Hey all. First post as a new Symbian and UIQ convert. Well that might not strictly be true as I have an n-gage here too so it's not my first forray into symbian, but the less said about Side Talkin' the better.

I was out at the shops on Friday all ready to get a W950i as my T-mobile Vario was basically out on its feet with a battery life less than a day, and after 19 months with it I was itching for a new toy.

After checking T wouldn't play ball with an upgrade (£140 for a N95, which was talking them down from £280) and checking Phones4U I found myself in the Vodafone shop where they'd literally 20 minutes before taken delivery of the Z8. 20 minutes later I found myself walking out with one. It must have been fate.

After spending some time with the device it has to be said that it really is one sharp looking phone. Initial impressions of the UI are good too, from a windows convert. It doesn't feel as powerful, but it does feel so much more focussed. Very quick and responsive too which is particularly good. Media playback with the bundled bourne identity film is nothing short of amazing, and it seems to be more than up to the task with the MP3s. The bundled headset has been given a good testing too and ... well it's the future really. The sound out of them is pretty good in my opinion, and that's a comparison against wired ones. The fact they are without wires is a real bonus. The controls on them take a wee bit of getting used to, but they're fairly intuitive.

The phone has some really annoying features though - the camera button is too near the charger slot. The camera is not brilliant as the review points out, but if I want to take pictures I'll buy a camera.

One small problem I've come across is getting TomTom navigator to install, I know it works with UIQ3, but perhaps 3.1 is an issue, or the lack of a touch screen could be it.

Just have to keep the Vario for that for the moment. Or switch to a different navigator until TomTom works.

st3ph3n - welcome to the forum :)

Thanks for posting your impressions. I do agree Motorola have done a nice job positioning this handset. I think one of the nice thing is the basic are easy to use, but there's a fair bit of ommph lurking under the hood.

The TomTom issue is almost certainly down to the fact its a non touchscreen device. I would imagine Tom Tom may rectify this in due course. Haven't seen any specific navigation software announcements relating to the Z8 yet.

Well .... it had been a good first few days with the phone. Couple of apps installed and good use of the £1 credit on my Voda pay as you go sim - namely Live search and Shozu were tested. Both very nice.

The vario's been a right pain in the back side in the last few days with the battery life so I thought I'd try out the Z8 for music on the way to work this morning. Good excuse to wear the S9 of course. 45 minute train journey had a few wee glitches in the sound on the way out of the first station, but settled down after that. Excellent sound quality and quite comfortable to wear.

So far so GREAT.

Walking from the station down to work was less so. Tried a different album and got nothing but "Corrupt file" as soon as I picked any song. Tried a few different albums when I got to work, but again, same issues with them!

Getting no more than 10 or 15 seconds into a song before it flags up that it's corrupt.

Me thinks somethings gone horribly wrong!

Did this recover after rebooting?

Nope. Going back to Vodafone on Saturday if I can't figure it out :(

What data rates are your MP3 files?

All of my own ones are ripped at 192kbits using Intervideo's MP3 codec pack for Windows media player. Never had issues with them playing back before on other devices including phones, PDAs, Car Stereos and standalone MP3 players. Oh and PCs too of course.

The thing is - I've got a few songs to play on it without issue, but the only thing I appear to be able to connect them with is that they're downloaded ones and the ones that wont play are ones I've ripped.

Have checked security on them and there is no DRM. Have run a few MP3 check/repair applications without issue too.

So after a wee bit of experimenting the problem would appear to lie quite squarely with the phone's bundled MP3 player. I noticed on another forum a comment about mp3s over 128kbits not playing being noted in the manual, and indeed it is!

I've downloaded LCG Jukebox and it works fine with the exact same MP3s. Nice wee interface too, but it's $25.99 to replace something on the phone which should work. Hmmm, not good.

The z8 does play 192kbps mp3's, i've also listened to some 320kbps and it works fine.

I'm going to rip some using the plugin mentioned and take a look.

It does play SOME 192kbps ones I've tried. Ascertaining what ones I've ripped and what I've downloaded was just a bit trickier.

Tried a full reset etc. with no joy.

The real pain is the S9 headset wont control playback on a 3rd party app. Volume yes, but track navigation is not possible.

A real pain, but hopefully one an issue can be found for.

So i ripped a few at 192, and they worked fine. Would you be able to send me a copy of a file that doesn;t work?


ajsbsc@angeldustcards.co.uk

Not a problem mate, will do so when I get home. Could be a dodgy phone I suppose, but LCJ plays them fine.

I should say that I've played these same MP3s on everything from the most humble taiwanese/chinese unbranded MP3 player to an iPod and everything in between without any issues, so it's kind of weird.

I also have similar problems with the high kbps mp3's on the Z8. Would alternative software, if available, sort this?
Back to the navigation - any tried and tested software that is recommended on the Z8 / UIQ 3.1?

So i ripped a few at 192, and they worked fine. Would you be able to send me a copy of a file that doesn;t work?



Did you have any luck with the MP3 I sent?