Orange SPV

[david010167]

Has anyone here got one of these Phones and are they anygood? From what I have read the idea is great and the web surfing seems like fun, but do they come close to the hype?

David

[dougt]

I've got one. As a phone it's ok-ish, rather big and fairly poor battery life, but usable. As a mobile PDA type thing it's also a bit limited. Web access is not quick and it doesn't do flash or acrobat so it struggles on some sites (I think it's similar to IE4 in terms of the sites it can deal with). It's also a bit prone to locking up, although it doesn't seem to loose data if you have to take the battery off.

The standard memory card is only 16k, and annoyingly the operating system doesn't include explorer which costs a few quid extra on download.

To write programs you use the windows CE development toolkit with an add on from microsoft. I've not tried this yet, I also heard a rumour that it's 'locked' to approved Orange software only.

Overall though, despite my rather negative comments I think it's quite a neat piece of kit and probably does represent the way things are heading. If you like techno gadgets you'll love it, if you're after a good phone I'd get a nokia.

[srider]

Has anyone here got one of these Phones and are they anygood? From what I have read the idea is great and the web surfing seems like fun, but do they come close to the hype?

David

I've got one. It's good, but has flaws. I love the GPRS (£6/month flat rate till April), syncing with outlook, IE, huge screen. Downsides are very poor battery life, occasional crashes, tiny buttons.

Overall though, I really like it .

Check out www.modaco.com/smartphone/ for more info/opinions.

[Podie]

dougt said: I also heard a rumour that it's 'locked' to approved Orange software only.

Most Orange phones are...

[moreymach]

Ive had one for about 6 weeks and am pretty pleased with it. It does everything wot it says on the tin really apart from battery life is abismal ( around 24 hours ! ) and as yet there are no car chargers or higher capacity batteries available (the O2 XDA is rumoured to fit though ). As someone else said www.modaco.com/smartphone has a wealth of info and opinions some good some bad.

[david010167]

Thanks chaps, I might take a walk down Oxford Steet this lunch time. I am in the mood for a new toy.

David

[Mr E]

MAte of mine had one of the first ones.

It's a bugfest. He's trying to get the S/W upgraded, but Orange can be a bit of a pain in that regard......

There's a really good webpage available. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[david010167]

Well, I now have one.

So far it looks good, but I need to use it for a while to see if it is any good.

David

[jimbro1000]

Also keep in mind that the O/S was *hacked* about 10 days ago and has proven rather vulnerable - something Orange are pretty unhappy with from what I heard.

www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/28898.html