gmore
02-29-2004, 12:05 PM
Disclosure - I'm not a tech-ee (although a whole lot closer now), so this review is from a laymans perspective.
Ready to join the PDA world for the 1st time, as well as update my 5 year old Samsung phone, I obsessively review PDA/phones online for way too long. Given that I'm pretty much locked into Sprint (for good reasons), the obvious choice seem to be the Treo 600. Shortly after getting one, I continued to look up ways to use it and discovered the world of Bluetooth. The advantages of PDA paired with a Cell phone for surfing appealed to me.... enter the T608.
After ordering a T608 ( $199 @ 866-PCS-AUTO direct - for those interested), I immediately went out and purchased an Ambicom PCMCIA Bluetooth card for my laptop - installed it, and studied it. After recieving my T608 (a mild fiasco, but another story all-together), I went to work. To make a 3 day long story short - NO GO ! Contacted Ambicom, and Sony both thru e-mail, and Ambicom direct - NOTHING. My computer (Windows XP), would recognize the phone, but upon passcode would fail. I could pair up via the phone, but upon dialing - LOCK-UP - I used EVERY POSSIBLE SCENARIO. Discouraged, but not ready to give up, I went down to both 'Best Buy' and 'Circuit City', and began pairing with PDA's. With virtually no experience with IPAQ or Palm, I was able to pair to either with absolutely no problem - and with the IPAQ 2215, was able to surf ! After 20 minutes with the Palm ( OK, probably closer to an hour ), no go on surfing, but again - I don't know Palm. In order to dial Sprint Vision, simply use #777, and no user name or password - the phone does this for you.
The good news with the T608, was that I was able to surf with an IPAQ via Bluetooth, and it was faster and easier to use than the Treo 600. The bad news is that for me, the T608 as a phone fell way short. The reality for me is that 85% of my use is phone, 10% is PDA, and 5% games. Based on this - here are the goods and bads.
T608
GOOD - Excellent modem via Bluetooth with PDA, lots of features, user friendly menu, easy to hold, ad confortable navigation. built-in voice memo (although short).
BAD - Bluetooth not 100% universal (as best as I, Ambicom, and Sony can see), very slow menu, weak screen, poor speakerphone, very slow internet navigation by itself, and most importantly to me - VERY weak ringer - at best 1/2 as loud as my antique Samsung and thats being nice. As silly as that sounds, Its best to answer my phone on the 1st call, and working in a loud environment, I have to hear the ringer to do so.
As far as the Treo 600 is concerened, for Sprint users, it is still the best 'all in one' available, but it also fell short for me - I AM being picky here.
GOOD - To much to mention - read the reviews. Even though the T608/PDA was better for surfing, this was the best stand alone unit I've tried.
BAD (for me), when I speak, I use an earpiece 80% of the time, and the location of the jack as well as the need for an adapter for universal earpieces was a big downer for me. The lack of a voice memo was also dissapointing given that many of the stripped down phones have this (possibly sofware upgradable ?), and overall the fear of dropping it - this is of course my problem, but given the 100's of times I've dropped the Samsung ( its still ticking ), I just can't see this being a reality for this phone. It feels very durable but I see that screen going within a few weeks with me. Bottom line, just not compatable with me.
Both are going back, and I'm either going to wait for a clamshell Pocket PC phone to come out (which doesn't seem like much of a reality at this time) or pursue a really good phone thats linkable to an IPAQ via cable(supplynet. etc).
I know this a review board only, but any link or post to someone who has experienced the IPAQ/Supplynet/Phone combo with comment on models, speed and ease of use would be much appreciated - I don't know if I'm up for the legwork again. THANKS in advance.
Ready to join the PDA world for the 1st time, as well as update my 5 year old Samsung phone, I obsessively review PDA/phones online for way too long. Given that I'm pretty much locked into Sprint (for good reasons), the obvious choice seem to be the Treo 600. Shortly after getting one, I continued to look up ways to use it and discovered the world of Bluetooth. The advantages of PDA paired with a Cell phone for surfing appealed to me.... enter the T608.
After ordering a T608 ( $199 @ 866-PCS-AUTO direct - for those interested), I immediately went out and purchased an Ambicom PCMCIA Bluetooth card for my laptop - installed it, and studied it. After recieving my T608 (a mild fiasco, but another story all-together), I went to work. To make a 3 day long story short - NO GO ! Contacted Ambicom, and Sony both thru e-mail, and Ambicom direct - NOTHING. My computer (Windows XP), would recognize the phone, but upon passcode would fail. I could pair up via the phone, but upon dialing - LOCK-UP - I used EVERY POSSIBLE SCENARIO. Discouraged, but not ready to give up, I went down to both 'Best Buy' and 'Circuit City', and began pairing with PDA's. With virtually no experience with IPAQ or Palm, I was able to pair to either with absolutely no problem - and with the IPAQ 2215, was able to surf ! After 20 minutes with the Palm ( OK, probably closer to an hour ), no go on surfing, but again - I don't know Palm. In order to dial Sprint Vision, simply use #777, and no user name or password - the phone does this for you.
The good news with the T608, was that I was able to surf with an IPAQ via Bluetooth, and it was faster and easier to use than the Treo 600. The bad news is that for me, the T608 as a phone fell way short. The reality for me is that 85% of my use is phone, 10% is PDA, and 5% games. Based on this - here are the goods and bads.
T608
GOOD - Excellent modem via Bluetooth with PDA, lots of features, user friendly menu, easy to hold, ad confortable navigation. built-in voice memo (although short).
BAD - Bluetooth not 100% universal (as best as I, Ambicom, and Sony can see), very slow menu, weak screen, poor speakerphone, very slow internet navigation by itself, and most importantly to me - VERY weak ringer - at best 1/2 as loud as my antique Samsung and thats being nice. As silly as that sounds, Its best to answer my phone on the 1st call, and working in a loud environment, I have to hear the ringer to do so.
As far as the Treo 600 is concerened, for Sprint users, it is still the best 'all in one' available, but it also fell short for me - I AM being picky here.
GOOD - To much to mention - read the reviews. Even though the T608/PDA was better for surfing, this was the best stand alone unit I've tried.
BAD (for me), when I speak, I use an earpiece 80% of the time, and the location of the jack as well as the need for an adapter for universal earpieces was a big downer for me. The lack of a voice memo was also dissapointing given that many of the stripped down phones have this (possibly sofware upgradable ?), and overall the fear of dropping it - this is of course my problem, but given the 100's of times I've dropped the Samsung ( its still ticking ), I just can't see this being a reality for this phone. It feels very durable but I see that screen going within a few weeks with me. Bottom line, just not compatable with me.
Both are going back, and I'm either going to wait for a clamshell Pocket PC phone to come out (which doesn't seem like much of a reality at this time) or pursue a really good phone thats linkable to an IPAQ via cable(supplynet. etc).
I know this a review board only, but any link or post to someone who has experienced the IPAQ/Supplynet/Phone combo with comment on models, speed and ease of use would be much appreciated - I don't know if I'm up for the legwork again. THANKS in advance.