[pd.ryder]

My man at T-Mobile assurred me the Vario IV would be out by August and insisted I wouldn't have to pay a fortune to get it on upgrade...

Now, whether to duck the flying pig or chase the pink elephant...

[Sponsored Links]

[chrisms_cotland]

pd.ryder, on Jul 23 2008, 08:49, said:

My man at T-Mobile assurred me the Vario IV would be out by August and insisted I wouldn't have to pay a fortune to get it on upgrade...

Now, whether to duck the flying pig or chase the pink elephant...

Bloke I spoke to at T-Mobile was trying to push the Compact IV on me, saying that they didn't know when the Vario IV would be out, I don't really fancy waiting 2 months for it, especially as even the Vario III seems very expensive on upgrade, but equally I'm not totally convinced about the Compact IV.

[pd.ryder]

chrisms_cotland, on Jul 23 2008, 09:47, said:

Bloke I spoke to at T-Mobile was trying to push the Compact IV on me, saying that they didn't know when the Vario IV would be out, I don't really fancy waiting 2 months for it, especially as even the Vario III seems very expensive on upgrade, but equally I'm not totally convinced about the Compact IV.

If I lost the keyboard now I'd feel like my thumbs had been cut off!! The Diamond is sweet n'all that, but I need something a bit 'more'...

T reckoned the V-IV would be a 'reasonable price' on upgrade, citing the V-III as "hideously expensive" for upgraders. He even tried to lure me into signing another 18-monther by offering an initial line rental discount which I could then "trade-in" for the V-IV once released. I thanked him for the offer, but decided to keep my options open so I can jump ship to O / Voda / O2 etc if they're offering better deals at the time.

[chrisms_cotland]

pd.ryder, on Jul 23 2008, 12:56, said:

If I lost the keyboard now I'd feel like my thumbs had been cut off!! The Diamond is sweet n'all that, but I need something a bit 'more'...

T reckoned the V-IV would be a 'reasonable price' on upgrade, citing the V-III as "hideously expensive" for upgraders. He even tried to lure me into signing another 18-monther by offering an initial line rental discount which I could then "trade-in" for the V-IV once released. I thanked him for the offer, but decided to keep my options open so I can jump ship to O / Voda / O2 etc if they're offering better deals at the time.

Guess it depends what they see as "reasonable" but yeah the Vario III is horrendously expensive on upgrade or even for new customers, would like to see how good it is though,

[pd.ryder]

chrisms_cotland, on Jul 23 2008, 14:24, said:

Guess it depends what they see as "reasonable" but yeah the Vario III is horrendously expensive on upgrade or even for new customers, would like to see how good it is though,

Blokey reckoned on the £50(ish) mark, so fingers crossed

[chrisms_cotland]

pd.ryder, on Jul 23 2008, 15:46, said:

Blokey reckoned on the £50(ish) mark, so fingers crossed

Well £50 sounds reasonable, I just wish they'd announce when its available so I can stop looking at iPhones!
Bit concerned that the Vario IV might not be that great with the Diamond being a bit meh.

[Chocolicious]

I am hearing Aug from my friend at T-Mobile but they have no definite dates as of yet but he is close with the testers so he normal has good info on when they will be released.

I have an upgrade with the Vario IVs name on and because they keep messing up on my account and I have an outstanding complaint with them, I expect not to have to pay any extortionate price, if anything at all after there multiple botch jobs.

[chrisms_cotland]

Chocolicious, on Jul 23 2008, 22:03, said:

I am hearing Aug from my friend at T-Mobile but they have no definite dates as of yet but he is close with the testers so he normal has good info on when they will be released.

I have an upgrade with the Vario IVs name on and because they keep messing up on my account and I have an outstanding complaint with them, I expect not to have to pay any extortionate price, if anything at all after there multiple botch jobs.

Well I hope for August as a big part of me wants the Vario IV, can only be better than the last one I had (Vario 1) but I don't want to wait months and months for it,

[not_sure]

Confucious, on Jul 23 2008, 08:03, said:

Expansys are always on the 'optimistic' side with their estimated release dates.

Tytn = Hermes
Tytn II = Kaiser

Thanks for the info.

Whilest i wait for the release of the touch pro, looking at it has cast some doubts for me. The diamond is sleek and slim, the touch pro looks similar untill you look at it from the side. It looks like a brick !!!

If the diamond had a memory card slot I would have considerd it so what to get...Any suggestions...??

[chrisms_cotland]

not_sure, on Jul 24 2008, 17:33, said:

Thanks for the info.

Whilest i wait for the release of the touch pro, looking at it has cast some doubts for me. The diamond is sleek and slim, the touch pro looks similar untill you look at it from the side. It looks like a brick !!!

If the diamond had a memory card slot I would have considerd it so what to get...Any suggestions...??

Was checking for compatibility with T-Mobiles Mobile Jukebox music service and under other the Rafael is mentioned there, shows they must be doing tests to make sure all T Mobile Services are compatible with it, so fingers crossed for August.

[pd.ryder]

not_sure, on Jul 24 2008, 17:33, said:

Thanks for the info.

Whilest i wait for the release of the touch pro, looking at it has cast some doubts for me. The diamond is sleek and slim, the touch pro looks similar untill you look at it from the side. It looks like a brick !!!

If the diamond had a memory card slot I would have considerd it so what to get...Any suggestions...??

From the comparisons I've seen, it's smaller in every dimension than the Hermes. I've lived with that for the past 19 months without spraining my wrist or straining muscles

I've also lived with a 2Gig memory card in the Hermes which has rarely been removed and never been more than half full. The card isn't hot-swappable as its supposed to be so every time it does get removed I need to soft-reset before its seen by the OS again. So, would 4Gig internal storage suffice? Probably, in all honesty.

As I've said, the biggest loss for me would be the 'proper' QWERTY keyboard, which I always use in preference to the pokey-pokey pop-up on-screen offering. I've never gotten on with other 'interpreters' of my scribble despite perseverence, always defaulting back to the hardware keyboard eventually.

Plus, of course, the Diamond is so-o-o-o small in comparison I'd end up sitting on it and snapping it in half or simply losing it under the sofa...

Decisions, decisions...

[stunno]

I never go over my monthly allocatiion and got the Vario 1 free off Tmobile on a £25/m contract 3 years ago.
They gave me a free Compact 3 and cut my line rental by 25% 15 months ago, so I'm expecting to have the Vario IV 4 free in October and not to pay much more than I am now including internet access.

Surely not too much to ask, is it?

[not_sure]

Thanks for the advice mr ryder!!! LOL. Ive got a vario 2 with a 8 gb card which to be honest ive just installed so it aint full.

No memory slot is an issue for me, i cant see why the samsung i900 has one and not the diamond, anyways im going off point a bit. The Vario 4 looks good but its overall dimension seem to be similar with previous models. You might think that they would have slimed it down maybe a WM diet even.

The bottom line is when you shell out £30 a month for 18 months or £4 -500 for the handset its got to have some effort made into. Whether that is the interface, battery life, usablity, colour choice..etc. Hold on apple came out with a phone with some attention to detail and im not even a fan of apple but they made an effort.

All im saying (alot a know ) is we as customers should have and demand a higher expectation for the money we out lay for our devices.

It would seem that the rapheal and diamond are the best on offer at the mom!! IMHO or fact.

[pd.ryder]

Err - double post
I blame the pokey fingers of my 5yo when posting from the Hermes...

This post has been edited by pd.ryder: 26 July 2008 - 11:03 AM

[pd.ryder]

@not sure - my comments weren't exactly meant to be 'advice' as such, just my confabulated meanderings :P
I don't instantly consider the Diamond to be a worthy replacement for my Hermes - but it might be. When I actually consider what I would miss by 'downsizing' the keybooard is my only issue TBH.
Hey - we all use these devices for subtley different things and its all down to individual needs I guess.

:D

[Confucious]

It's the extra:
ss.



that made the second post all worth while....

[pd.ryder]

Confucious, on Jul 25 2008, 22:11, said:

It's the extra:
ss.



that made the second post all worth while....

Err - sorted... D'oh!

[not_sure]

Sorry pd.ryder i was actually agreeing with you . The rest was just my rant.

The keyboard is a great loss if i where to get a diamond but no card slot just doesnt make sense. It looks nice but nah.

I also had my vario 2 for like to years if it had internal gps i wouldnt really change it.

[Lyfe]

For anyone interested, the Vario IV (AKA Touch Pro) is AVAILABLE now in the UK.

Tuesday there was an internal T-mobile memo indicating release yesterday. I checked back with them and T-mobile UK had 15 in stock (which I will admit to grabbing all of... sorry), but today they shipped the remainer of my order without any stock issues, so there are Vario IVs up for grabs, but likely in limited numbers for at least August.

I've got the first ones this morning, but not had much time to look at them yet. I did put in a 8Gb microSD and it reconised without a hiccup. I'm LANing over the weekend, but will try to find some time to have a proper look.

I'm paying £275+vat per device, but I get them at cost, so retail may be a fair bit more... if anyone want to negoicate, thats what T-mob will be paying, but dont tell them that you heard that from me.

First look shows that I will be moving from my trusty Ameo over to one of these. I'll be interested if they have improved the BT stack significantly.

[deadphill]

Yea they dont have any stock yet. You will have to wait.

Cheers

Phill

[Sponsored Links]