[antz]

Saw this MotoMING A1200 this afternoon and was really impressed with the form factor and performance (yes Motorola Stores have LIVE units available).

I wanted to buy (offered at 0% for 6 months) just to maybe use as a spare phone.

anyone who's using this MotoMING here, whats your comment.

And yes, it runs on LINUX.

What 'held' me back on my purchase was there's no WIFI, it only has 8MB board memory, expandable using micro-SD though. With or without stylus its easy to use. And the phone responds pretty fast.

3G is no issue since rarely i use it on my current phone.

I would rather have a wifi enabled phone.

PS:
Im decided not to get a dopod 838 Pro anymore. I have been warned by some co-muggers.

[h.chua]

i've been eyeing this baby for the longest time, now. one of the things i don't like about it is its price tag. i think it sells for around 24k, right? in the states you could get it for $400 roughly. i've used it myself, too. yup, there's no wifi, and there's the lack of software availability, because of its os. because of this, i decided against buying it. also, yeah, there's no wifi. the memory is not a problem, because i have an external card. you may want to try the hp ipaq 6828. look it up.

[h.chua]

for me, go for it if you're more into style than substance.

ps. check out the red version. if not the white one.

[antz]

.. i bought it and here are some of my initial comments:

- of course, its not mac friendly. no isync support and mass storage is not working. BT transfer working.
- 2mpx is just basic and no lanscape mode. will post sample image one of these days.
- I just use BT on my N93 to transfer my contacts.
- phone is really fast compared to my previous, M600i and p990i (with stylus)
- stylus is crappy.
- battery lasts quite longer than i expected.





on my second day, and im loving it..

[h.chua]

congratulations on your purchase! if you don't mind me asking, how much did you buy it? do you have a hard time texting? are you satisfied with the built in software? how's the voice quality while making calls?

[h.chua]

it'd be nice if you could make a mini review of some sort to help us here who are thinking of buying this. (hint hint)

[antz]

im working on my 'mini-review' will post once done.

i bought it from Motorola SM North Edsa at php23,690 (php3,498.33 x 6)

Texting is easy but it would be much better if i can enlarge the virtual keyboard. And the voice sound quality is just superb.

And lastly, i havent read the manual..

[h.chua]

aah. so that just proves how user-friendly it is, huh. you don't need to read the manual anymore. one thing that i see as a potential problem is texting while walking. personally, do you think this can replace the treo? i really like the form factor and the size of the ming. thanks for the information, really appreciate it. if it's good i might get one, too. probably the white one.

[antz]

Here's a good read the covers everything about motoming a1200:

http://www.djlosch.com/post_retrieve.php?pid=89

additional personal comment about the phone:

Messaging:
- can create a password protected folder. just move your private message to this folder.
- Setting Smart MMS, send set motoa1200 to 211. You need to edit and create a new profile since when you use the Smart MMS profile, you get "File too big to send' error. There are several pre-defined Profiles on the phone, edit one, using Smart MMS setting and note the "Max sendind file' this should be set to 300k otherwise you cant compose both SMS and MMS message.
- SMS is straight forward, i personally prefer keyboard than handwritting recognition.
- SMS or Text read a loud is very convenient when driving (with or without headset) Motoming will not recognize tagalog words that are abbreviated eg. msta n (it will be read leter by letter)..
- i cant seem to set my .mac email. still trying to figure it out. i have inputted all my .mac details (pop3 or IMAP) and still no go.

Camera:
- just use the built in Photo Editor to rotate the image. The problem when Photo Editor is used the EXIF data is removed. I just use iPhoto to rotate my image.
- Camera is labeled as 'Motorola EZX Camera'
- Images from Ming is not noisy compared to some Nokia NSeries phones. Best used outdoors, IMO.

Bluetooth:
- can easily be paired/bonded with my other Bluetooth devices (MBP, N93 and N73)
- transfer speed is about 49kbps.
- not compatible with iSync 2.3 (500.86)

Business Card Reader:
- just like p990i, it takes time to get data correctly.

FM radio:
- it has 2.5 jack and cant be used without the headset connected.

Voice:
- Great voice sound quality.
- can record and protect with password phone conversation (cool..)
- Voice recognition is somewhat accurate under normal noise background

UI:
- easy to navigate and this phone response time is really fast (compared with my previous m600i and p990i)

USB on MAC:
- Mass storage detected.
- Drag and Drop limited to small files otherwise you need to force quit.
- USB charging is working

Memory:
- UNINSTALLED two applications, Snowboarding and MSN Messenger
- my system memory status is usually 47%
- my memory status is 37% (this phone has only 8MB)

These are some of the features that i have explored for now.

[h.chua]

thanks for the review! it helped a lot! when you make calls, do you accidentally press the buttons with your face? coz in the iphone, they have this feature that will disable the touchscreen function when your'e making a call right. since the ming doesn't have this, i was just wondering if you would often press a button accidentally while in a call.