Is it worthed buying Atom nowadays? - iPAQ rw6828, XDA Atom General

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 And since they have already superceded the Atom with the Exec and the Stealth, I doubt whether they are going to concentrate on any updates to the Atom software/firmware.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.

Related

Speed SUCKS!

Oh man this thing is slow. I thought my old Cassopeia was bad...
Just about everything it does, from the PDA functions to answering a call, is unbearably slow.
It gets confused when you open it up and it changes rotation,
Answering a call on a BT headset (BT330) takes a couple of seconds, by which time you and the caller are almost giving up,
Navigating around the PDA functions is slower than any PDA I've seen for 3 years. And this is supposedly Intel's 2nd fastest processor?
The Wizard is much much faster.
Although one thing confuses me... nobody else seems to be having the same worries as me, even though I've had a Jasjar and this M5000 and they're both dogs. Surely I'm not expecting too much...!
F.
Disable the error reporting (from Settings) and install GspocketMagic++
Which variant of the Universal are you using (O2 Exec, MDA Pro, JasJar etc.)?
What software do you have installed?
If it's an O2 Exec, which install mode did you choose (Basic, Personal or Corporate)?
This one's the Orange M5000, and I just got it yesterday and haven't installed a single app on it.
I'll try your suggestions jah, thanks.
F.
Ive got the Exec from O2
Mines running like the dogs b*llocks
Just got rid of the O2 Active UI, few registry tweaks and deleted everything out of the windows startup folder.
Runs like a dream.
Im interested to find out what software orange are installing on thier version.
That's the funny thing... there seems to be nothing special installed from Orange.
Looking in the extended rom there's a few little bits pertaining to their own menu items etc but there's none of the anti-virus, games or anything else that you find on other versions.
there's:
ClearVue
PVPlayer
Office
Zip
all standard stuff.
Can't understand it.
To be honest though, it blows hot and cold. Sometimes it's reasonably fast for PDA functions, but it's ALWAYS slow when answering calls etc. I mean, how can you call it a phone if it takes a second to answer the call even when not using a BT headset? Bad.
f.
fergusstrachan said:
To be honest though, it blows hot and cold. Sometimes it's reasonably fast for PDA functions, but it's ALWAYS slow when answering calls etc. I mean, how can you call it a phone if it takes a second to answer the call even when not using a BT headset? Bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must admit, my Exec is probably about the same but it's acceptable to me. I haven't lost a call yet because it's been slow.
Maybe my life isn't as time-precious as yours.
I agree it takes a second to answer, I think there is a lot of room for tweaks in the firmware !!! how can it take 2~3 secs to adjust the volume using the hardware buttons !!!

Your unbiased opinion please

Ok perhaps this might be a question that may not be hontestly answered but, in any case I'm going to replace my sony T610 and palm E2 with one single device. Either the HTC magician (128mb) or Wizard. : D
On the wizard I like the wifi, keyboard, edge, not sure about mobile 5. On the magician I like the smaller form factor, speed, standard sd card, price.
I read in mobile review.com that the performance is not so top with the TI processor turning at 200mhz instead of 416mhz of the magician.
http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review/htc-wizard-en.shtml
So whats your honest opinion, any regrets, are the benchmark tests correct, whats your real life experiences? or too early to tell........... :?
A good question to ask is, do you really need that top performance ? Do you want a device that has good battery life and does the job with good speed 99% of the time, or something that runs out of battery faster but can display one extra line of text 1/100 of a second faster ?
i had the qtek s110, and replaced it with the imate k-jam and could not be happier.
because of the type of processor the mhz is not as important as it may seem.
i use tomtom navigator 5 and it starts much more quickly than it did before, and i can be listening to mp3's and un-install programs without any dropout from the music.
may seem strange examples but they both should me things were better.
also the keyboard is great for me, as i am too lazy to take the pointer out of the unit to type with.
there are teathing problems but that is our fault for being so impatiant
ok, you have a point about that. but what about video playback with TCMP? in the review, the results were poor. It seems my Tungsten E2 has similar results and thats one of the main reasons that i'm changing it, poor video performance.
In the video index test it placed dead last, and almost last for the pocket quake test. Whats your take? Have you been able to get better results?
I've had my MDA Vario (k-jam) for around 12 hours, and i'm so far not impressed.
Video playback is poopants. (Through TCMP and WMP)
You have to perform some voodoo finger juggling to type
I can't get pocketLAN to browse any more than one folder deep on my PC. (this could be a WM5 related issue though, as my MDAc worked fine doing this)
I cant stream any files what so ever. (WMP says 'parameter incorrect' TCMP says 'file not found')
Lets hope i'm blessed with a little more patience tomorrow.
Hi Mogwai,
I had a QtekS100 and an S110 before my Qtek9100. What do I think ? Very nice tool. It's much better than all the other Qtek I had before. Small, great batterie life, keyboard (very cool for SMS or e-mails), all the possible connections (exept UMTS ). However, I have two complains, first, the processor speed, I would really prefer to have a faster processor (It's connected to my laptop almost all the day, so stand by is not a problem for me), Mobile Navigon is not working properly on it... it's a shame I liked my GPS. Then, my second complain is about memory. It would be better with more memory. I'm used to install plenty of 3rd party softwares and it seems that the memory is fast full......
Concerning the movies, I have some on a storage card... it's nice but don't expect to have DVD quality.
To be honest, if the Qtek 9000 has the same quality without these two "problems", I will go for it :lol:
Mav
Hi Mav,
Thanks for your input. Really dont know why HTC did not put the intel 416mhz processor in the wizard, even if it cpu speed was downgraded. If this is truly a replacement for the magician why leave out something as important as performance for battery life?
I saw the pics of the HTC prophet floating around and it claims to have the intel processor with all the features of the wizard less the keyboard and the magician form factor, THAT would be the phone to have, but not sure if its coming out any time soon, or if it really a new model!
As I am new to ppc's is the wifi surfing experience anything related to surfing on a pc?
mogwai
OK Further to my experience yesterday, i have this to add.
This device (MDA Vario) is so unstable, its unreal.
If i start to stream radio over the 'net through WiFi then do anything else, the audio skips. The loaded MSN, audio skips, stops. device hangs.
Battery Out.
The amount of times i've had to pop the battery in the space of 24 hours is insane.
I'm very very tempted to use my '7 day cooling off period' with T-Mobile, and send the phone back.
Mogwai said:
ok, you have a point about that. but what about video playback with TCMP? in the review, the results were poor. It seems my Tungsten E2 has similar results and thats one of the main reasons that i'm changing it, poor video performance.
In the video index test it placed dead last, and almost last for the pocket quake test. Whats your take? Have you been able to get better results?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not tried quake, and video playback is ok but not a main requirement for me so i'm not so bothered.
one thing i forgot to say between the two, is wifi is great for me and of course the s110 or other versions of it do not have wifi.
Whats not stable the OS? or perhaps there is not enough juice to keep the apps running at the same time. Hope its not an issue with this model. So far leaning towards the wizard, but there may be the S200 or prophet out soon, beginnnig 2006, which seems to have it all! except the keyboard.
Mogwai,
I'm not sure if it's me or not.
I've come from the MDA compact , so maybe i'm expecting too much, but it seems my Vario (k-jam) is very sluggish. I've installed all the apps i used to use on my MDAc.
SPB pocket plus / psshutdownXP / TCMP to name a few...
It's just not performing as well as i hoped.
If i'm on the internet (WiFi), flick out the keyboard do some browsing then flick back and load MSN... it seems to struggle.
I've tried to play videos in TCMP, playback was VERY poor, then the unit hung.
It then seems to get very sluggish and halts.
I can't put up with this every day.
I'm hoping someone will tell me some of the apps i'm using aren't optimised for WM5 and thats the problem.
gazzrenn said:
I've tried to play videos in TCMP, playback was VERY poor, then the unit hung. I'm hoping someone will tell me some of the apps i'm using aren't optimised for WM5 and thats the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also an MDA Vario owner and while not having all the apps installed that you have, I can confirm that TCMP playback is absolutely fine on my phone.
I don't have a lot of extras installed except for MS Voice Command, Total Commander, PHM Registry Editor and TCMP.
So I guess it's one of your 3rd party apps hogging the CPU. Also, did the soft reset button not work (instead of pulling the battery out in an earlier post).
Cheers,
Andy
Andy, were you playing the file from the phone storage or from an SD card? I was playing from the phone memory, having not bought a card yet.
As a side note, i've taken SPB pocket plus off there which helped a bit, it does seem less sluggish.... and if i'm honest Andy, i didn't know about the softreset button! :roll:
I'll test playback again.
gazzrenn said:
Andy, were you playing the file from the phone storage or from an SD card? I was playing from the phone memory, having not bought a card yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From an SD card (1GB Sandisk if that helps)
gazzrenn said:
As a side note, i've taken SPB pocket plus off there which helped a bit, it does seem less sluggish....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I haven't tried using that app then - I might have just thought the phone was crap
gazzrenn said:
and if i'm honest Andy, i didn't know about the softreset button! :roll:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:lol: :lol: :lol:
I do wonder if there's more to come from TCPMP yet, too: I don't know if the OMAP 850 2D graphics accelerator is supported natively, and if it isn't then it should be possible to push the graphics faster...
So far, I like the device with the caveat that activesync refuses to work with Symantec Security Agent. (Getting rid of that and using Windows Firewall poses no problems...)
I tried my "standard" pocket video test today, the matrix revolution trailer. Average speed in TCPMP 0.7 was 139.32%, 33.44 fps, 571kbit/s from a 24 fps 410kbps file.
Seems to work well
chiark,
Could you try and play that file again from the phone storage?
Video playback on my device (from internal storage) is just hopeless
That is from internal storage - I don't (yet) have a mini-sd card...
Just in case it's something to do with the file, here's the file I use:
http://www.pocketmatrix.com/multimedia/downloads/matrix-rev.ogm
As soon as I get a mini-sd card, I'll benchmark that too to see if it makes a difference.
Are you using TCPMP 0.70?
gazzrenn, I've downloaded this Matrix trailer and run it offf my 1GB miniSD card and it runs perfectly (and is actually quite a good demo of fast moving video on the phone - thanks for the link chiark).
Cheers,
Andy
Sorry, I just noticed you also posted benchmark results. I've done likewise from my miniSD card:
Average speed in TCPMP 0.66 was 142.09%, 34.10 fps, 582kbit/s from a 24 fps 410kbps file.

Wizard Overall Performance... are u satisfied?

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:

X1 HELP

Hi everybody im Passy from holland im new to this forum i have a few questions if someone can answer those
at first i saw the X1 in a store and played with it and found it
very slow and long loading times and then i thought witch phone then and then i came up here on the forum and saw that you can improve the speed with a .cab file and sd card turbo
ok 1st question
how u get this .cab file on your phone and is it hard to do
2
is it easy to put panels on it or other 3rd party apps
3
How is the battery life i now have a k850i and it last with normal use 7 days on low use 9 days i think its rather impressive but dont think the X1 can do that with bigger screen different OS but if it last 3 to 4 days im happy
3
Can i watch(HQ)youtube movies with 3g
4
support for Divx ?
5
how are the speakers?
6
Do u guys Reccomend this phone or i better can search
for a different phone like htc touch HD SE C905 or nokia 5800 express
if someone can help me with this then i can decide witch phone i get its only one month before i can buy it
GreetZ Passy
1) cab install is really easy. The two most obvious ways are: (i) copy using active sync (on PC) and a USB cable, or (ii) copy from PC to storage card and insert into phone. then just run the cab file on the phone. Depending on the software installation package you might need to install the software on your PC first and then active sync will automatically install the software the next time the phone is connected - the only one of those I've done is .NET Compact Framework 3.5.
2) installation of panels and other 3rd party software: see above If the app is unisigned then you have to accept installing a piece of software that hasn't passed the certification process and you do that at your own risk. Most of the free software is uncertificated. I've been using free apps for 3 months now and no problems!
3) Compared to a K850i the battery life will disappoint (that was my last phone too.) I use my X1 a hell of a lot more than I did my K850 - email, web browsing, etc. and I tend to get about 3 days use out of it between charges. The best I've had is 5 days when I used it only as a phone and for texting - just for batt life comparison. If you leave your WiFi on all the time expect your batt life to suck - WiFi is really power hungry.
3 (2nd one)) Yep, do a search for the YouTube cab on this forum and install!
4) yep DivX have a mobile player cab on their website. Some third party video player apps also support it too. Do a search on this forum for TCPMP for an awesome free one but make sure you get the version that some nice bloke fixed for the X1.
5) Sound from the speakers is OK. I have found that its a bit muffled when I hold the phone normally as I tend to have my hand over the speaker aperture. Headphone sound quality is excellent.
6) I'd buy it again in a heart-beat. The thing is stacked with good software and features and the keyboard is awesome. I was annoyed with the camera when I first got the phone as its not a Cybershot but the recent firmware update (I got it from here - not waiting for the SE official update) seems to have improved things. Having said that, if you want a camera phone, buy one (e.g. c905) - if you want a kick ass pda phone then this one is mustard!
Hello and welcome to XDA
regarding your questions about X1, here are some answers based on my eXperia[nce] .
1) performance is a subject that is being discussed alot, and still is, some people say it's below the expectations, others say it's perfect. from my point of view, the device is more than great for business user (not graphics)
2) panels are available by sonyericsson, others are developed by some people, still the concept is not much spread among developers so i think it will take some time to see alot of panels.
3)battery life varies from user to user, and also depends on how many applications you install and leave open, some apps consumes battery even on standby so you have to be a bit carefull of what to use and what to install. i get around 2 days with average usage (BT all the time on, Always synced with my corporates Exchange server so data connection is on 24/7 and no WiFi), some people say it lasts for 4 to 5 days, i didn't personally see this but from what i have read from the forum the average is 2 to 3 days.
4)
you tube application is there, i tested it and it works perfectly on my device, also the youtube panel works great.
5) not DivX certified like Omnia, i have no idea if it's capable of playing divX videos or not using corePlayer. other members might give more details.
6) speaker is not that much from my point of view.
7) im really happy with my X1, it's really a great business friend and a great device. generally i love it, except for some small problems (that we keep finding solutions for), it's great! the new ROM from SE (Using SEUS) made it better and faster.
if you are interested in a good PDA, regardless of it's 3D capabilities (for now as our friends here are doing much R&D on ATI Drivers) then go for it but test it before you do buy it, it's expensive piece of art
if you have other questions let me know
cheers
Wow thanks very much for ur replys think ive made my deccision i see allot of pottention in this phone and found out that its twice as packed like the G1 when i get my phone
i hope everthing go's well for now tnx for the anwers and have a great weekend
GreetZ P
Somebody hit me if found a new SE phone with a Yeah 12.1 mp camera but it think not for sale maby next year but first the X1
GreetZ P
link: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/02/15/sony-ericsson-sort-of-announces-the-121-megapixel-idou/

Why I've stopped using my X2

After buying an X2a in the USA in May and putting up with it's quirks, I've finally gone back to my old phone, a humble Nokia N95.
I thought I'd post a log of why I've made such a giant leap backwards in case it might prompt S.E. to do something about the X2 and the damage it has caused their reputation (I would never touch another S.E. phone again after this experience)
Here we go:
* The N95 gets reception in places the X2 doesn't.
I was happy to live with this and swap the sim card to the N95 about once a week when I was going to a poor coverage location, but that had problems:
X2 forgot all my ringtones assigned to people etc.
Battery on X2 would report as about 10% at the end of the day even though it was 98% when I turned it off and left it off all day.
* X2 is picky about how it charges
If you plug an X2 into a PC with no X2 device drivers etc installed, it chews the battery. You can literally watch it go down 1% every minute or two. I ended up taking a power pack to work (cos I can't install software on the work PC)
* X2 is slow
Worst manifestation is: phone rings, "answer screen" comes up, you hit answer - after 2 seconds nothing happened.
You think "touch screen must have missed my tap" so you tap it again.
In the mean time it's got the first tap and answered the call.
The "Hangup" button goes to the same spot as the "Answer button" - you've just hung up on your caller
In general though, you often hit a button and wait seconds for it to react.
Really poor user interaction design.
As a comparison, the N95 can sometimes be a bit slow (not as slow as the X2), but it shows a little animation or similar so you know that something is happening and the phone has heard you.
* X2 is unstable
I was using it a lot as a media player. Often it would just hang (normally when jumping to a new track)
- sometimes it would come back, other times you had to reboot.
In the last few weeks it was happening more and more and I found that I had to reboot twice to see the media.
(First reboot could see it in file manager, but not in media player. Second reboot was all good. This happened at least 3 times)
* Memory card issues
Like everyone, I had the memory card problem (and applied the fix).
Raised it as a support issue with S.E. - was told buy a new card.
Thanks to whoever found and made the fix - it certainly fixed my issue with the disappearing memory card.
* Volume level quite low.
It's usable, but now I, back to my N95, I'm amazed how much louder it is compared to the X2!
* 3.5" jack software driven.
Quite often I'd connect to a car system by a 3.5" plug, but the X2 played out of it's speakers.
Had to plug and unplug several times to make it work.
N95 works instantly everytime (although it always asks you what you just plugged in which is annoying...)
* Bluetooth
My handsfree can see the X2, but I cannot make or receive calls, so it's 100% useless to me!
* Video camera
I don't use the video camera much (only used it once) - result was very jerky. The couple of times I've taken video on the N95 I was impressed with the quality.
<edit>
* Voice control
X2 has no voice control at all. Vito voice dialer worked nicely, and their more general voice control app was ok, but no way to launch it with a single press.
N95 has voice control but it's crappy - you don't record your own tags, you have to try to imitate how the phone thinks things sound. It works ok, but I'd prefer to record my own tags.
</edit>
* Pro (just to even things up a little bit)
Reason I got the X2 is that the N95 kept rebooting itself when I visited New York.
The X2 (actually an X2a I guess) worked fine there and back home in Aus.
That's all I can think of right now.
Anyone want to buy a slightly used X2A?
Same experience about X2. But not anymore. I already change to X10. It is much better. Android is really different. Love it so much. Especially sending file via WIFI (Hoccer), chatting(Hanashi), WIFI tethering (Barnacle). Push email (Shangmail) and much more. Trust me, you will never bore with Android,especially X10.
Gunawan, GN Mutimedia & X10i
Those are the exact same reasons why I'm switching from the ****ty X2 to the Blackberry Torch. The X2 is simply obsolete and useless - can't even phone people or text message smoothly with the crazy lag. Requires you to reboot sooooo many times. I had to wait 10minutes to load a text message from the inbox...10 minutes...ridiculous. SE customer care doesn't or pretends they don't anything about the bugs that's evidently plagued this phone. SE and X2 can go screw themselves.
I might think about buying, depending on price I've wanted one to mess with for a while, not to use
What's everyone got with the X2? i scored mine pretty much new for $170US with a 16gb card, i just installed all the same fixes on this as i did on my x1 like the sms lag and no sms sent fixes as well as the memory card fix, also got it running at 1ghz and the phone runs great, hasn't crashed since i have had it and lasts a couple of days without charge on my mugen battery. Also the design is the best i have used the arc slider beats any other slide phones and the screen is pretty much flush and looks great perfect size at 3.2", x10 is too big for my hand end up having to use both hands to text, and doesn't actually feel like a real phone plus still on android 1.6. X2 has my vote.
Bruce Irons said:
What's everyone got with the X2? i scored mine pretty much new for $170US with a 16gb card, i just installed all the same fixes on this as i did on my x1 like the sms lag and no sms sent fixes as well as the memory card fix, also got it running at 1ghz and the phone runs great, hasn't crashed since i have had it and lasts a couple of days without charge on my mugen battery. Also the design is the best i have used the arc slider beats any other slide phones and the screen is pretty much flush and looks great perfect size at 3.2", x10 is too big for my hand end up having to use both hands to text, and doesn't actually feel like a real phone plus still on android 1.6. X2 has my vote.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame SE didn't manage to push one more FW for X2.
Definitely with some fixes it would have been one of the best WM phones ever.
But the stability issues kill the pleasure.
I use it and will do until I decide which future platform will be my choice.
It has the best design ever and SE custom interface somehow resembles... WP7 concept.
But there's no WM alternative for me.
P.S. However HTC Droid Z looks almost exactly like X2 now!
The X2 hardware is great - no question.
I even put up with the software for about 6 months.
The thing that made me consider going back to the N95 is that I got sick of swapping the SIM card between phones, coupled with the X2 losing all my ringtones for different people when I did switch the SIM.
The thing that finally pushed me over the edge is the media player freezing up then needing 2 reboots to get running again - this was happening too much.
I'll be on the N95 for another 6 months or so and then see what OS is flavour of the month...
In the weeks since I've moved back to the N95:
Good things on the X2
* Really miss the QWERTY for texts etc.
* MediaGo software was actually better than the Nokia equivalent. I'm just using WMP and MP3Tag which is a but painful.
* I had CoPilot on the X2, but I don't have nav software on teh N95 (might bite the bullet and subscribe to Nokia's service)
* X2 was easier to navigate. N95 has lots of stuff, but are they under "Apps" or "Utils" (or somewhere else...)
*Default N95 calculator is rubbish (used to have a 3rd party one that was much better - need to install that again)
Good things on the crusty old Nokia
* N95 has been rock solid (not one required reboot)
* Really love the fact that plugging a 3.5" plug in gets a predictable result. Straight away. Every time.
* Love the N95's dedicated media buttons.
<edit>
* It just works.
I thought of this getting out of the car after using the phone as a media player.
With the N95 I slide it open and push the stop button.
With the X2 I push the button to get it out of standby, push stop - wait a few secinds to see if it's going to stop (repeat until it actually stops)
</edit>
Other interesting things (probably tells you something about me ;-)
* Have not set the N95 bluetooth up again - but keep thinking "must do that"
I get the feeling you might have got a bad batch xperia x2 because i have never experienced the problems you have stated apart from the memory card issue which i resolved with a patch, i mainly use windows media player anyway when i listen to music, i very rarely use slide view as i am fine with titanium. Good that you like your n95, i had one recentl but sold it and bought the x2 for pretty much the same price as i sold the n95 for (not bad resale for a 4 year old phone), but n95 looks really dated next to the xperia and the screen size being too small and non touch made me change, although it is very practical and bullet proof, but i am a sucker for new tech and sony phones

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