To smartphone or not ? Enough is enough thay just aint smart

[Guest pcheaven]

Well this day has come (again!)

Not so long ago I was 100% smitten with the whole smartphone idea.

NOw, having purchased an E100, then an 8380 both off contract at some considerible expence, i have finally had enough.

The e100 was a good phone, just tooo slooow for me, so along came my 8380. Much quicker, but still only a "smartphone".

I think it is about time we all "got with the program" and wised up.

Smartphones aint that smart, in fact if you look at them objectivly ( yes I know they are wicked gadgets to impress your friends with, but they need to be soooo much more) they are positivly "stupid phones" and are outwitted by even some of the most basic pay as you go phones available anywhere.

Take MMS for example, it sucks. Select MMS from your menu, wait 2 minutes while the app launches, fumble you way through a clumsey piece of third party written software that no self respecting gadget addict would pay $2 for. Having composed your message the fun really begins when you have to select a recepient. if you only have 5 people in your phone book this is no problem, however most smart phone users have a great many more. I have some 400+ and just waiting for the phone book to open can take f-in ages. You have to ask your self is the technology working for you, or do you work for it.

Even more basic functions like alarm clocks are handled with such gross imcompetance, it beggers belief. Alarm tones are not repeated, no proper indication on your home screen, and only ONE alarm time. Crap, and yet again the state of the art "smartphone" is outwitted by a 3 year old nokia / sony / ericsson etc etc. Hummmmm

As for the most very basic phone functions., Battery life and call quality.

Well where do i start. Battery life is so poor it only just betters that of the 3g handsets in the UK, 14-20hours max with just a little bit of "playing". Again not in the same league as a budget nokia / sony etc etc. And if you play games / browse the net / etc etc or do any of the other things that the "smartphones" are supposed to do . Well 10hours is all you can expect. CAll quality is actually pretty good, providing you are not one of the great many users whose handset rarely rings, but is always "unavailable".

The list of things wrong with these phones is huge, and most of the problems point towards microsoft ( no surprise there, and wot is their problem with MMS anyway?). But they are a work in progress and hopefully by the time smartphone 2005 ( yes 2005 :) ) is released it will be a fully featured fully working product just like the Sony ericsson z600 that I have replaced my Mio 8380 with.

Dont get me wrong there are a lot of things i absolutly love about my Mio, especially the ability to just type a name on the keypad and the phone book is searched, and all matching names are listed - Wicked, why dont all phones do that?. Not to mention you can play proper videos on the phone, beit porn, or comedy. the playback is great, (sorry e100 owners your phone aint up to it), and neither is my z600!)

I am still looking for that perfect phone, and my z600 is the closest I have come to finding a complete, reliable and usefull product that dosent crash. Hopefully its successor the z1010 on a 3g network will be even better. I will buy a smartphone 2003 device - just to have a look see, but it runs on Windows, and as the owner of a computer shop I know exactly wot that means and I am not sure I could live with Bill Gates in my pocket again.

As for me, well I am a self confessed gadget freak, and I can honestly say I have owned more that 90% of all the mobile telephone EVER released in the UK, and a large number that were only available abroad.

I beleive I know wot i am talking about, and I have been objective in my criticism. Sorry if i have upset a few people, it is not personel

but smartphones just aint smart enough.

My perfect phone would be : A sony Z600 for its ergonomics, reliability battery life and size combined with the network abilities of 3g phone to get true high speed wireless internet, with the ability of My mio 8380 to play movies ( not always porn) ,manage my huge contacts list and install loads of apps. Dream on.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Good luck with your new phone.

Just a few comments,

Even more basic functions like alarm clocks are handled with such gross imcompetance, it beggers belief. Alarm tones are not repeated, no proper indication on your home screen, and only ONE alarm time. Crap, and yet again the state of the art "smartphone" is outwitted by a 3 year old nokia / sony / ericsson etc etc. Hummmmm

Alarm tones can be repeted but the snooze funtion I would alter so any key activated it.

Indication on homescreen, yep agree there.

Only one alarm time? All other phones I have owned only have ONE alarm time :?

As for the most very basic phone functions., Battery life and call quality.  

Well where do i start. Battery life is so poor it only just betters that of the 3g handsets in the UK, 14-20hours max with just a little bit of "playing". Again not in the same league as a budget nokia / sony etc etc. And if you play games / browse the net / etc etc or do any of the other things that the "smartphones" are supposed to do . Well 10hours is all you can expect.

I presume you are refering to the mio regarding battery life? as HTC model phone should have 48hrs + now with the latest updates (unless you do hammer it with games and watching movies.

Moved to main

[Guest yoos]

pcheaven,

I have to say that you make alot of valid points that I agree with... The overall slowness isn't bothering me too much to where I want to get rid of it yet, but it is getting to me a little more than it did before... I'm going to stick it out and get an E200 though... I'm hoping it will be a good improvement... we'll see...

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Depends what you call a 'Smart' phone?

I've never used my phone a huge amount for calls (weird I know), but my E100 is FINE for calls.

It lets me browse websites, and sync with my Exchange server, catch up with things i've recorded on my TiVo, and play some fantastic games.

It may just be me, but I think that's pretty damn smart!

P

PS Don't use MMS much, but still looking forward to the native MMS client on E200! :)

[Guest morpheus2702]

PCheaven - I just have to thank you for such a well-written piece there.

I'm not sure that I agree with it all, but it's comments like that which will hopefully make these wonderful toys that much smarter...

More power to you buddy, and let us know how that Z600 pans out! :)

[Guest stu_lowe2003]

pcheaven

take a look at the new treo 600 as a 'smart' smartphone.

It's like someone took the time to think about the actual usuability of it. Things work (and quickly) on it.

It rocks

Will post more when i have given it a full test (off topic of course)

Stu

[Guest pcheaven]

pcheaven

take a look at the new treo 600 as a 'smart' smartphone.

It's like someone took the time to think about the actual usuability of it. Things work (and quickly) on it.  

It rocks

Will post more when i have given it a full test (off topic of course)

Stu

Heard about the treo 600, agreed on paper it looks very good.

However a full qwerty keyboard on such a small device can only be an ergonomic disaster.

I have one on order from expansys.com, will let you know when it arrives.

[Guest pcheaven]

PCheaven - I just have to thank you for such a well-written piece there.

I'm not sure that I agree with it all, but it's comments like that which will hopefully make these wonderful toys that much smarter...

More power to you buddy, and let us know how that Z600 pans out!  :)

thanx for the complement on my writing ability ( shame about my spelling though)

As for the Z600, well it is ace, eg :

Signal / call quality is easily the best ANYWHERE at the moment. As it should be with one of the latest handsets available.

Multiple POP3 mail accounts for us power users. with SCHEDULED downloading !!

Repeating / recurring alarms on designated days ( an ericsson thing)

MMS that actualy works at the same speed of the user.

battery life that is a true 3 days +++ with a lot of playing around

JAVA games.

Bluetooth.

Supports Business cards via SMS / IRDA Bluetooth

It does not crash.

camera is excellant - but like everything else on the market it is easily outclassed by the sharp gx20

On the flipside - things I miss

NO HTML browser so i cant watch my shop / house security camers - will have to post the images on a wap server.

NO predictive input when searching my contacts

NO video facilities

NO SD card -= waiting for the Z1010 with the memory stick duo.

No WAV tones supported

Limited contact memory - 500 numbers. I had to do some serious filtering to fit my numbers into this.

For me the upside easily wins. the Z600 is an ergonomic delight, and a pleasure to live with so far

[Guest midnight]

looks like e200 may only be a couple of weeks away, sp2k3 os fixes most of those bugs you mentioned, including proper mms client, multiple email addresses, bluetooth, faster os, built in camera etc. as for java, you can keep it, java really sucks

also new is better html browser (new formatting functions by the looks of it, and css and animated gif support)

should be able to do proper video and decent refresh rate with the new integrated camera

.NET obviously

WMA ringers (on sd card aswell i think) aswell as midi and wav

lots more ram

and prolly loads of other stuff, so have fun with your z600, i look forward to me e200 :)

[Guest pcheaven]

looks like e200 may only be a couple of weeks away, sp2k3 os fixes most of those bugs you mentioned, including proper mms client, multiple email addresses, bluetooth, faster os,  built in camera etc. as for java, you can keep it, java really sucks

also new is better html browser (new formatting functions by the looks of it, and css and animated gif support)

should be able to do proper video and decent refresh rate with the new integrated camera

.NET obviously

WMA ringers (on sd card aswell i think) aswell as midi and wav

lots more ram

and prolly loads of other stuff, so have fun with your z600, i look forward to me e200 :)

thanx for the update.

if the e200 performs as well as it promises i will get one ( i am a hardened gadget freek!)

[Guest spark-x]

PAUL --> "catch up with things i've recorded on my TiVo"

Do you watch them on your smartphone?

sx

[Guest glynton]

Yeah... i was gonna ask about that, what do you mean? Can you transfer stuff to your SP from Tivo?

[Guest pcheaven]

XDA II - "Smartest smartphone"

Ive had it for some time now - it replaces a motorola a760 (running Linux !!!)

For me it is definatly the smartest phone available at the moment, the A760 was cool, but lacked memory and an SD slot.........

Comments anyone

Oh, Yes i know it looks huge, but it passes the pocket test very well as

it is slim. Shame it has a Bill Gates OS though

[Guest spark-x]

pocket test is vital... only dimension i really worry about is depth.. if it's under 21mm i don't mind how wide or tall it is :D

[Guest scottt]

"Even more basic functions like alarm clocks are handled with such gross imcompetance, it beggers belief. Alarm tones are not repeated, no proper indication on your home screen, and only ONE alarm time. Crap, and yet again the state of the art "smartphone" is outwitted by a 3 year old nokia / sony / ericsson etc etc. Hummmmm "

I have a mpx200 and have 9 alarms on it 2 which can be set to go off every day at the same time and another 7 which can be set to a diff time every day, and a diff tone for each alarm.

Also the alarms are only 1 click from the home screen.

And if you you use the calendar this can give you as many alarms as you want.

I do agree with your point about mms, thats why I don't even bother with it.

[Guest spark-x]

dear me, network operators should sort out MMS -- i still can't send cross-network MMS's -- and most of my friends have the same problem, they just get a txt with a link to a website - with a password to open the photo... really helpfull when your out and about !!!

[Guest gpcarreon (MVP)]

Something to reflect on:

You have an e100 SmartPhone...are YOU smart enough to handle a

SmartPhone?

:D

[Guest chucky.egg]

Something to reflect on: 

You have an e100 SmartPhone...are YOU smart enough to handle a 

SmartPhone?

:D

That's hardly fair

None of the original comments indicate a lack of ability in the user, they are problems/faults with the handset

[Guest Lopio]

I agree most of the problem indicated, but mostly its been corrected by upgrades, ive been using the E100 for a year now and its running very smooth. My only problem is the alarm. it wont alarm if your phone is off, unlike Nokia alarm works even its turn off.

Posted from my SmartPhone!