SPV C550, yet another smartphone

My experiments with Smart Phones continue….  My daughter has an SPV C500 which I always liked but couldn’t use because it was locked to Orange and my business SIM is Vodafone and she loves it anyway so Dad’s not that mean!  Anyway an upgrade opportunity presented itself and for £29.99 I had a nice new C550, which 5 minutes later was unlocked with the aid of a freeware utility

I already have an excellent Treo 650,  but its locked down by my company so the camera and video don’t work and it’s got layers of security enabled to protect my corporate email, which makes using the media player and phone far too many clicks away for my liking,  plus I am unable to have push email active at the same time as the media player,  just too many compromises :-(.  My colleagues and I have been discussing the options and most of us seem to be deciding that right now convergence is not quite there for us, and we are gradually migrating to two devices.  In my case that means:

• The SPV C550 used primarily as a phone and media player,  always with me
• The Treo 650 used primarily as a wireless email and calendar,  with me when I want to be working an extended day,  or need to be in touch with work while out of the house (I work from home)

This combination is probably not optimal, as it would may be better to use more specialised devices for these two roles,  but it will serve me for a while as I assess the pro’s and con’s of this approach.

I have already discussed the Treo 650,  which I rate very highly,  but what about the SPV c550?

• Very small and light (feels like half the size of the Treo – though its not)
• Fantastic high resolution screen
• Very easy to navigate around with one hand, much easier than a locked down Treo
• Excellent music player, with great hardware buttons that make it very easy to use.  The integration with the phone is great – pause and resume when you make or take a call
• I have added a 1GB storage card, which provides plenty of space for podcasts and music
• Calendar is pretty poor,  but ok as a last resort
• Address book is excellent,  I prefer it to the Treo
• Keyboard is ok,  but my fingers are small!
• Camera seems good,  I really missed the camera.  One of the reasons I was keen to get a working camera again is the functionality in the next version of OneNote that lets me sync photo’s straight into OneNote and then automatically OCR the content,  I am hopeful that this will be a revolutionary feature!!

So what’s not so good:

• I use Lotus Notes at work,  so to sync my contacts and calendar I have to use DoubleLook, (there are alternatives,  but this seems the best option as it also means I can drive Skype from my Outlook address book as well)
• My other headphones microphones (with 2.5mm jacks) don’t work,  the supplied ones are fine
• The USB and Headphone cover is just so inconvenient,  I pulled it out after 8 hours!