Related
Hi,
Just letting you guys know that Orange TV is now available for the M5000.
Theres a link on the Orange WAP home page. Costs £10 per month and the data traffic usage doesnt come out of monthly data bundles.
Tried a couple of channels and must admit was pleased with the quality (It uses PV Player and can go full screen)....and theres loads of channels.
Only works when in 3g coverage though.
....sorry if this is old news but I only found it last week.
Matt
Just bear in mind that it's only 20 hours per month, so you can't even watch it for an hour a day!
Not that there's anything worth watching for an hour a day from the channels currently available to be honest.
Also, the 20 hours is a rough estimate based on 1gb of use, and above that 1gb it's charged at 50p per mb, so based on those figures, if you watched 21 hours, you would be billed an extra £25!
A bit pathetic to charge that much for some pretty crappy channels.
I subscribed yesterday and have had a bit of a play around with it...
TV is such a strong and incorrect word to use to describe it......
...I would be more inclined to describe it as.... very low res, jerky video that it is totally out of sync with the audio.... I wont even start about the audio quality either....
Why even put cnn as a channel if you cant even see the news tickers or text on the screen!
With all due respect its a great idea/service in theory but in practice the data transfer capabilities and/or stability of 3G isnt yet up to scratch to make this a useful/enjoyable service.
...and that is with full 3G reception in central London.
I will be unsubscribing as soon as I have an hour to waste waiting on the phone to Orange Customer support....
Its a shame that you must use 3g to access it... Surely it would have been great to allow wireless networking access to it.... Maybe then they could have had a higher res and quality version of the channels too...
Anyway... my 2 cents worth...
X.
I tried it on my Nokia N70 last year when it was launched, and I must say I was pretty impressed with the picture quality, but then the dot pitch and resolution was optimised for that, and not for a VGA display, which would probably make it so blocky it becomes unwatchable.
I think it should be free on all tariffs of £35 or more, and paid for on the lower tariffs. It would mean more people went for a higher tariff to get the value added services, rather than paying specifically for something that's crap.
Hey,
just upgraded my MDA Vario to the MDA Vario II (my third HTC phone in less than 18 months, these things are addictive) and wanted to share my thoughts for people who might be thnking of doing the same. To a lot of people there doesn't seem much more to shout about between the two but I believe the upgrade is well worth it.
Form Factor, Appearance and Build Quality:
- The Vario II (from here on referred to as as VII) is slightly longer but also marginally thinner than the VI, the difference is only small but to me the reduction in thickness is certainly welcome. The shape of the VII is very similar to the Magician, less rounded compared to the VI and flatter.
- In terms of build quality the VII is far superior, it feels much more solid especially when the keyboard is concealed (you cannot tell that there is one, feels like one continuous unit). The buttons all have a nice tactile feel to them and the jog wheel is very solid.
- Appearance is obviously a subjective matter but in my opinion the VII looks far nicer, especially the dark metallic red keyboard. It has a much more professional look to it, rather than the plasticy VI.
==> The VII takes this round hands down, it's thinner, better looking and more solid feeling with great build quality.
Ease of Use:
- The VII has more buttons than the VI which is a welcome addition for me. I used to map the top buttons (Messaging and IE) to the Start Menu and OK, there are now dedicated buttons below the soft keys. I used to find that I accidently would hit the camera button, so far have not pressed any button by accident on my VII.
- The scroll wheel wasn't a feature I was to bothered about until I used it and have got to say that it makes one handed operation even easier, especially considering there is a second OK button below the wheel which cleverly acts as the Start Menu button when on the today screen meaning you can launch programs using just your thumb. It also allows you to scroll through documents easily although for making large jumps it is a pain. I would mention the equivelent on the VI but that would be the volume slider which was the tackiest part of that phone.
- Another small but overdue feature is the new layout of the number on the keyboard, they are now arranged in a standard numerical block. This feature really comes into its own when dialing a phone number as you now no longer need to double click circle to access the numbers, when your in phone mode you just use the keys and it automatically recognizes that it should use the numbers instead of the letters (this works with SmartDialer and without).
- Keyboard shortcuts have considerably improved, you can now launch File Manager, turn on WiFi and use PgUp/PgDn using the keyboard. There is also a new input method, Symbol Pad which has common and unusual characters in a list (this can be launched directly from the keyboard).
- The stylus is almost identical to that of the VI, although it is very stiff in the VII.
==> Again the VII has some great improvements, some minor but they all add up to make a more satisfying experience using the VII.
Communication:
- Data transfer is the big change between the two devices, the VI has GPRS/EDGE compared to the VII which supports HSDPA. With the VI I only had 6Mb allowance per month and so my general usage was kept to a minimum (MSN, vgsmail and occasional web browsing) and for this purpose GPRS was generally acceptable. Not trying to sound cheesy but HSDPA is going to completly change the way I use my phone, browsing is now almost instaneous even with pictures set to download and I no longer have to worry about how much data I use. Some people mention that although download speeds are impressive there is a lag between loading pages, I have not found this to be the case. I was browsing xda-developers on my phone today and I wouldn't say there was a noticable difference between browsing on my phone and my laptop (4Mbits/s Cable). I did a speedtest on http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/ and it rated at 1.2Mbits/s (I'm in Leeds)
- Speech quality, without doing professional tests is subjective but in my opinion has improved with the VII as has reception.
==> This is where you'll notice the biggest difference, I don't think it's an overstatement to say that the VII will drastically change the way you use your phone.
NB: The phone came with HSDPA enabled in software but I had to phone customer services (150 from your phone then options 2 => 6, they have to get through the tech department but don't think there's a direct number)
Hardware:
- You can definitly tell that there is a more powerful processor in the VII, menus load without lag and programs load faster. There is a known issue at the moment which affects video playback (search on the forums) but this would be my only grumble with speed. Overall it is far more responsive than the VI (I always had the latest ROM and not one of them matches the VII in responsiveness).
- The one issue the VII has with speed is the length of time it takes to come out of sleep, there is a gud second lag which can get irritating if you just whipped your phone out to check for mesages.
- The camera has received a much needed upgrade as has the camera software. There does seem to be a noticable difference in quality but I don't use it much so won't comment on differences although it is clear that the VII has a better camera than the VI. One thing the VII has which at first I thought was its most pointless feature has actually turned out to be great, on the main camera theres a little macro slider (lets you focus on close-up objects) and it really works. It is excellent for taking photos of documents or writing and you can actually read the text easily from the photo. There is also a second camera on the front for video calling but I don't know anyone who has video calling so cant test it.
- Yet another memory format yet another damn card to buy, the good news is I can't feasably see how a memory format can get smaller then MicroSD without running the risk of it absorbing into your skin so hopefully this one will be around to stay for a little while longer than MiniSD. Have not yet bought a MicroSD card so cannot comment on any performance differences.
- I'm hoping that the battery life on my phone is still being misread as I have only charged it once now but if not then it is awful. I left the house this morning at 9 with a fully charged battery, as I'm still in the honeymoon phase with it I used it constantly until 2pm (webbrowsing, live messenger, no calls, 2 texts, imap idle) and the battery was down to 10%!!!! Another known issue at the moment is that the battery level goes down in 10% blocks, apparently a lot of early ROMs for HTC have this issue and it then gets corrected so fingers crossed. Something else to note is that the VII battery capacity is 100mAh higher (1350mWh vs. 1250mAh).
Update on battery life, it has indeed improved but not as much as I had hoped. My VI is still sitting in my draw, turned on waiting for messages and with no exageration its well over a week between charges. My VII on the other hand needs charging every couple of days, but I do use it a lot.
==> Apart from the battery life the VII beats the VI
Software:
- For the stock ROM unlocking the extended ROM is simply a case of running fit4cats registry tweaker, there seems to be far less less applications in extended rom as well (total ~ 3Mb). For the first time I'm not bothered about letting the extended rom as it doesn't install anything instrusive or bloating.
- Live Messenger Beta runs fine, any problems being related to the software bugs rather than the phone (all my contacts appeared to be offline, had to "Switch User" option to fix that). The voiceclips feature works flawlessly and combined with HSDPA makes for a useful method of communicating when you cant type. Live beta is currently not working
- VGSmail works fine as expected
- Resco Explorer 2005 is fine
CONCLUSION:
The Vario I was a great phone but not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, on the whole it worked but had too many annoyances for me. The Vario II I believe corrects almost every single one of these as well as providing new features. I would not consider this to be a necessary upgrade for those who don't use data communication and can live with the Vario's flaws. For the heavier users I could not recommend this phone more, as I mentioned before I have had the Magician, Wizard and now the Hermes. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that for me this is the best out of the three, but it also the first time I have considered a Pocket PC to be a worthy substitute for a dedicated phone. It truly is an amazing piece of hardware and could not imagine anyone who takes the plunge being the slightest bit disappointed.
Pros:
- HSDPA
- More responsive
- Better keyboard, buttons and general buil quality
- True one handed operation may now be a reality
Cons:
- Battery life (under very heavy usage on new battery)
Hope this helps some people when deciding whether to go for it or not, I will keep this post updated if I think of anything and don't hesitate to post any questions.
When your battery went down that quickly, where you in an area that was spotty with its UMTS reception? (sorry I'm not familiar with your area) I know I am almost on the line of UMTS and no UMTS and when I am on either side of the line I am fine, but when I am close to the line my battery drains ridiculously fast.
after some charges the battery do the best... my Tytn now as about 3days of autonomy...
not comparable with the 2 days of my magician!
great recension...
many thx
bubu
With regards to the battery I know that they take a little while to be worn in and the OS usually takes a while to learn the battery as well so I'm not to worried. I think I was in an area of spotty coverage yes, as I was only getting 3G 75% of the time.
I think this is a great summary so bumping it up for other potential buyers to read.
The new keyboard is rarely mentionned as one of the improvements over the wizard but it really is a big step forward in that department.
cheers for the bump, just a few updates:
- the keyboard issue has corrected itself, it seems that when fresh from the box some of the contacts need to be worn in. all the keys are now as responsive as each other.
- battery life has also improved considerably but that could well be down to me using it less.
- the stylus is now feeling a lot smoother going in and out of the device.
- unfortunatly the screen alignment issue has cropped up on my phone. this is by far the biggest problem people have with these phones. this should not hinder potential buyers as operators are recognizing this as a factory hardware flaw and replacing/repairing it free of charge.
people looking to buy this phone should not be put off by the screen alignment issue. most newer models aren't having this problem but if they do it's just a case of getting it replaced (on that note, make sure you buy from a reputable supplier with good customer service).
hope this helps those looking to buy this great phone.
Great comparison! I'll link it on the PPC Magazine blog!
(BTW, as far as "- Data transfer is the big change between the two devices, the VI has GPRS compared to the VII which supports HSDPA." is concerned: the VI supports EDGE with speeds up to 240 kbps under good circumstances. See http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=518&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 for more benchmarks.)
Guys, hears sweet stuff abot the tytn - but how about tytn vs universal - my current pda . . . i am due an upgrade in like 6 months . . what you guys reckon???
cheers
lr
Thanks Menneisyys for the link and also the correction, have edited the post to include VI having EGDE. The reason I didn't mention it is that tmobile uk doesn't support EDGE so I never got to use it.
I bought a 1Gb Sandisk Transflash/MicroSD card, just stuffed it in the slot and rebooted (for some reason wouldn't appear until I reset, I've noted that other people have also experienced this)... But it just works.
Copied over some xvids via my LAN (PC wired to router, PDA on wifi) using Opera as it's more effective at handling large files than PIE... The files just went. I kept an eye on my upload and I was sending the file to the device at around 550-600kb/sec, which I guess is about the max that 802.11g can handle minus overheads, and the file just wrote without any lag, delay or pauses to the SD card, so I'm very happy with its performance
Not run (or installed) TomTom on it yet, so I've not really had a chance to do a long-duration endurance test of the SD card's throughput performance, but I doubt I'll have many problems compared to the issues I had with my Alpine I know there's apps available which can benchmark your storage card, but I reaaaally can't be bothered to get them right now.
I'm having a continued issue with not being able to sync my device with my computer (just doesn't recognise it at all), but I'm thinking that's a problem with my PC as it's a bit... 'touchy'... anyway All in all, a great device. That is, great device provided you get one without a screen alignment issue! I wish there was an adaptor available to convert the mini USB slot to a standard 3.5mm headphone jack for when you want to listen to music though, that's my only wish - I have some WAY better headphones which I'd love to use with my device say when I'm on the bus going into Uni in the morning, now it can stream live TV over the HSDPA... The included headset is a bit of a waste really.
I hope that the video playback issue in TCPMP is to be resolved soon, because I've had to implement my own workaround for that, but it's just one of those things with any new piece of hardware... You get it soon as it comes out, there's bound to be software bugs. As pleased with my Hermes as I was when I got my Alpine, if not moreso - it's a real all-rounder, and, like a previous poster commented, with the Web 'n Walk tariff, it has also really changed the way I use my phone when I'm on the go.
Brilliant comparison, glad I cancelled my contract with O2 now as they don't have the latest Compact XDA, instead signed with Vodaphone on a better tariff and got the phone FREE (VPA Compact III) instead of having to pay the w*nkers at O2 £150 for the older model!!!
Having been an Exec user previously, this little thing is speedy, compact, neat, modern and has a very 'well designed' feel to it - my Exec in comparison just looks old fashioned and clunky, not to mention a bit creeky with old age!!
Just about to purchase a MicroSD for it, they seem to be about £45 for 2Gb, very good value, I do hope that microSD becomes a standard for memory storage, sick of having to upgrade my desktop Card readers!!!!
Cheers, Ash
Hi there. I've had the MDA Pro/o2 Exec for over 8 months and am very happy with it (except of course it's size which can be uncomfortable). I have an upgrade due in about a week and was wanting to know how the resolution compares to the Pro? I got the MDA Vario and ended up keeping the Pro as the resolution was excellent and the sound quality was better. Just wondering how the Vario II compares to the Pro.
ashleyhall said:
Brilliant comparison, glad I cancelled my contract with O2 now as they don't have the latest Compact XDA, instead signed with Vodaphone on a better tariff and got the phone FREE (VPA Compact III) instead of having to pay the w*nkers at O2 £150 for the older model!!!
Having been an Exec user previously, this little thing is speedy, compact, neat, modern and has a very 'well designed' feel to it - my Exec in comparison just looks old fashioned and clunky, not to mention a bit creeky with old age!!
Just about to purchase a MicroSD for it, they seem to be about £45 for 2Gb, very good value, I do hope that microSD becomes a standard for memory storage, sick of having to upgrade my desktop Card readers!!!!
Cheers, Ash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm out of my contract with O2 and am looking at the Vario with T-Mobile (their web n walk looks very good) but they're advertising the vario (as opposed to the vario II) how do I know which they're dishing out?
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatche...phones_ews_overview&menuid=ctl_phones_details
MarkyMark7890 said:
I'm out of my contract with O2 and am looking at the Vario with T-Mobile (their web n walk looks very good) but they're advertising the vario (as opposed to the vario II) how do I know which they're dishing out?
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatche...phones_ews_overview&menuid=ctl_phones_details
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Vario2 is out of stock currently. When it's back in stock, it will be listed as the Vario 2. Meanwhile as your link shows, they're still selling the original.
Ah haaaa, that'd make sense.
I rang them yesterday and the best they could say was sometime towards the end of next week.
Is it safe?
Hi friends.I want to buy an mda vario 2 on ebay.Is it safe.What do i need to search before buying an mda vario 2?Can it be unlocked to be used in any country in the world?Can someone sell one which has screen alignment problems?
Is it safe?
Hi friends.I want to buy an mda vario 2 on ebay.Is it safe?I mean i won't know if it wil be in good condition n i wil also not know if it suffers from the screen alignment problem..What do i need to search or ask before buying it.Can the mda vario 2 be unlocked to be used all round the world?
eBay is a dangerous place to buy this kind of thing from, apparently there are quite a few scams going on relating to this phone. If you ask a seller about the screen alignment problem it is very unlikely they will tell you the truth as they can just claim afterwards that it developed after they sent it to you. You could obviously ask for the serial number but that is no guarentee that it won't develop the problem (as far as I know there isn't a single serial number that hasn't had some duff units).
You will have to use your own judgement but personally I think buying this phone from a private seller at this point is dangerous. Plus if the price on eBay is ludicrously low, it's almost certainly a duff listing.
Good luck
Thanks for your advice.I searhed for the mda vario 2 on tmobile.co.uk but it seems that it is out of stock.Could you tell me what is the cheapest price plan concernin this phone?Thanks.
T-Mobile UK are having serious stock issues with this phone, I've been waiting a month for my local T-Mobile shop to get some Vario IIs in so that I can get a replacement. Personally I think their flext packages are very competitive when combined with W'n'W. I currently pay about £38 per month and I get unlimited browsing and £180 worth of texts and calls included. Probably a tad too much but it means I get to use my phone without worrying about usage as I know I'll never go over my allowance. Also going for the bigger package meant I got the phone cheaper (I only paid £40 for the handset), plus I can downgrade my package after 6 months.
My advice would be to go to your local T-Mobile shop and haggle with them, there's a fair few deals that they can do for you. Obviously it would help if they had some stock.
I can't find any REAL reviews, but everything suggests the iPhone is a bazillion years ahead of it's time and offeres things that the others couldn't dream of.
What is the reality?
What actually makes it so damn special compared to other phones such as Hermes, etc?
Not just the Hermes but every PocketPC PDA Phone will offer everything that will be on the iPhone and actually a lot more because there won't be any 3rd party apps for the iPhone. The number of 3rd party apps for PocketPCs numbers in the thousands.
The Hermes does have stereo sound with its proprietary headphones, but the sound fidelity from the main speaker at least as far as playing music is concerned isn't great. Since the iPhone will be expected to play music I'm guessing that its sound fidelity will be better, but that's just a guess.
I'm guessing that, for all practical purposes, the iPhone will just be a PocketPC with Apple's own GUI hardcoded onto it with the ability to install things on it removed and most of the options hidden.
it is still not confirmed whether the iPhone will have A2DP over bluetooth. if not, that will be a MAJOR advantage for TyTN.
also cornfirmed that iPhone will NOT have: MMS, UMTS, HSPDA, IM, RSS, MP3 ringtones, voice-dial, GPS, expandable memory, removeable battery or games...
ALSO, with iPhone you cannot switch SIM cards. it WILL be locked to AT&T. if traveling, you cannot switch to a local pre-paid card. instead, you will be forced to pay outrageous AT&T roaming rates.
bottom line, iPhone isn't even worth comparing to TyTn =)
leo-chan said:
bottom line, iPhone isn't even worth comparing to TyTn =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my view, the iPhone is not for our category of user. The lack of 3rd-party applications pretty much seals that deal.
If there was some kind of Pocket Cocoa API that was open, I would jump on the iPhone in a heartbeat and hock my Hermes on eBay, because we'd have instant access to all the GNU tools already available for OS X and hundreds of other incredibly useful, free applications.
As it is now, well. Definitely not the case.
On the iphone you cannot expand the memory, on the iphone you cannot change battery, on the iphone you cannot installa other application, the iphone is NOT a smartphone or a pda, it is an improved IPOD
SkyyBoy said:
it is still not confirmed whether the iPhone will have A2DP over bluetooth. if not, that will be a MAJOR advantage for TyTN.
also cornfirmed that iPhone will NOT have: MMS, UMTS, HSPDA, IM, RSS, MP3 ringtones, voice-dial, GPS, expandable memory, removeable battery or games...
ALSO, with iPhone you cannot switch SIM cards. it WILL be locked to AT&T. if traveling, you cannot switch to a local pre-paid card. instead, you will be forced to pay outrageous AT&T roaming rates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will not support A2DP. On engadget ther are some facts from people who tested the iPhone.
piottone said:
On the iphone you cannot expand the memory, on the iphone you cannot change battery, on the iphone you cannot installa other application, the iphone is NOT a smartphone or a pda, it is an improved IPOD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes also no A2DP NO 3G NO real GPS maps ONLY !
also every one someone told me cingular AT&T is starting video calling soon just like Europe i know iphone is not supported ! dose anyone know if i can use it on my 2 camera HTC tytn Aka Vodafone VPA compact III (v1605) ??
IMHO, non-3G phones should not be compared to 3G phones. The iPhone has cool features like auto-sensing screen rotation, and listing voicemail messages on the screen (A fantastic feature - you no longer have to keep hitting the skip button to reach the message you want to hear), but the lack of 3G rules it out for me.
leo-chan said:
bottom line, iPhone isn't even worth comparing to TyTn =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you buddy.
As someone posted above, the iphone is just an improved ipod.
That has nothing to do with me, if there's no third party apps, you are limited, for example on any WM PPC you can install Pocket maps and get maps without being connected to the net.
Right now some of us have the iphone-alike stuff on our hermes, but that is just temporary, once we don't want it anymore, we'll change it, something that will not be possible with the iphone.
IMHO the iphone is designed for music people who sometimes will want to browse the web or text messages.
Let's face it, out of here, people use their ipods to listen music and that's it, I know people who had ipods for years and they're just finding out that they can sync outlook calendar and contacts to it.
I'm more excited about the kaiser than the iphone.
Does the Iphone have a camera with flash?
I'd rather buy a Kaisar. Not as handsome, but way more powerful. Well, kinda like me
Basically the iPhone is not for anyone here. You can equate the release of the iPhone to the release of the RAZR a few years ago. Before that, cell phones were thick and had some pretty complicated menus to navigate just to call a contact. Now you just click a button and scroll through to see who you want to call.
With the iPhone its the same thing: now most of the computer illiterate society can have videos and music along with their phone (and post to myspace and check their facebooks, etc). Heck, the iPhone and RAZR are even debuting at the same inital price point.
To sum it up, you can't compare the iPhone to the Hermes in a board full of WM devs because it will always come up short. I know I for one will never go back to a phone that lacks HSDPA and A2DP, but the iPhone is for people that have no clue what those acronyms are nor would even if you told them what they do. Hopefully the iPhone will have one effect on the WM world and that would be to clean up the damn interface.
(/soapbox)
cant see it offering 1 thing over a hermes, ok it will be out the box phone / mp3 player, which the hermes is i suppose, then you can fine tune it
even the iphones, capacity of 4GB or 8GB flash drive, is allmost there with the hermes, with 4gb cards appering, give it 6 months and we will have 8gbs, then 16gbs?
i currently have 2 2gb cards, which is more than what i need at the mo!
Difference between Hermes and iPhone? hmm...
Hermes: I have it.
iPhone: I don't have it, and won't be able to until some time next year
iPhone baby, come to Australia, c'mon!
Actually, I don't know why I said that, it's a little late at night. Bottom line is I will never get an iPhone. Hermes is my iPhone and always will be. Once you're hooked to the customisability/flexibility of Windows Mobile (as primitive as it is) you can't go back to a rigid format such as the iPhone. At least I can't.
Besides, Photon's gonna come around, who knows how big MicroSDHC may get, my Hermes should last me for the next 4 years (I paid so much for it so it'd better)
I love what the iPhone's done, but unless Apple gives out 3rd-party licences and you can completely hack it, forget about an iphone-developers.com.
What I read about the ATT video calling is that it will be one way, kind of like a CB conversation, take turns transmiting video.
galaxybomb said:
also every one someone told me cingular AT&T is starting video calling soon just like Europe i know iphone is not supported
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at this article.
11 iPhone Gotchas
http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=5061246&page=1
You can transform Hermes into iPhone with 3rd party apps, but can't transform iPhone into Hermes.
piottone said:
On the iphone you cannot expand the memory, on the iphone you cannot change battery, on the iphone you cannot installa other application, the iphone is NOT a smartphone or a pda, it is an improved IPOD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree. you cant compare the iPhone to the Hermes.
Haaaiiiii everybody!
Firstly, what a spectacular device. It's gorgeous, the screen is awesome, the performance is great (huge improvement over my last handset (tytn II) - not that i didn't love it like my own child mind), and love the sense UI wrapper thingy for winmo.
I bought the phone from mobiles.co.uk (is this just carephone warehouse? The invoice i got just looks like the ones you get from the shop itself) and i'm guessing it's the stock rom/unlocked, since i'm on t-mobile (UK) and i have the youtube app, co-pilot etc. And it asked me to set the network preset myself when i first turned it on.
My question is related to reception/signal strength. How are you all finding it? I've moved from orange to t-mobile, so i did expect to experience a slight reduction in the quality of coverage - perhaps simply because the urban folklore is that orange have the best coverage. However, it seems to be depressingly poor. My orange handset is pretty much 3 or more bars of HSDPA everywhere in my house. By comparison, the new HD2 is mostly just G (GPRS), very ocasionally 3G or H, and only ever 1 or 2 bars of whatever bandwidth it settles on.
Moreover, it seems to fluctuate strangely. My mental model for mobile signal strength - informed entirely by experience - is that it's related almost entirely to where you're stood. Once you find a decent spot, it tends to remain pretty consistent. However, sometimes with the leo, I'll stick it down on my desk and leave it for a few minutes, in which time it'll build up to perhaps 2 bars of 3G, but as soon as i pick it up, it tends to decrease gradually back down to 1 or 2 bars of G.
According to the t-mobile site i'm in a "Good" signal area for both 2 and 3g - i live near a big town (bolton), not out in the sticks. So i am somewhat disappointed so far. Is there any possibility i have a dodgy handset? or perhaps is this an issue with the radio part of the software install? Can i expect it to get better with future radio releases?
All this is indoors, but i did have a wander around outside for a few minutes earlier today, and the best i could get it up to was 2 bars of 3g.
A friend of mine also has t-mobile, and told me he seems to remember getting pretty good signal at my house, so i'm getting him to bring his android HTC (touch maybe?) round later so we can swap sims about and compare like with like. I'll have a better idea of what's going on then. I'm also aware that orange and t-mobile are almost certainly going to be merging rather soon, and they expect their networks to be one as of next summer, so i'll hopefully be back with my old coverage then, although this is a long time to wait. On a similar note, another reason this is worse than expected, is that i was under the impression t-mobile had more or less completed merging their 3g network with 3, which has the best 3g coverage in the country. Anyone aware of the status of this project? is it behind schedule?
Cheers for taking the time to read this all!
Simon
One other thing i forgot to mention, is that in some cases, it tries to switch between networks so frequently that web-browsing or any other data task is completely impossible. Last night i was lying in bed attempting to surf the web, and it kept changing between 1 bar of H, then dropping down to 0, then changing to 1 bar of 3g, then changing back to H. It was doing this every few seconds at one point.
I dont know where you got the idea that urban folklore says Orange has best network coverage! They are shockingly bad imo...
I actually ended up in a legal battle with Orange due to their extremely bad service/coverage... they were claiming around £70,000 pounds from me/my company after we refused to pay due to MANY shortcomings. Long story short.... i/we won. They didnt get a penny and we got to keep all of our hardware also.
T-Mobile have an extremely fast HSDPA network but again i find their overall coverage to be less then satisfactory.
I am under the impression that both T-Mobile and Orange use higher frequencies in their network and this results in their signals being alot worse at penetrating walls etc when compared to Vodafone and O2. Perhaps more knowledgable peeps could confirm this?
Anyway... back on point... with my HD2 (using Vodafone SIM) i am getting coverage in areas where previously no one on any network got a signal. In one particular restaurant i frequent... everyone else on my table had no coverage what so ever yet i was sitting there browsing the internet.
One other thing to note that may help you with your situation... the antenna for the HD2 is situated at the BOTTOM of the device. Other users have reported fluctuating signals when holding the dvice in their hand although i have no such experience myself.
Audio Oblivion said:
I dont know where you got the idea that urban folklore says Orange has best network coverage! They are shockingly bad imo...
I actually ended up in a legal battle with Orange due to their extremely bad service/coverage... they were claiming around £70,000 pounds from me/my company after we refused to pay due to MANY shortcomings. Long story short.... i/we won. They didnt get a penny and we got to keep all of our hardware also.
T-Mobile have an extremely fast HSDPA network but again i find their overall coverage to be less then satisfactory.
I am under the impression that both T-Mobile and Orange use higher frequencies in their network and this results in their signals being alot worse at penetrating walls etc when compared to Vodafone and O2. Perhaps more knowledgable peeps could confirm this?
Anyway... back on point... with my HD2 (using Vodafone SIM) i am getting coverage in areas where previously no one on any network got a signal. In one particular restaurant i frequent... everyone else on my table had no coverage what so ever yet i was sitting there browsing the internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Audio Oblivion said:
One other thing to note that may help you with your situation... the antenna for the HD2 is situated at the BOTTOM of the device. Other users have reported fluctuating signals when holding the dvice in their hand although i have no such experience myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response! Interesting story about orange there. I think urban folklore is one of those things that varies from one urban environment to the next. Needless to say, orange has always been pretty strong for me here at home, so i am slightly disappointed with the performance of T-Mobile so far. I'll get my friend down here with his handset and see what the comparison is like, and i'll bear that antenna tip in mind!
I was considering vodafone, but their 3g coverage didn't seem to be as expansive as t-mobiles. Who knows, perhaps they'd have been as bad in my area if not worse? Another thing that swung me in the direction of t-mobile was the data packages. The guy at vodafone told me they offered no increased usage packages for mobiles. Whereas with t-mobile, for an extra fiver a month, i can - at any time, and for any number of months at a time - upgrade from 1gb fair usage to 3. And they will NEVER charge me for going over anyway, just cap bandwidth.
EDIT: forgot to mention the indoors thing. Yeah i'm a physicist by trade, so it did occur to me that operating frequency could be to blame for poor coverage in doors.
I'm waiting for my phone to arrive tomorrow (fingers crossed) so I can't comment on that, but I live in Atherton (which is just down the road for everyone else). My house and around my street is bad for all mobile reception. Currently I am on vodafone with a i900. If I leave my phone on the table I will get 2 bars but when I pick it up it usually disappears all together. I had a HTC Diamond for a day on Orange and that was worse. My friends are on O2 and they seem to get ok signal here, and a few years ago I was on Three which gave me the best signal in my house but was generally worse elsewhere.
I have an old Nokia as a works phone on Orange and that continually out performs my omnia for signal strength.
I was hoping the signal strength in this phone would be good. After flashing my radio in my Omnia many times it made no difference and I did not know the annettene on this was at the bottom of the phone (just like the Omnia). It seems strange to do this.
I can't comment on T-Mobile's coverage (although I did leave Orange a few years ago because of their shocking coverage) but I get generally excellent reception on 3 here in London. Unfortunately, the only place where the reception is bad is at one of the offices that I spend half my week at but 3 have marked that as a network blackspot on their website
If it helps, someone at another site I work at was amazed that I am able to make phone calls standing in the central stairwell of the building which is in the City. He can barely make a call when standing right next to the windows but he's using an iPhone on O2
I have seen no difference in indicated signal strength between my HD and my new HD2. However, what is clear is that the phone sound quality is better on this HD2 - even for the same location and same signal strength - something that is easy to judge at home.
I would guess your issue is to do with the T-Mobile strength in your house, versus the old Orange network signal, rather than the handset. When you do a comparison with your friends handset on T-Mobile do not go only by the indicated signal strength on the handset. It would be worth looking at the band switching issue by direct comparison and also to measure the actual download speed when data connected.
Regarding your H (HSDPA) and 3G switching - I think that you will find that HSDPA only kicks in when you actually have data being exchanged (actual exchange not demand). On all of my recent devices the H only shows when (for instance) a web page is actually in the process of downloading - what you report is not strictly band switching. However, some people do see performence issues when the device keeps truly switching bands (2G/G, and E, to 3G/H). Although a pain some find it better to force the device into a particular band to avoid such an issue - but there is always a consequent possibility of loosing all signal.
I'll be interested to hear how the comparison goes.
chris_lyon82 said:
I'm waiting for my phone to arrive tomorrow (fingers crossed) so I can't comment on that, but I live in Atherton (which is just down the road for everyone else). My house and around my street is bad for all mobile reception. Currently I am on vodafone with a i900. If I leave my phone on the table I will get 2 bars but when I pick it up it usually disappears all together. I had a HTC Diamond for a day on Orange and that was worse. My friends are on O2 and they seem to get ok signal here, and a few years ago I was on Three which gave me the best signal in my house but was generally worse elsewhere.
I have an old Nokia as a works phone on Orange and that continually out performs my omnia for signal strength.
I was hoping the signal strength in this phone would be good. After flashing my radio in my Omnia many times it made no difference and I did not know the annettene on this was at the bottom of the phone (just like the Omnia). It seems strange to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funnily enough, my phone mistakenly thought i was in atherton the other day - gps indoors being the cause. Interested to hear how you get on when the phone arrives.
jakem said:
I can't comment on T-Mobile's coverage (although I did leave Orange a few years ago because of their shocking coverage) but I get generally excellent reception on 3 here in London. Unfortunately, the only place where the reception is bad is at one of the offices that I spend half my week at but 3 have marked that as a network blackspot on their website
If it helps, someone at another site I work at was amazed that I am able to make phone calls standing in the central stairwell of the building which is in the City. He can barely make a call when standing right next to the windows but he's using an iPhone on O2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's probably just a case of orange having better reception around my local area than t-mobile unfortunately. All this said, it's not too much of a bother, since obviously i can just use the wireless network for data access whilst at home. Not really gone out and about with the phone yet as i'm waiting for my number to port across.
tony.wheeler said:
I have seen no difference in indicated signal strength between my HD and my new HD2. However, what is clear is that the phone sound quality is better on this HD2 - even for the same location and same signal strength - something that is easy to judge at home.
I would guess your issue is to do with the T-Mobile strength in your house, versus the old Orange network signal, rather than the handset. When you do a comparison with your friends handset on T-Mobile do not go only by the indicated signal strength on the handset. It would be worth looking at the band switching issue by direct comparison and also to measure the actual download speed when data connected.
Regarding your H (HSDPA) and 3G switching - I think that you will find that HSDPA only kicks in when you actually have data being exchanged (actual exchange not demand). On all of my recent devices the H only shows when (for instance) a web page is actually in the process of downloading - what you report is not strictly band switching. However, some people do see performence issues when the device keeps truly switching bands (2G/G, and E, to 3G/H). Although a pain some find it better to force the device into a particular band to avoid such an issue - but there is always a consequent possibility of loosing all signal.
I'll be interested to hear how the comparison goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting - thanks for the info! Yeah i'm leaning towards just relatively poor T-M reception locally as the explanation now myself. I'll bear those tips in mind when testing. My plan was to choose a location in the house where i know my own phone will only maintain something relatively poor, like a single bar on the GPRS band. Then leave the phones side by side in this location and see what they both settle down to. Then swap sim cards around - if they are different - and repeat. Are conventional bandwidth testing sites appropriate for mobiles? or do they involve the transfer of comparatively large amounts of data? Is there an alternative you can suggest if so?
Ah perhaps that's a winmo6.5 difference? I know on my old kaiser, the H is there all the time, even when i've used kaiser tweak to disable the internet/data connection. By that i mean the large H, as opposed to the small letter which appears above the signal bar when the data connection has actually been established. I have wondered why modern phones differentiate between H and 3G, since we're told they are, in reality, the same band. Haven't most providers just upgraded all their 3g transmitters? I'd have thought phones would have always believed themselves to be connected to "H" - in 3g zones - and it would simply be a case of signal determining the sort of bandwidth which can be sustained.
Not sure when i'll get chance to do the test, but i will post back in this thread once it's completed!
Hi,
I know it's an obvious statement but I would imagine it's just down to location. I live in South London, have an HD2 on T-Mobile and get pretty much consistent 3G/HSDPA coverage throughout the house. Downloads are quick and email and weather syncing very prompt.
I've had contracts with pretty much all major service providers and I must say that T-Mobile probably has the best coverage of them all along with '3'...
Ok, so the friend who's also on t-mobile popped round this evening. Didn't have time to do any testing in my own home, as we had an errand to run. However, during the journey i had the phones side by side to make a direct comparison, and also had time to do this briefly once we'd arrived at our destination. No time for bandwidth comparisons yet - just looking at indicated signal strength and band. Important to note that his handset is a G1, running android, so as indicated before, comparing actual "bars" of signal is perhaps somewhat arbitrary and fruitless - who knows what differences there are between the way microsoft and google calculate signal strength.
First thing to note is the H/3G indicator issue. One of the previous posters does indeed seem to have it quite right in saying that 3G only changes to an H whilst a transfer is actually in progress. My handset does sometimes seem to flick from 3g to H whilst i'm not directly making data calls, but i imagine this is some auto sync in the background, either from the weather app, or the facebook app, or the facebook-linked contacts. Whilst browsing, it says 3G all the time, until a link is clicked, in which case it changes to H for the time it takes the page to load, then back to 3G. Not sure if this is just a change in winmo from the last version i had to this or, or an HTC customisation.
In terms of signal/banding the phones were more or less the same, with a couple of notable exceptions. Firstly, at one point during the 30 minute journey, my phone had switched to a full GPRS signal, whereas his was still on 3g, with a fairly weak signal (1 bar). This lasted for about 30 seconds at 30mph, and then the HD2 went back up to 3G. I wouldn't read anything into this, as the two platforms no doubt have totally different strategies when it comes to maintaining network connections and the criteria for switching up to a higher band etc.
The only other interesting occurrence was after we'd arrived. Sat side by side on the couch, my phone was reading 3g with 1 bar of signal strength, occasionally 2, whereas his was a pretty consistent 3. Outside the building we were both more or less full signal. Now, i'm not sure whether we can compare these reported signal levels - as i said above i'd have thought each platform did it a different way, unless there's some standard they all have to conform to. Also, i opened up opera to check something offline, and occasionally my connection dropped down to zero bars. However, this did not disrupt browsing. Didn't even seem to slow it down. Still read H when loading pages, and it was still fast and smooth, and at now point did it drop to GPRS or lose a connection entirely. Interesting because on my old kaiser, zero bars was quickly followed by the searching for connection graphic. In other words, nothing would work with zero signal. Now, i'm not sure whether the signal strength thingy is just calibrated differently on the HD2 (maybe 0 is the new 1) or perhaps the software does a better job these days of maintaining a connection - who knows.
However, only thing to report so far is that indoors, in this particular location anyway, the HD2 seemed to be reading a lower signal on it's indicator than the G1 IF the two can be compared as directly as this.
All pretty qualitative so far, so i'm going to have a go at some bandwidth tests and band comparisons in the more challenging areas of my house when he's next over.
gargon01 said:
Hi,
I know it's an obvious statement but I would imagine it's just down to location. I live in South London, have an HD2 on T-Mobile and get pretty much consistent 3G/HSDPA coverage throughout the house. Downloads are quick and email and weather syncing very prompt.
I've had contracts with pretty much all major service providers and I must say that T-Mobile probably has the best coverage of them all along with '3'...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's certainly the primary factor at work here. What i was mainly concerned with, was whether the handset itself was under-performing - i.e. would other phones with t-mobile sims achieve better reception. Strangely, in the past i had always dismissed "signal" as a property of the network rather than the handset. Obviously though, with a few minutes thought, it's easy to see how the hardware is also an important factor. Not all receivers are born equal - even though i imagine these days it's pretty much a solved problem, from an engineering perspective - just like all software to interpret radio signals and hold connections isn't either.
I also went orange to t-mobile, and the speed is way faster. Just your luck really.
arfster said:
I also went orange to t-mobile, and the speed is way faster. Just your luck really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not really too bad. But yeah, bad luck that really i can only use it for voice calls at home. Even half a mile closer to town though, it holds a full 3G signal, and i too have been really impressed with the speed whilst browsing - much faster than my old orange connection. In truth, it's not important that the data calling stuff works at home, since i have a wireless network. The same is true of all my friends, so i can just connect to theirs whilst over. The data calling is more important when out and about, and in this respect the phone seems to perform really well
So far no sms bug either, but i'm not taking this for granted.
Hmm, voice quality is nicer but reception's worse I reckon compared to my Touch HD with the 1.16 radio. Instead of getting "H" for HSDPA reception all the time at work it's flicking between 3G and H.
Also have data connection problems after roaming between 2G (GSM) and 3G (3G / HSDPA) - WM will refuse to connect online until I manually force Flight Mode on and off.
On the 1.48 rom. Looks like they have several bugs they need to fix in the Radio...
aussiebum said:
Hmm, voice quality is nicer but reception's worse I reckon compared to my Touch HD with the 1.16 radio. Instead of getting "H" for HSDPA reception all the time at work it's flicking between 3G and H.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see that also, but only when not using it. When it's connected, it sticks on H ......and it's really, really fast - quickest mobile data I've ever seen. Yesterday I'd switched off wifi by mistake, and didn't even realise.
_tangent said:
as indicated before, comparing actual "bars" of signal is perhaps somewhat arbitrary and fruitless
i'm not sure whether we can compare these reported signal levels - i'd have thought each platform did it a different way..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An analysis I can't really fault. OK,I know my N95 8GB runs off symbian but quite often I'll attempt to place a call when its showing 3 or more bars of "signal strength" for it to drop the call instantly followed by an onscreen message of "network error" which equates to "I have no signal" as its suddenly not showing any signal at all even though my location hasn't changed at all (and yes,I am aware that the signal travels via a "cell" which may have suddenly had to cope with more traffic than its capable of and as a result dropped one of its clients-me!).
I too live in an area where reception is far from ideal (phone works best if I go outside and balance it on top of a fence post behind my shed lol ) and as I travel a lot (HGV driver) I need a network that's pretty robust and o2 seems to be the best I've used so far.
Have you tried using something like a broadband speed test (personally I'm not sure how accurate these are, as you tend to get quite a spread of results if you carry out repeated tests, although in theory you could average them out) such as this one here :http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ which may help you find a baseline for the actual performance on your current network?
Final point to make,again maybe no relation but might be worth mentioning..I play a lot with various sat-navs and have found in the past that it can be possible for one to effect the performance of another one by being in close proximity to it ie: one will get a full lock on sats but the other wont as device A seems to hog any signal and only when A is turned off will B be able to get a lock onto any sats...a situation like that may hamper the initial observations you've made so far over to you
_tangent said:
Funnily enough, my phone mistakenly thought i was in atherton the other day - gps indoors being the cause. Interested to hear how you get on when the phone arrives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been playing around with my phone now for 2 days and I am happy as my signal is a lot better than my Omnia 1. I even managed to have a phone call yesterday whilst sat down on my couch I do still have the problem though that when I pick up my phone the signal will drop 1 or 2 bars down and if I hold it long enough it will loose signal all together. But like I say it is a lot better than my Omnia and this only happens in my house which has poor signal anyway.
Overall I'm happy with the signal strength so far. I'll see how I get on with it over the next couple of weeks though.
I have just upgraded from a diamond to HD2 and I have found the reception to be much worse in my house than the diamond. The phone keeps fluctuating from 4 bars to 1 and often looses the network all together. My diamond was pretty stable in the same places. Is it possible to tweak the performance or do we need to wait for the next ROM? I have updated to 1.48 UK ROM.
RE: Nexus S vs i9000m pointer review
this originally came from a PM
thequinox said:
I've seen you're a pretty active in the forums so I was wondering if I could borrow a minute of your time.
I noticed in your posts that you've said you preferred your SGS over your NS. Could you tell me why? I am thinking of moving over from Rogers to Wind and grabbing myself a NS.
I mean, really they are the same phones, so is it the TouchWiz experience you miss? Or did you use your phone for a lot of multimedia?
I'm a very technical person, so you don't have to dumb down your answer. I hope you can get back to me. Thanks for your time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WIND is way worth it ($40 all you can eat), at least in the GTA area
not sure how is the reception over around your area, but it should definitely considered.
I was on FIDO until just a couple of weeks ago, heck i still need to cancel my FIDO account, but the plan was simply too sweet to resist so i made the jump
..and no i definitely did not switch carrier because of the phone, it's rather the other way around.
After being "forced" to WIND (peer pressure), no, not really, i'm paying at least $60 less with 2 PHONES with ALL features, than 2 phones on FIDO with LESS options, and DATA only in 1 phone, it'd have been stupid not to take the WIND plan
but that was my best and worst move at the same time.
I totally forgot about the PHONEs that i can use on an AWS network, you need both 1700+2100 to properly get 3G, it wont work if you only have 1 band
So, i was screwed in that regard, I really like my SGS even with all its flaws it still beats the SNS
They are yes essentially the same phone with minor differences, yet the one that is killing me the most is the lack of microSD support, and no MKV, DivX, AVI support on hardware
yes 2.3 is nice, but it's more buggy than 2.2
yes it has flash for the camera, but it's totally useless for outdoor pictures, it might be okay if you are in a party room
yes it has NFC, but... no one in America is using it at all, this new feature it is completely wasted, until some form of Advertising Media Marketing, makes use of them, and make Movie Posters interactive, or until supermarket starts tagging their boxes and cans with NFC tags to scan the prices... which basically means, it's absolutely useless, as there will be no retailers willing to spend that kind of money on useless electronic tags, when the good old bar code is so much more efficient.
i'll trade NFC over microSD any time.
playing movies, animes, foreign films with subtitles and without Hardware decoding on the SNS really sucks, performance and video quality wise
oh by the way no hardware support for 720p on the SNS
same mic recording audio gain bug found on the SGS, in the SNS
GPS works on the SNS, but the same i'll say about the SGS, never had any problem with the GPS on the SGS
battery life on the SNS is better than the SGS, even tough it uses a crappier battery
very little accessories available for the SNS on ebay, etc
LauncherPRO has always been my main launcher, don't like stock android, and totally despise TWlauncher
what i miss the most in the SNS that was also build in in SGS is the front facing chat phone calls, yes the SNS has FFC, but it has no support to use FFC for normal phone calls
it only works via 3rd party apps like Fring, Yahoo, Tango, etc.... which totally kills the point of having a FFC for regular phone calls
that was possible in the SGS
... there are alot more i can go on for, but those are the basic main issues that annoys the most, coming from a SGS experience
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thank you gamer , nice review .. thumbs up
i m cooo with my sgs
The SGS does support UMTS video calls (what you call normal phone call) but Bell charges an extra $5/month for it so nobody has it. Plus, who can you call with that feature? Your other friend with a SGS?
no one said SGS doesn't
it is the SNS that is missing the stock video dialer to use that feature
and you can call anyone with a video chat capable phone, it doesn't need to be SGS
the old "dumb" phones (nokia, samsung, LG) that are video capable works as well
yeah, as long as they pay $5/month
I think this technology was popular in Japan but I have never seen someone using it in Canada
Wind Mobile
Thanks for the reply AllGamer.
I find myself in EXACTLY the same situation as you! Haha. I live in Edmonton and I just HAD to try out this $40 all you can eat plan from wind. I've got an i9000m unlocked and on Rogers and I love it. The GPS is it's main flaw though, it's pretty terrible and sure I get pissed at it when I try and use it, but it's not a big enough deal for me to want a new phone right now. I also hate TouchWizz and use ADW exclusively.
Anyway, I bought this cheap Alcatel with the $40 plan from wind here to try out their network. I figure if I don't like it I can return the phone and just be out the one month plan fee, and if I do like it I can use the phone in the interim until I get an AWS compatible phone. I just had to jump on it now because the $40 Holiday Miracle plan expires tomorrow.
I've only had the phone half the day now, and the reception doesn't seem too bad. I'll have to move around the city and stuff a lot more to get a real sample though. If Wind is able to deliver I should be able to save at least %50 every month once I ditch my Rogers plan.
I ran some speed tests here at work and I didn't really care for the results though. This is the only place I've tested, so it could be this tower or something, I'll have to test more to know for sure. Anyway, I'm getting:
Rogers w/GT-i9000m:
Down - Up
1884 - 1148
2944 - 1237
2567 - 1244
3291 - 1242
*Wind w/OT-981A:
Down - Up
1749 - 159
1280 - 156
1575 - 159
1529 - 159
I can live with 1.5Mpbs down, that's not to bad, but the upload is terrible! I called customer support to ask if they had some sort of upload cap in place, but they said they've never heard anything like that. I'll try some other places around the city and post back the results.
I really want to like Wind, or more, my wallet really likes to want Wind XD
Anyway, I kind of got off topic here, the reason I asked the initial question is because if I do move to wind I'll have to part with my SGS. The SNS seems like the logical way to go, but I've heard bad things about the quality control and as you know, living in Canada, we can't exactly easily exchange it at Best Buy.
I don't think the MicroSD would be a huge deal, but I don't really like not having it either. I agree, the multimedia support would be a pain to give up. If Samsung did one thing right, it's the great codec support on the SGS. As for the rest of TW and the crippled samsungafied Google apps... they can go.
One of the reasons I really liked the SGS was the multimedia support, but I found I didn't really use it. One of the reasons is all my stuff is in 720 MKV and while the SGS can play those files locally, Allshare is incapable of streaming anything in an MKV container. This is a huge drag and as a result I never gave it much use. The 720p camera recording is also nice but again, I have no way of outputting 720p. It would be nice if it had mHDMI out, but now I'm just dreaming XD. BTW, does the SNS support video out through composite like the SGS?
I already have a pretty good feel of what I'm getting into if I get a SNS, but I like hearing real world things from users. You can't tell everything from specs, it really is about the experience. My biggest fear is getting a defective one. Pop into the SNS forums here on XDA and it becomes apparent quite quickly that there are problems with a lot of them.
*Update: I just noticed the the Android SpeedTest.net app is not pulling the Wind phone's location properly. My SGS on Rogers is testing with a server right here in Edmonton. The Alcatel is trying to use a server in... Virginia . That could certainly lead to some extra latency XD. Edmonton isn't available in the server list, so I'll try and find a more reliable way of comparing. Perhaps a different app will let me manually input a server IP to test with.
Do you find Wind's Fair Usage Policy unfair? Isn't unlimited, unlimited, not capped?
Wind Mobile said:
To ensure our customers enjoy optimal data usage on our network, we have a Fair Usage Policy. Our Fair
Usage Policy is that if you exceed 5 gigabytes of data usage within a given billing cycle, we may slow your
speed so that all WIND customers can better share the network and enjoy quality access to the Internet.
If we elect to do so, we will slow your speeds from a maximum speed of 7.2 megabits per second to a
maximum speed of 512 kilobits per second for downloads and 128 kilobits per second for uploads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think when my Telus contract is up (November, 2012) I will have a lot of choices at a lot less money.
Ian
re: wind fair usage policy
yes, it's not really unlimited data, it's 5 GB
they won't really cap you off if you go over, i think they do it on a case by case basis, as in they'll look at the ports you have been using the most, and if any of those falls into File sharing then they will most likely cap you
w98seeng said:
Do you find Wind's Fair Usage Policy unfair? Isn't unlimited, unlimited, not capped?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@thequinox
re: speedtest.net
in the GTA i constantly get 2.8 Mbps down, and 800 Kbps up in many areas of the city
very decent if you ask me
same results using both SNS and XT720
re: video out on the SNS
yes, it is supported, and using the same cable as the SGS (Nokia something something, forgot model #)
re: manufacture issues...
is very hard to say, i got lucky i guess
if you don't want to run the risk, go to your local phone shops, usually those chinese or indian cell phone stores in the malls sells them at a bit high ($700-$800) but at least you can check out the phone in person, and not have to run the risk of buying it from Best Buy USA
Wind Mobile in Edmonton
Yes, no one's unlimited plan is ever unlimited, but 5GB is pretty decent if you ask me. The cap doesn't seem like it would really hurt though, as I can't get uploads higher than 0.15Mbps anyway.
I found out what was going on with the speed test. Apparently Wind's data access comes from Ontario, and SpeedTest.net determines where you are based on IP location. If you connect with WiFi it will give you a server in your area, then you can just switch to 3G and complete the test with that server. I did this and tested with an Edmonton server... 1.75Mbps down and 0.14 up. About the same. Again, respectable download, abysmal upload.
I still need to run speed tests in more areas, but this part of the city is where I live and work, so it matters the most to me. I can't help but feel there is a cap here. I never get more or less than 0.15Mpbs up.
Another issue I've seen is my data just cutting out. I'll have full bars but just no 3G access. Sometimes a power cycle brings it back, sometimes I just have to wait. Seems to only happen when I'm at home though, so it must be something wrong with the AP i'm near.
A Google search shows I'm not alone in this upload problem. A shame
in the case of WIND mobile i switched more due their unlimited talk plans, and unlimited long distance, and unlimited word wide SMS, also all their HOME ZONES in different Cities that attracted me the most
the unlimited internet was just the cherry on top of the icing
on FIDO/ROGERS i was paying just about the same for the 6 GB data package
so i might be 1 GB down from data, but i gained a lot more on the useful stuff
thequinox said:
but 5GB is pretty decent if you ask me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely, I agree. I have a 500MB plan and I never go over 175Mb/month. My only problem is when a company says one thing and the fine print says another.
I would just like a little honesty in corporate policies.
my average is aprox 3 GB a month
A bit unrelated but cud anyone help
I have the Motorola Xt720 that Wind provides, but now i see they have the newer Samsung Nexus S, and i'm considering swapping phones, but should I?
I have looked at the pros and cons, but the 2 phones are better and worse than each other on different fields and to me seem to balance out oddly. like the xt720 has sd card while the SNS doesn't but has a significantly bigger internal memory, which means more apps and stuff, i find that on my moto that i constantly run low in internal memory due to too many apps. SNS runs 2.3 and the xt720 runs 2.1; however, if i root my xt720 i could update it to 2.2 (which i hear is less glitcher than 2.3), but I'd void my warranty. the camera on the xt720 is much better, not sure about the video though. The SNS i see covers more video format though, and seems to have a longer battery life. I find myself having to constantly charge my Motorola if i use it moderately and it easily over-heats which leads to more battery consumption. but that SD card thing for the SNS is the real con for me, i have a few vidoes, but I am heavy on music. But at the same time i want more apps...
So essentially I have 3 choices:
-Keep my xt720 the way it is and get on with life
-Root my Xt720 and upgrade to 2.2 or
-Get the Samsung Nexus S
I'm really confused D': , and would really appreciate help on the subject, also if there is an x-factor that I'm missing (either good or bad) i want to know about it. What do you guys think? oh, and in case anyone was wondering i have the irresistable plan