12-05-2003, 06:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Pocketing Samsung's SPH-i700: The Ultimate Connected Pocket PC?
Verizon Wireless has been selling the Samsung SPH-i700 for several months now -- the first CDMA Pocket PC Phone Edition to hit US markets. Is it worth it? How does it compare to other Pocket PCs, connected or otherwise? Join me in a detailed look!
The Samsung SPH-i700 is perhaps your best solution if you want a connected, cable-free Pocket PC with Verizon's best-of-breed CDMA service. Pair that with a top-notch screen and a solid software bundle and you've got a one-piece powerhouse... with a few gotchas, of course. But first, some background...
Who is this review for?
I've tailored this review for two audiences -- those that may have experience using a Pocket PC but have never used a Pocket PC Phone before, and those who have used the 1st-generation HTC Pocket PC Phone -- known as, among others, the XDA, the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone, and the Siemens SX-56 (hereafter referred to as the XDA for brevity). I'll also throw in discussions of CDMA2000 as a standard where appropriate, as I know our international audience has far more experience with GSM as a standard.
I'm also a strong believer in a "thorough" review -- that's why I've used the device for a few months now instead of doing an immediate review. This way, I have the opportunity to pick up a feeling of the i700 as an "everyday" phone and Pocket PC, and to comment on the little things that make it rewarding, as well as pointing out some of the less-noticed shortcomings. You may find this review a bit long, but I hope you also find it helpful.
In case you're curious, my Pocket PC experience, before the i700, consisted of an original iPAQ 3650, an iPAQ 3870, and the T-Mobile version of the XDA. I used all three of them extensively, and I've also had the opportunity to work with (but do not own) some newer devices, including the iPAQ 1910, 2215 and 3975 devices. I'll be making comparisons throughout the remainder of this review against a number of these devices. I'd like to thank my colleagues, Suhit Gupta and Phil Gross, with providing me access to the 2215 and 3975 for comparison shots, and also to Suhit for providing me with some photo help with his awesome Canon 10D.
Obtaining the i700 and Verizon Wireless service
Figure 1: The nice Verizon-branded i700 box. It's clear they target this as a business device...
Right now, the i700 is only sold by Verizon Wireless in the US. As you can see from the packaging, the device is jointly cobranded by Samsung and Verizon Wireless. I'd presume the phone is provider-locked; the programming is done "in the back room" by Verizon, and you're handed an activated phone.
Verizon is known to be an excellent carrier in the United States, especially in the Northeast and in the New York metro area in particular. This is largely the case because of Verizon Wireless's history. Verizon Wireless when two "Baby Bells" -- Bell Atlantic and GTE -- merged and formed Verizon; at the same time, Bell Atlantic Mobile merged networks with PrimeCo, AirTouch (a Vodafone subsidiary), and GTE to form Verizon Wireless, which is an independent jointly-held subsidiary of Verizon and Vodafone. In the Northeast, Verizon Wireless's network was inherited from Bell Atlantic's network, which in turn came from the old CellularOne network of the 80s. As such, the network has had years to grow and mature. Many of the towers around here were installed well before modern-day NIMBY (Not In My Backyard)-based concerns about cell towers sprung up, which impedes many new carriers (especially T-Mobile and Sprint).
The bottom line is that Verizon's service is excellent: strong signals throughout the New York Metro area because of uniform tower coverage and because of their use of 800MHz signal (with better building penetration compared to 1900MHz). That's why I jumped at the chance to activate an i700; I had been using T-Mobile service with my XDA, but had lousy coverage in my house. Not so with Verizon, which works well both at home and work. Since Verizon doesn't have Bluetooth, the i700 is the best wireless Pocket PC option for people who need the coverage they provide. (I don't consider the Audiovox Thera to be a Pocket PC Phone, as it uses Sierra Wireless's telephony software instead of Microsoft's, and is known to have absolutely terrible battery life.)
The one downside of Verizon Wireless is cost. They know they have the best network and that people are willing to pay for it because, in many cases, they have no choice. As a result, both plan and data prices are noticeably higher than younger networks like T-Mobile; the latter, still in an aggressive growth phase, prices their network to attract subscribers. For example, a 400 minute nationwide plan, with unlimited night and weekend minutes, costs $49.99 at Verizon Wireless; T-Mobile, on the other hand, offers 600 minutes and unlimited nights-and-weekends for $10 less. Even more drastic are the data plans: Verizon Wireless charges $44.95 for unlimited handheld data, whereas T-Mobile merely charges $19.99. As I'll talk about in a minute, the two data services are not equivalent, but the cost difference is substantial. Some i700 users have managed to set up their Verizon Wireless service to use minutes at no additional cost over the base America's Choice plan, but Verizon Wireless claims this is not a "valid" plan for devices like the i700. It will be interesting to see what number portability will bring us, promotion- and price-wise, when it goes into effect in the middle of November. Oh, and did I mention that the i700 costs $599 with a two-year contract? 8O
CDMA and 1xRTT: What does it mean?
The i700 uses a wireless standard known as CDMA (or Code Division Multiple Access), which was pioneered at Qualcomm in the early 90s. CDMA differs from older standards, especially TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access, used by GSM and IS-136 networks around the world) in that it doesn't allocate dedicated timeslots to a particular wireless device; instead, each wireless "packet" is prefixed with a code that enables the base station to reassemble the packets into a data (or voice) stream. There are several substantial advantages for CDMA: first, it's more spectrally efficient: since the number of available timeslots is no longer a limitation, a given tower can handle more simultaneous calls; and second, it's more naturally geared towards wireless data.
In fact, CDMA is rapidly being adopted worldwide as we move to 3G. Verizon and Sprint in the US, and parts of Asia use Qualcomm's CDMA2000 standard, while the GSM Association has adopted UMTS/wCDMA as a solution to lay out 3G over existing GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. Anyone who makes the argument that "CDMA is inferior to GSM" is being overly simplistic; the fact of the matter is that CDMA will be dominant across the globe in about 10-15 years (unfortunately, using incompatible frequencies and standards, but that's another issue).
Here, we'll focus on the Qualcomm implementation as used by Verizon Wireless and the i700. The i700 supports the first level of CDMA2000, known as 1xRTT, which supports a 144kbps peak data rate. While this is similar to GPRS's theoretical 128kbps peak data rate, in practice 1xRTT is noticeably faster. In my experience, Verizon Wireless's 1xRTT-based "Express Network" frequently reaches 80k-100k, while my T-Mobile GPRS devices rarely exceeded 45k. CDMA2000 is likely to evolve more quickly than GSM, as well, since upgrades can be done with full backwards and forwards compatibility -- in fact, Verizon Wireless has deployed 1xEV-DO, which offers 250kbps-500kbps service, in Washington, D.C. and San Diego, CA (the latter, of course, being the home of Qualcomm). Sadly, the i700 won't support this faster data rate, but it will at least work with the newer towers as they become more widespread across the US.
That's the good news. The bad news is that CDMA2000 as implemented in the US has no SIM card or equivalent thereof. This is not because CDMA as a technology can't handle it, but rather because there was never a mandate that wireless carriers support it here, and in general US carriers prefer much tighter control over the wireless devices they carry on their networks. There exist CDMA SIM-like technologies, such as UIMs in Korea, but if you get a Verizon phone, it must be electronically programmed, which typically requires unlock codes that only Verizon knows how to access. It is possible to reprogram CDMA phones for another network, but it's done much less frequently than SIM-swapping with GSM devices. Add the fact that companies like Sprint are adamant about activating only phones sold by themselves, and you quickly discover that you're not going to be able to trivially move the i700 to another network if you're not happy with Verizon... and there's not much you can do about it. :evil: That's largely the reason wireless technology moves slower here -- large carriers are more conservative about deploying new wireless terminals here until they have the opportunity to do significant amounts of "testing" in advance, and it's harder to get a CDMA phone off-the-shelf and get it activated.
All that said, let's take a closer look at the i700 and how it actually performs once you get it activated.
Hardware
Specifications
The SPH-i700 is a middle-of-the-road Pocket PC, with a 300MHz Intel PXA250 XScale processor, 64MB of RAM (60MB useable), an SD slot, and a removable battery slot (with two different capacity batteries bundled). It is also one of the few Pocket PCs to have an integrated camera, which takes pictures at (in theory) 640x480 resolution, fixed-focus, with no flash.
The phone is a dual-band (800/1900) 1xRTT CDMA2000 component. From what I've heard, the phone is technically tri-mode, but Verizon has disabled the analog portion, so the phone only behaves as a dual-band digital phone. This is not an issue for me as the Northeast is blanketed with spectacular coverage, but this may be problematic for some time if you live in a rural area. It's worth mentioning that Verizon is aggressively moving away from tri-mode phones; all of their newest phones, including the VX-6000, the i600 Smartphone, and the i700, don't support analog. This fits in with their aggressive digital upgrades; from what I've heard, Verizon hopes to have their entire network be 100% CDMA digital by 2006 or thereabouts, just in time for the FCC analog mandate to be dropped.
What's in the box?
Apart from the PDA, you get the following items:- Two styli;
- Standard 1000mAh Lithium-Ion battery;
- Extended 2000mAh Lithium-Ion battery (yes, there are two in the box);
- Leather carrying case;
- Stereo headset;
- Cradle;
- Travel charger (which acts as the cradle's AC adapter as well);
- Two CDs: one with the full manual, and another with Outlook 2000, ActiveSync 3.5(!), and some add-on software.
Overall, the i700 comes with a nice set of accessories -- which is useful as Samsung and Verizon see fit to massively overcharge you for separate purchases. As of the writing of this review, the AC adapter is still scarce, and if you get your hands on it, its list price is over $50, as is the USB cable! 8O
A tour of the device
Unsurprisingly, the i700 looks a lot like the XDA at first glance. Both of them have a nub for the earpiece at the top, an antenna protruding on the right, and a d-pad and call/hang up buttons at the bottom. But that's where the similarity ends.
Figure 2: A frontal shot of the i700.
The first major difference you notice upon picking up the i700 is that it's not slippery. For some reason, HTC seems to be obsessed with slippery paint on their devices. This plagued my 3650, 3870 and the XDA. It was worst with the XDA, as I would frequently hold it up to my ear and feel like I'd drop it any second. I rapidly opted to get a case for the original XDA as a result -- the open-faced Vaja T-Buron II case, which I'll talk about another day. The i700, on the other hand, seems to have been painted with non-slippery paint, and is very comfortable to pick up and hold. The earpiece is slightly convex instead of concave, which is a mixed blessing: while it's a little harder for your ear to feel it, it doesn't require you to push your ear in as much as with the XDA, reducing screen contact with your face, thereby preventing the dreaded "face grease" problem. Keeping the device slightly angled away from you also helps.
The i700's size is typical of the larger class of Pocket PCs: it falls squarely within the same dimensions as the XDA, i.e., it's slightly smaller the sleeve-expandable 3650s. iPAQ 19xx and 22xx lovers may find the i700 a bit too large, but I find the size very comfortable in my pocket and in my hand. The antenna protrudes a little, however.
Figure 3: The 2215, the 3975, the i700, and the XDA stacked. I've got a side-by-side picture on the next page.
The next major difference you'll notice is the buttons -- they're large and protrude out from the case, making them very easy to press. They also have excellent tactile feedback. The d-pad is absolutely superb -- several notches better than most mushy Pocket PC d-pads -- probably the best one I've used, although it doesn't have diagonal controls. The center "OK" button is similar (but larger) in style to the iPAQ 1910's center button in that it's separate from the d-pad, making it easy to press separately. The buttons are all on the sides and front-bottom, making it relatively easy to one-hand every one of them; the Calendar and Contacts are located right below the talk and hang up buttons, unlike at the top with the XDA. However, the buttons protrude too much; HTC made a concerted effort to make sure buttons couldn't be accidentally pushed, but sadly, Samsung didn't do the same thing. The i700 does provide a key-lock feature where only the power button can turn on the device, but even that button is on the right side, making it easy to accidentally turn on! I'd say the device gets accidentally turned on once a week or thereabouts in my pocket, which is frustrating. One mitigating possibility for this is to use a case with special cutouts for the buttons.
There's a indicator LED on the upper-right, and when you soft-reset the unit, you quickly notice that it's a tricolor unit: it can flash blue, red, and green. Despite its flexibility, Samsung did a lousy job in designing the software to handle the LED. For example, when any notification appears, be it a reminder, the "charging" notification, or even when it finds a signal, the blue LED flashes about once every 2 seconds for a few minutes, and then stops entirely. And I've never seen the green mode actually used. :? The only useful behavior of the LED is that it flashes red rapidly during an incoming phone call or when the phone grabs a channel for the outgoing call. Worst, the book doesn't document the behavior of the LED; I guess no one quite knows its behavior. :|
On a brighter note, the transflective screen's quality indoors is absolutely top-notch. It does seem to be more on the transmissive side -- while the display is certainly usable outside, it's not particularly as good as other transflectives, and is certainly nowhere near my 3870's reflective screen.
Finally, we see the little camera on the top-left. This camera is strictly mediocre. I have some sample pictures below, but in short, this is not going to replace your digital camera. It is, however, extremely convenient.
Figure 4: A shot of the right side of the i700.
There are some other interesting design decisions on the right side of the device. While the antenna is on the right as with the XDA, it's not as thick. It feels quite sturdy, but you get the feeling you could snap it off at a moment's notice if you were sufficiently angry. Compare this to the XDA, where the antenna is so very integral in the device and it would take nothing short of complete disassembly to remove it. (One other interesting piece of trivia: the i700 was one of the first Verizon CDMA phones to have a non-retractable antenna.)
You'll notice that there are two buttons here: the power and a backlight button. The second button's utility is dubious, as the i700's transflective display almost always needs a backlight. You can't reprogram the button, either. Holding down the power button toggles the phone portion on and off, and holding down the backlight button toggles the screen on and off (but keeps the PDA on).
Finally, we get to perhaps the most controversial design decision on the physical aspect of the i700: the stylus. First of all, you'll notice it's at the bottom of the device. I thought it was a lousy design decision when Sony did it with their NR70s, and I think it's a lousy design decision here. My device happens to hold the stylus securely, but I've read several reports of it falling out. Perhaps Samsung anticipated this, as they bundle an extra one in the package.
Figure 5: The i700's telescoping stylus, extended fully.
The other weird property of the stylus is its telescoping behavior. Instead of embedding the full length of the stylus into the device, Samsung opted to employ some hydraulic mechanism to allow the stylus to extend to its full length. I don't mind this too much, but I've heard various people's hydraulic mechanisms jamming after things like airplane flights. 8O I don't quite see why they went to so much trouble in designing it. Fortunately, the stylus does have a decent heft and feel to it.
Figure 6: The rear of the i700, with extended battery installed.
I have a few comments about the back of the unit as well. On top, you'll notice the speaker. Yes, the i700 has a speaker at the rear for Pocket PC sounds and for speakerphone operation. While this sounds counterintuitive, it actually works quite well, even when the device is flush on a table -- you leave it at the rear, and it's typically loud enough to accommodate a conversation with a few people. The main reason I could come up with for such a decision is to prevent situations where you're talking on the phone and something like a loud alarm blows off your ear -- which has happened in the past once or twice with my XDA as its front earpiece doubles as a speaker. It presumably also reduces the possibility of feedback if the speakerphone is sufficiently loud.
Between the speaker and antenna is a receptacle for an external antenna. Kudos for Samsung for putting this in. :way to go: I don't need it, but I could see others finding it a lifesaver when they're in sporadic coverage areas.
We can also see the removable battery here (the extended one is inserted; the standard one appears "flush" with the rest of the phone). There's no separate battery cover -- you just push in the release latch and slide the battery down. It's very simple to do, and the i700 has an internal battery that protects your device for a short while when you swap batteries. The i700 comes with not one, but two batteries -- the standard (1000mah) and an extended (2000mah) battery. I've found that I like the extended battery a lot -- I'll talk about the battery life later, but the extended battery doesn't substantially increase the device's size, and actually makes the i700 more comfortable to hold as the battery settles in the palm of your hand.
The last item of note is the reset hole. Why, oh why did they have to make it pinhole-sized, unlike the XDA whose hole is easy to push?  The good news is that you can unscrew the stylus to reveal a pin that fits perfectly into the hole, but the bad news is that the stylus head is rotated instead of the tail, and combined with the telescoping nature of the stylus makes the head come off too easily at times. It's a relatively minor complaint, but it wouldn't have been that hard to design a reset hole that would eliminate the need for a unscrewable stylus head in the first place.
Figure 7: The left side of the i700.
On the left side, you can see the camera swivel dial, the headset jack, the record button, the volume rocker, and the SD slot in order. The headset jack is somewhat similar in concept to the XDA's: it's a 2.5mm stereo+mic jack. However, Samsung designed it differently. Instead of four conductors inline (left, right, mic, ground), Samsung opted to make it three conductors plus an outer ring. The good news is that their design allows you to use regular cellular headsets. The bad news is that XDA users need to get a new adapter for their headphones, but overall I prefer this choice -- the jack is compatible with the most popular 2.5mm accessories on the market.
The record button, unlike the XDA's side button, is remappable; I've got it mapped to the camera applet. The volume buttons, by the way, are an order-of-magnitude more useful than the horrendous volume control on the XDA. For those of you that don't know, the XDA has one button on its side -- a "volume increase" button -- that then cycles around to the lowest volume, making it virtually unusable when actually talking on the phone. The i700 does not suffer from this problem.
The camera swivel works as advertised. It's easy to use the dial to rotate the camera about 270 degrees from its "closed" position. The camera is smart enough to mirror the image when you rotate it beyond the 180 degree point, keeping correct orientation.
Last, the SD slot is present here. Make no mistake, this is a full SDIO slot... however, its position makes it a bit tenuous to use SD cards that stick out. My SDIO WiFi, when inserted, makes the i700 a bit awkward to hold.
Figure 8: The i700 in my hand with Sandisk's SDIO WiFi card.
The SD slot's ejector is extremely powerful, so while the SD slot is not pointing down, it's still too easy to lose an SD card if you're not careful and you let your hand or finger trigger a push-in-and-eject scenario.
Figure 9: The i700's sync connector.
Finally, you'll observe that the Samsung uses a different connector. The good news is that it looks a lot like Samsung's other PDA phone offerings, especially the i500 and the i600, and the AC adapter appears to be the same. However, I don't know if you can actually share data cables between the devices. And the bad news is that it's not remotely similar to other manufacturers' connectors. It's worth noting that no one has figured out how to reliably make a USB charge-and-sync cable for the i700, nor has anyone figured out how to make a serial cable for the unit... and Samsung appears unwilling to disclose the pinouts for either application.
Hardware (continued)
The cradle
Samsung has bundled an interesting cradle with the device. The device "reclines" in the cradle, using side clips to hold it in and down against the sync connector. It is not difficult to one-hand it in this fashion, although I'm personally not a huge fan of the angle; while it makes it easier to use it as a "stand" to interact with the i700, I prefer to keep my cradles further back and have my device at a steeper (viewing) angle.
Figure 10: The i700 cradle.
Figure 11: The i700 cradle, with the device inserted into it.
The cradle does have a few nice touches: it has an extra battery slot in which you can charge an extra battery irrespective of whether or not the i700 itself is docked. There's a separate LED on the front to let you know the extra battery's charge status. There's also a cutout so that you can insert and remove the SD card without removing the i700 from its cradle, and a little hole in the front to hold an extra stylus.
Like most other Pocket PC cradles, the AC adapter plugs into the cradle to enable it to become a charge-and-sync solution. Samsung also offers a charge-and-sync cable that works in a similar way, minus the extra battery charger.
The screen
As a reflective-color-screen user for most of my Pocket PC career, it was not difficult to be impressed by the brilliance of transflective displays, and I drooled at my coworker's 3975 the day he got it. The 3975's display is generally considered one of the best transflectives on the market, but I think I've finally found a unit whose display rivals or even beats the iPAQs indoors. The i700's is that good. Click on the pictures to show a bigger version.
Figure 12: The Today Screen on four devices. From left to right, the XDA, the 2215, the i700, and the 3975 on maximum brightness. Adjusting the brightness doesn't affect the contrasts as shown here; adjusting the angle does, a little, but the i700's contrast is best of all the four when viewed "head-on". Oh, and the agenda item on the 2215 is legit. :lol:
Figure 13: The Programs Screen on the four devices.
The brightness levels of the i700 and the iPAQ are similar, but I find the color balance and contrast to be better on the i700. The i700 supports four brightness levels, and I find the 2nd level ("Medium") to be a good compromise most of the time; the only other setting I use is the dim setting for low-light situations. The one situation where the i700 falls short, though, is angled viewing: the iPAQs easily outclass it.
Figure 14: The 4 devices, at an angle. No comparison.
Incidentally, ClearType quality is very good -- almost as good as the XDA, which is probably the single best ClearType display in the Pocket PC world. There's no tweak, but you don't need one. ClearType can be enabled system-wide via a tool like Chris De Herrera's RegKing.
The case
On the other hand, the i700 is bundled with perhaps the worst carrying case I've seen for a PDA.
Figure 15: The carrying case, closed. Yes, this black case shows fingerprints. 8O
Figure 16: The carrying case, viewed from the bottom. It's thick, and the angle is caused by the case sitting on the closed buckle.
It provides adequate protection, but that's about the only thing that's good about it. It's not contoured to the i700, so it's a bulky, squarish object that's barely pocketable. It looks like Samsung realized it wouldn't be pocketable, so they helpfully attached a long strap to the zipper. It's been derisively called "man-purse" in the forums, and I can see why.
Figure 17: The carrying case, opened. It's awkward to hold at best, especially for a lefty like me.
The only somewhat redeeming factor of the case is that it uses a plastic holder to securely snap the i700 into place, and it's very easy to remove yet secure. However, this plastic holder is a large part of what makes this case bulky and awkward. The case opens to the side, which I also generally dislike as it makes the device harder to hold. When closed, there are cutouts for the earpiece and microphone, but you feel really stupid holding it up to your ear, as if it's a plastic brick. :lol:
Since I refuse to use this case, I've employed an old Compaq 3650 slipcase for the occasion. The i700 fits perfectly in it, even with the extended battery. I'm hoping that Vaja will release one of their open-faced cases for the unit.
Figure 18: The i700 sitting in my ancient 3650's slipcase. Who knew that thing would be so valuable? 
Software
Pocket PC Phone Edition 2002
The i700 runs Pocket PC Phone Edition 2002, EUU3 (which I'll hereafter refer to as PPCPE). As of the writing of this review, Samsung is apparently testing Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition; it'll be up to Verizon whether they want to offer it, and current rumors seem to suggest a early 2004 release date.
For those of you who aren't familiar with a Phone Edition device, it's a superset of the regular Pocket PC OS -- in particular, APIs and applets have been added to support phone operation. An "antenna" icon is in the title bar tray indicating whether there's a signal. Whenever a signal is acquired, or if you tap the icon in the tray, a service information popup appears.
Figure 19: A shot of the Verizon Wireless service information popup.
A pet peeve of mine with regards to this service popup is that Microsoft saw fit to design PPCPE such that it appears every time a signal is acquired. This wouldn't be such an issue for me, except that it makes using a Phone Edition device rather frustrating in environs like the subway, where you're constantly picking up and losing pockets of Verizon signal (presumably, in parts where the tunnel is shallow enough where overground base stations penetrate). If you happen to be using your Pocket PC, you have to take out your stylus and tap the dialog, or wait about three to four seconds for the popup to go away. No fun. Incoming calls trigger a similar dialog, but you can use the hardware Phone buttons to either accept or reject the call.
When you're on a call, it's worth noting that the phone circuitry is essentially decoupled from the PDA circuitry. While the Phone Edition software controls the phone's initial behavior (i.e., connecting, hanging up, dialing, etc.), the established call can be kept even if you turn the PDA on and off as many times as you like. In fact, both the i700 and the XDA turn the PDA off after approximately one minute if you don't interact with the PDA's functions while you're on a call -- and you can simply continue speaking on. This is a major reason as to why the Phone Edition devices have surprisingly decent battery life. You can also easily turn off the phone -- just tap on the phone icon and click "Turn phone off", at which point the bar meter next to the antenna changes to an X. Of course, it may not be easy to convince a flight attendant that's the case; it might have been nice to have the service dialog say in big print "Phone is off", like my ancient pdQ did.
Dialing is accomplished using the Phone applet. If you don't mind touching your screen (or if you have a screen protector), one-handed operation is possible. In my case, I cradle the device in my left hand, turn it on using my index finger, and then use my thumb to hit the Dial button and navigate the Phone applet. The d-pad also serves several functions in the Phone applet; for example, if you hit the Down key, you'll get a list of your speed dial entries. I frequently will hit the Phone button, hit down, scroll through, and click the center d-pad button to dial a contact -- and as such it works reasonably well. I wish the numbers on the main applet screen were bigger, however; and, of course, there is no tactile feedback. You can enable speakerphone once you're connected, but you can't do it before or set any default.
Figure 20: The phone dialing applet in PPCPE.
For those of you who own GSM Pocket PC Phones, the interface is extremely similar, with some small changes. In the Phone applet, the Talk and End buttons are rearranged slightly -- instead of being one button that toggles between the two states, they're separate. This is a mixed bag -- while it avoids ambiguity, your thumb has to be more dexterous if you're one-handing the unit. In addition, since Verizon supports the voicemail indicator, SMS and voicemail are separate notifications (unlike T-Mobile US, which uses SMS messages to notify you of new voicemail). There's also a "charging" icon/notification which pops up when you plug the unit into an AC jack; I don't quite understand why this is necessary, since both the cradle and the AC adapter have charging lights. (If multiple notifications occur at the same time, PPCPE groups them into a "bubble" which you can tap to see individual notifications).
The Phone option dialogs have changed slightly as well to accommodate CDMA options. For you XDA owners, you can compare your tabs with the ones below.
 
 
 
Figure 21: Phone customization screens.
Yes, there's a GPS option in there, although turning it on doesn't seem to do much at this point. I doubt this'll ever be useful as a general GPS, but may eventually help in e911 applications and provider-based location-specific services.
Other Phone Edition enhancements include the Contacts applet, in which telephone numbers are underlined, much like hyperlinks -- tapping them triggers an automatic dial. You can also quickly switch to the Contacts applet via the button at the bottom of the Phone applet. There is an additional provider in the Inbox applet that deals with SMS messaging. (For those of you who ask, there is a way to do email-via-SMS through Verizon and the i700, but it's undocumented.) Vibration support is present throughout the Phone Edition OS -- you can either use the Volume Control applet and explicitly set every sound to trigger a vibrate, or you can use the Sounds and Notifications applet to explicitly vibrate for certain events.
Figure 22: There's a vibration option in the volume panel.
I prefer the latter method, as I can control precisely what causes a vibrate, and I generally keep everything else silent. One interesting trick for you Pocket PC Phone Edition users who like vibrate: try setting your speaker volume to the lowest setting (NOT muted), and then specify vibrate for only the events you want, and it works perfectly without making any audible sounds. If you mute the device via the volume control, then SMSes or reminders won't trigger a vibration, while if you set the device to vibrate via the volume control, other events (like ActiveSync) trigger a vibrate. I guess a bit of complexity comes with the flexibility...
Many third-party applications also support the Phone Edition. For example, Pocket Informant supports seamless dialing. In fact, PI has a neat call-tracking feature -- as soon as you trigger a dial, it will bring you to a screen where you can enter notes for the contact, and it will even automatically track the phone call's length for you for contact-management purposes.
Apart from these enhancements, the Phone Edition is almost identical to the Pocket PC 2002 OS. I say identical because I find the Phone Edition variant to be slightly less stable. My previous non-Phone Edition full-time device was an iPAQ 3870, and I had the unit so precisely set up that when I went home every night I could see that the RAM utilization remained the same after I shut all the applications down. In fact, I would only reset my 3870 once a month or so -- when the SD slot flaked out. With both my T-Mobile unit and this i700, I find myself having to soft-reset about once a week or two to free up RAM that appears to have leaked. In addition, the device starts acting slightly quirky leading up to the point where I need a soft reset -- either the SD slot disappears, or the amount of time it takes to notify me of an incoming call increases slightly, or even a situation where the speakerphone clicks on for about 2 seconds when I accept a call (and then it clicks off). A soft reset cures these, but it would be nice if some of these quirks were ultimately stamped out; I'm hoping that a WM2003 upgrade takes care of that. It's worth mentioning, however that I find the i700 to be a bit more stable than the T-Mobile XDA. Overall, the Phone Edition features work well, and I really haven't had situations where I found the phone to be incapacitated by OS troubles.
Software (continued)
Bundled software
There are a few additions to the Phone Edition OS. First, Verizon/Samsung has added two Today screen plugins in the ROM: an Enhanced Roaming Indicator (ERI), and a 1x speed meter. (Note that this theme is not the default theme; it's one of the free Windows Mobile 2003 themes available for download, and works pretty well on Pocket PC 2002.)
Figure 23: Today screen, showing the Verizon today plugins.
The ERI would presumably be useful for the situations where you were roaming off Verizon's network (or on a "free roaming" partner as part of the America's Choice plan). The 1x speed meter, on the other hand, is not useful at all: since it's on the Today screen, you're unlikely to see it while you're actually using the 1xRTT service. It only calculates the speed as of the current moment, so by the time you close PIE, for example, the speed meters have already returned to zero.
There's also a camera applet built into ROM, to be used with the built-in camera. As far as I know, Samsung has not released an API for the camera, so this applet is all you can use.
Figure 24: Camera taking a picture of my screen (which, of course, is visiting PPCT.  )
The camera application does an OK job. It's easy to use, and has a built-in browser that lets you see the existing pictures. It also lets you save on an SD card by default should you prefer. It doesn't take movies, and isn't very customizable. Most important, the camera's quality is mediocre at best. Here are a few sample pictures to give you the idea of indoor and outdoor quality.
Figure 25, 26: Indoor and outdoor shots using the camera. The indoor one is of my office, featuring my officemate Suhit, and the outside one is a shot of Lincoln Center. Click on the pictures for the full versions.
Finally, there's a "USB" setting in the Control Panel, which lets you reassign the i700's sync port as a modem instead of an ActiveSync device. I haven't personally tested this, but reports seem to indicate that it works quite well once you download unsupported modem .INF files for Windows.
Verizon and Samsung have also bundled a few applications on CD, which you can install into the RAM of the device. A version of Sprite Software's Pocket Backup is included; you can read the review of that product elsewhere on the site, and I didn't investigate the bundled version.
A product called Voice Signal is also bundled, which offers speech recognition -- especially voice dialing -- without any training. If you're interested in installing it, though, use the version on the Voice Signal website, as it fixes a number of bugs that were in the bundled version.
Figure 27: Voice Signal's main screen.
The nice thing about Voice Signal is that it's reasonably compact (a 900K download) and quick to launch. However, I found use of the software awkward. To dial an arbitrary name from your phonebook, you first have to say "Name Dial", then the name of the person, then a "Yes" to confirm, and then "Mobile" or "Home" if necessary.
Figure 28: Voice Signal asking me which number of mine it should dial.
On the other hand, it might be useful for those of you in a car and willing to follow-through on multiple prompts. It's also possible that Microsoft's new Voice Command application would do a better job, but it doesn't run on Pocket PC 2002. :cry:
Finally, you can optionally get a product called Wireless Sync for the i700 at no additional cost. It's a product made by Spontaneous Technology, and essentially acts as a dedicated, encrypted VPN tunnel for ActiveSync.
Figure 29: The Wireless Sync applet.
You install a "server application" on your desktop PC -- the one you normally ActiveSync with over a USB connection -- and a corresponding "client application" on the Pocket PC. You can apparently get the CD with this software when you order the i700, but your Verizon rep was like mine, they have no clue about it. :| Fortunately, there is an online download page cohosted by Verizon and Spontaneous that makes the process easy -- you enter your phone # and get a tailored download and username/password combo that lets you set up the secure tunnel. I was able to get syncing in just a few minutes. Obviously, it's slower than USB; a typical sync took me about two minutes, but the versatility is unparalleled.
Performance
Performance on the i700 is decidedly mixed -- as a phone and wireless terminal, the i700 is absolutely top-notch, but, as I'll explain later, its PDA performance is lacking.
Phone and wireless performance
For those of you, like me, who live in an area that's blanketed with Verizon coverage, the i700 is a pure joy to work with. As I previously mentioned, CDMA is more spectrally efficient than networks like TDMA or GSM. This means that if you have a signal, you almost always can make a call out. I'd guess my outgoing calls fail one out of every hundred. Voice quality is good -- slightly worse than GSM, as CDMA uses a lower-bitrate codec by default -- but very clear. Earpiece volume is excellent; one of my major gripes with the T-Mobile XDA was that it had a relatively soft earpiece at any setting but the very loudest one, and the loudest one was just adequate for noisy environments like NYC. This didn't pose too much of a problem unless you put the T-Mobile device into a case, at which point the speaker simply became too soft for outdoor use. The i700 is not plagued by such problems -- the maximum volume setting is very loud and shouldn't pose a problem even if the device is placed into a case. The i700 also has solid reception, pulling a similar signal to other Verizon phones (even those with retractable antennas).
As for data performance, 1xRTT simply runs rings around GPRS. I can easily reach a 90-100kbps data rate in a variety of situations in NYC, even during rush hour. Connection reliability is also very good; I'd estimate that more than 90% of connections succeed on the first try. Latency is still so-so; typical latencies seem to be between 300ms and 800ms, which is better than GPRS but still not particularly good compared to commodity wired connections. However, this is not surprising considering the overhead 1xRTT CDMA (just like any other cellular technology) must place on network traffic. In fact, my biggest criticism about data usage on the i700 is that the slower PXA250 processor, as well as the older Pocket PC 2002 IE, is ill-equipped to handle the speed of incoming data. On the other hand, Thunderhawk works superbly as most of the rendering work is done server-side, and Inbox is finally useable even with a fair amount of email.
Audio playback quality
I tested the supplied earbuds with both music and voice. Overall, the quality of the supplied earbuds is surprisingly good. Music is clear, and bass is better than I expected, certainly much better than T-Mobile's bundled earbuds (either version of them, for those of you who have tried both ). They're comfortable to wear as well. The microphone bud hangs off the right ear, and contains a volume control as well as an answer button.
Volume is also above average. At the loudest setting, I'd estimate the i700 with its supplied earbuds is probably 20-25% louder than the XDA -- not loud enough to kill your ears (like the iPAQs are notorious for), but certainly loud enough for situations even with background noise. I was disappointed with the XDA's performance in this regard. However, I still don't think the volume is going to be good enough for larger headphones that need more power to drive them -- you'll want to stick with earbuds or get an inline battery-powered amplifier from Radio Shack.
Chances also are that third-party earbuds would improve the quality somewhat (such as my beloved Sonys), but I don't have a 2.5mm-3.5mm adapter for the i700; they are available from 3rd-party sites, like Pocket PC Techs. The iPAQ is still clearly superior with its tremendous volume and DSP-driven bass/treble controls, but for occasional music listening the i700 is perfectly adequate.
Pocket PC benchmarks
My main criticism of the i700 revolves around its performance as a PXA250-based Pocket PC 2002 device. By default, the i700 runs at "Normal" mode, which is at 200MHz, to save battery life. It's trivial to go into the Power control panel applet to switch it up to "Turbo" mode, which makes the device run at 300MHz, but the device will automatically regress to 200MHz on a soft-reset and battery life is somewhat reduced (if I'd have to guess, perhaps 20%).
Figure 30: The i700's CPU speed setting, in the Power applet.
While 200MHz is OK for PDA applications and simple games, more complex tasks, like having PIE render a complex page or having PI launch, is frustrating. The T-Mobile XDA, on the other hand, was superb with its 206MHz StrongARM processor.
I performed a suite of benchmarks using Spb Benchmark, and posted the results below. Note that I turned off the phone portion of the device to avoid incoming calls or other notifications (like the service popup) from skewing the data. In my experience, the phone module doesn't have a significant effect on overall performance.
If none of these blow you away, that's precisely the feel you will get while using the i700. It's tolerable, but not particularly snappy. The numbers show a striking similarity to the 1910, which uses the same processor and OS, and my experience using both also yields a similar result. Don't get this device for 3D game playing or intensive computation, but as a PDA it should be adequate. I've gotten used to it, but I can immediately notice the difference when I pick up my friend's 2210. I'm hoping a WM2003 upgrade will help in this regard, but it's still too early to make a reliable prediction.
You can download the XML files for Normal and Turbo mode if you want to run your own comparisons using Spb's comparison tools on their website.
Battery life
Unfortunately, battery life is extremely complex to calculate accurately, as it's highly dependent on what combination of modes you run the i700 in. As a result, I'll give you an approximate feel for the batteries' performance here, based on several months of typical use.
In my opinion, the standard (1000mAh) battery's life is inadequate unless you're willing to charge both in the middle of the day and the night. I'm a relatively heavy PDA user, and I can drain the standard battery from a full charge to about 60% with perhaps a half-hour of talk, one to two hours of PDA use and perhaps a half-hour of surfing (at medium brightness). It's worth mentioning that standby time, however, is decent; you could probably get 24-48 hours of standby with the regular battery if you use the device sparingly.
On the other hand, performance with the extended (2000mAh) battery is excellent. The same usage pattern as above might drain the battery to 80-90%, and I'd expect the PDA to last 10+ hours/four to six hours of talk, or somewhat less if you use 1xRTT. (In general, I find that 1xRTT communications drain the battery the fastest, while voice and PDA use are more manageable.) Standby time is excellent as well. With the extended battery, I can use the PDA heavily and be confident about leaving my charger at home. I'd estimate that with my usage patterns, I could go for two to four days without a recharge. Of course, YMMV, but if you get the i700, seriously consider using the extended battery in lieu of the standard one. I find the added bulk to be a minimal compromise, and have easily gotten used to it.
Gotchas
I mentioned several "gotchas" through the review. Here are some others based on my perception of the device; most are minor.
- Minimal expandability. There is only an SDIO slot, and no option for CF. The port at the bottom may have serial support, as you can buy a keyboard for the unit, but serial sync/accessory cables aren't available yet (although Pharos has one in the works for their GPS solution). There is no Bluetooth on this device, and while a SDIO Bluetooth card may work with certain devices (from what I've heard, people have used an SDIO Bluetooth card to talk to BT GPS devices), you can't use a Bluetooth headset with the i700 unless you use the Jabra FreeSpeak adapter via the 2.5mm headset jack.
- Only three remappable PDA buttons. The record, contacts, and calendar are the only ones you have. XDA users have been dealing with this for years. It's not a major hindrance for most PDA applications, but gaming might be an issue. The volume rocker on the side is also not remappable; it could have served as a decent jog-dial replacement.
- No hardware keypad. This goes almost without saying, but if I had to identify one major problem with the i700 as a phone this would be it. I've gotten pretty decent with one-handing the screen, though, except for things like SMS messages -- you need to tap the icon in the notification area, and that requires two-handed operation at the minimum. Alternatively, I wouldn't mind a thumbboard, if it were possible to integrate one without increasing the size of the device substantially.
Where to Buy
You can buy the i700 from a Verizon Wireless store or via a phone order with them, or from MobilePlanet [affiliate]. Verizon Wireless's price is $599 with two-year contract, or $649 with a one-year contract.
Conclusions
Despite my minor quibbles with various aspects of the i700, you'll notice I have no serious criticisms except for CPU performance. That's because I love this device. :mrgreen: A 1xRTT-based Pocket PC solution, with a killer display, great d-pad, and solid phone makes for an extremely handy all-in-one solution. The i700 now never leaves my pocket except when I'm using it or when I'm asleep, and it's easily the best PDA-phone combination that I've used. If you're willing to overlook the cost, speed, and some of the other limitations, and want Verizon service, you won't be disappointed with the i700.
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12-05-2003, 06:23 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 533
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Sorry, I don't mean to take this excellent review / thread OT, but a friend of mine has been waiting *forever* for Sprint PCS' version of this phone. Has Sprint officially decided to not release the phone? If not, is there any ETA? No Verizon service where we live :cry:
-Brian
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12-05-2003, 06:27 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 95
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Damn Janak, this is one hell of a review. Very impressive. I knew you were working on this for a while, and after reading this review, I want an i700 even more
Suhit
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12-05-2003, 06:28 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by brianchris
Sorry, I don't mean to take this excellent review / thread OT, but a friend of mine has been waiting *forever* for Sprint PCS' version of this phone. Has Sprint officially decided to not release the phone? If not, is there any ETA? No Verizon service where we live :cry:
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The latest news I've heard still maintains that Sprint won't carry the i700. Rumor has it that they'll be carrying the CDMA equivalent of the HTC PPCPE (i.e., the HTC Falcon), but I've not seen any official confirmation of this.
And relax -- it's not really OT.
--janak
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12-05-2003, 06:34 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 378
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i700 Review
Quote:
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Originally Posted by suhit
Damn Janak, this is one hell of a review.
Suhit
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If this were my first Pocket PC Phone combination, I'd be jumping on the bandwagon.
The stylus and the Digital Camera were a turn off for me.
Thanks for all the detail.
__________________
"It's alright to pick your friends, but not to pieces."
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12-05-2003, 06:45 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 405
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WhOA!
I don't even want to think about how long that took you to write!
Great job (as always) Janak.
I'm a verizon customer, and though I'm not interested in a smartphone device at the present time.....when January 2005 comes around (my contract renewal) this (and others like it) may be down to my price point
It would be great to see future smartphone reviews keep the format you've laid out for direct comparison.
On Verizon's Midwestern coverage: The network here was originally Ameritech mobile and was sold off to Verizon when SBC bought Ameritech. Coverage was always great on Ameritech mobile, and has only become better since Verizon took over (for me anyways). In just the last year between the Mrs and myself we've been from Iowa, to Green Bay WI, to South Bend IN, to Sandusky Ohio, to York PA, and have always been "In Network".
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12-05-2003, 06:49 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 110
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Why would Verizon/Samsung put out a PPC 2002 device?
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12-05-2003, 06:50 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 718
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The is a freeware app that will intercept and kill those service popups before they appear. Highly recommended.
I had one for a while. I liked it alot, but I had a big problem similar to what I had with my old Toshiba e740 - Activesync constantly drops. I couldn't leave the device in the cradle for more than 5 minutes without losing the connection. Other PPC's on the same PC, like my iPaq 5555, were rock solid. But on at least two PC's, AS dropped. I'd be installing an application and it would drop mid-install. Others reported this problem too. A good source for the I700 is:
http://www.pdaphonehome.com/forums/f...?s=&forumid=65
If it wasn't for this AS problem, I would have kept it. It worked well and, with my Sandisk WiFi and Socket BT cards, I had a complete solution in one package. In the meantime, my iPaq 5555 and T-Mobile Sony Ericsson T610 bluetooth phone work pretty well too.
However, if and when iPaq releases their iPaq 6000 1st quarter 2004, I will be there. A GSM/GPRS phone, built in WiFi, built in BT and a camera, all in the size of an iPaq 2200. Sweet. The XDA II also looks pretty good. No built in WiFi, but 128MB RAM.
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12-05-2003, 06:52 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 718
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Kathy_Harris
Why would Verizon/Samsung put out a PPC 2002 device?
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The device has been out for months. I don't think 2003 phone edition was available yet. In fact, the XDA II is the only 2003 PE device out so far I think and that was just released.
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12-05-2003, 07:08 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,051
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Janak,
This phone is still a little to big for my taste but your review was one of the best I have EVER read, on ANY site. I especially appreciate the lesson on CDMA abd 1xRTT. BTW- I think $599 is surprisingly reasonable for what you are getting with this device.
Nice job. Very well done.
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Linear Mode
