yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Touch HD General] dr_s:
Got mine today. first impression was ... its HUGE.

Though screen looks amazing and it is fast, I am at the moment a bit confused whether Touch Pro which I already have, though thick, but still looks smaller, is better tha HD?? Difficult to operate HD with one hand due its width. Well have a week to decide on these issues.
[Touch HD General] Super Chimp:
Thanks for that.

Will be interested to see which other networks pick it up then.
[Touch HD General] arfster:
Same size as the iphone :-) It just seems bigger because the screen covers a larger % of the front.
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
I thought my Diamond was better although slower, the diamond is much easier to handle and the screen is brighter.

Bye Bye HD - in post back to orange, :eek:
[Touch HD General] Fallen Spartan:
I'm slightly concerned that a few people are stating that they prefer their Diamond to the HD.

I have never owned a Diamond and I'm eagerly waiting for my HD to arrive (Should hopefully be waiting for me when I get home)

Apart from the size of the device and the screen brightness, I assumed the HD was better in every other aspect.

Obviously they both run the same operating system,but surely HTC have fixed numerous bugs found on the Diamond, haven't they??
[Touch HD General] dr_s:
It was never a question to compare with Diamond. I had Diamond, then got Pro and now HD. Diamond, smallest in size -OK, but major drawbacks were, very low battery life, poor reception and NO extendible memory slot. That was the reason I went for PRO. I do have to compromise thickness but with time I became fan of the hardware keyboard. Battery life and reception is much much better than diamond + a TV out.

Now when I have got HD, question is which one is better HD or PRO. (Diamond is out of the league). Pro is thicker with keyboard and TV Out, HD is wider but with big screen and slim.

It has been 6 hours and I am already liking HD more and more with the passage of time.
[Touch HD General] freekster:
Hi Petrov,

Numerous issues - very poor reception, reception varying wildly, different operating system versions, buttons coming off, locking up, restarting, non-functioning desktop software, faulty accelerometers, gap around the screen, missing apps, no blackberry enterprise support, variable screen click-through functionality, poor VF customer support

Just a few niggles really.......There are many many phones going back to VF.
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
Orange seem to think they have the exclusive until "well into 2009". By the time it does go unexclusive, who knows what might be out. The HD Pro, maybe? Or maybe we'll all go Motorola! LOL!
[Touch HD General] N4D5:
my deal....any good

Hi guys,

Would you say this is a good offer,

1400mins any net any time

Unlimited land lines

200 Tex

Unlimited data package she said capped at 500meg.

All for £25.50 per month.

Phone cost £199 couldnt reduce it, but she gave me £250 credit which i can have as a one off cheque once ordered. (which means there giving me £50 plus free phone .... mmmmm im not complaining) (broke at the moment)

After reading through a few pages of people posting im sort of getting a feel as though people ar saying its massive and not as good as diamond. Ive not had a htc before last smartphone i had few years ago was spv m2000 which i loved.

So what do people think so far.

Thanks

Nad
[Touch HD General] Super Chimp:
So it sounds like it is one of those lifelong exclusive deals.
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
I just like the size of the Diamond - The Size of the HD - for me meant handle with care - there was even a warning on the screen sticker to remove from the pocket when sitting down :). The lack of lights on the front also was a factor that caused me to return this handset.

I'll just have to wait three months and see whats out then.

Overall I thought the HD was a nice phone - even better when we can customise the ROM etc...
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
Actually it says you have to remove it from your pants. XD

Please remove from pants.

Pocket before sitting down.

LOL!

Though the size of the HD to me more than makes up for not having a D-Pad. I'd much rather have no D-Pad than the slab of plastic on the Diamond...
[Touch HD General] dsm52:
Class 4 SDHC card included

FYI, i've received my Touch HD today from orange retentions and the box contained a Transcend 8GB class 4 microSD card. Whether this is any faster/better than the Sandisk ones reported earlier I don't know..
[Touch HD General] ptrbee:
I measured them with a caliper & it's a fraction of a mm bigger that the iphone & i do mean a fraction of 1mm, when you compare screen size & video quality it's better.

Apple were smart the silver border around the iphone makes you think it's smaller than it really is, optical illusion ;)
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
My Touch HD is going back to Orange :mad:

I couple of dead pixels on the screen - replacement hopefully arrives tomorrow!
[Touch HD General] paulvallen:
Battery charging

Slightly off-topic but regarding charging of the battery when your shiny new device arrives (mine is due on Monday). Modern batteries and their dedicated chargers, do not give much room for human involvement. Basically, they charge and when they reach a certain voltage (above which a Li-Ion battery could start to destroy itself) the charger shuts off, along with any indicator on the device. There is no point in leaving it on charge after this time as it simply will not be doing anything.

There is a great article on www.batteryuniversity.com which discusses battery technology, if you fee so inclined (especially part two).

Happy 'HD'ing...

pva
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
I don't keep my phone in my pants - just like I don't go for a piss in the bathroom :eek:. LOL. Americanisms :D

I don't mind the d-pad - at least I have my lights back.
[Touch HD General] mkOnKeY bOy:
You, sir, need to see a doctor.

And not dr_s
[Touch HD General] dr_s:
Right :D, because if you see me, I would make you keep HD and ditch diamond as I myself is suffering from HD fever.
[Touch HD General] Super Chimp:
Are you waiting for the Touch XD then?

Before you ask Eldar on Mobile Review described the HD as but the prototype compared to the XD, make of that what you will.
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
It's got about 100MB more space on it. :)
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
Had a knock on the door at 9:50am - a nice lady with a brand new HTC Touch HD box in her hand.

She checked my existing phone IEMI number to confirm it was the correct phone and then gave me the new one.

Anyway - so far looking good - no dead pixels so far that I've noticed.
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
I'm wainting for pictures :D Not sure if I want the (rumoured) Android OS though
[Touch HD General] sameerabedi:
Still waiting for the phone!

I phoned Orange for an upgrade on Nov 18th and am still waiting to receive the Touch HD. I keep phoning and being told that it's out of stock and that they are still waiting for more phones to come in.

Has anyone else been waiting this long or managed to upgrade after me and receive the phone already?
[Touch HD General] stiscooby:
I am a new orange customer but ordered mine via their web site just over a week ago and it turned up two days later! :)
[Touch HD General] rafro123:
I phoned to upgrade on the 5th Dec and was told stock was coming in in Tuesday. This has clearly happened at it was for sale for a brief while on their website. No sign of one for me though, still waiting...
[Touch HD General] harbeep:
Get on the SMS notification

sameerabedi:

I'd been ringing Orange everyday of last week to upgrade. After a few days they put me on the sms notification for when new stock would arrive (I still kept ringing everyday though). On Monday 8th, I got a text message about 4pm saying ring Orange before 6pm to upgrade as stock is low. When customer services were talking me through upgrade they said it isn't actually in stock; but when I mentioned to them that I had recieved a notification they acknowledged that stock is only despatched to those on high priority - i recieved the phone two days later on the 10th. So it's best to ring up and tell them to put you on the sms notification as I did. :D
[Touch HD General] lipa47:
You guys better do upgrade by Carphone Warehouse. Better offer than on Orange, plus unbranded unlocked handset.
[Touch HD General] rjcb23:
htc-touch-hd.com

Looks like you can get it for free here (with an Orange contract)

http://www.htc-touch-hd.com

Am about to bite the bullet and go for it... Kaiser now feels like a brick with a small screen having seen the HD in a shop....!!!
[Touch HD General] rafro123:
I am on the SMS notification and am currently waiting for that magical text message. I've managed to squeeze a good offer out of Orange that beats anything i've seen on other sites so am still holding out!
[Touch HD General] fex:
Got the backorder txt today stating it was in stock so phoned orange 150 and was informed 5000 units are currently in stock for upgrades.

was quoted £129 so i asked to be put through to cancellations as my current contract is up on the 15th of this month, was then told the lowest they could go on an upgrade was £57.

I then asked to speak to a supervisor as on the 10th of last month i was told via retentions i could have the handset then for £35 or for free if i waited till my contract was up.

After a little haggling i was told i could get the handset sent out today if i paid the £57 and i would be credited £60 to my account.

The helpful supervisor then said if I pay £70 instead today he could credit my account with £120! and reduce my monthly bill to £25 which i jumped at.

So i got the HD being delivered on monday :D

£25 per month

600 cross net minutes

unlimited txt messages

unlimited data bundle/internet (fair usage policy applies)

£120 credited to my acount (5 months free)

on an 18 month contract.

Not a bad result since it works out i didnt get it for free they actually paid me

£50 to take it off there hands and if i add the £5 discount over 18 months

they paid me £140 and gave me the handset for free!

Bargain!!
[Touch HD General] patterns:
if you want a HD on orange upgrade or new, go to a flagship or large store, i picked mine up last week no problems:

most of the big london stores have them in
[Touch HD General] frustin:
i work for t-mobile, i just prefer the tariffs on orange.

if you are going to give "world exclusives" like that Acelister, at least substantiate your statements. Being all caring and sharing by trying to alleviate our pains and "orange employees" whom "dont have a clue" is not a very convincing substantiation.
[Touch HD General] zoro25:
well I'm going to be going the O2 route.

It seems the best data deal. I'm currently with TMobile W-n-W, and the O2 looks similar.
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
why is it better?

i've not really looked at O2
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
I was just informing what's going on and that the call centre staff don't normally have a clue, frustin...

Heck, I only came onto the forum earlier to see if anyone had a download of the HTCGPSTool that was on my prototype. They did, so I had a look to see if the HD had a forum section.
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
I was messing with one then - and the s740 Have you tested this handset too?
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
Nope... It's rare that Orange take Smartphones. The latest was the Samsung Omnia, I believe. Which, before the HD, I thought would be my next phone, lol.
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
I read that too - Rumors -

Mine will be free and on a £30 tariff 600 mins unlimited text and browsing (500MB)
[Touch HD General] k3v:
Orange have had smart phones for ages now havent they?? Ive had one since i ditched my SE p800.....

Anyways, less talk on here more testing of the touch HD!!! ;)
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
Well orange will be selling the girly lookin HTC S740 - perhaps you not seen yet.

The Omina is more then a smart phone (if that what you are implying) as it is touch screen.
[Touch HD General] tonyblack:
Anyone tried upgrading yet this morning?
[Touch HD General] frustin:
just tried. no.

by the way the numbers you dial to get through to upgrades, are:

150 > 1 > 4 > 1
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
mr orange test guy

Could you please let us know how the progress goes with this, and when you reckon we'll see it?

thanks dude
[Touch HD General] CPhoenix:
Is that on a 12, 18 or 24 month contract?
[Touch HD General] must_dash:
Mid November was my answer this morning. No waiting list either as date not confirmed.
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
This is my current tariff - currently on a 18 and I can upgrade from 5/11 (the start of the last 3 months)

Previously I was able to get a new phone (FREE) every 6 months with no charges what so ever - until the policy changed.
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
wtf

why do they do a press release about this and then not deliver!
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
So the E650 was not a BIG BIG seller for Orange then? ;)
[Touch HD General] roeblerrieland:
Available at Phones4u.co.uk

Has anyone tried ordering it through phones4u?
[Touch HD General] tonyblack:
It's not yet available at phones4u. It's on pre-order.
[Touch HD General] peggowski:
just ordered my HD on o2 600 from mobiles.co.uk but they did say i probably wont get it till the middle of next week!
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
Orange have had loads of Smartphones and Windows Mobile devices, but compared to France (from what I hear) it's not every single one. It's not even a high percentage.

And I'd hope Upgrades won't tell you to expect a (or is it 'an'?) HD this side of the weekend, unless it's coming straight from the Taiwan factory without a SIM card... Like I said, the warehouse isn't getting them until Wednesday afternoon. To test 80 devices or more at 20 minutes each, you're looking at the weekend so long as they don't fail. I hope they don't get some of the problems I've had with this prototype...
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
Thanks mate, i appreciate the update, let me know how tings go tomorrow
[Touch HD General] ez2remember:
Pre-ordered at mobiles.co.uk

My previous contract was my first 18 months. I will never go down that route again. :p

£89.99 + £35/month on a 12 month contract.

Hopefully no branding whatsoever.
[Touch HD General] k3v:
anyone called yet today ;)
[Touch HD General] frustin:
still not in, i just rang.
[Touch HD General] colossuss:
Carphone Warhouse gets this phone in tomorrow!
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
I was so excited last weekend knowing it would be out monday.....what a let down

Luckily, Acelister the orange test guy should let us know if we're hopeful for it next week.
[Touch HD General] frustin:
forgive my sceptisem, but that is assuming he does work for orange.

Got any proof Acelister? for all our benifits. it would be nice to know if we have someone who could give us reliable information.
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
a simple google on his name will return results that show a profile belonging to acelister, one of these (slprofiles) has an occupation of "phone tester"

that was enough proof for me, and the fact that what he said seems to tie with what orange CS are now saying
[Touch HD General] R3PUBL1K:
My Contact in retail should of had some today but did not arrive. perhaps tomorrow.

If 02 are launching on Friday - Orange don't have that mu ch of an exclusive :p
[Touch HD General] winwiz:
just called, still non in stock (on Orange)
[Touch HD General] donbronzi:
Apparently they have arrived instock but won't be available for sale until friday at the earliest. There has been a delay somewhere unfortunatly. Lets all hope that its Friday at the latest!!!
[Touch HD General] SiliconS:
What makes you think O2 will have the Touch HD available on Friday (or any time before Christmas)? That would be good news for me but I haven't seen this announced anywhere.
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
I've heard (though can't confirm) that Orange are the only ones who do actual QC of devices before sending them to the shops...

I'm not employed by Orange, I'm employed by Kuehne + Nagel. The warehouse where all Orange stuff goes is located in Chipping Warden, also where the QC department is. The main offices are in Bristol and St Albans. Zoom in here to find the 2 warehouses that Orange is in. Need more proof? I have an orange-ftgroup.com email address that I can PM people, then I can tell you what you emailed me. :P

Now, onto the Blackstone.

I tested two devices today, they take 9 minutes from turning it on the first time until it's in a usable state. We received 2,000 units. The box isn't as awful as the Diamond, thankfully, though only 4 come in a carton. We have to test 50 and so far 3 have passed, though the first two seemed to have trouble with Teeter. For some reason the accelerometer (tilt-sensor) wasn't reading the direction correctly and it would go off in the opposite direction... Other than that, the stylus in one would not activate Notes when in a call.

It was just myself and an Orange employee working on them, hence only a few were tested... They take 20+ minutes each to test, though the GPS does seem to work faster than the Diamond.

Oh, and good news for those keeping track: It comes with an 8GB MicroSD memory card! Also, the box is like a cross between the Sedna and the Elf/Touch Dual.
[Touch HD General] donbronzi:
Very interesting. If you don't mind me asking and forgive me if i sound stupid, but i am right in thinking every HD has to be QT before its sent for sale or is just a crossection of devices tested to check for repeat problems.

Although you don't work for orange do you know roughly, (possibly from testing of other devices) how long before we might see them stocked by orange?

Thanks for your time
[Touch HD General] Acelister:
It's a cross-section. We receive between 1 and 30,000 handsets per delivery, so we don't have the time to check 1,000 Nokia 7310's, then 1,000 Samsung i900's, lol. We have a table which, depending on manufacturer, means we test between 5 and 200 handsets, which we pick out of a random pallet of 400ish phones. Yes, that means when the delivery has been 4 phones, the table has said we should test 20 of them. :eek:

Depending on the amount tested and the manufacturer, depends on how many fails we can accept a batch of phones. If we test 50 phones and get two that won't turn on, for example, the whole delivery gets sent back to the manufacturer.

That's probably tmi, but anyway...

If the 50 we test all turn out alright, we will tell Stock Control that they are okay to go into stock. They will arrange for them to be "Built" (get SIM cards and such put in the boxes). Then after they're built, they will go to shops.

In the past, we've been told on a Thursday that a particular handset (most recently the BlackBerry 9000 Bold) has to be in the shops by the weekend. That means 80 devices have to be tested, then them with the other 2000 or so have to be built within 24 hours so they can be shipped out to Orange shopes. As the warehouse is staffed from 6am to 10pm, doing that is usually easy. But then there's the 'specialist' handsets, such as most HTC's, where not everyone in QC is... Skilled enough to test them.

Long story short: It will take two of us just over a day to do the whole 50. If my other collegue joins in the testing, we can have them ready to build by Friday morning, so long as there's no fails. Then it will depend on how many and how bad they are. A single dead pixel is a major fail, though even if we get a lot of fails, they will want us to get them in shops. Tuesday at the latest, I'd say for shipping them out.
[Touch HD General] m.r.davies:
thanks ace!

its so good to have you as part of this discussion, so thanks for your time mate

let us know how it goes tomorrow

cheers

Mark
[Touch HD General] donbronzi:
Cheers mate, great info.
[Touch HD General] EViS:
Wow, truly fabulous information there Acelister!
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
Uhhh?

How do you come to that conclusion?

If it takes 9 mins to boot, there's a fault! Even Vista dosn't take 9mins to boot.....actually - thinking about it... ;-)

20mins to test? How do you test the battery life in 20 mins?

No doubt the specs say something like a standby time of 300+ hours - but in real life it's about 48 hours. I don't know how they get away with this!

Also - I'm sure if Orange were to stop lumping it up with their dodgy ROMs, I'm sure they would be a lot better!
[Touch HD General] jon-:
Just another thank you for taking the time you share all that information Acelister, it's really interesting read and means i don't waste 20 minutes on the phone to upgrades today asking if the HD is out :)
[Touch HD General] tonyblack:
Acelister

Please ignore any comments from uninformed idiots who obviously know nothing about batch testing and what you do and don't test during these processes.

Why people feel that they need to snipe when all it is doing is highlighting their own ignorance baffles me!

Your comments and information are greatly appreciated by the vast majority of people using this thread.
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
Hope that's not aimed at me? If you had a mobile that takes 9 mins to get to a usable state, surely you would think there's a fault?
[Touch HD General] tonyblack:
Do you have any idea of the processes involved in testing a device that has just arrived from a factory. There are scripts and procedures that you follow. Acelister is an expert, he does it for a living. Are you better qualified than him to judge what does and does'nt constitute a device failure?

This thread was started (by myself) to inform others of when the Blackstone was available on the Orange network in the UK. If you want spend your time posting unhelpful and ill informed messages please start your own thread.
[Touch HD General] k3v:
Not that all this other stuff isnt interesting in its own right, but everytime i see new posts in this thread, i keep thinking that it may be released!
[Touch HD General] byrion:
Thanks for the info Acelister! I was wondering if you know whether Orange have made any modifications to the default OS supplied by HTC? As I know Orange have a habit of personalising the phones to the network (sometimes well, sometimes less well).

Also an Orange shop told me they have their dummy blackstone phones in now, so if anyone is desperate to see if it'll fit in their pocket, go ask nicely!!
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
No I have no idea of the process involved.

Yes I can also follow scripts and procedures - anybody can do that - you get told / shown how to do it, listen and repeat when your mentor is not there.

Nope - not better qualified at all!

But like most of you guys here, I've had a WInMob since the days of the SPV E100, so I guess that give me some knowledge of the devices and to know that from powering on / booting to going to a use state takes 9 mins, there's obvously something wrong!

I'm not here to cause an argument, just stating the fact that 9 mins to boot is an exceptionally long time!

Acelister: Thanks for all the info so far - it's great to get some inside info on what's involved in the testing of these devices.

Just one thing though, perhaps you should not disclose the location of all these HD devices - you know what it's like in the day and age!
[Touch HD General] tonyblack:
I must admit, I did wonder about Acelister highlighting the location of the warehouse.
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
Charming! Can I have permission to post on this thread please? ;)

Seriously though - I wasn't trying to be unhelpful or start flame wars - I leave that to the trolls! I feel your frustration with Orange - I phoned them every day for two weeks asking when the Touch Pro was coming out. They gave me the run around for two weeks, and it seems that the Touch Pro isn't coming after all, despite one of the retentions team telling me it was in for testing!

Acelister: Have you tested any Touch Pros?
[Touch HD General] lsainsbury:
We agree on something! Yay!! ;)

Yeah - I've been into a major distrubutor's warehose in the UK a few times around the UK...

I won't give the name or location, but it's marked up with another company name...the only thing that kinda gives it away is the 15ft fence with razor wire and the security cameras, other than that, you'd have no idea!