HTC Diamond/ T-Mobile MDA Compact IV best deal. Help!

littlemissfavored

(Hope this is the right forum!)
I am due for a upgrade. Can any one tell me the best deals on HTC Diamond or T-Mobile MDA Compact IV?

I am looking to spend £30-£35 a month. I need max about 700 mins & 100 texts.

I know Orange & T-moblie offer it, I am currently on O2 and am happy to change networks, but I would like to retain my number.

Also are do these phones come unlocked and do they have pre-installed Sat Nav?

Cavey

From T-Mobile the MDAs usually come locked, although unlocking it is not necessarily an issue (see the XDA Developers forums). I think the same is true for Orange's SPV's, but I haven't had one to play with.

If you want it unlocked, you can buy it separately but it costs about £430. Also, some third parties such as Expansys (see here) are offering deals on unlocked HTC Touch Diamond's on an O2 contract (although I think it is still probably more than you want to spend £120 phone, £40 tariff). Their T-Mobile offering is better (£50 phone, £35 tariff) to the point where I am tempted, but I am fairly sure I would prefer the Touch Pro and I would currently rather stay with O2 (and I can't justify the upgrade).

littlemissfavored

Thanks for your informative response, Cavey

Just as a matter of interest- why do you prefer O2? Is their service better?
To be honest, I found my last 18 with O2 ok with no problems.

But due to getting the phone I want and budget constraints I am happy to go to a network that will give me the best deal.

I am looking at other phone sites with deals of £450 (phone cost +18 months tariff) with"x months half price" by redemption though. I could have happily gone with them but theirb phones are locked to networks.

I have looked at XDA Developers forums as well- but its seems quite techie for me!

Cavey

littlemissfavored wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest- why do you prefer O2? Is their service better?

1) Bluebook (I like it)
2) I just rang up O2 'cause they made a mistake and charged me for a call they shouldn't have. No argument, they credited me the money.
3) I changed my SIM-only contract with 24 hours notice. While it couldn't be applied for 5 days due to a computer issue, they said use it anyway and when I rang back to ask why I was billed 20p for internet, they credited that back too.
4) Their call centres are within the UK.

littlemissfavored wrote: »

But due to getting the phone I want and budget constraints I am happy to go to a network that will give me the best deal.

I know that feeling. I originally went with O2 because they had the O2 Mini S (also known as the T-Mobile MDA Vario), however I am currently not convinced by the latest crop of HTC devices, they don't quite seem to be sufficient improvement over the old ones and with a bit of knowledge you can upgrade them to have the same capabilities as the new ones.

What phone do you have now? Perhaps you can upgrade the software, become happier and save yourself some money.

littlemissfavored wrote: »

I am looking at other phone sites with deals of £450 (phone cost +18 months tariff) with"x months half price" by redemption though. I could have happily gone with them but theirb phones are locked to networks.

I have looked at XDA Developers forums as well- but its seems quite techie for me!

Sadly, it is quite techy in most places (the name kind of gives it away). You might also try https://www.Modaco.com, but it has a similar clientele and can descend into geekery. There are, however, some good walk throughs on both sites that explain how to unlock over 90% (there are some that are irretrievable, but they are Japanese) of WM devices made by HTC with minimal fuss (ie plug it in, wait for it to finish ActiveSync-ing and run the program, wait and don't crap yourself when the screen goes a funny colour).

littlemissfavored

I have an O2 XDA Orbit at the moment...

lexa34

Both Orange and T-mobile on the phone and in the shop have offered me a free Diamond so far on a £30/ £25 700mins/ unlim text. Am near end of contrat with Orange so am going to try and get them down more as saw contract with phones4u 600 mins 3000 texts 18 mth contract- 11 months half price line rental by redemption working out about £23 (I think!!?) per month PLUS £50 from Quidco etc... and I am still looking!!!!

http://www.phones4u.co.uk/shop/shop_contract_details.asp?ItemKey=211228&MPItemKey=220578

Any better out there I haven't found yet?
x

Or may just tart up my beloved white Orange SPV M700 somehow (oooh scarey techie forums...) I have mercilessly abused for the last 18 months and try and be more MSE !!

Cavey

lexa34 wrote: »

Or may just tart up my beloved white Orange SPV M700 somehow (oooh scarey techie forums...) I have mercilessly abused for the last 18 months and try and be more MSE !!

SPV M700 is the HTC Trinity. Based on a 400Mhz Samsung Processor, the same as was in my XDA Trion before I broke it Nice bit of kit, quite modern, should be able to cope with most things.

I have an O2 XDA Orbit at the moment...

Orbit is the HTC Artemis. Based on a 200Mhz OMAP processor. The OMAP processor is really easy to overclock (can get it up to 250Mhz without too much trouble) to give it a bit of a speed boost. Just be careful not to go too high without testing it as you can break it. If you want to have a try, search for OMAPClock or BatteryStatus.

As such, these are fantastic bits of kit (has the same core as the XDA Mini S, which my Dad has now inherited). The thing I miss is that it plays Mega Drive games better than my XDA Stellar does (neither can really cope with sound, but the Mini S was smooth graphically, the Stellar is quite jerky). As such, higher processor speed does not guarantee a faster machine as it depends quite a bit on the software it is running.

Things you might want to try for free before upgrading....

Replace the windows mobile contact manager. PocketCM is free and offers a nice interface.

Have a touch based interface using Throttle Launcher.

Also, people have a tendency to pull the applications from devices as they are released. So, the Diamond has new software on it so people pull it off and make it compatible with the Touch. This thread on XDA developers has most of the ripped applications. You might be interested in....

HTC Keyboard
HTC Album (maybe?), although Slide2View is also very good.
HTC Home plug, which is something for your today screen.
HTC Task Manager - Means when you close a program, it closes, not minimises. If you don't want the full thing, try HTC X-Button which is similar but doesnt use as much memory.

A decent iPod touch style media player is Slide2play. I also replaced WMP with TCMP for which version 0.72 is free

Paid for alternatives are...

Vito FunContact ($20) which has an iPhone-like contact manager, although if you REALLY want to go iPhone style, try their communication suite for $40... I got it by buying Audio Notes for $7 and then received a 35% discount on the comm suite. I only ended up using FunContact tho

SPB Mobile Shell is quite nice, but I have ditched it as I didn't really use it beyond the contacts page.

The one piece of software I wouldn't do without is SPB Pocket Plus. I just find it makes the phone much more usable. Alternatives are UltimateLaunch (arguably better, but I don't like it) and SBSH iLauncher (not as feature rich).

Sprite Backup came with my phone and is quite useful. Also have SPB GPRS Monitor for free, but I use BatteryStatus.

Does any of that help?

lexa34

Wow.

Will re-read tomorrow and try and act on some of it!

guppy

I was looking at another HTC but after reading around capitulated and got an iPhone.

Its not perfect, I miss being able to customise everything, but the interface is simply light years ahead, especially the iPod and the web browser. Plus with the iPhone tarriffs you get free WiFi hotspots and 3G.

If you don't need to edit Word and Excel docs (sure these will come to iPhone soon) give it some consideration.

I'm not looking back personally

KeithP

A perhaps less technical forum for Windows Mobile HTC phones can be found here.

sysadmin

KeithP wrote: »

A perhaps less technical forum for Windows Mobile HTC phones can be found here.

very useful though!!