Softbank X01HT (HTC "z") smartphone

[Fallin' up]

Softbank X01HT
Looks pretty impressive. Street price of 20,000.

Ive already contacted Softbank customer service regarding the availablity of an english manual/english OS and price plans. If anyones interested I'll pass along any info I obtain.

[Fallin' up]

well, customer service just called me back and the phone is nihongo dake. *sigh* figures.

anyone techy enough to know if theres a way to re-install windows mobile in english?

edit: I didnt realize until a few minutes ago that the X01HT is the exact same phone as the HTC Hermes 200. Its just rather cryptically rebranded for the japanese market. Sooo, I thought I would buy a Hermes 200 when I go back to states for the holidays.....wrong. Softbank just informed that when they install their sim card the only service that will be available is voice. Am I missing something here? Its the EXACT same phone.

What do you guys think? Are there any options for those of us that cant read kanji but want to use a smartphone?

[Big Booger]

This is a nifty little phone. Too bad they don't support an English OS/manual or I'd be geared up for this.

[FG Lurker]

SoftBank has released a PDA/smartphone thingy that looks rather cool:
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/x01ht/index.html#

A friend is asking me if this thing can be changed to use English Windows Mobile. My gut reaction is "no", cause SoftBank will have locked it. However these days I know very little about phones and what can and can't be done, or how difficult it might be... If someone out there with more knowledge would care to share that would be very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[maninjapan]

Man that would be tasty to have - whats the loading times on it for turning on, switching between applications?

Sometimes these all singing all dancing phones take forever to load up.

[FG Lurker]

Thank you to the kind mod who moved this to the proper location... I missed this thread I guess!

So, anyone know if this can be converted to English?

[FG Lurker]

Softbank just informed that when they install their sim card the only service that will be available is voice.

I know a guy here who has used overseas unlocked phones on Vodafone Japan without trouble. He called them up and asked for the parameters necessary and Vodafone was happy to give them out. He was able to use voice no problem as well as internet data access. He was not able to use Vodafone's keitai mail but he didn't care as his desire was to see his normal email account from a mobile device.

The downside to this is cost -- it costs more to send/receive mail via a normal mail client than it does via vodafone's email system. Not more per packet, but more overall as there will be more headers and general overhead to deal with. You also can't make use of the "mail hodai" sorts of plans either.

[GomiGirl]

I am not a windows smart phone person so I am not sure about these here in japan. Does anybody have one of these beasts in an English OS? Eg the Wilcomm WX310SA...

Somebody was asking me about them today.

[FG Lurker]

Just got off the phone with my super-keitai-guru buddy here in Osaka.

He said that basically NO, this can not be converted to English. Some people have tried to hack their way through with varying degrees of success but it is not something he recommends, and apparently it basically does not work (well?) anyway.

However it is possible to install English apps onto this. You could install an English mail client and English browser, along with other apps no problem. The base OS and base MS apps would remain in Japanese. This may be a solution for some people.

He also said that the blackberry is now available in Japan via Docomo corporate sales. Docomo shops do NOT carry this, and asking about it in a Docomo shop will result in the cute Docomo girl giving you that confused deer-in-the-headlights look. You need to contact the corporate sales department and open a corporate account to get access to a blackberry here. Apparently the device is all English and basically does not support Japanese. It is targeted at the foreign executive market.

[firefly]

I flashed my device, and it's working almost perfectly in English.

I'm still having some problems getting it to work with and Exchange server, but I'm sorting that out right now.

For more information on how to do this, check out :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=281617

It is a risk to do this though. If you make a mistake or your PC shuts down, you could brick your phone.

[Big Booger]

Looks great firefly. Is it as easy as that site makes it out to be? Or is it more cumbersome than it seems?

Did you work out all the kinks? Anything one should be aware of before trying it other than bricking the phone?

[FG Lurker]

Definitely, very cool indeed.

Once this is done does the device work with Japanese apps at all? How about handling double-byte characters (Japanese), does this work, or is the device English-only?

[firefly]

Hi there,

Well, I'm something of an IT Engineer, but I managed to get it all working quite well. I'm very happy with the device and how it's going now.

For me, the risk of bricking the device was outweighed by the prospect of a sweet PDA Phone in English. However a lot of other people seem to be having decent success as well.

I would offer the following advice - read all of the threads on that forum very carefully, and make sure you clearly understand the risks. On top of that, make certain the computer you're performing the upgrade from is very stable, and of course close ALL applications (including the stuff down the bottom in the task bar).

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Looks great firefly. Is it as easy as that site makes it out to be? Or is it more cumbersome than it seems?

Did you work out all the kinks? Anything one should be aware of before trying it other than bricking the phone?

[firefly]

For me, it's working great. It works with Japanese apps as well, but you have to install files to enable Japanese support (mainly font files). Of course, I was happy to do this. Instructions for this are on the other site.

Definitely, very cool indeed.

Once this is done does the device work with Japanese apps at all? How about handling double-byte characters (Japanese), does this work, or is the device English-only?

[FG Lurker]

For me, it's working great. It works with Japanese apps as well, but you have to install files to enable Japanese support (mainly font files). Of course, I was happy to do this. Instructions for this are on the other site.

What about an IME though? Can you write Japanese emails, for example? Edit Japanese documents?

I'm interested enough to buy one of these and try this out, but only if the resulting English system can still work properly with Japanese documents and mail.

[Big Booger]

Got any pics of that bad boy in English action? I have an ancient phone and I really need to upgrade but my wife puts the smack down on tech toys.

[FG Lurker]

Got any pics of that bad boy in English action? I have an ancient phone and I really need to upgrade but my wife puts the smack down on tech toys.

Your wife would have daily coronaries if she was married to me, lol

[firefly]

I'll try to get some pics up online. I'll also try to avoid capturing anything that SoftBank could use to track me down and cancel my contracts.

Heh.

You can use Japanese IME, but I haven't done that part just yet. It's possibly through 3rd party applications.

I've got it displaying ClearType Japanese text very nicely, however.

[RyoHazuki]

Hi all,

I am contemplating whether to get the X01HT from softbank or not.
I am not fluent with japanese but I guess I can work around the OS (I use a japanese OS on daily basis).

I was wondering if anybody here own that kei-tai and can share with me his/her opinion.

- PS - Anybody knows if we will ever see the N73 in Japan, I noticed they removed it from their page.

Cheers,
Ryo

[Mod Edit: Post has been moved to this thread]

[firefly]

Hi there,

Theres some info on this phone at http://gadgetjim.yourjapan.jp.

I have this phone, I use it, and it's the best phone/PDA device I've ever had. Highly, highly recommended, especially if you have an Exchange server.

[FG Lurker]

I just picked up one of these today and am working my way through figuring it out. I will probably unlock the phone but I think I'll just leave it in Japanese.

I don't seem to be able to get or send mail on the phone though. It's very weird. The screen will suddenly come on when a mail should be arriving (ie if I send one from my PC to the keitai the screen comes on) but I can't find the messages anywhere! Mobile Outlook stays empty. Sending messages also doesn't seem to work. I can write an email and click send, and it goes to the sent folder but never arrives at the destination.

Data communications work fine though, I can browse websites from the built-in browser.

Do I need to purchase a memory card in order to use email? Am I missing something stupid?

Thanks in advance...

[TFG]

Don't you have to sign up for mail when you buy it?
I was given the choice and I chose not to.
You can change sign up for it from the phone I think.

[FG Lurker]

Don't you have to sign up for mail when you buy it?
I was given the choice and I chose not to.
You can change sign up for it from the phone I think.

I kept the same rate plan so it should still have the 315yen for mail included...

Actually, when I put my SIM card into the old phone mail comes through, but it looks like the new phone is downloading mail and...nuking it!? It's not on the SoftBank server anymore, but I can't find it in the phone either. Very weird.

I'll stop by SoftBank tomorrow and ask what's up. I have a feeling they might have borked a setup procedure or something.

[TFG]

Here is how you switch it to English is anyone is interested.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-281617.html

Yeah, the English user manual seems scarce. There are some references to a ODF file but the file does not appear available for non members.


Good luck

[oyajikun]

Does anyone know how much softbank is charging for the new X02HT Smartphone?

[ismails]

I already have mails problem,

[wuchan]

zombie thread....



KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! or just ban the obvious bot.

[Coligny]

Yea, because a zombie trying to eat your brain while on fire is really an improvement...

NEVER, EVER use fire to kill a zombie. You can dispose of the corpse with fire after re-killing them. But if you think that rotten corpse will mind being set on fire, i have bad news for you...