Microsoft SPV

[tomd]

Does anyone else have a Microsoft SPV and is really disappointed with it's quality?

[tomd]

I bought an SPV Canary from new in April, and so far the finish on the case has worn through to the white plastic on the back, the battery life is literally 10 hours, the number of unread SMS messages it claims to have is always 2 above the real value, one of the lights has gone from under the keypad and hence only half of it lights up, the official headphones I bought with it have fallen apart, the main Confirm button needs a real hard press to register, Windows Media Player only loads around 1 time in 20, it regularly crashes while in standby.

[Gandy]

Yeah, I had an original SPV and it was pretty bad. It was the first proper go at a windows based phone though. Things have improved somewhat recently. I now have an SPV E200. It is a lot better but still not perfect. I have just bought an Ipaq 5550 as I am now of the mind that I don't want one device that does everything half heartedly but many devices, each that do one thing extremely well. I'll be getting a Nokia 6230 for my next phone solely for the fact that it is small and has Bluetooth so I can use in the car.

[tomd]

I have a friend with an E100 and the construction quality is much better than the Canary, but as you say, still not up to scratch. The C500 looks better still, but I'm not sure I want to risk the inconvenience of having another poor quality item. The only thing I really use alot on it is the pop email, so maybe I'll just find a Nokia that can handle that. Did you not have serious problems with the battery life?

[Gandy]

The battery life on the E200 is dire. I complained to Orange so much that I now have three batteries. The original SPV had a better battery life. Coolsmartphone.com is a good place for hints and tips on all SPV's have you got the latest ROM update? They generally improve the battery life too. I seem to remember the unread messages always saying 3 on mine - this was solved with a registry edit. You'll need to get the regedit program though (from coolsmartphone). You will have to register with the site to download stuff (mostly free) but it is only really for forum access so don't expect any spam or anything

[WoWo]

I have just gone back to a Nokia 3310 from having a SPV E100. Didn't mind the phone too much and didn't have any majour problems but the battery life was just totally unacceptable. Even without making calls the most I got out of it was about 24 Hours. So I had to charge it every single day, if I went out for the evening or just forgot the phone was unsuable the next day. My new 3310 I have had for 2 weeks and charged it just once in that time, and wherever you got there's always somebody with a nokia charger. However sold the SPV for �71 on e-bay which was 21 more than I paid for it.

[OBonio]

I'm surprised about the complaints about build quality. I've dropped mine into the river Wye before now and it's still working fine. I believe Orange or MS got HTC to build the SPV after Sendo consistently failed to produce the goods. HTC make the iPaq and XDA which are both very good products. I must say though, the only reason I keep my SPV is the sheep baa ring tone.

[tomd]

I have a later ROM update, from Modaco but it may not be the latest. I was thinking of getting an E200 for the improved battery life, but if it's just as bad as the Canary then I'll get something quality.

[Oneeyedvic]

I had an original E100 and then an E200 for Xmas last year. Think both were great. Unfortunately dropped the E200 a few too many times and had to go back to the E100. There are not a lot of phones that you can add a SD card to, watch movies, check emails, surf the web, download & play all the games, listen to MP3s, look at excel documents and have WAV tunes for your ringtone nad stil lfit in your pocket easily. Battery life was a disapointment but after the updates wasn't so bad. So what if it has only 8 hours talk time. Who talks for 8 hours a day (unless you are in a car and then you can buy a car charger). have you gone to www.coolsmartphone.com ?

[tomd]

That's Standby, not talktime. God only knows how long it'd last if I actually used the thing. I charged it up all last night, took it off about 8, turned itself off twice at 2, and now it won't even turn on. It'll be the same tomorrow.