The thoughts of a web 2.0 research fellow on all things in the technological sphere that capture his interest.

Thursday 29 January 2009

Xda Serra (HTC Touch Pro/MDA Vario IV): First impressions

In Tuesday's post I stated: "I am thinking about O2's Xda Serra". No-one who knows me will be surprised to know I went out first thing yesterday and bought one:

First impressions were generally positive. Whilst I liked the touch screen, I was extremely grateful that there was a QWERTY keyboard; the inexactness of my stubby fingers would have soon led me to behanding myself! In no time I found myself happily using the keyboard, stylus, and my fingers all at the same time. I also enjoyed the benefits of a Windows operating system: the simple access to my email account of choice (i.e., hotmail), and the included mobile Office suite.

Then I spotted the downside. A rather large downside that led me to curse the phone, O2, the 18 month contract, and the time I wasted trying to sort it out. Basically, unlike my sturdy N95, there is no simple way to stop programs using the GPRS/HSPDA network for a data connection. Whilst this theoretically provides a seamless browsing experience, personally I'd rather know the data connection was definitely through WiFi.

O2 have an extremely old-fashioned view of unlimited mobile web use: "A fair use of 200MB per month applies to the O2 Web Bolt On"...not forgetting that you are not allowed "the continuous streaming of any audio / video content, enable Voice over Internet (Voip), P2P or file sharing." Whilst these particular rules don't seem to be confirmed in the forums, where users seem to think they will only be enforced if people get carried away, one likes to err on the side of caution.

According to my contract there is a "14 day Change Your Mind Policy", but what can I change to. There is nothing else out there!

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posted by David at

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't believe you stayed with O2 after your rant. Weak Stuart, Weak!

30 January 2009 at 14:42

 

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