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After a week of using it... whadda ya'll think? Still excited? Can't wait to wake up in the morning and use it? Can't live w/o it? All the bugs worked out? Everyone on vision? Anyone else hearing beeps on calls that terminate? SMS working? You guys are awfully quiet now, must be having fun!
bfaber
11-15-2004, 10:39 AM
Actually I got mine Friday.
A bunch of thoughts. 'Brain dump style, with attempted honesty rather then the bitter disappointing hatred I see on so many forums/posts.
1.) Bandwidth for 3g connectivity is ok.. faster then my Samsung a500 was. 'Much more usable though. Windows Mobile 2003 se is much nicer rendering with IE then the first edition 2003 was (on my ipaq 2215). Its nice being able to quickly and easy fireup IE, and browse for the latest movie listeings and other such info on the fly. While you could do this with other mobile phones, I always thought it was a useless 'if you have 15 spare minutes', kinda feature.
With PocketPC, this is trivial and quick.
2.) Battery life will be an issue if you talk tons. (occasional 15 minute phone calls.. periodic browsing is ok..). But, you definately want to charge once a day, or when its not use, put it in its craddle.
I can live with this, but others will hate it. This will probably be users biggest complaint. (Ignoring buerecratic issues like bandwidth or sprintpcs vision rates)
3.) The phone app looks cheap. Its the same with all mobile 2003 os's.. but I just think it should look 'nicer' somehow.
4.) I will miss the built-in voice recognition that was in my a500. (Not the sprintpcs pay for it kinda thing.. the a500 had some built-in)
5.) Ringer volume is lower then I'd like.. Even at full volume it would be hard to hear over a tv playing.. (This is my only-phone line).
6.) Vibration mode.. is somewhat soft too in my opinion. My a500 suffered from this as well. (I just had to ring it from my office phone with the unit in my hand to even verify it did vibrate. I'm not sure I could feel this all the time. My girlfriend's Nokia, on the other hand.. has a quite strong vibration).
7.) Attena strength is better then my a500 was. (Wonder why that phone sucked so much).
8.) My gf, insists the built-in mic is MUCH better with this phone then my a500. (Granted I did turn on the auto-gain control in the PPC.. perhaps that makes a difference)
With regards to #2, I'm going to load Pocket Hackmaster, and try down-clocking the 400Mhz XScale to something slower, and see if my battery life goes up. As much as people are all ga-ga over a 400Mhz XScale.. it nails battery life something fierce. HP's iPaq.. while some are annoyed its slow, runs a 175Mhz processor or something.. and will go for days apparently. I suspect, if I can get it to work, that this will help.
Other then that.. works great. 'Not sure if its worth the money I spent on it, but it is much nicer then my a500.
If you're going to combine both your phone and your ipaq and want speed, this is probably a great phone. But remember that the speed comes at a price. (Namely its going to suck power like a vortex).
:)
Final verdict: Mixed. Its a good combo, but lacks a strong ringer and built-in voice recognition. Bonuses: Built-in connectivity is MUCH more usable then non-pda phones.
Ask if you have questions.. (and I hope I don't diswade anybody from buying.. i'm not usually extremely emotional one-way or the other on these things).
Kash76
11-15-2004, 06:45 PM
I just got mine today. I also have a Treo 600, Sanyo 4500, and the new Dell x50v (not a phone).
I am kind of disappointed. I find this device to be a pretty good PDA with a phone. Where the Treo is a nice phone with a pda.
I think that I'll stick with the separate Dell PDA (VGA sure is nice!) and the Sanyo 4500.
bfaber
11-15-2004, 07:56 PM
I just got mine today. I also have a Treo 600, Sanyo 4500, and the new Dell x50v (not a phone).
I am kind of disappointed. I find this device to be a pretty good PDA with a phone. Where the Treo is a nice phone with a pda.
I think that I'll stick with the separate Dell PDA (VGA sure is nice!) and the Sanyo 4500.
Ya.. unfortunately the Treo runs PalmOS.. who the hell wants an OS designed in the 1930s? :)
:D
Kash76
11-15-2004, 08:14 PM
Ya.. unfortunately the Treo runs PalmOS.. who the hell wants an OS designed in the 1930s? :)
:D
Not saying palm rocks but the Treo form factor does.
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