dhopton
08-27-2002, 02:04 PM
Summary: This phone rocks. IMHO, better than that XDA, but it has the same fundemental flaws.
First off, I'm not going to do any pictures because there have been many of them, and I don't see any advantage in posting some crappy grainy pictures from my web cam.
Background:
I went into town to post a letter and to have a weak look at the current crop of mobiles - my contract was just ending, and the phone was dieing, so it was time to upgrade. I had the intention of holiding out for a stinger phone, but they seem to be getting more and more delayed.
The first store I popped into was the vodafone retail store since Vodafone are my chosen network provider and have proven to be reliable in the past. I was primarilty wanting to look at the 7650 to see what it was actually like, along with the Moto V70 with the funky twist cover (I'd heard it was GPRS, which was on my "must have" list). Just before I'd left the house, I'd been told that the 928 was "imminently" available. What do I see in the store as I'm waiting for a sales assitant? the 928! It looks absolutely wonderful! Nice price too - £389! I ask to have a look at it along with the 7650... it's quickly apparent that the 928 is the better for me being a die hard microsoft man. I discuss, play, and ask about it. I also discuss price, as they offering a "spread the payments" 12 month option (it goes on your bill with no extra credit checks. Interest free too).
I ended up getting it.
Physical Details:
Pefect. Fits in the hand perfectly. Fits in my jeans pockets perfectly. It's more confortable in my pocket than my Siemens SL45 which is replaces, since it actually takes up space in my pocket. It's weight is very good too (quoted as 194g iirc). The ariel on the top flips up and seems to do NOTHING for sucking in the GSM signal - although it seems to work better in low reception areas than my SL45. The stylus is too small and too angled - I've got small hands, and I found it hard to hold conformtably.
The cradle is nice, works well, but it would be nice if it "clipped" the device in. It also has the ghosting on the screen from the radio. Also the demo device in the store had this - it seems to be a common failing.
Software:
This is where the device starts to fall down. The pocket PC part of the device is fine, but the Phone sections of the device really do feel tacked on in a rush.
Firstly, here in europe SMS messaging is a *huge* thing - if a phone cant do that well, then it's not very good. There are a number of problems with this:
* no quick way to say "new SMS" - You either have to create a new email message and then change the service type (5/6 taps compared to 2 button presses on my Siemens), or Go into the "phone" applet, and then new sms (1 button press, 2 taps). Not good
* Reception of an SMS only displays the number, not the Name. WTF? Couldnt they look in contacts and display the name for the matching number, Ala EVERY OTHER PHONE IN THE WORLD. :mad:
* No ability to select reception reports - there is no way to select the option to have a delivery report when the destination recives my message. This would not have shown up so much on the XDA because O2 dont support delivery reports on their network (from a network into o2, it does, but no from a O2 device)
This really really really sucks. *BAD*. But I was prepared to forgive the device because overall it's really good.
My complaints about the phone functionality are not so bad, but it's still not wonderful. I synced with my desktop, and all is wonderful. Except that when I tried to dial my first number from Contacts, I got a message from the "Teles network" that the current number was unavailable... que? It seems I have to go through all my numbers and remove the leading 0...now, Outlook on the desktop expects the format +44 (01234) 456789 for the UK numbers to make it truely happy. PPCPE wanted +44 (1234) 456789. ARGH.
After playing with this device for all of saturday and sunday, I was feeling at home, and it seemed to be perfectly good for my needs, and it had a PPC as well, which meant I could play with developing some .net apps on it. On monday I thought I would investigate the PPC side of things a little more... Off I go in search of a remote control application to control my TV. Turns out the BBC have a wonderful tool from the Radio Times that gives tv schedule and allows you to change the channel... I download, install, sit infront of the TV, and try to change the channel - it locks the device solid requring a press of the reset button. I do this ~8 times before giving up. Great. There is an incompatbility with my Device :( I download a nother, but it does nothing with the TV - no lock ups this time!
Finally, we have the tour de force of bad things about this device (and PPC-PE in general)... it has no support for being used as a modem from a laptop. What were they thinking when they created the platform and left this off? :rolleyes: Because of this, I'm going to have to try and return the device - without this it's useless. Serves me right I suppose for not doing enought research before purchasing... no more impulse buys for me.
Excluding the modem problem: 7/10
With modem problem: 3/10
First off, I'm not going to do any pictures because there have been many of them, and I don't see any advantage in posting some crappy grainy pictures from my web cam.
Background:
I went into town to post a letter and to have a weak look at the current crop of mobiles - my contract was just ending, and the phone was dieing, so it was time to upgrade. I had the intention of holiding out for a stinger phone, but they seem to be getting more and more delayed.
The first store I popped into was the vodafone retail store since Vodafone are my chosen network provider and have proven to be reliable in the past. I was primarilty wanting to look at the 7650 to see what it was actually like, along with the Moto V70 with the funky twist cover (I'd heard it was GPRS, which was on my "must have" list). Just before I'd left the house, I'd been told that the 928 was "imminently" available. What do I see in the store as I'm waiting for a sales assitant? the 928! It looks absolutely wonderful! Nice price too - £389! I ask to have a look at it along with the 7650... it's quickly apparent that the 928 is the better for me being a die hard microsoft man. I discuss, play, and ask about it. I also discuss price, as they offering a "spread the payments" 12 month option (it goes on your bill with no extra credit checks. Interest free too).
I ended up getting it.
Physical Details:
Pefect. Fits in the hand perfectly. Fits in my jeans pockets perfectly. It's more confortable in my pocket than my Siemens SL45 which is replaces, since it actually takes up space in my pocket. It's weight is very good too (quoted as 194g iirc). The ariel on the top flips up and seems to do NOTHING for sucking in the GSM signal - although it seems to work better in low reception areas than my SL45. The stylus is too small and too angled - I've got small hands, and I found it hard to hold conformtably.
The cradle is nice, works well, but it would be nice if it "clipped" the device in. It also has the ghosting on the screen from the radio. Also the demo device in the store had this - it seems to be a common failing.
Software:
This is where the device starts to fall down. The pocket PC part of the device is fine, but the Phone sections of the device really do feel tacked on in a rush.
Firstly, here in europe SMS messaging is a *huge* thing - if a phone cant do that well, then it's not very good. There are a number of problems with this:
* no quick way to say "new SMS" - You either have to create a new email message and then change the service type (5/6 taps compared to 2 button presses on my Siemens), or Go into the "phone" applet, and then new sms (1 button press, 2 taps). Not good
* Reception of an SMS only displays the number, not the Name. WTF? Couldnt they look in contacts and display the name for the matching number, Ala EVERY OTHER PHONE IN THE WORLD. :mad:
* No ability to select reception reports - there is no way to select the option to have a delivery report when the destination recives my message. This would not have shown up so much on the XDA because O2 dont support delivery reports on their network (from a network into o2, it does, but no from a O2 device)
This really really really sucks. *BAD*. But I was prepared to forgive the device because overall it's really good.
My complaints about the phone functionality are not so bad, but it's still not wonderful. I synced with my desktop, and all is wonderful. Except that when I tried to dial my first number from Contacts, I got a message from the "Teles network" that the current number was unavailable... que? It seems I have to go through all my numbers and remove the leading 0...now, Outlook on the desktop expects the format +44 (01234) 456789 for the UK numbers to make it truely happy. PPCPE wanted +44 (1234) 456789. ARGH.
After playing with this device for all of saturday and sunday, I was feeling at home, and it seemed to be perfectly good for my needs, and it had a PPC as well, which meant I could play with developing some .net apps on it. On monday I thought I would investigate the PPC side of things a little more... Off I go in search of a remote control application to control my TV. Turns out the BBC have a wonderful tool from the Radio Times that gives tv schedule and allows you to change the channel... I download, install, sit infront of the TV, and try to change the channel - it locks the device solid requring a press of the reset button. I do this ~8 times before giving up. Great. There is an incompatbility with my Device :( I download a nother, but it does nothing with the TV - no lock ups this time!
Finally, we have the tour de force of bad things about this device (and PPC-PE in general)... it has no support for being used as a modem from a laptop. What were they thinking when they created the platform and left this off? :rolleyes: Because of this, I'm going to have to try and return the device - without this it's useless. Serves me right I suppose for not doing enought research before purchasing... no more impulse buys for me.
Excluding the modem problem: 7/10
With modem problem: 3/10