UPDATED! Leaving the Sprint/CDMA Universe!
 

Well, the joystick finally broke off the 6700 and disappeared. Went to Sprint who offered me a Treo in exchange, since there apparently are still no 6700's available for swap. Anyway, I did the research and realized that the GSM PPC phones offered overseas put even the upcoming 6800 to shame.

So, I signed up with Cingular, got their free Sony Walkman phone, and am now shopping for a high-end, quad-band, VGA, GPS-enabled, 2 megapixel GSM phone. I know I'm taking a hit in terms of broadband perforance, since I know 3G is a joke compared to EVDO, but there's just way too much functionality being left on the table by the domestic carriers.

Some of the phones I'm considering are the upcoming E-Ten Glofiish X500+, Glofiish X800, HTC Advantage X7500, and Imate Ultimate 7150

Anyway, I want to thank you all for the help and support and all the exciting things done on this site. It was also a pleasure to play a small role in the Unified ROM Project.

If you want to discuss some of the phones mentioned above, or you have suggestions, I'm open to them. I just want my next phone to not be lacking!

Thanks again to all, especially luv2chill and Colonel.

Mike

Sorry to see you go. You never know, I may be there someday. Please hang around and help in the GSM forums here. Also, check out the HTC Kaiser.

From personal experience, the HTC Trinity and the Atom are quite sweet phones. Unfortunately, they are kinda outdated at this point.

I would be with ATT already if their data plan pricing match Sprint's GSM/UMTS just have so much more phone option then CDMA and ATT finally offer HSDPA in my area

I jumped on a deal that I get through my employer. It's basically 28% off the top of my bill, so I'm paying within $1.00/month of what I was with Sprint. If you want details on this, please PM me.

Thanks for the kind sentiment. I will check out the GSM forum. Also, if you are interested in the deal I mentioned to bitslizer above, please PM me.

I did look at the phones you mentioned and you are right, most are outdated in some respect:

HTC Trinity: WM 5, No built-in GPS, only 128 MB ROM/64 MB RAM, screen is QVGA.

O2 Atom: No GSM850 band, WM 5, No built-in GPS, only 128 MB ROM/64 MB RAM, screen is QVGA.

HTC Kaiser: Not yet available, but also is only QVGA, has the lame gpsONE that our 6700s have, and the CPU is only 384 MHz.

I loved the O2 Flame (check out the specs below!), but it doesn't have the GSM 850 band, as well as no GPS. The display system is freaking sick, though, as it has it's own Nvidia GPU on-board:

Software Environment
Operating System: Windows Mobile 6 Professional
Microprocessor
CPU: 32bit Intel XScale PXA270
CPU Clock: 520 MHz
Memory, Storage capacity
ROM capacity: 2112 MB (accessible: 1845.12MB)
RAM capacity: 128 MB (accessible: 110.32MB)
Hard Disk capacity: Not supported
Display
Graphics Procesor: NVIDIA GoForce 5500 GPU
Display Type: color transflective TFT , 262144 scales
Display Resolution: 480 x 640
Display Diagonal: 3.6 "
Sound
Microphone: mono
Speaker: mono
Audio Output: 2.5mm jack
Cellular Phone
Cellular Networks: GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS2100
Cellular Data Link: CSD, GPRS, UMTS
Call Alert: 128 -chord melody
Vibrating Alert: Supported
Control Peripherals
Positioning Device: Touchscreen
Keyboard: Not supported
Directional Pad: 5 -way block
Jog / Scroll Wheel: Not supported
Interfaces
Expansion Slots: SDIO, microSD, TransFlash
Serial: RS-232 , 115200bit/s
USB: USB 2.0 host/client, 60Mbit/s, USB On-The-Go 1.2 compliant , USB Series Mini-B (mini-USB) connector
Infrared Gate: 115200bit/s (SIR/CIR)
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0
Wireless LAN: 802.11b, 802.11g
Multimedia Telecommunication
Analog TV: Not supported
Analog Radio: FM radio reciever
Built-in Digital Camera
Main Camera: CMOS sensor, 1.9MP
Autofocus (AF): Supported
Built-in Flash: Mobile light (LED)
Secondary Camera: CMOS sensor, 352x288 pixel
Power Supply
Battery: Lithium-ion polymer , removable
Battery Capacity: 1620 mAh

Anyway, the lack of GSM 850 is a deal killer for me, so it looks like it's down to the Glofiish X800 (or maybe X500+) and the Imate Ultimate 7150.

Here's the site that turned me on to all the phones we DON'Tget here in the US: http://www.pdadb.net/

You'll be amazed!

I have a Universal which I never use anymore if you want it I'll sell it at a good price. Unlocked of course... VGA and running WM6 =P I am askin 400us. I have all the original crapola, box etc...

If I may ask, why are you selling it? Isn't the Universal tri-band only, meaning no GSM 850 band?

I might be interested if I knew it had 850 MHz capability.

Thanks!

bah no 850mhz band

Dual Mode GSM/WCDMA Function
• Internal antenna
• Dual-Mode UMTS/GSM
• Tri-Band GSM/GPRS (900/1800/1900) + WCDMA(UMTS) (2100MHz)

http://www.clubimate.com/t-JASJAR_technical.aspx

My company pays for my apache service and all my Jasjar does is collect dust. =P I imported it for 1200us when it first came out. Ouch!

Yeah, the lack of 850 on a device pretty much means that it's real fancy paper weight for me! Thanks for the offer, though!

I think we all envy you... if I didnt pay 17.52/month after taxes for basically unlimited everything I would be all over cingular and an iMate Ultimate 7500 (name*?)

Oooh to dream! None of my employers have good deals on cingular service. I can't even come close to my Sprint plan on cingular. I would love to get a much better phone such as the x800 or the 6150. I still have a week or so before my sprint contract runs out.

Glossman,

A few thoughts from someone with a foot in both camps right now (Cingular 3125 WM Smartphone + Sprint PPC-6700 with data plan only)...

I would like to converge sometime soon on a single GSM device, and I have really had the hots for the E-Ten X800. But after seeing reports early on that it would have US 3G support, I am now troubled that pdabd is now showing no US 3G (the only UMTS band they are showing is 2100). So this is giving me pause for the moment - hope this info on pdadb is inaccurate!

Another one I have been tracking is the Toshiba G900 - really liking that sick display and trick biometrics. But once again, seems that the US bands of interest have disappeared from pdadb (even GSM 850). Guess I'm gonna have to keep tracking these two until we see definitive specs...

I have also been keeping a keen eye on the upcoming HTC Nike (don't know if you have checked that one out - if not, maybe worth a look on pdadb). Seems like HTC isn't too keen on higher res displays like some of the other players, but I think this one has some other intriguing specs and features (HSUPA... hmmm... Numeric keypad on WM6 Pro... hmmm). And of course, the HTC Kaiser is looking very interesting too, and the iMate Ultimates look great...

But if you want a good solution that you can get your hands on today, I think that the HTC Trinity is still worth a look. You mentioned a lack of WM6 and GPS - but the Trinity community over at xda-developers is really robust, and they seem to have all kinds of great ROMs available with internal GPS enabled and/or WM6 and/or both. You might want to check out their forums for Trinity if you haven't already...

I've come close to pulling the trigger on a Trinity a few times, but just don't have a pressing need to converge right now, so hanging tight for the moment...

Thanks for your organizational efforts on the unified ROM!

Thanks for the inout! I've done a ton of research, and was also waiting for the Glofiish X800. It seems to the be the only phone with almost everything that I'm looking for, namely:

Quad band
VGA Screen
On-Board GPS
Dual Cameras

Anyway, I can't be unconverged while waiting for that phone to drop, so I got a sweet deal on a Glofiish M700. Spec-wise, it's an improvement on my old 6700 and it will give me a chance to test out Eten's hardware and quality. From what I've heard it does have a few bugs, so I might have to by Colonel one, just to get a good ROM! :D

If I wind up not liking this phone, I may take a second look at Trinity, or perhaps wait until the Imate Ultimate 7150 drops in a couple of months.

As a side note, I really wanted the O2 Flame when I saw the specs, but it's only tri-band...no GSM 850. That's a real pity because the specs on that thing are sick!

Oh, and thanks for the kind words! :)

If you get a Trinity, just dont get a white one. :shock: My buddy had a black one that broke. He decided to buy a white one since it looked alright in pics. In person, though, it has the look of a pearl.

Thanks for the warning. White may have been compelling, but as soon as you said "pearl", that went out the window.

I'm picking up my Glofiish M700 tomorrow. I'll give you an update once it's up and running. There's a WM6 ROM from the manufacturer that I will be installing, but I've heard that it has some nasty bugs. Stay tuned!

Well, I probly didn't tell you anything you didn't already know. But I guess I find that researching and chatting about this stuff is just a barrel of monkeys regardless... :D

Nice choice - gotta love that SiRF Star III GPS (I dig the FM radio too, although that doesn't seem to score high on a ton of people's wish lists right now). Seems to me the M700 is the most powerful WM device with SiRF Star III + GSM 850 that is shipping right now - nice! I personally haven't seriously considered it for a converged device, as in my case, I've got a pretty hard requirement for 3G data (I travel a lot on business, and rely on my 6700 for a speedy EVDO laptop tether). But given my interest in the X800, I will look forward to your updates on the E-ten experience!

As much as I am diggin the whole I-Mate Ultimate line right now, I do have one other concern... I recall that early reports mentioned onboard GPS, but any mention of this for any of the Ultimate variants has disappeared from pdanet. Seen any further intel on that?

Yeah!, but, well... Don't get a black one either!

Seems you have brought up the other conundrum that has helped to keep me from pulling the trigger on a Trinity... I totally agree with your aesthetic verdict here Colonel - I haven't seen this thing in person, but the pics I have seen of the "white" model are certainly not doing it for me. However, I have decided that if I get one, it will definitely be the "white" version. How so?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=287713

Seems that the other option available (a sweet-looking black Trinity) has a nagging little paint peeling problem (at least in HTC's P3600 variant). I ask you all - how ridiculous is this??? I guess I'm just still in awe that HTC could miss something like this - I just don't see how they could have taken such a well specked device (that I think in all rights should have been seen as one of their flagships), and hork up all the available paint jobs so badly... (sigh)...

Got my Glofiish M700...Impressions!
 

Well, the Glofiish M700 showed up on Saturday, and I've spent the last couple of days getting it setup (been busy with a new baby!).

The first thing you notice is how slim this thing is. Even with a slider, it is noticeably thinner than a 6700. It's slightly longer, too...About the length of a 6700 if you include it's antenna. Of course, the M700 has internal antennas.

Build quality seems superior to our Apaches, and the plastics appear to be higher quality. Buttons are firm to the finger when pressed, and the slider moves firmly through it's travel and locks positively into place with a single click. I will be curious to see how tight this device is with some use, say, after 6 months.

Out of the box, WM5 performance was very fast...at least as fast as the latest Unified ROM on an Apache. So, I did the OEM WM6 upgrade. It seemed to slow the device down quite a bit. I did the Apache registry hacks, and it seemed restore most of the performance.

I did a restore from backup for my contacts and files and began re-installing my software. The only compatibility issue I ran into was with WeatherPanel, which keeps giving me a .dll error, even though the program itself works.

Call sound quality is good, with both the handset speaker and the speakerphone having good volume. The former being a refreshing change when compared to the PPC-6700.

So far, I've had no dropped calls and not much distortion in the time I've had to make calls.

As for data, the device is hampered by Cingular (now AT&T) EDGE connectivity. It's every bit as slow as advertised ,with it taking 20-30 seconds to download a half-dozen <10 kb e-mails. Also, WM6 has a bug in which the data connection has to be manually reassigned to the cellular modem after each soft reset. Fortunately, the device has not required soft resets, so I can probably get by until a fix comes out for this.

The on-board GPS is the FREAKING BOMB. It acquires quickly and seems to be very sensitive. The M700 includes a couple of GPS apps to give you coordinates and staellite locations, which, while not particularly useful, is neat to look at it. As soon as my microSD card shows up, I'll be testing it with TOMTOM.

Battery seems very average. The phone comes standard with a 1530 mAH battery. With light data and no GPS, I got through Sunday with about 50% battery remaining. This was with the screen brightness at 3/4 of maximum. A neat feature of WM6 is an automatic backlight adjustment based on battery life. When selected, the device will automatically reduce the brightness of the screen as the battery drains so it's life can be extended.

On the subject of the sceen, the clarity and brightness of the M700 is superb, putting our Apaches to shame. The colors are vibrant and the fonts are sharp. The M700 is truly a wonder to look at.

Usability. This is the other place where I have some gripes. While M700 is nicely styled, it has some very real usability issues:

While the D-pad is very functional and easy to use, the front of the device lacks the Windows and OK keys found on our Apaches. This makes one handed navigation without the screen VERY difficult. It does have the two softkeys, but I have not yet figued out how to reassign them. There is a Today Screen button at the upper right of the device, as well as a GPS button on the upper left. I will be reassiging those to the Windows functions that are missing, but they are still ill-placed for easy use.

I have not yet tested Bluetooth capabilities yet, but I'll report back when I do.

So, the verdict is, this is a quality device, but not without drawbacks.

The weak data support is a real drawback, and I'm not how long I can live with that. Battery life can be addressed with an extended battery, but that ruins the slim profile of the unit.

I suppose I can get used the the quirky button interface, but it does make me appreciate the 6700's simplicity.

In the end, the lack of 3G data support will force me to move on to another device. The upcoming Glofiish X800 will be 3G-enabled and have the bonus of a VGA screen. It does lack the keybaord of the M700, but I think I can trade the keyboard for some good high-speed 3G data and VGA.

Oh, and BTW..I do have the WM6 ROM file for the M700. If any of you would like it for tinkering, I'll gladly provide it. There are some real nice ETEN apps that could be packaged for future Apache ROM kitchens.

Glossman - thanx for the review, very interesting! Given my interest in the X800, it is good to hear that E-ten seems to be making quality devices.

Oh, and welcome to the joys of EDGE data (my 3125 smartphone tops out at EDGE as well). Not only is the transfer speed so much slower than EVDO - I have also found that the latency is much worse as well... ](*,)

WinMoGroupie,

I guess I should update you! The more and more I used the M700, the more bugs that surfaced, some of them very annoying. That, combined with the horrid EDGE data forced me to sell the phone. Thankfully, I made a tidy profit.

I wound up ordering an HTC Trinity. It lacks the keyboard, but has 3G support. There are several ROM upgrades which activate the internal GPS, too. Also, the guys over at xda-developers have several WM6 ROMS available which seem to have very few bugs.

Based on what I've read, the Trinity should serve me nicely for now. I will miss the slider, but by the end of the year, I should have a choice between the Imate Ultimate 7150 and the HTC Kaiser.

While the ETEN units appear to be attractive, they are just not very well sorted out. In hanging out on the ETEN board, I learned that factory support is non-existent: They have no listed phone number for tech support and they don't return e-mails. That is just not accpetable when you make a $500+ purchase.

Anyway, the Trinity is due to arrive on Monday. I'll provide a review as soon as I get it up and running!

please keep us updated, I may be "forced" to switch to a gsm carrier for work/travel reasons soon. I enjoy reading the comparisons from someone knowledgeable in the inner workings of the the 6700 and cdma in general. (it often feels like CDMA is the red headed step child "Ohh you're on sprint? sorry to hear that")