Smartphones: back to the best

Mize

Mize

3dfx Fan
Legend
After an 18-month attempt at living with Windows Mobile (5 and 6) I finally tossed my hands up and bought a Centro.

No WiFi, no UMTS, no 3G.

But it works 10^9 times better than the horror that is Windows Mobile.

Fast response, few buttons, no stylus necessary, push from any IMAP server with IDLE, type one-handed while walking through airport, etc.

Considered the iPhone but no cut/paste is absurd IMHO and I couldn't master one-handed "typing" and syncing with linux is currently not possible.

Maybe blackberry was a rout to consider (SyncML to scheduleworld to linux), but all the smaller models have that hybrid qwerty bastardization.

So three days into a Palm Centro I'm retro and happier than ever. Kills windows and much, much better than my old Treo 650 from 2 years ago.

Something like this OS with WiFi and UMTS would be the end all.
 
I can't stand the palms myself (they just don't feel right), but glad you're happy with yours.
 
I couldn't find a one-handed WM and taking out a stylus or sliding a keyboard to use non-threaded IM was murder. WM looks great, but the number of steps per action is absurd IMHO. Adding an appointment is like a frickin' project compared to simply hitting calender, thumbing to the date and time and typing (one-handed in the airport) "meeting with joe" end of story.

I really did like the looks of WM and the multitasking (albeit painfully slow), but it was so many steps for each thing I stopped using it and it became merely a phone/email device, not a PIM.
 
There's plenty of touch screen phones running windows mobile. I think the iphone probably has the best pop up touch typing screen (although not WM), but my brothers HTC touch seems more than adequate to me. I guess its just what you're used to.
 
The Treo had some serious issues partly related to firmware, partly related to Windows Mobile 5. Once you got the latest firmware and Mobile 6, I think it worked quite well. I actually miss it - because of the issues (that through lack of a tech guy back then wasn't properly addressed for everyone, even though I created and mailed instructions) with the old firmware and Mobile 5 it was eventually replaced by some non-brand HTC SmartPhone. I miss being able to easily write .NET software for it. It's still possible, but a lot more work.

Screen was too small though, and too low-res.

Input method of the IPhone is one of my biggest misgivings against it - I'm insanely fast with two thumbs, as fast as most people are on a regular keyboard.
 
I never used a Treo WM...I mainly used HTC/Samsung and Moto devices for WM. Just didn't like how many steps for simple items and I loath having to dig a stylus out.
 
It's funny you mention this, because I had a Treo 680 (Palm OS) and decided to move to a Treo 700wx.

There are a few things in the WM version that I don't like, but much of that just needs getting used to and lots of stuff is superior. Java works much better, for one thing, which lets me use offline mapping software. Other software also seems better. Multitasking is nice, as is the overall look. One handed operation is almost the same because they both have similar form factors, and you can set up shortcut keys however you want.

The main reason I switched, though, is that I wanted a Verizon phone so that I could use Page Plus for cheap prepaid. WM was just a bonus.
 
I don't know about Treos, but this Blackberry 8830 has got everything I want with the exception of a camera.

Need one with a camera though, probably gonna switch soon....
 
Mintmaster said:
It's funny you mention this, because I had a Treo 680 (Palm OS) and decided to move to a Treo 700wx.

There are a few things in the WM version that I don't like, but much of that just needs getting used to and lots of stuff is superior. Java works much better, for one thing, which lets me use offline mapping software. Other software also seems better. Multitasking is nice, as is the overall look. One handed operation is almost the same because they both have similar form factors, and you can set up shortcut keys however you want.

The main reason I switched, though, is that I wanted a Verizon phone so that I could use Page Plus for cheap prepaid. WM was just a bonus.
Click to expand...

Maybe the things Palm did to WM were good. I never tried one. Here's my biggest gripe with WM.

1. At airport, check mail one-handed (no problem)
2. Want to reply? Hah! Stylus + slide keyboard time so much for walking
3. Take a call and then want to enter an appointment?
- hit calendar button
- hit menu
- hit new appointment
...up comes a huge dialog that's nearly impossible to navigate without a stylus and totally useless without one anyway since the kb is a slider
- spend 2-3 minutes fudging around and getting it entered.

---same thing on Palm

1. check email one-handed, no prob
2. Reply one-handed, no prob
3. Enter a calendar item?
-hit calendar
-scroll to date time (one-handed)
-type appointment, done in ten seconds

I have a laptop (regular and subnotebook) what I needed was a smart, fast-to-use phone/PIM and not a wannabe laptop.

Anyway, it works for me but I wish someone would come up with a newer OS that works as easily and fluidly but also supports wifi and UMTS since the owner of the PalmOS (Access) is apparently never going to get around to that.

It's like having to go back to DOS because win 3.1 was such a disaster...:)
 
I was considering buying a smart phone about a year ago, and while I think it's cute seeing most of my co-workers having such fun with their smart phones and styluses, I just bought a Motorola Razr 8. It's a great phone for actually having a phone conversation, and I can fill in an appointment just as fast.

Those tiny keyboards or a touch screen and/or stylus are no improvement on just pushing the button a couple of times. And I think they all suck at entering text equally.

If I want something easy to carry AND type, I'll bring my Asus eee PC 9.
 
Frank said:
I was considering buying a smart phone about a year ago, and while I think it's cute seeing most of my co-workers having such fun with their smart phones and styluses, I just bought a Motorola Razr 8. It's a great phone for actually having a phone conversation, and I can fill in an appointment just as fast.

Those tiny keyboards or a touch screen and/or stylus are no improvement on just pushing the button a couple of times. And I think they all suck at entering text equally.

If I want something easy to carry AND type, I'll bring my Asus eee PC 9.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but you can't sync it with your desktop too easily or get email on the road all over the world. I got an Asus eee for my daughter but the damn keys are too close together for my hands. I just take my Fujitsu 10" subnotebook for when I need a real computer.
 
I neglected to follow up my smartphone inquiry thread, but I broke down and bought an iPhone 3G. My cellular provider had been raping me for 5 years and I was growing tired of it. Luckily for me, my contract with them was up and I was paying as-I-go, so I wasn't subject to one final ridiculous payment by breaking my contract. All in all, it's a really, really nice phone. There's hardly an opportunity where I CAN'T find a wifi signal to tag, therefore I can constantly connect to the internet. Even in the train, which is one of the main reasons I decided to buy it. There are, however, a lot of miniscule issues with the phone, that apparently haven't been resolved since the first generation iPhone was released, such as no video camera, picture mail, yadda, yadda, yadda. The picture mail isn't that big a deal, for me, however. Almost everyone I know, now, uses a smartphone of some sort, so if there was a situation that called for me to send pictures, I could easily email them and attach as many as I wanted, of whatever resolution and size within the constraints of Gmail's policies, of course. As for video, I'm yet to see a phone that can capture even remotely good looking video, and if you're capturing something at a distance forget about it, so I'm not really missing that feature. Other than those two quarrels, which initially scared me, the phone is awesome.
 
Can you type one-handed on the iPhone? What about call quality? I seriously considered it (UMTS) but its SyncML support is crap right now.
 
Mize said:
Can you type one-handed on the iPhone? What about call quality? I seriously considered it (UMTS) but its SyncML support is crap right now.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can type with one hand. In fact , it's a boatload easier than the buttons on a standard cell phone. Plus, there's the auto-correct feature which can take care of a fair amount of misspelled words accordingly. At first, it takes a while to get used to, but soon enough you'll be composing entire emails on it faster than you imagined. One of the complaints I've heard is the lack of an ability to turn that feature off, but I've never had an issue with it that couldn't be resolved in less than a second. Call quality takes a little getting used to, not due to the provider, more getting used to how to HOLD the phone. When I first bought it, I thought it was too soft. I quickly realized it was due to my inherent stupidity and the fact that I wasn't holding it right, or close enough to my ear.
 
but do you really need a fancy phone ?
a t-shirt with "I am a twat" printed on the front is a lot cheaper :D
 
Davros said:
but do you really need a fancy phone ?
a t-shirt with "I am a twat" printed on the front is a lot cheaper :D
Click to expand...

Yet another advantage of the Centro - it looks like a normal candy-bar-music-playing phone. :)

I have to say, however, that I turned off push email - fricking thing vibrating or beeping every minute or two is just insane. Maybe I'll set up a new IMAP address and filter the crap out of emails to forward.
 
Mize said:
Agreed, but you can't sync it with your desktop too easily or get email on the road all over the world.
Click to expand...
The Razr syncs fine, with Exchange as well as the open standards. Google maps and such work as well.

Browsing a forum or typing an email isn't very convenient, though. ;)
 
I've got a HTC touch diamond (wm6.1) and that does everything you say. I can use everything with one hand, touchscreen works fine, Can type full querty with one hand quite easily and everything is pretty fast. Not as fast as with a ''dumb'' phone but that is logical. Ofcourse if you drop the manilla skin its back to the to small windows mobile buttons that you cant use very well with your fingers but as soons as you have everything like you want it you wont need that anymore anyway.

Not to mention the VGA screen (screw the iPhone, just try and use RDP or just browse with such a lowsy reso once you used VGA) which is awsome (and destroys the battery, but hey, you cant have everything I suppose).
 
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