cprohman
11-24-2002, 08:11 PM
This is an excellent phone in all respects. The only real negatives are:
1. It is a single band phone
2. Many people prefer flip phones
3. Screen is dull compared to a500 and the 5300
4. Price is currently too high
Now for the good standard stuff:
1. It is very well made. I think I'll have this one awhile.
2. RF is outstanding, and is probably the best of all the Vision phones. It edges out the 5300 in comparisons I personally have made. I was able to get digital reception about 20 miles from the nearest tower. Furthermore, the "bar" guage is pretty accurate, and drops predictably from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 to 0 as your drive away. Contrast that to the Sanyo which claims to have 3 bars, then suddenly goes to 2 then 1 then drops service.
3. PIM is outstanding. It holds more names and numbers, as well as more information about each person, plus the ability to classify them, and sort on that classification (as in familiy, business, customers, doctors, or whatever classifications you define yourself). After finding a person in the PIM, you can call them, or if you prefer, email them.
4. On board email capability. You can access any POP3 server, and download up to 70 emails into the phone. This is much faster than web-based email.
5. 3G interface is the fastest of the Vision phones. Web pages and downloads are much faster than the 5300. I've heard that when used as a modem, it is also much faster than a Treo.
6. The user menus are very friendly, as well as more professional and less game-like than the other phones.
7. The screen isn't as nice as the 5300, but it is adequate, and significantly better than the 4900.
8. It is much smaller than the 4900
9. It has excellent battery life, beating all the other Vision phones except the 4900.
10. With the onboard email, and the ability to handle attachments of up to 100k (if you adjust from the default of 10k), getting pictures or ringers into the phone is a breeze because you can just email them and they are there.
11. The speakerphone is outstanding. Even when using it in the car, people have said I sounded very clear.
12. The ringer/midi sound on it is great for a phone. I went ahead and downloaded some 40k midis to test it out and they all sound great. It has way more bass than the 5300, and sounds surprisingly good.
13. A nice 1mb of memory.
14. A nice scheduler, notepad, to do list, and calculator
Now for some extras:
1. A light sensor - If the phone is ringing in a dark place like a pocket, when you pull it out, the phone notices the light, and quiets the ringer. This is great in a meeting. It should be standard on all phones.
2. It has a funky multi-color blinking light that can be used for caller-id - different persons can have different colors and patterns associated with them. This could be useful is some bizarre circumstance, I suppose.
3. An environment switch. On position 1, all calls ring, while on position 3 no calls ring. On position 2 a user defined variable selects which calls ring, and which go directly to voicemail.
4. It includes a jukebox, which allows you to play up to 30 minutes of MIDI files that can be played in sequence, or randomly.
5. It has the capability to send PIM data to your computer via .vcf files. I don't know much about how to use this feature yet.
6. When typing, besides a menu for "symbols" there is a menu for dropping in pre-defined text strings, such as "http://" or ".com". You can edit these text strings to be whatever works well for you.
Things I wish it had:
1. More than 1 email address per person
2. When you get a call and want to save the number, the ability to add it to an existing entry, instead of having to write it down,
3. When looking up an entry in the PIM, if I'm looking for "Smith", I'd like to be able to enter 764 and narrow it down, instead of just entering 7 and scrolling down.
4. The ability to snych to a computer via email - why should you need a cable unless you want to use it as a modem?
In summary:
This phone has a great PIM, and great email capability, making it a Nearly-Smartphone. I have seen a few people buy this phone and move up to a Treo because they want an even smarter phone, and one person move up to the 5300 for a camera and better display, but no one has had anything negative to say about it. It is a great phone. It isn't particularly flashy, but everything it does, it does well.
If you stay in digital areas, need a pretty smart phone to hold a lot of information, but don't want the size of a smartphone, this could be the phone for you. If this were a flip phone with a bright screen, everyone would clamour for it. If they drop the price on it, that will also help sales.
Carl
1. It is a single band phone
2. Many people prefer flip phones
3. Screen is dull compared to a500 and the 5300
4. Price is currently too high
Now for the good standard stuff:
1. It is very well made. I think I'll have this one awhile.
2. RF is outstanding, and is probably the best of all the Vision phones. It edges out the 5300 in comparisons I personally have made. I was able to get digital reception about 20 miles from the nearest tower. Furthermore, the "bar" guage is pretty accurate, and drops predictably from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 to 0 as your drive away. Contrast that to the Sanyo which claims to have 3 bars, then suddenly goes to 2 then 1 then drops service.
3. PIM is outstanding. It holds more names and numbers, as well as more information about each person, plus the ability to classify them, and sort on that classification (as in familiy, business, customers, doctors, or whatever classifications you define yourself). After finding a person in the PIM, you can call them, or if you prefer, email them.
4. On board email capability. You can access any POP3 server, and download up to 70 emails into the phone. This is much faster than web-based email.
5. 3G interface is the fastest of the Vision phones. Web pages and downloads are much faster than the 5300. I've heard that when used as a modem, it is also much faster than a Treo.
6. The user menus are very friendly, as well as more professional and less game-like than the other phones.
7. The screen isn't as nice as the 5300, but it is adequate, and significantly better than the 4900.
8. It is much smaller than the 4900
9. It has excellent battery life, beating all the other Vision phones except the 4900.
10. With the onboard email, and the ability to handle attachments of up to 100k (if you adjust from the default of 10k), getting pictures or ringers into the phone is a breeze because you can just email them and they are there.
11. The speakerphone is outstanding. Even when using it in the car, people have said I sounded very clear.
12. The ringer/midi sound on it is great for a phone. I went ahead and downloaded some 40k midis to test it out and they all sound great. It has way more bass than the 5300, and sounds surprisingly good.
13. A nice 1mb of memory.
14. A nice scheduler, notepad, to do list, and calculator
Now for some extras:
1. A light sensor - If the phone is ringing in a dark place like a pocket, when you pull it out, the phone notices the light, and quiets the ringer. This is great in a meeting. It should be standard on all phones.
2. It has a funky multi-color blinking light that can be used for caller-id - different persons can have different colors and patterns associated with them. This could be useful is some bizarre circumstance, I suppose.
3. An environment switch. On position 1, all calls ring, while on position 3 no calls ring. On position 2 a user defined variable selects which calls ring, and which go directly to voicemail.
4. It includes a jukebox, which allows you to play up to 30 minutes of MIDI files that can be played in sequence, or randomly.
5. It has the capability to send PIM data to your computer via .vcf files. I don't know much about how to use this feature yet.
6. When typing, besides a menu for "symbols" there is a menu for dropping in pre-defined text strings, such as "http://" or ".com". You can edit these text strings to be whatever works well for you.
Things I wish it had:
1. More than 1 email address per person
2. When you get a call and want to save the number, the ability to add it to an existing entry, instead of having to write it down,
3. When looking up an entry in the PIM, if I'm looking for "Smith", I'd like to be able to enter 764 and narrow it down, instead of just entering 7 and scrolling down.
4. The ability to snych to a computer via email - why should you need a cable unless you want to use it as a modem?
In summary:
This phone has a great PIM, and great email capability, making it a Nearly-Smartphone. I have seen a few people buy this phone and move up to a Treo because they want an even smarter phone, and one person move up to the 5300 for a camera and better display, but no one has had anything negative to say about it. It is a great phone. It isn't particularly flashy, but everything it does, it does well.
If you stay in digital areas, need a pretty smart phone to hold a lot of information, but don't want the size of a smartphone, this could be the phone for you. If this were a flip phone with a bright screen, everyone would clamour for it. If they drop the price on it, that will also help sales.
Carl