I tried the SDA....

[Swivel]

The numeric keypad is entirely too small and unreadable if you are one that has not memorized the letter allocations for number keys on a phone.

Hahahaha! I just realized you wrote this. You really have to be kidding, right? The same letters have been on the same numbers on phones for decades. And how far away from your face could you possibly be holding the phone in order to not be able to read the keypad anyway? Seriously. How far?

[teh_lorax]

The headphones aren't the greatest, but it's not that big of a deal to upgrade to better headphones.

The keypad is fine. if you can't read the letters, you need friggin glasses. My hands are huge and I have arthritis, I have no issues at all typing on it.

Do you use T9? Sometimes when Im typing out a word, the damn thing will randomly throw a number in place of a letter. Its the most annoying thing ever cause, unlike my old Symbian phone, I have to delete the entire word and start again.

actually, imma make a thread on this now and see if anyone else has the same problem. toodles

[REDZMAN]

I use T9 almost exclusively. I NEVER get numbers. You DO know that using T9, if you hold down the button too long you get the number instead of a letter right? You might want to "reset" your t9 stuff, someone talked about it here before.

This is temporary though, bluetooth keyboard is on the way.

I'm just glad my analog never went bootleg.

[Polaar]

and this is the review that I posted on Amazon.com's website.

Swivel, act like you got some manners!
Valron, how long did you give the phone? I ask because I had quite a few annoyances with it in the beginning. I was using my 6230 more than I was using the SDA. My hands are pretty large. I too had problems with the keys, now I've gotten so comfortable I use my thumb to dial numbers or start one of the many programs that I have on the phone. It takes a little while to get use to using it. After unlocking, visiting SurrealNetworks site and installing programs, I LOVE THIS PHONE!

[EricSanDgo]

Swivel, act like you got some manners!

Good luck, I got PM'd by him for suggesting he not be rude.

[Swivel]

Swivel, act like you got some manners!

I'd rather not pretend.

[teh_lorax]

I'd rather not pretend.

Works great for my sex life...

[EricSanDgo]

teh lorax,

Are you Swivel's wife?

eric

[SurrealNetworks]

The SDA doesn't have reception issues like the MDA. It is somewhat slow to regain signal if you've been without, however it has excellent RF performance. This is indicated in many legitimate SDA reviews and is apparent when I compare the SDA to the MDA, RAZR, 6103, 8801 and SK3.

Sorry it didn't work out, better luck next time!

[hakujin]

For me, I'd have to say that the SDA is the phone I've been waiting on for a looonng time. Even though the place I just moved to has half the reception I got at my last place, this phone is still unbeatable to me for so many reasons.

1.MP3 player with great sound (who the heck would want to use the included ear buds anyway, what with the mic smacking you in the cheek constantly)? Pretty soon, there will be ear bud sized Bluetooth headphones truly making things spectacular.
2. Toggle UMS and ability to transfer podcasts directly from iTunes
3. Bluetooth profiles so that I can do everything wirelessly (audio gateway, activsync, object push between phones/pc) + when I get this remote control profile figured out (open invitation folks), I'll be able to control my pc media player(s) with my SDA from the couch and save some money on a redundant BlueTooth remote.
4. ORB media/file streaming and a buttload of other apps (clearvue, opera, gmail maps, woize VoIP , GPS, etc.)
5. Doable camera phone
6. WiFi, ala free internet browsing and hot spot checker.
7. Extra storage via mini sd. I'd never have any reason to take it out and am certainly not going to buy a 2.0 reader/writer for minimal gain in transfer (i.e. USB 1.1 isn't the only bottleneck ).

I'm sure there's a slew of other things that I'm not thinking of right now but there are the main things for me. Oh, and it makes phone calls with great sound quality!

Why'd you spend $150? What's so hard about agreements these days? I signed up for one year on a plan that is saving me $10 with national coverage (as opposed to sprint regional), and got 2 free phones out of the deal and $25 cash back (AR), plus a free blue tooth moto headset that I can use on my PC to make outgoing skype calls and to push full podcasts to while I'm driving from my SDA.

Deal of the century IMO.

Though to be fair, if you bought the phone to SMS a lot of do a lot of typing, perhaps it isn't the phone for you. Personally, I could care less for that stuff. I'm in it for the aforementioned, in a form factor that doesn't overtly bulge my pocket. I think I found the holy grail (for now)!

[HelloRobo]

I tried using this phone at a CompUSA today (I got a T509 to test T-Mobile's signal, but even if it works I'm going to return it...it's a long story that involves me never stepping foot in a CompUSA again). It's so close to being the perfect phone for me - I want a powerful phone that is still small. But there's a problem - the keypad and joystick are far too small. If they could just remove the media keys and make the keypad that much bigger, it'd be perfect (well, I'd like a d-pad instead of a joystick, too). But I text a lot, and as it is now, it just won't work.

I looked at the MDA, but it's a little big for my liking, and having to slide out the keyboard every time I wanted to text would be annoying.

[wAkO]

I agree with your review Valron. You basically nailed some the pointof why I didnt want the SDA too.

When i went to go look at the SDA at my local tmobile retailer, the phone's feature looked pretty good and promising however once I held it in my hand and pressed the button, I quickly turned away. Their just too small and too far down the phone. When i usually text I use one hand and the bottom row of numbers just seemed to have been too far down to reach comfortably.

I guess swivel is right that you can easily get use to it, however why pay for something you need to get use to, when you can find something else that just works? Funny how some consumers think....

[3560freak]

T-mobile is currently running a special where they are including a 1gb card w/ the purchase of the phone. Unfortunately, they forgot to include one in my shipment and I had to call back and was told that the caveat to that offer is "while supplies last". If I wanted to raise enough of a ruckus, I could probably get one from T-mobile....but why should I have to do this to get them to keep an advertised promise?

1GB card was offered through the Rebate company, not T-Mobile or HTC. The card will come with your $50.00 rebate in 8-10 weeks. Its not T-mobile's fault that you didn't read the terms and conditions of the 1 GB card (1st line of print on the bottom of the rebate forms)

[a2gti]

My review:

For $99 (after rebate from compusa)..this is the best gadget i've gotten in a long time. MP3s sound fine with non-oem headphones (adapter off ebay $6.00). Can surf the web, listen to XM, watch movies downloaded to the 2GB card I bought ($35 on ebay), use it with TOM-TOM GPS for directions via Bluetooth, camera, video camera, IM, games, email....surf the web, wifi, calendar feature, USB flash memory...Quad band, avant go..etc..etc.etc.


iPod Nano 2GB = $199 listen to tunes, look at some pictures, calendar if sync'd to outlook...plus you'd have to carry a separate cell phone.

For the price and features..i can live with the tiny keypad!

[mInDtrIP]

Well, I would probably have to disagree with all the reviews by the OP except for the fact that I too was thinking about taking the phone back after a few days. Thankfully I held on to it until the near the end of my 14 days, when I found these forums and learned about what the phone can really do. Yes I did have to 'learn' how to use the phone and it took more than one day. Thats not to say the phone is extremely complicated, but that I had never used a pda, smartphone, wm5, so obviously there is a learning curve, and I am glad I took the time to figure it out.

As far as the other issues:

Singal strength... I have had about 5 phones so far and the SDA atleast matches the reception of the best one I had prior. I have been able to cary a conversation all the way down the elevator, across the lower level in the garage (underground), and up the elevator on the other side - and very few other people can do that, including myself with my last tmobile phone. I am sure there are phones with better reception but I am very pleased with the SDA for reception (alot of review on other pda phones got much worse reception).

Battery duration... I have also found my SDA to do pretty well here. I did a test a couple weeks ago and found under normal usage, with a bit of wifi a couple times a day, I got 3 full days before my first battery warning went off. Thats pretty dang good imho, but I have also customized the phone to help out there.

Keys too small... The only problem I have had was with the joystick, and that only took maybe a week of use to master. I would agree it would be nicer if it was a little bigger. The keypad also sits right on the bottom of the phone so I have found I have to slide the phone up in my hand for my thumb to easily reach all of them. The size hasnt been an issue and really is not much smaller than several other phones I have had. The media buttons are welcome by me since I do alot of mp3 listing and video clip watching. But they can be remapped to other functions according to other threads here, so if you dont like em, customize them.

Headphones... well I was glad it actually came with something as most dont. I for one dont mind the earbuds and think they sound very clear, about the same as the set that came with my +$100 mp3 player. They dont have any bass but thats pretty typical of earbuds. And the highs seem very clean and crisp. I have no intention of getting replacement headphones, but I am thinking about trying to get it to work on my bluetooth headset (thought I read here you can do it but havent really looked into that yet).

I really liked the customizability of the phone. Anyone who took their phone back in a day or two couldnt possibly have had enough time to explore all the features and do mods and tweaks to the phone. There are alot of quirks, and most can be fixed by tweaks and well documented on these forums. Its not the perfect phone, but last I checked they didnt sell one or I would have bought it. I probably would like the MDA too but it was just out of my price range, especially since I was also buying a second phone for my wife, and I like having the same phones.