The new SPV C600 is one of the first smart phones to use Windows Mobile 5. This operating system aims to give the users of the mobile phone the closest experience to using their computer desktop and Windows applications. The screen is the same as the SPV C550 which is great because the screen is so crisp and fresh looking which we really like it here at Techlounge.
Most of the features are the same like the 1.3 megapixel camera, but the media player buttons that where on the front of the C550 have been taken away so the front looks more like the older C500.
The gun metal grey colour is nice but scratches easily, this is where black is the best colour as you can easily touch the phone up with a permanent marker and the phone looks newer already.
The dust problems that the old C500 had seem to have been rectified fully which is great as that was the major floor on that old timer. These SPV’s really do take some knocks and drops here at Techlounge which makes them a winner in our eyes.
When is the C600 due to be released by Orange? Do you know?
We are not 100% sure, it was meant to be the end of October, but we can’t see it on the official Orange site so perhaps they are wanting to sell some more C550′s first before bringing this one onto the market.
Looking forward to the C600 release. Love my C500 and need an upgrade but not keen on the C550. Can’t wait to get my hands on it to check out the new Windows.
Any news on release date?
Which is better c550 or c600?
Hi Hannah
We have contacted our guy at Orange to try and find out some info, as the release date was meant to be end of Nov?
From testing the C550 and the C500, we would say that the C600, which is more like the C500, will be better once it gets released.
Techlounge
Thanks for the reply.
Good good. Although, i was hoping to upgrade mid December to it (i HAVE to upgrade mid dec, its part of T&C for my new price plan im getting). Do you think it’ll be released by then? or will i have to go for the c550?
Thanks
Hi Hannah
Just chased up our contact at Orange again… still no great news I’m afraid. They were expecting release in November but the phone is currently in “review” awaiting release soon. More than likely that it will be released before Christmas… so they say!.
Techlounge
Thanks!
Its just popped up as “coming soon” on their site now. So hopefully it’ll be out mid Dec! Do you think it’ll be free as an upgrade?
Hi,
Does the C600 come with Excel, Word etc already packaged? Also, does it have a speaker phone?
Thanks
Hi Mark
Yes the C600, as it has the new Windows Mobile 5 built in, also includes versions of Word Mobile and Excel Mobile.
Speaker phone as well, the same as its predecessor the C500
Techlounge
Do you think it’ll be out in the next week?
Hi Hannah
The C600 is now available from the Orange shop site…. but it seems that it is only available as a new pay monthly contract, not on pay as you go or as a free upgrade. Not having it available as an upgrade yet is not good… we would suggest a few complaints to Orange especially if you have been a pay monthly customer for a while.
Techlounge
Orange emailed me saying…
“I can advise that if you have a pay monthly agreement, you can upgrade your phone at any time, and the SPV C600 will be an upgrade option, however you may be asked to pay an upgrade fee. The upgrade fee is calculated using the time of the agreement remaining and the average customer spend. ”
Which prob means over £25 (or is it £30) a month its free. But I can upgrade to it! Yey!
I have just contacted the upgrade department at Orange and confirmed that the C600 will be available for upgrade but not until January, but it should be free for most tariffs which is great news for existing orange customers.
Having used an SPV 100, e100, 200 and 500, I am really looking forward to trying out the new phone. I have a couple of colleagues at work who use the 550s which are a slight improvement over the 500.
Anyone who has never seen or used the SPVs should take a look as they are now one of the most compact and fully featured business phones available – I could not live without my Outlook sync it is just so useful to have your phone bleeping at you in the morning reminding you what you got on that day.
Yey or Yay !
cant wait to get it!
Just ordered the SPV C600 available now on upgrade. No charge for me and I’m only a medium user.
I’ve also just ordered it as a free upgrade – its coming on Wed 21st.
Still a little miffed that Orange could not confirm any details as to whether I’d be able to view Excel, Powerpoint or Word documents. Can anyone else confirm this is definitely on the phone?
If it is, am I right in presuming that you have the option to download the attachemnt, rather than it happening automatically… I’m worried if someone sends me a large file, it will block my mail box and cost me a fortune to upload it and then clear it.
Thanks in advance.
…Infact, having now got the C600, I can confirm it does NOT come with pocket versions of Word/Excel as stated above by TECH LOUNGE. To get this one needs to purchase an extra app (like Clearvue) for about £20.
-Also, be warned…the User Manual is shocking. It does not relate at all to the C600. Instead it is a general one aimed at any phone using the new Windows Mobile platform. The result being absoultely no where does it tell you what the different buttons on the phone actually do. Unbelievable!
Otherwise, though, a great phone!
Smashing! cant wait til mid Jan!
I never read the manuals anyways. Exploring is fun, and discovering stuff 6 months down the line is exciting too! Keeps it interesting! lol.
Don’t wish to burst your bubble, Hannad…but mine is going back to Orange under the 7 day return policy.
After 3 days and about as many hours programming settings and tel no.’s into it, I turned it off, only to find that I was unable to turn it on again. It seems the on button, which is set into the phone (so as to make it more difficult to turn off by mistake) is prone to this kind of error and I have fallen victim to it. The button does not work at all and as there is no way of backing up using the C600, thats it for all my data input, my patience and my C600. Never again.
I’ve not heard about that sorta problem! well iv got about a fornight to look into it further! so hopefully it’ll be fine!
I’ve finally got it! And its smashing! How exciting!
Oh it was £29.99, so not free, but still, i got loadsa offers, so cant complain bout that! Coz im band 3. its £79.99 on the lowest band.
hi, just got a spv c600, cant get the back, anyone help??
sorry, cant get back off
Martin,
The back should just slide down away from the phone, it is attached by two plastic clips underneath that should just release when downward pressure is exerted.
Got my c600 about a week ago. The phone works a treat and the screen is fantastic. 320 x 240 pixel resolution on a smartphone ! Video content looks amazing on screen, and i like the new improved Windows UI.
The only problem I have is with active sync 4.1 (which is not the phone’s fault). As the way this software functions has changed from version 3.8 – it now installs the smarphone on its own TCP/IP network attached to your PC, there are all sorts of firewall issues this brings up. It took me several hours to get it to sync on our work network as we use an ISA server, and I have to disable the firewall client first to get it to sync. Once sync’d I can re-enable it. It also took a bit of tweaking with Zone Alarm at home to get it to sync properly. I have looked on the web at various forums that talk about locallat.txt files etc to solve the work network sync issue but to no avail yet. I have a shortcut on my desktop for the firewall client so it is fairly easy to sync the phone first thing in the morning, but every time I dock i have disable the firewall to sync (e.g if the phone rings and I have to pick up). As this is a business phone there are going to be hundreds of people with similar proxy problems.
The phone is great but Active Sync needs refining and improving otherwise sales of these excellent phones will suffer as the whole point of these phones from a business point of view is their ability to sync with a desktop PC & Outlook surely ?
I made a rather nice docking station for mine from an old E100 one and a spare USB cable – why Orange stopped supplying them I will never know.
It took me a while to remove the back too Martin! It does slide off!
The big screens amazing!
The phone feels so solid!
I love it!
I have the SPV 1000 and am interested in the SPV C600. How does the calendar look? Is it easy to program without touch-screen and stylus?
I’ve just got mine a few days ago. Already put in one appointment! When you click calander you view the day. One more button press you can view week. One more button press you can view month. You just type in appointments for whenever and all the remind settings etc are there. Easy peasy!
So, if the SPV c600 does not come with Word/Excel viewer software, what is the better phone – c550 or c600?
Theres no major difference. C600 looks better, and better buttons in my opinion. It has Windows mobile 5.0. And a few other little things, compared to the C550.
Apparently, theres something you can download for Word etc, this can be done via active sync-ing and add/ remove programs.
So generally people upgrade from the C550 to the C600 just to be up-to-date.
But if you’ve the C500, its well worth the upgrade, as its quite different.
Tis a smashing phone.
What about editing documents on these things? I mean a viewer is all well and good, but I want to be able to hook up a Bluetooth keyboard and some sort of simple word compatible text editor so that I can write. Is there ANY software out there that does that?
I believe the software you are looking for is called Clearvue – Google it, should be easy to find.
Hi guys.
i have had my C600 for a couple of weeks now & its great!! the only prob i have is, copying my contacts on to the phone from my old sim card . i cant find a function on the handset at all, can anybody help??? my contacts are on the phone but only as sim contacts!! i also cant play my video’s or download the images i take using the camera on to my PC?? does anyone know if i have to download extra software for this??
all the best
Dom
Is there anybody out there???? help???????????
just one more thing, when i charge my phone up it shuts itsself down & charges with the phone being turned off. This means i cannot recieve calls whilst it is charging??
any ideas please
many thanks
yeah i’d give orange a call and send it back
thanks rory. i called them & they were really helpful & sorted the problem. I just had to go into my settings & go to the power management file & adjust the timings. I also sorted the other problems out…
Dom
Wicked at least you got it sorted, no problems matey
If you are upgrading from a c500 to a c600 (as i just have) orange now recommend that you remove the older active sync software before installing the new. Otherwise some fault develops that i wont pretend to understand that seems to need resolving by removing outlook and active sync and then re-installing the lot. Not ideal when you are hardly ever in the same building as the software! So i am having to use the c500 still as i cant sync the c600 and so have no contacts list etc etc. Anyone else had this problem?
How do I see how many texts I’ve got in my inbox, and how much space I have got left?
Hi Hannah, there isn’t really a way to see how many text you have in your inbox…not that we know of anyway. We would just suggest to delete your inbox regularly.
You can get system stats from your phone by pressing
Start > More > More > Accessories > Task Manager > Right menu button > No 6 > System Info.
This gives general info about memory usage etc.
Techlounge
ok, ok then, thanx!
is it possible to buy the SPV C600 on pay as you go yet? If so can you tell me where from? cheers Matt
It’s odd that its not on PAYG yet through the Orange.co.uk site!
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EMQPFS/026-0197068-4923602
or maybe try e-bay.co.uk
Any thoughts on the new SPV M600 anyone?
Been ainming for the C600 for a while (waiting to finish final year proj), but just noticed the M600 was out now – may plum (plumb?) for that instead.
Hi Deka
We have just been checking out the new Orange SPV M600.
We have ourselves the SPV M500′s and the SPV C600′s and we love the Orange business phones. The design on the new SPV M600 is good and they have made the technology and memory better. Recommended.
Techlounge
Does anyone know how to back up text messages on the C600?
Hi Hannah
There is software available that backs up all your data from your SmartPhone, an example of this is from Sprite Software.
You can also convert your text messages into email so that you can store them on your PC… there is a shareware version here.
Hope this helps
Techlounge
Ahh can anyone help???
I can send pictures, vids etc by bluetooth on my c600 but I cant receive them, everytime from any different mobile it always says sending failed, ive got plenty of memory space so no idea whats wrong.
Please help! How do you permanenly adjust the volume on this bloody thing (Orange SPV C600)?!?!