Page 1 of CHEAP SMARTPHONE £ 72

I came across this Sierra VOQ A10 Professional Edition Unlocked GSM Smart Phone (Sim Free) at Microdirect it seems ok for the price and I understand with additional software it could be a cheap satnav solution.

Link: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/productinfo.aspx?ProductID=13224

Here is the Spec.

Unique flip-open QWERTY thumbpad, 2.2" color display
Speakerphone 2.5 [mm] stereo and mono headset jack
SD/MMC memory slot, Infrared port, LED indicator for battery charge and unit "on" , 48 MB ROM, 32 MB RAM
Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003 SE featuring Outlook, ActiveSync, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, myVoq navigator, VoqMail
Voice Dialer (English Only), 64 polyphonic ringer,Java MIDP2 engine, MMS and SMS, Predictive Text
Games (three included): Mount Voq, Jawbreaker, Solitaire
Voice Notes, TTY
Calculator: Two available - A simple arithmetic calculator and advanced calculator for the mobile professional,Date, Time Clock ,Themes,User Profiles, Multiple ring and alert tones
Configurable phone features such as: Call barring, Call forwarding, Call options, Call waiting, Caller ID, Fixed Dialing.

Regards

Rab C

A tad cheaper here with free shipping..


http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=102672

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"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."
- Christopher Reeve (1953-2004)

This item was edited on Friday, 31st March 2006, 20:39

Cheers ordered one late Saturday night after spending all evening reading up on them. Sounds like a nice bit of kit for the price, save carting my Pocket PC and phone around. It was £67 on like your link says, but I`ve kept checking back since I bought mine, they`ve sold 6 since. price now gone up to £75, still cheap for what it is though.

The free postage is only if you choose the Super Saver delivery option by the way, around 7 days to delivery, that`s the one I went for. You can download the manual >>>here<<< if anyone wants to read up about it. :)

This item was edited on Monday, 3rd April 2006, 16:51

Let me know how you get on with it Mark, might be in the market for one if its any good!

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"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."
- Christopher Reeve (1953-2004)

Will do, won`t get it until probably Mon or Tues next week though, I picked the stingey delivery. :)

I can`t see how you can go wrong for the price though. Seems it was £350 when it came out, aimed at business users, who apparently don`t like phones with camera on, which is why they left it out. It didn`t get picked up by any phone networks and Sierra decided to concentrate on their core market of wireless laptop cards, hence why they`re being sold off.

The only problem I`ve seen mentioned on the various forums I found posts on were about there sometimes being a problem with where the charger plugs in, but you only ever hear about the problem ones don`t you, not the good ones. The reviews I read from around the time it came out seemed to be impressed with it. Supposed to be a bit big (around the size of a household dect phone by the sound of it, but not bad considering all the stuff built into it.

It`s cost £10+ to get a phone unlocked, this isn`t tied to anything, and comes with a usb data cable too which would cost extra normally. Depends what you want out of it I guess, but I can see plenty of uses for me. I like to check my email at lunch time, and having MSN Messenger built in could be handy too.

Regarding the first post though, I don`t know how you could use it as a cheap satnav, as you`d need to connect a gps receiver to it somehow, not just install software, as there`s no gps receiver built in. That`s what I use my Pocket PC for though.

This item was edited on Monday, 3rd April 2006, 23:34

Hi HD,

I posted the original message and the reference I made regarding to potential use for SatNav is the software, reading between the lines so to speak what I mean is there are websites that would provide suitable downloadable software IE TomTom. You would need to purchase a receiver separately these can cost as little as £30-£40 these days, here is an example: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/8590.htm


The low end priced models will do exactly what is says on the can but if you want the latest sirf 111chip Set then you have to pay about £80, having used both sorts I think its worth paying that bit extra. Here is a link to a Sirf 111 chipset model http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=122496.

The GlobalSat BT338 SiRF Star III Bluetooth GPS was £140 last week the prices have dropped massively in the last month, hope this helps.

Ummmm! But it doesn`t have Bluetooth :/
I had one of these but only for a short while, I couldn`t be bothered to set it up as when I got it it seemed a bit cumbersome, saying that it is definetly smaller than a PDA though.

Hi Rab, yep I`m familiar with the SiRF chipset as the Royaltek Sapphire receiver that my Pocket PC uses for it`s SatNav function has it. But how would you connect it to the phone, as Doozer says, this phone doesn`t have Bluetooth? The usb data cable is for synching only, and the SD slot is not an input/output port (SDIO), only for accessing memory cards.. Still a great phone for the money though, and I`m still finding lots of info about it to read. I don`t think it will fully replace a Pocket PC, but can handle a lot of the common stuff.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 5th April 2006, 21:14

I Have a Nokia 6630 "Smartphone" I assume there is no reason to buy this one?

Not really, unless you just like some of the features it has like the fold out keyboard, full size memory cards, or search as you type functions. Doesn`t have a camera or bluetooth, but does have a lot of Pocket PC type functionality with it running on Windows Mobile.

Still waiting for mine, I knew I should`ve paid the postage....lol :(

Here`s a pic from the manual. I guess the looks are a taste thing, I quite like the look of it.

This item was edited on Thursday, 6th April 2006, 00:04