Hi, since I'm considering to buy a used sendo x, I browsed some forums where everyone is just panicing about the bugs it has (had?). Therefore I was wondering which of these is fixed and which of these could occur once I've bought the x.
The mp3-bug (that you can't answer calls listening to music)
Is every phone affected by it?
Is it solved in an update, or just for some people whilist the problem persists for other people?
Does the bug only appear when you use the mp3 player that's shipped with the x or is oggplay (or other 3rd party software) affected by it as well?
The IRDA-Bug (that IRDA runs all the time - whether you've turned it on or not and thus your battery's running out of power quickly)
Again, are there people whose irda works fine having updated it to the mysterious latest firmware or is every phone a victim for the bug?
Can one use the IRDA port properly once the bug has taken over the phone or has it just gone mad then and it's running and running and noone can neither stop nor use it?
When you've got rid of the bug by 1000x flashing or divining or whatever does it appear again or is it like a vaccination?
Someone said in a forum that it's just a matter of time that every x is affected by it, as it is due to an electronic part that's just old and as a result doesn't work any more properly. Is that true?
Mic issues (microphone refuses to work)
Some fixed the problem disassembling the x and reassembling it. How often is that possible (and how often is it neccessary to do so)? Does it help at all?
Quite a lot of questions but I've one more:
I assume that due to patent, licensing or other stuff (company's secrets etc.) noone will ever be able to develop a new firmware, so the x will remain just as-it-is with all it's bugs and features. Am I right?
Sincerely,
ruediger05
Correct. No kind of fixes or firmware updates forthcoming, and nobody to repair any broken phones, either.
Unless you get it very cheap, or want it as some sort of "collector's item", I'd buy something else.
I haven't suffered from the mp3 problem or the IR problem. I use oggplay instead and am able to receive calls fine. The IR problem can be fixed by removing the IR module (which there are instructions for on http://www.sendosmartphones.com/) which is fine if you intend not to use IR anyway (I use bluetooth). For me, the mic problem surfaced after about a year of owning the phone. I had some trouble getting the phone open so I managed to fix it by simply putting a vacuum cleaner to the mic and shaking the phone a bit.
Lots of questions - let's try to answer them all clearly...
Firstly, the place to find most information for the X, including spares and firmwares is the Sendo Smartphones website.
The MP3 bug does not affect all phones, and can be cured by a firmware update. However, some phones have not been cured by the fixes in the latest firmwares.
OggPlay is not affected by this issue, it is only the built-in MP3 player which causes it. It seems to be more likely to occur on a 1800MHz network than a 900MHz one.
The IRDA bug does not affect all phones. It seems be caused by a configuration file becoming damaged during a firmware upgrade, although we don't know which file, or why. Some users have reported that re-flashing the phone with older / newer firmwares fixes the issue.
IRDA is unusable if the phone is suffering from the bug, and some users report a dim red glow in the IRDA window on the side of the phone.
Updating to the larest released firmware does NOT mean you will start to suffer from the IRDA bug.
Mic issues are caused by dust getting between the mic's contacts and the phone's motherboard. It can be cured by dismantling the phone and cleaning these contacts. Alternatively, Sendo Smartphones sells replacement microphones which have a different connector and are not affected by the dust problem. (and yes, they are genuine Sendo parts)
Talking of the Sendo Smartphones site, the Sendo X phones sold on the site have all been tested to not suffer from any of the problems mentioned above. They also all come with the latest released firmware installed.