'Review' - my BAD points of the E200 (long post)

[Guest shadamehr]

Hi all - as a new SPV user with a shiny E200, I thought I'd just share with you some of my problems I am having with it.

I appreciate the comments some of you have made about the guy alledging they are being withdrawn, but please folks... as much as they are not, if the points he raises are genuine ones, then don't shoot the guy for it too quickly...

So hence my own REAL WORLD experiences with the phone - some bugs, some problems, some just faeature issues... But overall, what gripes me loads about it.

BATTERY

Firstly, the battery life. Well, as much as my battery is not yet fully 'conditioned', being very new, all indications are however that it is as poor as people state.

TEXT

I also have to say I positively HATE the E200 implementation of T9 text compared (dare I say it), to a Nokia which is a million miles better for adding single numbers, and new words... This having to delete the unrecognised gobbledegook, turn t9 off, type the word, and then turn t9 back on (by cycling past numeric first), to get it to learn a new word (which it then forgets after a while due to another bug), is laborious and long winded compared to Nokias telling you the word is not recognised once you cycle through the possible matches list, and then asking if you want to spell and learn it multi-tap style... Once you do - added!

Also, as far as I can tell, the only way to get numbers (single digits), is to press the key, then multi tap cycle - Nokias let you press and hold the key for a single number.

The reason this matters, is that it seems that on the E200, given that the 0 key is also the cycle matches button, you CAN'T quickly or easily enter a single digit 0 - unless I am missing something too obvious as the guide says nothing.

The only way to get a single 0 is to turn numeric lock on, type the one single number you require, then have to cycle back through multi-tap to get back to T9 text back on...

Writing texts on the E200 therefore takes me three times as long as a Nokia, and I see this as unlikely to drop any more once I am even used ot the E200, as its a feature problem, not a familiarity one...

Oh so frustrating.

BATTERY PART2

And my battery is now at just 8% after less that one day's use, and just two short calls in that time... This is not good. What use is a million different features if the phone dies after less than a day. Bit like a top of the range Ferrari, but, er, well its not actually got an engine in it Guv... But the seats are really comfortable don't you agree Squire...

BLUETOOTH - 1

As far as I can tell, there is no means to be able to send images or videos from the phone by Bluetooth... Er let that sink in... Come on Orange... ALL your main competitors now allow this - EVEN the newer Nokias, which was one of the reasons many people moved from Nokia to S.E. in the past. How bizarre. Especially as you CAN B.T. send a BUSINESS CARD from the phone (oh whilst we might indeed use this at some point, I can't see us falling over to do that as much as the potential for beaming IMAGES and VIDEOS - DOH!). To think I even bought my E200 on the strength of doing this, so I could create videos for my partner's E200 that has no camera, but DOES let you send them - ironic! Oh, and bear in mind, that at present you can't even MMS send a video on Orange. So Active Sync to PC, then Nokia Software sync to the Bluetooth enabled and ready waiting N-Gagedevice, is the ridiculous way you have to manage this.

BLUETOOTH - 2

As far as I can tell, I cannot seem to use my phone as a modem for my laptop, via Bluetooth, as the wrong protocols etc are implemented by MS. I can use it via IR fine, but what about those pricey Bleutooth Card, and USB Dongles I bought for my laptop. I mean come on, how OLD now is my Nokia 6310i, but it seems I'm still going to have to rely on that for a while yet. UNBELIEVABLE in a phone of the class, age and specification of the E200...

SMS - 1

The SMS counter is now implemented (I believe ? previous spv's never had this?), but if you delete some text, it seems (at least on my E200) that the used character counter is not updated until you type a new letter. Additionally, the counter shows letters used rather than characters remaining as per Nokia, which is in my opinion at least, more useful, in terms of knowing how short you are running, or how many characters to try and free up...

SMS - 2

It seems that the phone does indeed 'lose' the remembered words, as some that I added yesterday, have now gone again. This appears to be intermittant, but I can now confirm it is real.

ACTIVE SYNC - 1

I'm reserving judgement on this one, but I am still currently struggling to set up Active Sync over Bluetooth, possibly because of the same stack implementation problems I mentioned earlier. Time will tell though.

ACTIVE SYNC - 2 (Someone HELP???)

Another BIG issue for me, is the syncronisation of Outlook Contacts. Using my old Psion 5MX or Revo, I could 'tell' the sync software (PsiWin), which Contacts 'folder' I wanted too use as the sync with my machine. Even Nokia allow this too. Can I hell find how to do this (if at all) using Active Sync, which means that I have to create a temporary folder on my PC in Outlook, copy my Outlook contacts into that to keep them out the road (as they are NOT the sort of contacts I want to use as my phone contacts - they are more suited to Email only etc - nothing to do with my phone numbers), and then copy the contents of a new folder I created containing the data from my old phone, into the proper 'Contacts' folder, and then do a Sync with the phone to get them into my E200. Then I have to turn off auto synchronisation, copy the contacts back OUT of the 'contacts' folder in outlook, to a 'phone numbers' folder, and then copy my 'proper' Outlook Email contacts back INTO the Contacts folder on my PC. A ridiculous method to have to do each time. Why on earth does Active Sync not let me tell it that when sync'ing with Outlook, I wish to use a different folder other than the default Outlook Contacts folder, as the folder to use? Even PsiWin, or Nokia Sync software let's me tell it the Outlook Folder to use for syn'ing contacts. Please someone - tell me I CAN do this somehow with Active Sync, otherwise this is yet another major boo boo...

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER

When playing back movies, the screen (very obviously) fades to complete black (in order to save power etc), when trying to watch the video. Obviously, it is then impossible to see. There appears to be no quick setting in Media Player to disable this behaviour. The only option is to go into Phone Settings, and set the Screen Blank timeout to never. And then of course remember to go back in and turn it ON again once you've finished viewing the video. Daft.

GAMING

4 Way not 8 Way Joystick - need I say more? Means nothing to me just yet, but over time, I think this will cause me to suffer in the long run...

SUMMARY

So to summarise, there are MANY MANY issues with the phone, that are indeed REAL and tangible. Two things I MUST say however - I am NOT biased to Nokia - on the contrary, I am sick of them too, and they are the very reason I moved to the E200 breaking with years of loyal custom, because of the feature limitations (or so I thought) of their newer phones. Additionally, there MAY be a number of solutions to SOME of the problems I have listed above. If so, might I just say a) please share them with me, and :lol: I THINK I have thoroughly read the manual etc, so if a solution exists, this a failing in it's own right, in that it is not apparent to a NEW E200/SPV user.

So feel free to comment, but subject to those last two disclaimers, please DO NOT shoot the Messenger as it were, because irrespective of how you feel, alas I am simply telling you what MY experiences are, as a new SPV user, and in that sense you can try to say I'm biased(I'm not), but you CAN'T say I am telling lies...

Notwithstanding any of this, I still LIKE (but not yet love) my E200, but even then, if I did LOVE it, I would still be loving a device that needs charging at least daily... And that alone just throws everything else out the window...

Fell free to comment, agree, disagree, or help me out with workarounds, or solutions folks, and I hope this 'review' has been of use to you...

All of these things can POSSIBLY be resolved through software changes, but from the reports on here, when on earth might I ever hope to see that happen?

:oops: :evil:

[Guest jackofall]

just a quick question

Especially as you CAN B.T. send a BUSINESS CARD from the phone (oh whilst we might indeed use this at some point,

I cant seem to find this option :/

or is its just me :?:

[Guest snakeeater]

Dude you gotta chill out a bit. It sounds as though the phone has gotten you REALLY worked up :?

EDIT: I have the E200 too, could do with a longer battery life but to be honest Im not gonna loose sleep over it or anything.

[Guest shadamehr]

Dude you gotta chill out a bit.  It sounds as though the phone has gotten you REALLY worked up  :?

EDIT:  I have the E200 too, could do with a longer battery life but to be honest Im not gonna loose sleep over it or anything.

Each to their own - that's why I asked for comments.

In brief response however, it isn't about chillin', getting heated up, freezing, boiling over or anything...

I'm just, as I said up above, telling it EXACTLY like it is of my own experiences - as SURELY many of those issues, whilst not necessarily putting a new buyer off, WILL help him or her make an INFORMED choice about issues he or she would NOT beaware of just by picking a phone up and holding it at his or her local Orange shop...

So, chillin'...

Doesn't come into it

:wink:

[Guest snakeeater]

Each to their own - that's why I asked for comments.

In brief response however, it isn't about chillin', getting heated up, freezing, boiling over or anything...

I'm just, as I said up above, telling it EXACTLY like it is of my own experiences - as SURELY many of those issues, whilst not necessarily putting a new buyer off, WILL help him or her make an INFORMED choice about issues he or she would NOT beaware of just by picking a phone up and holding it at his or her local Orange shop...

So, chillin'...

Doesn't come into it

:wink:

Thats okay then, the thought of you suffering a partial stroke in the middle of a forum rant is an upsetting thought :lol:

[Guest shadamehr]

Thats okay then, the thought of you suffering a partial stroke in the middle of a forum rant is an upsetting thought  ;)

Worrying that you should mention having a heart condition mate...

You see, my girlfriend (that's her in the animated avatar, firstly with me, and then with one of her 'friends') was once crossing the road near our house with her sister...

A guy jumped out in front of her, opened his raincoat, and flashed in front of her...

Her sister had a STROKE!

But my g/f, poor girl...

Well she wasn't quick enough apparently...

:lol:

:wink:

On a serious note however...

It appears that according to recent posts elsewhere on the board, Orange have 'allegedly' now confirmed that there IS an issue with Kingston SD cards (and no doubt those made by them on behalf of other companies), not being able to write to the card whislt in the phone, but working fine elsewhere.

No word on who is taking the blame for this though, but Orange curiously DO say that this never appeared on 'test' phones, and was only noticed come production roll out after a minor code change...

So how do I explain that when trying to return two otherwise working fine 265MB SD cards then...

But trust me - I'm chilled...

:wink: