My contract is up with o2, so I am in the market for a snazzy new phone.

The PDA is also starting to creek under the pressure, so I was thinking of upgrading that too. Both the mobile, a Nokia 6230, and the PDA, iPaq 2210, are in good enough condition to off set the cost of an o2 XDA IIi if I were to sell them on eBay.

But, I have never used an XDA and none of the stores around here seem to stock them. Has anyone ever used/owned one, I think they are sold under several different trade names around the globe by other SP's. If you have, I would love to hear what you think about it.

Also, does anyone know if it will be possible to use the XDA IIi with both a Bluetooth GPS reciever and Bluetooth Handsfree kit at the same time ??? If not I will have to look at other solutions.

Cheers

Cris.

Can't comment specifically on that phone, but I recently bought a SPV C500 (orange pay as you go) which I unlocked immediately, flashed on the i-mate firmware and then used happily with my O2 SIM!

Apparently on the SPV you can use both bluetooth GPS and headsets at the same time, I know lots of other windows mobile devices don't support this.

You best bet would be to check the pocket gps forums as they'll be able to tell you what you need to know.

I have to say, I wasn't altogether convinced about a phone based on windows mobile, but I'm pretty impressed. The dialing is the best I've ever had on a phone, and I like the small form factor of the SPV - plus it's got real buttons! I know people experience lockups with it when using it a lot, I've yet to have a single one, but I only ever use it as a phone or as a sat nav device and don't tend to play with all the options.

Another place to check is the modaco forums, they have lots of information over there.

Friend of mine has got a C500 too, he really likes it. I also know someone who had an original xda and hated it. He couldn't carry it like a phone for fear of scratching or breaking the touchscreen and couldn't find a suitable case for it without looking like a total spazz every time he tried to use it. Luckily his employer bought it for him to he didn't have the additional shame of having actually spent his own money on it. He now has a separate phone and pda.

I've had my 7650 for two years now, I'll replace it when I find something better that doesn't cost over 100 quid to buy, so far I haven't found one. I can't see the point of blowing 100's of pounds on a phone when most only seem to last a year. The only phone I could see myself having is the C500, but then I would have to let Microsoft back in the house....

Just noticed the 3230 will be available from Orange soon, could the 7650 finally have a sucessor?

My 7650 became due for replacement after 3 years of use also, so I bought a 6260 last week. So far I'm very happy with it. It seems that all the shortcomings of the 7650 have been remedied with this phone, and then some.

I really like this phone. It's hands down the best Nokia I've ever owned. Only word of comment is that it hasn't got a screen on the outside of the clamshell to notify you of the time or calls/messages that you've missed. But this is no biggie. And to think I've bought this phone for less than half the price that I paid for my 7650...

Oh well, i ended up getting the 3230, I rang orange to enquire on the price for the upgrade and was told if I got it there and then it was going to be a tenner. So it should be here on Wednesday, it was £60 in the orange shop so I think I've got a bit of a bargain. If however if it's crap then it'll go on ebay and i'll press the 7650 back into service.

If the 3230 is anything like the 6260, then it should be really good. Could you post here about it? If it's any good, I might give one to my GF as a birthday present.

Man, I wish we could have those combined sales over here too where you only have to pay some ridiculously low amount to get a new phone. Over here this is a forbidden practice, so we ALWAYS have to pay the full price for the phone. Bah!

I've just bought a 3220 from the Orange Shop (online) it was £50 on PAYG which I think is a good deal - it's £100 from other PAYG networks at the moment. Also I only got a 3510i from them £25 a few weeks ago - I unlocked that and gave it to my dad for use with his O2 PAYG SIM.

The main reason is battery life - I don't use them that much and my old 7110 lasted under a week, the 3510i and 3220 last much much longer.

The phone itself is excellent - it's basically the 6230 without the radio, bluetooth, IR and card reader but with niftly flashing/pulsing/colour changing lights and a customisable cover. The screen is very clear and bright, the camera mediocre but welcome. The ringtones have a special MIDI track which controls the flashing lights - not the sort of thing I would use to pick up chicks but really neat.

Gareth

One of the guys at work has that phone, he got it when Siemens banned private calls on company mobile phones, you're allowed to make calls home when you're away from home but that's it.

He bought it online from some random site on Orange PAYG and he's really happy with it although he's been trying to find replacement covers for it without much success.

The 3230 arrived whilst I was in London so I've only just got round to playing with it. First impressions are good. Nicely laid out, big, bright screen, maybe the buttons could be a touch bigger but I've got fairly chunky fingers anyway. The UI is fairly quick although it takes a while to start from cold. The camera is okay but there's a bit of a delay in taking pictures. They've improved the browser so it'll actually display HTML pages, perfect for using MythWeb on it.

The downsides are one crash since using it, although it's the usual go try everything thing that you do when you first get a new phone. There's no software included or available to download from the Nokia site, although the site does still say it isn't released yet... go figure. There's no iSync profiles for the phone so I can't sync my contacts and calendar with my iBook yet. But Dialup over Bluetooth works well.

Well my new O2 XDA IIi turned up today. Not had much of a chance to play with it yet.

First impression is, it's gunna be bloody useless as an everyday mobile, it looks the old Nokia is staying for in the pocket use (on another SIM of course!). It's got some pretty cool features, most of which work straight out of the box, most impressive is the camera. Using the net is a joy as you have so much more room than on the mobile, but the added landscape view has limited use.

Overall I am impressed, and it will be staying as part of my comms, but only for when I am away from home or at work, there is no way I am puting a thing that big in my pocket, you can get locked up for that sort of thing here in Leeds

Cheers

Cris.

I got the PDA2k CDMA EV-DO version here in NZ, nice to have fast internet access while on the road. Although I don't use it as a phone, too big and clunky, however I must try it with a bluetooth headset and see how that goes..

So is it TomTom you've got? I thought you had NavMan.

How much data will TomTom traffic will shift over GPRS then it's connected? If you're paying by the MB a long journey could wind up being quite expensive. What happens if the phone rings whilst you're navigating? Will it take over the whole screen or will TomTom fight to be at the top of the z order? I've found the GPS screen pops up with annoying regularity if my GPS isn't connected.

EDIT: So has the XDA got a GPS receiver as well?

Just noticed the TomTom are releasing V5 of the Navigator software. Anyone know what new features this includes? The website is a little vague.

Interesting read. Might have to splurge on a copy now, my 'evaluation' copy is rather out of date. Last time I drove to my folks I made a short detour through a field, at least that's what TomTom thought.

If it's not too rude, how much did you pay for it? O2 say it's £179 but they don't say what kind of tariff is required to get it for that price. I did look at getting the SPV M2000 for a while but Orange wanted £300 unless I paid over £50 a month in line rental in which case it came down to £250. It didn't seem worth it when the Axim was available for such a good price at the time and much more in terms of memory, cpu, connectivity and expansion.