Posted by dustydonkey
Firstly, Orange have ruined the phone with their ridiculous customisation. The home screen which shows your chosen wallpaper has a thick white strip down the left hand side that that has some shortcut icons on it for WAP and the address book etc which covers up the wallpaper underneath. So now I am looking at the right hand two-thirds of my kids face every time rather than the whole picture. Whats worse is that you cant remove this strip. Orange have also decided to wallop a nice big 'orange' logo on the right hand side of the home screen (which again you typically can't remove), which means its totally pointless having a wallpaper image at all.
I like to have a clear desktop screen with my chosen image on it & thanks to Orange I now cannot have that. None of the other network providers have done this as far as I know.
Does anyone know how I can get rid of all this crap?
PS. Secondly its dark grey when onestopphoneshop were clearly advertising them as black. Anyone who has dealt with onestop after sales service before can imagine the reply i got when I complained about this.
Posted by spikee_3D
what a load of rubbish. i have an orange d500 in my hand now and let me state: yes there is the shortcuts menu bar to the left - taking up a 3rd of the screen? i dont think so, maybe equivalent to 1/6th of the screen and i should also mention the menu is transparent. the 'orange' text (which all operators have their respective logo) can me moved, changed colour, shadowed, outlined - so it is negligable.
yes i was expecting black too, but from seeing pictures of black d500s' on numerous forums, i can say i MUCH prefer the dark gray colour. the black seems to have a tacky, platicy sheen to it.
anyone put off with getting a d500 from the above post, don't be. its a SUPERB phone.
[ This Message was edited by: spikee_3D on 2004-12-10 13:35 ]
Posted by dustydonkey
Calm down fruitcake.
the icon bar - 1/6 th or 1/3 -its probably somewhere in between & they have tried to make it transparent & failed & basically its white.
But my point is - why do it at all? It just pisses off customers.
If you want to be able to see your wallpaper, wait & get it on another network.
Someone in my office has the black one & it does look better.
Posted by spikee_3D
ha fruitcake! (writing that down). how long do you actually look at your wallpaper for?
yes i would like it gone, but by no way has it ruined the phone.
Posted by slattery69
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i would guess they do it for 2 reasons 1 its free public advertising 2 to make money by putting the services they can make most revenue from right in your face.
also you get a phone at a hugely subsidsed price ie maybe free and to buy it yourself would cost you £400 so they probably feel they want to get a max return out of this.
i know it pevs a lot of people off but i think we will see more of it as the networks offer similar deals/tariffs
Posted by fatreg
well done slattery!!
wap and MMS are oranges likes biggest revenves, so if people use it more!??
a 1/3 of the screen? hmm thats a bit on the exacerated side! did you catch a 65ft fish at the weekend??????
fatreg
Posted by Ben.Cook
Not sure if this is the righ place to ask but is there any chance of any of anybody with a D500 posting a review?!
Posted by fatreg
My review:
its great.
fatreg
Posted by spikee_3D
i'll review it later
Posted by spikee_3D
i'll review it now whilst my girlfriend is playing with it (the phone that is
)
for starters this is an orange branded phone with the menu on the left handside. its been discussed to hell above so just a quick conclusion: it transparent, its thin; its not a problem.
first things - whats in the box!
you get headphones/handsfree - nice stereo looking headphones, white with silver on the earplugs. manual, NO data cd, an external speaker that plugs in a port on the side that amplifies for mp3's, games, voice calls etc. on a side note you CAN use speaker phone without the supplies amplifier. oo, and a phone strap.
Next: Design.
love the slide action. semi automatic as was the e800. the dark grey design adds a touch of class to it. quite executive looking. little orange logo on the back, nothing much at all
Screen:
as you probably know, 265k tft screen, nice and bright, colours look really vivid. works perfect in direct sunlight (can you believe it, i got to test it out on a sunny day in WALES!!).
Menu:
uses a GUI. similar to that of the e800. easy to navigate.
keys:
bit small, but you won't need to get a tooth pick out to press them! i got big hands and have got to grips with it very quickly. got the up down left, and rigt keys with a central "ok" key.
Texting:
uses t9, has a dictionary (thank god! man has to keep his swears to hand). you can select large, medium, bold, normal and italic fonts.
Camera!
1.3 mp. 6 settings. 1152x864, 640x480,320x240,176x144,128x96,1280x1040. normal, fine, superfine settings. you can turn of shutter sound. picture quality in my opinion is excellent. it automatically adjusts to light situations. built in light, has to settings: one where it is constantly on, the other where it is on just before it takes the photo.
example of mega pixel mode (1152x864)
all in all i think you will agree its good quality considering these were in low light conditions.
Bluetooth:
it really is excellent. especially for the first attempt. full implimentation, send and receive features. bluetooth headsets comply perfectly. you also have the option to browse files on other peoples which is not available on the k700i. if your interested i'm using an msi bluetooth dongle and a motorola bluetooth headset (cant remember which model
, the cool one)
games,tones, etc:
3 games, penalty shootout one, some space fighter one, and some mini rpg. pretty good actually. plays mp3 for ringtones, 10 different sms tones (not custmisable, sadly
). all tones really loud
over all i would gve it 9/ 10.
pros:
excellent screen
good camera
nice loud ringtones
good blutooth implimentation
cons:
un-customisbale sms ringtones
er... my girlfriend wont give me it back?!
[ This Message was edited by: spikee_3D on 2004-12-10 23:00 ]
Posted by Jake Blues
is it 2.5g or 3g?
is it available on pay as u go?
Posted by fatreg
2.5g and NO!
fatreg
Posted by T68iKING
@Nature: No its not 3g, and no not on PAYT yet, costs 320-380 sim free....
Nice review Spike, i may pick one up tomorrow on orange, had a play with it today, its really small and i like the sliding motion of it
Though it feels a bit like a girls phone to me...??? like the e700, oh well, i'll buy it anyway, and if it attracts the ladies, what am i to do?
BTW: tell your gf to smile for the camera
Posted by spikee_3D
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thats the "you better not be posting pictures of me on the internet" look
. she loves it really!
Posted by m100
Orange do that to their phones to keep the phones on their network,so even when you sell the phone the next owner will use Orange.Is this your 1st time with Orange Dustymonkey?
Posted by Jmcrobbie
Hey i have the same problem with the menu bar didu ever find out how to remove it. Could u email me if u did and tell me how cheers johnmcr@ukonline.co.uk
Posted by ripkord
phone customization by operator of any kind = suckathon
and im not alone in that opinion.
youre all in "new phone denial"
Posted by JiggyJaggy
Can you not change the theme like you can on a SPV C500. On the C500 you can remove the Orange bar by putting another theme on the phone.
On a seperate note anyone had any luck synching this with Outlook for names and callander?
Posted by fatreg
works a treat with sync,
download the sw from samsungmobile.com and away u go!
im doing it via bt, no probs at all
fatreg
Posted by ashz
Any one tell me how long the D500 takes to take a picture from the minute you click the button? Someone told me its reallllly slow and takes about 3 seconds!!!
Posted by JiggyJaggy
@ fatreg....can i just confirm you are synching the d500 with outlook for contacts and calander....not to be pedantic but i dont wana let go of my spv c500 as it synchs so well with outlook.
Posted by dan2003
I've just received one of these Oranged D500's and although my SL55 says its send the files.. and the d500 does ask if i want to receive them.. i cant find where it goes.. i've sent both a jpg and some midi files to the thing but can't locate them in any of the sections in the "media album" thing. The SL55 has a file system browser but i cant find anything like it on the D500 to browse thru. Also i have looked at the available memory and the value has decreased since recieving the files wich would sugest they are there somewhere.. Can anybody tell me how to find them? Just to clarify they are not in any of the sub headings of the Images,Videos,Music or Sounds options in the "media album"
Thanks
Dan
Edit: How odd, if i send the files from my zaurus a message pops up showing received and the files appear in the media album! so to transfer stuff from the sl55 to the d500 i have to use the zaurus as an intermediate stage! oh well.. isnt technology great!
[ This Message was edited by: dan2003 on 2004-12-17 14:35 ]
Posted by ripkord
any update on removing the garish orange crap?
and where is the orang logo (physical printed logo) on the phone?
[ This Message was edited by: ripkord on 2004-12-18 18:31 ]
Posted by big1471
Hi can anyone tell me what the 6(shortcut) does in camera and record mode on the samsung D500. I tried looking in the manual but i am on orange network and they do the own version of this manual, which is not very good. Could you either email or reply on this forum.
Thanks
P.s pauporter@fsmail.net
Posted by Ben.Cook
Has anybody had any luck installing any Java apps/games on their D500? I've tried over BT and WAP and it always say it is not allowed?!
Is this a) me being stupid (odds on) b) a samsung quirk c) something to do with the Orange software ?!