Granted it’s probably a ‘comfort-buy’ (Some people comfort-eat… I comfort-buy) but I said (to myself) I wouldn’t regret it and I don’t… This is one ultra cool piece of kit.
My previous phone was an Ericsson P910i,
I’m a bit miffed that I can’t easily transfer my sent and saved text messages from the old one but meh.
Also I have to get used to the idea of holding a rather large object to my ear which considering early PDAs were not phones still seems slightly odd.
I could get a bluetooth headset but that wouldn’t solve the problem of looking odd when a call is in progress.
A review says the keyboard is difficult for two handed fast typing… I disagree heartily with that. I wrote a fairly long e-mail using it, with ease.
It outsmarts my boss’ xda II, and possibly everyone else’s phone in the entire building. Anyone else got one?
I’d just like to say as a stranded Sprint user stuck with the PPC 6600 (HTC Harrier) that I’ll be super jealous when every carrier but Sprint releases those in the US…why does Sprint always seem to be last on handsets?
I too am a stranded Sprint user who just figured out maybe I am not stranded. I too have been hugely disappointed in the phone offerings from Sprint. My current phone is over two years old and while fine is lacking on many respects. I have been looking and looking for a decent phone to replace it but everything Sprint offers is pretty much the same crap I am using with maybe a camera added on for good measure. They finally came out with the A900 as an answer to the Razor but looking closely at the specs it seems it has worse battery life.
Sprint has added new things such as TV to your cell phone and such but c’mon. My phone runs out of battery fast enough. Who is going to watch 20 minutes of TV to your phone and end up with a dead battery? Not to mention you pay more for this bit of coolness.
So, while considering upgrading to the A900 I found that Sprint only offers really good prices on it with a NEW contract. If you are an existing customer you are screwed. They offer some small price cuts for existing customers but it is not much (like $50 on a $350 phone). Looking at the deal I can get on a new Razor with Bluetooth from T-Mobile I save money doing that and paying my $150 contract cancellation fee with Sprint. Can’t wait to tell Sprint to take their phone and shove it.
As for why Sprint doesn’t have the good choices my understanding is that they use CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) technology for their network. Supposedly this is a superior technology to TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) but as it happens TDMA is used by GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) which is the de facto standard in Europe and Asia.
So, when a manufacturer is looking to design some new phone coolness the market available for a TDMA phone is FAR larger than a CDMA phone. As such Sprint users get screwed. I also recall reading that CDMA phones (at least for Sprint) have a specification that mandates an extendable antenna. That tends to mess with the design a bit and further limit a manufacturers options (i.e they make a phone with no extendable antenna they cannot package it for Sprint).
I know it is going to cost me some money to toss Sprint but at this point it is money well spent and I cannot wait.
As to the OP I am totally bummed that coolness is not available in the US. Looks wonderful.
Not too jealous, though – I just picked up the Verizon XZ6700, which is the HTC Apache (your phone is the HTC Universal). Windows Mobile 5 does some really nice stuff. And the side-keyboard is such an obvious improvement that I wonder it took so long.
Did your phone come with Voice Command? If not, have you tried it out? I have the demo now and am loving it. There’s something fabulously geeky about asking your phone “when is my next meeting?” and getting an answer.
I have voice command on my ppc 6600 (XZ6600) and I love it. The only annoying thing is since I’m stuck with windows mobile 2003 I cannot use VC over my bluetooth headset. Also, VC is a memory hog, so if you seem to have some programs that won’t run, first try disabling VC.
I seem to remember noticing the phrase ‘voice command’ somewhere in my play with the phone.
It’s had it’s first full recharge (and is, as we speak, undergoing it’s second) and the battery lasted about 20 hours… But if my Ericsson P910i is anthing to go by subsequent charges will lead to a much longer lasting battery life… especially once I get through the initial period of switching it on all the time to play with it.
I want some cool Windows Mobile 5 software for it… any reccomendations? I think I need to upgrade the ROM though as I just tried to install a GPRS log application and it failed because it said I needed to upgrade.
