[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] Charlie VOIP:
It has been really interesting over the months watching comments on this forum on the uses for the Universal. Those who wanted a top of the range phone generally seem to be dissapointed, and who blames them for that. Those looking for a games machine really should look elsewhere. For a pocket PC, and lets face it that is what this is it is a pretty decent job.

From my own point of view I have lots of gadgets and use each for what it is good at. I spend 80% of my time either in the car, home or office. At each location i have:

Universal

IBM Think pad T42p

Motorola Razor

And with these tools i can do anything anywhere. No hassles. If i need to get on to a network and fix something in a hurry the universal has generally finished the job before the laptop has even fired up Win XP. If I need to make a call and i am in the street i use the Razor. If i am in the office or car and need to call another cell phone i use the universal on handsfree. Personally i am very happy with this set up.

I also travel extensivly. I always carry my PSP with me to play games and take a selection of dvd to play on my laptop. I have a sd card reader on my IBM so i could get into ripping dvd's to play on the TCMP player but really never saw the point of this.

So generally i am very happy with the set up. It works for me.

Would i walk down the street making calls on the Universal..... No.

Would i play games on it.... sure but not graphics type. Something like Suduko would be good.

Would I watch movies on it.... one day, but i am too lazy to rip the films, I have over 2,000 dvd at home so i just prefer to take the disc with me. I keep promising to get a decent media server at home and start to rip all of these oin to it and stream them around the house. But where do you start with 2,000 titles.

Would I change things in Universal version 2 youre damn right.

Better fitting stylus

ozVGA as standard

Better made plastics

More memory- but personally this has never caused me any problems.

Speed up the phone answering

My set up-

T- Mobile MDA Pro

R 1.00.02

G 42.33.P8

D 1.12.42 WWE

1GB SD Card x 2

Web and walk 400 inc 40 mb data & 400 mins @ £23per month for 12 months and £46 for 6 months.

ozVGA

VJBig phone

VJ fullscreen TSC

Magic Button

Resco Explorer

Resco Photo

TCMP

Agile Messenger

Cambridge vxUtil & vxHpc

Stability for me is really good. I just dont seem to have issues. But i do a soft reboot every morning before i start the day. But am i just lucky or am I doing something wrong here, as i seem to be missing the dropdead and die feature!!

Next on my list Bluetooth sat nav. I would be greatful for an honest apraisal of the experience of others here. I plan to buy the Brodit active holder and sat nav in about 2 weeks time just really waiting to get some decent views on the best sat nav before commiting I still use navman on my old compaq ipaq 3700.

Finally I have to say without this forum I would be very disspointed with the Universal. I have learned lots form you guys over the months, I just hope that Microsoft and HTC are monitoring this forum and listening as much as I have been. XDA-Developers.com + MS + HTC rocks. You guys did the bits that they forgot!!

Views very welcome

Charlie