Database Users

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:

Rants about the Touch Dual? comments pls.

Hi guys, considering getting a Touch Dual as my next phone, currently using a HP6300 series
would like to gather some feedback on some of the complaints i have seen on other forums on this model. this is impt as i feel that when getting a device, i need to like both the features and also be able to accept the faults as well
1. Battery life - with 3G turned on my Dual can't get through a day of normal busines use without charging. With 3G turned off I have to charge it every night to get through the next day. The M600 used to survive the weekend at least (if I turned the radio off at night).
2. Signal strength - the M600 managed to hold on to its signal for most of my daily train journey to work (up the main line from Basingstoke to London). I could expect to hold onto a call for a few minutes most of the time. Unfortunately the Dual doesn't cope. In 3G mode it barely holds signal long enough to dial a call. In GSM mode, it usually drops the call before I can introduce myself. It also seems to take forever to retrain to a new cell. This drives me (and my customers) mad when someone else is happily continuing their call a few feet away at the same time.
3. Keyboard - I echo all of the points Gears made. I was pretty quick with the stylus on the M600 and hoped the keys would speed things up as the Dual has a smaller screen so is more fiddly to use with a pen. That the keyboard driver isn't clever enough to switch context sensibly just makes me laugh - insanely. That it can't display the letters as fast as I can (sensibly) type them on the keyboard is pathetic.
4. Speed and crashing - it's a joke that the software can't cope with displaying numbers on the screen as you dial them the keyboard. It's painful that often the SMS application locks up so you can't read the messages. It's ridiculous that the memory management doesn't clean up properly after you force quit these applications in an attempt to resolve these issues and you've got to reboot the phone.
I'd love to love the Dual. At first glance it's good looking and slim and light and for all its faults I'm trying to continue to use it but my blood pressure won't stand it for long. I don't want to say that there is nothing good about the Dual - WM technology has come a long way for sure - it just drives me mad that HTC, Microsoft and Orange combined can't or won't put in a little extra effort to make it do the basic things properly. I don't need a flashy media player, I need to read my emails; I don't need to make video calls over 3G, I need to make voice calls reliably; I don't need GPS but I'd love a battery which lasts better than my first GSM mobile in 1994. At the moment the Dual doesn't do it. And I'm sad about that because I don't think this specific product needs to be as frustrating as it is to use every day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the above is a rant from coolsmartphone forumer.....
based on the above...the Touch Dual sounds almost unusable!!...
anyone care to comment on the above?? would really appreciate it

Please see following link for some of my comments on this device: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=370336
Regarding the comments about the battery, signal strength, and keyboard, I really haven't encountered any of those problems. I happen to find all these things quite alright.
The stability thing is a little true. But if you look around this forum, ppl have found various tweaks to fix most of the problems and make the device a joy to use. The comment about the phone not being able to handle numbers as you dial is quite ignorant. There is a little lag, but that's because as you dial, the phone searches through all your contacts in real time to select and display those contacts who's number and/or name matches what you are dialing. I find this feature to be extremely useful.

ohyeahar said:
Please see following link for some of my comments on this device: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=370336
Regarding the comments about the battery, signal strength, and keyboard, I really haven't encountered any of those problems. I happen to find all these things quite alright.
The stability thing is a little true. But if you look around this forum, ppl have found various tweaks to fix most of the problems and make the device a joy to use. The comment about the phone not being able to handle numbers as you dial is quite ignorant. There is a little lag, but that's because as you dial, the phone searches through all your contacts in real time to select and display those contacts who's number and/or name matches what you are dialing. I find this feature to be extremely useful.
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yup been searching around, read several "mini" reviews including views in this f0rum....but this rant seems to be the worst lol..just wanted to know if those complaints were really that bad...
although i knoe this will be a big leap from my 6300 LOL...just want to make sure i can accept its flaws...
1.is the ringing volume really as soft as mentioned above? my 6300 is really soft..can it get any worse than that lol
2. stability of course is of utmost importance...as long as there are tweaks to improve this...i'm cool

generally happy with the stability. Especially after latest ROM update, have not had any impromptu phone restarts.
Tend to agree with signal strength - I have been getting drop-outs that never happened when I had a nokia E65 (also a slider).
Battery life is fine for me (ie same as all phones these days - expect to charge every night), I do not use bluetooth very often though.
I will say, though, the most annoying design is the USB port. It's exposed, and has long, thin pins. The pins in mine have gotten bent (easy to do if you put USB cable in upside down, or your child thinks it's a good place to jam the stylus), and although I can straighten with some fiddling, it's gotten pretty bad, and I will have to return to get it repaired properly.

I admit that the out-of-the-box touch dual is far from perfect. I have been using it for 6 months and I am still trying to 'tame' it. I think I have made so progress now so here it is:
1) Flash to a wm6.1 rom for the latest drivers
2) Use pocket plus instead of the HTC X-button. You have to uncheck everything in the X-button, reset, then install pocket plus
3) I use spb mobile shell 2.0 and spb diary on today only. No HTC home.
4) Disable cube --> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=368269&highlight=biotouch
After I have disabled the not-used cube, not only do I have about 7megs of memory more, but I seem to notice a significant improvement to the battery life. With spb mobile shell you absolutely don't need cube. Recommended.

Please delete

hellogts said:
I admit that the out-of-the-box touch dual is far from perfect. I have been using it for 6 months and I am still trying to 'tame' it. I think I have made so progress now so here it is:
1) Flash to a wm6.1 rom for the latest drivers
2) Use pocket plus instead of the HTC X-button. You have to uncheck everything in the X-button, reset, then install pocket plus
3) I use spb mobile shell 2.0 and spb diary on today only. No HTC home.
4) Disable cube --> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=368269&highlight=biotouch
After I have disabled the not-used cube, not only do I have about 7megs of memory more, but I seem to notice a significant improvement to the battery life. With spb mobile shell you absolutely don't need cube. Recommended.
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wow that sounds pretty extreme........lol
can spb mobile shell really fully replace the cube n htc home?? especially in terms of functionality and customization possibillities?
hmm...pocket plus....what about wisbar advance?
comments appreciated!!

ReDeViL said:
wow that sounds pretty extreme........lol
can spb mobile shell really fully replace the cube n htc home?? especially in terms of functionality and customization possibillities?
hmm...pocket plus....what about wisbar advance?
comments appreciated!!
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This is personal preference. I don't like pocket plus.
But I use Ultimate Launch, Mobile Shell 2, Wisbar Advance 3, BatteryStatus and PhoneAlarm to accomplish what I need.
Somewhere along the line, my volume button stopped working (it now locks up my phone) and I am too lazy to hard reset and figure out why but will do it soon.
But I'm with everyone else - while the niki is not perfect, fiddle with it a little and you'll get what you want. It's a great phone.

Sprint Touch Information

I am considering trading my Sprint Mogul, for the touch (if it is possible) but am wondering if it is a good idea. The main reason for my trade is that I have recently had a chance to use the touch and like the look, and also my battery on my mogul has recently stopped lasting even half a day, with no usage.
So I just want to know how good is the battery life on the touch and information about its problems and its good features.
Also does anyone know if it is possible to trade my mogul for a sprint touch? I have the total equipment protection plan if that makes any difference.

killerkhatiby009 said:
I am considering trading my Sprint Mogul, for the touch (if it is possible) but am wondering if it is a good idea. The main reason for my trade is that I have recently had a chance to use the touch and like the look, and also my battery on my mogul has recently stopped lasting even half a day, with no usage.
So I just want to know how good is the battery life on the touch and information about its problems and its good features.
Also does anyone know if it is possible to trade my mogul for a sprint touch? I have the total equipment protection plan if that makes any difference.
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It will last about a full day, but of course always depends on usage. I use mine to no end! I have FlexMail running all the time, it's my music/video player, my day's outlook, GPS, and of course the usual phone features. If anything, have a car charger handy, as well as a charger at work and home just in case.

Hmm, so its about a full day with heavy usage, while for me, I barley use my phone throughout the day, besides making a few calls and texts, so it should last about 1 1/2 to 2 days. Can anyone else comment about the battery life.

killerkhatiby009 said:
Hmm, so its about a full day with heavy usage, while for me, I barley use my phone throughout the day, besides making a few calls and texts, so it should last about 1 1/2 to 2 days. Can anyone else comment about the battery life.
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with HEAVY usage i can burn the battery down in about 4-6 hours but that's using bluetooth internet sharing or gps or non stop browsing. But yes it's safe to say with typical heavy usage (taking breaks from the Touch every now and then to check out the real world) it should last a full day. The times when I barely use it, only a couple short calls, a coule of texts, and email checking set for every 5 minutes, it'll last about 2 days. I got cradles with spare battery slots for home and the office and a car charger so battery life is not an issue for me. I also have my backlight set on lowest, but I remapped the camera button to toggle it to full for use in direct sunlight.
One thing to watch out for is signal strength. I had a mogul at first and hated the battery life, until I realized that it was cause I had almost zero service in my room so the mogul was constantly searching and that would drain the battery overnight. I got a cell service repeater for a couple hundred bucks and it boosted the signal in my room a few bars then i stopped having that issue, but i still got rid of my mogul cause i never use the keyboard: i'm a block recognizer user. Plus the Touch's screen is more suited for finger usage since it's completely flush so you can easily touch things in the corners and sides without a stylus. But I'm sure my touch would fair just as badly if i turned off my cell booster, cause there's a dead zone at my office in one of the warehouses and if i stay there too long i can pretty much watch my battery melt before my eyes.
Good luck, you'll definitely love the increased ram.

Thanks for the info, but I don't believe that it is the low signal that has been causing my battery to drain so fast, because up until about this month, my battery would last two days easy, it would be at 70% at the end of the first day, and then 30% at the end of the next day. But now it barley lasts 11 hours even though I havn't moved from my house or changed my habits greatly.
Also i don't have my phone set to check emails automatically or anything, so if i get a touch the battery should last at least two days, making about 2 5 minute calls, and maybe 2 texts, other than that no usage. Because that is what i do with my mogul right now, and it only lasts 11 hours, although before it was 2 days.
Since the battery life seems to be ok, can anyone comment on general usability of the touch? Things like how is it not having keyboard/wi fi, and how many soft resets generally, the speed of the device, and memory usage (although i don't think its a problem with the touch).
Thanks for the help.

killerkhatiby009 said:
Thanks for the info, but I don't believe that it is the low signal that has been causing my battery to drain so fast, because up until about this month, my battery would last two days easy, it would be at 70% at the end of the first day, and then 30% at the end of the next day. But now it barley lasts 11 hours even though I havn't moved from my house or changed my habits greatly.
Also i don't have my phone set to check emails automatically or anything, so if i get a touch the battery should last at least two days, making about 2 5 minute calls, and maybe 2 texts, other than that no usage. Because that is what i do with my mogul right now, and it only lasts 11 hours, although before it was 2 days.
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Well your battery could've been worn out due to overcharging or manufacturing defect. Either way get a touch I think it's a better phone anyways as long as you can live without physical keys.

yea i edited the post, asking about that and things like ram, using on screen keyboard, speed, gps, and soft resets. What do you think about those kind of things, I have been using spb full screen keyboard on my mogul to see if i don't mind having no physical keyboard, and while i prefer having the keys, the on screen one is usable. But as for soft resets and speed, that kind of stuff is what i can't test right now, so what do u guys think about using it.

killerkhatiby009 said:
Things like how is it not having keyboard
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This is a non issue for me, I use block recognizer. I've been palm/windows mobile user for probably about 10 years so for me Block Recognizer (Graffiti) is second nature. Accuracy is about 99% assuming I have a good fullsize pen stylus, 95% with the built in stylus, 90% with my finger nail, and 70% with if my nail is cut too short. I can probably average 15-45 wpm depending on what i'm using to write and how much i focus. It's pretty easy to pick up block recognizer or letter recognizer and once you do you'll find it's the fastest most accurate way for a device with this screen size. The only downside I've found is that Microsoft doesn't care about it so it hasn't been upgraded in ages so there's no way to customize the strokes or enter special commands like Cut/Copy/Paste.
killerkhatiby009 said:
Things like how is it not having wi fi
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I have Sprint Sero so wifi is useless to me. I just use my unlimited data which is pretty fast. It also saves me a bundle since I can just connect to any laptop over bluetooth or usb and use internet sharing. i really impressed my boss the other day when he was in a jam and needed to access the net on his Macbook Air but there was no wifi around. I just pulled out my Touch set up ICS over Bluetooth and connected his mac to it, then put my touch back in my pocket and handed him his MBA and said here you can surf, I set it up to use my phone's internet over bluetooth. He just stared at me for a minute and was like whoa can my iPhone do that. Of course I just laughed and said I guess you're iphone's not that great after all.
killerkhatiby009 said:
how many soft resets generally
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Soft resets...due to memory leaks or programs acting up? Almost never. I only really soft reset after I install new programs and I use WisBar so programs are really closed when I hit Close/OK instead of just being minimized. I do a full hard reset probably once every 3-6 months and manually reinstall all my programs to make sure I have the latest versions of everything and just to keep my device clean. Other than that it's pretty stable.
killerkhatiby009 said:
memory usage (although i don't think its a problem with the touch).
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104.88 Total with 6.1 Rom
Typical usage - 60.86 Free
Immediately after soft reset - 72.00 Free
The only programs that are left running open (in the background, I have wisbar set to really close programs when i hit the close/ok button but for these programs they're just minimized):
PointUI
WisBar
Windows Media Player
Mail
ActiveSync
HTC Album
S2U2
Programs I have installed (pretty much everything is installed to main memory, my 8gb storage card is for TomTom maps, music, and dictionaries):
Wisbar Advance 3
Point UI Home
Point Tweak
Air Hockey 3D
Astraware Boardgames
Atomic Cannon
Billard Master 3
Core Player
Epocrates
Google Maps
Live Search
Hexacto Lemonade
Lexisgoo English Disctionary
Pocket Artist
vTap
JiveTalk
HiCalc
Pow Wow
Resco Explorer
Resco Photo Viewer
SpaceTime Calc 3.0
SpaceTime Free Calculator
TKCreater
Zio Golf 2
A_C S2U2
SKTools
TomTom Navigator
Opera Mini 4.1
Emesterec JBED Java
Opera Mobile 9
BibleReader
Lingvosoft English <-> French Dictionary
Lingvosoft English <-> Japanese Dictionary
Few custom apps written for work
Only other issue to look out for is the storage card corruption issue. When I first got the phone my card used to get corrupted a lot and i'd lose all the data on there. Never figured out exactly why but I think it was due to losing power while the card was being accessed. This could be caused by soft resetting while stuff is being accessed or be card getting momentarily ejected due to it's placement. I used to have most of my programs installed to the card and I would soft reset often. Now just about everything is on main memory and if I have to soft reset I hold the power button down to Power Off then Power back on manually once it's done. Since I started doing that I haven't had a single corruption issue.

Wow, that was a very informative post thanks a ton, ill keep the storage card corruption issue in mind, and install everything on to the main memory, seems like the touch is a pretty stable phone because of its large ram, battery life is good, and using the on screen keyboard seems to be tolerable. only things ill miss is wmwifirouter, and the flash on the camera.

killerkhatiby009 said:
Wow, that was a very informative post thanks a ton, ill keep the storage card corruption issue in mind, and install everything on to the main memory, seems like the touch is a pretty stable phone because of its large ram, battery life is good, and using the on screen keyboard seems to be tolerable. only things ill miss is wmwifirouter, and the flash on the camera.
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Oh yah the Camera is quite poor if the lighting isn't ideal luckily i rarely use it.
Lack of wifirouter is a bummer but if you're crafty you can connect the phone to a computer with wifi either through cable and bluetooth then set up an ad-hoc network for internet sharing between any number of computers. I prefer using the cable for all that cause bluetooth and constant data usage burns the battery.

Trust me, you will not regret getting the Touch. I've gone through quite a few phones, and this is the best! As mentioned above, the amount of memory is amazing! I have easily installed 25+ apps all on the main memory, which leaves my 8GB SD open for all music, movies, and files. Along with the storage memory, you have a bunch of RAM, with 6-7 heavy apps open, I still have at least 40MB open, which still tops majority of the phones with startup memory.
As for no wifi, if you have an unlimited data connection, then your not losing anything, and I think carriers have this cheaper because of this. I use Spb Full Screen Keyboard, and might get Resco Keyboard, since it's in a package, which is better then having to slide out the keyboard and messing with the screen rotation.
The flush screen definitely does help with the accessibility of the screen. It has bluetooth v2.0.
I think the only thing I don't like is there is no flash.

hmm so it is possible to use bluetooth for internet, is there a tutorial on how to do this with the touch, so that when I get mine, i can do it, still not as good as wifirouter, but it will work with some devices.

killerkhatiby009 said:
hmm so it is possible to use bluetooth for internet, is there a tutorial on how to do this with the touch, so that when I get mine, i can do it, still not as good as wifirouter, but it will work with some devices.
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Yes you can connect your phone to your computer over bluetooth (or USB) and then surf on your computer using your phones data plan. And if you really want you can create an ad-hoc wireless network to share internet to muliple computers over wifi.
Connecting your phone to your computer is easy. Just open up Internet Connection Sharing, then choose USB or Bluetooth, then press Connect. You if you get an error about registration or passwords use google to solve it. If using USB plug into your computer and the first time it'll log up the necessary drivers, if you've already installed Windows Mobile Device Center or the latest version of ActiveSync it'll have the necessary drivers. If using Bluetooth search for a new bluetooth device on your desktop, select your phone follow the prompts to connect. It should add it as a Bluetooth PAN device.
To setup the ad hoc wireless network varies greatly depending on OS, use google to find a good guide.

I must be NUTS! I SWEAR the X1 becomes faster over time.

I know this isn't the way windows is designed.....
But has any one else noticed that the X1 seems to speed up a bit and becomes a bit more reponsive after being used for a while?

Cache is it
BTW, comming from the diamond/raphael, my Xperia was FAST from the very first day, and this ain't no red herring or kosher pig

Depends what.
Apps are usually fast, but definitely homescreen orientation changes get slower over time.
Very occasionaly some problems appear, like once the scrolling got reeeaaally bad and slow, just reboot helped. Sometimes Opera 9.5 gives problems.
Anyway, generally I don't complain in this regard.

Simple
The simple answer is ...Yes...you're nuts.
But seriously, it's just the cache. The rotation time drives me nuts, I use an iphone too and thats pretty snappy at rotation, although i know it works differently, and possibly is more powerful hardware?
Anyway, the overall responsiveness of my Xperia so far has been overwhelingly appauling.
I have upgraded to R2A and not installed anything at all, just to keep it fast, and further to that I even uninstalled and removed some startup items.
It's such a shame to me because I had a PDA back in 2006 and i got rid of it cause WinMo sucks, this is such a nice piece of hardware from SE (even if it is HTC made),it would have been so much nicer with one of their own OSs that are always so slick, or atleast some sort of hypervisor system so that whatever crap (WinMo) is run in the background, stays in the background.
The reason I decided to go for this instead of wait for the N97 is because I thought there wold be so much more content, and since security in Symbian S60 5th is a nut cracker.
Anyway, lets hope WinMo 7 gets ReadyBoost from the MicroSD

I came kicking and screaming to the Xperia from the Iphone (some of our emailed based software does not work with Iphone email format)
I freely admit I HATED the Xperia out of the box. Youtube would play, video playback SUCKED, audio play back was mediocore, and I have to soft reset once a day.
After installing the xperia tweak, schaps, SD tuneup, youtube panel, etc. etc. I am finally ok with it.
Sinc eI still have the iPhone 3g I have compared them side by side in various environments. The xperia is much more customizable but............. video still isn't as good as the iphone and signal strength isn't as good either. Call quality is a little bit better and the AD2P is MUCH better with the xperia though.

If you're NUTS! then so am I.
I'm pretty sure mine has become faster in the 4 months i have had it.
I had the diamond before the X1 and felt the Xperia lagging behind in certain aspects of speed but it has DEFINATELY got better and now is running smoothly and efficiently.
Now is probably a good time to do a backup heh?
btw: my very first XDA Dev post!

I wouldn't say it's becoming faster, but the battery definitely lasts longer with the time going by.
When I bought the phone it was 2 days, now I have 5 days on the counter and it's 20% full

Uh yeah.......no. After a little over a month of use, it might make it 24 hrs. But I am sure that is because the push email keeps the data connection going 24/7. Wifi is rough on the battery but bluetooth isn't too harsh.
I have a nice ''bed'' on my dresser (mouse pad) where all of my chargers are run to. Xperia, iPhone, and HBH-IS800's get thrown on their chargers as part of my bed time ritual. So I can live with my battery life.

i've also reflected of that =)

the longer i use it, the more stable/less crashes i notice

I am NUTS too...
After some period of use my SEX1 work perfectly and faster then before. No more freezes no more soft resets an i have everything possible instaled on it . Video playback is smoooth and everything else is working ok. Now i am happy with my SEX1. And yes now is time for real backup. Can anyone sugest me what program i should use to backup all of my phone(files , settings , programs , games etc...) Thanks in advance

I can say that I'm pretty happy with my X1 speed.
But... I've installed Teksoft SpeddBooster, tweaked some programs, and it flies, now.
Namely, on a official PT rom, panels are much faster. Opening folders, on Total Commander, also.

my x1 slows over time

I haven't installed any ROM's yet, so I might need to do that. But sadly I'm having buyers remorse with my X1, I'm really not fond of Windows Mobile. I've got a couple of problems with my phone now, while it's only 2 months old. One being that I can't my SMS messenges, or atleast WM doesn't show them while I do see them on my Mac with Syncmate! And the last couple of days I've been having trouble with freezes when I change panels or try to update the RSS feed in one of the SE Xperia panels...
I wan't to update my software through the SE website hoping that it'll fix the kink in my system, but it seems I need to use a Windows PC to do that...
Really, I probably should have gone for an iPhone. Thing is though, I love the SE hardware, styling and it's keyboard. It's a lovely machine, but it's a shame they put the ****ty WM software on it. Pfff, really fed up with Microsoft.

definitely getting faster but that may just be me being drunk at nights

Mrca said:
After some period of use my SEX1 work perfectly and faster then before. No more freezes no more soft resets an i have everything possible instaled on it . Video playback is smoooth and everything else is working ok. Now i am happy with my SEX1. And yes now is time for real backup. Can anyone sugest me what program i should use to backup all of my phone(files , settings , programs , games etc...) Thanks in advance
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Click to collapse
Try SPB Backup.