Sold it after 8 months - now got 3GS Iphone - Touch HD General

Hi
I thought i would post this as i've been thinking about moving to an iphone for ages, but have used this forum as my source of info as never quite been convinced
I run a .net software house, so i get involved in sales, development, networking, servers etc
So for me the windows mobile seemed perfect as i thought i could use the mob for emergencies with remote desktop etc
However, i was annoyed with some stuff on it mainly due to lag, slow speeds, and especially web browsing (page rendering).
I tried cooked roms, and was running lots of dutties (3.9 was the last)
The other day a friend of mine who runs a hardware IT company upgraded from windows mobile to the normal iphone (non 3gs) and started raving about it.
I trust what this guy says so i started to seriously consider it
I then did my research here, and was put off by the iphone because everyone was SO against it, i thought "these guys are hardcore users like me, so they must have done their homework"
....so i decided not to switch
I then wondered into an o2 shop when the 3gs was released, and played with it for about 30 mins.
I went home, put my phone on ebay, and a week later its gone and i have the new 3gs sitting in front of me.
firstly i'll list the bad points
1) battery isn't as good as touch HD, but it'll last you a day with some heavy use (still testing this bit though)
2) sat nav seemed a bit thin on the ground, but i'm using SYGIC which has full postcode and voice navigation which works ok, not quite tom tom but tom tom is due to be released soon.
3) the keyboard is actually really good, and i was very supprised, but the normal T9 style keyboard doesn't exist natively (theres an app for that - probably)
4) app store is flooded with a load of pointless applications which make a noise when you touch the screen (whoopdee fecking doo!)
5) you cant customise the home screen appart from icons, BUT, i find it very functional, as icons have notifications on them.
6) you have to go through i tunes to do everything, but there is software around to get away from that (yet to test it)
So these are the bad points, but the good points FAR out way these.
The user experience is amazing, very snappy, loading apps are very much bang bang bang and done.
Screen roatation is pretty instant
web browsing on wifi is like on a pc, downloads and renders very quickly
on 3g its still very quick, renders fast but data transmission just a little slower
the touch HD doesn't even come close.
EVERYTHING is so much quicker, and better, the camera may only be 3MP but who cares, because as least you can take pictures, and not be left waiting 2 mins everytime you want to boot up the camera etc.
I'm not a "FAN BOY" i'm a serious business user
My only regret is that i didn't upgrade sooner
All you die hard Win mob fans here..... seriously dont comment on stuff you know nothing about, i bet most of you have never used a iphone for long enough to give it a fair test.
this thread isn't a win mob VS iphone os.
its for those sitting people sitting on the fence thinking shall i get one???
my advice is YES, but, play with one for a few hours first.
Loads of people on here have converted, and told me i wouldn't look back, and i thought they were just little kids, but i now now what they mean
so there you have it, advice from a 31 year old professional, and not a 16 year old kid who uses it to play tetris
p.s. mine is jail broken, and unlocked and running on orange.
CUE flamming
disclaimer: this is just my opinion, and i've only owned the device for a few days, sorry if i offended anyone.

Congratulations on your purchase!
Thread closed!

Related

Universal to an iPhone?

Hello fellas and ladies!
My brother got an iPhone a few weeks ago and of course I have been testing it and comparing it to my first love (universal), which is still up for sale if anyone is interested !!!
I would like to mention the following (based on my comparison with my Uni) and ask you a question!
Pros:
3G/wifi internet is faster on the iPhone
- On Uni I have tried with Opera 9.5 and IE
Games are so much more advanced and flawless especially with the accelerometer!
Battery with heavy use on the iPhone lasts a little over a day! The Uni lasts much less with heavy use!! The battery on the Uni is terrible...
Cons:
No SD slot
Battery is not easily accessible
I hate iTunes
practically no cracked/patched soft/games <----- Huge downfall!!
At the moment I can't think of much else.
I can't wait for Omni any longer, they've been promising it for over a year and nothing yet.
So my question is: Would you consider switching from the Uni to the iPhone, and why?
serjay said:
Hello fellas and ladies!
My brother got an iPhone a few weeks ago and of course I have been testing it and comparing it to my first love (universal), which is still up for sale if anyone is interested !!!
I would like to mention the following (based on my comparison with my Uni) and ask you a question!
Pros:
3G/wifi internet is faster on the iPhone
- On Uni I have tried with Opera 9.5 and IE
Games are so much more advanced and flawless especially with the accelerometer!
Battery with heavy use on the iPhone lasts a little over a day! The Uni lasts much less with heavy use!! The battery on the Uni is terrible...
Cons:
No SD slot
Battery is not easily accessible
I hate iTunes
practically no cracked/patched soft/games <----- Huge downfall!!
At the moment I can't think of much else.
I can't wait for Omni any longer, they've been promising it for over a year and nothing yet.
So my question is: Would you consider switching from the Uni to the iPhone, and why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never!! never!!
I just have too much reasons to not buying an Iphone never in my life......
Read here to find out more: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=314455
orb3000 said:
Never!! never!!
I just have too much reasons to not buying an Iphone never in my life......
Read here to find out more: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=314455
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have respectfully read and agreed with most points in that thread!
However! my main reason for getting the iPhone would be internet access and battery life. Yes! I said it! battery life! my Uni will not last 5 hours internet browsing + video + music + games + work (word, notepad, calc, txt, mail, camera and so on) And I don't want to get an extended battery as its bulky as it is.
As much as we all want to hate the iPhone (me included!), we can't deny its internet browsing speeds both on WiFi and 3G (which is at the moment my main interest) Also GPS, accelerometer (fun!) and the crisp LCD! + more of which I can't think of right now.
I also have a problem with my Uni losing signal quiet often, and I get complaints that I'm unreachable!!! and I have tried many ROMs and Radios to fix this.
I don't know if its the hype of the iPhone or my frustration with the Uni that I'm considering it.
I guess, I just want a phone that works and capable of browsing 3G speeds...
But I will miss all the necessities that PPC offers!
Why can't someone on this forum flash the iPhone with WM6.1???!!!! Now that would be sweet!
I don't know what to do, I'm in dire need of battery life + 3G speed + 3.5 LCD (and above) + compact and accelerometer lol
Any thoughts?
I had an Iphone and sold it....as a gadget is nice specially for its multimedia features, but as a convergence device falls short in many ways..I wouldn't even consider trade it back for my HtC tilt much less for the Uni.
Could you buy/check in your country Samsung i900 Omnia? Much more features than iPhone, everybody speaks very good about it, and in Italy even cheaper than iPhone.
If I had to choose between Omnia and iPhone no doubt for Omnia, but I still have my Universal and it still works so good (even better with all the ROMS here )
asolano895 said:
I had an Iphone and sold it....as a gadget is nice specially for its multimedia features, but as a convergence device falls short in many ways..I wouldn't even consider trade it back for my HtC tilt much less for the Uni.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with you and I'm not even thinking of it as a replacement of my beloved Uni no matter how many times my Uni losses signal. I've even considered carrying them both in my two pockets, and yes I am joking!! but the thought did cross my mind!
But wouldn't you confirm that the battery life is better, 3G/WiFi is faster, and undoubtedly we'll see some development as far as hacks and manipulations with the ROM... I'm really hoping that someone can flash it with WM6.1 now that would be an awesome phone!
dagosjt said:
Could you buy/check in your country Samsung i900 Omnia? Much more features than iPhone, everybody speaks very good about it, and in Italy even cheaper than iPhone.
If I had to choose between Omnia and iPhone no doubt for Omnia, but I still have my Universal and it still works so good (even better with all the ROMS here )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We do have the i900 up here, but I don't want to downgrade to a smaller screen if anything I'd like a larger one. Aside from the screen size it's a very impressive phone!
I don't understand why manufacturers do this moronic.... THING!!!! its absolutely frustrating why would you compete (i900) with the iPhone which has a 3.5" lcd with a 3.2"!!!!???? if only i900 had a larger screen I wouldn't even turn my head in iPhone's direction....... uuuuhhhhggggghhhhhhh
Why not get a touch diamond or touch pro? I have gone from the XDA Exec (Universal) to the diamond and am happy.
The on screen keyboard is tricky at first but my diamond flies and gets over a day so far when using GPS / Wifi etc. I would have gone for the pro as I am very used to the unis keyboard but in the end I couldn't justify the £150+ on top of what I got my Diamond for to go with the Pro just for the keyboard, card slot and extra memory. Try one out you might be surpised how nice they are and what they offer
AndyChecker said:
Why not get a touch diamond or touch pro? I have gone from the XDA Exec (Universal) to the diamond and am happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish it was that easy, but I can't seem to settle with a smaller screen size than the one I have now.. I simply can't.
I appreciate your recomendation but the screen size is stopping me from moving past this obsession with the iPhone! Also, the speed of the 3G/WiFi as I mentioned above is what pushing me to get the iPhone...
All the people I know who own an iPhone not only are they happy with it but with every passing day they enjoy it even more.
The iPhone is far from being a good phone for buisiness use. You have limitations with e-mails, you don't synchronise easily with Outlook, the contacts are not accessed as easily as on WM6 and that is a very important aspect, if you have many contacts in your list.
The iPhone will make you scroll much more through the list, which is time consuming.
I tried the browsing, but the lack of keyboard is frustrating. The browser might be quite good, but it is not THAT much better.
iTunes is too annoying for me - I don't want to synchronize my musics, I just want to copy my mp3 songs. I HATE iTunes and would NEVER buy an iPod unless they change that.
Then you get a completly locked device, no memory expansion, no SDK, no freeware,...
I know - there now is a free SDK, but it is limited (cannot access all funtions) and developers have to pay to publish it, which means there won't be freeware.
All in all, I would say, the iPhone looks good, is a nice gadget and suits a normal user fine.
I however like to have something more powerfull: great screen, keyboard, lots of software and emulators. Hell, on the Universal you can even run DOS!
Cheers,
vma
vma said:
The iPhone is far from being a good phone for buisiness use. You have limitations with e-mails, you don't synchronise easily with Outlook, the contacts are not accessed as easily as on WM6 and that is a very important aspect, if you have many contacts in your list.
The iPhone will make you scroll much more through the list, which is time consuming.
I tried the browsing, but the lack of keyboard is frustrating. The browser might be quite good, but it is not THAT much better.
iTunes is too annoying for me - I don't want to synchronize my musics, I just want to copy my mp3 songs. I HATE iTunes and would NEVER buy an iPod unless they change that.
Then you get a completly locked device, no memory expansion, no SDK, no freeware,...
I know - there now is a free SDK, but it is limited (cannot access all funtions) and developers have to pay to publish it, which means there won't be freeware.
All in all, I would say, the iPhone looks good, is a nice gadget and suits a normal user fine.
I however like to have something more powerfull: great screen, keyboard, lots of software and emulators. Hell, on the Universal you can even run DOS!
Cheers,
vma
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completly agree mate, well said!
In that case I would prefer to try HTC G1 with the new Android, but Iphone never!
Cheers
vma said:
...I HATE iTunes and would NEVER buy an iPod unless they change that.
Then you get a completly locked device, no memory expansion, no SDK, no freeware,...
I know - there now is a free SDK, but it is limited (cannot access all funtions) and developers have to pay to publish it, which means there won't be freeware.
...lots of software and emulators. Hell, on the Universal you can even run DOS!
Cheers,
vma
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the reasons as to why I still haven't committed to an iPhone.
It would be very hard to go from a Uni to something so "LOCKED" and "ONE DIMENSIONAL" But I do need a fast internet browsing device and a better battery life without the bulk, and not to mention the ability to receive calls in a home's basement which my Uni is not capable of doing.
Perhaps I'll wait until the G1 comes out as orb3000 said but than again I've seen it and its hideous!
I don't know... I just need a phone that works with fast browsing abilities, but then again I'll miss all the things that the Uni and WM represent!!
Honestly try a touch pro or diamond for a few hours - get one and send it back if not happy? I think you will be surprised
AndyChecker said:
Honestly try a touch pro or diamond for a few hours - get one and send it back if not happy? I think you will be surprised
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I'll go back to the mall and play with the diamond again... but I need someone to come with me so that I can be held away from the iPhone!! any volunteers?
vma said:
the contacts are not accessed as easily as on WM6 and that is a very important aspect, if you have many contacts in your list.[/QOUTE]
ahhh...Not true, with the latest firmware you can search through your contacts like in WM6
[QOUTE]
The iPhone will make you scroll much more through the list, which is time consuming.[/QOUTE]
Again, this is not true; for alphabetically arranged stuff in a list you can use the Alphabet row on the Right hand side to quickly scroll, otherwise IMHO scrolling is a lot easier with the new Multi-touch vs taking out the stylus and using it to scroll.
[QOUTE] tried the browsing, but the lack of keyboard is frustrating. The browser might be quite good, but it is not THAT much better.[/QOUTE]
Again, safari is miles ahead of internet explorer, using NF or opera reduces the margin by a fair margin, but guess what, all the sites that have been "optimized" for the iphone really fit seamlessly with the entire UI, and that is what makes safari a joy to use. Actually if you have an iphone (or can beg, borrow or steal one) try going to web sites like google, yahoo, amazon, facebook and see the difference yourself
[QOUTE]iTunes is too annoying for me - I don't want to synchronize my musics, I just want to copy my mp3 songs. I HATE iTunes and would NEVER buy an iPod unless they change that.[/QOUTE]
with the new itunes and the 2.0.x firmware , you can drag and drop your music into your iphone.
if you don't want to sync your PIM to outlook, you can forgo itunes completely and use a "FREE" winamp plugin"
going a bit off topic i simply HATE active-sync.(i may be a bit biased here as i owned a palm pilot and simply loved the simplicity and stability of Hot-sync
[QOUTE]Then you get a completly locked device, no memory expansion, no SDK, no freeware,...[/QOUTE]
Again, when we got our devices (UNI in our case) did we not have to worry about CID unlock, SIM unlock ???
How is jailbreaking and unlocking the iphone any different than what we did??
As far as an memory expansion slot is concerned, HTC is coming out with more and more devices without expansion slot, so why just blame apple??
[QOUTE]I know - there now is a free SDK, but it is limited (cannot access all funtions) and developers have to pay to publish it, which means there won't be freeware.[/QOUTE]
1)Yes, the SDK is free but is limited
2)Search for open toolchain to know how to get complete access
3)since you don't use iphone/itunes you have NO CLUE about the amount of free ware available through itunes. And did i mention that most of the software on the installer app and CYDIA is FREE.
talking bout "limited access", did the CORE player guys ever get access to the nVidia graphic accelerator in some HTC's??
[QOUTE]All in all, I would say, the iPhone looks good, is a nice gadget and suits a normal user fine.[/QOUTE]
very true
[QOUTE]I however like to have something more powerfull: great screen, keyboard, lots of software and emulators. Hell, on the Universal you can even run DOS![/QOUTE]
1)Uni's screen is CRAP. on a mildly sunny day, at max brightness the screen is completely washed out and unreadable.Yes it does have a VGA screen but the color reproduction, contrast is really really bad.
the iphone's screen on the other hand is FANTASTIC. with the sun beating down hard, the thing is still very readable!!! not to mention the contrast,brightness and colour reproduction is very good.
BTW when will HTC realise that it is time to R.I.P for the 65k screens???
2)leaving the 3g stuff apart, the iphone is way more powerful than are UNI (which is to be expected as the UNI is almost 3 years old)
3)if you can run DOS on the UNI, i can run UNIX bash on the iphone
4)there are loads of free QUALITY softwares and emulators available for the iphone (free and paid)
P.S- i made the switch from my uni to the iphone last year in oct. and have not regretted the decision even once.
heck its been more than 3 months since i last charged my UNI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you fallenczar for the quality information as you are a previous Uni owner, thus you can create a relation between the two and provide a none biased opinion.
Thank you!
serjay said:
Thank you fallenczar for the quality information as you are a previous Uni owner, thus you can create a relation between the two and provide a none biased opinion.
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not a problem at all.
however bear in mind that your choice should be decided on what you intend to do with your phone.
if you REPLY to lot of emails/ need PUSH-email/edit documents / then stay away from the iphone.
if on the otherhand , you only read emails (or only occasionally reply) and want a good, simple and stable phone with excellent multimedia functions, go for the iphone.
on a side note, i felt that my UNI was never a good "phone", i always had problems with signal strength, people complained that my voice was to 'muffled' or choppy.
after switching over to the iphone, i have not experienced these problems, now it very well may be that my cell service provider has upgraded there equipment or installed a new tower in my vicinity, but i have reason to think otherwise
Never get rid of my Uni
Yes, I'll never get rid of it! It's a great device!
I laugh at those who carry around their laptops and cellphones. I have it in my pocket... Running WM, linux or Dos - trying to run Android, what would you want more...
hey guys just got my iPhone...
Would like to point out that so far I'm not impressed but I am loving the fast internet speeds. YouTube quality is absolutely horible; I am very disapointed with its quality very choppy but is still watchable.
I'm enjoying the fact that I can post using my phone, hoever entering text is very difficult and uncomfortable but I'm sure I can get used to it.
I will try to compare it to the Uni and report back
serjay said:
hey guys just got my iPhone...
Would like to point out that so far I'm not impressed but I am loving the fast internet speeds. YouTube quality is absolutely horible; I am very disapointed with its quality very choppy but is still watchable.
I'm enjoying the fact that I can post using my phone, hoever entering text is very difficult and uncomfortable but I'm sure I can get used to it.
I will try to compare it to the Uni and report back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
choppy video...
how fast is your internet speed???
Sorry I haven't been home enough to make a comparison to my Uni...
What I found out is that the streaming video quality of the iPhone is as much pixelsted as on any other device, so I take back what I said above.
The 3G speeds are well beyond what I expected and a significantly faster than on my Uni.
I am very pleased with it right now and I can't wait to jailbreak it. I wish we had a section for the iPhone on this forum...
I'm posting using the iPhone, and the texting i'm getting used to so no issues with that!
Overall very pleased!
P.S. I've yet to try out the games..

My iPhone experience

I am the proud owner of a HTC touch HD phone, and a very happy owner too. I got it just before Christmas, and it is currently running on Duttys rom, 2.6. All in all my best phone so far.
As many, I have always looked upon the iPhone as one of the absolute best phones ever made, in my opinion it more or less revolutionized how we look upon a phone’s capabilities. However, since I have never had an iPhone, I found it hard to argument for or against it. Therefore I have bought one (used), which will arrive by mail within the next few days. When I get it, I will use it for a month and keep posting here how it goes and how it performs compared to the touch HD. Why do I do this? Because I’m curious, and because I want to see what all the hype is about, and most of all, i hate the fact that everyone is *****ing about which product is the best, but only a few has actually had and used the two phones for a longer period of time.
So far I bought the phone (iPhone 3g), and I am waiting for it to arrive. I must say the wait is long I have downloaded iTunes, so all I’m waiting for right now, is the phone itself.
Besides the normal things you do with a phone (calling, sms), I daily use my touch HD for web browsing, email correspondence and video and music. All of which performs perfectly (thank you coreplayer ). So this is what I plan to use the iPhone for, since touch HD is a windows mobile phone, I rely upon activesync to take care of my outlook contacts and calendar notes, we’ll see how well iTunes does this.
I also like the fact that it is so easy to get what you want with windows mobile, mostly through you guys here at xda.
When the phone arrives I’ll post my first experiences.
Update: 15-4-2009
It'll arrive tomorrow. Thanks for all the replys
Update 17-4-2009
First impressions
So i’ve used the phone for all in all 5-6 hours so far, so I can only tell you about my first impressions. I had some problems getting my music from my pc to the phone, it turned out that you have to enable music synchronization in itunes, in order to get anything transferred to the phone. First thing I did was to transfer my music through explorer (drag and drop), more or less the exact same way as with touch hd, this isn’t allowed, so I had to go through itunes, convert all my music, find out how to get it from itunes to the phone, before I could listen to music. In all in all much more difficult than I had believed, but now I know how it works, so hopefully this won’t be an issue in the future. I can see the problem for those who has many more songs than I had on my laptop, it’s takes a long time to convert to the itunes format, so this would be a major drawback. Why can’t I just put my mp3’s directly on the phone?
This being said, I really like the flow on the phone, the framerate compared to touch hd, is better, giving a better feel. However, I’ve been a bit annoyed by the sensitivity of the screen; it probably takes some getting used to.
Finally, when I used the phone this morning in my way to work, I had some issues with the 3G connection. My touch hd has no problems what so ever when I am using to surf and check mails and so on, the iphone used 3G for 3 minutes, and then I found myself browsing using edge, which is in my opinion is not an option. This is something that will be an annoyance if it keeps up (I’m hoping it was a onetime only).
As for the browsing itself, iphone surpasses the touch hd. Opera is simply to slow compared to safari, but if I can’t get a proper connection, there really is no choice.
One thing that really impressed though was the app store. All though you have to put in your credit card information in order to create an account, it is really easy to browse through all the apps, find what you like and install it. And there really are many different and funny apps, which all in all lifts the overall user value.
I’ll return in next week with more views. Thanks for all the responses
04-05-2009
The first many days.
Hey, sorry for the delay. Been busy at work, but finally found some time to write some more. I have had and used the phone for quite some time by now, it performs as expected. All though I begin to see the small bugs, which most people forget to mention when recommending the iphone. I read somewhere that the iPhone simply “just works”. That is not entirely true, yes I have never had a smartphone that performs as well as the iPhone, it has the least amounts of crashes and so on. However, to say that it simply works, is wrong. When I browse the web, safari hangs on every load, so you have to wait for the entire page to load until you start navigating. Furthermore the video player used in safari has a tendency to hang a lot when you are viewing a longer video, and especially if wifi is turned on. But still, the browser is the best mobile browser so far. Opera hangs/stalls/dies a lot too, and of the two browsers, I prefer safari. There’s still a long way to go until web browsing on the mobile is perfect.
The phone itself has rebooted three times, one time in a game and the two other times it just stalled and went black. Odd… Again if I compare to touch hd, it is more or less the same. My touch hd also died a lot of times, and the one thing that annoyed me most on a windows mobile device, is the fact that the memory isn’t flushed correctly. To many times you have to do a hard reboot, in order to get the memory cleared and to get good performance again.
I mentioned the connection problems earlier, or the lack of connection… Well it hasn’t improved, when you are traveling, the phone looses connection so many times it’s a major problem. Sometimes safari stops working when the connection is lost. Damn, that annoys me… So why don’t you just use wifi? Because with wifi turned on, the battery is used up in no time at all. This brings me to the next issue: The battery. I have to charge the phone one time every day, even with wifi turned off. “Then you use the phone a lot” you might say, and the answer would be: “yes I do, but that’s what the iphone is all about…”. If you don’t use the iphone for all the things that are so nice on the phone, why use it at all. I listen to music, surf the web, check emails, and play games on it daily. And this results in a charge a day. So all in all, the battery performance is poor. Furthermore if you are playing a game, and receive a phonecall, the game is shut down, without save, stupid…
This brings me to the app store, this is the one thing that makes me praise the iPhone. Yes we have the same on windows mobile, but not so approachable and comprehensive. Installing a game or a program could be much much easier on winmo. There is only one big flaw in the app store, if you are connected through 3G, there is a max on 10 mb per download. So if you find a game that’s larger than 10 mb, you have to wait to download it. Why??? 10 mb on 3g shouldn’t be a problem… By the way, you gotta love the facebook app… All though you can’t connect a contact to its facebook profile, it’s still a nice app
The GPS is not entirely accurate, but still usable. I won’t say that much about the gps since I don’t use it allot. And google maps is more or less the same as on touch hd.
The last thing: I saw many movies on touch HD. I have ripped many of my dvd’s and converted them to divx. On touch hd you just transfer the movie to the phone and you can see it. On iphone I have to convert it to some stupid format in order to see it. I hate having movies in so many different formats, and hate to rely upon itunes.
I’ll write a new post in the near future, and as for the guy who commented on my description on to much sensitivity: Sorry, but that’s just my experience of the phone 
Samoht2003 said:
I am the proud owner of a HTC touch HD phone, and a very happy owner too. I got it just before Christmas, and it is currently running on Duttys rom, 2.6. All in all my best phone so far.
As many, I have always looked upon the iPhone as one of the absolute best phones ever made, in my opinion it more or less revolutionized how we look upon a phone’s capabilities. However, since I have never had an iPhone, I found it hard to argument for or against it. Therefore I have bought one (used), which will arrive by mail within the next few days. When I get it, I will use it for a month and keep posting here how it goes and how it performs compared to the touch HD. Why do I do this? Because I’m curious, and because I want to see what all the hype is about, and most of all, i hate the fact that everyone is *****ing about which product is the best, but only a few has actually had and used the two phones for a longer period of time.
So far I bought the phone (iPhone 3g), and I am waiting for it to arrive. I must say the wait is long I have downloaded iTunes, so all I’m waiting for right now, is the phone itself.
Besides the normal things you do with a phone (calling, sms), I daily use my touch HD for web browsing, email correspondence and video and music. All of which performs perfectly (thank you coreplayer ). So this is what I plan to use the iPhone for, since touch HD is a windows mobile phone, I rely upon activesync to take care of my outlook contacts and calendar notes, we’ll see how well iTunes does this.
I also like the fact that it is so easy to get what you want with windows mobile, mostly through you guys here at xda.
When the phone arrives I’ll post my first experiences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking forward to hear your experinces
Yep look forward to it!
Not sure it was revolutionary... the LG Prada was a full touch screen phone before the iPhone.. Apple just packaged it well... Steve jobs could box a turd and sell it. pretty much like Apples claim on the mouse! That was actually Xerox's baby!
Looking forward to your experience and an honest review / comparison between the 2!
I actually have both (HTC Touch HD and iPhone 3g), too
Yeah, waiting to see your comments...
We are talking about Apples & Oranges here!!! Arent we?
the real great things on the iphone are aps! they are realy cool, good looking, running smooth... but only one at a time with a verry bad cam and no mms... (yet )
if it had a better cam, MMS (soon) eand a real GPS (and GPS software) i would defintly forget my HD!
way to go pal, will be glad to read your reviews.
bouyaka said:
the real great things on the iphone are aps! they are realy cool, good looking, running smooth... but only one at a time with a verry bad cam and no mms... (yet )
if it had a better cam, MMS (soon) eand a real GPS (and GPS software) i would defintly forget my HD!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh my.
Jesus phone has a lot of shortcomings, but MMS? Who cares? It's the silliest thing since plastic toothpick. Why do you want to pay your operator for this surrogate email?
And do you really consider HD's camera usable?
daraj said:
We are talking about Apples & Oranges here!!! Arent we?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really.... I'll explain...
I've just sold my iPhone 3G and bought a HD. My reasons were...
1) I get bored and I had the iPhone since last July and fancied a change
2) I wanted expandable memory
3) I think the iPhone is looking dated now. Controversial I'm sure...
4) I now want stereo Bluetooth streaming for a new iO Play car kit I have had fitted
I used to change phones far too often and had 13 in a year once, but the iPhone is the longest serving handset I've had for a while. Despite not being bleeding edge when it comes to the specification, the way you interact with it, the simplicity, the fluidity and the Apple ecosystem all added up to make it a revolutionary phone. There is a reason why every new touch-screen phone is an iPhone killer.
The email client is superb, web browsing superb and media playback superb. And the text inputs auto-correction is very intelligent and doesn't just look out for spelling mistakes, but patterns in typing which it relates to possible words.
The App store is great, but getting full of rubbish making the genuinely useful stuff harder to find. Rumours are there will be a premier store soon. The O2 contracts are great, as the free data and free WiFi access are superbly implemented, switching between seamlessly. And once you've authenticated with the free WiFi once that's all you ever have to do. I could walk into a Starbucks, McDonalds, Costa, Hotel, Airport etc etc and it would connect to the WiFi before I even realised I was in a hotspot.
But it's not the Jesus phone everyone seems to think. And I hate, really, really hate the fan-boy love affair some people have with it... to the point I was embarrassed by it sometimes.
"No, I don't want to talk to you about your iPhone, stranger...."
The limitations in the iPhone are 75% software based, most of which will be corrected in version 3 of the software. Things like additional Bluetooth profiles, landscape text input in all apps, MMS, tethering etc will be welcome additions.
And that's one of the things that bothered me. These are simple things that really should be included as standard.
Things like the poor camera didn't bother me. I mean, Sony Ericsson have been putting rubbish cameras in phones they didn't market as imaging devices for years. If the camera is the main focus, there are much better options (like buying a camera).
The lack of expandable memory is a big deal for a multimedia phone though. I can understand the marketing / product reasons behind it, but even that seems to contradict the 'one device to do everything' approach Apple take with this.
Now to go back to my original point, Apples Vs Oranges, the HD and the iPhone aren't that different. Both have huge strengths, both have huge weaknesses, both have massive amounts in common. The thing that differs between them is down to the person buying it. What do you want from a phone....?
Out of the box usability and slickness? iPhone.
Endless tinkering, customisation and free reign of what you do with your phone? Touch HD
But both have the capability of matching the other in every single aspect. There is pretty much nothing that you can do with one that you can't with the other. Exactly the same can be said for Windows PC operating systems Vs Apple Mac OS X. Funnily enough, most of what I have said above can be applied in some way to that argument too.
So, the other downsides to the iPhone.... (some of this is entirely personal opinion).
Text input needs work in it's current form. The keys are just too small. This is made up by the excellent auto-correction, but it's still poor. And you can't add in new keyboards without jailbreaking, which brings me to..
Restrictive approach to third party applications. Apples closed-door approach has no benefits. I originally thought it would be good as it would ensure reliability and stability, but there are some terribly shaky applications in the App Store. I see no benefit in this for consumers and the only way around involves invalidating your warranty.
Hardware restrictions - No expandable memory, as above. Screen size Vs chassis size and screen resolution are falling behind the competition. Poor build quality is another factor that's not uncommon either.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys Windows Mobile, I predict you will get frustrated with the iPhones shortfalls and will be jailbreaking it within a day.
Robster83 said:
Not really.... I'll explain...
I've just sold my iPhone 3G and bought a HD. My reasons were...
1) I get bored and I had the iPhone since last July and fancied a change
2) I wanted expandable memory
3) I think the iPhone is looking dated now. Controversial I'm sure...
4) I now want stereo Bluetooth streaming for a new iO Play car kit I have had fitted
I used to change phones far too often and had 13 in a year once, but the iPhone is the longest serving handset I've had for a while. Despite not being bleeding edge when it comes to the specification, the way you interact with it, the simplicity, the fluidity and the Apple ecosystem all added up to make it a revolutionary phone. There is a reason why every new touch-screen phone is an iPhone killer.
The email client is superb, web browsing superb and media playback superb. And the text inputs auto-correction is very intelligent and doesn't just look out for spelling mistakes, but patterns in typing which it relates to possible words.
The App store is great, but getting full of rubbish making the genuinely useful stuff harder to find. Rumours are there will be a premier store soon. The O2 contracts are great, as the free data and free WiFi access are superbly implemented, switching between seamlessly. And once you've authenticated with the free WiFi once that's all you ever have to do. I could walk into a Starbucks, McDonalds, Costa, Hotel, Airport etc etc and it would connect to the WiFi before I even realised I was in a hotspot.
But it's not the Jesus phone everyone seems to think. And I hate, really, really hate the fan-boy love affair some people have with it... to the point I was embarrassed by it sometimes.
"No, I don't want to talk to you about your iPhone, stranger...."
The limitations in the iPhone are 75% software based, most of which will be corrected in version 3 of the software. Things like additional Bluetooth profiles, landscape text input in all apps, MMS, tethering etc will be welcome additions.
And that's one of the things that bothered me. These are simple things that really should be included as standard.
Things like the poor camera didn't bother me. I mean, Sony Ericsson have been putting rubbish cameras in phones they didn't market as imaging devices for years. If the camera is the main focus, there are much better options (like buying a camera).
The lack of expandable memory is a big deal for a multimedia phone though. I can understand the marketing / product reasons behind it, but even that seems to contradict the 'one device to do everything' approach Apple take with this.
Now to go back to my original point, Apples Vs Oranges, the HD and the iPhone aren't that different. Both have huge strengths, both have huge weaknesses, both have massive amounts in common. The thing that differs between them is down to the person buying it. What do you want from a phone....?
Out of the box usability and slickness? iPhone.
Endless tinkering, customisation and free reign of what you do with your phone? Touch HD
But both have the capability of matching the other in every single aspect. There is pretty much nothing that you can do with one that you can't with the other. Exactly the same can be said for Windows PC operating systems Vs Apple Mac OS X. Funnily enough, most of what I have said above can be applied in some way to that argument too.
So, the other downsides to the iPhone.... (some of this is entirely personal opinion).
Text input needs work in it's current form. The keys are just too small. This is made up by the excellent auto-correction, but it's still poor. And you can't add in new keyboards without jailbreaking, which brings me to..
Restrictive approach to third party applications. Apples closed-door approach has no benefits. I originally thought it would be good as it would ensure reliability and stability, but there are some terribly shaky applications in the App Store. I see no benefit in this for consumers and the only way around involves invalidating your warranty.
Hardware restrictions - No expandable memory, as above. Screen size Vs chassis size and screen resolution are falling behind the competition. Poor build quality is another factor that's not uncommon either.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys Windows Mobile, I predict you will get frustrated with the iPhones shortfalls and will be jailbreaking it within a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant by that is the fact the HD is highly customizable to the bones, heck you can even run an Android OS on it. Iphone is a very closed OS with very little tweaks allowed by Apple ( Not talking about Jailbreaking) From the usability to the screen to the memory to the GPS vs A-GPS.. from the camera to almost everything in both phones are different. I consider the Iphone a weekend phone While the HD is a very business oriented phone that gets the job done and good.
Not sure If I can really say they are very similar. Just my 2 cents
daraj said:
What I meant by that is the fact the HD is highly customizable to the bones, heck you can even run an Android OS on it. Iphone is a very closed OS with very little tweaks allowed by Apple ( Not talking about Jailbreaking) From the usability to the screen to the memory to the GPS vs A-GPS.. from the camera to almost everything in both phones are different. I consider the Iphone a weekend phone While the HD is a very business oriented phone that gets the job done and good.
Not sure If I can really say they are very similar. Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's fair enough. But when you sit the two side-by-side and ask them to do the same task, there isn't much difference. If you think about what you do with your phone, I'd bet the HD does things in a very similar way to the iPhone. There are only so many ways to construct a text message, make a call or browse the internet on a touch screen mobile
The one big thing I didn't mention that you have just reminded me of, is the touch screen. The capacitive screen on the iPhone is much more responsive in use.
Robster83 said:
That's fair enough. But when you sit the two side-by-side and ask them to do the same task, there isn't much difference. If you think about what you do with your phone, I'd bet the HD does things in a very similar way to the iPhone. There are only so many ways to construct a text message, make a call or browse the internet on a touch screen mobile
The one big thing I didn't mention that you have just reminded me of, is the touch screen. The capacitive screen on the iPhone is much more responsive in use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. WVGA on HD and VGA on Iphone ( Not sure if its even VGA)
pretty much it boils down to what you do with it. I have both devices. I use the HD and the iphone sits on the desk. I am an admin at my company and we are windows based the windows mobile device it the best phone for us. While I like the Iphone it is not praticle for me to use. I hav not found any thing that I do on the iphone that I gave not been able to find an app that works on the hd doing the same or better. I really like being able to change the rom on my phone and customise it. Can't really do that with the iphone. And I think the display on the HD is much better.
daraj said:
Yup. WVGA on HD and VGA on Iphone ( Not sure if its even VGA)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Capacitive Vs Resistive is a bigger aspect than the resolution which, I agree, the iPhone falls short of. It is HVGA (320x480).
You have to be crazy to think that the iphone hasnt changed the mobile industry. It is an amazingly capable, intuitive and beautiful device to boot compared to these piece of lard htc OS's (the stock ones).
I owned about 15 HTC/Winmo devices starting with the SPV c500 and culminating in the Diamond as soon as it came out and got an iphone 3g at around the same time. None of the roms could come close to the intrinsic slickness, speed and support for the iphone, I jailbroke it, and was blown away and it became my primary device. However the iphone is currently mediacentric and not a buisness/professional phone and I needed an OQO UMPC to carry around as well but it doesnt claim to be anything else in fairness.
I have been quite impressed by the cooked Win 6.5 roms and skyfire recently though, and I am going to buy the HTC Touch Pro2 when it comes out as I need to use programs like word with a built in keyboard and tv out facility and perhaps retire my UMPC/laptops. This forum is also a great feature in choosing a HTC phone for customisation.
And for people who say the iphone doesnt have microsd, poor camera etc... How many crippled HTC devices have we seen? The iphone has been in a class of its own untill recent catch up devices.
imperiallight said:
And for people who say the iphone doesnt have microsd, poor camera etc... How many crippled HTC devices have we seen? The iphone has been in a class of its own untill recent catch up devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Expandability is (in my opinion) essential for any electronic devices. I have an 8GB card in my HD now, and I plan on upgrading to a 32GB soon by simply inserting a memory card. iPhone...can't do that. You have to buy a new phone to do so. I also have a spare battery which I can swap out when I am on the road and can't charge my phone...like camping perhaps. Iphone...can't. I like to copy and paste text from one program to another (multitasking). iPhone...can't. The HD 5MP camera takes great pictures which can be geo tagged with great accuracy. iPhone (until v2.0 comes out)...can't. Sure, there are some HD's out there that are crippled or bricked. Why? Because people that have the mental capacity to appreciate a multitasking device/computer actually like to open the hood and tweak it. Sure, iPhone apps may seem to run smoother. But that's because of the lack of multitasking! My HD (or any other Windows Mobile device) runs processes and applications in the background so you can do more and be more productive.
Honestly, do a side by side comparison of the HD and the iPhone. And I am not talking software, I mean hardware. We can debate applications all day, but it's the hardware that defines the capabilities. If you want a list of HD hardware features then I will post them for you.
*double post*
DerrickD2,
You have misunderstood the thrust of my post, that the iphone was/is a trailblazing and revolutionary device in the mobile sector. It seems anywhere bar this 'nerdy spec-hugging' forum that its not too hard to accept. The Touch HD is a better device in my opinion too as like I already stated, other companies have played catch up. There is no need to tell me its hardware specs.
But to pick up on a few points:
* Upgradeable SD is important, it annoys me to only have 16gb but I can stream content off free iphone optimised filestores available, some providing 10gb a go. Not ideal but workable.
* Spare battery, well the iphones battery is pretty decent and lasts for many years. If you want to keep the battery charged you can do it on the fly by adding these 'double your battery' packs and their ilk/cases when you are running low and you dont even 'have to swap the battery':
http://us.kensington.com/html/15462.html
* You can cut and paste text in jailbroken phones within the app. You can mulitask too, to an extent on JB phones although I dont know if it's sytemwide cut and paste (prob. not)
* Megapixels aren't everything on a camera. Its about the lens too. The 2MP camera of the iphone image quality is known to be quite decent, better than most 3.2MP HTC offerings but I agree it should have a better camera.
* Like I said the iphone isn't productivity centred and its probably why they dont consider multitasking a crucial feature but from what I understand its processor is faster than any HTC phone. Jailbroken iphones can run background apps too but obviously native apps dont support this.
We can debate applications all day, but it's the hardware that defines the capabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is so contentious! Hardware can define the capabilites and software/OS/User experience can define the capabilties! It depends on what the consumer needs. Horses for course's!

Lets face it: HD2 (and XDA!) is f*in amazing!

I've noticed a couple times scrolling through the forums that an outsider interested in buying the phone might be turned away if they read through here. Of course, odds are they wouldn't come to XDA in the first place, but still the complaints - though in the minority - are most obvious.
Tired of all the hater threads? Love your HD2 as much as I do? Enjoy the looks of envy from 3GS users? This is our thread
Besides, the best unexpected side benefit of the HD2: plentiful opportunities for "that's what she said."
Wow... the counter part entitled "Lets face it: HD2 (and XDA!) is f*in amazing!". Things are getting interesting.
The best thing I love about HD2 is screen, CPU, WiFi router and Remote Desktop Mobile (my personal favourite). Perhaps a couple of other "diamonds sparkling behind the rock". You need to dig to get the diamonds....lol...
I received envy, but not necessarily quite the type I thought...!
I was at the shops waiting for my GF, playing with my HD2. A little boy probably around 10yo was with his mum sitting next to me spotted me playing games.
Boy: "Look there mum!! See!! EVERYONE has an iPhone!!"
Surprisingly, I was actually slightly offended that someone would mistake the HD2 as an Apple product...but he was only a kid so I kept quiet and just continued playing...hehe.
Love it all, screen crisp and clear, fast fast fast processor and navigates really easily and well, surprising ease of use input methods, that fact that while its big it doesnt feel too big when using it as a phone, how clear and loud the speakers are, plays movies really well and so much better than I expected, really easy to use and individualise... so much more that I'm afraid if I keep typing it will look like I am gushing...
I sold My iPhone 3gs to buy this.................. best thing I have done
dzf said:
I received envy, but not necessarily quite the type I thought...!
I was at the shops waiting for my GF, playing with my HD2. A little boy probably around 10yo was with his mum sitting next to me spotted me playing games.
Boy: "Look there mum!! See!! EVERYONE has an iPhone!!"
Surprisingly, I was actually slightly offended that someone would mistake the HD2 as an Apple product...[...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Silly boy that was. It's clear that the hd2 more looks like an iPad than an iPhone
best phone ever in my eye`s. customized to my every need with no bugs, Absolutely love it
gutuff said:
I sold My iPhone 3gs to buy this.................. best thing I have done
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+ 1 and couldn't agree more
oh boy... there we go again...
... I'll just add, that I can play street fighter alpha 3 full speed with sound while sitting on the damn toilet. at the moment there's nothing better than hd2 to run playstation emulator.
oh yeah... it's a decent phone too...
im lovin my hd2 tbh. my last phone was an omnia and over at modaco there is a great rom scene, i havent even tried a custom rom on the hd2 yet, so i havent scratched the surface on what this amazin piece of kit can offer! the best thing about wm is defo the customization.
the screen on this device is something else, web browsing is amazing (im writin this on hd2 now).
xda is brilliant, this forum is so active, lots going on!!
bronx said:
oh boy... there we go again...
... I'll just add, that I can play street fighter alpha 3 full speed with sound while sitting on the damn toilet. at the moment there's nothing better than hd2 to run playstation emulator.
oh yeah... it's a decent phone too...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right on lol nothing like playing crash bandicoot 3 and gran turismo 2 when your taking a dump haha
normally i`m not responding in threads starting HD2 is bleh bleh, but now +1, loving it...
Finally a thread that makes sense
I love the screen, the wifi speed, the speed in the menus, the video playback (streaming with coreplayer of course), the pinch to zoom, the hardware, sense 2.5, the screen resolution and again that screen... so beautiful
moved from xperia x1, the processor is twice fast and so the screen!
still at stock Rom until my spare battery arrive best phone in winmo era!
buy another iptouch if you want to play fancy game, affordable compared to awesome HD2
At work yesterday I showed a mate who has an iPhone, side by side the HD2 just looks SOOOO much nicer
Htc hd2 ftw
I hope i'll be able to write a line or two in this thread next week
I love the HD2, the wonderful screen estate, the speed and all the wonderful mods. XDA-developers is the one reason I stayed with HTC phones and not gone for others. All the help and wonderful tweaks and modifications just make the phone unique to us and we feel so free to do as we like without being restricted.
Best time was when a iPhone 3gs owner got envious of my HD2 XD
And as many o got offended when some ppl have misstaken it for a iPhone >.<
HD2 looks way better than a iPhone, faster too ^^.
Just a quick one from a very loyal windows phone user who went to iPhone 3GS and then played with a HD2...
There are MANY reasons to go back to windows/HTC and given that I have been using the 3GS for around 6 months now, it's quite a big thing to say.
There are also many reasons to stay with the iPhone.
To be honest, the functionality and hardware...the HD2 wins hands down and not a single person can say otherwise.
Software-wise - I have to admit, the same BUT, when I went back to the iPhone, I couldnt help noticing the simplicity of it all which sometimes made it a bit better to use.
There were also a few niggles that the iPhone seemed to not have
Other: The appstore.
This is where the iPhone won over the market place.
The apps are cheap, there are plenty of them around and some of the very few games that I always have to have on a phone (need for speed/asphalt) were a lot better on the iPhone.
Why am I going back to the iPhone?
Only one reason after all that testing... logmein!
I heavily use logmein for home/work and this is something that is too flakey on the HD2.
iPhone has an app, its all done via the app. Related to this, the web side of things work very well on the iphone where zooming in still fits the page to the screen.
Niggles:
Main one is that the Audi and the HD2 don't like each other in that the contacts are only syncing up to the letter N
Second was emails i found easier on the iphone (don't shout!)
I love the idea of how it displays on the HD2 but hate the idea that to delete, I have to go into another screen or whatever. This is going back to Simplicity that you have 4 icons, one to reply, one to delete, and whatever the others do ON the email in question. Same goes for multiselect...going to a menu, select, select several is 3 screens to many and the iPhone slide>delete individually is still "simpler"
having said all of this, if I had never touched the iPhone, I would not have realised any of the above and gone for the HD2
But the way I work is to take the HD2, not use the 3GS, and see if I need to use the 3GS for anything...if not, the HD2 is a winner.
And in this case, it did win had it not been for the bluetooth and logmein.
End of the day, it's all personal preference and I know for a fact I'll go back to HTC/WinMo once I get what I want on it
Right now, I just dont know what to do and still have both devices in my pocket

Sick of this piece of **** phone

I've had it for like 4 months now and i keep trying to convince myself its a good phone but reality is it has NOOO ADVANTAGES over Iphone WATSOEVER... its slow as ****K and i can't even sync it with my pc anymore, theres no good games for it AT ALL, NO good applications, NO good panels, the housing cracked even though i take care of it like my eyes, The volume buttons stoppd working 5 minutes ago out OF NOWHERE... REALITY IS PEOPLE WANT IT TO BE GOOD BECAUSE ITS A SONY ERICSON... SORRRYYY this phone is pathetic... waste of 3 billz...
haha, man you should have just bought the iPhone. There are days I feel like this though.
- There are many advantages over iphone (just hints: flash, multitasking, costumization etc.)
- If you install proper rom, that phone can be really fast
- What games would you want? There are many great games for WM i think you just dont know to search.
- No good applications? Stop kidding me.
- No good panels? OK i cant say about that one because i dont use panels.
- Im currently lucky and i have no hardware issues (cracking, buttons etc.) so i rather say nothing.
- I buyed that phone because it was best Windows Mobile phone for reasonable price and not because of brand (i prefer Nokia over SE).
P.S.: Why are everyone judging phone by comparison to iPhone? This is like comparing saying truck sucks because its not as fast as race car. iPhone is made for joking, there is no costumization and walls are everywhere, while windows mobile phones are not as awesome out of box, you need to costumize it and make it like you want. If you want everything out of box and walls, buy iPhone, else stick with WM.
let's hope you stay that lucky with your hardware - mine's been to repairs for 8 weeks in 11 months...
and please, stop putting lipstick on the pig called "x1" - it's firmware is bad. sw-support by SE is nonexistent/dead/dropped since end of march 2009. it's build-quality is evil. it's a phone which had high potential, but never had a chance because of the manufacturer. and by the looks of it, they're trying to pull the same stunt with the x2. games?! well, there would be some, yes. but without accelerometer this put's some limits to it these days? oh, did i mention the crappy graphics-driver? it's supposed to support opengl es 1.1 - well, sometimes it does, sometimes not.
the threadstarter uses harsh words, but he's still right.
I agree completely about the build quality. WTH is up when the phone starts cracking for no apparent reason!
Panels are useless. Games, don't know about this cause I've never found mobile games fun at all.
If we're not comparing it to the iphone, we could compared it to the touch pro 2, which I think seems better.
Im currently running Nrgz rom its heaven compared to stock... i want SOME games that the iphone has, good graphics good gameplay, but the biggest limitation is tha since x1 isnt multitouch screen it can't play majority of those games, i've played need for speede xperiment 13(best of all, but not really action), xtract, and THATS ITT thats all the xperia games specifically made for xperia, i've played star craft its not bad but ofcourse it'll get boring, right now im playing monopoly the most... but my friend crushed my world when he showed me the monopoly on his iphone... its beautiful LOL no homo, 3d smooth gameplay etc.
just be done with it and get the iphone. dont agonize yourself anymore. i too wanted an iphone but i sure wish it had a better resolution.
keep the x1 as a backup to mess with.
im not into gaming so the x1a does everthing i need it to do. no cracks (had it about 1-1/2yrs), dropped it twice (still no cracks, just a few scratches) and still using the original rom. the only thing that i dont like on the x1a is the small screen.
ive had some good luck with my phone and winmo (rarely any lockups or freezes). i was seriously thinking about getting the hd2 for my next phone but since winmo seems to be changing their operating system, ill just hold off for another couple years if my phone last that long.
I love how every third thread in this forum is about how bad the X1 is.
Somebody start one about how much people love it
No other device competes with the iphone for usefulness primarily because of its app store and cydia.
Big advantages of the X1 off top of my head:
- Keyboard
- Slimness
- Camera Flash
- Flash mobile
- Metallic build
- Screen resolution
- User replaceable battery (I max out my iphone battery)
- Win Mo/Android/Ubuntu all in one device
- X panels is pretty neat IMO.
- Emulated games in Morphgear using hardware keys
Try Valkarie Leo firestorm ROM. Its really good and stable so far. I do know what you mean about slowness in some ROMS.
As for basic programs alot of them are good: web, PDF, Movies, Text etc For more advanced and exotic apps you need an iphone or a pocket computer Although opera mini is so fast you can use a lot of web based apps.
Better still get an X1 and cheapo Ipod Touch 2nd gen JB. Battery goes down like hell using iphone for calls and everything else.
no matter how much the X1 pissed me off i still wouldnt of resorted to the iphone. its the phone equivalent of those tattoos every other girl has got on her lower back. lol. they look ok at first then you realise that everyone else has got one and theyre common and skanky!!
bgeorgi said:
I've had it for like 4 months now and i keep trying to convince myself its a good phone but reality is it has NOOO ADVANTAGES over Iphone WATSOEVER... its slow as ****K and i can't even sync it with my pc anymore, theres no good games for it AT ALL, NO good applications, NO good panels, the housing cracked even though i take care of it like my eyes, The volume buttons stoppd working 5 minutes ago out OF NOWHERE... REALITY IS PEOPLE WANT IT TO BE GOOD BECAUSE ITS A SONY ERICSON... SORRRYYY this phone is pathetic... waste of 3 billz...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're right that people who can't type properly and who don't know (or want to know) how to set-up their WinMo phone to suit them are more suited to the iPhone. Same for people who think that writing in capitals makes their comments stand out, when really people just laugh at you shouting at the world.
This could be good for you though, since you'll either have to learn some things or put up with something you don't like.
Saying that everyone bought it for the SE name is pretty retarded, since neither Sony nor SE have much of a reputation left in their respective fields. I can't stand Sony: it's a HTC phone which SE commissioned and made a loss on, but it's a great phone if you set it up right.
What were your reasons for choosing the X1? Sounds like either you didn't have any, or you don't have one and you're one of those stupid teenagers who troll around shouting about how great the iPhone is hoping to have some influence on the world: like the ones who try and persuade you how to vote for by making up propaganda. Luckily for the world, most of you outgrow it by 25.
at45 said:
I think you're right that people who can't type properly and who don't know (or want to know) how to set-up their WinMo phone to suit them are more suited to the iPhone. Same for people who think that writing in capitals makes their comments stand out, when really people just laugh at you shouting at the world.
This could be good for you though, since you'll either have to learn some things or put up with something you don't like.
Saying that everyone bought it for the SE name is pretty retarded, since neither Sony nor SE have much of a reputation left in their respective fields. I can't stand Sony: it's a HTC phone which SE commissioned and made a loss on, but it's a great phone if you set it up right.
What were your reasons for choosing the X1? Sounds like either you didn't have any, or you don't have one and you're one of those stupid teenagers who troll around shouting about how great the iPhone is hoping to have some influence on the world: like the ones who try and persuade you how to vote for by making up propaganda. Luckily for the world, most of you outgrow it by 25.
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He must have needed a reliable keyboard. The keyboard is not reliable.
He must have overestimated the screen size (I thought 3 inches was big, but boy I was wrong).
He must have never used Windows Mobile before, you either love it for the way it is or hate it for the difficulty of use.
He must have wanted a device that did not crack and that was resistant to wear and tear.
These are my reasons. Being that everyone said that the keyboard was amazing, I bought it. Being that everyone said the screen was huge. I bought it. Being that the X1 broke my Windows Mobile virginity, I expected it to be appealing and easy to use as if a little child can learn to use it; but no, now I am considering a different OS...probably Android because I love simplicity but require the complexity of windows mobile. Being that every reviewer stated the build quality is the BEST OF THE BEST, I never expected it to crack and loose keyboard sensitivity, let alone the loosened battery cover that several others have reported.
The true lesson is, do not listen to ANY professional reviews, because the reviewers usually just review it for a few months. You need to wait 1 year and a half to truly get the actual details for the long run.
And the best way to finally decide if you want the device or not is to listen to people like him; well not him, people like him except who explain in detail why the phone is not for them.
My opinion
I believe that i was as hype as everyone else was when the x1 was introduced with its great intro campaign and website. but the main issue is that sony abandoned it. i think( my opinion) that the x1 would be as great as the i phone if wm had a great app store with apps for everything even the useless stupid but fun apps and if they worked hard on making the panel concept the next big thing. i only change my panels when i want to change my theme easier. other then that every program can be opened without the panel thingy. i still use my x1 and havent switched to the i phone probably only because of the developers on this site. its even more sad to say that it seems that sony realized that there traditional wm stock phones cant compete with iphone that theyve changed the title and he entire ui for wm7, which will not be availible for x1 or x2. the x1 and all the availible roms are still great for now but i believe (my opinion) that Iphone will reign supreme for numbers of years to come even without screen resolution, flash, emulating and all the other things we use to make ourselves feel better. The backbone of X1's aare the developers on this site, not sony.
It's sad to read thread like this. I absolutely love my X1 and have not regraded buying it. The only thing that annoyed me was the freezing when I first bought it but flashed to 6.5 and that has stopped. Cracks: I've dropped my phone many time so I expect cracks. Screen Size: Coming from the Moto Rokr E6 with a screen size of 2.4inch with a res 240X320, the X1 screen is big upgrade and i love it. Speed: Try Touch it Roms or Rostrain Blaze roms, I've never tried the rom your using nor do i want to by the way your describing the speed. Aslo for Speed have you tried the Teksoft Speed Booster APP,Advance Config 3.3 ,BsB Ram sweeper 2, and SK Tools?, They all works well in my phone. Games: Have you played Assassin Creed HD, Asphalt 4 HD, Call of Duty 2(only works for 6.1 roms sadly) or even the PS1 Emulater(FpseCE0.10)? Pm if you want a good site for games. And as graphics go have you tried different Video drivers like Driver Pack 3, X2 Video drivers, SJ SamsungOmina_Driver_D3D? I run them all in my phone except the Driver Pack 3 because of the 6.5. Like people said if you set your phone up right then it is a real joy to have. Also Keep in mind This is my first WM phone ever(Lots of people warned me not to get WM) and I had my phone for 5 month and my Keyboard works fine never had an issue. Man if you wanted the I-phone to begin with then why didn't you just get it? You should of known that I-phone and the X1 are 2 complete different phones and Having hopes that the X1 was supposed to be like the I-phone was silly.
Assuming you use the X1 in landscape with Opera Mini beta 5 full screen you will be getting 95% of the screen estate of iphones safari web browser (because of all the headers etc). Similarly holding the phone a bit closer increases the magnification. No multitouch for sure but scrolling with the D pad at the side is fun when consuming webpages.
The phone isn't that bad if you have a high tolerance for the technicality.
i have to agree that this phone is ****. I really do.
But im not gonna compare it to the iPhone because thats like comparing apple and banana. iPhone and Xperia have their own segment and target market.
Now that that is straight, the phone is an utter **** because the way SE package the whole thing as a premium phone. I had mine on January 09 and expecting the device and CS would be good, instead the device keyboard lost sensitivity after just 2 months, keyboard cracked after 6 months, and SE pulled the plug on the software after the R3A.
To me, that is just crap. Their Customer Service is just so dumb that i don't want to see them anymore. Don't know about other country, but they simply crap in my country.
I asked them to replace my cracked keyboard and initially the CS said that i will lose all my data. Since when replacing and cleaning keyboard needs a hard reset huh? after that, the CS asked me to leave the device in their custody until the next stock of keyboard comes. They ran out of it when i went there. They told me to wait for around a month or so. A full month without my phone. Crazy.
After lengthy verbal argument, i got them to order the keyboard while i still keep the device. They will contact me when the keyboard comes. This was at the end of November 09.
guess what?
they never called. Nothing .I still am waiting for their call.
bunch of liars...lucky i sold my phone in december. I had enough of it.
mr_sheen said:
i have to agree that this phone is ****. I really do.
But im not gonna compare it to the iPhone because thats like comparing apple and banana. iPhone and Xperia have their own segment and target market.
Now that that is straight, the phone is an utter **** because the way SE package the whole thing as a premium phone. I had mine on January 09 and expecting the device and CS would be good, instead the device keyboard lost sensitivity after just 2 months, keyboard cracked after 6 months, and SE pulled the plug on the software after the R3A.
To me, that is just crap. Their Customer Service is just so dumb that i dont want to see them anymore. Dont know about other country, but they simply crap in my country.
I asked them to replace my cracked keyboard and initially the CS said that i will lose all my data. Since when replacing and cleaning keyboard needs a hard reset huh? after that, the CS asked me to leave the device in their custody until the next stock of keyboard cones. They ran out of it when i went there. They told me to wait for around a month or so. A full month without my phone. Crazy.
After lengthy verbal argument, i got them to order the keyboard while i still keep the device. They will contact me when the keyboard comes. This was at the end of november 09.
guesswhat?
they never called.I am still waiting for their call.
bunch of liars...lucky i sold my phone in december. I had enough of it.
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Wow reading that post, that's Bullsh!t how they played you like that. I haven't had to deal with CS yet I guess I'm lucky...... so far.
@poetryrocksalot:
of course reviews are only made after weeks of usage, not years. And it's not them to blame about the cracks - admit it: the phone seems like high build quality compared to other slide smartphones. F.e. a guy in my class who owns the iPhone always says how nice the metal feels like. Compared to the Nokia N97 which is crap, the SE Xperia feels solid. Feels better than an iPhone imho.
But if you wait a year if that phone really is a good one before you buy it, than its old and what you get is a solid phone with old software...so make a decision what you want =)
@mr_sheen
this story is really sad. I talked to SE service in Germany last Thursday and sent it in Friday. The parcel has not arrived at their repair centre, but they told me already they have something like the 48 hours policy. Once my phone arrived they'll look after it and then it back no later than 48 hours (2 days) what absolutely is acceptable. Hopefully they make it true and also replace the housing (cracks in 4 different places...droped it once but not from a high place...). Phone still looks like new...and also they told me Id lose all my data and I had to go back to stock ROM and spl what was a pain in the as*...
But I think that has nothing to do with the Xperia. Every manufacturing says you'll lose data even if they only change hardware (or are supposed to do so..) maybe I even get a new phone..Thats what I still hope =)
X1 is the best phone i've ever owned. And i say that knowing how crap SE handsets have become.
It's just so much fun to play with and getting more versatile all the time. And after 12 months ownership and hard usage, i still have no cracks or hardware issues

Thinking about getting an Xperia Play... any reason not to?

I'm on verizon and I have an upgrade available next tuesday and am looking at using it as soon as possible(totally frustrated with old phone.) Originally, I was thinking I would like the Droid Bionic, and since its release date is so close to my upgrade date, it seemed like that would be the route to go. However, I recently started doing some research on where I could find the best prices for a phone, and found the discounts on Amazon to be excellent! At this point, I can't imagine the Bionic costing anything less than $300, maybe 250 on amazon, but the Xperia Play is being offered for FREE!! The $300 price tag is a little hard to stomach, and I'm thinking if I get the play now, I can wait for the 2nd generation of LTE devices without the battery concerns.
I'll admit that I hadn't really considered the device before because I didn't think I'd be much of a gamer on a cell phone. I play games now, but they are mostly like angry birds, words with friends, robo defense, and other simple games without a real need of a dedicated controller. The phone being free, however, compelled me to do a bit more research.
Now, after reading nearly every review and watching nearly every video on the play, I am seeing more and more things I like about the device. I even went to the verizon retail store and played around with one (and some of the other contenders) for awhile. There are a few things I like about the Play, and some others that are of a little concern, and I was hoping that some of these questions could be answered by someone who has used the device for a period of time.
Some Good points:
I really like the feel of the phone, it feels different and "unique" even when closed compared to the endless range of black slabs out there. Being a guy who doesn't need to cram the phone into a pair of skinny jeans, I don't find it too bulky to handle.
Is this comfortable for everyday usage, though? Does the phone feel solid in the hands without all the security devices on it like in the store? Are the buttons workable? I wouldn't say I have exceptionally large hands, but they aren't small either, will I find it awkward to press those small front buttons or the unlock/power button?
Seeing a vanilla build of gingerbread was very, very nice. It reminded me of handling the nexus S and how impressed I was when I first saw it after using HTC Sense for nearly 2 years. Is there any real functionality lost because of this? Also: Since It is a vanilla build, I would assume OTA upgrades may be easier to obtain(sort of like the original droid) Does anyone know of Sony's plans to continue support for this (Maybe up through ICS)? I have been stuck with 2.1 for what seems like forever, and don't want this to be a problem in 2 years when I'm trying to download an app that isn't supported in older versions of Android. I'm not opposed to rooting, but I think that manufacturer support says something about what a company thinks of its products.
OMG THE SCREEN!!! I don't know about anyone else, but to my eyes, that is just about the best looking screen I have ever seen, even compared side to side to the qHD display on the Droid X2 I prefered the display on the Play hands-down. However, I am wondering if the front coating is durable. I don't think I would want to put a screen protector between my eyes and that gorgeous LCD.
In general:
Is the phone responsive for everyday tasks? (Gmail, Calender, Texting, Phone Calls, Internet Browsing, Music playback, Youtube, Facebook, Maps, Weather, News Widgets (such as pulse)) I use these all daily quite frequently and it can sometimes take up to 30 seconds just to open up my messaging app after receiving a notification of a new message. I doubt any more modern phone could be this bad, but any hint of slowdown now could be a bad omen of what is to come. I'm not too concerned with multitasking except for maybe loading a webpage while I switch over to messaging to answer a text, or for running an update service for weather notifications in the background.
Is it easy to type on compared to other phones in the 4 inch class? Does the shape or design of the phone impede this in any way? It was kind of hard to tell in the store due to the security devices in place.
With the usage described above (checking email, facebook, news, weather, etc. approximately once per hour, with about 30-45 minutes of phone calls, 20-30 texts, and less than an hour of gaming a day) would it be reasonable to expect this phone to last all day on a single charge? I currently have a large extended battery for my phone and it would be nice to not have that extra bulk. If this isn't reasonable, are there extended batteries/covers available for the play?
Is the lack of internal storage a problem, or is it possible to install apps to sd? (and is the speed acceptable if done so)
Any general bugs/glitches that should be known before deciding on this phone?
Anything that the phone might be a little zippier at if it had a dual core processor (besides more graphically intense games)?
How is the call quality/ability to hold a signal? This has been stated in a few reviews, but I am hoping the that issue has been fixed as of now (specifically the phone reverting to 1x in an EVDO area) I am in the city so signal strength shouldn't be an issue, but the ability to hold 3G definitely is.
How is the camera? I'm not looking for an SLR replacement, just something that will take snapshots where you can tell what something is without excessive noise/blotchiness. Is the front camera as horrible as they say? No one seems to post examples of pictures taken with that. Also, there is some confusion as to the HD recording capabilities of the phone. From what I have gathered, it is possible, but there are several steps involved. What are these steps?
Any possibility of Netflix support in the future?
In general, are you owners happy with your decision, and is it one you would repeat if you had to do it today (given the advantage of the Play being at least $130 cheaper than my next consideration, the Droid X2)
Sorry this post has been kind of long winded, I think I have addressed most of my concerns about the device in question that have not been answered by reviews from months ago (possibly prior to some software bug fixes)
Thank you in advance for your help!
The phone feels pretty solid for everyday use, and the curves make it easy to hold in a pocket.
If your worrying about a screen protector, SURPRISE. Theres already one on there.
I've never had any problems with the apps for everyday use. They open quickly, and pulse works quite well.
Some people find battery an issue, I dont. In between trains I do about 2 hours of gaming, check email every 2 hours, post Twitter updates, and still have half a charge by the end of the day.
The camera isent as great as other phones, but it works.
For Netflix support, you can find the .apk someone on the XDA site, and it works perfectly.
Get it if your into gaming on the touchpad.... Otherwise I don't see why you should.
For a phone that has nearly the same specs as the galaxy s, it runs a lot smoother. There are no lag issues, it has ran everything I've thrown at it smoothly.
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
I m using the PLAY too, and I found my HD2 with android runs a bit smoother.
the SE software is improving thou, it has been 2 updates, and the speed actually increase after each update.
Only get it if you want to have a game pad or the NAVIGATION pad (up down left right)
i love using the play with navigation pad.
I cant find any other current android phone with navigation pad other than the play.
Deoxlar said:
Get it if your into gaming on the touchpad.... Otherwise I don't see why you should.
For a phone that has nearly the same specs as the galaxy s, it runs a lot smoother. There are no lag issues, it has ran everything I've thrown at it smoothly.
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
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I'd say it's worth it.
The only real thing that might keep people from taking it seriously is the fact that it's not a dual-core phone. When you actually see it's performance though, you notice immediately and forever after that it's silky smooth even on a single-core.
It's replaced damn near everything I use; and, most importantly: manages to be great at gaming without being mediocre at anything else.
I'm definitely interested in gaming on the gaming pad, as I can say pretty definitively that the reason I don't play too many games on my phone is because the controls are cumbersome or feel like the games are "dumbed down" to be able to be played with lackluster controls.
I have seen the performance a good single core phone can have (including that of the Play), but am kind of wondering, is it a little too late in the game to even be considering anything other than a dual core phone (I'm having this same delemia over possibly going with the Droid charge) I skimped a little on my first android phone, and because of my experience with that, I am scared that something I get that isn't top of the line now will be utter crap in 18 months - 2 years time.
The combination of acceptable (or great, according to some) performance, the game pad, and the price (in that order) make this appealing.
Sony Tablet S or P coming this month
I just got mine yesterday and I definately recommend getting one.
Feels solid, awesome games and its gonna get better soon as Playstation are soon to announce PSP games for the Xperia Play.
GO GET IT!!!
ps3taker said:
Sony Tablet S or P coming this month
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But these are tablets, is there any chance of a device with a form factor similar to the play coming anytime soon?
I got the xperia play around a month ago maybe 3 weeks ago. The phone is very solid its super fast i have not had any slow down with the phone to this date so dont worry about the core cpu's yet.
The phone is awesome, its amazing for gaming and if your still not into that its still an awesome phone i would say its the best single core phone you can buy.
The only thing i am disappointed about with the phone is the **** wi-fi radio it has terrible signal, it keeps me connected most of the time but around my house i usually only have 2 bars but with my brother's iphone and my old android phone i would be having 3 - 4 bars.
clewis said:
I got the xperia play around a month ago maybe 3 weeks ago. The phone is very solid its super fast i have not had any slow down with the phone to this date so dont worry about the core cpu's yet.
The phone is awesome, its amazing for gaming and if your still not into that its still an awesome phone i would say its the best single core phone you can buy.
The only thing i am disappointed about with the phone is the **** wi-fi radio it has terrible signal, it keeps me connected most of the time but around my house i usually only have 2 bars but with my brother's iphone and my old android phone i would be having 3 - 4 bars.
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Click to collapse
Yeah i have the same issue, Galaxy S II has full reception and my Xperia only gets around 2-3 bars although it does keep reception. Thinking Sony might update the modem driver with the next update *fingers crossed*
Yea, the wifi is definitely weaker then most devices. I went out to buy a netgear range booster router and it fixed my problem though.... I can't believe how good netgear routers are...
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
the only reason i can think to make you buy the phone is the gaming pad. that is all. you will never get a better gaming experience on any other latest phone like Galaxy X II or Droid. i mean never
its a gaming phone and target for gamer. i strongly suggest you look for other phone if you not into gaming. i just dont want you to regret it when you bought it.
regarding the wifi, the signal reception is working great if i point the device to the router directly
just my opinion..
Like other have said, if you game on your phone get it. If not, get something else. All the rest is just waving your hands.
It is a solid android phone with a game pad. Nothing more, nothing less. If you never slide your game pad out, why carry it around? If you do slide it out, supported games (including emulators) are a completely different experience to every other phone. I cringe thinking about what Minecraft would be like if I had my thumbs all over the screen.
before i go rambling about my previous phones, all i can say is:
GO FOR IT
putting that aside, i was previously using a hd2 running android via the sd. i also had a htc desire issued by the office. i was content with both phones until the office decided to get rid of the desire. apparently, marketing was able to strike up a good deal with the network provider and thus issued us a bunch of iphone 4s. with the desire gone, i was thus left with my hd2 to run android. the problem was, i wanted a purely dedicated android device given that i would most likely never visit windows again. don't get me wrong, the hd2 is fantastic as it's reputed to be the most versatile (and hackable) phone. i've been reading up on the xperia arc as it has nice reviews. however, i was attracted to the xperia play even more because of in my opinion it's taken the lead in the "swiss army" fight amongst phones. i'm not a true gamer but i have enjoyed playing ps1 back in the days. with that, the play allows me to revisit those days and once again play with my fav games.
secondly, the phone itself is fantastic overall. the interface is fluid, i've experienced no hangs or freezes (not counting the psx game that doesn't run with fpse). battery is awesome and i really love the loudness of the media player. this was one of my gripes when i was still using my hd2: the volume needed to step up a notch or 2. i got myself the white xperia play and people in the office are really loving it.
i've already rooted my unit. as i have home and contents insurance i'm not worried about damaging my play. but say i did run into a situation which results in my phone being bricked/damaged/etc. i would most likely get my insurance company to replace it with the same. unless i find the other phones such as the evo or sensation coming up with a gamepad AND something else that the xperia play doesn't have, i'm definitely sticking to this phone for quite a long time.
Actually, if you are not into gaming.... After you get the phone and see the games available... You will be!
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.

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