Hi there,
I am a devoted user of a Nokia 6130 (aka Orange nk702 - remember them?) and who is considering taking the plunge for a Sendo X.
When I bought the N6130, it was the best phone on offer, I got a bloody good deal on it and now I'm price matched on the Virgin plan with Orange. I have had no incentive to upgrade my phone in the six years I've had it, as I don't get phone upgrades on Orange without paying an exorbitant amount of money to Orange.
Now, after many years of faithful service, I need to replace it with something with the same classy functioning, but up to date, and the Sendo X seems to be it. But, is it?
I'm looking for a Symbian smartphone, but I hear the Sendo is a generation behind already. I like the thought of an MP3 player (my colleague at work just got a N6230 and it worked great) but there seem to be problems with MMC cards, internet access via Opera is good but not upgradable and I want a cameraphone, but apparently it is too red, the sample rate too low (and blurry) and the controls ineffective.
Sendo X promise so much but all I'm hearing on the forum are complaints about incompatiblities, particularly about the Vodafone model. I don't want to stretch to the Expansys International version, but Vodafone seem to have royally screwed up the operator-branded firmware, is that right?
What shall I do? Reading here, the Sendo X is buggy and from what I heard from the Vodafone store, unlikely to last much longer on the shelves - with little chance of further support for upgading the firmware.
You can get the International version from ebay for about �120.
Right, as to whether you should buy the Sendo X is completely your choice BUT, here is my experience of it so far:
First of all, I got mine from www.expansys.com for a good price of �195.88 inc. P&P. I believe it hasnt got the newest firmware but i haven't tried installing yet and to be quite honest, I don't feel the need to at all. It's everything that I wanted in terms of features, they work great for my needs and everyone I've shown it to is very impressed. Mp3 player is great, it plays my songs smoothly 99.99% of the time and I can only recall one instance in the past month that there has been any clicking that people have mentioned but by stopping and re-opening the mp3, I have not heard a click since! (And I use mp3 a lot!) camcorder is good, frame rate is a bit slow but people say the new firmware sorts that out. Realplayer is as good as on my brothers n-gage (if you can compare that way) and plays 3gp, mp4, rm clips very well. Camera has good photos and the Flash is excellent!
Calling and texting, I have had absolutely no problems with - perfect as is the reception I've been getting. The phone itself was at first a bit deeper than I would have imagined but you soon get used to it and it fits into my hands perfectly 😊. The carbon (i think?) finish on the case looks grat and buttons are space out well on the keypad. The only possible problem with layout is if you are playing a game that requires a lot of use of the left and right buttons, you mgiht occasionally catch the end call/red button but thats hardly a problem. Connectivity is great, bluetooth and IR have worked perfectly for me (got some great blujacks 😊) and the data cable and softwaqre is good, even if i have to puch the cable in quite hard to actually connect it.
3rd Party apps are generally well supported - I currently have many games including skyforce, MGS karting and pool, and the most useful app of all - FExplorer which work great. A few I found that don't work on mine are Rally Pro contest doesn't play Bluetooth games?? and I haven't got a s60 Emulator to work perfectly- Yewnes and Goboy can't find/play roms and Emame just doesn't open.
Concerning bugs, I have found hardly any that people have mentioned on AAS - the only ones I could think of are freezes caused by 3rd party apps that are incompatible and the one where u can't see how many characters in a text ur writing but going into options and message details it comes up at the top so u don't have to send to see!
But overall I would say the Sendo X is a great smartphone. Being on Symbian is a great plus, everythin works fine for me - for the price offered on Expansys - I would say its a bargain and with themes and future firmware coming out, I would say it is gonna get even better, just ask kev in the forums. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, the Expansys version comes sim-free of course so u can use your existing sim card if u like which is another plus 😃
Regards
OK, if you're upgrading from a 6130 you won't know what to do with the millions of features available to you 😊
The Sendo X currently doesn't display Orange's WAP site correctly (this is due to Orange not updating their site to support the phone), but that's a small thing. EVERY other Orange feature works perfectly!
Yes, there are bugs in the X, as there are in every other phone, but the latest firmware (1.98.5.2) fixes most of them. The ones which remain (which belive me, are small) are again 99% sorted in the next firmware (which is still in development)
While I don't know what Vodafone's policy is, I can assure you of this...Sendo haven't stopped developing the firmwares for this phone, and haven't given up on it! (that should be evident by the fact that I've hinted about something which I know about the next firmware)
stuclark wrote:I can assure you of this...Sendo haven't stopped developing the firmwares for this phone, and haven't given up on it! (that should be evident by the fact that I've hinted about something which I know about the next firmware)
stuclark,
are you really sure about this. I have heard something complety different on german sites from people which are close to the developers. They claim the development has been froozen.... 😎
Jupppo
jupppo wrote:stuclark, are you really sure about this. I have heard something complety different on german sites from people which are close to the developers. They claim the development has been froozen.... 😎
Jupppo
I don't expect the development to be frozen just like this. The amount of work that has been done in the newest firmware imho proves that the Sendo people are working there asses off to squash all the bugs et cetera. I applaud these people, and I see no reason why development should have seized after the most recent firmware...
jupppo wrote:stuclark, are you really sure about this. I have heard something complety different on german sites from people which are close to the developers. They claim the development has been froozen.... 😎
Jupppo
While I obviously can't give any cast-iron assurances, I DO know the next firmware is being worked on (release 69 I think - honeslty 😊). One thing which we know is fixed in the next firmware is the SMS counter (finally) - we know this because plinkyKev has posted a screenshot of it working... I've also heard rumours of other things still being improved and worked on.
*HOPEFULLY* there'll also be some good news for the guys experiencing problems with the MP3 player and receiving calls. I've been doing what I can to help Sendo out on this one, and have a bit of feedback from them which unfortunately I can't fully share here...but I can assure you all it's being worked on 😊