[George Styles]

Hi,

Got my M800 yesterday from Clove. So far, its looking pretty good.

Coming from a Kaiser, there is a lot to like about this device, especially the screen (obviously). I like the keyboard more too.

The included ETen junkware really, really slows the device down. A quick hard reset and the camera trick gave me a clean install.

Which was where ETEn really shine - they have a clean WM6 install, but with a app installed called application recovery, which allows you to selectively install the junkware from the extrom. Thats much nicer than the htc wsay of doing it.

ITs been a much better out of the box expeience than my last non htc phone, which was the toshiba g900. That blasted thing had crashed even before it installed the junkware...

So far, under very heavy using (ie, new toy playtime), ive only managed to crash it once in 2 days of solid playing, which is very good going.

Google Maps looks awesome on the VGA screen (even better than the iPhone IMHO).

The 64 meg of ram thing doesnt seem to be too much of a problem - ive had opera, google maps, mapopolis open all at once, without issue.

The camera app seems to leak memory tho. I dont care as I rarely use the camera.

Too early to say about battery life, but i suspect i will need to get an extended battery (as i did for my Kaiser)... Does anyone know if the 3600mah ones for X800 are compatable with M800?

I like the physical design, and its got a great keyboard. The touch sensitive keys are a PITA, but a minor point against the VGA screen... I quite like the joystick personally. It lacks a jog-dial.

There has been some very slight wierdness (the toshiba g900 was nothing but wierdness!). The GPS seemed to take a long time for a SIRF3 to pick up a signal, longer than the Kaiser took i think (only tested twice, so might have been the fog in london this week affecting it). Once its got a fix, it seems more accurate than the GPSOne chipset in the Kaiser

Another strange thing is that its a bit of an attention seeker - it beeps quite a lot, even when nothing is happening... by which I mean it will be sitting on the desk, off (sleep) and it will just 'ding'. Nothing comes up on screen.

Also, the screen alignment utility seems to need a couple of goes to align. After this, it seems to be spot on (no hermes style problems yet).

The last wierdness is that sometimes when I put it to sleep, you get crackling noises from the speaker for a short while.


So my experience so far has been positive - HTC have some /serious/ competition in the M800 (until Sony blow everyone away allegadly this quarter - my guess is more like autumn!)

Positives
+ Screen
+ Keyboard
+ Very good phone call quality
+ Accurate GPS once fixed

Negatives
- Memory leak on camera
- 64 Meg ram (im told is a problem - not for me yet)
- Touch sensitive buttons

Will post an update after a week...

George (ripnetuk)

[RichR]

George Styles, on Feb 22 2008, 01:51 AM, said:

Hi,

Got my M800 yesterday from Clove. So far, its looking pretty good.

Coming from a Kaiser, there is a lot to like about this device, especially the screen (obviously). I like the keyboard more too.

The included ETen junkware really, really slows the device down. A quick hard reset and the camera trick gave me a clean install.

Which was where ETEn really shine - they have a clean WM6 install, but with a app installed called application recovery, which allows you to selectively install the junkware from the extrom. Thats much nicer than the htc wsay of doing it.

ITs been a much better out of the box expeience than my last non htc phone, which was the toshiba g900. That blasted thing had crashed even before it installed the junkware...

So far, under very heavy using (ie, new toy playtime), ive only managed to crash it once in 2 days of solid playing, which is very good going.

Google Maps looks awesome on the VGA screen (even better than the iPhone IMHO).

The 64 meg of ram thing doesnt seem to be too much of a problem - ive had opera, google maps, mapopolis open all at once, without issue.

The camera app seems to leak memory tho. I dont care as I rarely use the camera.

Too early to say about battery life, but i suspect i will need to get an extended battery (as i did for my Kaiser)... Does anyone know if the 3600mah ones for X800 are compatable with M800?

I like the physical design, and its got a great keyboard. The touch sensitive keys are a PITA, but a minor point against the VGA screen... I quite like the joystick personally. It lacks a jog-dial.

There has been some very slight wierdness (the toshiba g900 was nothing but wierdness!). The GPS seemed to take a long time for a SIRF3 to pick up a signal, longer than the Kaiser took i think (only tested twice, so might have been the fog in london this week affecting it). Once its got a fix, it seems more accurate than the GPSOne chipset in the Kaiser

Another strange thing is that its a bit of an attention seeker - it beeps quite a lot, even when nothing is happening... by which I mean it will be sitting on the desk, off (sleep) and it will just 'ding'. Nothing comes up on screen.

Also, the screen alignment utility seems to need a couple of goes to align. After this, it seems to be spot on (no hermes style problems yet).

The last wierdness is that sometimes when I put it to sleep, you get crackling noises from the speaker for a short while.


So my experience so far has been positive - HTC have some /serious/ competition in the M800 (until Sony blow everyone away allegadly this quarter - my guess is more like autumn!)

Positives
+ Screen
+ Keyboard
+ Very good phone call quality
+ Accurate GPS once fixed

Negatives
- Memory leak on camera
- 64 Meg ram (im told is a problem - not for me yet)
- Touch sensitive buttons

Will post an update after a week...

George (ripnetuk)

Cool, let us know if the paint starts to chip after a couple of weeks.

[George Styles]

RichR, on Feb 22 2008, 04:05 AM, said:

Cool, let us know if the paint starts to chip after a couple of weeks.

Will do. If it carrys on this well tho, an awful lot of paint will have to come off for me to return it... i think im in love...

g

[etenm800]

:bananaphone: :bananaphone: :bananaphone: It's chipping time :bananaphone: :bananaphone: :bananaphone:

I've got my device with the february shipment (that's now 2 days ago), so since then the device was a whole day in use.

Guess what?

The paint on the backside started to peel of at one little spot. So far this seems to be the only spot, but I fear it will soon happen on other areas of the device.

If this will be the only area, I might not send it back

I tell you, it's a conspiracy of that damn toasters :muahaha:

Picture attached. Rom from 01/15

Attached File(s)

•  chipping_paint.jpg (91.52K)
  Number of downloads: 82

[RichR]

etenm800, on Feb 22 2008, 12:31 PM, said:

:bananaphone: :bananaphone: :bananaphone: It's chipping time :bananaphone: :bananaphone: :bananaphone:

I've got my device with the february shipment (that's now 2 days ago), so since then the device was a whole day in use.

Guess what?

The paint on the backside started to peel of at one little spot. So far this seems to be the only spot, but I fear it will soon happen on other areas of the device.

If this will be the only area, I might not send it back

I tell you, it's a conspiracy of that damn toasters :muahaha:

Picture attached. Rom from 01/15

I'm sure it will look like a cheetah soon! This is so lame.... When I get mine I hope it is not chipping too because I will send it right back and then I will be without a phone AGAIN until I get a new unit.

[etenm800]

Status report: wierd, but the spot on the backcover seems to be the only area affected. The existing one has gotten bigger, but no further chipping after normal use on 3 days. Guess I just had bad luck.

[RichR]

etenm800, on Feb 24 2008, 09:20 PM, said:

Status report: wierd, but the spot on the backcover seems to be the only area affected. The existing one has gotten bigger, but no further chipping after normal use on 3 days. Guess I just had bad luck.

hmmm, maybe you can get your hands on another battery cover? Maybe thru ETEN or something instead of sending back the entire device. Is there any batteries out that come with the covers for the m800 yet? Good catch etenm800!

[etenm800]

I've already contacted them and made that proposal. Service was fast and talked about exchanging the whole device (not decided yet). Well, although I would like a fast backcover replacement, I think sending back the device would be better because I won't have to live with the constant fear of a sudden chipping on other parts :lipssealed:

Nah, service has to decide.

[RichR]

Hope it works out and keep us informed. Thanks for info again.

[George Styles]

OK, day 4, and the paint is starting to chip off the back cover... doesnt bother me that much tho

g

[RichR]

Whats your ROM date George..?

[antognio]

Hi, I'm Italian, and I've bought m800 here in italy, but I've the same etenm800 problem, on my device I've three spot on the backover... :( Could I tell Eten to replace it?

[RichR]

Ok, just received my NEW M800. It's the ROM from 1/15/08.... Surprise, surprise... So far so good on the chipping but I'm sure I will have it soon.... Anyway, setting everything up now... I quickly avoided the ETEN software install (camera button trick) and not sure but I guess I need to set up MMS in the connection settings somewhere...? Also, I put in my 4gb micro SD-HC card that I have used in other devices... IE - Sprint Mogul, HTC Kaiser, etc, etc... and it does not read it on the M800...? I tried a standard micro SD card (2gb) and no problem reading it. Is there something I'm missing?? An update perhaps..?

UPDATE: Found the SD-HD update... duhh.

[helmy]

George, it's been a week now. Hope u won't forget to post your review after a week's use. I am using a Kaiser now, just like u before, & wanna move to m800, mainly because of the VGA screen, but I'm really nervous about parting with my kaiser and buying M800. Kaiser is so beautiful but I want VGA screen bad. Do u not regret at all moving from Kaiser to M800?

I wanna follow-up on the issues you raised:1) After a few more uses of the GPS, how do u feel about it especially about the fix-time from cold-start? Is it still worse than Kaiser?
2) Is the crackling noise a cause for concern, like maybe an onset of a speaker failure?
3) when u say the camera has memory leak, do u mean, after closing it, it still doesn't release the RAM it was utilizing?
4) does the screen alignment problem crop up again after some time?
5) Are u able to get used to the PITA-front touch-buttons?

To etenm800, RichR, antognio, please post your thoughts on the m800 too

Also, if you have time, can u answer the questions I (Helmy) posted on etenblog.com, here:
http://www.etenblog....0-in-the-house/

Tariq's writing a review on it, & probably answering some of the questions I posted, but I'm also looking for different/multiple opinions/ answers

Additional questions I have:
37) Does it have auto-configuration for internet/mms?
38) How is the battery performance when using Direct push?
39) What's the Spb benchmark index for m800?
40) Is the screen readable under direct sunlight?

Thank you in advance

[RichR]

helmy, on Feb 28 2008, 03:12 PM, said:

George, it's been a week now. Hope u won't forget to post your review after a week's use. I am using a Kaiser now, just like u before, & wanna move to m800, mainly because of the VGA screen, but I'm really nervous about parting with my kaiser and buying M800. Kaiser is so beautiful but I want VGA screen bad. Do u not regret at all moving from Kaiser to M800?

I wanna follow-up on the issues you raised:1) After a few more uses of the GPS, how do u feel about it especially about the fix-time from cold-start? Is it still worse than Kaiser?
2) Is the crackling noise a cause for concern, like maybe an onset of a speaker failure?
3) when u say the camera has memory leak, do u mean, after closing it, it still doesn't release the RAM it was utilizing?
4) does the screen alignment problem crop up again after some time?
5) Are u able to get used to the PITA-front touch-buttons?

To etenm800, RichR, antognio, please post your thoughts on the m800 too

Also, if you have time, can u answer the questions I (Helmy) posted on etenblog.com, here:
http://www.etenblog....0-in-the-house/

Tariq's writing a review on it, & probably answering some of the questions I posted, but I'm also looking for different/multiple opinions/ answers

Additional questions I have:
37) Does it have auto-configuration for internet/mms?
38) How is the battery performance when using Direct push?
39) What's the Spb benchmark index for m800?
40) Is the screen readable under direct sunlight?

Thank you in advance

I'm having problems with my m800 as I listed in the BLOG. and in other posts in the forums. f anyone know whats my problem is, please feel free to give me some feed back. I have heard of some of the same problems with uses in the US using the x800 but have not seen any resolution.