Samsung i780

Is there still no ETA or approximate cost on this phone? :/

Eventually ... thanks

* I dunno why I'm in a hurry, I can only upgrade August anyway I wish Vodacom could load my remaining 6 months onto a new 24 month contract (30 months) and give me a handset now :/

I have an upgrade on a Procall 600 end of June. I hope it's out by then, and free (seeing as MTN are usually cheaper than Vodacom on upgrade prices)

Dolby said:

Eventually ... thanks

* I dunno why I'm in a hurry, I can only upgrade August anyway I wish Vodacom could load my remaining 6 months onto a new 24 month contract (30 months) and give me a handset now :/

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I think you can do something called a premature upgrade, but you pay much more, theres a calculation not sure how it works.

Good news. I see MTN are advertising it for FREE on a Procall 120 for R299 total cost! Seems like an excellent deal.

Except for the fact that I'm on Vodacom

I've posted this question elsewhere, but I'll try again here :

Do the networks work on the end price of a contract, or the contract itself? What I mean by this is that they give a R3000,00 phone on Talk 130 and a R4000. phone on Talk 200, as it's the more expensive contract. However, if I took the Talk 130 and added a data bundle/SMS bundle to bring it to the same monthly price as a Talk 200 - will I get a R4,000.00 phone?

I'm looking at 2 contracts(Talk 130 and Talk 200). The cost is R315.00 and R430.00 respectivly. However, a Talk 130 + 200 SMS bundle + 20MB data works out at about R390.00 and suits my needs better. Will they give me a phone based on the contract? :/

The I780 looks like an excellent phone. I need a qwerty keyboard, built-in GPS, wifi and document editing capabilities. I don't want to pay-in extra for a phone on my contract and this seems like the best deal. Compared to the Tytn II it works out to R2880 cheaper on contract over the 24 month period. I also like the fact that the keyboard is always "available" and can be used to dial numbers, search for contacts and sending sms's using 1 hand.

The camera is not as good as the Tytn II, but I hardly use my phone's camera anyway.

The only problem I read about is the possibility of third party software been incompatible because of the odd screen resolution (320x320).

Has anyone actually used the phone?

JK8 said:

Whats the point of a 20Mb data bundle? You saving R5.00 I think...

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Agreed, but at least I know when I get my mail/surf, it's 'free' during the month. I know I've paid upfront, but my mind tells me it's free during the course and I don't need to worry about cost PS It's R12 ...hehe

seedat77 said:

The only problem I read about is the possibility of third party software been incompatible because of the odd screen resolution (320x320).

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Yip - the odd resolution bothers me too

So, do I get it or not?

I used a Samsung I600 for a little while this year and really liked it. The design, keyboard etc was perfect and I was hoping they'd come out with something similar with WM6 pro and touchscreen. So here it is.... but why the heck did they choose this resolution.

I already read on some forums that quiet a bit of 3rd party programs aren't working on the phone because of the resolution. I don't really use a lot of programs, but I like to try them out just for fun. I don't play games on my phone either. The main thing is to get a good GPS program (pref. Tomtom) working. I read somewhere that Tomtom and TCPMP works fine on the phone, and as long as these 2 programs work well, I'm alright.

So....I'll probably go for it!

Guess it's out my league at this price

http://www.pricecheck.co.za/offers/2792861/Samsung+i780/

JK8 said:

Dont waste your time on Samsung pdas. They might make all the processors for most WM phones but their phones are crap.

Id recommend you go for the HTC S730.

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I like the form factor.

Always available qwerty keyboard you can use with one hand, and the touch screen for those times you just need to touch.

JK8 said:

Dont waste your time on Samsung pdas. They might make all the processors for most WM phones but their phones are crap.

Id recommend you go for the HTC S730.

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Htc S730? Compared to the i780? thats like comparing a nokia 1100 to the N73... different leagues, one is a disposable phone while the other is (meant to be) a multimedia device, like the S730 is a smartphone and the i780 is a pocket pc, not to mention the tiny processor and miniscule memory in the S730 compared to the i780. Im not saying its a bad phone but it is hardly worth mentioning when looking for something in the league of the i780 - if you suggested the tytan 2 or htc sedna it would be more understandable, the materials used on the i780 seem quite impressive compared to the dodgy plastics used in the cheaper htc models

Hope you arent offended Just trying to bring some clarity to difference in devices

raesteyn said:

Htc S730? Compared to the i780? thats like comparing a nokia 1100 to the N73... different leagues, one is a disposable phone while the other is (meant to be) a multimedia device, like the S730 is a smartphone and the i780 is a pocket pc, not to mention the tiny processor and miniscule memory in the S730 compared to the i780. Im not saying its a bad phone but it is hardly worth mentioning when looking for something in the league of the i780 - if you suggested the tytan 2 or htc sedna it would be more understandable, the materials used on the i780 seem quite impressive compared to the dodgy plastics used in the cheaper htc models

Hope you arent offended Just trying to bring some clarity to difference in devices

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Agreed, and dont forget the S730 has a cr@p battrey life, from what i've read the i780's battrey life seems quite good

And that is exactly where the hammer meets the nail. Battery Life.

I have been using a i320 (i600 predecessor) for nearly 2 years now and it is an excellent phone, except for the battery life. At least they were open enough about it to give you an extra battery and nifty battery-charger in the box, but I have always had to charge the phone every day with moderate use. And Java kills the battery. Dead.

But as long as you're willing to charge each day, it's a great phone. What I want to know is how does the i780 compare, especially once you get the GPS running?

From the forums i've read the reviews dont seem to bad!!!

Mkay, i have the i780 sitting right next to me

What a dream, all the connectivity you could hope for - so far i have played with the 3g, hsdpa and wi-fi, great interfaces, the mouse does not suck... it took me about 10 min to get used to pushing a mouse around the screen after i set the speed up (even my mom was playing with it - no complaints). I have got the gps set up with garmin and google maps, both work great, havent scratched it yet... i dont think i will because all in all it is a very solid and well housed device. I am pushing to get the os upgraded without pimping it myself - wm6 is great but i am used to the htc home screen in wm6.1 from my wizard. The 320x320 screen is a bit odd, but i have got gmail, skype and tcmp player working perfectly. I copied across many videos, even the 50mb high quality vids played flawlessly with great sound. Music isnt mind blowing but its pretty damn good compared to other ppc devices. Unfortunately for everyone who is basing their buy on battery life... the battery sucks... on the upside i am positive there will be larger batteries for purchase eventually and you get an extra battery with external charging case... so one cant bitch to much. Bare in mind though, when the phone warns you that the battery is low, the battery is only at about 40% - so its a bit longer lasting than i expected... its just the phone that whines early. Other ppc's only start panicking at about 20%.

In the box i got.
- car charger
- extra battery
- external charger box (brilliant little thing)
- normal charger
- headphones (im not a headphone guy... but they work well)
- pc connection cable
- 1gb micro sd card with garmin maps package (i wish they would put that on the box so people dont buy bloody extra sd cards and then find out that they already have one!!)
- garmin maps coupon (gotta love coupons!)
- samsung cd
- the i780
- 2 year samsung warranty (shocking but true)

Two things to watch out for though, when you start the phone for the first time, dont get to excited, do a hard reset after running it for an hour or so (its a wm6 thing, if you dont you stand the risk of it hanging - it happened to me on the first day, i did a hard reset, now its running perfectly for the last few days).

If you want garmin maps on a bigger micro sd card... do not use the coupon until you have copied all the files from the included micro sd to the bigger one, put the bigger card in your phone and run samsung mobile navigator from there. Garmin registers to the micro sd card... not the phone. I am now sitting with a 2gb micro sd with no garmin and a 1 gb with garmin... i really couldnt be bothered switching cards everytime i want to use the garmin maps so my 2gb is in cold storage until i figure out how to port. Dont make the same mistake.