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Geek Culture / 02 XDA Mini S - Your Opinions and Experiences?

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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 22:04 Edited at: 27th Apr 2006 22:08
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Hey guys,

Well after two years of sticking with my lowly Sagem My-X2 it finally gave up the ghost today. I'm really tempted by the 02 XDA Mini S (see links below), on the 02 50 texter plan.The phone itself costs £49.99 and line rental is £19.00 per month with 75 free minutes, and 300 free texts. I have no experience at all with this phone, or indeed any type of phone on a contract.

Just wondered if you guys had any experince with either this phone, or this plan from 02; and if you consider this to be a good deal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Mike

Link: http://xda.o2.co.uk/looksXdaMini.aspx

Tech Specs: http://xda.o2.co.uk/pdf/xdaMini.pdf



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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 22:35
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Two things. A> It is very underpowered for a Pocket PC. B> The button layout is bad.


At least farting ferrets are better than stinky stoats.
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 22:58 Edited at: 27th Apr 2006 23:03
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Its like my Qtec 9100 (its made by the same people, jusr given different names). Pocket PC (WM 5), with a push-out keyboard (which is very nice - good response and easy to use, once you get use to it).

Its pretty powerful for a Mobile PC (only a Pocket one would be quicker).

Mine has a camera, which can take pretty good pictures. Sounds quality is good. You dont get much RAM unfortunately, so a mini SD card will be needed.

Its fairly big and fairly heavy. Graphic quality is very good.

If you use your phone a lot, then you might as well go for contract. If not, get the phone sim free (£300+) and then get a topup card.

You can, of course, program it (was the original reason for getting mine). You need VS 2005 and the Mobile SDK kit.

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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 23:09
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Thanks for the feedback. I do use my phone quite a bit but I'm not sure if I really justify £19.00 a month. I'm toying with the idea of the contract but I also saw that I could pick one up on ebay for around £200 if I'm lucky. (Prices I've seen go from between £180 and £250). Im kinda sceptical about buying an 'unlocked' phone from ebay as I'm not sure if these would work, or if there are any hidden costs I may get stuck with.

I've never used a smartphone before so I'm going to go down to the 02 shop at the weekend and have a look at one of these. Can you type text messages and word documents using both the stylus and the slide out keyboard? Also do you know how easy this would be to sync to my gmail account to recieve/send emails?

Thanks again,

Mike



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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 23:12
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Just buy a $10 Siemens a65 and a cheap iPaq. Solved!


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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 23:20 Edited at: 27th Apr 2006 23:20
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Quote: "Can you type text messages and word documents using both the stylus and the slide out keyboard?"

Yes, but you cant send an SMS and write a Word document at the same time though

Quote: "Also do you know how easy this would be to sync to my gmail account to recieve/send emails?"

If it can be setup like POP3, and assuming you have WiFi access, then it would be no problem. If however, its setup like Hotmail, then I dont know...

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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 27th Apr 2006 23:40
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Thats good. Yeah my gmail account is pop3 compatible (thats how I check it using Thunderbird). Wireless internet is also not a problem. This seems like a pretty good all round smartphone/pocket pc. Now to find the best deal for it.



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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 28th Apr 2006 10:20
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Nick, how much did you/are you paying for your Qtek 9100 and where did you get it from?



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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 28th Apr 2006 11:03 Edited at: 28th Apr 2006 11:04
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I paid somewhat over £300, as its sim free. I got it from http://www.superetrader.co.uk/ - there are slightly cheaper places, but not by much. Unfortunately with that place, there are not prompt with delivery - had to wait a month to get it (seem to keept very limited stock of phones).

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Blue Shadow
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Posted: 2nd May 2006 19:13
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Well i bought this phone. Only diffrence was i got it on Tmobile instead. The 02 shop wanted £79.99 for the phone and £45 a month contract. I went into the Tmobile shop just to see what they had. They had the exact same phone, except this time called a Tmobile MDA Vario.

I got it on the Flext+ 20 Tarrif which costs £15 a month. They put £34 of credit onto you sim for you to use "pay and go" style during that month. You can spend it on calls, texts, picture messgaes the whole works. I then payed an extra £5.63 for the "web and walk" addon which lets me use the internet and email facillities whenever I want, for as long as I want.

All in all, I payed £29.99 for the phone and £20.63 a month for the next 18 months. I thrilled to bits with the phone, its certainly a great little gadget that I would reccomend to anyone looking for a PDA/Smartphone.



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