Should I send my loox back?

[Steve_d]

Hi all,

I just bought a loox for £299.99 and it should arrive tonight. I have just found this forum and am a little concerned as to whether I have bought a good'n or not. The battery thing has got me spooked, as well as a few other things people have mentioned (compact flash problem, new loox coming out soon, lack of support from FS). I have never had a PDA before and assumed it would last 6 hours minimum (I am going to use it for bluetooth GPS).

Maybe I should just send it back unopened, but any comparable device (Ipaq) is £150 dearer.

All the reviews I read rated it highly !!!


Steve.

[bagemk]

Don't despair. The Loox is a good PDA. Like all internet forums, this one is frequented by those who like to whinge.

I've never had battery problems with my Loox. Mine typically gets used for about 4 hours media playback, an hour or so of general PDA stuff (mail, reader, calendar) and probably another hour or so of wireless web surfing using a CF-wireless card every day. Typically, it only gets cradled for an hour or so during that time and then overnight.

All PDAs have their problems - some models of the Ipaq share a similar backlight bug to the Loox. The Axim has had a few updates now. Unfortunately, a PDA runs on software and it is (wrongly, but generally) accepted that software has bugs and updates are part of the experience.

Also, PDAs, like PCs are obsolete by the time they are launched. As soon as any manufacturer launches such a product, they are already working on a new model. If you wait on every rumour that circulates about PDAs, you will never buy one.

[JvanEkris]

In the Netherlands the support is excellent. In the Netherlands it is listed under the professional products, with the same service as the mission critical servers :). Although repairs sometimes last longer than promissed, they are extremely flexible and without hassle. it is the first helpdesk where i found people actually using a Loox and listening to customers (compare that to the average script-monkey from HP that starts with the most idiotic questions). As i understood on the firstloox forum (www.firstloox.org), the english support is about the same.

The CF problem you managed is unknown to me. I never heard about it (Loox user for about a year now). There is a new Loox on the horizon, but that is always the case. Ipaqs had three (!) changes in models....

Battery life is no problem, but using it without power for bluetooth GPS for more than six hours in a strech is impossible for any PDA. Personally, my Loox lasts about for hours continous use on 200 MHZ, with a tweakutility, you can set it to 100 Mhz, making it last for six. This is without bluetooth. The Loox has a battery extension that can help you in this respect, but i have no experience with it.

Another option is, when you use it in a car, to charge it in the car. Most PDA's do in fact.

Jaap

[Steve_d]

Thanks for the feedback. It's good to know some people out there still rate it.

Jvan - do you use 'pocket hack master'? I was thinking of getting that and underclocking it to extend battery life.

It seems a lot of people are getting a problem with powering up when the compact flash is still docked. They have to remove it and then power up.
(see
http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/ubb-files/Forum5/HTML/000462.html )


I guess i will just have to see how long it lasts with the bluetooth and Tomtom software running.

Steve

[JvanEkris]

I don't use pocket Hack Master. I like simplicity. I use Turbo Tray 472 (NOT 497!), you can find it on http://www.elevatedstudios.com/pocket/. This adds a small turbo Tray icon, by clicking it you can make your loox run faster/slower. Normally (listening MP3's, scheduling appointments) 100 Mhz suffices. But when using TomTom Navigator, i like to switch to 400 Mhz or even 472 Mhz.

Only CF-card problem i heard of was that the Loox would not sync when a CF card was installrd. The guy sent it back to Siemens, got it back after four days and it was up and running wothout problems.

Only problem i experienced was that the CF-card (256 Mb) and SD card (256 Mb) would initialize after each other. When resetting, the SD-card would initialize too late, and my applications depending on the SD-card would hang themselves. No i switched to a 512 Mb SD card, i have no problems any more. But that could be a problem with the @$@%@$ SD card as well.

It is pretty straightforward setting it up. The Emtac has a passkey of 0183, first make a bond in plugfree and open the port once. Then it makes a special port (number followed by [DUN] i think). That you can use in TomTom. Now, the only thing you have to do before you start TomTom, just switch the bluetooth switch (hardware), and the Loox finds the Bluetooth GPS automatically.....

Jaap

Jaap