irblinx
18-11-2004, 10:32 PM
So the IIs's (what IS the plural of IIs??) arrived today so serious playi.... er ... product familiarisation has begun.
First off, the colour of the O2 version is very nice (I think the II is looking old fashioned already). The case is ok (I'm not a case fan, I prefer to just lug it around in my pocket).
The keyboard is probably far too fiddly to ever get used by my normal sized pinkies but the blue backlight means that it will look good next to my PS2 even without BT turned on!!!!
The software seems to be up to scratch too, they've even added a decent battery life monitor to the Active and Today screens (The Active screen actually seems fairly usefull this time round!). Not had much of a play with the additional software, apart from those that came with the latest Xda II ROM upgrade ("phone Alison" ....... why is it dialing Colin??), but the GPRS monitor is a welcome addition.
Now onto what, for me, is the most essential part - WiFi and Bluetooth. Let's not beat around the bush, the II was rubbish for both, only really with the latest ROM was the II capable of anything like decent performance with BT Headsets and still didn't support Handsfree. As for WiFi, I used a Sandisk SD card with my II and it was a pain to connect.
Whilst waiting for the release of the IIs we've been playing with iPaq 4150's which have great BT & WiFi tools that even our execs could use!
*WiFi*
Turned the phone on at home and it immediatly sniffed my network (Linksys router) and asking to connect prompted me for my encryption key followed by faultless connection to the internet. Exxxxcelent
*Bluetooth*
My boss had a Nokia CK-7W carkit fitted a few weeks ago, oh how we laughed when the latest II ROM still rendered the II useless in his car!!!! So it was with slight trepidation that we turned the ignition on only for the IIs to find/bond and work perfectly with the kit at first time of asking.
So all in all I'd say that O2 must have actually been listening to us after all (despite not updating the website FAQ's properly since the original Xda). We have a few very good contacts within O2 and had seen a fair amount of info prior to release and received assurances on the above functionality, but I have to say that I didn't believe it till I saw it all with my own eyes!!
Now for some serious testing to see if it's beauty goes further than skin deep
First off, the colour of the O2 version is very nice (I think the II is looking old fashioned already). The case is ok (I'm not a case fan, I prefer to just lug it around in my pocket).
The keyboard is probably far too fiddly to ever get used by my normal sized pinkies but the blue backlight means that it will look good next to my PS2 even without BT turned on!!!!
The software seems to be up to scratch too, they've even added a decent battery life monitor to the Active and Today screens (The Active screen actually seems fairly usefull this time round!). Not had much of a play with the additional software, apart from those that came with the latest Xda II ROM upgrade ("phone Alison" ....... why is it dialing Colin??), but the GPRS monitor is a welcome addition.
Now onto what, for me, is the most essential part - WiFi and Bluetooth. Let's not beat around the bush, the II was rubbish for both, only really with the latest ROM was the II capable of anything like decent performance with BT Headsets and still didn't support Handsfree. As for WiFi, I used a Sandisk SD card with my II and it was a pain to connect.
Whilst waiting for the release of the IIs we've been playing with iPaq 4150's which have great BT & WiFi tools that even our execs could use!
*WiFi*
Turned the phone on at home and it immediatly sniffed my network (Linksys router) and asking to connect prompted me for my encryption key followed by faultless connection to the internet. Exxxxcelent
*Bluetooth*
My boss had a Nokia CK-7W carkit fitted a few weeks ago, oh how we laughed when the latest II ROM still rendered the II useless in his car!!!! So it was with slight trepidation that we turned the ignition on only for the IIs to find/bond and work perfectly with the kit at first time of asking.
So all in all I'd say that O2 must have actually been listening to us after all (despite not updating the website FAQ's properly since the original Xda). We have a few very good contacts within O2 and had seen a fair amount of info prior to release and received assurances on the above functionality, but I have to say that I didn't believe it till I saw it all with my own eyes!!
Now for some serious testing to see if it's beauty goes further than skin deep