The Dopod 595 Teaser

[Darius Wey]

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/wey-20061013-dopod595a.jpg

Right now, you're probably thinking hell has frozen over. Here you are, eyeballs bulging, staring in disbelief that Pocket PC Thoughts' (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/) editors are talking about Smartphones on Smartphone Thoughts (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/). Well, I have a confession to make: I have always favoured a phone with a true candy bar/clamshell form factor. Why? Size is important to me. While my E-TEN M600 Pocket PC Phone Edition (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,44578:dont_paginate,1) served me well over the past year, that bulge in my pocket was getting to me, not to mention the lack of tactile feedback when punching in numbers on the touchscreen. <!>

So, a little over a week ago, I took delivery of a Dopod 595 Smartphone - probably better known around these parts as the HTC Breeze (the company's first Windows Mobile 5.0-based 3G-enabled Smartphone). I've included an extremely short teaser below, since I am in the process of writing a detailed review that will appear on this site over the coming weeks. So, on that note, if you have any questions, please post them in this thread and I'll endeavour to have them addressed in the review. But for now, enjoy the eye-candy!

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/wey-20061013-dopod595b.jpg
Figures 1 (top) and 2: Bathed in metal, the 595 sports a bright QVGA (240 x 320) display, which makes text incredibly sharp. Situated just above it is the 595's secondary camera for video telephony (a feature missing from the HTC MTeoR (http://www.europe.htc.com/products/htcmteor.html)).

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/wey-20061013-dopod595c.jpg
Figure 3: In the past, most candy bar Smartphones have hovered around 17-18mm in thickness. However, the 595 comes in at just 14.8mm, which makes it one of the slimmest candy bar Smartphones around. Toward the bottom of the device, there is a tiny light sensor (just beneath the "0" key), which controls the blue backlight of the keypad, and an all-in-one (audio, sync, and charge) mini USB port.

[encece]

Shame it's just a tri-band phone that doesn't support Cingular 850 band in the US....or I'd be using one now! :)

[encece]

Also, I'm glad you PPC folks are finally waking up to the Smartphone world! I knew you'd see thing OUR way eventually! :)

[Jason Dunn]

Welcome to the "dark side" Darius! ;-)

[Tim Williamson]

Oooohhh...looks nice! I'm assuming you'll be including some comparison shots in your full review. :)

[Mike Temporale]

I've always said this phone is ugly. At last months Mobius, I had some time with Arne Hess' (from the::unwired (http://www.theunwired.net))Breeze, and I'll be honest, it's not as ugly as it is in pictures. It's not i-mate SPL, but it's not as bad as it looks in pictures.

[MitchellO]

I had a WM Smartphone for several months (the imate SP5) and I just couldn't get used to the lack of touchscreen and keyboard. I might be able to sacrifice the touchscreen if the right keyboarded smartphone came along. Would need to be 3G and include WiFi (aka. an Excaliber with 3G).

[MitchellO]

I've always said this phone is ugly.

Yeah the look of this phone has actually grown on me since I first saw it. I have never seen it in person, but it doesn't look as bad as my initial impression months ago.

[Darius Wey]

Shame it's just a tri-band phone that doesn't support Cingular 850 band in the US....or I'd be using one now! :)

I know, that's the real killer. Telstra, one of the carriers here in Australia, just hopped on the 850MHz bandwagon with their nationwide HSDPA network, and it's a shame that this phone can't take advantage of it.

[Darius Wey]

Oooohhh...looks nice! I'm assuming you'll be including some comparison shots in your full review. :)

More than you can poke a stick at. :)

[Darius Wey]

Yeah the look of this phone has actually grown on me since I first saw it. I have never seen it in person, but it doesn't look as bad as my initial impression months ago.

Now that 3 has it, see if they have any display models in their stores. There's a huge difference between seeing pictures on the internet and having one in the hand.

I was a Nokia user many eons ago, and of all the devices that I owned, I will definitely say that this is the most professional-looking candy bar phone of the lot.

[MitchellO]

Now that 3 has it, see if they have any display models in their stores. There's a huge difference between seeing pictures on the internet and having one in the hand.

Yeah I don't know if my local 3 shop is getting one. I called them up to see if they had stock of the 838 Pro (or if they knew when they would be getting some) and they said that they weren't sure if they were because they aren't a 3 Business store.

But maybe they will and if they do I will certainly go in for a look D:

[alexnvidia]

Darius Wey, first of all, welcome aboard the MS smartphone community. i do share your enthusiasm because i too own a dopod 595. i can tell everyone that, apart from the lack of wifi (which is not important IMHO), this phone is superb, stunning screen, solid build, speedy processor, though triband GSM+single band UMTS, it has EDGE, 3G and HSPDA(3.5G)! and best of all, it looks great. i have to say, months ago, when the first pictures of prototype units are floating around the internet, i too share the same thoughts as many of you do.. this phone is just too ugly. all that change when i've seen the real thing in person, it's like love at first sight. the metal body is simply high class and solid. anyway, enough with the praises.

the reason i write to you is because i wanted to know if this phone, having bluetooth v2.0, can work flawlessly with Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970 stereo bluetooth headset. i know in theory, it is supposed to work because dopod 595 supports A2DP and AVRC profiles. im hoping that someone professional like you (or anyone else) can verify this. aspects to look out are:
1.sound quality and integrity (are there lots of skippings in music?)
2.max range
3.does the buttons and onboard OLED display work properly when displaying contact names and track info?
4.ability to handle both calls and music like it should without any problems

also, regarding the debate on whether HTC Breeze supports HSDPA/3.5G, can you verify this as well? for starters, there are HSDPA exe files in the \windows and \windows\startup folder. you can check it and let us know. thanks alot and enjoy your smartphone. looking forward to your reply and review! cheers~

[Darius Wey]

... and HSPDA(3.5G)!

Yes, that was a nasty little surprise I discovered while poking around the system files. Both the Dopod 595 and i-mate SP JAS support HSDPA out of the box. Unfortunately, the HTC MTeoR does not.

1.sound quality and integrity (are there lots of skippings in music?)

I noticed some skips. At the moment, I can't really say if this is an issue to do with my headset (Bluetake i-PHONO mini) or the phone. I'll need to test this further.

2.max range

Again, something I need to test further, and will be featured in my review.

3.does the buttons and onboard OLED display work properly when displaying contact names and track info?

Unfortunately, that's a question I cannot answer, since I do not have the HBH-DS970.

4.ability to handle both calls and music like it should without any problems

Yes, the 595 does this without a hitch.

also, regarding the debate on whether HTC Breeze supports HSDPA/3.5G, can you verify this as well? for starters, there are HSDPA exe files in the \windows and \windows\startup folder. you can check it and let us know. thanks alot and enjoy your smartphone. looking forward to your reply and review! cheers~

The relevant files are there. Read the passage above to see which variant of the phone excludes them.

[alexnvidia]

thanks for the quick reply, unfortunately, you too do not have a SE HBH-DS970 to test it out. because im interested to get DS970, and i was wondering how well will it work with dopod 595. anyway, if you (or anyone) have any personal thoughts(pros and cons) about DS970 stereo headset, please let me know as well. your experience is greatly appreciated.

regarding HSDPA, well, im pretty convinced that dopod 595 does support 3.5G. for one, the qualcomm baseband chip that is used in dopod 595 is MSM6275 and according to Qualcomm, that chip has HSDPA support. the only thing left now is to do a real time speed test to prove that dopod 595 does support HSDPA. if your carrier does support HSDPA, please do the testing and post the benchmark result together with your much awaited review please.

Also, can you please verify this for me? is the battery indicator updates itself every 10%? meaning to say you'll only notice the battery drop when you use (or 10% increament when you charge) only every 10%? from my past experience with HTC Tornado/dopod 577W, the battery changes every 1%. besides that, i find that the battery gives really wierd temperature readings.when idling, it reads out ~43 degrees celcius and when heavily used (battery gets warm), it reads out ~38C. this is absolutely not normal, and i was wondering if yours is also the same. the software i used to check the battery status is CeleTask (www.efficasoft.com), or any other hardware monitoring software will do because they all give me the same ridiculous readings. Try to monitor your usage pattern and see how long will the battery last. i've seen people complaining that the battery life is short especially when they use 3G. for me, i get less than 2days between charges (1 hour call + 20-30 sms + 15-30min mp3 playback through loudspeaker). im not roaming on 3G network, just GSM because 3G coverage at my place is bad.

[Darius Wey]

regarding HSDPA, &lt;snip>

Also, can you please verify this for me? is the battery indicator updates itself every 10%? &lt;snip>

Thanks for the comments. Most of these I wish to address in the review, so if possible, just hold out for a little longer. :)

[Kris Kumar]

I like Dopod logo. Pretty hip! HTC and Dopod have invested a lot in branding.

[alexnvidia]

Thanks for the comments. Most of these I wish to address in the review, so if possible, just hold out for a little longer. :)

In that case, im really looking forward to your in depth review. :lol:

[Jerry Raia]

Not only do I like the looks of this phone, I am enjoying the conversion of our PPC brethren. They have seen the light!

[Racinggavin]

Does anybody feel the video telephony feature on this phone? I felt really disappointed >&lt;