T-Mobile "pulse" - Google Android Handset (Huawei U8220) - Ama

[CUPC4KES]

iPhone 3GS = £440, Pulse = £147. iPhone = proprietary & restricted - Android = open and fully customisable. I know which I prefer; £300 in the pocket, and not being tied down to Apple's nonsensical "you do what we tell you" attitude - also, the laggyness is due to the v1.5 that is on there I feel, not the hardware.

Both ridiculous arguments. Firstly who pays the cost price for a smartphone anyway? You get it for a diminutive price when you sign up for a contract, that includes a data plan so you can make full use of said smartphoone.

Also, like I said, if you don't like the App Store's restrictions, just jailbreak your iPhone. You said you have one, so your cost comparison is moot. In fact you are £147 down for buying the Pulse.

Some of us. Don't have jobs.

As direct result we don't have very much money.

Get a job, hippy. I've been working since I was 13.

P.s. The HTC Hero is on T mobile for £20 a month with unlimited data usage. I know what I'd have chosen.

i cant even find this htc on the t-mobile site, i can upgrade after 25th of dec, im with 3 and they want 35 a month for the hero, i dont want to pay that much.

 

[defectivebydesign]

i cant even find this htc on the t-mobile site, i can upgrade after 25th of dec, im with 3 and they want 35 a month for the hero, i dont want to pay that much.

Hero for £20 P/M?... yes please, if it is 12 months.

Ugh - I HATE this stupid nested quoting layout - needs fixing.

 

[CUPC4KES]

i think it may be the windows based htc touch 2 thats £20 a month, and its a 24 month contract.

 

[defectivebydesign]

i think it may be the windows based htc touch 2 thats £20 a month, and its a 24 month contract.

Ugh - WinMo!. Fail.

 

[Exophase]

I agree with the sentiments that Android doesn't fully encourage open development when Android itself is not open. And I don't mean not open in the same magnitude OMAP3530 devices don't include open drivers for SGX.

We're talking about a purely closed runtime. Something that, despite being designed to be adaptable to Java code, doesn't at all follow Java's portability ambitions. Android is designed for you to run Dalvik bytecode in a Dalvik environment, and right now you only get the Dalvik environment on Android or an emulator, and only in closed form. Personally, I think Android's official aims are kind of ridiculous; they've expressed a strong desire in accommodating minimal resources present on phones, but actually Dalvik trades a small amount of memory consumption for an order of magnitude reduction in time performance. In the mean time, the amount of space the kernel, user space, and user libraries take up is exorbitant and should instead be the focus of their optimizations. So really memory usage is still far too tight and programs are far too slow.

Yes, you can run native programs too, and as far as I'm concerned this is Android's saving grace. But this isn't what Google had in mind with the platform, and they certainly would prefer you did not. Hence why I say that they're not encouraging open development.

I think admitting that Dalvik is a suitable environment for phone hardware is as good as admitting that 533MHz ARM11s are overkill and that we should still be using < 100MHz ARM7s instead.

 

[Nova]

I've just picked up a Pulse for £137.01. I don't know why the .01, but hey, I don't care. It's not like I'm going to pay cash for it anyway.

Why didn't I have it or a similar phone free on a £20/month contract? Probably because I don't want to spend £480 on a phone (24*£20, as unless you have a 24 month contract, the phone isn't free).

I've put £20 PAYG credit on it which will probably last me about 6 months, and after that I'll have it unlocked and moved onto my Orange OVP Virgin plan.

Secondly, phones do have updated firmware released periodically. If you update a Jailbroken iPhone, you have to worry about bricking the phone (happens sometimes depending on how it was broken), and how to re-Jailbrake the new firmware, not to mention having to wait for someone to do it and hoping that doesn't brick your phone. Large risks considering the £400+ the phone costs.

The T-Mobile staff in the shop said they'll unlock the phone for me to use other networks after 3 months, so yes, you can do it legally.

Firstly, the iPhone is not a GP2x. While you can brick it by jailbreaking if you're a retard who can't follow extremely simple instructions, it's incredibly easy to undo, just hit the restore iPhone button in iTunes.

Secondly, you state that you're paying 460 for a phone by having it on contract, but this is just bollocks. You pay for the contract; the minutes, texts and data you use. The phone is comparitively cheap, or free. Maybe this isn't a big deal to you, as someone who goes through just £20 in 6 months, but from the point of view of a power user, it's a bargain, plus it's more affordable to pay in installments than drop up to 400 for a phone.

And don't think that the android OS is open either. Google still moderates the apps, just not as heavily as Apple admittedly does.

I also am intrigued about glossywhites iPhone. Did you ever have one or were you just trying to make a point?

Gosh!. You react to a civil conversation in SUCH a hostile way - that is no way to encourage others to listen to your viewpoint.

Okay - let me ask some questions:

** Do you honestly, _honesty_ think that the handset you get "free" on a contract, IS free?.

** How much do you think it costs the network to transport your calls & SMS messages?.

** How much of the network's alleged call/SMS costs, do you suppose is pure profit?.

** Do you not realise that the handset you're getting "free" is paid for by the ridiculous charges & rental you're paying?. This is BASIC economics!!.

** You've just contradicted yourself with the opinion that the phone is "free" on contract, by THEN saying that people pay in "installments". Which is it to be, then?.


I think an Android phone for £147 with NO ongoing costs, is a sheer bargain. People are locked into this "iPhone is King" mindset - that is nonsense. One handset cannot be best at EVERY task, forever. It is wonderful that Android OS is here, to drive forward innovation and to encourage manufacturers to abandon their proprietary Symbian & WinMo devices, in favour of a far superior development model; open software.

Networks love people with your attitude - they don't care WHEN you pay, because they KNOW they have fleeced you, due to the fact you assume your phone is "free".

You really ought to engage your common sense and courtesy, before throwing yourself headlong into an abusive rant aimed toward people you don't even know. You have just proved your ignorance, beyond ANY shadow of a doubt.


[PS] Why is this thread in "other consoles"?. A phone is not a console.

Oh, you silly billy.

I'm not sure where you got the idea I am being abusive toward people, perhaps I could see an example of this? (Me calling Naw a hippy is playful banter, and he loves it )

I think you seem to be misunderstanding my points. Yes, of course I think contracts are expensive. But so are pay-as-you go tarrifs. But I was speaking comparitively. Yeah the phone is obviously not free when you consider the monthly payments, but you get a phone on a pay monthly contract, and the same phone on a pay as you go tarrif and use the same amount of calls and text's you'd get on the pay monthly tarrif with the pay as you go sim. I can guarantee you now, the pay as you go tarrif will work out a ton more expensive. Add onto that the initial price of the handset. Like I clearly stated, if you are a power user, you will find a monthly contract a bargain (comparitively speaking) .

You also say "I think an Android phone for £147 with NO ongoing costs, is a sheer bargain." - A few things about that:

Firstly, there ARE ongoing costs; you are paying for calls, texts and data, on a pay as you go basis (see above). If you want to get the most of your Android phone, you NEED data, which you are going to need to pay for.
Secondly, why is the phone so cheap? As Exophase stated, the hardware is pretty crap, when compared with other, even older phones (HTC Hero, HTC HD2, iPhone 3G). The manufacturer (how do you even pronounce Huawei?) is also a relative unknown in the western world, and support is going to be pretty rubbish.


Okay - To summarize:

Yes, I do believe that charges by mobile phone operators are extortionate. But there is no way around it unless you are like Squidge and don't use your phone for texts and calls much, in which case, I agree pay as you go is probably your best bet.
I still believe there are much better phones than the "Pulse", probably not for the same money, but you get what you pay for, right?

I don't believe the iPhone can "do it all", in some respects, it can be reasonably average, but overall it is the best phone I have ever used, which includes the pulse. If I lost it. would I buy a new one? Probably not, I can't afford the 450 to replace it (it is insured though).

Did I miss anything?

 

[(naw)mcx]

I've just picked up a Pulse for £137.01. I don't know why the .01, but hey, I don't care. It's not like I'm going to pay cash for it anyway.

Why didn't I have it or a similar phone free on a £20/month contract? Probably because I don't want to spend £480 on a phone (24*£20, as unless you have a 24 month contract, the phone isn't free).

I've put £20 PAYG credit on it which will probably last me about 6 months, and after that I'll have it unlocked and moved onto my Orange OVP Virgin plan.

Secondly, phones do have updated firmware released periodically. If you update a Jailbroken iPhone, you have to worry about bricking the phone (happens sometimes depending on how it was broken), and how to re-Jailbrake the new firmware, not to mention having to wait for someone to do it and hoping that doesn't brick your phone. Large risks considering the £400+ the phone costs.

The T-Mobile staff in the shop said they'll unlock the phone for me to use other networks after 3 months, so yes, you can do it legally.

Firstly, the iPhone is not a GP2x. While you can brick it by jailbreaking if you're a retard who can't follow extremely simple instructions, it's incredibly easy to undo, just hit the restore iPhone button in iTunes.

Secondly, you state that you're paying 460 for a phone by having it on contract, but this is just bollocks. You pay for the contract; the minutes, texts and data you use. The phone is comparitively cheap, or free. Maybe this isn't a big deal to you, as someone who goes through just £20 in 6 months, but from the point of view of a power user, it's a bargain, plus it's more affordable to pay in installments than drop up to 400 for a phone.

And don't think that the android OS is open either. Google still moderates the apps, just not as heavily as Apple admittedly does.

I also am intrigued about glossywhites iPhone. Did you ever have one or were you just trying to make a point?

Gosh!. You react to a civil conversation in SUCH a hostile way - that is no way to encourage others to listen to your viewpoint.

Okay - let me ask some questions:

** Do you honestly, _honesty_ think that the handset you get "free" on a contract, IS free?.

** How much do you think it costs the network to transport your calls & SMS messages?.

** How much of the network's alleged call/SMS costs, do you suppose is pure profit?.

** Do you not realise that the handset you're getting "free" is paid for by the ridiculous charges & rental you're paying?. This is BASIC economics!!.

** You've just contradicted yourself with the opinion that the phone is "free" on contract, by THEN saying that people pay in "installments". Which is it to be, then?.


I think an Android phone for £147 with NO ongoing costs, is a sheer bargain. People are locked into this "iPhone is King" mindset - that is nonsense. One handset cannot be best at EVERY task, forever. It is wonderful that Android OS is here, to drive forward innovation and to encourage manufacturers to abandon their proprietary Symbian & WinMo devices, in favour of a far superior development model; open software.

Networks love people with your attitude - they don't care WHEN you pay, because they KNOW they have fleeced you, due to the fact you assume your phone is "free".

You really ought to engage your common sense and courtesy, before throwing yourself headlong into an abusive rant aimed toward people you don't even know. You have just proved your ignorance, beyond ANY shadow of a doubt.


[PS] Why is this thread in "other consoles"?. A phone is not a console.

Oh, you silly billy.

I'm not sure where you got the idea I am being abusive toward people, perhaps I could see an example of this? (Me calling Naw a hippy is playful banter, and he loves it )

I think you seem to be misunderstanding my points. Yes, of course I think contracts are expensive. But so are pay-as-you go tarrifs. But I was speaking comparitively. Yeah the phone is obviously not free when you consider the monthly payments, but you get a phone on a pay monthly contract, and the same phone on a pay as you go tarrif and use the same amount of calls and text's you'd get on the pay monthly tarrif with the pay as you go sim. I can guarantee you now, the pay as you go tarrif will work out a ton more expensive. Add onto that the initial price of the handset. Like I clearly stated, if you are a power user, you will find a monthly contract a bargain (comparitively speaking) .

You also say "I think an Android phone for £147 with NO ongoing costs, is a sheer bargain." - A few things about that:

Firstly, there ARE ongoing costs; you are paying for calls, texts and data, on a pay as you go basis (see above). If you want to get the most of your Android phone, you NEED data, which you are going to need to pay for.
Secondly, why is the phone so cheap? As Exophase stated, the hardware is pretty crap, when compared with other, even older phones (HTC Hero, HTC HD2, iPhone 3G). The manufacturer (how do you even pronounce Huawei?) is also a relative unknown in the western world, and support is going to be pretty rubbish.


Okay - To summarize:

Yes, I do believe that charges by mobile phone operators are extortionate. But there is no way around it unless you are like Squidge and don't use your phone for texts and calls much, in which case, I agree pay as you go is probably your best bet.
I still believe there are much better phones than the "Pulse", probably not for the same money, but you get what you pay for, right?

I don't believe the iPhone can "do it all", in some respects, it can be reasonably average, but overall it is the best phone I have ever used, which includes the pulse. If I lost it. would I buy a new one? Probably not, I can't afford the 450 to replace it (it is insured though).

Did I miss anything?

I've never heard of Huawei, apart from in pretty much every 3G dongles ever made, my router, etc.

Any way, who the fuck are OpenPandora (how do you even pronounce OpenPandora!?) they are unknown all over the world, support will be shit.

Also, it's basically a G1 with no keyboard and a bigger screen.

(and why do you think I grow my hair so long, I'm clearly a hippy )

 

[Nova]

I've never heard of Huawei, apart from in pretty much every 3G dongles ever made, my router, etc.

Any way, who the fuck are OpenPandora (how do you even pronounce OpenPandora!?) they are unknown all over the world, support will be shit.

Also, it's basically a G1 with no keyboard and a bigger screen.

(and why do you think I grow my hair so long, I'm clearly a hippy

)

Well fair enough. I personally had never heard of them before the Pulse.

I've spoken to Craig, have you spoken to the chairman of Huawei?

The G1 is pretty old in mobile phone terms

 

[(naw)mcx]

I've never heard of Huawei, apart from in pretty much every 3G dongles ever made, my router, etc.

Any way, who the fuck are OpenPandora (how do you even pronounce OpenPandora!?) they are unknown all over the world, support will be shit.

Also, it's basically a G1 with no keyboard and a bigger screen.

(and why do you think I grow my hair so long, I'm clearly a hippy

)

Well fair enough. I personally had never heard of them before the Pulse.

I've spoken to Craig, have you spoken to the chairman of Huawei?

The G1 is pretty old in mobile phone terms

I might go send him an email of congrats that only his router works out of the 3 I own

And yeah, the G1 is old, but the specs do me fine, I'd love for all of you guys to try my old phone. Lag like no other.

 

[Squidge]

I agree with the sentiments that Android doesn't fully encourage open development when Android itself is not open. And I don't mean not open in the same magnitude OMAP3530 devices don't include open drivers for SGX.

I don't really understand what you mean here. Since the Pulse comes with Android 1.5, I downloaded the 1.6 source code, merged in the closed source parts of Huawei's hardware drivers, compiled the resulting blob, and uploaded it to the phone, so to me, it seems exactly like the OMAP where it doesn't include open drivers for everything either.

I bought the Pulse for one reason - to play with an Android phone without blowing £400+ on a 24-month contract handset I'd never get full use out of (Yes, I'm well aware of you people who fry your brains using up your inclusive 10000 minutes and 10 billion text messages a month...). The idea being that if I don't like it, I can sell it unlocked for about the same price I paid for it, looking at ebay at the moment. Doing the same with a contract handset is more tricky - shops _really_ pull there face if you have made any calls, so the only real avenue is online and having it posted to get an easier life (and then its still limited to a short time).

 

[Exophase]

I don't really understand what you mean here. Since the Pulse comes with Android 1.5, I downloaded the 1.6 source code, merged in the closed source parts of Huawei's hardware drivers, compiled the resulting blob, and uploaded it to the phone, so to me, it seems exactly like the OMAP where it doesn't include open drivers for everything either.

So Dalvik et al are open source then? This is quite different then the picture I was getting before, I wonder if things have changed. I need to check it out.

 

[defectivebydesign]

I agree with the sentiments that Android doesn't fully encourage open development when Android itself is not open. And I don't mean not open in the same magnitude OMAP3530 devices don't include open drivers for SGX.

I don't really understand what you mean here. Since the Pulse comes with Android 1.5, I downloaded the 1.6 source code, merged in the closed source parts of Huawei's hardware drivers, compiled the resulting blob, and uploaded it to the phone, so to me, it seems exactly like the OMAP where it doesn't include open drivers for everything either.

I bought the Pulse for one reason - to play with an Android phone without blowing £400+ on a 24-month contract handset I'd never get full use out of (Yes, I'm well aware of you people who fry your brains using up your inclusive 10000 minutes and 10 billion text messages a month...). The idea being that if I don't like it, I can sell it unlocked for about the same price I paid for it, looking at ebay at the moment. Doing the same with a contract handset is more tricky - shops _really_ pull there face if you have made any calls, so the only real avenue is online and having it posted to get an easier life (and then its still limited to a short time).

This is EXACTLY why I bought a pulse, too. If I get on with it enough (and I am doing) I will consider getting a Hero or a Droid... SIM free, mind you .

 

[fiveseven]

Thought I'd chip in my £0.02 about phone contracts.

Although most networks mainly advertise contracts that come with "free" phones, most also do SIM-only contracts. These are normally a great deal cheaper, and have either no minimum length, or far shorter minimum length.
My current contract, for example, is £10/mo for unlimited texts and 600 minutes. To get this kind of deal with a free phone, I'd be looking at 30-40/mo, with a minimum length of 18 or maybe even 24.
Comparing prices, 12x£30=£360 for a phone+contract, 12*£10=£120 for just a contract, which saves £240 over 12 months. Many contracts are longer and more expensive than this.

My previous contract included a "free" phone, and it was possibly one of the worst phone-related decisions I've ever made. 18 months of never being able to get signal and having text messages take days to arrive. Admittedly, that was just the 3 network, which, as I've found out, is infamously unreliable.

 

[Nova]

My previous contract included a "free" phone, and it was possibly one of the worst phone-related decisions I've ever made. 18 months of never being able to get signal and having text messages take days to arrive. Admittedly, that was just the 3 network, which, as I've found out, is infamously unreliable.

Oh god, NEVER go with 3, they are awful. Mind you I have found o2 signal is pretty bad of late.


Another good thing about Sim-only contracts is that they are rolling and thus you can cancel them at any time. If you already have a phone you like, it's the cheapest option by far.

 

[SkuLL]

i cant even find this htc on the t-mobile site, i can upgrade after 25th of dec, im with 3 and they want 35 a month for the hero, i dont want to pay that much.

It may be listed under the name T-Mobile G2 Touch (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/t-mobile/g2-touch/overview/)

Very sleek looking phone, build quality felt excellent when I was in the shop yesterday. If I go android with my next phone while this current generation of android handsets are out, this will be my phone (If I can get hold of it on PAYG)

 

[Squidge]

So Dalvik et al are open source then? This is quite different then the picture I was getting before, I wonder if things have changed. I need to check it out.

I'm not 100%, as I just compiled the tree rather than checking exactly what was what, but I can give you a link so you can check for yourself: android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/dalvik.git;a=tree

 

[Exophase]

I'm not 100%, as I just compiled the tree rather than checking exactly what was what, but I can give you a link so you can check for yourself: android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/dalvik.git;a=tree

Looks like all is provided there. I was totally wrong about the current source availibility (I've been wrong about a lot of things lately, sorry about that..) so I can take back half of what I said in the thread on this post. I still do think Dalvik is a compromised design, however.

After some digging, what appears to be the story on Android is that originally it was not entirely open source, with full source only forthcoming about a year ago, or about a year after Android was released. One of the major speculations behind why Google is using Dalvik instead of an implementation of a Java provided JVM, and why they used the Apache developed API instead of Sun's, is that it was done to avoid licensing fees. If Google had no qualms with making things open source from the start then they would have been free to modify any of Sun's Java/JVM code under the GPL. Given the relatively large amount of time between when Android appeared and when source followed I would suspect that Google was deliberately keeping it closed for a while, but whether they just wanted a cool off period or had a change of heart, I don't really know.

 

[CUPC4KES]

i cant even find this htc on the t-mobile site, i can upgrade after 25th of dec, im with 3 and they want 35 a month for the hero, i dont want to pay that much.

It may be listed under the name T-Mobile G2 Touch (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/t-mobile/g2-touch/overview/)

Very sleek looking phone, build quality felt excellent when I was in the shop yesterday. If I go android with my next phone while this current generation of android handsets are out, this will be my phone (If I can get hold of it on PAYG)

i went with the nokia n86 in the end. Im still not totally sold on touch screen only interface.

 

[defectivebydesign]

i cant even find this htc on the t-mobile site, i can upgrade after 25th of dec, im with 3 and they want 35 a month for the hero, i dont want to pay that much.

It may be listed under the name T-Mobile G2 Touch (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/t-mobile/g2-touch/overview/)

Very sleek looking phone, build quality felt excellent when I was in the shop yesterday. If I go android with my next phone while this current generation of android handsets are out, this will be my phone (If I can get hold of it on PAYG)

i went with the nokia n86 in the end. Im still not totally sold on touch screen only interface.

Nooo!!. Seriously, my friend has had one of these, and has had nothing but trouble with it since day one. Sluggish OS, crashes a lot (Symbian - what do you expect). Absolute piece of trash, as are 99% of the current Nokia range. I'll wait until you come back and tell us about all the issues you're having with it. I'll give you two months before you change it .

 

[(naw)mcx]

UPDATE: Got the phone all modded, near stock android ROM, etc.

Really quick.

Piece of piss to type on.

Don't take your first impressions with this phone, you'll miss so much!