Orange SPV C500

If you can put up with the Orange SPV C500 mobile phone freezing on you (to turn it off you have to take the back cover off and remove the battery) it's a good value phone. I particularly like to use Windows Messenger on the move, which you can't do on much more expensive Nokia's etc.

All in all the Orange SPV C500 is not a bad little mobile phone. Good things about the phone are the Calendar (which I have to say is fantastic and the main item I use), the screen is clear and a decent size, with some customization available. The most useful thing is you can customize this phone to your hearts content - there are literally 1000's of downloads available to customize and enhence this phone. The most annoying thing about this phone is it's alarm or lack of it, although it does have an alarm it is very poor as you have to go through menu after menu after menu then scroll and scroll to switch the alarm on, switch it off, or change the time. I think I should say now I am a Mac person and have never liked Windows, but this just adds more hate for me. Windows is not the most user friendly operating system available - it is clumsy and ugly. It is also very unreliable on my phone - regularly crashing. The camera is Okay - nothing spectacular, the video - a long way to go, and the quality of the video sound is pretty poor. Would I buy another SPV? Not until they improve.

The Orange SPV C500 phone is fantastic. I got rid of an XDAII for this and have no regrets. The phone is compact, has every feature you will ever need and can sync with Outlook with no problems. I got this phone for business use and use it for everything (Emails, Texting, photo's, video, etc.).

The phone has Bluetooth, IR, Camera (stills & Video), sound recording, File Explorer, Internet Explorer, Calendar, ActiveSync, Tasks, MSN Messenger, Media Player and so on.

The best feature is the ability to run additional programs on it. I installed TomTom Mobile Sat Nav on it and it has never let me down. It connected to the bluetooth receiver straight away and I was off. I can even use my Bluetooth headset at the sametime without any problems.

To say the phone's perfect wouldn't be true. I shtere such a phone out there? The only gripes I have with it are the Mini SD card sits behind the battery, so you can't swap it over easily, it crashes fairly frequently, turning on the phone takes forever and there is no notes feature.

Overall after a year of owning one I am very satisfied and would highly recommend it or the new SPV C550 that's just replaced it.

When i got the Orange SPV C500 nearly a year ago on upgrade from orange, I was simply baffled at why it was free when Nokias with smaller screens, poor cameras, no memory cards were going on upgrade for £50 ?? But having seen a friend of mines C500, I just had to have it. A year ago the screen quality, the camera, the new windows mobile and media player were things that were so far out of any other phones league it was untrue.It was and still is one of the best phones avaiable.The only advance in phones is the screen resolution and camera quality, oh and an led that some people have the cheek to call a flash. Now that the C550 is out this phone will probably be forgotten.Oh well.

Orange SPV C500 - This looked like good phone on contract from Orange. The screen is large and bright, viewable in all but brightest sunshine. The 16MB storage card is useful, and the camera takes clear shots. However, Orange lose maximum points for still selling it despite the software bug that they admit the manufacturer (Samsung) has not eradicated. I have replaced the handset three times now, including once when the screen broke after being dropped only a few centimetres onto a table.

Orange SPV C500 - This phone is so poorly made it simply baffles. If you touch the screen it starts messing up and if you drop it on a carpet from 1cm - forget it. NEVER again, stick to proper mobiles is my advice, and by a blackberry if you want mobile email!!!

I've had this phone for about 1 month now, my friend bought one about 1 month and 1 week ago and I had to have one, the O.S, is easy to use and it synchs well with my PC, calls always seem to be clear and reception is very good.

The real bonus of this phone is the amount of programs available for it including one that turns it into a DVD Player!! With an upgraded mini sd card (512mb), you can easily fit 4 full length DVD's and a few MP3's, the sound qaulity is good, better through the headphones included.

Go get one and have fun, you won't want another phone, until they release the new version.

I've not been this impressed by a new toy for a long time. The Orange SPV C500 looks great, it's easy to use especially if you had the old SPV of course, it's easy to connect to your PC. The list is endless.

Go and buy one NOW!

I can not deny that the Orange SPV C500 is very nice phone, with may features. However, it ashame that you can not access the internet via O2 GPRS/GSM, even the phone has been unlocked to all network. I think there are still some restiction from Orange that left in the phone. I bought one, however and ended up having to sell it because of this reason.

It's a long story how I ended up with an upgrade to the Orange SPV C500 "smartphone" rather than other models, but it boiled down to two things: this model was free to upgrade and the chap in the Orange shop claimed his brother can sync this model with an Apple Mac (why is it no manufacturer advertises compatibility with the Mac world?)

Still working on the synchronisation, though immediate impressions of the phone are that it performs very well. The design basics have been well refined, so this handset is a model of clarity, ease of use, compact design that won't bust any pockets or bags!

The C500 has an excellent and accessible feature set including a substantial number of Orange applications available to try free of charge, and undoubtedly looks the part.

While I'm not bothered about the camera, partly because of the restrictive use of a a VGA device when you can buy 7.2 megapixel cameras, little is wasted here. For the business professional, the data and connectivity options are well-directed (eg. synchronisation tools, email, Bluetooth, USB, modem), but you can also use it for leisure pursuits, gaming, travel and suchlike.

True, not everyone will like the idea of lining Bill Gates' capacious pockets still further, but there's no doubt the Microsoft mobile operating system works better than the equivalent on Motorola models, for example.

Why only 9/10? Well, I'm loathe to give anything 10/10, particularly on a relatively new product that hasn't yet had extensive field testing to measure its reliability. But I'm pretty content with my purchase, and so should most users.