XV6600 Pocket PC Phone Edition
from Verizon Wireless
Page 2

Discuss this Review!

Cont'd from Page 1

Initial observations (cont'd)

Stylus
Matt: I love having the stylus back at the TOP of the device! Old habits die hard, though - I'm still reaching for the bottom of the XV6600, from 1 1/2 years of reaching at the bottom of the i700! BoxWave sells a stylus/pen combo, which I purchased. How handy to have a pen in the other end of the stylus!

John: I’ve used the built in stylus to reset my device, but don’t like skinny stylus’ for regular use. My hand cramps up to easily. I prefer something bigger like a regular pen size stylus. I prefer this one, which we received from the Microsoft event:

Matt: Yeah, those are very handy. I use one at my desk, and carry one in my briefcase! Still, it's nice to know that I always have a pen with me, in my device! It's like taking the whole converged thing to yet another level! :)

Windows Mobile SE Phone Edition
Matt: As soon as I began navigating through the screens, I could see the subtle changes that Second Edition brings to the phone (Inbox is now called Messaging, ActiveSync mail is now called Outlook Mail, SMS is now referred to as Text Messages, some really cool changes to Pocket Internet Explorer, Start Menu changes, Rotating Screen, the ability to change system Font Size, etc).

John: I was surprised by the updates found. I’m sure I’ve only seen a few, but they are impressive nonetheless.

• Pocket IE - has been updated with additional layout views: One Column, Default and Desktop. Looks nice too!
• Add Ring Tone settings applet – lets you easily add any sound file as a ring tone.
• Button Lock settings applet – locks the buttons so you don’t accidentally turn on the device.
• Rotate to Landscape Screen – what can I say… this is TOO WONDERFUL!
• Text Messages Retry – a special folder where unsent messages go for sending later in a better coverage area.

Secure Digital Card
Matt: The SD card slot is located at the top - yeah! I never did lose a card on my i700, but heard of many who had, with the slot (stupidly) facing out the side. There will be no worries of that on the 6600 – the slot is at the top where it belongs. Another interesting note: the card inserts facing backwards! My guess is that the slot needed to be reversed to accommodate the sliding rear portion of the 6600.

The SD card inserts facing backwards...	Probably to accomodate the sliding front portion...

I noticed SD card turns device on/off when being ejected or inserted. This appears to be the same case with headphones. Don’t know why it does that – if I am swapping out cards, I prefer that the device is powered off. Now I have an extra step – eject a card, turn the device off, then insert another card.

John: Yes, I have to agree about the logical placement of the SD card. Matt was being nice by not saying that it was ME who nearly lost my 512MB chip from my i700! It popped out of my device like a Pop Tart! Fortunately, I was there and saw it happen. I seriously doubt that would happen on the XV6600 with it being positioned on the top of the device.

The HP Jornada 568 turned itself on when a card was inserted or removed. I don’t think it hurts anything unless you are writing to the card at the time of removal. We just grew up with the impression the device must be turned off before removing the storage card. (Or maybe we recall the smacked hands from yanking out cartridges from our old game systems without turning it off first! Old habits die hard!)

The sliding parts take getting used to
Matt: One-handed powering on of the device takes getting used to - the device wants to slide apart, since you are holding the sides of the screen, and pushing down on the REAR of the device. It’s not a big deal – you just need to learn the best way to handle the device. I experienced the same learning curve on the i700. I was accidentally pushing buttons on that thing all the time!

Handling the device this way while pressing the power button moves the screen on you...

Obviously, this is the preferred method for one-handed powering on of the device...!

John: I’ve read that several people have loose keyboards. Mine seems pretty tight. I just remove it from my case and slide up the top with my thumbs. I like the power button on the top. It prevents me from turning it on too easily. I have also turned on the BUTTON LOCK feature of the operating system. That will prevent the front buttons from turning on the device as well. That’s an extremely important feature when you’re using a case.

What’s going to take me time to get used to is the keyboard. I’m so used to typing everything out with the stylus. It’s hard to remember you have a keyboard at your thumbs.

Speaking of buttons
Matt: The buttons on the side are smoothly recessed, which is nice, but they can be hard to find quickly! Still, I'd rather they be recessed than not. I'm experiencing less accidental pressings. That happened all the time on the i700. like I mentioned earlier.

Nicely recessed buttons on the side, as well as at the top.

There is a Button Lock feature which is handy. When selected, only the power button will turn the device on. It’s not perfect though - if a Reminder comes on, it will power up the device, and then the buttons (or screen) could be accidentally pressed.

John: I like the smooth buttons. They look so "21st Century"! And I like the fact that every button is re-programmable. I love that feature!

Rotating Screen
Matt: I LOVE this feature! I have one of the hardware buttons programmed to rotate the screen on the fly. One thing that becomes quickly apparent, however: the rotating screen renders the built-in keyboard useless when you are viewing something in Landscape Mode! Still, for stylus (or expandable keyboard) use, the Landscape Mode rocks. Some changes in Pocket Internet Explorer in SE make viewing that much better – almost to the point where you don’t need something like NetFront or Thunderhawk…

John: Oh yes… the instant screen rotation is PERFECT! Whether you are using Pocket Internet Explorer or Pocket Excel, it will come in handy. Not all programs can take advantage of this new feature, but most will work without too much distortion. Mapopolis is one program that will need to be updated for the landscape mode.
I will mention that the first time you rotate the screen, it will be designed for right handed use (ugh! Lefties are the minority). You can go to Start > Settings > System > Screen and change to a left-handed rotation. At least someone was thinking about the 10% of us left-handed people!

File Explorer in Portrait	File Explorer in Landscape. You can see a lot more of file names.
Inbox, Portrait	Inbox, Landscape.
Excel, Portrait	Excel, in Landscape, plus I chose Full Screen in the View menu.
Pocket Internet Explorer, Portrait Mode and One Column layout. Full Google site (vs. mobile version)	Pocket Internet Explorer, Landscape Mode and One Column layout. Full Google site (vs. mobile version)

No camera (on this version)
Matt: There is no camera on the XV6600. The camera version is supposed to be available later in Q1 of 2005. There are many people who don’t give a dog’s butt about the camera, but I have to admit – I miss it. I used the camera to take shots “spur of the moment”, when my good digital camera was not with me. I also have a Text America account, where I maintain a Moblog, and now that I don’t have the camera handy on my device, my posts to my Moblog have been fewer. Now, I only upload photos when I have my digital camera with me, which is not all the time…
I will likely upgrade to the camera version once it is available. Yes, it will cost me to do so, but I want the camera feature. To each, his own, right?! (show image where camera is located on the other version).

John: Let’s see… I used my camera on the i700 maybe ten times in the past year. I don’t think I’ll miss the camera. Well, that is, until the time I really need it to snap a picture of the UFO flying overhead!

Speaker and Ring Tone volume
Matt: The speaker is not as loud as the i700, so subsequently, the Ring Tones are not as loud either. This is a little disappointing, but I have managed some workarounds. First off, I use the Speakerphone feature when I hold the device to my ear – well, not actually to my ear, because with Speakerphone on, it’s plenty loud! But if I’m using the phone in this manner, the Speakerphone function does the trick.
As far as Ring Tones go, I like to use the Old Phone ring tone that comes with the device. I edited the sound file on my PC, and boosted the volume 75%, and now it’s plenty loud enough!

John: Ugh… that was my one gripe about this device. In noisy environments, it might be tough to hear on the phone. The volume just isn’t as good as it could be. I’m trying to find a registry hack to fix the speaker volume for calls, it’s got to be in there somewhere. The speaker phone is rather loud, but it’s too cumbersome to setup each time. The XV6600 requires you to hold the SEND button for up to 5 seconds to initiate the speaker phone. If you hold it less, it thinks you are trying to make a 3-way call. It’s too easy to lose your caller.
As for ringtones, I like the Old Phone ring tone, but I could barely hear it. I went through my collection and found another ring tone that I liked. I made it louder and it works much better now. Unfortunately, you only get a choice of ONE tone for ALL of your callers. I hope MTUX will release a version of RingToneX that works with the 2003SE Phone Edition. I already miss hearing ‘Inspector Gadget’ when I get a call from Matt!

Matt: I've heard that Audiovox is supposed to be working on a resolution to the low speaker volume. If and when a fix is available, I'll update the review and post the info on the forum. I hope they do fix it soon. I use the speakerphone (by pressing the SEND button like you described) every time I use the phone, just so I can hear clearly (if I'm not using a headset), and many times, I goof, and hang up on my call! Very annoying! The Samsung i700 responded to turning on the speakerphone much faster when pressing the SEND button, so I am still in the habit of pressing it quickly and expecting the speaker to be on! (To self): "Must be patient... must wait at least 4 or 5 seconds....!"

Continued on Page 3 >>

Screenshots in this review were obtained using Pocket Controller - Professional
which was generously provided by SOTI