The HTC S710 (Vox) Quick Review

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geardiary.com/2007/06/16/the-htc-s710-vox-quick-review/#more-3125' target='_blank'>http://www.geardiary.com/2007/06/16/the-htc-s710-vox-quick-review/#more-3125</a><br /><br /></div><i>"As a person who is constantly looking for the next best device for business use, it amazes me that no one came up with this design before HTC did. A quote straight from PhoneArena.Com says it all: 'The HTC S710 is the most compact messaging phone with an auto-sliding QWERTY keyboard. It is the first smartphone powered by the new Windows Mobile® 6 Standard platform. This new platform provides genuine mobile Office Outlook® experience, greater control of Outlook® Mobile Calendar, better Internet Explorer® Mobile browsing experience and Windows Live™. It also offers greater interoperability with Exchange Server 2007 providing you with improved e-mail management (such as Fetch Mail and Set Flags), Out-of-Office assistant, and HTML e-mail viewing capabilities.' And boy are they right, I picked this device up about a week ago and have been trying to use it religiously, but when you carry an average of 8 devices constantly it can be hard to do so sometimes."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/augusto-20070618-voxgeardiary.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />Gear Diary has posted an excellent review of the HTC Vox, the hot new Windows Mobile 6 Standard device. I must say, I have a love/hate relationship with this device. It seems as though I spend half the week drooling and swooning over this handset and the other half of the week getting upset that this is not a 3G enabled device. Sure, it has 802.11b/g WiFi built into it, but it just is not the same. If only HTC would release a UMTS/HSDPA Smartphone here in the US, I would be in heaven!

[SnozBerries]

After 1 month of use, I like the S710. I don't use much data. I use maybe 2 MB of my 5 MB/month plan, checking traffic reports daily, weather reports once a week, and two or three websites maybe once a week. So lack of 3G isn't a big deal to me. When I do want something in a hurry, I'll turn on wifi.

I do like the slide out keypad for doing all my text entry. I probably won't ever go back to a smartphone w/o qwerty. It's so much easier. I only wish the phone was thinner, like the Motorola Q's thickness. But to get there with a slide out qwerty keypad is probably many months away.

[Rocco Augusto]

I do like the slide out keypad for doing all my text entry. I probably won't ever go back to a smartphone w/o qwerty. It's so much easier. I only wish the phone was thinner, like the Motorola Q's thickness. But to get there with a slide out qwerty keypad is probably many months away.

How do the keys feel on the slide out keyboard? I enjoy the keys on my Blackjack because they are easy to feel out and have a bit of stiffness to them and "click" when I press them down so I know they have been pressed. Does the Vox keyboard provide that same "umph"?

[Torturous Trevor]

Rocco,

As the person who did this review, let me just let you know that there will more then likely be a 3G version of this device, known as the S730, from my understanding this is why AT&amp;T/Cingular passed on the S710, they wanted a 3G device, the bad news is that knowing Cingular they will more then likely remove the wireless part of it and just go with 3G. Just like they did with the Q9. Some people just cant leave well enough alone. :)

TT

[TopDog]

I love my S710!

I don't miss 3G at all, but I love using WiFi at home and at cafè's (almost all cafè's here in Oslo have free WiFi these days) 8)

At first I found the phone really buggy and slow, but after I removed the WLM plugin from the today screen, all my problems seems to have gone away.

[hondaguy]

i have not been so let down by a device in a long time. i am very happy with the smartphone platform and have been waiting for this exact form factor to arrive for a very long time. i have used the excalibur with wm5 and wm6 on it and could not believe how slow the vox is compared to them. my device would constantly hang or crash if i sent an email and tried to close the keyboard at the same time! i hard reset it countless times and it would keep doing it. it would take 4 seconds for it to reach the home screen after sending an email or sms some times too. 3g doesnt matter to me as i live in toronto and our data plans are BRUTAL, so i use wifi when i want to move lots of data.

i will wait for the next version to come out that is supposed to have a 400mhz processor and gps. i am using a cavalier right now and the processor make a nice difference

[TopDog]

Strange.

I'm impressed with my device when it comes to rotating the screen. It's much faster than my friends Qtek 9100, and the HTC TyTN I used for a short while.

The only real hang up's I've had that required a reset was the Home screen, but after I removed the WLM plugin that problem has disapeared.

[Rocco Augusto]

Some people just cant leave well enough alone. :)

TT

Isn't that the truth! ;)

Welcome to the board! :)

[pocobob]

Hi All,
I'm new to this forum so please bear with me and/or redirect me to the proper forum/thread.
I just purchased an HTC S720 which is activated on Telus. Here are my questions.
- How/why would I want to disable WLM (Windows Live Messenger?)?
- I was using a PPC 6700 for a while and used the Notes feature a lot. Is there an equivalent application on the S720? If not is there a good 3rd party product that I can use that will synch with my PC?

Thanks again for putting up with my newbieness :oops:

Bob.

[TopDog]

- How/why would I want to disable WLM (Windows Live Messenger?)?
Not WLM in general, just the Home plugin, it's crap and makes the phone really slow on the Home screen. I've created my own (http://www.wmobil.no/tema/wm6/) where I've replaced the WLM plugin with the Skype plugin 8)

- I was using a PPC 6700 for a while and used the Notes feature a lot. Is there an equivalent application on the S720?
Personally I use PocketNotepad (http://tillanosoft.com/ce/pnotepad.html), but it does not sync, you have to move the txt files manually.

I'm pretty sure I've seen some 3rd party software that syncs notes, but don't remember where right now.

[dwhitney]

I've owned quite a few smartphones (primarily all HTC devices including KJam, Dash, TyTN, P4350) and now the S720 and I have to say that while I love the size of the S720, I find the keyboard (after 4 weeks of use now...) to be not nearly as funcational/easy to use as any of the other devices.

Not only is the key layout/location different than other phones (and even normal qwerty keyboards in general) but it is also not as responsive. I notice that any time I have to type 2 of the same letter in a row (like the "t" in the word letter), only one of the key presses is recognized (it can't keep up with me).

Also... not sure if anyone else see's this or not but it seems that everyone once in awhile (OK - several times a day), the device will bog down (the spinning color wheel appears like the device is doing something) while I am trying to compose a message and I have to wait for it for like 10-15 seconds to become responsive again. I'm not using WLM or any other non-standard apps on the device either (noticed this issue the first day I had it).

[expediter]

I love my S710!

I don't miss 3G at all, but I love using WiFi at home and at cafè's (almost all cafè's here in Oslo have free WiFi these days) 8)


I won't buy a phone without 3G. Most of the cafe's here in the US don't have free wifi. I use my Blackjack as a modem for my Nokia N800. There's a huge difference in speed between 2G and 3G.

[pocobob]

Thanks TopDog!
I checked out your website, but it's all in Norwegian :? Can you provide instructions for removing the plug in or point me to an english site, I'm pretty new to this smartphone stuff. I also checked out the PocketNotepad and it looks pretty good. Thanks again for all of your help.

[bitbank]

I've owned/tested nearly every PPC/SP device and the S710 is my favorite so far. I don't miss 3G because T-Mobile doesn't offer it :). The phone feels good in the hand, has good RF performance, has an excellent display and the keyboard works pretty well. I like it better than the BlackJack because the BlackJack is a bit larger and seems to paint the display very slowly.

I'm coming from a T-Mobile SDA and it's a definite step up. The ability to carry the device comfortably in my pocket is of high importance.

The D-pad is not great for games, but that's a minor point.

I bought the HTC branded one and haven't had any problems with it.

L.B.

[TopDog]

Can you provide instructions
In your favorite theme (something.home.xml), you want to remove this:

&lt;plugin clsid="{604FC0F0-0299-4f9e-BE6C-7DFFA7B6B93A}" XAMLFile="res:WLMDeckCode:201" name="res:WLMDeckCode:201" height="50" heightminimized="27" transparent="true"/>

By some strange reason this plugin doesn't have a closing tag... Maybe that's the bug!? Nah :worried:

[Mike Temporale]

&lt;plugin clsid="{604FC0F0-0299-4f9e-BE6C-7DFFA7B6B93A}" XAMLFile="res:WLMDeckCode:201" name="res:WLMDeckCode:201" height="50" heightminimized="27" transparent="true"/>

By some strange reason this plugin doesn't have a closing tag... Maybe that's the bug!? Nah :worried:

In XML &lt;plugin /> is the same as &lt;plugin>&lt;/plugin> The "/" in the first example means close. ;)