XDA Orbit - Questions from a Prophet user!

[Tinnitus]

Hi,

I currently own a Prophet (I-Mate Jamin model) which I bought around 12 months ago on an o2 contract. I'm happy with the device and haven't had any issues with it that I haven't been able to resolve myself (& by lurking on these forums) but as I mentioned, I've had it about 12 months now and I'm due an upgrade with o2.

I'm considering getting an XDA Orbit but the specs seem pretty much the same as my Prophet. I'm attracted to it becauase physically it looks nicer from what I can tell, but that's pretty much it.

Can any of you shed any light on what the main differences are between these devices and if it would actually be worth me upgrading to the Orbit?

WM6 is obviously a big factor in this, I don't know if it will ever be availible for the Prophet but it appears that there may be a chance it will be availible for the Orbit.

The only faults I have with my Prophet are the way it has the worlds worst vibrate feature (very noisy & long) & it's quite weighty and a bit bulky for my pocket. If these features are better on the Orbit then it would be a selling point for me.

Lastly, one thing that's importnat to me is the 'keypad' software that seems to be present on the Prophets roms. I'm used to this for one handed input, - is this availible on the XDA Orbit?

I realise this is all a bit drawn out but I'm hoping that there will be members hear that can relate to my issues and give me some advice!

If not, I might just stick with my Prophet for now and see what else comes out in the future, although I'm also slightly tempted to go the Symbian route and get a Nokia N95 which o2 also have an offer and it looks quite nice (but then I don't know a great deal about Symbian)

Any views??!

Thanks for any help!

[hays]

An update to an Orbit will be fairly easy for you as you will be used to the operation of the phone

You will also get

wi-fi - I use this all the time
GPS - either Co-Pilot or you can get TomTom (worth the upgrade on it's own in my opinion
WM6 next month (hopefully)

O2 will let you have it for free, you can sell your old one on ebay for £150ish

I don't think the N-95 is all it was cracked up to be. The GPS is not as good as the Orbit - either the hardware or the supplied software

What have you got to loose ?

Hays

[Tinnitus]

Gah, screwed up...

[Tinnitus]

Thanks hays, I appreciate that.

This might be a silly question but can you get the T9 'phonepad' on the Orbit, it's just I read in a review that it wasn't available & I use this constantly on my Prophet.

One of the other things about the N95 that's been attracting me is the camera quality, but I do feel more comfortable sticking with windows mobile if I'm honest, especially if I can upgrade for free.

Also my Prophet does have Wi-Fi, I use this a lot...The N95 also has it...

Thanks again,

[hays]

yes the phone pad was posted on the forum and I use it all the time with my orbit.

I cant argue re the camera - the orbits is good in daylight - not so good in low light. Definately 1-0 to the N95 for that one

I've not seen tomtom running on a 95. I gather the supplied s/w is pretty lame. The GPS chip is not SIRF III, meaning it takes a few mins to lock on when you start up. Also needs a failrly good line of sight in your veh according to some

My orbit locks on in around 20 secs. It can even get a lock from the middle of my house

[Tinnitus]

Hi hays, thanks again for the free help!

Sorry to keep up with the questions, but one last thing - GPS is new to me. Is this something that there are data charges for? I'm not sure how it works.

I've a Vodafone sim from my works phone that I was hoping to use in the Orbit but I'm not sure if I'll still be able to use GPS with it or how much it costs if I stick with my o2 sim.

I guess I should probably be proactive and Google this!

Thanks again,

(also, good news about the phone pad)

[hays]

GPS = Global Positioning System. Free and used worldwide
GPS is free on the Orbit as it behaves exactly the same way as a regular in car GPS (unless you subscribe to live traffic updates which use GPRS - which is your phone's mobile data service)
The maps are stored on your storage card and therefore require no downloads. It does not matter which network or sim card you use as the orbit's GPS is stand alone


I believe the N95 uses GPRS to download the maps so that may be a factor to consider