Phones

Our blog readers are becoming a demanding bunch. The slightest mention of the Orange SPV C100 (HTC Oxygen) in an earlier post resulted in a number of you emailing for more info.

I must admit that Smartphone devices aren’t my area of expertise these days since I turned to Pocket PC Mobile devices. But not wishing to turn readers away I have gone on a mission to find out what I can.

The Orange C100 has yet to be official announced but I know it’s coming, I had a play with one just a few weeks ago at the MoDaCo summer event. It’s a really nice looking device, much more stylish recent Smartphone devices. Smartphones have had a look all of their own until now but the C100 breaks the mould looking more like a ‘regular’ mobile phone. I’m sure that the sleek design will appeal to a whole new demographic.

The C100 is targeted as a budget Smartphone and as such is a slightly ‘cut down’ device. It does have Windows Mobile 5 AKU 2.3, the screen resolution, however, has been reduced to 176×220 which is rather a step down from the 320×240 that has become the Smartphone norm.

The C100 is unusual in that it does not have space for a memory card but instead uses SIM+,which enables special SIMs with additional storage capacity, with 512MB SIM+ cards already being in existence. Not sure its such a great idea though. I wonder if the memory is still accessible even if the SIM is dead?

Matt

Thanks once again to Sporkyguy for allowing the use of the excellent photos!

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, C100, HTC Oxygen]

A number of people have been emailing me about the release date of the Orange SPV M3100 (HTC Hermes). I don’t have a specific launch date to tell you but I have been told that it should be in Orange shops by the end of August at the latest.

I would imagine that it will be restricted to business customers only to begin with as this it what Orange have done with the previous devices such as the M2000, M1000 and the M500. It may well be the case that they will give preference to new connections too.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]

You can find my Orange SPV M3100 review here.

As so many people are arriving at this site having Googled for ‘Orange M3100 Specification’ or ‘SPV M3100 Specification’ and ‘HTC Hermes Specification’ I thought I would dig out the information for you and post it up here!

Interestingly the M3100 we saw at the MoDaCo summer event, like the SPV C100 (HTC Oxygen) and a few others, had a proprietary USB connector. If it comes to market with this connector, which I’m sure it will, it’s going to be really annoying!

You can now pre-order the M3100 from Expansys although the picture and specification they have listed is all wrong!

Some of you may be familiar with my review of the Orange SPV M2000 about 2 years ago. Well we are hoping that Orange will be kind enough to allow us to review an M3100 prior to it’s official release so that we can let everyone know whether or not it is worth ordering or waiting for. Orange, if you are listening, PLEASE!?!?

I’ll keep you posted!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]