Wizard Pro's & Con's

[chrisredmayne]

I would be interested to find out what people thought were good and bad about the wizard, as this will change for what people want to get out of their phone / pda. If you have time could you list your pros and cons of the Wizard? Thanks, heres mine...

PROS

Phone / Text works good
Games are excellent
Can connect to the internet through wi-fi / bluetooth / t-mobile
MSN
The keyboard
Touch screen
Easy to navigate
MP3 player with up to 2gb storage
Can play videos
Can be used as a webcam
Calendar works well
MP3 ringtones

CONS

Controls for some games are difficult to use
Sometimes my alarm doesnt go off...
Hmmm... I broke my headpohnes...
I cant think of any!!! I love this phone too much

[Dweller]

Here are mine
PROS
Excellent communication abilities
QWERTY keyboard
Organizer

CONS
Not enough CPU speed

In spite of this it is great!

[F*SH]

That would be "Wizard Pros & Cons" - I'm an apostrophe nazi :D

I was going to write a full review but this is easier. So:

Pros:

* Great keyboard, innovative input design.
* Nice, large screen

Cons:

* The operating system for being unreliable and hard to use (definite feature creep getting in the way of useability and maturity).
* Connectivity (wifi & BT) seems sketchy at best
* Poor battery life
* Hardware unreliabilty

[Webreaper]

BT and Wifi works fine for me.

Battery life is comparable with any phone I've had previously - I regularly get 2.5 days with some average usage and with calls. That's using Wifi and GPRS too.

Install some crap like phonealarm or Wisbar and it drops through the floor, but leave a vanilla install and it's pretty good IMO.

[F*SH]

Maybe it's just my battery, but with moderate use (music & frequent calls) I pretty much require a recharge every day. Seems the state of phones these days. I remember the time when a phone would last a week! :x

[Webreaper]

True, but they were also useless blocks of concrete which could barely make a call, let alone play video and music, organise your life, surf the web, etc.

[Sir.B]

for my Cingular 8125

PRO:
eliminate multiple devices and performs those functions well
keyboard
exellent conectivety options

CON:
mobile Windows Media player interface and functions
face buttons get activated easily in a bag or pocket (so i end up calling people)

[Yorch]

CON:
face buttons get activated easily in a bag or pocket (so i end up calling people)

1. Go to Settings, Buttons and there is a tab that says "Lock"
2. Choose "Lock all buttons except power button".
3. Place phone in your pocket without worries.
4. When you need to use the phone, press the power button and call.

[Sir.B]

CON:
face buttons get activated easily in a bag or pocket (so i end up calling people)

1. Go to Settings, Buttons and there is a tab that says "Lock"
2. Choose "Lock all buttons except power button".
3. Place phone in your pocket without worries.
4. When you need to use the phone, press the power button and call.

i set that setting...
but when on the bus and listening to music the phone is on
it dials sometimes...
thank you for trying to help... :D

[F*SH]

True, but they were also useless blocks of concrete which could barely make a call, let alone play video and music, organise your life, surf the web, etc.

Largely true, but I had a very nice Treo beforehand that would do all that, with a very stable and usable interface, that would last a good 4-5 days.

But I digress. Sorry for hijacking this thread :roll:

[chrisredmayne]

CON:
face buttons get activated easily in a bag or pocket (so i end up calling people)

1. Go to Settings, Buttons and there is a tab that says "Lock"
2. Choose "Lock all buttons except power button".
3. Place phone in your pocket without worries.
4. When you need to use the phone, press the power button and call. :roll: i got that setting...but when i'm on the bus and listen to music the phone is on it dials sometimes...
but thank you for trying to help... :D

When you have windows media player on if you close it the music still plays and you can lock the device then

[peanut]

I hate mine. Bought 2x at Xmas one for me one for the Wife. Wife refused to use it so cancelled contract. I have made 10 calls on it since and it hasn't been used for 6 months.
Really long winded to send a text or multimedia message. Too small to be a practical PC .
I intend to get one of the new 5" tft mini notebook/tablets.

PROS

Phone is good

Can connect to the internet through wi-fi
keyboard good
Touch screen
sat nav use
MP3 player with up to 2gb storage
Can play videos
MP3 ringtones

CONS
too flippin heavy and thick
Text sending takes too many keystrokes
screen too small

alarm problems
headpohnes socket 2.5mm ? wrong size

[gogogubbins]

Pros:
keyboard
Connectivity
Expandable Storage
Compatibility with MS Office ( word, outlook, excel, PPoint)
Music
video
flaunt value
Geek factor

Cons:
os (but this is not a Wizard fault)
Battery life (heavy use -wifi, games etc only last- 2 hours)
Camera -poor at best
limited memory
Slow processor (You Can over clock it but only to an extent and it affects the battery life )
Poor Stylus

But I like the phone and have reached the stage where I no longer Carry my laptop with me

a video out port and 'built-in FM would have been great

cheers!

[chrisredmayne]

The texting seems quicker for me with the keyboard than the old phone methods.

A fm radio would of been great, a big miss for me that is.

Why do people think the phone processor is too slow? Everything I have tried to run on my mda including games such as tomb raider have ran great.

[rambo6]

I have the 8125 using T-Mobile

Pros:

Excellent phone with loud ring;
Extremely reliable and acceptably fast (with Mr. Clean AKU 2.3 ROM);
Works well with BT Stereo Headsets and other hands free devices;
With a simple hack, it can be controlled from a bluetooth headset;
Extremely customizable due to the xda-developers site and all the hacks and .cab files available.
Most flexible pda/phone available.
Standard Mini USB Charging

Cons:

No 3G UMTS/HSPDA (I'm waiting for TyTN bugs to get worked out);
Processor could be faster but with proper ROM and customizations, it works acceptably fast;
Camera takes marginal photos bue comes in handy in a pinch;
Battery life is one to two days depending on usage. This is better than some devices with WiFi.

[rambo6]

I have the 8125 using T-Mobile

Pros:

Excellent phone with loud ring;
Extremely reliable and acceptably fast (with Mr. Clean AKU 2.3 ROM);
Works well with BT Stereo Headsets and other hands free devices;
With a simple hack, it can be controlled from a bluetooth headset;
Extremely customizable due to the xda-developers site and all the hacks and .cab files available.
Most flexible pda/phone available.
Standard Mini USB Charging

Cons:

No 3G UMTS/HSPDA (I'm waiting for TyTN bugs to get worked out);
Processor could be faster but with proper ROM and customizations, it works acceptably fast;
Camera takes marginal photos bue comes in handy in a pinch;
Battery life is one to two days depending on usage. This is better than some devices with WiFi.

[rambo6]

I have the 8125 using T-Mobile

Pros:

Excellent phone with loud ring;
Extremely reliable and acceptably fast (with Mr. Clean AKU 2.3 ROM);
Works well with BT Stereo Headsets and other hands free devices;
With a simple hack, it can be controlled from a bluetooth headset;
Extremely customizable due to the xda-developers site and all the hacks and .cab files available.
Most flexible pda/phone available.
Standard Mini USB Charging

Cons:

No 3G UMTS/HSPDA (I'm waiting for TyTN bugs to get worked out);
Processor could be faster but with proper ROM and customizations, it works acceptably fast;
Camera takes marginal photos bue comes in handy in a pinch;
Battery life is one to two days depending on usage. This is better than some devices with WiFi.

[thompsd]

I'm using tmobile with the data plan, I've used both the Treo and Wizard and like the wizard for it's extensive connectablity and the treo for its elegant OS and deeper application pool. Since I have the MDA, I'll use it until something better comes along

Pros
Excellent screen
good connectivity via gprs/bt/wifi
fairly easy to tweak, unlock, overclock
good selection of win mobile applications
Ability to use phone as WAN modem to laptop
Outlook sync
Bluetooth headset support

Cons
Stylus falls out of phone, this is a design flaw it is fixable but a pita
Camera is awful, why bother
Windows mobile - do we really need to multitask on a phone?
Windows media - what a half ass attempt, I wish Ptunes supported this OS
Windows email client, I guess I'm just used to some of the excellent palm apps, this is really lame
not really designed for one handed operation, you need to use a bluetooth headset
The phone connectivity could be better, I have a small Siemens phone that's much better than this & can pull in a distant signal where the MDA is still searching

Most of my gripes are not so much with the phone, it's an elegant design but rather with the MS OS, it's not like MS is a startup, I just expected more, its ok but could be so much better.

[gogogubbins]

Why do people think the phone processor is too slow? Everything I have tried to run on my mda including games such as tomb raider have ran great.

Try playing Resco Guardians final stages with your phone not in flight mode (pun incidental). @195 Mhz you'll know what I mean.

[dipulmiah]

CON:
face buttons get activated easily in a bag or pocket (so i end up calling people)

1. Go to Settings, Buttons and there is a tab that says "Lock"
2. Choose "Lock all buttons except power button".
3. Place phone in your pocket without worries.
4. When you need to use the phone, press the power button and call. :roll: i got that setting...but when i'm on the bus and listen to music the phone is on it dials sometimes...
but thank you for trying to help... :D

I find on WMP I am able to switch off the display while I am listening to music through my HT820 headsets!!!

[Menneisyys]

Cons:
Battery life (heavy use -wifi, games etc only last- 2 hours)

With Wi-Fi, but nothing else. Otherwise, it's the best battery life I've ever seen on a PPC PE device. See my articles on this subject if interested.

[Yanktar03]

I've been using my Wizard for about 2 months now--I replaced my HP 6315 with it and compared to the Ipaq it's a dream!, smaller, lighter, more features and 100x more reliable. For 2 years I had to reboot the HP a few times a day, and rebuild it from backups half a dozen times a year.

Recently, I FLASHED the firmware and the unit became a lot more user-friendly.
Pros:
Size and weight
Battery life (remember: I had the Ipaq).
Interface--USB and USB mini is a great combo--after the Ipaq.
Compatibility--everything I ran on the Ipaq runs nicely on the MDA. I especially like that Beta Player seems to play smoothly, and makes a really good substitute for W-Media. B/P was ALWAYS a better movie player, with smooth transitions from portrait to landscape mode, and none of the idiot requirements W-Media makes with playlists.
Buttons: It's much easier NOT to press a button than on the Ipaq.
A2DP compatibility. My Jensen B/T St phones work great!

Cons:
No access to GPS icon--you need a registry hack and I had to go at it several times to find the right hack.

Incompatible with the Garmin B/T GPS 10--unless you hack it. Now it works fine.

BlueTooth system keeps too much from you--you cannot force a connect or disconnect, or see what's connected without a lot of hoops.

A2DP incompatibility unless you flash the firmware.

Windows Media: This garbage doesn't allow you to access your music, movies or give you help. All it wants to do is download stuff from the web. I don't get it. BetaPlayer (and its successor) are FAR nicer and easier for a guy to whom his 20's are a distant, far distant memory.

Keyboard--Keyboard??? Yup. The pop-up one keeps popping up, even when the H/W is out. The H/W is more limited than I'd expected: Example: While using AIM I hit the return key. It didn't send, but just did a line-feed. I had to use the stylus to send. When using the k/bd, you shouldn't have to use a stylus for ANYTHING.

Some s/w doesn't transition well from L/S to Port via the keyboard slide--like Garmin Que.

No docking station--you MUST use the USB cable. I like a docking station at my office and home PCs because I can see the screen. Also, the IPAQ Docking stations have a port for a second battery to re-charge. I don't REALLY need the second battery, but I'm always nervous without one.

eMail: I haven't figured out how to get it to ALWAYS give me the full message. I don't know what fool came up with the idea of forcing you to re-"send/Receive" just to get the rest of your messages. At least in Windows 2003 there was a way.

The stylus: Yeah, a collapsible stylus looks cool, but it's hard to use and I end up with a pen stylus more often than not.

[fordcan]

..............

eMail: I haven't figured out how to get it to ALWAYS give me the full message. I don't know what fool came up with the idea of forcing you to re-"send/Receive" just to get the rest of your messages. At least in Windows 2003 there was a way.
..................

If u r using Exchange Server

Activesync\Menu\Options\Settings (e-mail must be checked) and here you go!

If u r using POP3 goto Messaging

Menu\Tools\Options

Select POP3 account goto E-mail setup page (4/4) select Options Goto Options (3/3) and Here you go!!

Hope this is the info you need..