jimmyjames
12-17-2003, 04:58 PM
I got this phone from a friend. It’s a demo phone that he’s letting me borrow for a day. It’s basically a production-quality phone. I even called *2 and had them check the ESN and they already have it in their system (along with the programming instructions), so I’d expect this phone to be released very soon.
The Good:
1. Size. Basically identical in size to the 5500/VM4500.
2. Screen. This screen is AMAZING. Everyone else who reviewed the phone said the same thing as well. “The screen is the best ever, blah, blah.” Well they weren’t joking. It honestly looks like a laptop LCD. I’ve got a Superfine UXGA screen on my laptop and the Toshiba is very comparable. You honestly will not believe it when you see it. The screen is going to be this phone’s big thing. The main LCD has to option to turn off the “guidance labels” on the bottom of the screen, but their corresponding buttons still function properly. Very nice. The background fills up the entire screen and the date/time can be set to be at the very bottom of the screen so that almost the entire screen is uncluttered. The backlight for the main and sub LCD can be set to whatever number of seconds that you like. No predefined options here, baby. The sub LCD is only an STN screen. It not only shows a background image like the Sanyos, but it can display a different image from the one on the main LCD. The time is more legible in the daylight (when illiminated). A quick press of a side button illuminates the sub LCD (unlike Samsungs where you have to hold the button down for a long time). The sub LCD can also be inverted.
3. The camera is very good compared to the 5500, but still not that great. It does NOT have a 2x optical zoom. It’s 640x480 at high resolution and can be zoomed 2x at the medium resolution of 320x240. The video camera can be zoomed to 2x or 4x. The camera has nice on-screen controls that can be turned on or off [memory gauge, finder scope, and date stamp (can only be used in 320x240 mode)]. The video camera works fine and has a bright LED spotlight for low-light settings.
4. Web. Very fast and the amount of data displayed on the screen is awesome. On the normal Vision homepage, all 10 items are displayed and there is still about 2 lines extra at the bottom that aren’t used. When you hit the options button, you can scroll sideways from “Navigate” to “Bookmarks”, “History” and “Tools.” You can then scroll downward in each menu. You can set the scroll method and speed, as well as having text find and copy options.
5. Text messaging. Yes, this phone has MO-SMS. It’s not live in my area, so I get the standard message about it being available soon and to use ShortMail in the meantime. It’s easy to add multiple recipients to your messages and sent mail gets saved in its own folder.
6. Menus. Awesome. The main menu is a graphical interface with 9 options arranged in a 3x3 grid. They each have their own pictures and text descriptions (both of which can be changed) and look very, very good. You also have the standard user programmable button on the 4-way rocker that goes to your own personalized menu. You actually get your own menu of 9 options. You can set it to whatever you want like Alarm, Calender, Missed Calls, etc. You can choose whatever background wallpaper you want in your menu, as well as each of the buttons. There are tons of backgrounds and textures to choose from or you can use your own (downloaded or taken with the camera). Yes, you can assign camera pictures to any of the 18 total menu items and they look crystal clear. You can even have the buttons be transparent where only the outline of the button is seen and your background shows through.
7. Features. First, it has an Alarm. It also has a countdown timer, voice memo, calculator, scheduler (calendar), voice guidance (great for when driving since the phone talks to you and tells you the number of an incoming or outgoing call and says the name if it’s in your phonebook).
8. Ringers. It’s got 18 standard ringers as well as a bunch of melody ringers. You can set downloaded tunes as ringers as well as voice memos. The ringers are MUCH louder than those on the Sanyo models.
9. Earpiece. Very clear. Not at all muddy or muffled sounding. One of the clearest earpieces around.
10. Vibrating ringer. Very good. At least as good as the 5500 and possibly a bit stronger. No complaints.
11. Overall construction. The phone appears to be made very well and the hinge is easily as good as the Sanyo offerings. The buttons remind me of Samsung buttons and they have blue LED backlighting. The 4-way rocker with central “OK” key works very well.
12. Speakerphone. First of all, it’s only half-duplex. Yup, no big surprise. It works just as well as the one on the 5500. The speaker is more clear on my end (though won’t go as ridiculously loud as the 5500) and the other party reported clearer sound as well.
The Bad:
1. Earpiece volume. The volume is just fine for normal situations, but I don’t know if it would be loud enough for very noisy environments. It’s probably as loud as the A600 or A620 (with a clearer earpiece), but not as loud as the 8100.
2. Battery cover. This phone uses a battery cover as opposed to the single piece batteries that most everyone else uses. Not a bid deal, but it lets the battery door creak a bit. If I bought the phone, I’d put a very thin piece of fabric or felt on the inside of the battery cover to press against the battery and keep the cover from moving at all.
3. Reception. Not that it’s bad, but I honestly can’t test it. The debug screen doesn’t show the signal strength. It’s weird because it has a ton of information on the debug screen and it’s all labeled information. It has a line for everything from slot cycle index being requested by the tower to the channel being used. It has Rx Power and Rx Ec/Io, but it doesn’t give any readings. The only thing related to signal strength is the transmission adjust value. That usually goes between 0 and 4dBm while mostly staying at 0 (for what it’s worth).
The Ugly:
1. The front of the flip. I don’t honestly care for the way that it looks. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so that’s just my taste. Everything else about the phone (did I mention the screen?) is great.
That’s it. I can’t upload any pictures because it’s not my Vision account that’s on the phone. Without a data cable and software, that’s the only way to get the pictures off.
Feel free to ask any questions if I’ve been unclear or missed anything.
The Good:
1. Size. Basically identical in size to the 5500/VM4500.
2. Screen. This screen is AMAZING. Everyone else who reviewed the phone said the same thing as well. “The screen is the best ever, blah, blah.” Well they weren’t joking. It honestly looks like a laptop LCD. I’ve got a Superfine UXGA screen on my laptop and the Toshiba is very comparable. You honestly will not believe it when you see it. The screen is going to be this phone’s big thing. The main LCD has to option to turn off the “guidance labels” on the bottom of the screen, but their corresponding buttons still function properly. Very nice. The background fills up the entire screen and the date/time can be set to be at the very bottom of the screen so that almost the entire screen is uncluttered. The backlight for the main and sub LCD can be set to whatever number of seconds that you like. No predefined options here, baby. The sub LCD is only an STN screen. It not only shows a background image like the Sanyos, but it can display a different image from the one on the main LCD. The time is more legible in the daylight (when illiminated). A quick press of a side button illuminates the sub LCD (unlike Samsungs where you have to hold the button down for a long time). The sub LCD can also be inverted.
3. The camera is very good compared to the 5500, but still not that great. It does NOT have a 2x optical zoom. It’s 640x480 at high resolution and can be zoomed 2x at the medium resolution of 320x240. The video camera can be zoomed to 2x or 4x. The camera has nice on-screen controls that can be turned on or off [memory gauge, finder scope, and date stamp (can only be used in 320x240 mode)]. The video camera works fine and has a bright LED spotlight for low-light settings.
4. Web. Very fast and the amount of data displayed on the screen is awesome. On the normal Vision homepage, all 10 items are displayed and there is still about 2 lines extra at the bottom that aren’t used. When you hit the options button, you can scroll sideways from “Navigate” to “Bookmarks”, “History” and “Tools.” You can then scroll downward in each menu. You can set the scroll method and speed, as well as having text find and copy options.
5. Text messaging. Yes, this phone has MO-SMS. It’s not live in my area, so I get the standard message about it being available soon and to use ShortMail in the meantime. It’s easy to add multiple recipients to your messages and sent mail gets saved in its own folder.
6. Menus. Awesome. The main menu is a graphical interface with 9 options arranged in a 3x3 grid. They each have their own pictures and text descriptions (both of which can be changed) and look very, very good. You also have the standard user programmable button on the 4-way rocker that goes to your own personalized menu. You actually get your own menu of 9 options. You can set it to whatever you want like Alarm, Calender, Missed Calls, etc. You can choose whatever background wallpaper you want in your menu, as well as each of the buttons. There are tons of backgrounds and textures to choose from or you can use your own (downloaded or taken with the camera). Yes, you can assign camera pictures to any of the 18 total menu items and they look crystal clear. You can even have the buttons be transparent where only the outline of the button is seen and your background shows through.
7. Features. First, it has an Alarm. It also has a countdown timer, voice memo, calculator, scheduler (calendar), voice guidance (great for when driving since the phone talks to you and tells you the number of an incoming or outgoing call and says the name if it’s in your phonebook).
8. Ringers. It’s got 18 standard ringers as well as a bunch of melody ringers. You can set downloaded tunes as ringers as well as voice memos. The ringers are MUCH louder than those on the Sanyo models.
9. Earpiece. Very clear. Not at all muddy or muffled sounding. One of the clearest earpieces around.
10. Vibrating ringer. Very good. At least as good as the 5500 and possibly a bit stronger. No complaints.
11. Overall construction. The phone appears to be made very well and the hinge is easily as good as the Sanyo offerings. The buttons remind me of Samsung buttons and they have blue LED backlighting. The 4-way rocker with central “OK” key works very well.
12. Speakerphone. First of all, it’s only half-duplex. Yup, no big surprise. It works just as well as the one on the 5500. The speaker is more clear on my end (though won’t go as ridiculously loud as the 5500) and the other party reported clearer sound as well.
The Bad:
1. Earpiece volume. The volume is just fine for normal situations, but I don’t know if it would be loud enough for very noisy environments. It’s probably as loud as the A600 or A620 (with a clearer earpiece), but not as loud as the 8100.
2. Battery cover. This phone uses a battery cover as opposed to the single piece batteries that most everyone else uses. Not a bid deal, but it lets the battery door creak a bit. If I bought the phone, I’d put a very thin piece of fabric or felt on the inside of the battery cover to press against the battery and keep the cover from moving at all.
3. Reception. Not that it’s bad, but I honestly can’t test it. The debug screen doesn’t show the signal strength. It’s weird because it has a ton of information on the debug screen and it’s all labeled information. It has a line for everything from slot cycle index being requested by the tower to the channel being used. It has Rx Power and Rx Ec/Io, but it doesn’t give any readings. The only thing related to signal strength is the transmission adjust value. That usually goes between 0 and 4dBm while mostly staying at 0 (for what it’s worth).
The Ugly:
1. The front of the flip. I don’t honestly care for the way that it looks. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so that’s just my taste. Everything else about the phone (did I mention the screen?) is great.
That’s it. I can’t upload any pictures because it’s not my Vision account that’s on the phone. Without a data cable and software, that’s the only way to get the pictures off.
Feel free to ask any questions if I’ve been unclear or missed anything.