Considering SPV, but need to know a few details..

[Guest LordDante]

Hi all

I currently have an O2 contract I got ages ago with a Siemens SL45i (best phone I've ever owned, seriously). I also have a P800 but I'm disliking it more and more as time goes on.. its just so bloody difficult to use one-handed. Almost everything has to be done with the stylus, and as you can imagine when im on the move I dont wanna be messing around with styluses.

Anyway Im seriously considering getting an SPV on an Orange contract seeing as its so cheap now, and I need to get some real-world facts on it. What bad points does it have exactly? I know most of its good points, but I really would like to know peoples dislikes about the phone so I can decide whether or not its the right phone for me. I've heard something about GPRS being dropped when phone goes back to standby mode.. is this true? If so then I dont think I could get an SPV.. seems pointless having GPRS if I have to reconnect it all the time. Thats one nice thing about the P800.. I can leave MSN Messenger running in the background even when the phones in standby with the flip closed.

So everyone what are the drawbacks of the SPV? Things like battery life, speed, T9, WAP/GPRS etc etc are all important to me.

Thanks everyone ;)

LordDante

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Main drawbacks:

Battery life, for me 24-36 hours max, with 10-20 SMS 30-60 mins of calls and general playing a day.

Can be unreliable at times, like any Windows based system it can get confused easily and this may sometimes require a "reboot".

The GPRS does cut out after a max of 10 mins inactivety, unless you leave an app running the background thats active enough to keep the connection open (i've found Music Lounge trial does this quite well).

Other than that (i charge every night and only have real reboot-worthy problems after playing with beta software, so the problems aren't too much bother to me) the pluses far outweigh the minuses.

[Guest spacecowboy6982]

read the comparison of all the latest mobiles in the Main section of MoDaCo. Halfway down the 3rd page there's a "cowboy" who seems to think his 3650 "wipes the floor" with our beloved mobile - as Mono said, the +'s do weigh out the -'s.......and this guy has found alot of -'s !!!

SpaceCowboy

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Very true, almost forgot about that post ;)

See the folloing post for a good, if slightly (nokia) biased run down of the SPV's drawbacks compared to a Symbian Series 60 OS:

http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic...p=197393#197393

Then bear in mind we have this entire forum to list the pluses.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

See the folloing post for a good, if slightly (nokia) biased run down of the SPV's drawbacks compared to a Symbian Series 60 OS:

And then as asked by the author we flamed it ;)

[Guest spacecowboy6982]

Lol, I was rageing after I read that post !!! So angry I coudn't seem to write a reply!!!

[Guest ClintEastman]

Yeh, this forum is SO SPV biased, but then again it is a SPV forum!

[Guest midnight]

no need to be biased when a phone like this kicks major butt (and dont ask who Major Butt is, hes the commanding officer of Private Parts)

seriously tho, it depends what you want for a phone, if you want something thats majorly reliable, lasts 10 days, but is boring as hell with only standard phone functions then sony/nokia/seimens/samsung all make these phones, if you want a phone that can take picture, don't, get a cheapo phone and get a digi camera (stick that up yer arse mr 3650), but if you want a phone that can play mp3's, play movies, has kick ass games (errr, soon, cos none of the games i've been involved with are released yet ;) heheh), can sync contacts/mail/calendar, can customise the look of the os so it is hardly recognisable anymore, can play PROPER music as ringtones, has many great apps, and all this from a phone that is still in its infancy, then the spv is for you :wink:

(jeez, i should work for orange with a speech like that)

[Guest LordDante]

Ok I'm almost convinced, just a couple more small points. And thank you to everyone who has replied so far to my original post.

1. How long can I expect the battery to last, realistically I mean. I make about 1 hours phone calls per day, maybe less, maybe more. Also a few texts here and there. I also like to play MP3's quite a bit with my current phone (Siemens SL45i), so taking all this into account, how long can I expect the battery to last on the SPV?

2. How accessible are the phones primary functions (like SMS, contacts etc) when on the move. For example say Im walking down the street and I quickly need to send a text.. can I expect to be able to do this quickly and easily with the minimum of fussing around through menus etc? Also whats T9 like on the phone? Some phones arent too good at T9, so I'd be interested what the SPV is like.

3. How reliable is it.. i.e. how long can I go through reasonable usage before I have to reboot it? I will be playing music quite a bit, whats it like for that? reliable?

4. Last question, what are the ringtones and the vibration like? Can it do both at the same time? Also one thing im unclear on is the type of ringtones the phone supports.. does it support the older monophonic ringtones? Im not a fan of ployphonic and I dont wanna be using WAV files for ringtones, I just want a normal ringtone. Is the SPV good for that?

Thats it I think for now ;)

Thanks in advance everyone,

LordDante

[Guest midnight]

errr, ok, here goes.....

1, battery life isnt the phones strong point, playing the odd mp3, 60 mins calls, few texts, 24 hours i'd say, but of course, the more mp3's you play the shorter the lifespan of the battery. To be honest, for a majority of users, it isnt all that much of a concern as they charge it every night in the cradle while syncing their contacts/email etc)

2, getting to the phones primary functions is easy enough (most usefull ones directly accessible via the MRU - Most Recently Used plugin on the homepage) t9 works fine, has a few little quirks, but you soon get used to them, some people have reported it losing words that it has remembered, which i havent experienced to be honest. The main prob with t9 really is the keypad itself, try the phone out in the shop or something first, some people complain about the size of the keys, i have quite large hands and i can use it without any problems.

3, Rebooting shouldnt happen that much to be honest, there are myths about some people having to rebeet 2-3 times a day, this is pretty much rubbish, so long as you aint messing with the phone in the registry (now would i do that? hehe) then it should be fine, problems can occur with alpha/beta apps aswell, but thats normal for any os. playing mp3's/wma's is fine, no crashes or anything.

4, you dont want to use wav for ringtones????? why the hell not??? ;) its a cool feature, and dont forget with wav you can simulate absolutely any ringer you want, even the boring 'nokia' ringtone that hasnt changed for 5 years. the actual ringers to be completely truthfull are complete crap, they are midi files, not polyphonic, and are mostly too quite to be even remotely usefull (but you can install your own midi0 ringtones if you wish), but like i said, wav ringers totally rules. and yeh, it can vibrate with no ring, vibrate then ring, vinrate and ring (and by editing the reg do all sorts of whacky stuff... vibrate, wait 1 second, vibrate, wait 1 second, vibrate and ring increasing in volume, and then repeat the ring while still vibrating for example :wink:)

like i said, if in doubt, as for a demonstration as i'm sure you'll be aware, my opinion is biased, but i do love this phone, none can touch it (thats currently on the market) as far as i'm concerned)

also, you think you know now how you will use this phone, but when you can see what can really be done through apps, hacks, tweaks etc., you'll realise this phone is oh so much more that you initially expected.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

If its of interest to you, a new SMS is 3 button presses (some people seem to base ease of use o this...)

[Guest ClintEastman]

Go on.....

You know you want one!!!

Mine gets put to good use for watching South Park on the move, oh yeh and Pocket Outlook runs my life for me!

;)