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The Good

Call/Earpiece Quality: 10/10

The best call quality on any cell phone I've ever had. Better than the v60 or Moto Startac's or timeports. This one is the king.

Modem Connection Quality: 10/10

Using the bluetooth connection, I'm able to surf the web on my laptop at 115.2 kbps (what Windows tells me) but I guess it's
really at about 70 kbps. That's better than dial-up at it's best! Also, the connection has never been lost and the phone has never had to redial. That was a constant problem when I used the usb cables with the 8100 and the A600. Also, I never sustained speeds even comparable to dial-up with those phones.

Form Factor/Size: 10/10

Very nice. Feels great in your hand, not too thick. Buttons could be a little bigger though.

RF strength/Signal: 10/10

Amazing. A superphone no doubt. Was able to make calls in areas that I never could, not even with my Sany 5500.

Speakerphone: 9/10

Great speakerphone. Full duplex. Callers on other end can't tell that you're on speaker. Could be louder on loudest setting and it takes two button presses while in-call to activate and gives you an annoying 'Speakerphone deactivated' message after you hang up the call.


Vision Speed: 9/10

No gripes here. Just as good as any phone I've had: Sanyo 8100, 5500, Samsung A600.

The OK

User Interface: 8/10

The Call Lists are not sorted out and only show time and date for one day. Other than that, the icon menu is pretty self-explanatory and everything is where it should be. The speed dial list setup if not done correctly renders speed dial useless. You have to choose Speed Dial for the Long Key Press somewhere in the menu or else the speed-dial takes you to a random spot in the phonebook and does nothing.


The Bad

Battery Life: 5/10

As you all know, battery life is subpar on this phone. I use it with Bluetooth off 99% of the time but use shortmail, and the web quite frequently with about 30 min. of usage per day during peak time and the battery will be depleted by 75% and Iam pretty confident I didn't get a "stale" battery. My A600 would only be depleted 33% after comparable usage.

Menu Speed: 4/10

Menu speed is the other negative to this phone. I was very used to the lightning fast menus on the A600. With this phone, you have to learn to retard your thinking and movements. Pretty annoying even now and I've had the phone for 5 weeks. Also, phone will crash if you overburden it with too many button presses in a row while navigating on Vision.


The Others

Ringers - Setting 0 to 6 (loudest, but could be louder): 8/10
Vibrate - not so good if you wear loose-fitting pants, but a big positive is that you can set the vibrate option on any ringer setting 1 through 6. IMO, EVERY phone should have this standard.
Voice Dial: 9/10 recognizes voice pretty easily, one button press and hold action.
Other pluses: nice calendar feature with reminders, alarm clock, stopwatch, calculator, voice memo.

Overall: A great phone if call quality, wireless connectivity, small form factor, signal strength and super RF performance mean anything to you, you will love this phone and $200 is a great deal (telesales). Also, you'll be on the only kid on the block with this baby. Not an ideal phone for business users who count on battery life to last all day with heavy usage and frequently need to rifle through the menus quickly to get to a desired function.