Related
1. The PDA oftens crashes having previosuly used the phone
2. The TomTom 3 crashes haven driven a short distance
3. The GPRS connection won't connect for a second time without a reset
4. You cant have bluetooth on without flightmode turned off
5. Horizontal Black line across photos in bright light
6. The other caller gets a bad echo when I turn the speaker phone on, even at lowest volume.
7. The last email account added, doesnt download mail
The list goes on. This is truly a terrible device. If it wasnt for the times that things did work fully (rare) and the money I paid for it, it would truly be in the bin!!!
I have read the forums and even after all the hard work people have put in to try and isolate the problems, all of them seem to end up unconclusive regarding the issues I have. I am at my teathers end with this device (
How can the XDA people get away with this, surely they have been approacned about these things? And they say the 2i is better than the 2, blimey I dread to think.....
end rant, thanks for listening
a very disheartened XDA2i user
I recently got an XDAIIi and agree with your post, although 4 is understandable as you shouldn't really be using bluetooth on a plane
I think a lot of the problems are related to third-party software - it might be useful to compare lists of what we have installed, for example I tried out TomTom too and found it ruined the device's stability.
The multiple GPRS connection problem is probably caused by the GPRS monitor program that came on the CD. I had this problem, I uninstalled GPRS Monitor, and GPRS connects correctly every time now.
The camera software is completely flawed, each alternate horizontal line is interchanged before conversion to jpg hence the rubbish quality of the images. Not sure about the horisontal line, but in indoor evening light my XDAIIi was only able to take blurry silhouettes, probably a bug in the automatic brighness control. The camera driver seems to have been sloppily ported from a version for different hardware, and released untested.
The mic pick-up is terrible, and the AGC doesn't seem to make any difference, I get far more people unable to make out what I'm saying than with the plain XDAII. I presume this is another software bug in the AGC.
7 might actually be the bug with all pocketPCs - only the email account currently "open" will auto-download new items periodically.
Also the alarms seem even worse than on normal pocketPCs. As ever I installed WakeupTweak but this time I still missed alarms on a 60s wakup, and had to extend it to 90s.
I have installed Pocket Informant, TT3 (this didnt seem to make anything worse) and have a 1Gb Lexar SD. I did install the GPRS monitor but have since removed it. I think my SD card could be faster, but we keep making excuses for this device.
Re 4, well this was to experiment, as the TT3 crashing has been suggested to be caused by the phone changing cells, but being a Bluethooth GPS I needed flightmode on aswell as BT, which is just about possible but with no definded method other than to confuse it?!? Why the blue blazes they try to force these things I don't know!! I am hoping TT5 will improve this.
re 7. yes i undertand and accept that, but the last one I entered just wont do anything, but not too bothered.
So, as a phone, its rubbish (no speaker phone, crashes, bulky), as a camera it's especially rubbish, as a PDA its ok with wireless in the home, but so long as you dont ask it to do anything out of doors, or even indoors.
These appear on startup, they probably need updating, but not sure where to get the official UK ones
R 1.00.00
G 1337.39
D 1.10.00 WWE
Look forward to hearing about other peoples gripes, next stage with me is probably back to the shop and probably an arguement with some o2 dude.
Perhaps I'm being picky, perhaps I should be happy about giving money away for nothing.
Just scanning through your posts about the IIi. I have had one for about 6 weeks now and haven't experienced any of the problems you describe (not complaining, of course )
I agree that the camera and AGC are not great, but mine behaves itself -- almost typed 'perfectly' there, but that's tempting fate.
I have TT3.07 & Alturion (via a Navman 4410), PocketBreeze 4.3, SPB pocket Plus (+weather add-on)various wifi scanning type programs (I'm a computer tech), a bluetooth neckset, not headset/earpeice and misc. other GPSDash type apps.
Added to this I'm trialling some VITO (navigation/remote/voicedialler) apps and about 300MB of MP3's on a 1GB Sandisk SD card.
My Rom versions are the same as tauria's -- I guess we should all have the same -- there aren't any upgrades/mods yet are there?
The only thing I don't use is GPRS -- don't need it!, otherwise its straight out of the box and saturated in utils and mahjonng/solitaire ( a techies life is sometimes a solitary one :wink: )
I can't offer any advice or help with your problems because I'm not experiencing them, just wanted to add my experience to yours as a sort of balance.
Is it possible you have a couple of rogue devices? or is it possible someone just crayoned an 'i' on mine before sending it out :lol:
Me again, I have rememebered that I performed a hard reset and opted for a corporate install, based on some posts relating to the O2 Active software causing problems -- do you have this installed?
I seem to recall there were several thread on this issue, so I went the corporate route to minimise problems.
Maybe that's an area you could look at?
blackfoot I was wondering if you could answer a question.
I just got my mobile phone number transferred to my XDA's SIM today so have used it as a phone for the first time, if i switch off the device (so it's a black screen but phone still active) and it rings it switches on but it just freezes (this only happens with pocketbreeze on the today plugin) I see the fact that the phone is ringing but the box doesn't pop up.
Is there anyway to make pocketbreeze not refresh its data when a call is incoming ? Or does anyone have the same problem?
Hello...
I recieved my MDA last saturday, and since then, have been trying to figure everything out. After multiple calls to tmobile, and even a trip back to the store, i'm still stuck with a few questions that i cannot seem to get answered.
1. The MDA came with the default Tmobile theme which works fine in portrait & in landscape, as well as the default blue Windows theme.
However, I have tried to install multiple themes(including some from microsoft themeselves) and i have one annoying error! Whenever I use an "installed" theme, the portrait screen looks fine, but when I open the keyboard...there are two large greyish/white gaps on the side of the theme.
Ex: I'm using a green theme. When in landscape mode, i have a single green square in the middle of the screen with a strip on either side(left or right)
2. My phone is HORRIBLY slow when and if ANYTHING 3rd party is installed. I've tried today plugins that control the memory usage(figured that would help)...however, it just slowed things done. My phone usually runs at about 14mb Free Program Memory, out of the total 44MB(This seems horrible...with just the default programs installed*for the most part* and maybe agile messenger running.). If i install a today plugin, or a game...this drops below 10mb. Therefore, phone usage can be very aggravating. I cannot think of any other way to increase this memory expect for ONE thing. Would it be possible to transfer ALL programs, applications, etc to the miniSD Card(i have 1gb now, with a 2gb in the mail). This way...i certaintly would not be topping out the usage of the card, and hopefully I can free up alot of space on the phone.
3. As we all know, the packaged IM programs are AWFULLY slow and inconsistent. After a bit of research and trials, I have settled on using Agile Messenger. I'm loving it...expect for a few things.
The MAJOR problem I have with it, is the pop up notification. Its annoying to be surfing the web or playing a game, just to have a pop up tell you that you have recieved a message, EVERY TIME you get a new message(which can amount to a great deal in a short time). I've looked all over for a setting, so unless I missed it, is there any way to shut this off?
A side issue with this program, and also the connectivity of the phone is...:
(even WITH the GPRS hack*always on*), I still lose connection(with 2-4 bars of signal) and therefore i get signed off of Agile, rather often. This isnt' such a problem with me, as seeing it takes a short time to log back in. However, when you look at the conversation from another person's point of view...all you see is
"Soandso" Logged off
"Soandso" logged on
etc
etc
(not sure if that last part was a question or a statement, but if theres an answer, i'd like to hear it!)
4.
My girlfriend has a sidekick, and I LOVE the feature of being able to set phone profiles for specific times of the day. Especially during school, it'll go silent, and the second we are out, its back on normal. I have downloaded PZP to try and fix this loss of luxury. However, I personally don't find the program to be very consistent. Sometimes, it seems as if say my "school" profile is fully functioning, while other times, it really doesnt. Call me crazy, but I have taken a shot in the dark and ventured to say that if one touches the volume button on the phone while the phone is on a specific profile...it will throw it out of its cycle. If anyone has some hints/comments/suggestions of their own on this program or other favorites...I would love to hear from you.
5. After I went about and downloaded the Eten dial pad skin, I noticed that all of my contacts were unable to receive contact photos. I quickly realized that any contact that was saved on my SIM card from my previous phone was stuck in this predictament. However, if i were to create a new contact account, it quickly allows me to customize them alot further. Therefore, i was curious if there was any way to transfer my contacts on my sim card>my phone in a fashion that the phone will accept them.
I'm sure i'll think of more questions(these are just the ones that I havent been able to answer after days of searching :-D)
Thank you so much in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi,
the speed of the HTC Wizard is very slow. That was my problem too.
for question no. 2:
Moving the apps to the card will result in more free space on the phone, OK, but running the apps from the card will also result in low speed, because the card is slower than the main memory. So I think you won't get more speed by this.
Try to overclock the device with OmapClock. My device works like a charm with 264 MHz (original was 180 MHz).
Use a tool like FreeUp RAM, which is part of the SK-Tools-package.
Running OmapClock and freeing up the RAM from time to time brings significantly much more speed. There is almost no waiting time if you click on an icon. You can even run Skype with OmapClock (many other users do so).
HTH
I have seen tidbits about overclocking through my endless searches the last few days. I've always heard that you have to be careful if you overclock a device, such as a phone. Has anyone had any known issues with the overclocking? Are there risks in having the phone run at that speed all the time?
The Wizard isn't slow. Install a Qtek rom without branding, and it will be much faster.
even the sales associate at tmobile seemed to think it was slow. Upgrading to a different ROM sounds ok, but i'm trying to keep everything via tmobile. thaks for the tip though.
Hi,
Im looking to get the Tmobile USA MDA, but after reading posts like this Im alittle afraid.
I need to run TOMTOM on this device and thinking that this might bring the device to a halt. Now Im starting to think that maybe I should get the 6700. Please let me know what you found out about making MDA faster. Thank you.
TazMan1688 said:
I have seen tidbits about overclocking through my endless searches the last few days. I've always heard that you have to be careful if you overclock a device, such as a phone. Has anyone had any known issues with the overclocking? Are there risks in having the phone run at that speed all the time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There have been long discussion about what is safe with the Wizard on this forum.
See, for example, http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=40284
Also, the SmartsKey app automates startup of OMapClock.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=41060
(It has a number of other uses as well.
Hope this helps.
TazMan1688 said:
My girlfriend has a sidekick, and I LOVE the feature of being able to set phone profiles for specific times of the day. Especially during school, it'll go silent, and the second we are out, its back on normal. I have downloaded PZP to try and fix this loss of luxury. However, I personally don't find the program to be very consistent. Sometimes, it seems as if say my "school" profile is fully functioning, while other times, it really doesnt. Call me crazy, but I have taken a shot in the dark and ventured to say that if one touches the volume button on the phone while the phone is on a specific profile...it will throw it out of its cycle. If anyone has some hints/comments/suggestions of their own on this program or other favorites...I would love to hear from you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a known problem with backlighting. See http://zendrui.free.fr/PZPForum/viewtopic.php?t=197
Also, check to see what events PZP is handling for profile-switching. For example, if you have calendar-based or time-based rules, they may switch your profile without you doing anything. Go to Settings, Control to see what you Switches you allow. Or check Time and Calendar for your profiles under the Configuration option.
As much as i'm sure overclocking the device may help, especially in my case. I'm just not sure if its worth the risk. Kind of hard to explain to Tmobile why the phone decided to overheat. Seems overly risky to make such an expensive device, run at higher speeds than its DESIGNED to do. But i'm still not sure, it almost DOES seem worth it...decisions, decisions...
Yes, Thank you for clarifying that...I mostly meant, the inconsistency of PZP with the timing of profiles. It seems as if the program will "switch" to the correct profile, but i don't always see a change in the operation of the device itself. Ex: I have it set to go to school mode at 7:30am, this past week(since its spring break, i've noticed that my incoming calls all had the normal ring volume, as well as system tones, etc...
Although it "says" ""School"" i don't really know if its truely in that mode?!
On this note, i have a question about setting the times(which is what i really want to accomplish). My phone goes to LOUD around 5:30am, School at 7:30 am, Normal at 1:55pm, and Quiet at 4pm.
Nooow, do i have to put two times in the school profile such as 7:30 am-1:54(5)???? so that it has an entire time interval...or can i just tell it when to start, and the next profile will automatically kick in and stop the previous.
Also, does putting the phone in standby or shutting it down have any effect on the profile??
I'm sorry in advance if i'm asking very basic questions, i've just been searching for a long period of time, and i usually can't find a specific answer to my question. So I decided I would spend the time to actually discuss MY problem, with hope someone can help. Again, sorry for any inconvienence or redudant questions.
TazMan1688 said:
As much as i'm sure overclocking the device may help, especially in my case. I'm just not sure if its worth the risk. Kind of hard to explain to Tmobile why the phone decided to overheat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a german T-Mobile MDA Vario (= HTC Wizard) and I'm overclocking it permanently with OmapClock and SmartSKey. There is no overheating as far as I can say/feel. I can speed up to 264 MHz (original = 180 MHz). If I try more, the device softresets itself without any damage or loss of data. It's a kind of security mechanism. Of course, battery life is a little bit shorter when overclocking it. But I'm sure, slightly overclocking doesn't damage the device! Maybe the lifetime of the device will be a bit shorter, lets say 6 months in 5 years, but you won't realize that, because you won't be using your device in 5 years. You will sure own some other phone when the CPU dies. Together with the tool "FreeUp RAM" (comes with SKTools), I can reach a comfortable speed for everyday use. But never forget: The Wizard IS quite slow, compared with other devices. You can find smart workarounds for that, but don't close your eyes on that fact.
For running any GPS navigation tools I would consider buying not a Wizard, but a much faster device, if you would ask me. I'm using my Wizard only for addresses (~ 700 items), calendar (~ 1200 items) etc., and without overclocking and using a program like Pocket Informant 2005, that would be an annoying, maybe impossible thing. At the beginning, I had to wait almost 10-15 seconds until e.g. the month overview was created. Switch to the following month - wait again. Choose a specific day - wait again. Oh my god! That needed more patience than I had.
Are you running a basic install without all the phone networks customisation bloat?
you can do this by hard resetting (you will loose data doing this) and then doing a softreset when the customisation dialogue pops up after setting time zone etc.
this will speed things up over an install with tmobiles bloatware. I run tomtom and my device is in general as reponsive as the magician it replaces.
good luck with your phone
R
So guys based on your opinions and experience is it worth for me to get the MDA or should I go with a different carrier and a XV/PPC-6700 ?
Hi yozh,
I don't know the 6700-device at all. Maybe we don't have it here in good old Germany, or maybe under a differnt name. Does it have a bigger display (better for navigation)? Does it have a faster CPU? Then take that one! In my eyes I would never like to use the Wizard for navigation. It's only a better phone, not more, not less. For all other purposes I would buy a bigger machine. I do not want to talk bad about my own device, I have bought it and I use it and it's OK for the everyday things I do with it. It has nothing to do with "I'm proud of my device", like some people seem to be here. It's a phone, man, not a Ferrari or a Rolex. You would tell yourself lies, if you would call the Wizard a powerful device. I had a Palm Tungsten T5 before, and THIS is a powerful device. 2600 items in the calendar (true!), and the reaction time was half a second if you tap on the screen! You can go and have a coffee if you do that on a Wizard.
Just think about it. If you buy a Wizard, try it for a day and then write to me what you think about that phone.
Mh. My english should be better, I know.
Just my 2 Cents!
Hi well the 6700 is the apache I belive and the CPU is 416mhz but its not a "dual core" everything else screen adn such is pretty much the same. Thanks for the reply
SO any one on this forums can recoment apache over MDA ?
yozh said:
Hi,
Im looking to get the Tmobile USA MDA, but after reading posts like this Im alittle afraid.
I need to run TOMTOM on this device and thinking that this might bring the device to a halt. Now Im starting to think that maybe I should get the 6700. Please let me know what you found out about making MDA faster. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my posts on http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=48448 regarding processor speeds and TomTom.
Wow really TOMTOM runs better on the MDA then on a 400mhz DELL ? Then Im set defenatly getting the MDA, I like GSM network provide3rs better anyway and plus there are so much choices with the phones. I wish I was able to aford the JASJAS that looks really good.
Also don't forget that when you 'close' an appliation it does not really close, it just goes in to background, thus slowing the system down.
Check out your running processes and close all the ones that are not needed or load an app that really closed things.
TazMan1688 said:
1. The MDA came with the default Tmobile theme which works fine in portrait & in landscape, as well as the default blue Windows theme.
However, I have tried to install multiple themes(including some from microsoft themeselves) and i have one annoying error! Whenever I use an "installed" theme, the portrait screen looks fine, but when I open the keyboard...there are two large greyish/white gaps on the side of the theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Themes built for portrait screens look wrong in landscape view. Easy solution: build a theme that works in landscape view. The Guava Bubbles theme works fine in both because the background image is larger than portrait size.
TazMan1688 said:
4. My girlfriend has a sidekick, and I LOVE the feature of being able to set phone profiles for specific times of the day. Especially during school, it'll go silent, and the second we are out, its back on normal. I have downloaded PZP to try and fix this loss of luxury. However, I personally don't find the program to be very consistent. Sometimes, it seems as if say my "school" profile is fully functioning, while other times, it really doesnt. Call me crazy, but I have taken a shot in the dark and ventured to say that if one touches the volume button on the phone while the phone is on a specific profile...it will throw it out of its cycle. If anyone has some hints/comments/suggestions of their own on this program or other favorites...I would love to hear from you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use PPC-Profiles-Pro, but you can't slave this to a time. Besides, I'd rather just put it on Silent mode by holding the connection manager button for three seconds (top left side button). Otherwise I use PPC Profiles to switch from Work (BT) to Home (Wifi, no BT) to Sleep (No Wifi, no BT, no email alerts or reminders, just ringer). Walking into a theater, I just go to silent mode.
bilbo_28 said:
Also don't forget that when you 'close' an appliation it does not really close, it just goes in to background, thus slowing the system down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know. I'm using MagicButton. And OmapClock with SmartSKey. And FreeUp RAM. In deed, I do almost EVERYTHING to make my device run faster.
I have a Cingular 8125. I bought it only a couple weeks ago, and I have to say that if it wouldn't have been for these forums and all the tips tricks and hacks that are being discovered here - I would have taken this devvice back to the store... I have days when I love it and days when I hate it - but overall I have to say that I just barely satisfied with the performance. It just feels like the OS (wm5) is to intensive for the processor in these devices.... and is it just me ... or does anyone else feel like they also are a BETA Tester for this devices and this platform in general .... cause let's face it - these things are not for everyone - it takes a über-geek like me and you to use one
Anyway, I am rambling, but - share your thoughts...
Yes i am, with it overclocked, upgraded rom and various hacks lol... Plus it gives this forum a boost - most problems are fixable
The 195 Mhz of the Wizard are enough for PDA/phone activities. But it's too little if you want to do more wiht your device. For example, when streaming mp3 via WiFi and then immediately encode to A2DP, the machine CRAWLS.
And it is getting worse with WMV video: it won't playback any QVGA WMV videos, too slow of a cpu (tried both WMP and TCPMP).
So, it depends how you use your device.
the 8125 processor 195/200mhz is just as fast as the Verizon/Sprints Xscale 400mhz process just different chips that clock speeds differently. it's like comparing a Intel Centrino 1.5ghz to a 2ghz mmx the centrino can blow past the mmx chip in a benchmark... but anyway the device is pretty fast being that it's small and can hold a decent battery life.
a lot of people add tons of plugs to there device that really slows it down. crappy coding in a plugin can make the 8125 really slow
I have to concur with phlojo on this: I migrated from a Himalaya (XDA2) & WM2003SE onto an MDA Vario. I was seduced by the prospect of built-in wifi, smaller footprint and WM5, but I have been severely disappointed by speed, memory space and stability. The poor stability is probably due to lack of memory, but there are other 'features' :x that infuriate, like a hit and miss alarm. Today I got 2 at the same time - but I have known it to miss alarms or to lose WEP keys, which is a PITA to type in as you can't paste the key on WM5; you have to type manually.
It was suggested in this thread that these issues were caused by additionally installed user applications. All I can say it that I'm only trying to run the same apps as I did on my xda2 (GPS map finding, opera & TCMP). At the moment I give it 6/10. If I find a smaller memory footprint rom to download, this might go up.
I think those considering the upgrade version of this phone need to check the hardware specs before taking the plunge. I've got this on a 18 month contract, so I'm stuck with it for a while.
running wm5 on a vario is like running winxp on a celeron 700
definatley needs more ram as well
Hi everyone,
I was quite concerned when I went from my Dell Axim x50v to the MDA Vario.
I was worried that the jump from 624Mhz to 180Mhz would be a bridge too far!
And it nearly was.....until I upgraded my ROM to 2.17.x.x, now it is reliable, doesnt randomly reset without warning and the performance is very good.
I use Tube 2 quite a bit and Tom Tom 5.21 and find there is little noticable difference to the Axim.
I am sure media encoding and streamng would be a totally different kettle of fish though - 180Mhz is just not enough for this kind of 'work', I am sure the Axim would struggle with this too!
The question is, is this really what you want to do with your Phone/PDA when theres such good 'tools for the job' such as the Sony PSP?
Mark
as a new user to the ppc scene. i dont really know what to expect. i should be receiving my 8125 very soon..
It set to come stock with whatever cingular puts on it..
any advice from the start? im really new to this whole rom thing so dont know what to do exactly..
ive read on here that overclocking boosts performance?
Im really impressed with mine, it works twice as good as i expected it to and thats with minimal hacks, its not even overclocked
im using the latest O2 ROM and i cant say i notice any slowdowns at all.
as i've said before, it performs so much better than my old XDA IIi and thats a 500Mhz WM2003 device!
i honnestly cant complain about it in anyway ... well 1 thing i spose, the stock headphones are horrible, but they work
Mediocre phone barely useable for business
I came from a kyocera 7135, treo 650 to this phone. I had two purchase 1 program and install 3 third party apps to get the functionality of the 7135 on the treo. As for the 8125 wizard this phone is a toy. I use my phone and pda functionality to the fullest and its just been extremely frustrating. DPAD navigation is a joke if it exists for the application. Phone integration with the PIM is worthless just try to copy a phone to the clipboard it only allows to save as new contact. MS made a big deal of respond to missed calls with an sms on the treo 700. Why exclude that feature on this version. Like everything they do nothing is consistent. My favorite flaw though is something that palm does very well. Hard reset the device and your screwed. Apparently not everything is backed up. You are required to reinstall many apps.
Performance the device has to be overclocked. Its performance isn't even acceptable out of the box.
To make the device usefull you need to overclock, install a few apps for menu navigation, a few progs for system maintenance, upgrade rom, make varios registry changes. If it this forum didn't exist I would have sold the phone bought another Treo.
The device or WM5 is good on two items. Wifi and web browser. Palm droped the ball on this big time although the newest version of blazer is supposed to be much better there is still no wifi.
MS needs to work on their PIM/Phone integration and the dpad for the device. the dpad hould navigate to all controlls and menus on the screen.
anyway just my gripes.
- Richard
I love my Vario. Everyone I show it to loves my Vario. That's even without google maps mobile, which I got working today.
Yes it is slow out of the box, I ran it for my first 2 months at default speed, I only setup overclock a few days ago, but now I have it overclocked 20% 24x7 and it's so much better.
I am totally happy with it. Of course I would love the faster CPU and UMTS and scrollwheel of the Wizard II, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I am happy with the software side. Very happy. It is the first XDA that I can rely on for receiving phonecalls, which afterall is what its for. Hell, its the first one where caller display works properly.
An overclocked XD mini-s plays QVGA videos fine for me.
I bought it knowing it would need hacking, but yeah, were it not for these forums and me being a phone nerd I'd wanna take it back.
I am not happy with hardware. The gap between the botom of te screen and case is appauling. Stuff gets down there, then the touchscreen stops working and its an arse to get out. The stylus falls out and the black paint flakes off.
Also, it randomly fried my 2GB mini-SD card, something which I have never forgiven it for as I still have not managed to replace it. Using this device without a card is impossible. If you have more than 5 photos on it, it constantly comes up with low memory errors.
The main reasons for the dreadful performance are two.
first, the processor has very small data and instruction caches. second, wm5 has this great nifty trick where system calls from a user-space process gets intercepted by the os, run, and then the results go to the process. Or something like that.
Plus, a significant portion of the os and user interface must be .**** i mean .NET which makes it even slower.
I use the custom 2.17 rom available on this site and I'm quite happy with it. Granted, I don't use it's every available feature or play mp3s and video with it often, but I do now and then, either as files or streaming off the web, and it all works fine. I was overclocking for a while but found I didn't really need it and haven't used it since the 2nd or 3rd week I had it. It's definately slower than my old Blue Angel but WM5 is so much smoother in operation than 2003SE which makes up for it. Also, just like with a pc where the keyboard is faster and more convenient than a mouse, the keyboard is much faster and more convenient than the stylus and I avoid pulling out the stylus when at all possible.
I guess everyone's milage may vary but my experience has been a very good one.
Wizard Performance
I must begin by saying that I really love the Wizard after using the ROMs and hacks on this site.
My first Windows device was a n xv6600 with verizon's EVDO network. The xv6600 has a 400 mhz processor. It was very fast but had horrible battery life, poor reception, and had to be soft reset all the time.
When I first got the 8125 Wizard, I almost sent it back. it was slow and locked up often. Next, I tried the Qtek Test ROM which worked better and had A2DP. However, I was still resetting all the time.
Now I'm running Exelencin's 2.17 Custom ROM for TMO. It works very well. The unit performs all tasks just as fast or almost as fast as the xv6600 (Blue Angel) which I still have and use as a benchmark.
I'm hooking up to the Wifi at work and home between 900 and 1200 kbps. That's faster than the EVDO speeds on the Blue Angel. The Wizard streams video from the web very well on Wifi. I'm getting Edge connections through TMO in SLC from 60 to 95 kbps. Though the EVDO is supposedly 3 to 4 times faster, it sometimes takes just as long to download some pages.
I use a ton of BT devices, including but not limited to:
I-PHONO 450RX and MOTO BT820 stereo headsets; Jabra headsets, my HP laptop with BT, and my Audi A6. The Wizard works much better than the Blue Angel. The Wizard even transferred all my contacts directly into the Audi. The BT connections are clearer and work from a longer distance.
I use a variety of foreign language dictionaries, read my mormon scriptures on the wizard. These memory intensive programs actually run faster on the Wizard than the BA. I put all programs on the sd card except one's like voice command which must be in device memory to work well. I also keep all pictures etc. on the mini sd card. Voice command can also be activated with my jabra or moto stereo headsets.
All in all, the Wizard rocks with the right ROM and settings. The battery life is simply outstanding. I can go one to one and a half days without a recharge.
The only time I get the wizard running slow is when I have half a dozen programs running. I wish programs would close when closed. I'm tired of going in the memory settings and shutting down programs I've already closed.
All in all
I have an imate Kjam which I got in MArch this year. I have installed and removed TONS of software and only had to do one hard reset as a result of crap dictionary software. I only have a speed issue when opening large Word docs with tables in it. Otherwise I am a happy camper with my device. I will not use the overclock software as I believe you are looking for trouble.
I will never go back to a regular cellphone now.
I regularly use mortplayer, TCPMP with full feature movies, Media player and Real One Player, and I have NEVER had speed/memory issues.
Remember guys that this little sucker has a DUAL CORE processor!!! It handles graphics BETTER than other faster clock speed processors.
ENJOY!!!
Something else to keep in mind for those with issues with video playback is that the 1.0 version of TCPMP is basically built from the ground up. They are reporting a VERY large increase in speed all round.
Yes you may have to fork over some cash to get all the codecs but for a player like TCPMP I dont think that $20 or so is that big an ask.
Lastly - and something I think is overlooked often - The wizard is a pretty fair phone with good battery life. I bought the unit because it was reviewed as a useable phone, sure I wanted a PPC as well but the phone had to work and not die in 1hrs use.
If all I had wanted was a PPC I would have bought something else, but I hate single taskers and to me the wizard is a great multi-tasker.
Good and bad
After applying a bunch of the tricks available on this site, I am overall quite happy with the T-Mobile MDA, over the Treo 600. I also agree that this site is necessary, but treocentral's forum was necessary, too: every advanced device needs educated users to achieve full functionality.
The biggest nuisance to me is not the speed but the fact that it is not responsive for a long time, 20 seconds or even more, occasionally.
The second biggest nuisance is that I can't search my 700 contacts for a keyword and get an answer in a realistic amount of time. On the palm, that took a couple of seconds; here, even overclocked at 240, it takes 20 minutes. What is with that?
The third nuisance is caps/shift lock, which is mostly that I am used to the Palm method and partly that the palm method makes more sense (turn on sticky with a double press, turn off with a single press of the caps or shift key).
Better things about the MDA: multitasking. wifi. VOIP. Today screen with SPB weather and diary. Runni8ng programs from the mini-SD card. Sound quality (phone and music).
8125 Works Like A Champ
My Cingular 8125 Is absolutely Fantastic...
Previous History...
I had a Samsung x427m freebie Phone and a Used Hp1910 Pocket Pc Off ebay...(150bucks) Did everything I wanted at the time... Played movies encoded at 220bit just fine... Plus I'm Cheap... had games... NES Roms... Mobipocket.... mp3's Liked the 3.5 screen...Kept it for 3-4 years...
8125...MINE...lol
1gb minisd Card
Motorola h500 Bluetooth Handsfree
1 Delux Black aluminum Case...
Firest thing I did was Update the Rom...
Cingular_RUU_225111_BETA_Custom_A2DP_THMS_RNGRS.exe
I knew That I would need to do that Much before I started any Computer geek will tell you you to find the newest Firmware/Drivers...lol
added vjvolubilis.cab to use my motorola H500 Bluetooth Handsfree To listen to music...works good...
Did the Wifi Update so It would actually connect to my wifi... I like WIFI...lol
Kept Wisebar Advanced off... Decided that it Slows up stuff a little, and doesn't like landscape with the only theme I'd actually use...no big deal,
Installed Battery Pack Pro... A MUST HAVE... lets you setup custom little icons to quickly pick application or game to run.... and will let you endtask Without having Wisebar on there... also shows battery time left and memory...
Installed MS Voice Command...
Installed Sprite Backup Another MUST HAVE... Make a quick backup when everything you want is running perfect and everything is installed...
Mobipocket reader Pro.... BOOKS>>>>BEST PROGRAM EVER FOR THIS...
Full Screen, From TXT and other pda formats... Scrolls Best way to Read a book in the Known universe...
TCPMP --- VIDEOS --- Need I say More.... full lenght dvd is about 100mb an hour... at 248 bitrate
Age Of empires Gold ---- Works Good... Good Game.... Still Wishing for AOE2 on PPC
Pocket Tombraider... Works Good... Amazing....
OverClocking Utilities
I've Tested it with the defaults 200mhz 240mhz and 252mhz, seems stable with all haven't compared battery test with them yet
Cingular 8125... Finally SET ME FREE....lol
Music
I still need to Put Pocket Music Player on there... Don't care for Mediaplayer10 but media player 10 works ok...
Movies...
I encode movies from dvd using Lathe around 248 bitrate... Plays them Perfect... without needing to overclock over 200 don't know why anyone would want higher bitrate on such a small screen...
Games - Havn't tried NES yet, but SNES was still too slow...Oh well... I'm fine with Super Mario Brothers 3 --- I'm Still afraid to Remap the phone on and off buttons for games... don't want to miss a call...lol
Tested Battery at 200mhz... thats what I keep it at... looks like playing a movie 248 bit and music and movies, reading, with blutooth off, wifi off,
will give you somewhere about 6-7 hours... WOW... my old PPC only would go for 2h 35min... Oh... the Screen Brightness was at 50% which is what my old pda looks like at 100% and looks great... brightness could go Way higher but not Necessary (wow did I just say that)
Bluetooth... H500... number 2 Handsfree device Cost me 35 bucks including shipping on ebay... Works Very Well When Close to device... Like 7-10 feet...
I use a phone like almost never.... But using the BT to Voice Dial Numbers Is Great...
I was afraid to get this because of the suposedly slower 200mhz processor... what a joke... This is way faster than my old Pda clocked at 300mhz...
I'd say the only drawback is the 2.8 screen, but it seems no to make much difference...
Price... $400 bucks... I bought it New Off Ebay... Unlocked... payed about 50 bucks more than cingular sells it for but keeps me from their stupid 2 year contract... seems worth every penny...
a friend of mine returned hers after about 5 days because she didn't know any computer stuff... had lockup problems because she didn't update Rom... The usuall stuff...lol These arn't for the completely computer illiderate...(at least straight out of the box) But I'd be hard pressed to find a better Device...
I'm pretty happy with my 8125. It's zippy enough for me. I even have Wis Bar Advance 2 loaded along with a bunch of other today plug ins and it's fine at the factory 195mhz clock speed (Though I've recently up'd the clock speed to 228 just because I can, feels zippier w/menus and webpages). It's never frozen up on me, I use Explorer A LOT (3-4 hours a day minimum) for browsing email and webpages at work. I have my Motorola H700 BT headset with me at all times so bluetooth has been turned on since I've had the device. This is the best phone I've had so far. Kicks the **** out of my Treo 650. I was a hardcore Palm user (Owned many Clie's and a Treo 600+Treo 650) and it took me a lot of convincing to "try" the 8125 but now I'm just in love with it :wink:
Hello,
I have an offer for buying O2 Atom for over 300$ which I thing is pretty cheap. But everywhere I look about this PocketPC I read mainly problems and crashes and ect.
So I want to know from you, owners of this device - is it worthed to buy this pocket or to stay with my current phone - the Nokia N80?
10x in advance
I actually chose an Atom Exec over an N80 and have not regretted it...havent had any problems in the couple of months ive had it
I've been using mine since August and have once had to soft-reset it. A very, very happy Atom Pure user here.
Note: I upgraded to the latest firmware which was incredibly easy and straight forward.
I got an Atom, original, for a really cut rate.
It's otherwise pretty good, but the default speakers leave MUCH to be desired. The music playing from them cracks up at high volumes. The only reason why I haven't gone back to O2 yet is that it has already gone back via its previous owner. Twice. And it still comes back with the same issue.
(the earphone quality, however, is fab.)
Then there's also battery life, but then again, my old O2 mini barely lasts a day and a half as well. I might be in the market for that Mugen Power after all...
Thing about smart devices is - they aren't just phones. They are computers. They act like computers, and even crash like computers. If you find that unacceptable, don't buy a smart device. Even the supposedly stable Symbian OS hangs a hell lot. >_>
Personally, I'd think twice about buying an Atom. But at around $300 you're probably not too bad off.
My only problem with the Atom is that I still don't think they've got the Radio stack right, especially with Bluetooth. And since they have already superceded the Atom with the Exec and the Stealth, I doubt whether they are going to concentrate on any updates to the Atom software/firmware.
I've recently handed my Atom over to my son and purchased an N80. I'm waiting for the N95 to come out but will give that another 9-12 months to stabilise. I want a phone. The Atom is a great PDA that is also a phone. The N80 and N95 are great phones that also have great PDA capabilities. I don't really need a computer in my pocket.
No please don't , the high pitch noise which comes out of it is a pain , voice quality sucks , even the camera is horrible , plus no keyboard , it;'s good for paperwieght though
atom vs jamin
i have been using jamin for about 1 year and recently changed to atom. Atom is pretty fast, sound, and camera much better than jamin, but difficult to configure for GPRS on PC, and at times resets when connected to GPRS on PPC. Display resolution of atom is better, but jamin has a wonderful bright display. Overall jamin is a very stable device, speed improves with overclocking, and if you use TCPMP or core player and do proper conversion of video files, e.g divX format, quality is very good, otherwise windows media player is very poor. Atom has another problem of heating in battery area when you use GPRS continuously for long time (e.g downloading files). Battery life of atom is not as bad as reported by some members.
$300 for an Atom is an excellent price. The Atom doesn't crash anymore than any other PC unless you are treating it bad -- generally people who complain about PPC problems don't know what they're doing and are damaging their phones' setups with bad practices.
My Atom Exec has never crashed on me from normal use, and I bought it second hand. To think someone else was screwing with it before me! I just did a hard reset and set it up the way I wanted it. The only times I had to soft reset was after experimenting with new software. Just backup your phone before that just in case.
The only real problem I had with my Exec was the battery life, which is really abyssmal. But removing the O2 Plus application and making sure "Receive All Incoming Beams" option is off helps a lot. I don't even lower my backlight; I hate doing that. But you'll still only get like 3 days tops for moderate usage, usually less.
Another issue I had was with the Exec overheating; using WiFi drains the battery and makes it really hot really fast. Using the camera also does this, as does any other CPU-intensive app.The bad thing about this is that it can cause problems if too hot; like your camera gets really screwed if the device is too hot. A reset followed by cooling it off fixes it though.
usmjan said:
i have been using jamin for about 1 year and recently changed to atom. Atom is pretty fast, sound, and camera much better than jamin, but difficult to configure for GPRS on PC, and at times resets when connected to GPRS on PPC. Display resolution of atom is better, but jamin has a wonderful bright display. Overall jamin is a very stable device, speed improves with overclocking, and if you use TCPMP or core player and do proper conversion of video files, e.g divX format, quality is very good, otherwise windows media player is very poor. Atom has another problem of heating in battery area when you use GPRS continuously for long time (e.g downloading files). Battery life of atom is not as bad as reported by some members.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about the Atom but I thought the Atom Exec had better screen quality than the JAMIN. Also I thought both had the exact same resolution.
As for the N95, isn't it "what computers have become" LOL
It's good if you can live with its quirks
I've had mine for over a year now and I keep encountering these problems:
- it crashes often. A soft-reboot fixes it but it's annoying when i'm in the middle of a program. These could also be due to the programs i've loaded in it. Sometimes though it's the built in programs that freezes it, like the camera.
- battery life is pretty low- Less than a day. I have another 02, the XPhone II and the battery in that one lasts me 3 days.
- The hands free bluetooth headset isn't REALLY HANDS-FREE. Everytime I have to make a voice call, I have to hold down one of the buttons then announce a contact's name. Annoying really because it defeats the purpose of it being hands-free. The bluetooth works really well w/ my XPhoneII
- BIGGEST PROBLEM right now for me is that the battery drained to 0 and the unit shut down. Now I can't seem to charge the battery anymore?? The suggestion to charge the unit w/o the battery first then w/ the battery didn't work. So right now, I have a small brick in my hand and still awaiting help.
I've never had an issue with the built in camera crap crashing the phone, but then I don't use the camera often.
Often times crashing on PPC devices is due to the odd software loaded into it; my old PPC crashed a lot from Dinomite (a PopCap game ported by Astraware to PPC) and my current PC crashes from Monopoly.
Also running too many programs at the same time, especially the ones that do background processes, will cause it to crash. Taskbar managers like vBar and pBar are your friend.
The battery life is indeed abyssmal but it is just slighlyt below par with other PPC devices with this kind of processor. You can't compare it to the XPhone, which is only a smartphone. By the way, to improve your battery life uninstall that dreadful O2 Plus it drains your battery like crazy.
As for bluetooth handsfree I don't think there exists a trully "handsfree" solution anywhere yet. Every voice option needs you to at least press a button to activate it.
As for your phone dying now well sorry I don't know maybe it just up and gave up. Could be the new Quanta hardware isn't so durable.
I am relatively new to pocket pc phones. My first was the 8125 in 2006 and then I upgraded to the 8525 this year. Both phones are pretty nice but they seem to be very slow and sluggish. I sometimes will type a text message and be 4 or 5 words ahead of the phone then have to wait for it to catch up before I can hit send. I also notice it to be slow waking up and slow to respond in the web browser. I would suspect it was the phone but both of them have been this way and upgrading my 8525 to the latest official WM6 made no real difference. It also seems kinda buggy sometimes and after I lock the keys it won't show unlock at the bottom until I turn off the display and then turn it back on.
I don't expect a whole lot from my phone. I just use it for text messaging, browsing the internet, keeping track of appointments and of course making phone calls. I love it but wish it wasn't so slow and sluggish. I am half tempted to try an iphone just to see if it is any snappier but the fact that it doesn't have a keyboard is a major draw back in my opinion.
Keith
Try one of the lite ROMS floating around. Makes your phone a lot snappier.
My device is very fast with TNT's rom...but there many more hi-performer roms cooked up on this forum!
I have tired TNTs which was my favorite and also Schaps but no matter what I try they seem to slow down after a few days of use. It is very odd. I also seem to have the problem with cooked ROMS that when someone calls it takes so long to wake up from its sleep state that I only have one or two rings to answer. At least with the AT&T rom I get an extra ring or two.
I have checked and when my phone is acting sluggish I don't have many programs loaded and there is plenty of free memory.
Keith
hmmmm...you didn't remove the comm mgr icon? Here's some great helpful performance tips by karhu:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=343830