ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Below is a concise report of my testing the T2 HD. Included are some photos, some of which have the HDR low light mode applied. The last one was for testing in bright lighting conditions
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Box and contents: Excellent and unique box. Earphones excellent but cannot always cope with bass.
Build quality: The best made phone I've ever owned. Only the power button was frustrating. Hard to find and it didn't have a quality and positive feel. Most reactions were that they wanted some feedback or feel.
Ease of setup: It was frustrating that it couldn't be set up without a wireless signal. If bought on a plane or in an area where you didn't want to receive a signal, it couldn't be used. Only a small nuisance.
Operation: Just as quick and reliable as my wife's iphone. The shortcut button for me is a life saver.
Screen: The screen isn't of the quality as say an iPhone, but that didn't bother me at all. It would be nice to have a better screen, but again it's only a nice to have thing. The automatic light setting is easily the most frustrating part of the phone. When the phone is turned on after being in your pocket, it can take what seems an age to brighten up. The iPhone does it better, going from fairly bright to dimming down, as opposed to really dark and slowly brightening up gradually whilst you wait to use it.
Camera: the camera improved greatly after a recent update, especially the HDR function.
Reception: As poor to average as my wife's iphone. Easily bettered by our Nexus 5 and HTC One M8. This is the one area where I would ditch all peripheral gadgets ie the IR blaster in favour of more aerials. As hard as you try you will never better companies like Apple and Samsung for processors etc, but nobody makes a smart phone that specialises in great reception. This I believe should be Lumigons USP. The lanyard supplied should be a permanent feature, hard wired to the phone as an aerial, and forming part of its corporate identity. Uncompromising, unbeatable reception.
The speakers should be moved to one position where the mic is, to help single handed use on the move. When I'm carrying a case and trying to make a call, the speakers being on either end simply dilute the sound. The iPhone does this much better, and makes for a much sharper call of good clarity. Nobody I know uses the speakers for music, and never would. I accept some of the youth do, but I don't see them buying this phone.
I tried using the IR blaster but it didn't work very well, and only in emergencies would I use such a feature. This isn't something that interested any of my colleagues.
Summary: The phone should always be competitive in its power and screen, but nothing should come at the expense of reception. A decent leather pouch should be included. The power button needs to have a more positive feel.
This phone should be aimed at being the smart persons smart phone. Cool and understated, reassuringly solid and expensive.
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
Good review Chris!
Other issues comparing T2 with T2HD:
Bright light display is achieved on the T2 by holding down the bottom button. Not automatic, but instant.
The new dock on the T2HD cannot be used on the original T2 and Lumigon will not be producing a dock for the original T2, despite using a dock in a lot of the original T2 advertising.
The IR blaster on the T2, when used with a Beovision, does work, but not consistently. If you press a selection multiple times you eventually get a reaction, but often jump from having no reaction at all to having sudden multiple actions.
Overall holding onto the original T2 rather than upgrading has been the right decision for me, even taking a generous discount offer into account.
In comparison with B&O's own mobile phones from the past, the Lumigon phones still remain the phones that B&O should have made.
Graham
Beovision 7 40 mk 5 ,beovision 6x3, beosound 3000, beogram 3300 , 2 x lc2, 2 x beocom 1401, beocom 6000 x 2, 5 x beo4,
, 4 x beolab 4's, form 2, h2, a2,a1 and a beolab 2 😀😀
Beolab 28s Beolab 9s Beolab 12-3s Beolab 1s Beolab 6000s 2 pairs Beolab 4000s Beovision 7-55 Beovision 10-40 Beoplay V1 32 inch Beovision Avant 32 inch Beosound 1 (CD player) Beosound 3000 Beosound 5 Core Essence MKII Beoplay M5
Thanks Graham, the lighting up the screen thing doesn't work on the T2 HD. I have owned both and the T2 HD is a far better phone, in every way.
Battery, scree, processing and camera are all a couple of generations ahead of the T2. There might even be a T3 on the horizon so hang on for that!!!!
Chris Townsend: Thanks Graham, the lighting up the screen thing doesn't work on the T2 HD. I have owned both and the T2 HD is a far better phone, in every way. Battery, scree, processing and camera are all a couple of generations ahead of the T2. There might even be a T3 on the horizon so hang on for that!!!!
There is an argument that all Android based phones are always out of date because the base operating system is re-skinned by manufacturers in a process that can take an additional 12 months. So from that point of view the Apple iPhones are always way ahead of the game.
I've always stuck with Apple computers for personal use and they have few of the problems that Windows computers seem to have. (My office had a huge staffing of people just sorting out Windows problems.) With phones, all my relatives have iPhones but I have always sought the B&O different approach, whether manufactured by B&O or incorporating B&O technology. But if I am really honest about this, the iPhone beats all the rest hands down!
bramble:Good review, but I will hang on for the new iPhone ( free upgrade due) apple seem to have this mobile handset thing ....In hand
BeoNut since '75
I have run the same apps on my wifes iPhone that my T2 HD has, and by and large they opened and ran at exactly the same speed. She has now ditched iPhones as she is sick and tired of being charged £15 for a lightning charger cable every other month! but thats another story.
A second hand T2 has just sold for £360 on eBay- more than the retail price just before the phone was discontinued at Expansys.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lumigon-T2-Black-Unlocked-Smartphone-Powered-By-Bang-And-Olufsen-unlocked-/151402382112?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item2340490320&autorefresh=true