My current phone is a Nokia N70, and that's what I compare the Neo with.<br>I used the phone in various situations - snowboarding on 3000 meters, while standing on 50 meter high free-standing towers, at 180 km/h on the German Autobahn, and in different data centers. With all the noise and/or the wind in this situations, I never had a problem with the Nokia - it of course was not perfect, but I could understand everything.<br>
Long way to go for the Neo.<br>At least it's definitely possible to use it in your office :)<br>Let's see how the Neo performs on the coming snowboard-trip (where I hopefully can use the GPS).<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/20/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">Kevin Dean</b> <<a href="mailto:kevin@foreverdean.info">kevin@foreverdean.info</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I'm familiar with the echos, I commented on them many times during my<br>reviews. For me, however, they were mostly corrected as of the 11 Feb<br>2008 official snapshot.<br><br>Talking in the wind is difficult with the Neo, but then I've never<br>
actually had a phone that did that well.<br><br>I use my Neo as my primary phone and in MOST cases it works well. I am<br>a bit nervous, however, because there are enough stability issues<br>(dialer crashing while phone calls are in progress, gsm randomly<br>
dying, freezes, misrepresentation of level of charge, et cetera) that<br>I'm afraid of what will happen in the event of an emergency.<br><br>I am frequently told by my wife that she's called or sent SMS that I<br>
didn't get, all the while my Neo is still saying I'm connected to my<br>carrier.<br><br>If you want to develop on a device that can make phone calls, the Neo<br>works. If you want a functional phone you can develop on, it would be<br>
best to wait for the Freerunner hardware (which, now that I think<br>about, it's the only OpenMoko hardware you'll be able to get on the<br>primary market - Neo1973 units have sold out!)<br><br>On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 7:28 AM, Thomas Gstädtner <<a href="mailto:thomas@gstaedtner.net">thomas@gstaedtner.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> After flashing the newest snapshot (and 2.6.24 kernel) yesterday, I decided<br>> to give the Neo a try as everyday-phone again.<br>> So I took it with me today, did some calls and so on.<br>> It mostly worked fine, the battery lasts about a day (standby + doing some<br>
> calls and playing around), except one freeze after waking it up from<br>> standby.<br>> Unfortunately I can't use the Neo as phone.<br>> As I work in field service for a big mobile carrier, I use my phones outdoor<br>
> and usually some hours a day. Especially the first point is not really<br>> possible with the Neo.<br>> The volume of the speaker is _much_ too low, it's hard to understand your<br>> opponent if the wind is blowing and there's a street close. There also are<br>
> echoes on both sides, so it's really hard for the opponent to understand<br>> you. There also is a hall effect that is very annoying.<br>> At moment there's no chance for me to replace my Nokia with the Neo. Hope<br>
> it's getting better.<br>><br>> Well, last but not least there are some positives to report: SMS and<br>> Incoming/Outgoing calls work good now, the Neo wakes up from standby if a<br>> call is comeing in, what is pretty good for the battery. Thanks to the<br>
> bright display it's also possible to dial and read SMS in the sun, although<br>> the display is transmissive.<br>><br></blockquote></div><br>