Database Users

Just got my Exec

Hmm I'm not sure if this is just my experience or not but I have never had a contract mobile before ..
Always suspected they were a bit of a con/rip off/customer service black hole.
So anyway, I finally decided I need a personal organizer/pda for work and since my employer gets a 50% discount on o2 I figured why not splurge.
Ordered my XDA Exec yesterday on 400 mins cross network tarrif (£15 p/m) and the handset was £149.
It arrived 48 hours later!
Only it came by DHL in an obviously re-sealed box. The unit was inside, no cellaphane in sight. The battery was charged already and despite the courier listing a simcard in the box inventory there wasnt one in there anywhere.
I am pretty deflated by this rather awful service so far .. is this normal?
Anyway I figured, this does not prevent me from firing it up and playing around on the WIFI networks at work.
I have played with this thing for a good 6 hrs today at work and here's my first impressions...
1. Asthetically its lovely but the buttons are easy to press while getting it out of the leather wallet. Camera is always on when I open it up .. grr.
2. My screen has a yellow tint to it. Is this normal? Seems kind of like a crap TFT panel used to look on earlier laptop units.
3. Anything network related seems to frequently cause the unit to hang. Checking my mail .. downloading 500 mails from IMAP took 15 mins and eventually crashed it.
MSM seems to crash a lot.
IE on this thing is quite simply poor. This may be biased by the fact I am a firefox developer .. but it is clunky, slow to respond, PHP sends it into a catatonic state and secure websites just plain confuse the thing.
Lots of crashing. No flash support??
Not impressed.
4. Software. Like, where is it? WM5 has next to nothing useful thats free. I don't believe in shareware at all .. where's the OS stuff? Where's the PDA port of this and that? Very dissapointed that all the stuff I found was win 2003 se only and that was that.
This alone renders the thing a waste of time .. sadly ..
5. Keypad is just useable but I hate the feel. Keys are flat and the rebound is so firm you frequently have to go back and press it down harder to get the right chracter to appear. Its hard work tbh.
Oh and the most annoying 'bug' of all ..
When the thing turns the backlight off to power save, it doesnt seem to come back on at the same level it was at before going into standby.
It comes on so dark you have to tilt it to the light to get through the menus to turn it up.
Annoying .. but fixable I'm sure ..
Anyway, some thoughts.
Generally I think this has potential but it clearly hasnt got enough memory to run smoothly .. 49mb of useable memory? Pah! It reminds me of the kind of things you see on ebay where someone is selling a p4 laptop with 64 mb of ram installed. Waste of time.
The cpu is either crap or scaled so far back to save power it crawls. Jury is out on that for now ..
Summarizing, I DO like this .. but the lack of good free software and the diddy memory and seemingly bloated and clunky wm5 + bugs ruins it totally.
I will probably be trading this in for an XDA IIi next week.
That is if O2 sort me out. As it is, I am frankly disgusted with their approach to new customers! "Lets send em a refurb and see if they notice ..". I even told the guy I was a customer relations rep for a large corp. Like I know how it works .. bah.
That said, am getting 50% discount over Mr. Public. So can't complain TOO loudly ..

- Deleted -

This is the most useful review I have read. Thankyou.
TBH, its windows. It's gonna be buggy. I think they just send these out untested, safe in the knowledge that:
a) Buzz or Mamaich will inevitably patch, repair or find awkward ways around 90% of the bugs.
b) The average XDA user is a nerd and will probably follow those instructions/patches and *happily* put up with the buggy features.
c) Joe public isn't clever enough to operate a PDA properly. The average person is too stupid to realise that their PDA crashes itself. They think they're making it crash and are too proud to ask for help/consult the internet. They want a PDA 'cos all their work buddies have them and it makes them look important, using it for little more than checking emails occasionally.
d) Microsoft/HTC know that the kind of person who buys these PDA/phones is the kind of person who will always want the newest gadget, and so will forget about the bugs/issues as soon as the new XDA is released (with its own host of problems). Why bother fixing it when in a few months it will be old news and people will have something new to complain about.
PS, 02 gave me a refurb XDA2s when the insurance replacement they sent me was faulty. It works fine which only around 25% do so I'd rther put up with a refurb than complain and have a 75% chance of the brand new one they send me being faulty.

Sending this on the exec ..
I kinda figured o2 would be light on customer consideration. Hehe.
The phone I got appears to be alright now tbh. I have hard reset to corporate and it is light years smoother. In fact it hasn't crashed once in the last 4 hours!
Performance is fine now too. Still not as fast as you'dd like but it certainly feels more responsive.
I AM A DUMB ASS. The sim was in the box, it had been tossed in loose and was wedged between the user manual compartment lid and the inner structure of that fruity pandora's box.
I'm VERY impressed with the battery life so far.. Talking hours. Neato.
Of course the complete lack of developer interest/support in this version of winblows means i'll still not be keeping it unfortunately. Only Microsoft would release a next gen pda os and NOT include binary compatibility either natively or virtually.
So far haven't found a good free irc client that works. All either pay-for-fun or 2003se only. Bummer.
I have now decided the keyboard is useless. That + the wm5 software absentism means I might either trade for a 2003 xda or buy an IPAQ. Since they seem to have a vast quantity of stuff available: Including a LINUX distro.
With regards the keyboard.. Why the f00 they didn't consider half the number of keys correctly aligned and reasonably proportioned ... who knows. Maybe its like you say, this technology is just blingware and nobody seriously expected people to sit down and type a post like this one. Which, incidentally I am doing with the stylus!
Anyway my hand/neck/wrists hurt already.
Must decist for now.

gubbs said:
Hmm I'm not sure if this is just my experience or not but
3. Anything network related seems to frequently cause the unit to hang. Checking my mail .. downloading 500 mails from IMAP took 15 mins and eventually crashed it.
That said, am getting 50% discount over Mr. Public. So can't complain TOO loudly ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
500 mails.. Wow!
Huib

My JJ crahes when downloading POP email, usually when I am using 3G.
I have to say the ergonmics of the JJ/Exec are mixed. But for me the keyboard is fantastic; typed for 2 x 30 minutes on the train.

for it is great
I have had mine three weeks and it is excellent.
The screen is clear and all functions work great.
I did not load the standard settings as this gives all the o2 stuff that slows it down.
Loaded spb pockect plus which gives as many features as i need.
i believe you have a returned unit.
I have purchased three phones from o2, the XDA, XDA11s and now the Exec and i have always had everything boxed and sealed the battery is normally partialy charged which is standard these days.
Your comments are the same as a friend of mine who ordered the T mobile option and his arrived like yours i told him to return it that day.
He contacted T mobile and his replacement arrived today boxed correctly and perfectly happy with it.
You have a 14 day return policy which some people seem to find a good way of ordering the phone playing around with it and then sending it back under the policy. This then will go back out to a new purchaser as O2 believe it is just a return as the customer did not find it to be what they wanted.
My advice would be return it now, tell o2 you are not happy as the box was resealed they will send yoiu a replacement probable overnight.
clive

How on earth did you get that Tarrif??
'Ordered my XDA Exec yesterday on 400 mins cross network tarrif (£15 p/m) and the handset was £149.'
I have not seen this anywhere and iot sounds great?

Hmm ok, well I'll get on to o2 in a few mins. Have a cup of tea first - has been a long morning.
Reg. the tarrif it's o2 200 + free double minutes for six months.
It would normally be £30 a month but my employer staff contracts afford a (generous) 50% discount.
The handset is marked the same on the public o2 website ... £149? I don't think I got any reductions on that.
BTW I am typing this on the keyboard today and would like to admit as long as the surface you have it on is very level and very firm (ie not your knee or briefcase lid) then its not so bad.
I also need to google and find out what spb pocket plus is ..
Also you know, I am a pda n00b. I'm sure a lot of what I have said is entirely because I haven't sufficient experience with this technology. I don't pretend to be giving anything more than as-is impressions.

Ok. Spoke to a nice lady at O2 - I think we had chemistry or something - cos she called me 'hun' and arranged for a replacement (new) handset straight away and bunged me £10 off my first bill.
Sweet.
I took it to my manager at work today who I know owns an XDAii and who is a SUPER Geek (tm). He informed me I am not using the keyboard right .. you have to hold it in your hands and type using your thumbs.
Doing this, with autocomplete by tapping the screen with a thumbnail produces some pretty impressive and speedy typing.
I also compared the screen to the one on his XDAii and frankly, it is noticeably smoother. Also in comparrisson the unit weighs in it's case practically the SAME amount as an XDAii (in real world tests not on paper I'm sure). It also found more networks on wifi, quicker than his XDAii and he has announced he wants one. Which would suggest, from a long term XDAii user, that these are a step up from that model. Well either that or he's viciously insecure, competative and fickle. I did say manager didn't I?
All in all, its OK. I seem to get it very grimey tho. Must get some wipes.
I'll be posting a proper, intelligent, considered, non-reflex review on here next week when I get it up and running. I'll also be taking the pictures with the camera and what not ..

Thanks, helpful opinions and info. Ordered mine from O2 on Friday, just watiting for it to arrive
M.

I've had mine about 2 weeks now and at first I wasn't that impressed. It was mainly that speed that annoyed me, but that's sorted now.
I did a basic install and removed all the O2 crap, well, I tried but it failed on the remove, so I deleted the relevant program from the startup and it's all good now. I went back to the Windows default theme as well.
I've got Resco File Explorer, MagicButton running and GSPocketMagic++, though all the features for GSPocketMagic++ are turned off (just having it installed makes it quicker, which is odd).
Screen flips are now down to under 2 seconds, which I think is reasonable. It now responds instantly to screen taps, whereas before it would have a delay of a second or so.
I installed spb pocketplus for a while but found it really slowed my system down. I think it was the battery monitor on the today screen that did it. It's now uninstalled and the thing flies.
All I need to do now is get some kind of navigation sorted and I'm fully happy. I think it's way better than my old XDA2.

So, which install should I do then, basic or corporate?
Thanks
M.

lol gubbs @ your thoughts and experiences.
The sad truth is that many of us get so much pleasure out of just owning a machine like the Exec that we're prepared to overlook its flaws, of which there are (to be honest) many. I love mine, but you're right: there's sod-all software available yet that is 100% compatible (and I mean properly compatible, not just "well, we think it works but it might slow your machine down a bit: try it and let us know how you get on"), and WM5 is horribly crippled by a lack of feature-rich functionality.
There is a halo effect on the Exec caused by its position at the cutting edge of Windows-based phone/PDA models. We think we have the best machines available.
IMHO there are three groups of Exec users:
- technologically ignorant users who use it exactly as O2 intended. Will be either happy or ambivalent about it
- geeks who love to tweak. (I'm in this group.) We, with this website, will work on the damn thing until we're happy with it, and this is part of the satisfaction and pleasure of ownership. Are already happy with their Exec because it's the best money can buy, and we overlook its little faults.
- newcomers who've previously owned a Palm/Treo/whatever. Will generally be disappointed with the Exec because it's different from what they're used to and will seem slow/crippled/buggy. Might become happy in time, but more likely to return unit and swear they'll never touch Windows Mobile again.
gubbs, I'd guess you were in the third group when you first posted here, but now you're moving towards the second group. I reckon you'll be a-tweakin' and a-moddin' with the rest of 'em within weeks! Then (and only then) will you love your Exec.

I agree.
After spending 10 months with the XDA 2s I couldn't go back to a "normal" phone. I've had PDAs since before they were called PDAs - this was my first one - http://tinyurl.com/cyhjo
Yes, I have to reboot it most days, and yes it does some odd stuff, but in general it's been an amazing device.
It's in for repair (lose keyboard) and I'm using an old Nokia 6600 while I wait for my Exec to arrive. I've only been without of for 3 days and it's been like losing my right arm!
M.

Becoming very disillusioned with this phone

Hi All,
This phone seems to be developing more problems every day! Perhaps it is because I have loaded Voice Command 1.6 but it now randomly (or so it seems) shuts down bluetooth without a warning so that I can't receive calls on my headset.
Add the screen alignment issue which I tried to fix unsuccessfully with the business card, still no bluetooth for voice dialing with VC 1.6 and the following and I wonder is it worth it at all?
Only some names are displayed when calls come in. Many callers only have number displayed even though they are in the phone book.
Phone is often very slow although I don't have a lot of programs loaded. Soft reset seems to help but I haven't tested it extensively. Most annoying is dialing as a 1 second lag while dialing numbers becomes very irritating after a while.
I can't get it to synchronise with my laptop even though both are enabled and it goes some way towards it.
I had my first handheld nearly ten years ago. They really haven't moved on enough in that time I think. Is it acceptable for a company to put out a product that costs megabucks but still requires one to be a geek and spend hours on the net finding solutions to all the problems on it?

broadband155 said:
Hi All,
This phone seems to be developing more problems every day! Perhaps it is because I have loaded Voice Command 1.6 but it now randomly (or so it seems) shuts down bluetooth without a warning so that I can't receive calls on my headset.
Add the screen alignment issue which I tried to fix unsuccessfully with the business card, still no bluetooth for voice dialing with VC 1.6 and the following and I wonder is it worth it at all?
Only some names are displayed when calls come in. Many callers only have number displayed even though they are in the phone book.
Phone is often very slow although I don't have a lot of programs loaded. Soft reset seems to help but I haven't tested it extensively. Most annoying is dialing as a 1 second lag while dialing numbers becomes very irritating after a while.
I can't get it to synchronise with my laptop even though both are enabled and it goes some way towards it.
I had my first handheld nearly ten years ago. They really haven't moved on enough in that time I think. Is it acceptable for a company to put out a product that costs megabucks but still requires one to be a geek and spend hours on the net finding solutions to all the problems on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neil
Whilst there are elements of truth in what you say, I think the lesson here is - if you want stability and reliability and don't have the time for patience or the "developers" instinct, then steer clear of cutting edge technology or the latest gasgets combining a variety of technologies.
I could certainly say I'd be guaranteed a more reliable simple and straightforward phone if I used my old nokia 3100. I would probably say a paper notebook would be quicker on occasion than whipping out the old PDA. If I want to do something on Excel, I'd be better advised to wait 'til I get to the office and so on. BUT for a mix of entertainment and a range of features to help me out from time to time, along with the enjoyment of trying out new things, I'd go for Hermes. In 6 months things will have moved on again, many things will have been sorted out for Hermes but some new gadget will be out next season along with a whole new set of issues. You either enjoy this and don't expect things to ever achieve perfection, or you opt out of the technology race. Change it seems to me is now so rapid, many will question whether it's worth buying the latest technolgy cos before it's even on the shelves it'll have been superceded by the next pre-release models. I can see the rate of customer disatisfaction with new technology rising and rising as companies are forced to release things far too early in order not to loose the superfast moving market. Sky digital being a case in point in the UK with thousands of digital boxes being returned as not functioning. Some folks now being on their 5th or 6th digibox already in the space of a couple of months.
Nuf said
Mike

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply. I hear you and I do agree to an extent. The problem I have with it is that it isn't only guys like me who buy these devices. I am somewhere in the middle, between an early adopter and a neophyte. I know lots of guys who are neophytes and have bought these things over the years. They don't come with a geek warning nor do they offer any sort of solution in many cases to the operational problems. The guy who buys a device like this does so because he thinks it will work. It is enough of a challenge to figure out how to use the basic functions. He isn't interested in becoming a technology guru in order to solve the problems.
As I said before, I bought my first handheld a long time ago. (HP 620LX) While the market moves on very quickly, I believe there is still a place for mature technology. The 620 was buggy then and the TyTN is buggy now. What about a device that does the fundamental things well? Perhaps they are all over the place and I bought the wrong one. I still think the screen alignment issue is unforgiveable though.

I agree with what Mike said about staying out of the firing line or the cutting edge as he put it. I believe I am more neophyte than most people here, yet I buy into these things for the enjoyment of having to find solutions to the now expected problems with cutting edge all-singing all-dancing devices...or maybe I'm just a masochist?

broadband155 said:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply. I hear you and I do agree to an extent. The problem I have with it is that it isn't only guys like me who buy these devices. I am somewhere in the middle, between an early adopter and a neophyte. I know lots of guys who are neophytes and have bought these things over the years. They don't come with a geek warning nor do they offer any sort of solution in many cases to the operational problems. The guy who buys a device like this does so because he thinks it will work. It is enough of a challenge to figure out how to use the basic functions. He isn't interested in becoming a technology guru in order to solve the problems.
As I said before, I bought my first handheld a long time ago. (HP 620LX) While the market moves on very quickly, I believe there is still a place for mature technology. The 620 was buggy then and the TyTN is buggy now. What about a device that does the fundamental things well? Perhaps they are all over the place and I bought the wrong one. I still think the screen alignment issue is unforgiveable though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I certainly agree with you regarding screen alignment problem, that's unforgivably poor design as is the loose stylus and loose keyboard.
Mike

mikechannon said:
Neil
Whilst there are elements of truth in what you say, I think the lesson here is - if you want stability and reliability and don't have the time for patience or the "developers" instinct, then steer clear of cutting edge technology or the latest gasgets combining a variety of technologies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh, no. No, no, no!
Sorry, that's not how it works. Nope! No siree!
You sell a device on the open market, and it had better be reliable, bug free, and within a certain reliability matrix. A lot of devices are falling outside that range, and the manufacturers are finding themselves in court as a result.
For example, Palm is currently in the middle of a class action lawsuit, over the poor build quality of their Treo 600 and 650s.
Caveat emptor? Sure, but only to a point. Every single democracy in the world has some form of judicially established, and in many cases legislatively established, understanding of quality as a requirement.

BRad Barnett said:
Uh, no. No, no, no!
Sorry, that's not how it works. Nope! No siree!
You sell a device on the open market, and it had better be reliable, bug free, and within a certain reliability matrix. A lot of devices are falling outside that range, and the manufacturers are finding themselves in court as a result.
For example, Palm is currently in the middle of a class action lawsuit, over the poor build quality of their Treo 600 and 650s.
Caveat emptor? Sure, but only to a point. Every single democracy in the world has some form of judicially established, and in many cases legislatively established, understanding of quality as a requirement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you are saying but it IS what is happening as you acknowledge (despite the "Sorry, that's not how it works. Nope! No siree!") and indeed there may be quite a few legal cases brought as a result - but note it still carries on so it is the way it works. In fact, I believe things will get worse with the exponentially increasing speed of technological development.
I stand by my advice stay away from the leading edge devices if it's stability you want and I don't think any amount of cases brought in the courts will change this. I wholeheartedly agree with you as regards any hardware issues - Screen alignment, loose this and loose that, but software has always started out buggy and developed and to some extent, at least ,for those here that's part of the challenge - even if I don't say enjoyment!!
Mike

I've seen the bluetooth stack shutdown issue on my TyTN too. I'm currently testing the 1.35 TyTN ROM to see if it fixes this problem. In my case it was related to using the bluetooth stack for other purposes (bt keyboard, A2DP). It seemed to me that my car handsfree would work just fine until I used bt for one of the above then I'd see the random bt radio off issue. Sometimes this would even happen while driving after a successful pairing with my car.

[Q] General Question on Acer Customer Service/Realiability

I am just coming off 2+ weeks of frustration with the Transformer Prime. I was lucky enough to get mine from Amazon so I returned for a full refund. Despite all the frustration, I realized that an android tablet is a handy gadget that I really would like to own. I am beginning the process of researching for my next purchase and now that I have dealt with Asus, I have a better idea of what I need to figure out before I make a purchase. I am looking into Acer and toshiba.
Can anyone who's owned an Acer tablet answer the following:
I have read Acer is coming out with the A700. Anyone have any thoughts on it?
Do Acer products typically have good quality? Do they last?
How is Acer's RMA process? Do they require you to pay for shipping if the problem is due to manufacturer defect?
Is Acer customer service easy to work with?
How frequent does Acer provide firmware updates?

As with all companies, the quality of the support depends entirely on which country you're in, as well as local legal requirements. Some countries have far better consumer protection than others (UK vs US, for example).
Updates are kinda hit and miss, Acer tend to lag behind some other OEM's.
I generally find build quality to be fairly good, certainly had no complaints on my two tabs.

The above post is exactly true in all ways.. Acer support in the us is outsourced. and that STINKS.. COMPUTER COMPANIES CAN LEAR FEW THINGS BY TALKING TO OR FALLOWING HP Support.. i send them a email of my issue. they call me within a few hours with a answer. I Had a issue with this notebook im typing on. It was a problem with compatibility with a win 7 update to usb. CAMERA ISSUE. A Microsoft tech called me on behalf of hp.. two days later they issued a global wide fix. apparently i was the first to have the issue . I was treated like a person with tech experience not like a dumb customer..
I TO LOVE MY A500. THERE UPDATES When we do get them seem to not break things as with other devices. And less over all issues. With that said who knows when or why they send them.. there is no logic to there update system. I Just wish they would give us the choice to unlock this device or not..
sorry for being so long winded

I found my A501 to be a near-perfect piece of hardware... My main criteria were UMTS and USB HID support, fastboot (for easy recovery if bricked) was a secondary criterion. This tab has all of these (I don't know of any others that do). Also, the device's shell is fairly robust (I have it with me at university almost every day)... The main point of criticism about the HW would be the somewhat weak WiFi antenna (though there's a good remedy for that, search the forum).
About the software... Acer tend to take their time to get things right on the first update, which means that they are somewhat slow to release updates. Then again, I'd rather have something that actually works later than something that doesn't work now...
Customer support is fairly expensive via phone (haven't tried the other options), but friendly and competent here in Germany... Way better than some others I had to deal with.

[Q] Thinking of Buying an A500. A few questions.

Hello, I've been tablet shopping and i found an A500 for $300 refurb. Best deal i can find around.
I want to buy it, but i'd like to ask a few questions first.
First off. It advertises as a Honeycomb tablet. Will there be an OTA ICS update waiting for me when i set it up?
If so, How is ICS on this device? Is it buggy? does everything work? Or will i be constantly rooting/roming to get it to work properly?
If i have to root/rom, How is it? Easy? difficult? oneclick? I know my phone was a pain, but another one i did was a snap. Wanted to know how easy it is to rom this device?
How is video playback? One of the main things i wish to do is play movies/videos. mainly; Netflix, Streaming, and .avi and mp4's. How is playback? I can't stand choppy video or audio-lag. So this is pretty important to me.
Also, Some basic performance reviews would be great. not the main purpose of this thread, but hey, any information is helpful.
I was looking between this and the EeePad transformer. Basically within $20 of eachother.
Thank you.

FourForty said:
Hello, I've been tablet shopping and i found an A500 for $300 refurb. Best deal i can find around.
I want to buy it, but i'd like to ask a few questions first.
First off. It advertises as a Honeycomb tablet. Will there be an OTA ICS update waiting for me when i set it up?
If so, How is ICS on this device? Is it buggy? does everything work? Or will i be constantly rooting/roming to get it to work properly?
If i have to root/rom, How is it? Easy? difficult? oneclick? I know my phone was a pain, but another one i did was a snap. Wanted to know how easy it is to rom this device?
How is video playback? One of the main things i wish to do is play movies/videos. mainly; Netflix, Streaming, and .avi and mp4's. How is playback? I can't stand choppy video or audio-lag. So this is pretty important to me.
Also, Some basic performance reviews would be great. not the main purpose of this thread, but hey, any information is helpful.
I was looking between this and the EeePad transformer. Basically within $20 of eachother.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
depending where you live you will most likely have ics waiting for you most places have it now ics runs nicely hadn't had any bugs with it so far the video playback is great the only time it starts to lag for me is when 1080p is being streamed to a TV ......rooting and romming is easy enough after root flashing custom roms is about 3 clicks from cmw lol rooting i cant say now i mine was rooted before ics but there's lots of tutorials performance wise it can be over clocked to about 1.5ghz but even not over clocked i hadn't found a game that will make it lag yet even N.O.V.A 3 with its online multi player and sweet graphics xD
Its not all amazing though there are some problems
1.some tablets don't have the best wifi saying even in the same room as the router they get one block of signal i think to be an old Gen problem though....i have surprisingly great wifi connection????
2.The Video recording is TERRIBLE on honeycomb not the video but the sound is all congested and gross,but if you do update it there has been BIG improvements with ics
3.does not like Bluetooth headsets with a mic input it will pair but not connect with most of them ,but some still work xD...
One more thing there is also built in GPS not needing wifi and great for gaming and modding so i think...external 3g Hawaii usb adapter have had success working micro sd works up to 64gb and external hard rive up to 2tb xD good luck hope this helped

FourForty said:
Hello, I've been tablet shopping and i found an A500 for $300 refurb. Best deal i can find around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can beat that price easily. The last one I bought was auction style and got it for $210 shipped. It was the 8gb version. The 16gb can be had for a little more than that if you don't mind playing the auction game. Personally, I'd never pay more than $250 shipped for a refurb. I expect the refurbs to get to the ~$200 price point by the end of the summer.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...+a500&LH_FS=1&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&_osacat=171485
As far as the rest... What Gears said.

Thank you both for the replies.
The WiFi connection concerns me a bit. But not a deal-breaker for sure.
Glad to hear video playback is good. As that's most likely going to be my main use of this tablet.
I don't use bluetooth headsets, so not too worried about that.
As for beating the price. Here in Canada, That's literally the best price i could find. Newegg.ca has it for $268. so after tax/fees, it's $301.
I'm not a fan of buying used electronics off ebay. Too much risk. and a boat load of hassle with returns/paypal. well, almost all are final sales. And i don't want to get screwed.
At least with sites such as newegg i get a warranty.
Even with that being said. I used your link and found one on ebay. Currently winning at $122. But with 6-days left. I doubt it will be a good deal. my max is $225, so we'll see how long that lasts.

FourForty said:
Thank you both for the replies.
The WiFi connection concerns me a bit. But not a deal-breaker for sure.
Glad to hear video playback is good. As that's most likely going to be my main use of this tablet.
I don't use bluetooth headsets, so not too worried about that.
As for beating the price. Here in Canada, That's literally the best price i could find. Newegg.ca has it for $268. so after tax/fees, it's $301.
I'm not a fan of buying used electronics off ebay. Too much risk. and a boat load of hassle with returns/paypal. well, almost all are final sales. And i don't want to get screwed.
At least with sites such as newegg i get a warranty.
Even with that being said. I used your link and found one on ebay. Currently winning at $122. But with 6-days left. I doubt it will be a good deal. my max is $225, so we'll see how long that lasts.
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FYI & I don't know if they are available in Canada, but a friend & I each picked up refurbished a500s from the referenced "Official Acer Store" on eBay. They came with a 90 day warranty. It was about 4 months ago and they were $267US then. Upon receipt both appeared to be brand new. Mine has had absolutlely no issues. My friend's developed a couple of horizontal colored lines after about 3 weeks. The Acer Store folks quickly arranged for a prepaid return and sent him another immaculate appearing unit in about a week. It has been flawless. None of the 3 units had any difficulty with Timmy Dean's v3.2.1, HC downgrade , the ICS OTA, or bootloader or ROM mods. Whatever you decide, goodluck. The a500 is a super piece of hardware and these forums are a goldmine of information and hours of reading pleasure!

I bought mine around valentines day off eBay for $280 refurbished, a 16gb version. Got the square trade warranty for $40. The tablet was fine for about a week and then my screen started coming up along the top/bottom edges. So I shipped it back. The second one has had no problem. I rooted, installed recovery, custom rom, and backed up on the first one. When my 2nd tablet came I was able to just root, install recovery and recover from my SD backup with no problem.
I love this tablet! Personally, I choose it over the Asus ones that were out at the time I got mine. From what I've heard, the Asus and other tablets don't allow a constant HDMI out like the Acer. They only utilize it when an app calls it. That could have been a stock rom issue, but even then if u have a newer tf101 u can't unlock it like its older model. As stated above, all games run flawlessly. I can play Shadow Gun then load up GTA3 and switch between the two without either game lagging.
You'll be happy with your purchase after the first minute of playing with the Iconia.
Sent from my Iconia A500 using XDA

WiFi works quite well under Gentoo for me. On Honeycomb, it was sightly buggy at times. The changes in ICS seem to have gotten rid of this issue, for me at least.

apapousek said:
WiFi works quite well under Gentoo for me. On Honeycomb, it was sightly buggy at times. The changes in ICS seem to have gotten rid of this issue, for me at least.
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Agreed i havnt had any wifi issues at all since ics

what specifically do you want to do with a tablet? That should help narrow your search , do you need root? do you need custom roms or is the stock fine? are you into testing? If your squeamish about "tech" stuff ,root /rom wont be your thing ,the stock roms offer alot in these tabs ,just having ICS doesnt ensure you anything over HC , most people have this problem about worrying about updates , getting antsy over it , if you go custom rom it all depends on what your comfortable with , you might change the rom daily ,or you might be totally satisfied ,I have a Windows phone 7 that has a custom rom I installed back in december , havent changed a thing since , On my Acer I couldnt tell where I was a week ago ,everything gets changed between a few days to a week !
Read the dev section , anything by skrillax ,civato ,vache,blkthdr (thor if you can find it) and Moscow desire to name a few and you'll be on the right track and as civato says "dont be a chicken, just do it" otherwise stay stock and wait for Acer............

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
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Moving to Q&A

Waiting for my Zenfone 2 to arrive

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, currently waiting for delivery (arrives on sunday).
Is there anything I should know? Besides rooting, removing bloatware (which seems to plague this phone like Asus pcs), and general android stuff.
Anything about pumping up the audio? Also, any comments on how's Asus doing as a phone manufacturer, I'm using a motherboard and monitor from their products.
Hope we get along :fingers-crossed:

Sophobe said:
Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, currently waiting for delivery (arrives on sunday).
Is there anything I should know? Besides rooting, removing bloatware (which seems to plague this phone like Asus pcs), and general android stuff.
Anything about pumping up the audio? Also, any comments on how's Asus doing as a phone manufacturer, I'm using a motherboard and monitor from their products.
Hope we get along :fingers-crossed:
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I'd also love to know this! i'm getting a ZF2 in a week or two

I haven't re-rooted after the last couple of updates as I no longer use anything that requires root. I haven't bothered removing anything but just turned what I didn't want off instead. I went with a different launcher (Nova Pro) and different SMS and email clients that those Asus put on the phone.
Still one of the best phones I have ever used.

Trotter516 said:
I haven't re-rooted after the last couple of updates as I no longer use anything that requires root. I haven't bothered removing anything but just turned what I didn't want off instead. I went with a different launcher (Nova Pro) and different SMS and email clients that those Asus put on the phone.
Still one of the best phones I have ever used.
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I'm curious to use it as is for a couple of days and then update it, so I hope it isn't updated.
But it's good to hear Asus tackled those problems!

Sophobe said:
I'm curious to use it as is for a couple of days and then update it, so I hope it isn't updated.
But it's good to hear Asus tackled those problems!
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I love mine. Best phone I've owned hands down.

Asus has done a great job and made its name in budget market, the phone looks good and doesn't even feel like a budget one
Performance is excellent and its not a slouch like lg or samsung devices the only phones beat this device is nexus and flagships costing double or even triple than itself .
Camera is not to be expected with exceptional quality it will deliver moderate to good enough pictures but in outdoor and poor in low light.
Asus has heavily bloated it (30 apps) but every app is inovative and to meet different tastes of different people i dont use their apps like mirror, screen mirroring / screen cast on desktop. But many people do use it, disable only after you feel it is useless and a bloat.
Try out splendid to customize the display and saturation(this is one hell of a feature and my favourite one also)
Its the best phone i have ever owned or used(never got the chance to try hands on nexus 6p)and i hate samsung so don't hope me to try hands on it even