Whither HTC's Blue Angel or Magician?

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://smartmobileassets.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl/Blah.pl?,v=display,b=news,m=1108680593' target='_blank'>http://smartmobileassets.com/cgi-bi...ws,m=1108680593</a><br /><br /></div>Two of the most popular Phone Edition devices today are the HTC Blue Angel (also known as the MDA/XDA III, i-Mate PDA2k and Siemens SX66) and the HTC Magician (also known as the i-Mate JAM and MDA Compact). If you've been looking for a GSM Pocket PC Phone, both are excellent candidates, so which one is best?<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20050218-BlueAngelMagician.jpg" /><br /><br />Dave Evans has written up a detailed comparison over on SmartMobileAssets to help you answer this question. Take a look -- there's lots of comparison shots as well to give you the "full picture".

[sub_tex]

Though I require a keyboard first and foremost for messaging, the Magician looks like the best PPC phone that is PDA centric.

Nice screen, excellent size...

The colors look so much better than the i-mate.

[Horus]

I've used both and they are both good - depending on what you are after.
If you are a messaging junkie first and foremost, then you'll like the Blue Angel. If size is a concern, but you still want the full PDA capabilities of the Pocket PC, the Magician is a great choice.
And the beauty, of course, is that they both run all the same apps. For me, that is the great thing about Windows Mobile. You get a ton of interesting choices out there for hardware, but the software platform is the same.
So everybody wins. :-)

[Paragon]

If you are a messaging junkie first and foremost, then you'll like the Blue Angel.

Dang! That would have been a perfect line to use. I wish I had though to used it. :)

dave

[rmasinag]

Silly question regarding wm2003 phones.

Can you use .wav/.mp3 files for ringtones??

god forbid if I can't use Star Trek sound bytes on my "tricorder" communicator. :lol:

[lpret42]

I don't know if I missed it or what, but does anyone know who is going to be carrying the Magician in the US?

Please please please let it be Cingular...

[dma1965]

I really love the form factor of the Magician, but definitely need WiFi. Also, I like the fact that the Blue Angel has 128megs of RAM. Once you get used to all that RAM, it is hard to go back.

[Paragon]

Silly question regarding wm2003 phones.

Can you use .wav/.mp3 files for ringtones??

god forbid if I can't use Star Trek sound bytes on my "tricorder" communicator. :lol:

.wav files are fine. To be totally honest *I think* you have to convert mp3, but don't quote me. :)

[Paragon]

I don't know if I missed it or what, but does anyone know who is going to be carrying the Magician in the US?

Please please please let it be Cingular...

So far no USA carriers have picked up the Magician yet.

[Paragon]

I really love the form factor of the Magician, but definitely need WiFi. Also, I like the fact that the Blue Angel has 128megs of RAM. Once you get used to all that RAM, it is hard to go back.

Pocket PC Techs are offering a 128mb upgrade for the Magician, for anyone interested.

[Jason Lee]

Silly question regarding wm2003 phones.

Can you use .wav/.mp3 files for ringtones??

god forbid if I can't use Star Trek sound bytes on my "tricorder" communicator. :lol:

mp3 files do not work. all the ringtones i made for my moto v600 were mp3... wav files work fine. and just today i actually tried a wma file for the heck of it and........ it worked!!! so i made a nice selection of 70's and 80's tv show ringers. :D

p.s. a good place for ring tones is amazon. just look up the cd that has the song you want and it will most likely have a 30 sec preview that you can record then run through windows media encoder. ;)

[adamz]

Silly question regarding wm2003 phones.

Can you use .wav/.mp3 files for ringtones??

god forbid if I can't use Star Trek sound bytes on my "tricorder" communicator. :lol:

The IA Caller ID Software included with the JAM supports WAV, MP3, WMA, WMV, WM, 3GP, ASF, MID, MP4.
They have problems if you're running them off a storage card though. They'll work if stored in main memory.

[mangochutneyman]

Here's a thought.... why not design a PPC phone with the form factor of the imate jam and also the sliding keyboard of the Blue Angel? I think a sliding keyboard/numeric keypad integrated into the imate jam would be a stupendous move... :wink:

[Stephen Beesley]

I love the features of the Blue Angle - but for my taste boy is that one ugly PPC...

[Eriq Cook]

What's taking so long for T-Mobile to release the MDA III in the US?

[Eriq Cook]

Silly question regarding wm2003 phones.

Can you use .wav/.mp3 files for ringtones??

god forbid if I can't use Star Trek sound bytes on my "tricorder" communicator. :lol:

.wav files are fine. To be totally honest *I think* you have to convert mp3, but don't quote me. :)

Yes, you have to convert MP3 files to WAV to use as ring tones.

[Janak Parekh]

What's taking so long for T-Mobile to release the MDA III in the US?
The question can be generalized: what's taking so long for T-Mobile US to release pretty much anything new Windows Mobile nowadays? :|

--janak

[ricksfiona]

Here's a thought.... why not design a PPC phone with the form factor of the imate jam and also the sliding keyboard of the Blue Angel? I think a sliding keyboard/numeric keypad integrated into the imate jam would be a stupendous move... :wink:

No way, that would ruin the device in my opinion. I HATE those tiny keyboards and I would rather see the space used for that to install WiFi and a bigger battery to better support VGA and 128MB of RAM.

The Magician would be the perfect device if it had the specs I made. Until it does, if ever, I'll probably get the Blue Angel. I can live without VGA for now. I'll only use the slide out keyboard if I'm in tight conditions.

Man, we are SO close to getting SUPER awesome devices! I'm just waiting for the Dell X50v to have cell phone/quad-band GPRS capabilities! That would totally rock!!!

[beq]

Is it true T-Mo USA only ever (and will ever) use the 1900MHz band in all of its GSM network (no 850MHz)?

[beq]

Hmm, according to infoSync (http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5795.html) as linked from the latest PPCThoughts posting, the Magician (MDA Compact) is quad-band?

[Jason Lee]

Hmm, according to infoSync (http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5795.html) as linked from the latest PPCThoughts posting, the Magician (MDA Compact) is quad-band?

hehe.. yeah i noticed that too. it is most definitely tri-band. :)

[Janak Parekh]

Is it true T-Mo USA only ever (and will ever) use the 1900MHz band in all of its GSM network (no 850MHz)?
I don't know if I can say anything about "ever and ever", but I think T-Mobile US only has 1900 licenses now, and they have a substantial chunk of people who have 1900-only phones, so I wouldn't expect any short-term changes.

--janak

[bnycastro]

I have the i-mate JAM and am loving it! However I really miss the Widcomm BT stack... if the JAM came with 128MB and Widcomm this would be perfect for me. The size is really great! Although I will also be looking at the iPAQ mobile messenger (as this has a built-in keyboard and will probably have Widcomm) when it comes out.