Just got this phone coming from the Nexus S 4G...

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I got a steal (imo) on this phone for 150 on eBay (before S/H). I needed to try WP7 because Android is getting a little stale, and the UI is not hardware accelerated like WP7 (Ice Cream is supposed to add hardware acceleration, but I really doubt it will ever be as smooth as WP7 based on Google's attitude towards GPU usage and the whole "dual core phones cure cancer" deal....). I AM having a hard time getting away from Googles's apps, however (like Google Shopper....really helped me while traveling a lot and needed to find cheap prices near me on the highway). Anyway.....

I just have a few questions....


1. Does the Mango update get rid of the framerate cap on gaming on this phone? Is it worth me risking "brickage" of my phone to hack it and get Mango on it? I know not to expect much from the Adreno 200 (it's the whole reason I only stick to Samsung on Android for the GPU power, which is why I still kept my Nexus S), but I was just wondering

2. Is the battery saver option only in Mango? I've seen this on an arrive before in a Sprint store, so apparently someone put Mango on it (I didn't know enough about WP7 to notice).

3. How has everyones' battery life been? For me, it is a little worse than my Nexus S (although it feels good to have Wifi work again). Is calibration needed?

4. Am I the only one that finds TellMe Voice recognition a little lacking? Does it have to adjust to your voice (and is there a way to delete recordings from it like Voice Search by Google through the web or somewhere)? It barely works for me unless I use the "Open" function, but other than that it always seems to want to call people instead of search Bing.

5. Is there a Google Shopper equivalent app on the Marketplace? I've only found ShopSavvy, but I need something you can just search for and find local prices based on your location.


To be fair, I understand WP7 is still kind of in its infancy stage and I knew that getting this phone and switching platforms (personally, I feel they've had enough time to at least get more apps and a few more updates out but meh....). I am looking to just go ahead and put Mango on this thing, as it flies on my co-workers HD7 (which I know has the same processor as the Arrive).

 

[coasterfreak212]

Welcome aboard! You'll get comfortable, don't worry.

I have had an Arrive from launch currently running the Mango beta 2 and it flies like nothing I have ever used before. So to answer your questions:

1. The Mango update doesn't seem to address the frame cap on games, but for a specific reason. Games are capped at 30 due to the varying degree of sd cards that are used on the phones. Some of the cards are poor in response time, which causes the slow down. Other reasons are that the games need to be better optimized. It is a new OS and coders are still trying to figure out how to get full use out of the apps.

As for is it worth it to update to the mango beta, YES, YES IT IS! Especially since your phone is so new, it is a good time to upgrade before you risk losing everything.

There are two route to get mango, unofficial and official, and both are somewhat safe. The unofficial route is a simple batch file that triggers the phone to update to beta 2 using the zune client. This is why it is somewhat safe to upgrade to mango using this method, as it's not like its actually doing anything terrible to do so; you are getting mango from Microsoft's servers. There are risks though, and a scare of bricking on my end (see the thread "Mango Beta Update Results"). This was the route I did, but I will explain how to get to the official route.

The official developer unlock can be obtained FOR FREE with a college email address. Microsoft has a website called DreamSpark that is aimed at giving college students the tools to become aspiring developers. When you sign up they offer a bevy of different coding tools for free, one of them being a free year of WP7 developer account and unlock. I have had this for a long already, but didn't have the official developer unlock at the time because Microsoft used to require the users to submit an App to the marketplace for verification. They removed this restriction a week after they released the mango beta 1. I cannot confirm that the DreamSpark developer unlock will give you access to the mango beta, but I would assume so.

You shouldn't lose anything when you update to Mango. At least I didn't, using the unofficial method. Before you update to mango, it makes a full backup of your phone and makes a restore image. So I totally recommend going the beta route.

Note, you will have to downgrade back to NoDo before you get the official mango update, no matter what route you chose.

2. The battery save option is only in mango, so that's surprising that you saw it on a sprint store Arrive. How did they do it is my question. You have to use a computer in order to do so and it takes a long time. Also, I have actually talked with the Microsoft Rep that installed the Rom on the store phones (it's a different build that has been customized for demo purposes). If the display phone was like a normal phone then someone somehow upgraded it through a computer (which isn't too farfetched, I am really good friends with the people at my sprint store and they would totally do that). If the demo phone was still in demo mode and gave you a txt message to look around and such then it is the official demo build. This would be interesting to see if MS is loading a mango build on demo units.

Next time, the sure fire way to tell is to hold the back button and see if it brings up the multitasking switcher. This is only available on mango.

3. My battery life has been untouchable when compared to all the other phones I have had. Even before mango, I was able to use the Arrive intensively and use it all day. This includes playing music, games, browsing the web, a lot of txting, etc. With mango, I have probably gotten about an hour or two more of battery life (thanks to the battery saver). Currently, my battery saver app says it estimates 15 hrs of use, but I have seen it say 14-18hrs usually. When I did a real life battery test I was able to have the phone last for ~23hrs with normal usage.

Don't know what to tell you in regards to your experience. I don't think calibration is needed. I'd say play with it more and give it a couple of days. Use your phone from 100% to dead in order to give the cells a good exercise.

4. I can agree that TellMe is a sometimes hit and miss. I believe this is largely due to the lack of avoiding background noise. When I use it in a quiet area it's always accurate. I do believe that Mango helps this though. It's especially cool to have speech-to-text support. You'll get used to it, and it will get better with time.

5. My google shopper equivalent is actually the blazing fast bing visual search on mango. I use it constantly now and it has saved me a ton of money. Of course, this would mean you would have to upgrade to mango, but like I said, it's worth it. You don't have to wait for it to scan those barcodes, it just focuses and scans it for a second and finds it. I have never used any other phone with any other app that was as fast as it.

Good luck with your endeavors! I also agree that while it is at its infancy, Microsoft did have enough time to get more apps and updates out. The number one thing is lack of apps currently, which is a hard thing to knock it for, considering it has more apps at its age than any other platform when it came out. It is the fastest growing app market. But when you compare the app library to iOS or Android, it's daunting how much less robust the selection is on WP7. I hope with time it does change.

 

[foosball]

Welcome and of course nice call finding your way to WP7.

Only suggestion I have is in regard to Tell Me Voice Recognition....I used to treat it like a non-native English speaker and talked slowly and deliberately. Come to find out that completely throws the algorithms off and now I just rattle off what I need and that has helped improve the results dramatically.

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Welcome and of course nice call finding your way to WP7.

Only suggestion I have is in regard to Tell Me Voice Recognition....I used to treat it like a non-native English speaker and talk slowly and deliberately. Come to find out that completely throws the algorithms off and now I just rattle off what I need and that has helped improve the results dramatically.

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

I have found this to be true as well. It's also impossible to use while having the windows down or any other sounds that are remotely near your voice (although I thought Microsoft had this genious algorithm in place for software noise cancellation?)

 

[Waucckhewww]

There are two route to get mango, unofficial and official, and both are somewhat safe. The unofficial route is a simple batch file that triggers the phone to update to beta 2 using the zune client. This is why it is somewhat safe to upgrade to mango using this method, as it's not like its actually doing anything terrible to do so; you are getting mango from Microsoft's servers. There are risks though, and a scare of bricking on my end (see the thread "Mango Beta Update Results"). This was the route I did, but I will explain how to get to the official route.

The official developer unlock can be obtained FOR FREE with a college email address. Microsoft has a website called DreamSpark that is aimed at giving college students the tools to become aspiring developers. When you sign up they offer a bevy of different coding tools for free, one of them being a free year of WP7 developer account and unlock. I have had this for a long already, but didn't have the official developer unlock at the time because Microsoft used to require the users to submit an App to the marketplace for verification. They removed this restriction a week after they released the mango beta 1. I cannot confirm that the DreamSpark developer unlock will give you access to the mango beta, but I would assume so.

You shouldn't lose anything when you update to Mango. At least I didn't, using the unofficial method. Before you update to mango, it makes a full backup of your phone and makes a restore image. So I totally recommend going the beta route.


3. My battery life has been untouchable when compared to all the other phones I have had. Even before mango, I was able to use the Arrive intensively and use it all day. This includes playing music, games, browsing the web, a lot of txting, etc. With mango, I have probably gotten about an hour or two more of battery life (thanks to the battery saver). Currently, my battery saver app says it estimates 15 hrs of use, but I have seen it say 14-18hrs usually. When I did a real life battery test I was able to have the phone last for ~23hrs with normal usage.

@Mango: Really? I am going to check it out see if I cant get Mango beta 2 on my phone being a student. So you went the unofficial route because of the previous app submital limitation?

Should any of upgrading officially, unofficially, or reverting back to nodo before the manufacuter update uninstall apps? I plan on backing up my phone first, nevertheless.

@Battery life: I get nowhere near 15hrs on my Arrive running nodo. Heavy use I say 6-8. Normal use gets me around 10 and light use, maybe 12. I love the phone, but battery life is probably slightly below average as far as smartphones go.

One more thing, what do you think about trying to install the 7720 build leaked on XDA. If i can get the beta 2 officially I would probably just go that route, but the trying the RTM build is tempting.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I just want to run the Mango Official Leak while having the ability to go back to NoDo once the official "official" is released....is there a way to do this yet?

 

[JackG058]

3. My battery life has been untouchable when compared to all the other phones I have had. Even before mango, I was able to use the Arrive intensively and use it all day. This includes playing music, games, browsing the web, a lot of txting, etc. With mango, I have probably gotten about an hour or two more of battery life (thanks to the battery saver). Currently, my battery saver app says it estimates 15 hrs of use, but I have seen it say 14-18hrs usually. When I did a real life battery test I was able to have the phone last for ~23hrs with normal usage.

What battery saver app are you using, and does it have to have Mango? I've been looking for one in the Market but haven't seen one. I just moved to WP7 over the past weekend, so coming from Windows Mobile and then Android, I've got a little bit of a learning curve ahead of me. But I'm absolutely loving the Arrive and WP7. Buttery smooth OS with gorgeous animations.

 

[justop26]

On the matter of TellMe Voice Recognition,

I'm a non-native English speaker and I almost always get the phone to do what I want. I search on Bing in English mostly, but to call someone I pronounce Spanish names like how I think an English would. I speak quickly, fluidly, not paused or anything.

I just wanted to chime in, because every time I show this feature to someone else they are astounded by how great and flawlessly it works. Heck, even I'm amazed it gets what I'm saying. It's one of my favorite features on my NoDo phone

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

On the matter of TellMe Voice Recognition,

I'm a non-native English speaker and I almost always get the phone to do what I want. I search on Bing in English mostly, but to call someone I pronounce Spanish names like how I think an English would. I speak quickly, fluidly, not paused or anything.

I just wanted to chime in, because every time I show this feature to someone else they are astounded by how great and flawlessly it works. Heck, even I'm amazed it gets what I'm saying. It's one of my favorite features on my NoDo phone

I looked up the proper way to use TellMe (according to the WP7 Microsoft site) and I saw where you need to push "GO" after you're done speaking. This is why it was always messing up for me because it would sit there and wait for me to finish and hit GO, or it would record remaining background noise as well and then time out and try to sort through the entire thing.

Since I've been pressing GO when I'm done recording it has been far more accurate. I love it now almost more than Voice Search on Android because YOU actually control how long it records, whereas with Android (although it had more functions like "Memo" or "Navigate" or "Map of....") you have to wait for it to stop recording, possibly incurring background noise....

 

[icthusman1]

What battery saver app are you using, and does it have to have Mango? I've been looking for one in the Market but haven't seen one. I just moved to WP7 over the past weekend, so coming from Windows Mobile and then Android, I've got a little bit of a learning curve ahead of me. But I'm absolutely loving the Arrive and WP7. Buttery smooth OS with gorgeous animations.

The Battery Saver that is built into the OS in Mango. It has been added to the settings app.