Smartphone 2 experience

Good comments, I'll add something...

rocktap: ... several apps would lock up on me and require a hard reboot (battery removal) to restart. (ie: phone wouldn't even power off via power button.)

Make sure you install apps on SD cards, because the phone needs memory to run. I have a Smartphone2 and never had these kinds of problems - and I have lots of applications installed.

rocktap: ... My Sandisk 512 meg SD card could be read from but not written to by the phone - so had to use external writer to dump mp3 etc.

This one is hard. Some SD cards won't work well with some readers. I use an old Compaq card (that old!) and it had no problems at all.

rocktap: ... None of the apps have an 'exit' option in their menus and some Apps (media player) keep on playing/running when you think you've quit the app.

That's in the OS philosophy. Instead of closing each application the OS will keep it running, unless memory is needed (but then we use SD cards for program install, right?). This approach requires less coding from the programmers as well, because there's no need to save application data (like the Palm OS) when simply going to the menu/launcher. Also you can quickly come back to the same point on the application, while on Palm OS you always go back to the main menu or initial screen.

rocktap: ... My main gripe with phone is the keypad - even though it has blue backlighting, its almost impossible to see the letters on buttons for texting, in dark situations.

Agreed. I now use a Motorola MPx220 and it is much better. But this is the phone's design fault.

rocktap: ... T9 text option is hard to find too - it doesn't appear as an option - you have to press '*' then '4' to get it.

Hmmm. Pretty much like the Sony Ericsson feature phones, right? No different in usability then. And since you compare with some Symbian later, remember that the P800 doesn't even have T9 (only introduced on the P900).

rocktap: ... The fact that it comes without any built-in doc reader/viewer software is pretty naff - it is supposed to be a pda/phone hybrid, so people would expect to view word docs etc on it. (The Symbian and Palmone smartphones come with doc viewers I'm pretty sure)

It's an O&M choice and operator, not the OS implementation. Carrier Devices (i-mate) gets the phone and customises for the operator requirements. I have personally talked to people at Vodafone and tried to make them understand (without any success) that this current line of Smartphones and Pocket PC Phone Edition has a lower value without additional applications. They don't understand and AFAIK this will not change.

For example, the MPx220 comes out of the box with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF reader. Palm devices also come with these, but like on the MPx220 they also use third party software - it's not an OS thing.

It sounds like I'm defending the OS and blaming the implementation? Yes, I'm sure doing it...

rocktap

freitasm