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Hi
Just to let you folks know what a 'GREAT' device the new Ameo really is.
I received mine from T-Mobile earlier this week and first impressions were what a 'GREAT' big brick it actually was. I was always aware that the Universal was big but I couldn't believe that anyone would put up with the increased bulk of this new kid on the block.
I now know why I have become so smitten with the Ameo.
Having spent a few days with my huge friend I am somewhat taken in by its capabilities. Firstly you could never use the Ameo as a normal phone and this is reflected in the handset restricted use ie speakerphone/wired headset or the bluetooth equivalent. Could you really hold this beast to your ear and talk ?
Using the universal always made me tempted to use it as a conventional phone and forget its many virtues ie beautiful vga screen high spec built in qwerty keyboard etc.
I have been using the Spv M700 which I found to be far superior to the Compact III(Artemis) ie wi-fi 3g high speed data etc.
I found the Compact III to be sadly lacking with so many features compared to the vario 2. I know the in built Gps is a welcome addition but the spec of the device was a step backwards in my opinion.
Back to the Ameo.
Fast processor, beautiful screen, first class innovative keypad( graffiti is my preferred text method but the magnetic keyboard is a great idea) and what about that whopping 8GB microdrive. Plus you have the ability to increase the memory still further with the mini sd slot.
You are left in no doubt with the Ameo that your main use has to be its data capabilities.
I had used the Universal for a few months and whilst I found the device to be large it was still a great piece of kit. I understand that the Ameo is not the upgraded version of the mda pro.
Last of all can I congratulate T-Mobile with its bold move to be the first UK network to release the Ameo
Small is good but big is even better
I never thought id see the day I'd get rid of my beloved Athena, but yesterday I had an awakening.
Only a few days before i'd had a play on an IPhone and marvelled at its intuitive, smooth and just bloody BRILLIANT interface. it almost shocked me just how crude, ill-thought-out and unsatisfying windows mobile is in comparison. Now please don't baulk at this statement; i'm NOT going to buy an IPhone, it doesn't do enough for me and it's overpriced. But remember, this is Apple's FIRST. need I repeat FIIIIRRRSSST attempt at the mobile os market. how have they got it right so effortlessly while Microsoft, with all their years of experience in the field continue to make such crap?
I have shaken off my bias towards Microsoft and now simply resent their seeming inability to produce a mobile os that works well.
I don't wish this thread to be about the iphone. We all know its only 2g, can't do mms and doesn't have a particularly good camera. what it does do it does WELL though.
The same is true of Nokia's n800 and n810 internet tablets with os2008. they play YOUTUBE with flash 9. they render web pages smoothly and effortlessly. they look and feel nice. my n95 also - its web browser loads up data-heavy web pages PHENOMINALLY quicker than my Athena, despite its processor and ram spec being distinctly inferior.
why am I getting rid of my Ameo?
Put simply: it just doesn't work. it works a hell of a lot BETTER thanks to PK and the developers, but to all intents and purposes, when you really need it to work, it just doesn't. This is true of ALL windows mobile devices.
How often have you needed to use Internet Explorer to check something on the fly and been frustrated by a constant 'connecting' or 'opening' message for no apparent reason? How often has your windows mobile device crashed, frozen or botched up for no reason? I could go on, but I prefer to give my own personal remedy to the situation, and here it is....
dig out my old Hermes, dust off the cobwebs. use this for all my organising, scheduling etc...
install WmWifiRouter so my Hermes acts as a perfect wifi access point when its HSDPA capabilities are required.
buy a shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook for a little under 230 quid.
connect shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook to Hermes access point when internet is required away from home.
sell Athena to anyone who hasn't realised Windows Mobile is crap yet.
it seems to me that Microsoft are about to fall under the shadow of Apple and Nokia quite abruptly. somebody tell me i'm wrong!
p.s. - Athena for sale if anyone wants one
sounds like you either did a bad flash or got a bad batch coz my athena has never crashed once or had any of the problems you described.never the less,how much are you selling it for?is it an x7501 or x7500?
i can see what your on about , but personally i find that my Athena(Ameo) ticks about every box i want it to.
I want an all in one device for browsing, streaming, phoning and texting and running some other apps and the Athena is the only all in one device that ticks all those boxes for me. I like the thought of the Eee PC but only if it can run XP properly but still you need 2 devices which isnt what i want to do.
Hi Leoni1980,
I think its a question of how you configure your device. I agree that WM6 in its native mode is crap. It takes too many strokes to start an applicatio. It does not tell you what applications are active. It is difficult to switch from one to another. Yes, the list could be long.
However, I also find that with WM6 there are so many good third party software to overcome these limitations. While it takes too many clicks to start an application, iLauncher allows me to put every single applications on the today screen. While Wm6 does not tell you what applications are alive, wktask puts every running application on the taskbar and let me switch to anyone easily. WM6 lets me multitask. While pocket IE is crude in its navigation, pieplus makes it all pleasant.
For me, everything works extremely well. Athena is almost perfect in terms of portability, battery life, screen size and connectivity..
However, I agree that internet browsing is too slow. Even comparing it with a dialed up connection on a pc, it is relatively slow, unless I use the "mobile" versions of webpages. With the mobile versions, everything is snappy and instantaneous. Is Nokia not like that? Is Nokia able to let you browse the desktop version of webpages without any response time delay? If it is, microsoft would truly got to wake up and do something about it. Another thing that we have to be careful is not to fall into the trap of thinking grass is greener on the other side. According to Nokia customer support the N800 does not support 802.1X authentication with EAP-TTLS and PAP. Also, despite being a Linux based device the N800 lacks out of the box support for Ogg format media files.
So, Nokia is able to play the desktop version of youtube. I agree that this is a glaring disadvantage of Wm6 at the moment. W don't have the latest version of flash. Why is this the case is hard for me to understand. Why can Nokia have it and not WM6? Now, the only way to watch youtube desktop version is to download the flv files. Would be nice to be able to watch them without having to first download the videos.
You're now carrying two devices. A subnotebook and an old Hermes. This is definitely not a good way for me, because the subnotebook is too big and too battery short for me to carry it with me all the time. Not to mention that now there are two pieces of gear to carry instead of just one.
Having an all in one requires some compromises. You won't have the best digital camera in the world with this arrangement. Similarly, you won't have the biggest screens to go with it. There is always room for improvement, but for now, I still think Athena is the best device available in the market.
if i had to carry the subnotebook about ALL THE TIME i would agree, however i have the hermes for when i'm unfortunate enough to have to use internet explorer mobile.
The EEE is not actually THAT MUCH bigger than the Athena, and has very good battery life- almost twice that of the Shift running Vista. It is also capable of running full Xp. there are lots of videos on the subject and the EEE manual even tells you how to do it. Although on paper the EEE has a poorer battery life it is also far more responsive and thus allows me to do things in a quarter of the time it would on the Athena. As such battery life is not really an issue.
With regard to the N95's ability to display full web pages - I promise you this is the case. I've even found it capable of accessing sites the Athena was not capable of.
I initially wrote this off as perhaps a better 3g transmitter on the N95, but i tested my Athena over wifi for the first time the other day and still it rendered web pages in a painfully sluggish manner, despite our relatively fast broadband connection. The same was true when tested with Opera. This makes me believe that there is an inherent problem with the architecture of windows mobile which even the greatest developer couldn't overcome.
I wholly disagree with shortyboy's bad flash assertion - I've owned windows mobile devices for years and this problem has always existed.
Nor is it a configuration issue. I spend most of my days off tweaking phones to improve their performance. The fact is that no amount of tweaking will make an Athena as good at rendering web pages as a nokia or an iphone. Once microsoft sees this they might (we hope) scrap their plans to release wm7 with (no doubt) its FEW performance tweaks, the cute little flag in the top left-hand corner and the new, hardly-improved I.E. and build a whole new O.S. from scratch which makes the most of modern mobile cpus, doesn't look 10 years old and does everything it should out of the box. That way stupid hybrid devices like the Shift would never get off the ground as there would LITERALLY be no need for them.
Yes the Athena ticks every box in terms of connectivity - unfortunately this fact clouded my judgment of its actual performance - and that of all such devices - yes you can purchase all the third party software under the sun to make windows mobile usable but this software only makes life a little better, it doesn't FIX the problems.
Just have a play on an n810 when it comes out this month and you'll see what I mean -os2008 is so smooth, well-considered and functional. Just try browsing the internet on it, or watching a video on it. It just WORKS and works well. Even OS 2007 outperforms windows mobile.
Cex sell n800s for 200quid. This month they will all be upgradeable to os2008. The pocket gadget side of me is SORELY tempted!!
p.s. its an x7500 t-mobile branded. It has the 4-in-one and lots of other bits.
I agree with many of your points on the Athenas lack of usability.
Mine is used for little more than a wireless access point these days, I'm in prison typing this on my Asus Eee pc running XP, which is much more of a pleasure to use for email and web browsing. (Not in prison as an inmate, I'm an officer...)
This nokia N800. It does not have a GPS, does it?
How about third party software?
I hope to check out on this myself. Anyone knows where in Sydney I could try out this device?
athena project need an athena
Midget_1990 said:
athena project need an athena
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its here if you need it Midget.
eaglesteve - the n800 has no inbuilt GPS receiver, although it is compatible with map software (including gmaps and Nokia Maps) and any bluetooth receivers. Many people prefer separate gps receivers as they can be positioned more effectively in the vehicle. It is pretty much identical in hardware terms to the n810 aside from the built-in keyboard and GPS. processor and ram are the same and it has two SDHC slots as opposed to the single one on the n810.
I think it's a bargain myself.
Took delivery of my black eee pc today and I'm so impressed by its size and performance. Everything works out of the box, from BBC online to divx stage six to youtube. It even picks up and syncs with my Ipod, and you can mod the look of the os to your heart's content.
ALL FOR JUST OVER 200 QUID!
It's bigger than the Athena, sure, but I had to carry the Athena in a bag anyway and the weight/mass difference is negligible in this scenario. The battery life is not technically as good either - but it boots SOOOOOO quick that this almost isn't an issue. I can fire it up and use it when I need it if I'm out, and merrily use my old Hermes for practical pocket pc/telephone duties - even Wifi access point functionality.
I literally don't need the Athena anymore.
I don't like a separate GPS unit. It means I need to carry two devices when I play golf, and can't get the fix prior to entering my car. Also, when I get off the train and walk, I can't use it to tell me direction to my destination as easily as Athena.
I still think Athena is the best for now. But I'm all ready to switch if there is a better product. I don't see such a product yet.
WM6 = WM5
Just think about that and try to realize that Windows Mobile 5 is A LOT OLDER than the OS'es on the iPhone and N800/N810.
WM7 will change a LOT on an HTC. (Different shell, different hardware)
And before you insult HTC, you need to wait on the new OS.
Agree.
WM6 is still based on ce5. Ce6 is about to be released. Looking forward to major major improvements
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
p.s.: how is that i can only insert four smilies?! had to remove three because i typed seven of them, wtf
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
spacecat said:
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
leoni1980 said:
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like i said wait till dual comes out. the team had a breakthrough yesturday and a new app will be in dual.. more details when rom comes out.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder what your thoughts are on Softmaker office Textmaker, which should be superb on the athena in 96dpi? You may not even get the slowdown that you describe in Word. I use PlanMaker (their spreadsheet) and it works quite well in (96dpi) on my athena.
leoni1980 said:
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my current thinking is to get one and leave it at work, which is where i do most of my 'ATHENAring' ...is that a word !
And use my athena as an HSDPA modem for the Eee with XP installed on it.
I would then keep my Athena for when im out and about and NOT at work, hence keeping the full Athena mobility including the important ability to make calls and send texts.
Im not in a terrible hurry to do this and i understand that Asus are going to bring out upgraded versions of the Eee.
Bigger drives , 10 inch screen etc. Mind you its the small form factor that interests me esp as i may want to carry the Eee at some point.
I am however still well into my Athena and by the rom updates, looking forward to the DUAL rom which sounds exciting but im clueless as to what it can do more than PK3.0
Greetings,
I 'upgraded' - though I use the term loosely and don't wish to sound detrimental - from an Athena to a Nokia E90 communicator on the 13th February. My experience of different mobile operating systems over the past 12 months has been extensive (not to mention expensive) but for the most part i've drifted back and forth between Windows Mobile and Symbian.
There are comparisons available on the net of the two devices, but these are generally based on the Windows Mobile 5 factory install without tweaks, and - in the case of both phones - don't take into account the multitude of apps that people use for pleasure on their phones, and the tweaks which make the user experience all the nicer.
I decided to give a little rundown of what I miss about the Athena and a few summary comparisons between the Nokia E90 and the Athena based on real-world usage.
SIZE
Both devices are generally deemed large, though the Athena is positively Brobdingnagian in comparison to the E90 - which kind of resembles a Nokia N70 with a big jacket on!
FORM FACTOR AND CONSTRUCTION
Needn't go into too much depth about the Athena's construction here as I'm sure you're all familiar with it. My personal opinion is that its keyboard is a design catastrophy with mushy feedback, no backlight and an unadjustable screen/keyboard gradient. HOWEVER the minimalist styling of the device when the keyboard is removed is very pleasurable.
I thoroughly enjoyed texting and emailing with fingertouch and Touchflo in unison and miss this feature more than anything else.
The E90 uses a fully hardware-based input system since it doesn't have a touchscreen however the QWERTY keyboard is fabulous, with individual number keys and a plethora of shortcut buttons, including two customizable ones - AND a backlight.
When closed all the functions of the phone are still available albeit using a qvga display - making it act analogously to most regular Symbian smartphones.
Both handsets are of a very well-constructed metallic finish but all the weightier for it.
Personally I like a bit of weight to my phones.
The E90 gains a few extra points in my estimates for the fact that its main screen is protected in my pocket without the need for a case.
CALL HANDLING
The E90 offers more choices to the user as once folded it can be used as a normal (large) mobile phone. The Athena on the other hand only has a loudspeaker, which is fine if you're on your own but not so good when in company. Both devices can be used with handsfree kits - either in-car or earpieces and both have perfectly good voice command software available. Out of the box the E90 offers voice command functions such as dialing individual contacts by name without the need to program each number in.
The E90 wins here easily for me as it just offers so many options and therefore more convenience.
THE SCREEN
Despite the fact that it makes the Athena MASSIVE I do think the screen is bright, crisp and beautiful. The E90's screen is less bright but VERY readable outdoors.
The clarity and resolution of both displays is a breath of fresh air, however the Athena's is better for the long haul, particularly if you like E-books and word processing on the go.
It's nice to have a touchscreen, and I miss the feature with my E90, though only to a small degree as there are so many shortcut keys on the Nokia device that a touchscreen would be fairly redundant and affect readability in daylight.
USABILITY AND SPEED
The two devices are on a par to me, though out-of-box the E90 is simpler as closing down and switching between applications is facilitated by a hardware button.
There are a selection of free third-party applications for Windows Mobile which allow simple application switching functionaility from within the today screen.
Individual tastes dictate which OS you prefer. Personally I like both in their own way, though given its predominantly touchscreen based UI I don't think Windows Mobile is as finger friendly out-of-box as it should be, but this isn't an Athena issue per ce.
CONNECTIVITY
both devices offer WLAN, bluetooth, HSDPA and GPS. Signal strength is great on both devices, though I find that when I open the E90 to browse I sometimes lose my signal entirely, seemingly for no reason. I suspect the receiver is blocked by particular finger positions.
HSDPA is supported up to 3.6mbps on the E90 but only 1.8mps on the Athena; crucially though the E90 will only work on Edge or GPRS in the Americas as the US HSDPA bandwidth isn't supported.
The Athena offers USB host which enables memory sticks and USB HIDevices to be used. This feature is not offered on the E90, though its screen is probably too small for a mouse to be of any use anyway. I used the USB host feature occasionally but for me it was more of a party trick and I don't miss it.
The E90 has bluetooth 2.0 EDR, while the Athena has only 2.0
The Athena also has video output - a feature that I used rarely but nonetheless have missed on a couple of occasions - it's certainly handy for showing presentations and slideshows.
GPS is comparable on both devices. My E90 gets a lock within 5 seconds using A-GPS and I don't recall the Athena performing any better. The Athena wins here though because there is more compatible navigation software for the Windows Mobile platform.
WEB BROWSING
Both phones are great for viewing web content. The E90 takes the upper hand in terms of its width of 800 pixels versus the Athena's 640 but the Athena's larger screen makes content clearer and less strenuous on the eyes.
Neither phones support flash, though with FL3.0 due for release in the next E90 firmware update this will be fixed somewhat in the case of the Nokia handset.
Both Symbian and Windows mobile will be getting the flash and java friendly Skyfire browser, with Windows Mobile being the first. They will also be getting Opera Mobile 9.5. I have no experience with either of these browsers though, and can only say that I prefer the Safari browser in the E90 to either the Opera browser OR the Internet Explorer browser on the Athena, since it seems snappier and works with more of my oft-visited web pages.
HOWEVER I prefer opera mini to ALL of these.
VIDEO PLAYBACK
The Widescreen display of the E90 is more suited to the Hollywood aspect ratio, and also newer television broadcasts in 16:9. Combined with hardware acceleration and an adjustable viewing angle via the hinged screen the E90 wins here for me.
The larger screen of the Athena is a nice size for longer-term video playback, but I always had issues with lip-sync and jerkiness on the Athena unless optimising movies for the device.
CAMERA
Indisputably I prefer the E90 here. Although on paper the two devices' cameras are comparable the reality is that the E90's is snappier, sharper and produces more realistic colours. it also records video at VGA 30fps, which steals the show for me.
The Athena's camera is good for a Windows Mobile device though - the best I've seen - and I particularly like the depth it gives to black and white photography. Shame the shutter speed is so rubbish.
STORAGE
The Athena wins here with its 8GB microdrive versus the E90's....nothing. The E90 supports any size of Micro SDHC though and these are getting very cheap of late. In practice I used the microdrive very little as it took too long to copy things onto the Athena using either Activesync or WM5torage.
SOUND
Both devices perform very well with music playback: the E90 feels more portable though and is easier for one-handed operation. It is let down by a 2.5mm headphone jack instead of the 3.5mm standard seen on the Athena. The E90 has a radio which is handy on occasion, though it requires earphones to be plugged in at all times - not much use if you use bluetooth headphones.
BATTERY LIFE
No noticeable difference with either - I always end up recharging before the day is through!
SOFTWARE
Many people cite healthy software development and availability as a reason for Windows Mobile's flexibility, but in the past few weeks I've found some great free software for Symbian. Among my current favourites are:
Symella: A gnutella/limewire-style p2p filesharing client.
Symtorrent: I'm sure you can guess this one
Sportstracker: track your walks and runs via GPS with a full live rundown of speed, distance travelled and orientation, followed by a comprehensive report (which even tells you how many calories you've burnt off)
Google Maps: includes internal GPS support
software to enable the internal GPS to be used via bluetooth as a standalone GPS receiver
Opera Mini - goes without saying, but is more enjoyable on the E90 owing to the fact that Java is better integrated in Symbian OS.
Joikuspot: share your HSDPA over WLAN (as WMWIFIROUTER by Chainfire)
Windows Live Hotmail: integrated within the messaging application.
Nav4All: free navigation software.
EM tube: standalone youtube browser and flv downloader with a snappy and beautiful UI.
MP3editor: edit MP3s on-the-fly through your phone: edit tags, merge clips and save segments of songs to use as message and ringtones.
Only a month has gone by, so who knows if my experience will change. Maybe I'll end up going back to the Athena - who knows. I'd be interested to hear from people who have gone the other way round - E90 to Athena, and what their experience has been like.
Nice summary ! - and I find this interesting as I also "sidegraded" from an Athena (ameo) to an E90
( Here is a little background - I have always used ,and enjoyed using Nokia Communicators , from the 9110i to the E90 I have had them all - I have also been quite a fan of WM devices also , and , to be honest , the WM devices have been my favourites )
So , as soon as the E90 was announced , I had to have one ! Fortunately for me , I was unable to afford one initially , then , I was unable to find stock (due to the production halt ) - by the time I got my act together , they had released the stable version (Nov 07)
I was actually very happy with my Ameo in every way , except the obvious one ! , yep , thats right - it's "usability" as a telephone , I am not proud , and am quite happy to use the speakerphone most of the time - but occasionally I would be in a position where it was a bit of a pain
So it was innevitable I'd get an E90 , and I must admit I was very sceptical - I WANTED a new S80 communicator ! this S60 was for little chavs to have on their MOBILE PHONES as far as I was concerned - it wasn't a "proper" PDA OS , so I was a little worried as to how good an S60 Communicator would be - but in the end , I was quite impressed
It was not like I just "Dropped" the Ameo though - I would use the E90 for a few days , then I'd miss something about the Ameo - and switch back ,and Vice versa
It is only after 5 months now that I have settled on a device , and I am shamed to say (seeing as where we are !) that it is the E90 I have settled with - Don't get me wrong , I still use the Ameo occasionally , and when I do it still impresses me ! - it is just that the E90 is "easier" for my daily activities now
I do think , that maybe a Tytn II would be the ideal middle ground between the two devices ? and I may just get one next time I have a spare £400 + ( or if someone offered I'd be tempted to swap my Ameo for a Vario III etc ? )
I am in quite a favourable postion TBH - If the E90 died , I'd just go back to the Ameo , and if the Ameo died , I'd be happy to stick with the E90 !
leoni1980, I pretty much agree with all your findings!
How great is it that we have a choice between the two platforms ? As far as I see it , before the E90 , the top end WM devices (IMO ) had no competition at all ! Just as an aside , I bought a P990i (as Orange are knocking them out for £90 ) and it is Diabolical ! - How things have changed ! the P900 was a real contender once !
if your ameo is in good condition you can trade it at Cex for a vario 3 with a 12 month warranty and have an 18 quid credit note to boot. check out www.cex.co.uk. Alternatively you can buy one outright for £225.
Personally I wouldn't be happy with a QVGA screen though, and compared to the E90 the video and camera side of the Vario 3 leaves a lot to be desired. From experience of owning a Vario 2 - which i still have - I also prefer taking calls on the E90 as I have fewer dropped calls and inadvertant dial-outs. It's also quicker to send a quick one-handed text reply on the E90.
If gps is more of a concern then the Vario 3 might be a good swap for the Athena as you will still have the high-res browsing of the E90 at your disposal coupled with a more capable GPS unit (the Vario iii).
Each to their own as they say
Zoidster, you might be interested to know (if you don't already!) that a firmware update came out today with:
Flash video (youtube etc) playback
Web runtime
demand paging
a million tweaks and fixes.
The E90 has definitely stepped up a notch now....just gotta wait for Opera Mobile 9.5 which should be a lot faster than the Standard browser.
Unbelievable !!
I had been checking NSU on a daily basis for the last couple of weeks - then the last couple of days have been too busy ! - and here it is
Thanks for the heads up !
apparently it's been taken off the nsu again, not sure why or whether you got there in time
I missed it !
Tried a few product codes, then thought something must be up ....
Checked around and found out what has happened - A bit gutted , but a few people are reporting browser instablity - I supposed they must have pulled it for a reason
I suppose it's the waiting game again !
zoidster said:
I missed it !
Tried a few product codes, then thought something must be up ....
Checked around and found out what has happened - A bit gutted , but a few people are reporting browser instablity - I supposed they must have pulled it for a reason
I suppose it's the waiting game again !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive not really had any problems as yet with the new one, but at least you know a new firmware is definitely on the horizon. Try opera mini 4.1 beta by the way, it now allows downloading from within the browser so you can download stuff you cant with the built in browser, such as unrecognised video types and torrent files (for symtorrent). There's also less text popup boxes and autocomplete. Be sure to set the font size to small for maximum screen real-estate. Just thought you might like to know
update 24/09/12: All known bugs has been fixed with latest firmware 1750.0805.8773.12220 from Nokia. Personally I didn't believe they gone fix that nasty audio bug, but they did it. Great job! Another important thing to note, if you have intentions to buy this phone take into consideration that this phone won't get upgrade of latest OS from Microsoft WP 8, but will get instead 7.8 version, which is kinda stripped down version of it's older brother. Mostly the reason is incompatible hardware, which is understandable, but I've been using this phone for nearly one year, and I find it still amazing.
Hello dear xda bodies,
I was thinking to write a really detailed review, but then I thought that there are already tons of very complete reviews on the web about this phone. So this will be more like my personal opinion and what I think about it. Also I'm not a chief redactor of IT magazine and English is not my native language, so forgive me for grammar errors.
NOKIA LUMIA 800 REVIEW
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TECH SPECS
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Quad-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
3.7" (vs iPhone 3.5") 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 480 x 800 pixel resolution 252ppi (vs iPhone retina 326ppi)
Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display with anti-glare polarizer
8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, [email protected] video recording and fast f/2.2 lens
Windows Phone 7.5 OS (Mango)
1.4GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset, 512MB of RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Non-painted polycarbonate unibody, curved screen
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
16GB on-board storage
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDS
microUSB port
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR
Impressively deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface
Nokia software bundle
CONS
AMOLED PenTile display, not Super AMOLED
No USB mass storage (file management and sync pass only through Zune)
No front-facing camera. Video calls work with Skype
Noway to backup your SMS/MMS
No notification LEDs
Non-user-replaceable battery
No memory card slot (and no 64GB version like the N9)
No native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be transcoded by Zune
HARDWARE
After a 2 weeks of use I can say that Nokia did a really great job here. I don't know how much efforts they put in designing it, but externally looking at Lumia it is a copycat of its older brother N9. Phone fits very well in your hands, not too big, not too small and slides nicely in and out of your pockets. Its unibody is made from polycarbonate scratch resistant material with rounded edges on sides. Top of the phone features 3.5mm jack with covered micro simcard and usb slot, left side is clean without anything, on the bottom there is a microphone and speaker and on the right side there are 2 volume buttons, on/off button and dedicated camera button which all are made from metal. Screen is a little curved and made of Gorilla glass with anti-glare treatment and features 3 tactile Windows Phone buttons. It is nicely fusioned with unibody so you barely can feel the joint place with your finger. Phone itself is a little heavier than similar phones in its category, but not by much. When you take a phone in your hand it gives a feeling of holding something solid, well made worth it's value and not a cheep toy of plastic (sorry Samsung SII). Also if you like to show off and be the first man in the village I guaranty you a great success and surprised people faces since this phone does not leave people careless.
Now if we look more closely at cons there are few things which may push somebody to reconsider of opting for Lumia.
Nokia decided for going with AMOLED PenTile display. It is a less quality and cheaper version of Super AMOLED and difference can especially be visible on small text, which is kinda sad since Mango interface have a lot of small font. This also makes difficult to read e-books and web pages with tiny text so if you are big e-book reader you may be disappointed. Here is a text comparison in Kindle: Top to bottom: Lumia, iPhone4, HTC Titan SLCD photo. In general you can get used to it. Some people even don't see the text fussiness if you don't point it out. But overall display is great, its deep black fusions seamlessly with screen edge so you can't see where really screen ends. It is also perfect outdoors in bright sun thanks to its slight curved design and anti-glare treatment. I just remember how reflecting and annoying was Hero screen.
There is no front facing camera. Personally I don't care about it since I won't be walking around the streets and making video calls. For me it's more a like a gadget. All my video calls I'm doing from my laptop, but considering that Microsoft bought Skype it is just a matter of time when it will be available for WM. Currently there is no Skype app on Windows market for WM, lol. Crazy, I know.
There is no notification LEDs or some fancy light bubble like on HTC Hero. To see if you have new mail or SMS you will need to turn on the phone. At first I thought this is going to be annoying, but somehow at the end I even didn't miss that feature. When phone is with me I hear when there is new mail and if I left it on table and then come back later I always turn it on to see if there is anything new because anyway you will want to look one more time at that gorgeous AMOLED screen .
There is no mass storage option. At 1st I thought it will be a biggie, but then OS integrates so good with Zune and Skydrive that I completely forget about that.
no expandable storage. You have 16Gb and you will need to live with it. OS takes about 4Gb so user have about 12Gb of available storage. You have also access to SkyDrive which offers additional 25Gb of space. Personally for me 16Gb is more than enough, but for those who like to run around with all they video collection might find it too small. Also you can make videos with phone on 720p which are uncompressed. One short video of 2 min takes about 150Mb.
Overall I'm very pleased with Lumia build quality, which I never doubted, it is still Nokia, come on! Nevertheless there are few serious bugs. They did the right thing to abandon Symbian and MeeGO and move over to WM7, but it seems that they did it in a very big rush.
BUGS
FIXED with latest firmware 1750.0805.8773.12220. Audio playback. It is the worst ever since my 1st walkman I bought in USSR 20 years ago. It is disastrous. There is some kind of parasite noise coming from GPRS and sound is mono. How can you release a phone to public with such a big flaw. Just before Christmas they release an urgent ROM update to fix this. Now that the noise is removed and there is a stereo sound there is no bass at all. The sound is completely flat no matter how good earphones you use. I even went to Virgin store to try out some best earphones available and even with Dr.Dre blacks (retail price 300€+) sound is just plain flat crap. HTC Hero does a lot better. I just hope it is not a hardware issue and it can be fixed in the future.
FIXED with latest firmware 1750.0805.8773.12220 MMS Bug. There is one very neat bug with MMS configuration. When you insert a sim card all network settings are automatically configured and most of the time MMS configuration fails. If something goes wrong it stays wrong and there is no way to set it manually. Only hard reset can help. So right now I have a top edge phone which can't send or receive MMS. Even my girlfriend was laughing at me. I hope Nokia or Microsoft will release a fix for this.
SOFTWARE
Nokia Lumia 800 is running on Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango. The OS is very young so I won't be too harsh with criticisms, but there are few interesting things to point out when considering moving over to WM.
For long 2 years I was a loyal soldier of Google OS and I put all my faith in it, but it failed me. After I red this article (How about some Android graphics true facts?) I understood that Android is already many years behind its competitors. Te get back on track they need to rewrite whole Android OS from scratch and I don't see it coming for next 2 years.
Mango. Getting married with Microsoft you play with their rules in their sand box. There is no openess and no tinkering and hacking. Zune install you will, live.com account create you will. That's the rules, but with a price comes some benefits. You are getting very well build OS. The big advantage of Windows' phone operating system is the clean, clear, but far from antiseptic Metro interface, which is so good that Microsoft has taken it to both Windows 8 and Xbox 360. Microsoft hasn't messed with success here – Windows Phone 7.5 Mango has the same signature look as its predecessor, only better.
The OS is really great, social network lovers will appreciate it. Everything is flawlessly integrated into OS. It is so complete that you almost don't need 3rd party apps. Today Windows market contains about 50K apps, which compared to Android 400K or iOS 500k might seem pretty small, but it's constantly growing and Nokia arrival to the party might give a big kick to it. If you want to move over to Microsoft, but you have some apps you can't live without then it might be smart to check on windowsphone market if your app is available. Also Nokia brings up to the table their own property apps like Nokia drive, Nokia Music and Nokia Maps. Possibility to chose between 90 countries arround the world and to save your map for offline viewing is huge for those who travel often. Nokia music offers few nice features called mix radio which allows to listen your favorite artists, save for offline play or find concerts or events arround your location. Also it's worth to mention great gaming capabilities of this device and perfect integrettion with Microsoft LiveBox. I just tried Angry Birds and Need for Speed: Underground and game experience was very smooth and fluid without laags whatsoever.
As good as it might seem OS is not perfect. Apart from MMS bug I already talked there is problems with Google calendar sync. You can sync only one calendar and it does not updates.
Skydrive. You can access, create and edit documents stored on Skydrive from your Phone or PC. You can also setup some folders on your PC which are automatically synchronized on skydrive, but it is stored separately from rest of the skydrive documents, which are not accessible from your phone.That means that today you can't set automatic document sync cycle between PC - Skydrive - Phone. Stupid. Also needless to say that all Office documents have to be saved in Office 2007 format if you want to edit them later on your phone or Skydrive.
CONCLUSION
Today's choices of phones running WM7 are pretty slim. Actually you have only four decent top end handsets - Samsung Omnia 7, HTC Titan, HTC Radar and Nokia Lumia. I choosed Nokia for its well made design and because it's Nokia - No1 phone producer in the world. Backed up with Microsoft it makes two giants ensuring that you get best user experience available. By choosing Windows phone words like laag and force close will disappear from your vocabulary. Just remember that Mango is closed OS and modifications and tinkering IS possible, but a lot harder than on Android. If you like openess then it mighty be better idea to stick with Google and go maybe for Samsung Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy SII. Someone may reason why to choose Lumia 800 when there is already rumors going arorund about Lumia 900. Well, from my point of view there will be always a better phone with only 1 - 2 month interval so by the time you will chose to buy Lumia 900 there will be rumors of Lumia 1000 and etc. So if you have a chance to get Lumia 800 for good price (mine was offered for free by my career lol) then I highly recommend this phone, you won't be disappointed.
Reviews [external links]
Nokia Lumia 800 Review by engadget + video
Nokia Lumia 800 review: New beginnings by gsmarena
Nokia Lumia 800 review by TechRadar
Nokia Lumia 800 (Black) Review by xda member Warren.D
Cheers, Whitealien
Hey, it's a really good review you wrote there!
But you are making one huge mistake it's Windows Phone 7 not Windows Mobile 6.5 (A.K.A. Photon which have been discontinued by MS).
I really loved the thing you wrote about the OS being so complete that you almost don't need 3rd party apps. That really is true and people don't realize it often as they have the bad habit of downloading specific app for a task.
About he handsets available in France you forgot a lot of them. Here is the list of the WP7 available right now:
HTC Mozart, HD7, Trophy, 7 Pro, Titan, Radar
Samsung Omnia 7, Omnia W
LG Optimus 7, Jil Sanders (It's the Optimus 7 rebranded)
Acer Allegro
ZTE Tania
Nokia Lumia 800 (Obviously)
The HTC Surround, Samsung Focus, Samsung Focus S and the Dell Venue Pro are only for the US and the Lumia 710 is not released yet.
About the sound i don't have flat music on mine so... I listen my music with a Sennheiser HD238 (~100€) and some good Sony earphone. Trust me Beats is crap the solo is really really bad...
About MMS Nokia released an app for that : here is the Zune link Zune in french the app is called Configuration Reseau. The real reason behind this is that changing MMS setting changes registry and since Mango MS have blocked that. So only First configuration or OEM app can change these settings. Samsung and HTC also offer these kind of apps don't know about the other OEM.
Anyway you didn't mention the fact that Nokia offers a cover for the Lumia which is quietly rare these days.
You also forgot that bloatware doesn't exist on WP7 as you can remove them.
Thanks for the review
Atomos33 said:
Hey, it's a really good review you wrote there!
I really loved the thing you wrote about the OS being so complete that you almost don't need 3rd party apps. That really is true and people don't realize it often as they have the bad habit of downloading specific app for a task.
You also forgot that bloatware doesn't exist on WP7 as you can remove them.
Thanks for the review
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great observations and the first is why this OS is the one to beat.
@Atomos33
Thanks for criticism. Windows mobile was just a typo, it's corrected now.
I see that you mention a lot more phones running WM7. I was kinda more focused on latest and top end handsets that's why I did not mention HD7 or Acer.
I know about MMS config app by Nokia. Unfortunately they retrieved it from market because of some security issue. Even so link from zune works, but there is no option to install it. Adding or editing apn manually does nothing.
Bloatware does not exist in unlocked phones. With locked to SFR or Orange you will have plenty if crap pre-installed, but fortunately in most cases it can be uninstalled.
Nokia offers cover, you mean support? Well HTC offers good support too, but only for 1st six months. Let's see how long it will be for Nokia.
No Nokia gives you a cover made in rubber with the phone to protect the phone.
About the bloatware I have an orange Lumia and the app being pre installed is normal but it can be removed. In Android you don't have the choice. So I don't consider it as bloatware. The only downside of this is that MS only leave OEM and carriers one slot for tile color and orange replaced it by their orange.
Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express
Thanks for the review, it's nice to read about Windows Phone from a long-time-Android-user viewpoint without bashing it unnecessarily. I like the idea behind WP, though I think it needs more time to become a real competitor to Android and iOS.
As a fellow HTC Hero user I'll stick to my Hero for a few more months and will most likely upgrade to another Android device (Xperia S looks terrific), but I really appreciate you doing this review. Cheers.
Nice review.
I actually joined this forum (xda) to ask about battery life and some more details for the Sony Xperia P smartphone.
Actually, I have never used a touchscreen phone, and all of the features are new to me. I have been using SE's k750i phone for more than 6 years.
And smartphones are a bit confusing to me.
I have got some questions about Nokia's interesting Lumia WP smartphone. In my country, a new Lumia is 270 euro, contract free but I have one offer of a month or two old Lumia for 210 euro. Completely new with no signs of use. That puts it in the class with these phones: Samsung Omnia W, Galaxy Ace 2 and Xperia Sola. Same price for all. So I am a bit confused which to buy.
Could you guy at least help me with impressions on Lumia 800 vs Omnia W? Those two phones are almost the same specs on paper, and are WP7... Is the Nokia that much better?
Go for Lumia 800. What makes it special for me: strong and beautiful shape, Nokia special apps (Drive, Camera Extras), crisp display, accurate touch, never crashes, WiFi sharing very stabile. Disadvantages: camera quality not top.
Thanks for a great review.
Did help me know a lot about WP 7.5
I'm glad it help you with choice.
Since thread got unburied I took an effort to bring some updates to the post.
Hi everyone!
I am about to buy a new phone and I have decided to wait no longer (especially with the Christmas sales) and I am choosing between the Lumia 920 and the Galaxy S3. I am unsure which one to choose as each one has different benefits. My specific needs (above using at as a phone) include medium/heavy gaming, music, occasional video marathons (on planes etc.) and web browsing.
The Galaxy S3:
More powerful graphics processor (Mali400MP>Adreno 225)
Better battery life (especially with upgrades)
Google Play (Many games are not available on WP8, which matters a lot to me, especially emulators)
Better Storage (Micro SD Card Slot + 16GB > 32GB)
The Lumia 920:
More recent, less 'outdated' (Lumia 920 will be flagship for longer in WP8)
Windows Phone 8 (I tried it in the store and loved the interface)
Better camera and Build Quality
From my research currently the Google Play is far more populated than Windows Phone and has far more full featured games and apps although Windows defiantly can improve. Furthermore, the Galaxy S3 is no longer going to be the 'big samsung flagship' anymore and with Exynos 5 games may no longer be optimized for it / have to run at lower settings whereas the 920, although it has a worse GPU, will be the flagship for longer and new games will be optimized (although these games will mainly be catchup to Google Play).
Please help me I don't know which one to choose!
Thank you for reading!
Edit: Added another bonus to the Galaxy S3
In US and Canada, Galaxy S3s with LTE have the exact same CPU/GPU as Lumia 920. The Samsung Exynos quad core processor is only used in countries where no LTE is supported. So, the so called GPU advantage really depends on where you are. On top of that, most Android games are not really optimize for the Mali GPU. So the advantage won't help you much there. Same goes for the UI experience on Android. Even with the quad core processor, the Android home screen UI will still lag behind the single core Windows Phone 7 home screen, not to mention the WP8 with dual cores
Specs alone doesn't tell any story of real world experience.
foxbat121 said:
The Samsung Exynos quad core processor is only used in countries where no LTE is supported. So, the so called GPU advantage really depends on where you are. On top of that, most Android games are not really optimize for the Mali GPU. So the advantage won't help you much there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I live in the UK and will most certainly be buying neither on 4G so I will be getting the Exynos 4 quad. From what I have seen on the web and from my friends it seems that most games are optimized (run smoothly and with good graphics) for exynos (look at Nova 3/Asphalt 7/Need for Speed MW compared to Tegra 3 or even the Lumia 920s own Adreno 225 running in an android phone for example) so I would say that the Mali 400MP is a bonus to the Galaxy S3 considering gaming is a large part of why I want a good phone in the first place.
I definitely prefer the 920s User Interface and smoothness over the Galaxy S3 however, its just that it has a better GPU and far better App/Game selection.
Well from that reasoning, I'm not sure why you don't pick iPhone. Its GPU is way faster than anything out there (see here http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/11) and its app collection and games are certainly surpassing Android.
I use both WP and Android phones. I can tell you that the only advantages android has is paper specs.
You are picking phone from the wrong aspect. You need pick an eco system first, then compare the spec within that eco system.
Sent from my RM-820_nam_canada_246 using Board Express
I don't like the smaller screen of the iPhone and personally I don't like iOS so that is out of the question (it is also a lot more expensive in the UK).
Why I am comparing spec between 2 Operating Systems is that either way, Mali 400 would allow for more graphically demanding games as it is more powerful.
At this point I'll probably choose the GS3 mainly for the app store.
Thankyou for your trouble though.
Due to the fact most websites uses a white background, the GS3's OLED display will consume a great amount of battery.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Dr.Molestratus said:
Due to the fact most websites uses a white background, the GS3's OLED display will consume a great amount of battery.
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This is true for web browsing but for general use on non white backgrounds (general use) OLED consumes less battery than LCD. From what I have read online is that in general use the Galaxy S3 has better batter life (GSMarena even rates the GS3s web browsing as an hour higher, although the Lumia 920 will have a brighter screen at the 50% at which they conduct their tests).
My lumia 920 battery lasts me for about 2 days with moderate usage. With heavy usage it lasts for a day (same as my HTC Incredible S). After using SGS3 and Lumia920, I'd say that the Lumia provides for a much more fluidic experience than SGS3. The camera is simply superb. And it is built like a tank.
I don't mind the fledgling ecosystem of WP8, it will take time to catch up. But whatever apps I need for my daily use (like Endomondo or Evernote, etc.) are present in the WP8 market.
farhadtarapore said:
My lumia 920 battery lasts me for about 2 days with moderate usage. With heavy usage it lasts for a day (same as my HTC Incredible S). After using SGS3 and Lumia920, I'd say that the Lumia provides for a much more fluidic experience than SGS3.
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Now I am not sure what to get. It basically boils down to, at the basic level, app store (GS3) vs user interface (Lumia 920)
You just have to play with them yourself to make a judgement. There is no universally accepted answers to this question. Everyone has different prorities.
foxbat121 said:
You just have to play with them yourself to make a judgement. There is no universally accepted answers to this question. Everyone has different prorities.
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I guess this is what is the right thing. I will probably go with the GS3 because I am sure to have all the apps/games I want and also it is quite a bit cheaper.
Thankyou!
Jaken326 said:
I guess this is what is the right thing. I will probably go with the GS3 because I am sure to have all the apps/games I want and also it is quite a bit cheaper.
Thankyou!
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That's a good decision as apps/games are more important for you.
Jaken326 said:
Hi everyone!
I am about to buy a new phone and I have decided to wait no longer (especially with the Christmas sales) and I am choosing between the Lumia 920 and the Galaxy S3. I am unsure which one to choose as each one has different benefits. My specific needs (above using at as a phone) include medium/heavy gaming, music, occasional video marathons (on planes etc.) and web browsing.
The Galaxy S3:
More powerful graphics processor (Mali400MP>Adreno 225)
Better battery life (especially with upgrades)
Google Play (Many games are not available on WP8, which matters a lot to me, especially emulators)
Better Storage (Micro SD Card Slot + 16GB > 32GB)
The Lumia 920:
More recent, less 'outdated' (Lumia 920 will be flagship for longer in WP8)
Windows Phone 8 (I tried it in the store and loved the interface)
Better camera and Build Quality
From my research currently the Google Play is far more populated than Windows Phone and has far more full featured games and apps although Windows defiantly can improve. Furthermore, the Galaxy S3 is no longer going to be the 'big samsung flagship' anymore and with Exynos 5 games may no longer be optimized for it / have to run at lower settings whereas the 920, although it has a worse GPU, will be the flagship for longer and new games will be optimized (although these games will mainly be catchup to Google Play).
Please help me I don't know which one to choose!
Thank you for reading!
Edit: Added another bonus to the Galaxy S3
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Hi mate on one work I can say you will be surely disappointed if you buy any Windows 8 based mobile that for sure and the reason below:
I am already a Galaxy s3 users and I can only say the few thing about it at glance, the only person who help you who use old windows phone and new Windows Mobile 8 and a Android or Galaxy S3 user, I am using Galaxy S3 since November and its flawless and perfect beautiful, actually I had to choose between Galaxy S3 and Iphone 5 (unlock) I havent those phone before buying, I seen both the phone in three store at the day on Iphone 5 launch day and seriously I feel iphone 5 like tiny, restricted screen size and look like cheap toy and I decided to go with Galaxy S3, recently my t-mobile contract was on due and I choose to got Nokia Lumia 820 instead of 920 because the price it selling is not a worth, the plus point of 920 is the Video camera only which can shoot smooth video, but in photo camera 920's performance is on par with Galaxy s3 and iphone 5 in some condition bit better or worse other than that there is no advantage of having any windows base base because of immature, incomplete, buggy and deficient with the most basic feature or software like No Notification LED, No File manager, Can't save apps on SD card, and same volume level
Here is my worst experience with Windows phone 8 and Lumia 820 and I think that experience with the Lumia 920 would be same or some case litte worse or only a bit better,
When I buy Lumia 820 I am happy with its design and screen quality despite or low resolution ppi but I am overall happy with the look and feel because its a removable battery perfect for one handed and not bulky or brick like 920, problem start when 820 start freezing and restarting and lack of basic functionality like no file manager or sound profile and lacks of basic features, and support of SD card is tricky only few card can work with 820 and I tried 4 different types of card but only one seem to be working file and poor battery and other problem I decided to give it back, one more thing wireless charing plate is become useless when you use case or cover in this situation you have to choose between wireless charing or case
(1) Design point of view really really light and please to use comfortable and fits in any kind of pocket and not bulky at all
(2) Apps market: you just type the name and android market must have those apps, games, books, magazine and newspaper etc.
(3) The android is the completely flexible software you can change or choose you own dialer, sms apps, themes, launcher, notification, keyboards homescreen look
(3) most importance factor is SD card if you have existing SD card from other phone you can insert and use it even you can connect External Mouse, Keyboard or hard drive through connector
(4) Notification LED most importance for me to sure that I will not missed any missed calls or sms etc while I put my phone go around
(5) Removable battery, useful just imaging you were on the long travel playing game etc and your phone died removable battery can be handy
(6) Excellent file manager and you pur any file like pdf, .doc .xls .ppt divx, .ogg, jpg .tiff .mov .wmv and it can open out of box or through apps
(8) you can pur case or cover and it doesn't look bulky
I just want to see the Windows phone 8 working so I decided to choose Lumia 820 but I cant even think about dumping Galaxy S3 and switch to any Windows phone 8 phone..... hope it will be enough to decide for you any other
Jaken326 said:
Hi everyone!
I am about to buy a new phone and I have decided to wait no longer (especially with the Christmas sales) and I am choosing between the Lumia 920 and the Galaxy S3. I am unsure which one to choose as each one has different benefits. My specific needs (above using at as a phone) include medium/heavy gaming, music, occasional video marathons (on planes etc.) and web browsing.
The Lumia 920:
More recent, less 'outdated' (Lumia 920 will be flagship for longer in WP8)
Windows Phone 8 (I tried it in the store and loved the interface)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can have a Windows style Tile interface on Android. There are many launchers available and someone has made a windows phone style one. Android is about choice. If you don't want to have to make choices buy windows. If you want choices, don't buy windows. The lumia is a lovely handset. But let's be honest, all the debate about handsets feeling nice in the hand is pointless when people put their expensive handset in a case.
battery life on my gs3 is not stellar. my old atrix 4g that I let my wife have still has better battery life than the gs3. its decent and generally gets me through my work day, but moderate usage will generally require me to plug in. fixing to ditch the gs3 and go for the 920 and give the w8 ecosystem a try for a while. just upgraded to w8 and picked up a new 360 slim..... so i'll see how it goes.
At the end of the day both have phone and messaging and a web browser. Apps are typically shortcuts to web counterparts, with the exception of games.
If you value having the latest OS then the Nexus 4 is the best option, but sadly Google seem to think it is 2007 and that 8GB is enough.
I went from a S11 to the 920. Love it, a great phone!
It reminds me of when I first bought the S11 almost two years ago, everyone said that the app store was empty compared to Apple, that the apps were rubbish that were there, etc.
The Windows store does not have as many apps at the moment, but I am not missing any apps from my Android, you get Office and the Nokia maps and apps are great, don't miss Google one bit.
BUT I don't play games on my phone, so cannot help you there.
Some comments kill me
onlinejobwork said:
Hi mate on one work I can say you will be surely disappointed if you buy any Windows 8 based mobile that for sure and the reason below:
I choose to got Nokia Lumia 820 instead of 920 because the price it selling is not a worth, the plus point of 920 is the Video camera only which can shoot smooth video, but in photo camera 920's performance is on par with Galaxy s3 and iphone 5 in some condition bit better or worse other than that there is no advantage of having any windows base base because of immature, incomplete, buggy and deficient with the most basic feature or software like No Notification LED, No File manager, Can't save apps on SD card, and same volume level
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Click to collapse
Your comment is so biased. You know nothing about Windowsphne 8 OS. How hell you can talk about Lumia 920 if you never hold it in your arms?
I had Galaxy S3, sold it the third day and got Lumia 920. And I'm totally happy because Lumia is so beautiful to touch, to feel, to watch and to use comparing to Galaxy S3. Samsung is so cheap, made of cheap plastic and doesn't really feel solid at all. Nokia is a way better device overall. Speaking about Windowsphone market. You can find most needed apps on it. As for games, I really don't care because I don't play a lot. So Lumia 920 satisfies totally my needs. And it is so classy and prestigious in hands. It is my best phone I have ever had so far!
Jaken326 said:
Now I am not sure what to get. It basically boils down to, at the basic level, app store (GS3) vs user interface (Lumia 920)
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Click to collapse
My personal preference, as an Android user since it was introduced is now the wp8 OS. I like the interface more than I miss the wider breadth of apps. Selling my HTC One X and keeping the Lumia 920. After about 4 days of use there was no doubt in my mind. 5 weeks later I'm confident enough that I am sharing this opinion with you now.
Both are great units and OS's. You really can't go bad either way. It's just which way will be "gooder" for you? (I'm kidding with the "gooder" of course)
I wouldn't put too much stock in battery life. I've had an SG3 i9300 for 3 months now and my wifes had here Lumia 920 for about a month. One may have better battery life than the other, but both last more than a day for us. If pushed my i9300 might have slightly better battery life, but my wifes i9300 has LTE. Again, both phones easily last the day (0600 to 2200) with plenty of battery to spare (probably over 30%)
In my opinion, if games are important to you, then you would be happier with the i9300 SGS3, However if you are an Xbox 360 gamer as well, you might be quite happy with the Lumia 920. At least that's what my son tells me. He received a Lumia 920 for christmas and likes it because it allows him to earn achievements. He also tells me smart glass is pretty cool but I think that's an option on the SGS3 as well.