Should i buy Athena??

---

At the moment i have the universal, and uses it primarily for navigation and reading e books. have normal SEk810i for phoning.

i have been waiting for the omni, but date keeps pushing and no official responses has been made whether it comes or not.

And now i have found me a very nice offer that i can afford

Its the HTC Advantage X7500 and not the 7501.

How simple will the upgrade be to wm6 ?
and what other differences is there beside the fmradio (which doesn't matter to me)?

should i go for this or should i wait ?

One last note, the size of the athena doesnt scare me, i like big screen when reading and using navi.

I bought one 7500 couple of months before. The upgrade to WM6 was easy, but... I wouldn't buy it again - the microdrive makes me very big problems (it stops working in unpredictable times - not realiable) and also the GPS chipset inside is not SirfStarIII, be careful, if you need it for detailed measurements... :(((

the athenais an amazing device look at the thread in the upgrading section called 'athena & WM6 getting rid...' and have you considered the shift it is bigger but a huge screen gps and phone 30GB vista and everything you could everneed (apart from a great battery life if using Vista) it is a bit more money and not released till 21st of december in uk not sure about ret of world also a higher screen resolution

Originally Posted by spzero

the athenais an amazing device look at the thread in the upgrading section called 'athena & WM6 getting rid...' and have you considered the shift it is bigger but a huge screen gps and phone 30GB vista and everything you could everneed (apart from a great battery life if using Vista) it is a bit more money and not released till 21st of december in uk not sure about ret of world also a higher screen resolution

Why does everyone keep saying the shift does large screen GPS, None of the GPS solutions for Vista are as good as tomtom and the like for PPC and none of the pictures of the shift show it using the full wide screen when in PPC mode, this means that the 4:3 image in a 7" wide screen is barely over the 5" screen of the athena anyway.

Shift would simply be to big for my tastes. need something that can fit in my pocket easily due to my job. and the battery life discourages me also.

so today i went in with both legs and bought a brand spanking new athena.
i had won one on an auction, but after winning i got email from the seller saying sorry but it has broken and he has to cancel auction. ( still thinks he was pissed not getting the doe he was expecting :P)

so now i have gotten it today. have hardSpl'd it and flashed the pk3 rom. and i have that warm feeling inside again

i have to say that with mobipocket installed it is just perfect for reading, and when it comes to navigation, i have the full tomtom6 and so far no problems with the gps reception. and if the problem should arise i have my tomtom bluetooth antenna to be fired up in case..

so for now i will enjoy my new toy and hope it will last me a good while (wife will go mad if i want a new one for at least the next year ...)

what i have seen so far has been all good, hope it lasts

Originally Posted by charon72

Shift would simply be to big for my tastes. need something that can fit in my pocket easily due to my job. and the battery life discourages me also.

so today i went in with both legs and bought a brand spanking new athena.
i had won one on an auction, but after winning i got email from the seller saying sorry but it has broken and he has to cancel auction. ( still thinks he was pissed not getting the doe he was expecting :P)

so now i have gotten it today. have hardSpl'd it and flashed the pk3 rom. and i have that warm feeling inside again

i have to say that with mobipocket installed it is just perfect for reading, and when it comes to navigation, i have the full tomtom6 and so far no problems with the gps reception. and if the problem should arise i have my tomtom bluetooth antenna to be fired up in case..

so for now i will enjoy my new toy and hope it will last me a good while (wife will go mad if i want a new one for at least the next year ...)

what i have seen so far has been all good, hope it lasts

welcome to the club

Originally Posted by spzero

the athenais an amazing device look at the thread in the upgrading section called 'athena & WM6 getting rid...' and have you considered the shift it is bigger but a huge screen gps and phone 30GB vista and everything you could everneed (apart from a great battery life if using Vista) it is a bit more money and not released till 21st of december in uk not sure about ret of world also a higher screen resolution

IMHO, the Shift cannot be compared to a Windows Mobile device.

I carry a Windows notebook computer as well as a Windows Mobile device.

Now, that I have an Advantage, I find myself using the notebook computer far less often. The long boot-up time of the PC, and the easy synch of my data along with nearly-instant "on" of the Advantage, make my Advantage my first choice nearly all of my away-from-office time.

Originally Posted by charon72

Shift would simply be to big for my tastes. need something that can fit in my pocket easily due to my job. and the battery life discourages me also.

so today i went in with both legs and bought a brand spanking new athena.
i had won one on an auction, but after winning i got email from the seller saying sorry but it has broken and he has to cancel auction. ( still thinks he was pissed not getting the doe he was expecting :P)

so now i have gotten it today. have hardSpl'd it and flashed the pk3 rom. and i have that warm feeling inside again

i have to say that with mobipocket installed it is just perfect for reading, and when it comes to navigation, i have the full tomtom6 and so far no problems with the gps reception. and if the problem should arise i have my tomtom bluetooth antenna to be fired up in case..

so for now i will enjoy my new toy and hope it will last me a good while (wife will go mad if i want a new one for at least the next year ...)

what i have seen so far has been all good, hope it lasts

I congratulate you for making this wise decision. SHIFT is TWICE the area of Athena and three times the weight. It also is quite useless on the road because it has completely unacceptable battery life. Even if it has GPS, proper camera, MP3 player on the WM side, and voice call, it's not going to be worthwhile. Even if you don't mind lugging this phone along, you can't really use it worry free because anytime it's going to run out of power. Do you want Vista that badly? That's the real question. Even if you really really need portable VISTA, it is wiser to have ASUS eee PC, with an Athena.

In my mind there are two types of portability. The "body portability" and the "briefcase/backpack portabiliity". In first type of portability allows you to either put the device in your normal size pocket or a normal size belt pouch. The second category allows you to bring it along for holiday and travel, but you would not really need it to be carried on your body. Phone/GPS/MP3/Internet Browser/Camera/Radio should be converged into one device of "body portability". More serious work related and very infrequently used device such as VISTA could accept a "briefcase portabilty" as those applications typically requires much bigger screen and keyboard. These two types of device should not converge.

The real issue with SHIFT is not weather it can have phone, full WM6. It is the weight, size and battery life. Athena is the one to go for.

Originally Posted by eaglesteve

I congratulate you for making this wise decision. SHIFT is TWICE the area of Athena and three times the weight. It also is quite useless on the road because it has completely unacceptable battery life. Even if it has GPS, proper camera, MP3 player on the WM side, and voice call, it's not going to be worthwhile. Even if you don't mind lugging this phone along, you can't really use it worry free because anytime it's going to run out of power. Do you want Vista that badly? That's the real question. Even if you really really need portable VISTA, it is wiser to have ASUS eee PC, with an Athena.

In my mind there are two types of portability. The "body portability" and the "briefcase/backpack portabiliity". In first type of portability allows you to either put the device in your normal size pocket or a normal size belt pouch. The second category allows you to bring it along for holiday and travel, but you would not really need it to be carried on your body. Phone/GPS/MP3/Internet Browser/Camera/Radio should be converged into one device of "body portability". More serious work related and very infrequently used device such as VISTA could accept a "briefcase portabilty" as those applications typically requires much bigger screen and keyboard. These two types of device should not converge.

The real issue with SHIFT is not weather it can have phone, full WM6. It is the weight, size and battery life. Athena is the one to go for.

HERE HERE.

Very well put Eaglesteve.

I have, and will always have issues with the size of the Athena - as a phone I struggle to get along with it, and continually go back to my Hermes. The past few days with the Touch Dual ROM however I have warmed to it and think if you don't mind vociferous phone conversations or connecting bluetooth earphones it's actually a very good bit of kit.
I never use the keyboard as it adds bulk and isn't as nice to use as Fingertouch, I would LOVE a Linux hack but don't see one happening soon and I think web browsing is not as smooth and reliable as it should be, but you can't have everything I suppose.

If you enjoyed your Universal then I have no doubt you will be a happy member of the Athena club, and the Shift?!?! I wouldn't touch it with someone else's bargepole owing to 3 critical - and no doubt predictable - factors:

1 - It's too small to be a laptop replacement; too big to be a cellphone replacement.

2 - Owing to its expense and niche market, development will be VERY restricted.

3 - battery life is grimly short.


As previously stated, buy an EEE if you want a bit extra to go with your Athena - the cost of this AND the Athena is less than a Shift alone, with twice the battery juice.

Originally Posted by leoni1980

HERE HERE.

Very well put Eaglesteve.

I have, and will always have issues with the size of the Athena - as a phone I struggle to get along with it, and continually go back to my Hermes. The past few days with the Touch Dual ROM however I have warmed to it and think if you don't mind vociferous phone conversations or connecting bluetooth earphones it's actually a very good bit of kit.
I never use the keyboard as it adds bulk and isn't as nice to use as Fingertouch, I would LOVE a Linux hack but don't see one happening soon and I think web browsing is not as smooth and reliable as it should be, but you can't have everything I suppose.

If you enjoyed your Universal then I have no doubt you will be a happy member of the Athena club, and the Shift?!?! I wouldn't touch it with someone else's bargepole owing to 3 critical - and no doubt predictable - factors:

1 - It's too small to be a laptop replacement; too big to be a cellphone replacement.

2 - Owing to its expense and niche market, development will be VERY restricted.

3 - battery life is grimly short.


As previously stated, buy an EEE if you want a bit extra to go with your Athena - the cost of this AND the Athena is less than a Shift alone, with twice the battery juice.

Whether or not you find Athena's size to be a problem depends on how to use it. For me, I completely dislike the hardware keyboard. It's no where near as fast and accurate as Tengo software keyboard, so I don't have the burden of carrying it and the leather case.

Next, if you try carrying it with the pockets of your shirt or trousers, you will find it too bulky and heavy. The right way to carry this is to use a proper belt pouch. I have a self made one. I carry my Athena 24/7, even at home. The only time it comes off my body is when I shower and sleep. In my belt pouch I am completely unaware of its presence. I will not be able to do the same with SHIFT.