player more than adequate

and more importantly -no touchscreen!!

Its always going to be a horses for courses question but for me, it ticks way more boxes than it leaves unchecked and i can solve the IM with software.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

1. Lower spec camera that's not as easy to use

No arguing with this one, although the 2MP camera on the Vox is better than previous HTC devices!

2. Slow when operating

Not found that particularly personally, but I guess with the 200MHz OMAP and good battery life, it's the price you pay!

3. Having to keep clearing the RAM

Are you installed everything to storage card?

4. A2DP not (yet) supported - I say yet as it "might" be in the future

Not used this. Does it not work at all? Tried the A2DP hacks from WM5?

5. Gallery is so hard to use, Each picture is displayed as an icon and you have to wait for it to load the picture as a thumbnail

I never use Gallery, I use Resco Photo Viewer from http://www.Resco.net - it's very good.

6. Camera never saves taken pictures to the Sync folder. Saves it straight onto the storage card - No option to change this

Sync folder? How do you mean?

7. Mobile 6 - not much written for it yet, no obvious advantage to having apart from picture syncing - Is this done by mobile 6 or Sync 4.5?

I don't expect to see Mobile 6 optimised software in general, as it's a refresh of 5 really.

[Guest nowimboard]

Are you installed everything to storage card? I haven't installed anything yet. Only pictures and WMA's which are on the 1gb card

Not used this. Does it not work at all? Tried the A2DP hacks from WM5? what are these? Tell me more :D

I never use Gallery, I use Resco Photo Viewer from http://www.Resco.net - it's very good. Does this display thumbnails instantly? Or do you have to wait for each file to load? I installed it last night, and from initial playing it looks really helpful! That's one thing sorted! Thank you. ;)

Sync folder? How do you mean? Activesync/WMP allows you to sync photo's between your PC and Smartphone. All my phone pictures on my laptop are stored in mydocs/mypictures/phonepics. Activsync copies all these across to the phone, and then when I take New photos, it is supposed to copy these back across to the phonepics folder on my Pc. However the camera saves pictures straight on the to Storage card, and you cant change it to save in the phonepics folder created by activsync for syncing the photos! So, I would have to move all the new photos into the phonepics folder on the SC before Activesync will send them to my pc!

I don't expect to see Mobile 6 optimised software in general, as it's a refresh of 5 really. So are there any combat ability problems? Or can I just use mobile 5 software?

Edited April 26, 2007 by nowimboard

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

WM5/6 incompatability is rare, the only compatability issues are generally where applications aren't landscape or res switching aware yet.

P

[Guest nowimboard]

WM5/6 incompatability is rare, the only compatability issues are generally where applications aren't landscape or res switching aware yet.

P

Do you have those details for the A2DP hacks from WM5 you were talking about?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I was referring to this topic, but use at your own risk of course! ;)

P

[Guest nowimboard]

I was referring to this topic, but use at your own risk of course! ;)

P

This is for the C600 though and from what I can read a AUK2 rom update?

Is it really going to work on the E650?

[Guest nowimboard]

I know this is really rude but *bump*

Hoping to get answer from Paul, or someone else that might know if its "safe" to do this mod for the E650 as its use mobile 6 instead of 5?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Not tried, but it's 'safe' in that if it all goes pear shaped you can just hard reset :rolleyes:

P

[Guest nowimboard]

Not tried, but it's 'safe' in that if it all goes pear shaped you can just hard reset :rolleyes:

P

Cant install it, thought it might be the software lock, so unlocked it but it still says that the Cab doesn't have the right privileges. :P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I had a root around the S710 and A2DP dlls are in there... so I might have to give it a try and see for myself.

P

[Guest nowimboard]

I had a root around the S710 and A2DP dlls are in there... so I might have to give it a try and see for myself.

P

oh thank you