Wow! The reviews of this item are all love or all hate! I suppose nobody posts a review if they feel just okay about an item. But I thought I'd put something up here that doesn't sound like a press release and also doesn't make this sound like it will give you diseases.
This is a perfectly good phone/organizer with which you will be perfectly happy if you don't set your standards irrationally high. It's got a load of features and they all work as advertised.
The major complaints seem to be about it being slow and unresponsive. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1. Slow and unresponsive are hallmarks of the Windows brand, what did you expect? But it is fast enough to make your calls and organize your contacts and play your music, which is what you want this phone for. If you want this phone for too much else, you don't want this phone: you want an iPhone, and you're going to have to pay for an iPhone.
This is not an iPhone, but it also doesn't cost nearly as much as an iPhone.
I think a major culprit to the "slow and unresponsive" complaint is the "haptic response." This is a cool idea that has fallen a little behind in the implementation. The idea is that it runs the vibrator a little when you hit a key. Unfortunately, what it does is it hits the vibrator a little *after* you hit the key. This immediate feedback really makes any little lag hit home. If you turn this feature off, you probably won't notice the delay at all: it'll run just like any other of your Windows CE or Windows Mobile devices.
Also, for a speed boost, try deleting some of the Java game demos and parasite-ware that come on it. If you're not going to pay for the full version of Ms. Pacman or Finance Mobile, wipe them and get that memory back.
The complaint about the full qwerty keyboard being too big is entirely valid. It is really useless. However, it still has the default Windows Mobile full qwerty keyboard available---which is much smaller---and one of the best handwriting recognition tools in the hand-held device market. (If you're really feeling hackish, try out the Dasher input method!)
There's a complaint that the interface, beyond the "Today" screen, is standard Windows Mobile fare and requires the silly little stylus fob. True, the stylus fob is really... well... it's gay. (It's gay in that way that homosexual people almost never are, if you must know.) On the other hand, the touch screen (slow as it is) is pretty good at working out where the center of your finger is. I've got big flat sausage fingers, but I can navigate the Windows menus fine and even play the tiny little game of solitaire without the silly little stylus. So the stylus is a non-issue. (And get yourself one of those pen/pencil/stylus combos from any Wallgreen's if it is an issue for you.)
Someone had a complaint that the registration was off: when you hit the screen with the stylus, the hit registered off on a diagonal. You need to configure your screen. There's a little test they give you where you have to chase a cross around the screen with the stylus. They used to do this on first boot and whenever the OS was reset. Now you have to dig a little to find the program that does this, but it's still there. Under the Start Menu (upper left) hit settings, then hit the "System" tab and hit "Screen." This is a pain, I know, when your screen is badly misaligned (as it will be out of the box), but the thumb-wheel will help you. You need to run through it three times: once for portrait mode and once for each of the landscape modes.
Here is the absolute coolest part of this phone: Google.
AT&T has a turn-by-turn GPS map app that they charge you extra to use. But the GPS is built into the phone. If you download Google Maps, it is able to use the GPS data from your phone and track you in real time... for free! (Well, you're still paying for the data package, but you're not paying additional for the map service.) Google Sync also works: for this device, Google pretends to be an Exchange Server and you point Active Sync at m.google.com. This syncs your Google Calendar and GMail Contacts to your phone. (These can by synced to your desktop or laptop with other software.) The mail app has IMAP support, so you can use that to sync to your GMail messages or use the mobile version of GMail in either of the two built-in browsers (IE or Access Whoozit, the AT&T browser.)
Google Docs all have mobile versions. There's a mobile YouTube app if you don't like the Cingular Video service. Post to your Orkut profile with ease (you have an Orkut profile, right? No? Well, anyway...)
This phone + Google's mobile apps is really pretty fly!
Here's the bottom line: if you've played with an iPhone and are looking for an iPhone: get an iPhone. This is not an iPhone.
If, on the other hand, you're looking for an inexpensive organizer/phone with a fair amount of style (stupid little dangly stylus aside), or if you're upgrading from an older Windows CE device, this is really a solid choice. There's a lot of value here for the money.
This is a perfectly good phone/organizer with which you will be perfectly happy if you don't set your standards irrationally high. It's got a load of features and they all work as advertised.
The major complaints seem to be about it being slow and unresponsive. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1. Slow and unresponsive are hallmarks of the Windows brand, what did you expect? But it is fast enough to make your calls and organize your contacts and play your music, which is what you want this phone for. If you want this phone for too much else, you don't want this phone: you want an iPhone, and you're going to have to pay for an iPhone.
This is not an iPhone, but it also doesn't cost nearly as much as an iPhone.
I think a major culprit to the "slow and unresponsive" complaint is the "haptic response." This is a cool idea that has fallen a little behind in the implementation. The idea is that it runs the vibrator a little when you hit a key. Unfortunately, what it does is it hits the vibrator a little *after* you hit the key. This immediate feedback really makes any little lag hit home. If you turn this feature off, you probably won't notice the delay at all: it'll run just like any other of your Windows CE or Windows Mobile devices.
Also, for a speed boost, try deleting some of the Java game demos and parasite-ware that come on it. If you're not going to pay for the full version of Ms. Pacman or Finance Mobile, wipe them and get that memory back.
The complaint about the full qwerty keyboard being too big is entirely valid. It is really useless. However, it still has the default Windows Mobile full qwerty keyboard available---which is much smaller---and one of the best handwriting recognition tools in the hand-held device market. (If you're really feeling hackish, try out the Dasher input method!)
There's a complaint that the interface, beyond the "Today" screen, is standard Windows Mobile fare and requires the silly little stylus fob. True, the stylus fob is really... well... it's gay. (It's gay in that way that homosexual people almost never are, if you must know.) On the other hand, the touch screen (slow as it is) is pretty good at working out where the center of your finger is. I've got big flat sausage fingers, but I can navigate the Windows menus fine and even play the tiny little game of solitaire without the silly little stylus. So the stylus is a non-issue. (And get yourself one of those pen/pencil/stylus combos from any Wallgreen's if it is an issue for you.)
Someone had a complaint that the registration was off: when you hit the screen with the stylus, the hit registered off on a diagonal. You need to configure your screen. There's a little test they give you where you have to chase a cross around the screen with the stylus. They used to do this on first boot and whenever the OS was reset. Now you have to dig a little to find the program that does this, but it's still there. Under the Start Menu (upper left) hit settings, then hit the "System" tab and hit "Screen." This is a pain, I know, when your screen is badly misaligned (as it will be out of the box), but the thumb-wheel will help you. You need to run through it three times: once for portrait mode and once for each of the landscape modes.
Here is the absolute coolest part of this phone: Google.
AT&T has a turn-by-turn GPS map app that they charge you extra to use. But the GPS is built into the phone. If you download Google Maps, it is able to use the GPS data from your phone and track you in real time... for free! (Well, you're still paying for the data package, but you're not paying additional for the map service.) Google Sync also works: for this device, Google pretends to be an Exchange Server and you point Active Sync at m.google.com. This syncs your Google Calendar and GMail Contacts to your phone. (These can by synced to your desktop or laptop with other software.) The mail app has IMAP support, so you can use that to sync to your GMail messages or use the mobile version of GMail in either of the two built-in browsers (IE or Access Whoozit, the AT&T browser.)
Google Docs all have mobile versions. There's a mobile YouTube app if you don't like the Cingular Video service. Post to your Orkut profile with ease (you have an Orkut profile, right? No? Well, anyway...)
This phone + Google's mobile apps is really pretty fly!
Here's the bottom line: if you've played with an iPhone and are looking for an iPhone: get an iPhone. This is not an iPhone.
If, on the other hand, you're looking for an inexpensive organizer/phone with a fair amount of style (stupid little dangly stylus aside), or if you're upgrading from an older Windows CE device, this is really a solid choice. There's a lot of value here for the money.
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