Santa Fe
12-04-2003, 09:14 PM
I have had my i600 for a few days and thought I’d share some of my views for those still trying to make the purchase decision. As always your mileage may vary. The phone was available as a dummy demonstrator at my local Verizon store so I was able to get a first hand look at the size and form factor before making the purchase. The folks at the store had little knowledge about the i600 and had not sold any before I came in. So finding out how to get the order in was an hour-long project. Finally enough codes were found and entered so that their system took the order. Leaving the store after spending $500 with nothing but a receipt was a bit of a downer. This was at noon. The next morning FedEx delivered my phone at 10 a.m. I live in the boondocks west of Santa Fe, NM and the phone came from Fort Worth, TX so it was a pleasant surprise to get it so quickly.
In the box were the phone, a CD users manual (139 pages) zipped PDF file, a Verizon “Getting to know your new phone” CD, a CD with the latest version of Active Sync and Outlook 2000 along with the SD card (which has some trial software), a Wireless Sync CD, a fake leather belt pouch for the phone, earphones, a regular and a large capacity battery, plus the usual Verizon agreements and tips. The manual must be read to understand how to use all the features.
The manual doesn’t address how long to charge the battery and customer service/technical support “guessed” 6 hours should do it. The ready light came on in about 3 hours but I let it charge for the recommended 6 and wondered if that was enough. The phone showed a full charge.
Impressions
The Phone – the i600 is impressive as a phone. The sound quality is very good, the ring is loud enough for me to hear in noisy places, and weight and size feel “right” to me. The boxy shape is not as sexy as some might wish however. One does have take care not to push any of the buttons (two volume and memo recorder on the left and quick list and internet/voice command keys on the right) along both sides of the phone when making calls. My first minor complaint is that it takes about 33 seconds for it to boot-up. I don’t normally leave it on all the time so that wait is an eternity when I just want to look something up quickly using the PDA functions. (Hint for software developers)
The screen is surprisingly easy to read and has useful information available. Operating it was very intuitive. I found it easiest to move around the menus by selecting the appropriate menu number rather than scrolling.
The Home Screen’s “upcoming appointments” only show the next appointment and then only if it is today or tomorrow. (Another hint to software developers). Using the calendar is a bit of a drag. Since you cannot see right away what appointments are coming up, you must navigate to the calendar menu and there you can select either the “week” soft key to see what is ahead or the “menu” soft key for more options. But in the week view you must scroll around to be sure to see what is there. Getting to the month view shows everything but that requires accessing the menu and scrolling down three times and selecting “ok” to get to it. It would be nicer to allow the user to select a preferred default calendar view. (Hint to software developers)
Accessing the Internet was not possible at first. I kept getting an error message saying the “network” was not available. It took two calls to Verizon customer support/technical support to “fix” the problem. Actually it still is really not fixed. Since they had no clue about how to get me connected I suggested they let me try out the “Express Network” at no charge for a while and the nice customer support person agreed. Once added to my account I was looking at websites and checking e-mail at blazing speeds. Since both the Express Network and Quick 2 Net are set up in the phone by Verizon I’m wondering if I should have deleted the Express Network in order for Quick 2 Net to work. I may try that at some point.
I’ve had the caller ID problem too. Before I downloaded my contacts file incoming calls telephone numbers showed up right away on the external screen. I whittled my contacts down to 250 with about 600 numbers. But now all I see is an icon of a ringing telephone on the external screen, which is not very helpful. The ID is normally on the internal screen when I open the phone but since my preference for the phone to answer when opened it is a bit late. (Hint to software developers)
Using the voice dialer and voice commands to open applications has been pretty good for me. So far it works on all but a few names. And I’ve placed a few wrong calls, which are kind of hard to explain. “Err, my phone doesn’t understand me”. From what others have said about how good it is I’m expecting to get better at making the phone understand me. There is the alternative to use the “Quick Dial” feature that allows training of a contacts name. It does take longer than the two seconds the manual mentions to get the voice command menu opened. I think it first has to read all your contacts.
Active Sync worked flawlessly and all my desired information is now available to me wherever my phone and I are. I cannot say enough about how useful E-wallet is to me. I must use it three or four times a day. Unlike my PDA it does take a few seconds to be available on the Smartphone.
Speaking of Active Sync it appears that choosing how to get your e-mail is either by over the air or by Active Sync but not both. I’d like both since it is convenient to pick the phone up out the charger and head off somewhere while reading the latest mail. But if you don’t deselect the option to sync e-mail in Active Sync you cannot later use the phone to check e-mail. (Unless of course wireless sync is something you decide to do).
I looking forward to someone (Hint again) developing a sophisticated calculator for this device. The one supplied by Microsoft is not particularly user friendly.
Battery life is still up in the air. I have not been too disappointed but would like more time to see if it maintains the charge through a long day of airports, taxies and other peoples offices.
My early conclusion
Great phone and a compromised PDA
More third party software to add to usefulness needed
In the box were the phone, a CD users manual (139 pages) zipped PDF file, a Verizon “Getting to know your new phone” CD, a CD with the latest version of Active Sync and Outlook 2000 along with the SD card (which has some trial software), a Wireless Sync CD, a fake leather belt pouch for the phone, earphones, a regular and a large capacity battery, plus the usual Verizon agreements and tips. The manual must be read to understand how to use all the features.
The manual doesn’t address how long to charge the battery and customer service/technical support “guessed” 6 hours should do it. The ready light came on in about 3 hours but I let it charge for the recommended 6 and wondered if that was enough. The phone showed a full charge.
Impressions
The Phone – the i600 is impressive as a phone. The sound quality is very good, the ring is loud enough for me to hear in noisy places, and weight and size feel “right” to me. The boxy shape is not as sexy as some might wish however. One does have take care not to push any of the buttons (two volume and memo recorder on the left and quick list and internet/voice command keys on the right) along both sides of the phone when making calls. My first minor complaint is that it takes about 33 seconds for it to boot-up. I don’t normally leave it on all the time so that wait is an eternity when I just want to look something up quickly using the PDA functions. (Hint for software developers)
The screen is surprisingly easy to read and has useful information available. Operating it was very intuitive. I found it easiest to move around the menus by selecting the appropriate menu number rather than scrolling.
The Home Screen’s “upcoming appointments” only show the next appointment and then only if it is today or tomorrow. (Another hint to software developers). Using the calendar is a bit of a drag. Since you cannot see right away what appointments are coming up, you must navigate to the calendar menu and there you can select either the “week” soft key to see what is ahead or the “menu” soft key for more options. But in the week view you must scroll around to be sure to see what is there. Getting to the month view shows everything but that requires accessing the menu and scrolling down three times and selecting “ok” to get to it. It would be nicer to allow the user to select a preferred default calendar view. (Hint to software developers)
Accessing the Internet was not possible at first. I kept getting an error message saying the “network” was not available. It took two calls to Verizon customer support/technical support to “fix” the problem. Actually it still is really not fixed. Since they had no clue about how to get me connected I suggested they let me try out the “Express Network” at no charge for a while and the nice customer support person agreed. Once added to my account I was looking at websites and checking e-mail at blazing speeds. Since both the Express Network and Quick 2 Net are set up in the phone by Verizon I’m wondering if I should have deleted the Express Network in order for Quick 2 Net to work. I may try that at some point.
I’ve had the caller ID problem too. Before I downloaded my contacts file incoming calls telephone numbers showed up right away on the external screen. I whittled my contacts down to 250 with about 600 numbers. But now all I see is an icon of a ringing telephone on the external screen, which is not very helpful. The ID is normally on the internal screen when I open the phone but since my preference for the phone to answer when opened it is a bit late. (Hint to software developers)
Using the voice dialer and voice commands to open applications has been pretty good for me. So far it works on all but a few names. And I’ve placed a few wrong calls, which are kind of hard to explain. “Err, my phone doesn’t understand me”. From what others have said about how good it is I’m expecting to get better at making the phone understand me. There is the alternative to use the “Quick Dial” feature that allows training of a contacts name. It does take longer than the two seconds the manual mentions to get the voice command menu opened. I think it first has to read all your contacts.
Active Sync worked flawlessly and all my desired information is now available to me wherever my phone and I are. I cannot say enough about how useful E-wallet is to me. I must use it three or four times a day. Unlike my PDA it does take a few seconds to be available on the Smartphone.
Speaking of Active Sync it appears that choosing how to get your e-mail is either by over the air or by Active Sync but not both. I’d like both since it is convenient to pick the phone up out the charger and head off somewhere while reading the latest mail. But if you don’t deselect the option to sync e-mail in Active Sync you cannot later use the phone to check e-mail. (Unless of course wireless sync is something you decide to do).
I looking forward to someone (Hint again) developing a sophisticated calculator for this device. The one supplied by Microsoft is not particularly user friendly.
Battery life is still up in the air. I have not been too disappointed but would like more time to see if it maintains the charge through a long day of airports, taxies and other peoples offices.
My early conclusion
Great phone and a compromised PDA
More third party software to add to usefulness needed