Poll - Which phone should I get next? Atom, Mio, or another?

[vijay555]

Ladies and Gents:
In approximately 20 days, Mrs Vijay555 is giving birth to Vijay555.1, God willing.

However, more importantly, my phone contract is also coming to an end at the same time, and thus my question to you, should you choose to accept it:

Which phone shall I get next?
I've got a Magician, which I love.
I've got a Universal, which I have a love/hate relationship with. But it's not used as a phone, and won't be.

I'm in a suit all day:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:D6D2eJ08O7tcXM:www.imaginaryproducts. com/topolink/Files/agent_smith_poses04.jpg
and so this is a significant factor - small, not a pocket ripper.

The Wizard is unfortunately a bit frumpy for me, like Fat Monica in Friends:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:Msvurvh6JQgCNM:members.tripod.com/~llwyd/fat/friendsthanks3.jpg
- you know it's got some sexiness in it, but it's a bit too chunky, and it's Omap.

So really, Magician-ish size is pretty much my only criteria.
CPU speed (ARM/OMAP) I can live with, I'll twist it's arm and speed it up either way.
Keyboard would be nice, but not essential.
I want something that'll be available in T minus 20 days.

Which in my mind only really leaves the Atom and the Mio A701. Or perhaps "none of the above"? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/quotes).
The Mio is a bit "vertically over-challenged", but it's ok. Also slightly plastic fantasic, no?
The Atom seems to be a strong contender.

What do you think? Thanks for listening!

V

[flyingcamelz]

i don't really recommend Mio at all, sure i have yet to see if the new one is better, but i've heard really crap reviews about the A700 (i'm seeing alot of 1-2month new ones out for sale 2nd hand too) and i have an A201 GPS model of my own which is in the car as a navigator. the A201 i have has caused me abit of trouble already and i've pratically given up on having it be anything besides a navigation unit for the car. so impressions so far aren't too good of the Mio brand as a whole.

i heard alot of problems with the Atom when it first came out too, but with new firmware updates i'm seeing better reviews and less problems. it does seem to be rather costly though, being almost six thousand hong kong dollars (we don't have many special contract deals with the Atom here) considering an extra 20% or so will get me a brand new Universal outright. price factor aside though it seems to match your needs, the suit, the power, and the size factor. like you say, a strong contender mate. i really don't have a better suggestion.

[raymondu999]

Ok, here's my two cents: For your Magician, I'd recommend an E-Ten M600. It's stylish (to me, anyways. I like black :D . But that's subjective) And it can do the job. For your choice of Universal replacement, I would suggest an Advance TC MAGIC. It's not HTC, but wait till you see.

http://www.advancetc.com/

[jasafar]

It's pretty amazing that the company would show photos of the phone being held by someone with so much dirt under their fingernails and smudges on the screen. Also, the phone doesn't appear to be very compact; much beefier then the HTC Wizard I think.

--Jas

[raymondu999]

Like I said... a replacement for his Universal, not for his Magician. I recommended an M600 for that job.

[TheBrit]

Prophet - you know you want to!! 8)

[vijay555]

Good point, forget li'l ol Prophet and Charmer. Cute and the form factor is identical. But I think the Atom has the edge over both in terms of size, and it has a flash.

What say you, TheBrit? Are you happy with it?

V

[J273]

Ive had both prophet and atom..Much prefer the dopod ..I found the atom to be real buggy this was with the second rom though.. think theres been a few updates since

[flicka]

I went from magician to the Mio A701 and I am really pleased.
I like the fact that it does everything in one unit. Having GPS on it is great to have.
The main thing that took time to get used to was the differences between WM2003 to WM5.

Yes there are a few little niggles but nothing major. It's not noticably larger than the magician. And it comes with great extras in the box (car mount and car charger in particular). It's also noticably faster than the magician was (IMO).

[levenum]

Hi Vj!

After comparing features on www.gsmarena.com between ETEN, Mio, and various HTC devices, I finally settled on the Prophet (sold as imate jamin).

- size
- connectivity (WiFi g, EDGE)
- full size SD
- 2MP camera (not critical but a bonus non the less)

Have received it yet though so cant comment on performance. Will post opinion when it arrives.

[victoradjei]

After the latest official ROM upgrade of the Atom, you will not regret having it or any of its derivatives :lol:

After xda2, I have had K-jam and currently own both the Prophet and Atom :wink:

[vijay555]

[b]Thanks very much for your feedback thus far all.[b/]

Prophet has the advantage that it uses full size SD, which saves me buying another one. And as levenum indicates, it's got a good feature set.

Atom is sexy: victoradjei's post suggests it's working ok now.

flicka's recommendation on the Mio is strong - I'm swayed by a new "toy", ie a feature that'll let me do something new, and I have some ideas about some GPS plugins I want to write, so that'd be nice too.

Sigh, it's all still in the running! What to do, what to do!

V

[levenum]

Yes, getting a new toy can be a challenge when there are so many options. I debated my choice for couple of month, but in the end the availability and price 'helped' me make up my mind.

Here's a suggestion: Assign each quality of the device (design, size, communications, GPS etc.) a value in points. Then calculate the total value for devices you want to choose from and see who gets the highest score. I recommend doing it on paper and not in your head so you wont suddenly decide that full SD worth more than WiFi g instead of b.

Set your goals. Calculate. Go for the winner.
If you don't like it, remember - your contract is not for life, and by the time it expires, there will be a whole new generation of toys out there.
:D

[OdeeanRDeathshead]

Until I bought the atom I had never seen malloc return NULL. Even after all the upgrades it still fails often at tasks like performing a system snapshot. Ringtones still get choppy at times and it turns itself on for no reason. There is something seriously wrong with the atom. They can hide it from average users but when you try programming on the thing it becomes obvious that it is not that good. Of course you could just code for every possible outcome but its just not an issue on other devices.

[vijay555]

OdeeanRDeathshead: very intersting observations, and obviously very important. Difficult scenario either way: code to take into account the Atom's weaknesses, or lose Atom compatibility?

But Windows Mobile is peculiar enough already, having to code for sytem specific bugs is a pain either way :( My heart goes out to you!

V

[TheBrit]

Good point, forget li'l ol Prophet and Charmer. Cute and the form factor is identical. But I think the Atom has the edge over both in terms of size, and it has a flash.

What say you, TheBrit? Are you happy with it?

V
Yeah...so far so good. :D

[bbobeckyj]

you're probably looking forward to the next new one by now, but, which did you get?
B

[sx1-doc]

i updated from xda2 mini that i loved and i still have it, to the asus p525.
2mpixl auto focus flash (one of the best camera for ppc on the market)
wifi,bluetooth 2,infra,normal keypad that is very useful ,i can use it as full speed card reader for my 4 gb mini sd .

b4 i bought the asus i was going for atom, but i saw that asus has the full package that i need .

consider that the atom is the same size or bit smaller then the sda2 mini.
and the asus p525 is 1 cm longer and 2 mm thicker.

PPC-DOC

[jdl1306]

Artemis (aka the orbit) isn't in the running?