Even More Vox Reviews!

[Pete Paxton]

"It's a crazy world out there. Our Smartphones are suddently called "Standard", and keyboards are sliding open from all parts of our devices (front, side, bottom). Now, we have a new device to throw into the mix: the new HTC Vox S710, which seems almost magical to those in the Windows Mobile community with two firsts (the first Windows Mobile 6 production device and the first Smartphone that has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard). There's a lot we have to say about the Vox before we declare it a winner."

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/paxton-20070511-voxreviews.jpg

I think the list of who hasn't reviewed the Vox (HTC S710) is shorter than who has. Now we have three more reviews for your weekend viewing pleasure. Pocketnow has their review of the HTC S710 ready to go. Lots of great pics, a comparison chart, bugs and wishes, and pros and cons. Tracy and Matt (from Tracy and Matt's Blog) have not had any luck getting their hands back on a new Orange SPV E650 from Orange PR, but a long-time follower of the blog, Alasdair Ford, has written a great review of the device as he has been using the E650 for a few weeks. And finally, CoolSmartPhone has a great pictoral review with tons of - well pics of course. :D And here's a hint, they all pretty much like it. So how about you, is this the end all be all device everyone is boasting about? Let us know. Click on the links below for your viewing extravaganza.

PocketNow's Review (http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=952&p=3)
Tracy and Matt's Review (http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2007/05/11/orange_spv_e650_review)
CoolSmartPhone's Review (http://www.coolsmartphone.com/article715.html)

[Kris Kumar]

Look at the size of the screen on that thing. 8O

[Prosper]

Look at the size of the screen on that thing. 8O

8O Looks really amazing ..

.. and I'm getting one next week 8)

[Kris Kumar]

.. and I'm getting one next week 8)

I must resist the temptation. Must resist...must resist...let me check the prices.

[Prosper]

I must resist the temptation. Must resist...must resist...let me check the prices.

I paid 350 (incl. shipping). 8)

edit: € of course :P

[Hightech]

Is it worth to wait for the HTC S730 (Wing)????

[Kris Kumar]

Is it worth to wait for the HTC S730 (Wing)????

That is what is holding me back. Plus WinMo 6 update for the Dash is helping me as well. I have QWERTY and WinMo 6. Vox will only give me a cool new form-factor. Now the Wing; that brings 3G to the table. If you have 3G in your area, I think makes total sense to wait for the Wing.

[ctmagnus]

This looks very interesting. The biggest thing holding me back is the lack of file synchronization with Windows Mobile Standard.

[Jerry Raia]

No 3G though! What is the problem HTC?

[karinatwork]

Well, I got mine on Thursday, and I still can't believe how small is it... here are a few pro's and cons for me:

Cons:
The upper (phone) part has a bit of wiggle room, maybe one mm or so, when you hold in in one hand, using the numeric keypad, and that gives you a bit of an "uneasy" feeling. It' hard to explain, and from how I see the phone is built I doubt it would ever have real problems because of it, but it's a bit annoying.
It's a bit on the sluggish side, but not too bad (nothing worse than the un-overclocked Jamin).
Could "too many features" be a con?
Pros:
The screen. It is absolutely beautiful!
The sounds. I guess I'm coming from a horrible speaker to a better one, maybe some phones are even better, but it sounds loud and crystal clear. (I'm talking about the system sounds, not phone calls, have not tried those out yet).
The slide-out keyboard. VERY handy.
The size. It's so tiny. But solid too. It's perfect. :)
I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep it. Personally, I think it's a great phone for a busy woman like me. Maybe it's kinda wasted with me because I won't be able to fully take advantage from the whole email/webbrowsing/Exchange server thing, but boy, to keep up with your appointments, lists, spreadsheets, pdfs, etc... it's perfect. The Jamin was great, it did all that and was a phone, but it was a pain in the behind not to have a keypad. And - believe it or not - now I am wondering how I could have ever lugged around a device that big. :D

I got it from Elite-Electronix.com for $ 449.

Now if I could just figure out a way to get rid of the green on the dialer skin and the communication manager...

:)

[Hightech]

Well I would need for email, going into the internet and looking up stuff.. So speed it is important to me. I was going to get a laptop but when I heard of this one and the S730 Wing I was blown away. Thats what I would use it for.. I love te fact that has a small key board as well.. The question what will the S730 (wing) cost???

[Jerry Raia]

Could "too many features" be a con?

No 3G is a huge con I think. :?

[ctmagnus]

No 3G is a huge con I think. :?

Only if the places you use the phone regularly do not yet have 3G access. ;)

[Jerry Raia]

No 3G is a huge con I think. :?

Only if the places you use the phone regularly do not yet have 3G access. ;)

True but eventually most places will.

[Mike Temporale]

Could "too many features" be a con?

:lol: No! ;)

Now if I could just figure out a way to get rid of the green on the dialer skin and the communication manager...

Skinning is done in a different manner from the PPC. I don't see you changing the color on the ComManager, but otherwise, you need a good theme. Check out these sites for some good themes:

http://smartphone.kleinweder.ch/downloads/index.php

http://www.juniskins.com/

http://smartphone.krisdoff.net/portfolio.php?g=3

I don't know how well these will work on a device like yours where the screen rotates, but they are the best ones out there and rotating screens is new to the Smartphone arena.

[Kris Kumar]

Could "too many features" be a con?

I think it can. It just means that Microsoft did a bad job at making the interface easy or the features seamless. This is an area where I feel Apple will be soon teaching them a lesson.

[onlydarksets]

Skinning is done in a different manner from the PPC. I don't see you changing the color on the ComManager, but otherwise, you need a good theme. Check out these sites for some good themes:

http://smartphone.kleinweder.ch/downloads/index.php

http://www.juniskins.com/

http://smartphone.krisdoff.net/portfolio.php?g=3

I don't know how well these will work on a device like yours where the screen rotates, but they are the best ones out there and rotating screens is new to the Smartphone arena.

Don't forget the leading lady of WM5 Smartphone skinning!
http://www.ekopapers.com/

[Pete Paxton]

Well imagine being on an entire network with no hi-speed data. That's why I think this phone would be perfect for Tmo. I sometimes wonder why I stick with Tmo.

[Prosper]

I don't know how well these will work on a device like yours where the screen rotates, but they are the best ones out there and rotating screens is new to the Smartphone arena.

My themes (3rd site) won't work currently. But as mentioned before, I'm getting a S710 next week, so there'll be homescreens for it of course ;)

[Kris Kumar]

I don't know how well these will work on a device like yours where the screen rotates, but they are the best ones out there and rotating screens is new to the Smartphone arena.

Good point. This is going to be a challenge. Does the phone support two home screens? One for landscape and the other for portrait? Or just one. I am guessing it is the latter, but would have been nice if it had two.

[Prosper]

Good point. This is going to be a challenge. Does the phone support two home screens? One for landscape and the other for portrait? Or just one. I am guessing it is the latter, but would have been nice if it had two.
It supports one homescreen, just like every other WM device. It's a bit tricky to make homescreens that work fine on both modes, but it's doable :wink:

[Mike Temporale]

I've created a new thread over here (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=88172#88172) to talk about cool homes creens for your device. :) I would like to make that thread the "official" source for where to find cool home screens.

[hylton]

I really would like to have the S710 in the intermin between my 3125 and the next device...but I think I'm waiting for the S730. 3G isn't important to me, but after owning the SMT5600, MPx220, and now the 3125...my next device is gonna have to have a jump in processor speed.

Things making me wait for the S730...

- scroll wheel
- 400mhz cpu
- 3G, less important but would be nice

[bitbank]

The S710 looks great. I'll get the S710 when the price drops a bit.

For those making an issue out of the lack of 3G... it's a non-issue for some carriers such as T-Mobile who don't support it anyway.

L.B.

[Stinger]

Orange are doing sell good deals on this phone (free on virtually all contracts) but the lack of 3G kills it for me.

Once you've had 3G, it's very hard to go back. :(