eXpansys / MWg drop price of the Atom Life to £199

[Guest]

Oh yes they are brand new devices. And as for that MWg sticker - that's the first thing I removed when I took it out of the box seeing as it was stuck on at a 'Jaunty Angle'! :D

Well I've spent the afternoon installing Coreplayer and filling my 4Gb card with a selection from my music library. Got a 2.5mm to 3.5mm Headphone jack adaptor too so I'm all set :)

One oddity I have found though is to do with the backlight. When set to turn off after 30 seconds on battery power, the backlight does not turn off - it simply dims to it's lowest setting. Is there any way to change this so that it does actually turn off?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

On a lot of devices now, including HTC devices, off = very dim. Silly really!

P

[Guest Metoo]

Oh they are brand new of course, simply MWg is the new name for O2 Asia!

There's a litle bit more to that though isn't there?

My understanding is that Telefonica disposed of O2 Asia, eXpansys bought them up and rebranded as MWG. So Expansys have inherited all the old Atom inventory.

I looked long and hard at this offer when it first appeared on eXpansys but was soon put off by the appalling user feedback and reviews on the Atom Life which seemed to be consistent on every forum. These included terrible battery life, frequent hardware failures, missed calls and general poor quality. These continued after the WM6 upgrade.

So if you and Mono have been playing with the Life for a couple of weeks, I'm surprised to see a different picture painted - with heaps of praise and not a sinlge mention of battery life, which we would expect to be poor with such a fast CPU. Has the addition of a sticker and WM6 really made it into a totally different animal?

Is it just conicidence that Expansys are proactively telling you of new deliveries as you publicise their offer? This may be a bargain, but I also know such offers are never made without good reason - and Expansys/MWG have a lot of inventory to shift (as they have with similarly poorly received Ubiquio/MWg 401/501/503).

I'm not calling any of Modaco's motives into question, but if you are considering one of these, go into it with your eyes open - especially now that Expansys have drastically reduced their once generous returns window down from 21 to 7 days.

Edited February 25, 2008 by Metoo

[Guest mcwarre]

Try running tomtom then receiving a call (with or without a BT headset). I am unable to answer and have to soft-reset it which is a considerable pain.....

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

There's a litle bit more to that though isn't there?

My understanding is that Telefonica disposed of O2 Asia, eXpansys bought them up and rebranded as MWG. So Expansys have inherited all the old Atom inventory.

Yeah, that's my understanding.

I looked long and hard at this offer when it first appeared on eXpansys but was soon put off by the appalling user feedback and reviews on the Atom Life which seemed to be consistent on every forum. These included terrible battery life, frequent hardware failures, missed calls and general poor quality. These continued after the WM6 upgrade.

I compare battery life to my Kaiser, which is no real great shakes :) No hardware failures here, no issues with calls either

So if you and Mono have been playing with the Life for a couple of weeks, I'm surprised to see a different picture painted - with heaps of praise and not a sinlge mention of battery life, which we would expect to be poor with such a fast CPU. Has the addition of a sticker and WM6 really made it into a totally different animal?

I wouldn't say heaps of praise, but I like it!

Is it just conicidence that Expansys are proactively telling you of new deliveries as you publicise their offer? This may be a bargain, but I also know such offers are never made without good reason - and Expansys/MWG have a lot of inventory to shift (as they have with similarly poorly received Ubiquio/MWg 401/501/503).

I have been actively asking eXpansys for a status update, because people here have been asking. I would never, ever include the Atom Life in the same sentence as the awful UBiQUiO 401/503! They're not really remotely related.

I'm not calling any of Modaco's motives into question, but if you are considering one of these, go into it with your eyes open - especially now that Expansys have drastically reduced their once generous returns window down from 21 to 7 days.

Absolutely. The reason mono and I have one is because eXpansys are our podcast sponsors, and they want us to talk about the Atom Life, let's be honest about that. But something is a duffer, i'll call it a duffer, and if there are faults, i'll happily call them. The Atom Life is no good if you need GPS or a Keyboard, but it compares favourably with it's peers, especially at the price. I keep finding myself grabbing it to do web browsing over the Kaiser for example, due to the raw speed of the thing!

P

[Guest]

I know I've only had the Atom Life for three days so it is 'early doors' as they say. But I did read up on the problems users have had with this device on the internet before buying it. So far I've installed all my applications (SPB apps, Pocket Informant, TomTom etc etc), I've made and received calls, sent/received text messages, browsed the net over HSDPA and Wifi and the thing hasn't missed a beat. I did have a senior moment this afternoon when receiving a call and the phone slowed down to a crawl which had me worried. Then I realised I was stll copying almost 1Gb of MP3 files over Activesync to the SD card - which explained that little blip! :D

So far so good, so fingers crossed. There are a few minor issues such as the ringtone volume not exactly being loud, and the battery life not being the best ever (but not awful). But at this price point, you can't really complain about that :)

[Guest Sudhir K]

oh boy...now my deepest fears are coming back to me!

i did all my research on this model (formerly xda atom life) and was really put off by it bcos of all the reviews ie. :

I looked long and hard at this offer when it first appeared on eXpansys but was soon put off by the appalling user feedback and reviews on the Atom Life which seemed to be consistent on every forum. These included terrible battery life, frequent hardware failures, missed calls and general poor quality. These continued after the WM6 upgrade.

So if you and Mono have been playing with the Life for a couple of weeks, I'm surprised to see a different picture painted - with heaps of praise and not a sinlge mention of battery life, which we would expect to be poor with such a fast CPU. Has the addition of a sticker and WM6 really made it into a totally different animal?

but after hearing new things from the new set even tho its a slapped on logo sticker i thought ok this fry should be money's worth...and our bro mcwarre having a slight glitch there is making me worried. Now that the new sets are in and there isn't a 5 day wait i could just grab it, but maybe i'l wait for Paul's review video or something perhaps.

Right now if i got down to buying it i'm definitely not going to mod to the iPhone skin at all!

[Guest Monolithix]

I'll have to try the TomTom thing, but in over 2 weeks solid use i've not had anyone complain to me about missed calls. In fact, as Paul says, i've not come across any major issues (other than battery life, on par with similar devices), it's a really nice device!

If there is an issue with call dropping we'll call it as it is :)

[Guest skanna]

what is the expected battery life? 'On a par with other devices' doesnt really tell us much. I have an XDA Graphite, on '3' with 3G, with WM6 and a 416mhz processor. I can kane the whole battery in less than 3 hours if I'm using 3g data. It lasts longer on normal use, couple of call,txts, some Wifi and 3G, but definitely needs charging every evening. It would last 24hrs on light use. My Sp5, with a slower processor, 2G GPRS would last 48hrs+ on similar use. This Atom device sounds very good, but how does its battery life fair?

Also I have the uprated 1300mAh battery in the Graphite, albeit from Ebay.

[Guest Monolithix]

Yep - that's about right. For me 30 mins of HSDPA will take out 1/3 or so battery life, and i have to charge every evening, as i have had to with my Hermes, Vario III etc...

[Guest]

what is the expected battery life? 'On a par with other devices' doesnt really tell us much. I have an XDA Graphite, on '3' with 3G, with WM6 and a 416mhz processor. I can kane the whole battery in less than 3 hours if I'm using 3g data. It lasts longer on normal use, couple of call,txts, some Wifi and 3G, but definitely needs charging every evening. It would last 24hrs on light use. My Sp5, with a slower processor, 2G GPRS would last 48hrs+ on similar use. This Atom device sounds very good, but how does its battery life fair?

Also I have the uprated 1300mAh battery in the Graphite, albeit from Ebay.

I found that I need to charge mine every night, but then I do use a mix of 3G, Wifi and there's playing music, calls and texting too. Not great battery life but then not a lot worse than the battery life on my old Vario II. The pay-off is in the speed - WM6 flies with the 624MHz processor. :)

[Guest elias1968]

Well I've taken the plunge and ordered one too - plus a 4Gb MiniSD SDHC card (and already downloaded the patch to enable SDHC). :D

Where do you get this patch and are there any risks in applying it?

Thanks

Edited February 28, 2008 by elias1968

[Guest]

If you've bought your device from Expansys then the SDHC patch is already installed in ROM as Paul posted on earlier in this thread. My 4Gb MiniSDHC card worked straight out of the box. :D

If however you bought it elsewhere and the patch isn't installed (device will not read/write SDHC cards) you can find the patch here:

SDHC is in the shipping ROM I believe...

If not (i.e. you try it and it doesn't work), use this...

P

SDHC WM6WM5.zip

[Guest demusss]

If I mainly used 3G internet, would O2s Online 25 with Web Bolt On be the best option to go with the Atom Life?

Whats O2s 3G coverage like compared to Tmobile?

Thanks

[Guest]

If I mainly used 3G internet, would O2s Online 25 with Web Bolt On be the best option to go with the Atom Life?

Whats O2s 3G coverage like compared to Tmobile?

Thanks

That's the package I went with only I bought the Atom Life SIM Free and went with the SIM-only Online 25 tariff with free Internet bolt on. As for coverage, I've not noticed much difference apart from I now get a 3G signal at the office where I didn't with T-Mobile. Also on the plus side, if I get no 3G signal, I tend to get an Edge connection which seems slightly faster than standard GPRS. If you want to check coverage, it could be worth ordering a free PAYG SIM card and 'try-before-you-buy'! :D

[Guest mcwarre]

That's the package I went with only I bought the Atom Life SIM Free and went with the SIM-only Online 25 tariff with free Internet bolt on. As for coverage, I've not noticed much difference apart from I now get a 3G signal at the office where I didn't with T-Mobile. Also on the plus side, if I get no 3G signal, I tend to get an Edge connection which seems slightly faster than standard GPRS. If you want to check coverage, it could be worth ordering a free PAYG SIM card and 'try-before-you-buy'! :D

GPRS? Edge? Pah!!!!

I have a minimum of 3G then HSPDA thanks to 3 :( Lucky me. Look forward not back....

[Guest Metoo]

GPRS? Edge? Pah!!!!

I have a minimum of 3G then HSPDA thanks to 3 :( Lucky me. Look forward not back....

Look for a power point, more like :D

And what happens when you've no 3 signal? Oh, hang on...

[Guest Sudhir K]

hello there guys its i again!

just wondering, from those who have already bought the set, if you could tell me what applications comes bundled with the Life within WM6 and maybe third-party apps.

thanks!

[Guest]

Oh dear, and it was all going so well! :(

My Atom Life has developed a fault - crashing randomly (3 times this morning alone). It started on Wednesday, crashed once when I brought it out of standby. Crashed twice yesterday, once when coming out of standby and once when I received a text. Three times this morning, once coming out of standby and twice completely randomly. Shame really as it's been solid before this.

Called Expansys and it's going back for a replacement. I hope I'm just unlucky and have a dodgy handset and this isn't something more serious like many posts about this device you can find on internet forums.

Will keep you posted on what happens - watch this space! :D

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I assume you tried a hard reset?

Touch wood... mine still fine...

P

[Guest]

I assume you tried a hard reset?

Touch wood... mine still fine...

P

No I didn't try that! :D Just gonna run a full backup then I'll give it a go and see how it is.

[Guest]

No a Hard Reset didn't fix it I'm afraid - still getting the dreaded crashing. Oh well, replacement device from Expansys time! :D

[Guest Sudhir K]

oh boy im thinking a million times ova if i really want to get this phone

[Guest mcwarre]

I have had no problems. It is a really good phone and excellent value. Go for it!!!

[Guest elias1968]

Thanks for the info on the memory expansion. I am definitely interested in this phone, but seeing negative posts here and on the web is scaring me very much.

I saw this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LduuzSYpK3o. Can anyone validate whether this guy's video posting has any truth to it? Ie. when charging device, you cannot use it to send/receive calls.

It appears as though a lot of the complaints found on Youtube and on various sites are from the same guy...