[mcwarre]

Cheers P. Excellent review btw

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[PaulOBrien]

Thanks, been a while since i've sat down and done a proper review TBH!

P

[penguin]

awesome review Paul, this has definitely sold me on this device now.

Roll on pay day

[Metoo]

Great review Paul.
On the controls, it reminds me of that other device that was eagerly anticipated, but ended up delivering so little, the iMate 9502. The biggest, and universal, criticism on that is the God-awful D-Pad, which is loose, spongy, imprecise, and nigh on impossible to use in the Up direction. It's something that reminds you immediatley how cheap and nasty it is with every click, which makes it very hard to forgive, and leaves you loathing the whole user experience. Sad then, to see the X1 suffering the same flaws. I would have expected HTC to know better.

Not sure about the brushed metal casing either. Whilst this always looks pretty when new, my experience in the past has been that these are the least hardwearing over time and most prone to visible scratching - with black being the worst when it starts to show the silver metal underneath, even with a hairline scratch. So could start to look very tatty after a few months unless you're very careful or hide it in a case. Not something you want with such an expensive device, especially if you consider resale value to be important. And of course, unlike a plain finish, there is no way you can polish out such marks once incurred.

This post has been edited by Metoo: 25 October 2008 - 04:32 PM

[PaulOBrien]

You know, the up action on the X1 dpad has the same problem as the up action on the 9502, albeit maybe not quite so bad...

P

[Metoo]

Paul (MVP), on Oct 25 2008, 17:25, said:

You know, the up action on the X1 dpad has the same problem as the up action on the 9502, albeit maybe not quite so bad...

P

Part of the problem with the 9502, apart from D-Pad having an odd shape, was that upper edge of the D-Pad was flush with the casing, which meant that not only was there less plastic to press than other directions, there was hardly any travel either because your thumb was always pushing against the case as well as the pad.

What I did on my 9502 was to "Dremmel" out a curved notch in the bezel next to the top of the D-Pad, so that the D-Pad edge was more pronounced and had more clearance & travel when pressing with the thumb. This made a HUGE difference. It wasn't too unsightly, as that part of the casing is black plastic all through, so was easily polished back to a shine where the "filing" had taken place. However that didn't impove any of the sponginess or wobble intrinsic to the pad itself, or the cheap feel to the other buttons.

I only attacked it with the Dremmel because the 9502 was already showing wear (black painted metal panels again), so was bought for a fifth of it's original price. I guess that's one of the few (only?) advantages of i-Mate being a universally unrespected and unwanted. In fact I actually currently use it as my "scruff" phone. Obviously there's no way I'd consider doing that to an X1!

This post has been edited by Metoo: 25 October 2008 - 05:11 PM

[PaulOBrien]

Yup, that proximity of the top of the dpad to the plastic above is the problem...

P

[everton2004]

Looks like a great device - and when it was announced earlier this year I set my heart on one. That was until the Omnia came along! After having a Vario II I thought I'd miss having a hardware keyboard but after a few weeks with the Omnia I don't - and the slimness that comes with the lack of a keyboard is a bonus. So now we have the two kings of the PPC world - and that old 'horses for courses' thing again.....you need a hardware keyboard = X1....you don't = Omnia. That said, you'd have to take my Omnia from my cold dead hand!

[Metoo]

Paul (MVP), on Oct 25 2008, 18:11, said:

Yup, that proximity of the top of the dpad to the plastic above is the problem...

P

In that case, I dare you!

Pic enhanced to show edges

 9502_dpad_enhanced.JPG (17.74K)
Number of downloads: 314

The results aren't that bad in real life

 9502_dpad_normal.JPG (16.48K)
Number of downloads: 282







although I did have to be VERY delicate!


 9502_mod_method.JPG (21.83K)
Number of downloads: 250

This post has been edited by Metoo: 25 October 2008 - 06:06 PM

[PaulOBrien]

Haha, very good!

P

[everton2004]

Did you consider using a Dremel instead?

[Metoo]

everton2004, on Oct 25 2008, 19:10, said:

Did you consider using a Dremel instead?

That would have taken too long on a tough cookie like the i-Mate. The SDS (and the matching big hammer) makes easy work of ANY job!

[busserull]

Good Evening..

Very nice Review Sir, just got a question for you: How is the sound quality in the speakers in the X1? I had the Nokia E90 before, and the e90 had stereo speaker(like X1) and used it to play music from youtube and so on while i was doing homework or just surfing the web, dont know if you ever have heard the sound from the speakers in E90 or Nokia n95, but if you have heard it.. How would you say Xperia X1 speakers are compared to them..

Thanks

[MugiMugi]

Have you had issues with your mobile Paul? Mine get the entire OS to crash at random times exiting form camera mode and try to use the X-panel's, it happens not all the time but so far it happen twice for me, it's specially annoying as only way to reset the phone is to take out the battery.

Only had the phone for 2 days and this is truthfully my only complaint so far ^^.

[eggs]

Thanks for a great review, Paul.
I have problems choosing between X1 and TP. (I like tehe look of x1 and tha panel UI better than TP and TF3D) Can you please explain why you prefer the X1?
Thanks.

[PaulOBrien]

MugiMugi, on Oct 25 2008, 20:45, said:

Have you had issues with your mobile Paul? Mine get the entire OS to crash at random times exiting form camera mode and try to use the X-panel's, it happens not all the time but so far it happen twice for me, it's specially annoying as only way to reset the phone is to take out the battery.

Only had the phone for 2 days and this is truthfully my only complaint so far ^^.

I can honestly say i've not had a single crash!

P

[timeline]

'Which next-gen device'? They're not here yet. WM6.1 bring little new since WM5. Hardware wise, little of that is 'next gen'. It's more like a 0.5 gen kludge. If WM7 brings what it promised last yr, then we can get excited.

[zenkinz]

nice review Paul! a few questions which I hope you have quick answer to them;

1. does the program auto rotate based on the g-sensor?

2. does X1 comes with T9 equivalent of IME? and how easy is it to input using the T9 SIP as I am always worried about SIP usability given that it will never have the tactile feel and therefore usability design is always my top priority.

3. do you find it easy to navigate around using the keyboard and/or the touch screen? In Touch Pro, the start menu has large icon, I wonder if there's similiar in X1.

I got to agree with you that the recessed screen is a step backward and make the phone looks dated! <_<

This post has been edited by zenkinz: 26 October 2008 - 10:48 AM

[PaulOBrien]

1. There is no G-Sensor.

2. No, it has no nice onscreen input methods, although the ones from the Diamond / Touch Pro can be installed without much fuss...

3. I have no problems, but again the Diamond / Touch Pro large menu patch is not on the X1 by default, but can be installed fairly easily...

P

[PayableOnDeath]

Looks good, cant wait to get my hands on one, even better that work are getting it so it wont cost me a penny

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