Need a PDA phone in July - which one?

[dom_xbox]

And for the record, the N-Gage was a dual-band phone.

http://www.n-gage.com/en-GB/gamedeck/ngage/techspex/ N-Gage IS Tri Band

http://www.n-gage.com/en-GB/gamedeck/ngage_qd/techspex/ N-Gage QD IS Dual band

I had the N-Gage..

Microsoft phones generally have poor RF because they're mostly manufactured by companies with little wireless communication experience. They don't have the technical expertise of the likes of Nokia or Motorola and so their RF performance suffers as a result. Getting good RF performance out of a phone is a black art that few companies have mastered.

HTC which make the Blue Angel (XDAIIs) and the Alpine (XDAIIi) have probably used a different rf module well thats my understanding.. i think ill search for some info.. just for my own curiousity

[koocha]

Get the HTC Hermes (also called the T-Mobile MDA Vario II)

[koocha]

I'm getting my new one on Wednesday.

It's on T-Mobile and I get the MDA Vario (HTM Wizard, Q-Tek 9100, i-mate K-JAM) with Co Pilot Sat Nav for £29.99 on the Flext 35 tariff (£180 worth of credit for calls, mms and sms) and web'n'walk (unlimited (ok, so it's 2Gb) GPRS usage) for £32 a month.

So to sum up:

£29.99 one off + £32 a month = MDA Vario with Co Pilot Sat Nav + £180 worth of credit (1800 sms, 900mms, 900 anytime mins or a combination of all 3)

BARGAIN!

[xpcomputers]

I'm getting my new one on Wednesday.

It's on T-Mobile and I get the MDA Vario (HTM Wizard, Q-Tek 9100, i-mate K-JAM) with Co Pilot Sat Nav for £29.99 on the Flext 35 tariff (£180 worth of credit for calls, mms and sms) and web'n'walk (unlimited (ok, so it's 2Gb) GPRS usage) for £32 a month.

So to sum up:

£29.99 one off + £32 a month = MDA Vario with Co Pilot Sat Nav + £180 worth of credit (1800 sms, 900mms, 900 anytime mins or a combination of all 3)

BARGAIN!

Where are you getting this deal from? Is it from the T-Mobile website or a local shop? I'm having reall difficulty tracking one down... it seems everyone wanted one and there are none left!

Has anyone got any inside info on the T-Mobile "25% off monthly line rental deal" (dierct from them only) - Is the offer finishing at the end of the month? or will it be extended into May? (Or maybe a new but equally compelling offer?). I am concerned that the end of the month will come and go without being able to signup and I'll miss out....

Mike

[koocha]

I got mine from a T-Mobile shop (make sute it actually is a T-Mobile shop and not a franchised one).

Who knows what the deal will be? It may carry on, it may not. There maybe something better...I'm guessing not as it was an introductory offer with the new Flext plan.

But who knows...

Got mine by the way. AND IT'S FAB

[pp05]

It runs out this weekend.

[xpcomputers]

I am probably going to stick with O2 as they have offered me a very good deal to stay on. In some ways not as good as Flext35 and certainly no Web'n'Walk option (O2 say they can't do that), but in other ways the O2 deal is better.

The clincher for me is that T-mobile don't have the phones available until next Tues at earliest, and offer will have finished by then. I can wait to see if T-Mobile will still give me the 25% when the phones finally come back into stock (none to be had anywhere... especially not with Sat Nav) but there are no guarantees that they will (although my name is on a list somewhere, and the decision whether to extend offer to those on the list will be taken by management - not holding my breath though!). So then it would be back to £35 for the Flext35 instead of £26.

Whereas O2 have the phone in stock and will do me a good deal to stay and it is only a 12 month contract, so if it all goes belly up, I can bail out next year to whoever will do me the best deal then.

I'm still not fully decided, so I might wait a few days, then see what happens with T-Mobile. I think my quote with O2 will last for 7 days at least.

Thanks for all the info people.....

Mike

[chrestomanci]

Disclaimer: I work for Nokia

The 9300 and 9300i are the same size, but the 9300i has Wi-Fi better keyboard and various other updates. Neither has a camera. The 9500 is significantly larger, and has a VGA camera, but is not otherwise any better than the 9300i. None have a touch screen.

the 9300 and 9300i is standard issue to the PHBs where I work, so I see a lot of them in use. They are fully synced with the corporate intra-net, people receive their emails on their phones just as easily as at their PCs. I do not know how well that sort of stuff would work without corporate IT backing it up.

Overall they look like good devices, and I will be asking my boss for one, but then I won't be paying myself, and I would not be able to get a Microsoft or palm device in any case.

[icq3800846]

I love my Mio A701 which is a windows 5.0 device with camera and GPS receiver all built in, but it doesn't have WIFi unless you buy a WiFi SDIO card for it, and it relies on an on screen software keyboard, unless you buy a bluetooth keyboard.

The screen is clear and crisp, but as it is a small screen (not like the giant sized PDA ones of a year ago) the keyboard on screen is quite small and might not be suitable for those who need bifocals!

[xpcomputers]

Ok. Since my last post, the offers from O2 just got MUCH better.

I went for the XDA Mini S from O2. I got the phone free with a bluetoth headset thrown in. They offered me 650 minutes (Cross Network Anytime) and 300 texts, for.... £15 a month!!! WOW!
Only a 12 month contract too. (After 12months I revert to £35 a month, but can negotiate a new deal then, or leave for another network.... I couldn't refuse an offer like that!). I was currently paying £45 per month for 400 minutes & 50 texts.

My new phone arrives in 3-5 days.

I basically tried the upgrades team and told them I was thinking of moving to T-mobile... they offered me a fairly competitive offer, but not quite as good as T-mobile. The phenominal offer that swung it for me came from their "rententions team" (choose "cancellations" from the menu choices). That team can pretty much offer you anything you want to keep you on your existing network (all networks have a team like this). Just tell them you were looking at an excellent deal from another network, but wanted to see if they could offer you something better. If you are not sure about their deal, then say you need time to think about it. You can often get an even better deal on the second call. Don't be worried about asking for extras. I got the extra 200 texts and the free bluetooth headset just by asking. They seem to pretty much say yes to anything you are gutsy enough to ask for.

I hope this helps someone else save a packet. I'm going to save about £400 on my mobile bills this year just because of that phone call.

My new phone arrives at the end of the week.

[autopilot]

I just got my MDA Vario and i am loving it. Went from a K750i and i dont know why i have not had a PDA phone before now. The Vario II could be out in less than a month, but i needed it quick (for GPS at work). The faster CPU would be nice, but not essential, and i don't need/want 3G or video calling. But i would not go for the Flext 18 month contract, i want to upgrade sooner than that FFS! Imagine how gutted you will be when devices 2 generations newer are coming out.

A couple of points - forget the T-Mobile Co-Pilot deal. It was £130 with Co-Pilot but free without (you have to phone them to get it without, it's not on the website). Get TomTom (can be had for less than £130 inc BT receiver) and TomTom is WAAAAAAAAY better than co-pilot (especially with the celeb voices )

The Vario is not as slow as people have reported, just dont have loads of apps running at the same time, you dont need to anyway. It plays video files (DVDs) at high quality and full screen no problem, you just need a better media player than the rbish Windows Media Player. Skype is quite sluggish (because its poor optimised code), but get this - you can OVERCLOCK the vario! Quite a sigficant amount in fact, 195MHz - 260Mhz+. Skype runs well then, and you can sent it to only overclock while Skype is running.

Anyway, i highly recommend one. I am having much fun sniffing out open WiFi networks with a program called Wififofum

[autopilot]

Ok. Since my last post, the offers from O2 just got MUCH better...

Nice, but dont expect such a good deal next year. I had the same thing with O2 last year, they through stuff at me and gave me everything i wanted for free with a mental deal on my line rental. It was incredible.

Then this year i did the same thing and called retentions to 'cancel'. But because i had a great deal last year my monthly spend was low. They were a complete arse and would not help me at all. 4 years with O2 (spending a lot in the first 3 years, although they ignored this)) yet now they could not care less? They practically gave me T-Mobiles sales line and told me to piss off. So thats what i did.

BTW, the great deals on the XDA Mini are due to the fact that it will be discontinued in about 3 weeks to be replaced to the MUCH faster XDA Mini II The XDA Mini s is still a perfectly great bit of kit though. I have the Vario (same thing) and would have waited if i could.

[DaBeeeenster]

Anyone have a firm launch date in the UK for the VarioII/HTC Hermes?

[autopilot]

Some time in may is all i have heard.

[t_aitch]

Does anyone know when the imate jamin (XDA neo) will be available on o2?

This looks sweet, and ive tried it out in the orange shop, just would like it on o2!