upgrade to orbit? yes or no?

[fox 2]

o2 have offered me an upgrade from my IIi to the orbit. As some of you have been using the orbit for a little while is it all it's cracked up to be?

and does tomtom work ok with the orbit and the built in gps reciever?

cheers guys

[JC#79]

Go for it you will love it if not sell it many will be after it if you don't like it.

Or you could wait for the zinc (feb 07 or so) if you can do without the gps in-built?

[RicardoC]

There is an issue with MicroSD's that possibly dosnt effect all units. See other threads.

Apart from that and if you clock it to 250MHz it works extremely well. I loved my BlueAngel but even my old stylus feels fat now. The jog dial / track ball is mega and internal GPS a breeze. The slower CPU also has the benefit of longer battery life.

I am currently looking for one for a friend on eBay and they are going for £300+ so if you dont like it can always sell and keep old phone...

ps. I use a Sandisk UltraII 2gb MicroSD which may speed up map access etc, its generally slightly slower than my 500MHz BlueAngel but no problem.

[wodeh]

I'm a new user of the Xda Orbit, my first WM PDA after owning a tapwave zodiac and the first phone I can really type text messages on. For a PDA it's light, snappy (my last wm device was a Compaq Aero 15xx), has an excellent battery life and the GPS works a treat.

The biggest benefit is the size, though, compared to the other similarly featured Xda's in the o2 lineup this one is TINY, it dropped the jaws of my techy colleagues to the floor.

I find TomTom to be pretty fast and accurate getting a fix, route calculations are fast enough, but it is a little slow to start up initially- overclocking helps but not much. I have overclocked to 260 for PocketSNES and on other occasions but find it normally fast enough to be comfortable - quite a feat with a meer 200mhz!

I'd say go for it, I'm posting this message from Mine now! got 3 tabs open text-mode in NetFront- browsing perfection!

[Coastline]

I have had the following:

XDA II
XDA IIs
XDA IIi
XDA Exec

And recently upgraded to the Orbit. I must say that it is the closest I have come to being 100% happy with an XDA.

Had no idea how compact this device is. No more holding a brick to your ear, this is an aesthetically pleasing device - even for non PDA'ers.

I haven't found anything that doesn't work yet. I thought the GPS would be just another gimick and there was no way it was going to work properly without an external antenna - WRONG! Stick TomTom 6.02 on it and away you go. Managed nearly seven hours of GPS directed driving before the battery got too low (have now got a car charger).

I have been waiting for a device that combined all the functionality of a good PDA and phone in a phone size package and here it is.............and they throw in a GPS and FM Radio to boot.

and one more thing if you get a decent set of headphones (either buy an adapter or do a bit of DIY soldering) it's a pretty decent MP3 player too. 2GB micro SD from Moby Memory for about £40 and painless synching with Media Player 11 and your away.

The main reason I have a PDA phone is for Terminal Server. I provide software support and it gives me the freedom to get out of the House/Office and still be able to support my Clients. I was always able to justify carrying around a house brick (EXEC) because of this. Now I don't have to this phone is great and I have to say it ..... Gorgeous.

OK now it's out - I love my Orbit!!!

Go get one - I'm pretty sure you'll be happy!

Hope this helped!

[cfvilela]

Since a couple of weeks ago, I'm also the proud owner of a HTC P3300, after owning a Qtek S100 for a year and a half.
I'm truly very happy with my new P3300.

Almost all of the features have been mentioned in other replies to your post (and I agree with them), so, I want to add that, despite having the same 64Mb of RAM as the S100, it seems to me (I'm no expert) that memory management works better (probably WM5 instead of WM2003 has something to to with it) than it did on the S100.

Also the new 2Mpixel camera works very well, the picture quality is very good. It doesn't have flash or 'macro mode' selector, but I can live without it.
The phone capabilities are good (I had a lot of problems with the S100 not relating phone numbers to names or contact photos).
Apart from a little problem I had with activesync (mentioned in another thread and already solved) it's been working perfectly.

As for the GPS softwares, I use Destinator 6 (instead of TomTom) and Navitel (with custom Madeira map) for navigation and both of them work perfectly.

Bottom line, and yes, I'll be repating myself, I'm very very happy with my P3300.

regards,

[fox 2]

thanks for the advice guys! looks like im off to get myself one then! :)

[BUSPBP]

I currently own a Mini S and I'm really keen to upgrade to the Orbit. I've however found that Orbit seems not to have an InfraRed port. So I wouldn't be able to use it as a TV remote control. Can anyone please confirm? Thanks.

PPB

[BUSPBP]

I currently own a Mini S and I'm really keen to upgrade to the Orbit. I've however found that Orbit seems not to have an InfraRed port. So I wouldn't be able to use it as a TV remote control. Can anyone please confirm? Thanks.

PPB

[fox 2]

as far as i could see and i've read no it doesnt have an IR port, but surely using your phone as a tv remote isn't the be all and end all is it?

[richiev4]

I currently own a Mini S and I'm really keen to upgrade to the Orbit. I've however found that Orbit seems not to have an InfraRed port. So I wouldn't be able to use it as a TV remote control. Can anyone please confirm? Thanks.

PPB

Hi

It doesn't have infrared, but if I where you I would treat myself to one of these

Link (http://http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detailsharmony/GB/EN,CRID=2084,CONTENTID=10929&ad=emea_harmony_chart_525)

I have one and along with the Orbit this remote is superb. :cool:

Rich

[veisen]

today i upgrade

T-Mobile mda compact 3 with HTC software and it is better then t-mobile software it is quickly

[manimal666]

I currently own a Mini S and I'm really keen to upgrade to the Orbit. I've however found that Orbit seems not to have an InfraRed port. So I wouldn't be able to use it as a TV remote control. Can anyone please confirm? Thanks.

PPB
I asked HTC about making this device with consumer grade IR and 3G to make this a complete device. This is the response i got from HTC.

"Thank you for getting in contact with HTC regarding your recommendations and support. its more than likely a phone will come out with the functions you have asked. Its a case that at the moment a trade of as to be implemented due to technology reasons due to the GPS functions incorporated in to the phone, which requires other hardware to be dropped from the phone. The GPS being implemented is still fairly new concept and even through I don't have details of future phones its only a matter of time before it happens. Personally i'm waiting for a phone/GPS with slide out keyboard, which again can only be a matter of time.
Thank You for your comments"

All in all adding IR and 3G would make this one compact complete device. Use it to control your gadgets, navigate you around when driving, using it for phone and all manner of PPC functionality with virtually every connection option. One day it will be reality.

Just a snippet from HTC

Hope that helps.

[volition]

Look at my signature, I've worked with nearly all HTCs from an early stage. If you can live without a keyboard, this is THE device to have at the moment.

HTC are nearing perfection!

Best device ever released (excluding the Universal for business use, still unbeatable).

[adesonic]

I just got one - having been through the magician (which the wife now loves and uses) and the exec (which I still use as an excellent business tool) I have got to say that I am bowled over by the Orbit/3300 - WM5.0 AKU3, GPS, great screen, brilliant battery life (I get 3 days moderate usage out of mine between charges - 10 calls per day, push email on 18 hours per day, occasional GPS use!

GET ONE - U WILL NOT REGRET IT - and per other posts, if you don't like it I am sure it will get snapped up on EBAY

[andromeda9]

o2 have offered me an upgrade from my IIi to the orbit. As some of you have been using the orbit for a little while is it all it's cracked up to be?

and does tomtom work ok with the orbit and the built in gps reciever?

cheers guys

Hi,

You might like to check out the thread on the General Forum :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=291461
also
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=289166 (TomTom 6 instead of copilot)
and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=289243

Ann