Imagio ( the middle child )

[ajolander]

Thank you all for the banter! I took time the other day to stop at a VZW store and really liked the Imagio. It's hard to find strong user impressions like this when your actually looking for a valid "review" for this category of hardware.

[Mahalo]

I LOVE my Imagio so much I can't stop messing with it.

[sensatti]

Damn those droid marketing campaigns!

[gcianc]

interestingly i was in verizon yesterday with an older friend (a judge) who wants to go from palm pilot to smartphone as his contract is up. he wanted to see/touch a few devices (whch required stopping at ATT to see the TP2)... he'll go with the TP2 for it's full sized keyboard based on my recommendation. He has few other options as a touch-only device won't work for him nor would an ozone/blackberry small key device.

His first thought was Driod Eris. the guy is an anti-tekkie and he knew droid eris from somewhere. amazing marketing there!

So we were looking at them in the store and a 20-something girl was holding the new samsung wm65 phone overheard us talking. she didn't know much but had 2-3 days to return the droid eris and find another smartphone. She spent 20+ min with the samsung and was a bit lost. Obviously a real keyboard is not a feature in hot demand nowadays. In her words the htc eris "seemed unfinished" and had some text messaging issues. she said we seemed to know more about the phones then the verizon employees at the store. LOL. She didn't mind returning even though she bough a few APPS.

but it's interesting a casual - who droid appeals to - felt it was messy & lacking.

i told her to go look at the imagio & showed her mine briefly as it has a similar UI as the htc/droid but is more finished with better screen, etc. the imagio was on the other side of the store with only 1 device on display vs 2 of each droids on both sides of the store (major market, major store).

i have no doubt motorola & co has paid $$$ for prominent displays on android devices. that is simple business 101.

the droid devices however will sell to people just for it's turn-by-turn google maps feature imho ($9.99 charge from other carriers... with no easy for the masses "windows app" downloadable for turn-by-turn).

[fluidj]

Originally Posted by gcianc

i told her to go look at the imagio & showed her mine briefly as it has a similar UI as the htc/droid but is more finished with better screen, etc. the imagio was on the other side of the store with only 1 device on display vs 2 of each droids on both sides of the store (major market, major store).

So did she get the Imagio?
Honestly, I don't think I could recommend a WM device to someone like that in good conscience. WM is great to me, but i've been using it for so many years that I know it's quirks and how to get around them. Not sure a casual user would.

[fordnfishin]

Originally Posted by fluidj

So did she get the Imagio?
Honestly, I don't think I could recommend a WM device to someone like that in good conscience. WM is great to me, but i've been using it for so many years that I know it's quirks and how to get around them. Not sure a casual user would.

Agreed. Someone with her knowledge of devices should have gone with a blackberry storm or Motorola droid. She would not be happy with the imagio. The TP2 might have even worked for her because it is much more out of the box ready than even the imagio. But I couldn't do that to anyone tech ignorant.

[cbreze]

Originally Posted by ajolander

Thank you all for the banter! I took time the other day to stop at a VZW store and really liked the Imagio. It's hard to find strong user impressions like this when your actually looking for a valid "review" for this category of hardware.

The imagio is an awesome device and if your into wm and like virtual kb's then it's a no brainer to get. I really love mine, but still miss my hardware kb of my tp2, which I switch back to frequently. I feel I have the best of both and hopefully can take a spending break on new devices, it's killing my budget.

[gcianc]

Originally Posted by fluidj

So did she get the Imagio?
Honestly, I don't think I could recommend a WM device to someone like that in good conscience. WM is great to me, but i've been using it for so many years that I know it's quirks and how to get around them. Not sure a casual user would.

remember he had spent 25+ days with driod eris. Wasn't happy. what was the VERIZON alternate (no palm, no iphone remember).

not sure what she purchased if anything. she spent ~30 min with the samsung wm65 (at $100 more) then moved over to imagio while my friend was talking to customer service. I'd take the Imagio over the Samsung.

whatever she wound up with is a compromise from common sense and what the customer really expects

any carrier
any phone
any system

each phone ecosystem has a major hole that the carriers, phone companies and ms/apple/google are in no hurry to fix.

if you want a SMARTPHONE i can easily recommend WM, especially verizon or if cost/coverage is an issue. Everyone i know (not corporate) with a blackberry has no clue what they're doing, can barely browse the web and have email in 2 boxes (home and phone) out of sync. bought a blackberry due to price & name.

driod is so new you'll get no help from anyone. including google. i couldn't even pull up a non-mobile version of espn.com on the Eris phone (checking football scores). it's a clusterfark in many ways and will continue. Plus the Eris had the Sense UI on Driod making a total lack of cohesion.

young people sort of realize this and have no delusions of sticking with a system for ever. MS knows this and is why WM7 can really become very popular quickly (if it checks each "i need this" box and does what's expected obviously)

[gcianc]

Originally Posted by fordnfishin

Agreed. Someone with her knowledge of devices should have gone with a blackberry storm or Motorola droid. She would not be happy with the imagio. The TP2 might have even worked for her because it is much more out of the box ready than even the imagio. But I couldn't do that to anyone tech ignorant.

what's not out of the box ready for a casual looking to do web, email, contacts and heavy texting on a touch phone?

DOES NOT WANT A BULKY KEYBOARD

the TP2 is much more a confusing than imagio for a casual imho. also shipping with wm6.1 still. also it's not sold instore at Verzon and is much bulkier & heavier.

but this is why there are hundreds of phones.

Verizon storm is an mess of confusion also. It's browser is dreadful.

sorry guys, the grass is not always greener. believe me if it were i'd jump ship this afternoon (termination fees & cost not an issue for my personal device).

[larry0071]

I'm not a techno guru, but I had a Titan (bone stock) for 3 years before getting the Imagio. I pretty much do not use email on my computer, I do all my email (7 accounts) on the Imagio. I did upgrade to the SPB Mobile Shell and like it for the most part, but some things about TF3D I honestly miss.

I have installed many of the .cab files from this site to enhance my Imagio, I have had great results. My cousin works as a Verizon cellular CSR, and she carries the DROID. Over X-Mas she was at my house and we traded phones for a while (She had only touched a Imagio in a training class as they passed one around the room) and she and I agree that everything she can do, I can do. I showed her some of the cool additional features I added from the cab files found here and she thought it was amazing. We both agree, there is nothing that her phone does that mine does not do also. She likes her DROID, but she thinks (after spending an hour poking about on my Imagio) that the Imagio would make her at least as happy. She also showed me that her apps on her phone are similar to mine, many are the exact same. She has more apps available, but many are repeats of an app by another person/company. So in the end, even her app place is no real advantage over mine. Also, most of her apps are not free, just most of ours are not free.

Mine will sync with any of the gazzillion windows computers out there, hers will not :]