I mentioned on a front page post that I've been given an SPV and so I'm giving it a try.
I had started a wordy comparison between it and my trusty 7650, but I figured that would take too long and so I'm just going to put a list of things here that I don't like about the SPV and, maybe, some of the things I do.
Why do this? Because some of you guys may come across a Microsoft Fangirl who thinks they have the dog's danglies in terms of smart phones, but trust me, it's not!
I'll edit this post with additional material from time to time so feel free to read-in and add your comments.
So, here it goes;
Lost SMS
If the phone crashes just after receiving an SMS (it's done this to me a few times now), you lose the SMS. How useful is that!?
Silence is Golden
Despite being in the 'Silet' profile, if you press a key the SPV doesn't approve of, it will emit a loud 'Clunk' sound!
:-(
Integrated Inbox
Microsoft say that their smart phone is cool because it has an integrated inbox. EVERYTHING goes into the inbox and you don't have any folders to file impostant messages away in safety. So you can soon end up with an unmanageable bigass list of messages.
:-(
Return to Sender
Return receipts are received from someone called "System Administrator" and the number of the person tou sent a Text to is in the message. No names are given, only the number.
:-(
Delete Sent
You can only delete sent messages one at a time unless you get a 3rd party application to do them all for you.
:-(
Remove from Server
If you delete an e-mail from an SPV, it doesn't ask if you want to delete it from the 'Phone Only' or from the 'Phone and Server', it just takes it from both anyway.
:-(
Download a Message
Unless you specify that you want to download all the messages, connecting to your mail server will download your headers, but it disconnects before you can select mail for download. This means that when you do go for the mail you want, you have to re-connect, re-load the headers and then download the mail you wanted.
:-(
Attach me a Photo
You can't attach photos, only sound clips. But you can attach photos if you
buy a 3rd party application.
:-(
Take me to the Task
If you have many tasks running, and you want to switch from one to the other, you can't switch to it like you can on the 7650 by holding down the menu button. So, although you can multitask on a Microsoft smart phone, you're not really supposed to (or at least, that's how it looks).
:-(
Moving my Icons
You can't easily move the icons in the Program Menu. You can shift them to different 'folders' (with a 3rd party application), but you can't re-order them in the menu. Oh, no 'Grid View' either.
:-(
Set a Date
On the 7650, I can put my shift work down as "On Monday, I start at 6:20am, I want an alarm to go off at 4:00am and will keep doing this until Friday". On the SPV, forget it! Individual entries is the only way, and you can't specify a time for the alarm, only a predefined number of times.
WAP-tastic
We know Microsoft doesn't like WAP, but they could at least get their browser to work properly with it. Sites I enjoy visiting on my 7650 cannot be visited by an SPV because IE can't read some of the code in those pages.
:-(
Hang on a Minute I
For no reason at all, the hourglass (spinning pall thing) sometimes appears and freezes the SPV for a few seconds.
:-(
Hang on a Minute II
Press a menu button on the 7650 and a menu appears. Press the equivalent button on an SPV and it can take anything up to 15 seconds for the menu to appear!
Also, there are often times when the screen takes ages to redraw. It reminds me of using an old 2Mb ATI Mach graphics card.
:-(
Single Handed Use
The keys are too small and placed in a clumsy way - but that's not an OS thing, after all, look at the 3650 ;-)
However, again, the sudden pauses can cause problems. You're typing away and nothing appears for a few seconds, you think the phone has crashed and then everything catches up. Eh?
:-(
First Contact
Microsoft have given the SPV millions of fields for each contact, but only one mobile field and you can't add, delete or edit any of the others! This means that while I may have my sister's mobile number and her husband's mobile numbers under the same name (ie, under 'Lisa & Jason', I could put 'Lisa's Mobile' and 'Jason's Mobile'), I now need two separate entries.
:-?
Camera
The camera software has no Night Mode. But there is a good picture editor that lets you modify the photo - as long as you shrink it.
:-)
Media Buddy
The media player is pretty good, and software like PocketTV makes it better.
I need more power
Battery life sucks! After a day of using it as I would a 7650, not only am I getting a low power warning, but I'm
warned that I could
lose data if I don't recharge soon! What!!!!!!?????? That is evil!
:-)
Chatting
MSN Messenger is nice.
:-(
Ring-drones
Built in ringtones are CRAP!! Worse than a 3210, and MIDI files are only supported if they are mono. What were those Pocket PC Thoughts fangirls on about when they said that they now have better ringtones than Nokia? What a bunch of dilweeds.
:-(
Who's Connected?
SPV doesn't really give control over what method you use to connect. Sure, you can tell it what to use but sometimes, especially if you've added a new connection, it does its own thing. Maybe I got the settings confused, but what the hell? This is a phone, not a PC! It should be easy!
:-(
Rings a bell
Sometimes, the SPV forgets which sounds I have allocated to different events. Bit of a shame.
:-)
RAM - Lots of it
It has lots of internal RAM and easy access to extra RAM. But the SPV needs it.
:-(
No Software
There's hardly any software for it. Considering how many software developers worship Microsoft, it's amazing that there's hardly anything there. You can spend all day looking under 'Symbian' for on Handango, but five minutes under 'Smartphone' and you're done. The SPV has been around for a long time now
:-(
No GPRS Counter
This should be in there, as it is, you have to buy one.
:-?
Looks Pretty
Everything on the SPV looks very pretty. One thing I didn't like about Series60 UI was tha lack of colour in dailogues and stuff. UIQ addresses this, but the cost of all this eyecandy is performance (or lack thereof). The 7650 responds so much better.
:-(
Java
No Java midlets.
Conclusion
Microsoft has shown that it doesn't know what a smart phone needs to have, what the users want and how they want it (oo-err). Nokia's experience shines through its mobile phones in general, and that experience applied through the Symbian platform provides users with a stable, reliable, efficient and useable phone.
Hybrid Mode
