[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Cons

Unknown whether it’ll receive WM6 at all (see THIS, THIS and THIS). Fortunately, in the light of the latest news (see a today’s post HERE), it seems that the WM6 upgrade WILL be released - but, of course, nothing is confirmed as yet.

Not available from direct vendors in Europe / North-America. Fortunately, ordering from Asia works. (But think of the warranty issues!)

Only supports UMTS (no HSDPA, as opposed to most other, current VGA Windows Mobile phones) - a BIG letdown!

The current WM5 version it’s coming with is AKU 3.3.1 only, which means you won’t have access to the goodies (most importantly, the High-resolution mode of IEM getting rid of the pixel doubling) of AKU 3.5. Note that the 4WinMobile article states high-res mode only comes with WM6; that’s not really correct.

The GoForce chip seems to be compatible with only some current 3D accelerated programs and games (more on this later). In addition, it didn’t score very well in the 3D benchmark tests (with version 0.2 of BenchGLES) either: it scored 1040. Even the considerably older and, according to the manufacturer of GoForce, highly inferior 2700G is better: it scores between 1190 and 1220 on Dell Axim x50v’s and x51v’s (I’ve also tested it on the latter; got 1208 at 624 MHz and 1093 at 208 MHz, showing it’s not because of the slightly lower CPU speed of the Flame that its 3D benchmark results are considerably worse than that of the 2700G)

Bluetooth disconnects in suspended state, as opposed to ALL other Windows Mobile models. This is MAJOR problem (see for example THIS, THIS)! Some state it’s not common with ALL headsets, though. Nevertheless, you may end up having to buy another expensive piece of (compatible) headset, which is not necessarily what you want.

Major battery life problems – see for example THIS and THIS; some state it’s pretty much comparable to the, battery life-wise, sub-par VGA Dell Axims.

Some 2 Gbyte (microSD) memory cards are not recognized / used correctly; SDHC seems to be completely incompatible (see THIS and THIS). The latter is a REAL problem, unless it will be fixed later (via a software upgrade).

Current standard 5V USB wall chargers are not guaranteed to be able to charge the device (this has nothing to do with the through-USB charging!) That is, you most probably won't be able to use your existing wall chargers.

Lower-to-acceptable call sound quality (see THIS and THIS)

There is only analogue TV output – no direct (digital) VGA. This means you won’t want to use this handheld for professional presentations (unlike, say, the Dell Axim x50v/x51v, which has an XGA VGA output – but, on the other hand, no analogue. In this regard, the best solution is the HTC Advantage, which has both types of output via its inexpensive 4-in-1 Cable)

As far as call recording is concerned, only the other party is recorded, not the local one. See THIS and THIS. (In this regard, this device is just the opposite of most other Windows Mobile Pocket PC’s and Smartphones, which only record the local party, not the remote one.)

Recording (camera) video straight to the storage card MAY not work (with some memory card types? Not known.)

3D acceleration support

The presence of the GoForce chip is one of the major advantages of the new device. If we don’t take the HTC Omni into account (which, as of now, may or may not include this chip), no other, current (the Intel 2700G-enabled Dell Axim x51v is not a current model any more) VGA Windows Mobile device has any kind of 3D accelerator. The ATi chip in the HTC Advantage, as was the case with the HP iPAQ hx4700, is not a 3D accelerator.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank XDA-Developers forum member thierryb, who helped me a LOT by testing all the 3D accelerated games, demos and emulators I’ve sent him.

Please see my blog for a review & more info of most of these titles. There is also a link collection to them at the AximSite Games forum.

Games:

Call of Duty 2: if you remove libgles_cm.dll from the COD2 (demo) program directory, it’ll work. Thierryb stated the game is too dark by default; unfortunately, it has no gamma correction.

Chopper Fight: -

DoomGLES: -

Enigmo: -

GeoRallyEX: WORKING!

Jackpot Casino: -

JellyFish: -; as with CoD2, removing libgles_cm.dll from the home might help (untested!)

Pocket-Jongg: -

Quake2: -

Quake3: -

Solterra: -

Sphere: -

Stuntcar Extreme: -

Tony Hawk: -

Toy Golf: starts, but the game itself is rendered in Portrait (while the menus are in Landscape, as needed). This means only part of the screen is visible – that is, the game is unplayable.

Virtual Pool: - according to XDA-Dev forum member “ianpac”; Thierryb stated it works, but it’s not know whether it was the x50v/x51v version or the software one

Demos:

None of the demos work, except for the Benchmark app.

Emulators:

Neither the 2700G-specific PocketSNES nor PocketGBA work.

(The non-working titles generally display the well-known "The file XXX can not be opened. Either it is not signed by a trusted certificate, or one of ifs components can not be found." error message.)

As can clearly be seen, the GoForce compliance with current 3D accelerated titles is very bad. It’s only Call of Duty 2, GeoRallyEX and Virtual Pool that (more or less) work (and, probably, JellyFish – but that game is really bad) – of the several 3D-accelerated titles.

Also see THIS, THIS and THIS.

Unfortunately, TCPMP / Core Player don’t support GoForce (as opposed to the 2700G, which works just great with these players, making it possible to reduce the CPU speed to 208 MHz to greatly reduce battery usage). If you plan to use these players, GAPI mode is stated to be the most effective.