music phonez! (formerly SE W550i or MOTO E398)

[fiero19]

---

larvs,

Sorry for that. Just got mixed up... hehe... done with editing my post...

Isn't E398 the Moto ROKR?

Sorry but I'm not into Moto and I'm closing the door for Nokia either. I'm just so fed up with the candybar form factor. Ever since I have been loyal to SE. My SE T68i still works. I used to own an SE Z600 before I got the SE W550.

There was also this group, an unofficial group of SE hackers who were working on a new firmware for SE T610 and Z600. But it has been years and it never got released til I grew tired of waiting.

I didn't know til now that this was also possible with the E398.

-fiero19

[chanbri]

bro larvs: about your statement na: "the price, 10k for brand new which btw i suggest than bying second hand. nuff said"

Is there something wrong with 2nd hand phones na?

just wna let you know that your posts about motorola has really opened my eyes esp to the e398.
Ive never tried motorola. have used nokias and SE. Im currently saving up to get a new phone. maybe I'd end up buying a moto just becoz of you and wikitoy. Im eyeing the k750i but it's stil too high up my budget. still thinking though. e398, or v3 vs SE w550 or a voyager. havent made up my mind yet.

[chanbri]

@fiero: bro, any prob with typing sms? the keypad seems to be abit sunk. just like in the k600i. is is easy to press. most reviews indicate the keypad to be a disadvantage. i always look into the keypad ergonomics when selecting the phone.

[aridoasis]

yeah, i tried a display ,model once and had trouble fidgeting with the keypad. the keys were too close for comfort for their size and a bit sunk... but i dunno, maybe it was juz because it was a dummy model...

is it really like that, fiero?

[larvs]

@fiero19: honesty, i really like the OS of SE's. nokias, esp. symbian, are too prone to viruses. moto pud, walay virus but hinay pud OS. i think synergy and OS nila. SE on the other hand, has the best of bioth worlds. fast, stable and virus free. so everytime someone asks me, i always recommend k750i.
ROKR is just an e398 that has OEM iTunes, and vid recording. hackers just got hte ROKR firmware (which was not an easy feat, mind you) and put it in e398. modding community for moto is really good. just today, a pinoy skin was released kinda looks like this. thanks to zra for this: http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/6791/pinoy10jv.jpg

@chanbri: haven't bought one yet? any phone buys, adto nalang brand new oi, kay akong gikagul-an, batt life man gud. nuon, naa naman ko program para increase batt life. hinatag ra pud gikan sa motomodders nako, just today. taga HK. sab-an gani mi sa mods kay illegal software man, hehe.

but my preference na jud karon kay MegaPix cam, something e398 will never have. kailangan na jud nag hardware hack. hahaay..

[fiero19]

Hi guys,

Sorry to keep you waiting. Just took a quick nap.

If your sporting for long nails, you're really in trouble. But I doubt if you guys do. I still love my old SE Z600. The keypad layout was the best and even if the keys are slightly sunk, i dont have problems with accidental presses. My fingers just glide smoothly and i can even write SMS even without looking at all. This imperfection in W550i is something SE might want to look out for, for future models. Honestly, my choices before i bought the phone were SE K750, SE W550, and Samsung E730.

Here are my inputs for the other two ( ...sorry but these are mostly negative comments);

The SE K750i was rather close to best. The 2.0 MP, autofocus camera was the main catch and music was only second. I have a lady workmate who has the phone and I'd say I have scrutinized everything before i finally made my choice. The form factor was something i hated but what i hate the most was the toggle navigation keys. It was deeply sunk (as in very deep) that it makes navigation quite hard. Accidental presses are common and often times, you'll have to press twice to get you anywhere. If you have sweaty hands, all I can say is "goodluck". The toggle was also hard and did not have the rubbery feel as in the SE K500, which makes it even uncomfortable. I have also noticed that the paint coating the toggle falls off in normal use. The keypad is also rubbish. Everything looks and feels plasticky. It's like the keypad's going to fall-off anytime. The memory stick is supported by a semi-rubber shutter. I have observed that this one too has gone quite distorted. If this happens everytime i take out the card, i'd rather not take it at all. Considering that these are irreplacable made me think twice. Features-wise, it was superior. It's just the hardware itself.
The Samsung E730 was rather cute and compact. I've got two friends who has it so I was able to fully check it out as well. Everthing looks nice... but the thing was fragile. It was so small and so light. E730 is clamshell and it opens at some angle with no clicks heard unlike my old SE Z600. My gripe is that I would want the thing to open more at shall we say 175o so I can see the screen clearly. That was just impossible to do. Sound quality is quite good, excellently heard on the headset but distorts when played on high volume using the loud speaker mode. BTW, the speaker that i uses is the main speaker on top of the main LCD screen that you place near your ear when making calls. It is actually a cheap multimedia solution to their bearer - D600. On the other hand, camera quality is very good and even recommend it. No lagging is noticed when moving the camera around when taking pics. But memory is limitted to 90MB. Another thing is that it is so conservative making customization quite limitted. Connectivity through IR was an issue for me cause I use IR to transfer pics to my old palmtop which doesn't have bluetooth. E730 sadly doesn't have IR. I've also heard that bluetooth on most Samsung phones are a bit choosy. Samsung makes quite beautiful phones but they're always incomplete. Keypad was quite was large enough and comfy to work on. Just one thing about the keypad, there is no dedicated "back or exit" button. Usually the right soft key is the exit button for most fons (other brands) but for this one it uses the Clear - "C" button if the right soft key isn't available. Meaning there are instances where you use the "c" or the right soft key to x-out from the menu. It's not quite an issue though. Just takes time to get used to especially that i am an SE user. Overall, this is the second option shouldn't I've opted for the W550.

Going back to SE W550i's keypad, i dont really have an issue with it. I'm more into features. The keypad is still usable and I dont quite use it for SMS. I usually do calls to make things faster. It's actually a matter of preference and usage. :mrgreen:

[hunk700i]

you go for SE fones... they're durable and a lot more advance in features than any other fones.

[larvs]

wow, i never thoght tha k750i had usage issues. i'm blind with it's features. thanks fiero19!

btw, another disadvantage of e398 is it's batt connection. i think it even goes as far back as startac. lint gathers up in it's contacts preventing proper connection. i either lick it first or clean the contacts with a screw driver. or else, dili mu charge. hehe.

[chanbri]

thanks for the input,bro.
i do txt alot. more than making calls that's why. havent seen anyone with a w550 though so i couldnt scrutinize it.

yeah i like your choices too.
ive considered lots of phones inlcuding:
SE: w800i,k750i,
Samsung: E730
Others: Voyager(SAP2), Xphone II
Motorola: E398, v3 RAZR

So as you can see, i have quite a bit of a selection.
i have a nokia Ngage at the moment and have had a t610 prior to that.

Regarding the k750i, i found out from scrutinizing my friend's phone that it has low volume. when making/taking Â*calls, you cant quite hear the person on the other end. it's better to use the included headset. And regarding your toggle navigation key issues, are you refering to the joystick? coz you can just use the keys to access the icons as they are already in the 4x3 format. i think this also works w/ the previous models. coz that's what i do with my t610 before.

[chanbri]

my concen with motorola e398, larvs is that a friend of mine has this before but pilian daw ug files. ang dili daw kayu nice ug cam. dark ang pictures kuha maski using the led light. and dali ra daw maguba ang transflash card. napaayo nya iyang phone kay naguba maski bag-o pa and the moto service center couldnt fix it kay motherboard prob daw. they had to send it back to singapore to have the motherboard changed. but larvs has really intrigued me to get to try this phone out. Personally ive never liked moto coz its not as user friendly (you gota have more clicks to get to something) and the service support availability here is another issue.