[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] Chatbox:
Hummm... I'm not completly sure what your "aim" is here: do you want to start a flame-war or something ? Because as for your remarks:

Not trying to start a war of any kind. Just want to know what is it that other people see in the universal that made them fall in love with in.

1. Bluetooth is on par with most phones I've tried / used. With the net advantage on the Universal that you can upgrade / downgrade / change your ROMs (especially the Radio ROM) to suit your needs / tastes, which you cannot do on most other phones. Of course some phones are better. But lots are much worse...

Yes, it's nice to be able to change raido ROMs...but it doesn't help if the end result is still not the same as what it is on paper (BT specifications).

2. Same goes for the embedded camera: since it is supposed to be a secondary camera at best, I find it pretty good, considering what can be found on other mobile phones on the market. I'd say your web-cam's pretty good, I guess;

Oh, come on! Have you really taken a look at the 1.3MP camera photo output on a computer? The amount of noise and bright pixels is almost unheard of. Sorry, but some camera-equipped phones from 2 years ago can do hell of a better job in comparison.

3. You know, never was the Universal supposed to be a PMP killer... It's supposed to be versatile, not flawless on all respects. I find DivX playback pretty good myself, considering what other smart-phones on the market do (especially considering I'm using TrueVGA).

I just have to let this one go. The HX4700 and Dell's X51v are just way better at video playback.

As to HTC being a "crappy" taiwanese company... Aside from the fact that most cutting-edge technological stuff come from there and NOT from anywhere else, the internal design for Windows Mobile based / ARM processor-based PDAs is mostly standard stuff, mostly edicted by Intel (in regards with Microsoft specifications, and that works both ways). If it's a crappy design, how is it HTC's failure ? HTC actually went out of the "beaten bushes" to provide us with a uniquely featured PDA, and even if it is a bit bulky, can you name another viable alternative to the Universal in terms of feature set / performance / usuability ?

Question: Who picked the camera lens? Who decided not to have a dedicated video chipset? Why is the BT quality, stability soooo different (as in poor) from other PPC on the market?

As for features, here's a Chinese saying (goes something like that): You have so many knives on you, but all of them are blunt. :roll:

When it came out, the Universal simply integrated the best of what existed: fastest ARM, VGA screen, wifi b/g, Bluetooth... Even now, you can count PDAs with a VGA screen using only two hands, not to mention PDA-phones... And how often is a 520 MHz ARM processor used even in PDAs ?

Alright, which year do you live in? And what unit do you have?

1. Fastest was the 624MHz, not 520MHz.

2. VGA screen was 4 inches, with much better colour and contrast (honestly...just go and look at the screen on the HX4700. Here's a link to a chinese site: http://www.mobile01.com/iopiop/dopod900.htm Just look at the photos and tell me which one look better?).

3. Universal only has wifi B IIRC.

4. Bluetooth 2.0 was already available.

You know, in an ideal world, Sony Clié would be the ruling PDAs... When you see the current trend in the smart-phone / PDA market, I find the Universal extremly interesting... Of course perfectible, but what isn't ?

Perfectible, yes, as with almost all things. But even more so in this case, IMO.