Audiovox 4100 Pocket PC Announced, To Be Carried By AT&T

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.audiovox.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=13228&langId=-1' target='_blank'>http://www.audiovox.com/webapp/wcs/...13228&langId=-1</a><br /><br /></div>"Audiovox Communications Corporation and AT&amp;T Wireless announced today the PPC 4100, an integrated wireless PDA phone featuring Windows Mobile software, will be available in June 2004 and showcased for the first time today at Microsoft's Tech Ed conference in San Diego, CA. The PPC 4100 will be available for $349 after a $50 instant rebate. The unmatched combination of power, function and form makes this competitively priced 'all-in-one' device one of the best values on the market today."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040524-AudiovoxPPC4100.jpg" /><br /><br />While the device doesn't have Bluetooth, it is very compact, is running a 400MHz XScale with 64MB of RAM, is triband -- including the GSM 850 band -- and most importantly, has an affordable pricepoint: $349! That's the first Pocket PC Phone I've seen launched that is reasonably priced from the get-go. Apparently, it'll be available in stores in June. It doesn't seem to have appeared on AT&amp;T's webpage yet, but it should be there soon. You can see the full press release <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-24-2004/0002180140&EDATE=">here</a>.

[bkerrins]

PLEASE let this be part of the Cingular release too!! I could have sworn they just merged recently, but I have a Cingular contract. For $350 I could convert to a PPC Phone (finally).

[Janak Parekh]

PLEASE let this be part of the Cingular release too!! I could have sworn they just merged recently, but I have a Cingular contract.
They have just approved the merger, so it's going forward. As to what the exact date is, though, I have no clue.

--janak

[GoldKey]

I hope the get this here. I was going to get the mpx200 from Att, but we are on 850 for GSM here and can't use that phone locally. While I would really love the mpx, this might be something affordable.

[Scott R]

This thing isn't going to sell well. According to the manual (and Brighthand's earlier coverage):
Your device is not designed for held-at-ear use and should never be used against the ear.I'm guessing there's a missing line at the end that would have read "or else the deadly levels of radiation will give you brain cancer."

This is the same phone that came out overseas long ago with the flip-down hard numeric keypad (a la Kyocera 6035). So, they've dropped the flip-pad and are telling you not to even hold it up to your head? That other design would have been so much better, so I can only imagine that there was some sort of health issue for the modification.

Scott

[thunderck]

THis looks like the HP 6300 to me. I remember hearing talk about HP's OEM selling the design to other...??? Am I off base? :?:

[Janak Parekh]

This is the same phone that came out overseas long ago with the flip-down hard numeric keypad (a la Kyocera 6035). So, they've dropped the flip-pad and are telling you not to even hold it up to your head? That other design would have been so much better, so I can only imagine that there was some sort of health issue for the modification.
Yeah - I can't make heads or tails of that decision either. :( I can't imagine the device could be released with such a high radiation, but we'll have to look for the SAR results before we say any further on that note.

--janak

[possmann]

Nice price point, but why AT&T? Looks like AT&T is desperate to offer as much "cool stuff" as they can to stop the fleeing hordes of customers...

I wish T-Mo would get on the cool bandwagon here in the US soon...

[DaleReeck]

Actually, if it has the 850MHZ band, then it would probably be a quad band (850, 900, 1800, 1900), not a tri-band.

Also, I'm not sure why people would be "fleeing" AT&T. With the merger with Cingular, their network east of the Mississippi will rival Verizon and Sprint in terms of coverage.

[GoldKey]

Also, I'm not sure why epople would be "fleeing" AT&T. With the merger with Cingular, their network east of the Mississippi will rival Verizon and Sprint in terms of coverage.

Terrible customer service. Had line number portability been in effect here when I had to resign, I would have left. May not be good, but at least it is cheap. I am hoping for some improvement with Cingular.

[Janak Parekh]

Actually, if it has the 850MHZ band, then it would probably be a quad band (850, 900, 1800, 1900), not a tri-band.
Nope - it's 850/1800/1900. Apparently, designing an antenna that handles both 850 and 900 is really hard, so 850/1800/1900 and 900/1800/1900 phones are the norm. How the quadband folks are doing it (either giving up reception, or some clever trick) I don't know.

--janak

[BanjoFrog]

$349 is a nice price, but without Bluetooth and WiFi, and only running 2003 instead of 2003SE... I have to say this is a bit of a letdown for me. I'm not going to run around with a PPC in my pocket and a wire to an earbud. Bluetooth would have been sooo much cooler. And if it's not safe to hold up to your ear, do I really want to stick this thing in my pocket? I guess it's a good thing I've already adopted kids... :wink:

[andrewjhscott]

Is this the same thing?

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=111344

Nice but needs Bluetooth....

[altden2002]

No bluetooth - no sale. How hard could that be?

Also, i do not see any difference between this and orignal PPC phone edition that both ATT and TMobile had. :?:

[Falstaff]

This is a very similar device to one that was talked about in a front page article on Brighthand. (http://www.brighthand.com/article/Low_Cost_Treo_Needed?site=Palm) Ed Hardy was talking about PalmOne's need to make a low cost Treo like the very successful 600. He reccommended a very simple device (no keypad or thumboard), which is exactly what this device looks like. Check out the article if you're interested. PPC Phone Editions have suffered the same problem of very high price points making them out of reach of the normal population. This is a positive step for PPC phone manufacturers.

[EyePAQ]

I found some info on the audiovox site.

http://www.audiovox.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=13228

[dcharles18]

Also, I'm not sure why people would be "fleeing" AT&T. With the merger with Cingular, their network east of the Mississippi will rival Verizon and Sprint in terms of coverage.

Reception is definately better, however, their data plans are horribly unreasonable and they block the ability to use your phone as a modem. Why pay almost $100/month for unlimited data when you can have it with T-mobile for next to nothing?

[Rob Borek]

Actually, if it has the 850MHZ band, then it would probably be a quad band (850, 900, 1800, 1900), not a tri-band.
Nope - it's 850/1800/1900. Apparently, designing an antenna that handles both 850 and 900 is really hard, so 850/1800/1900 and 900/1800/1900 phones are the norm. How the quadband folks are doing it (either giving up reception, or some clever trick) I don't know.

--janak

The only phone I know of that is quad band is the V600. There were also problems, IIRC, with the tri-band European phones (900/1800/1900) at one time because 1800Mhz and 1900Mhz bands use the same GSM channel numbers, etc (some required you to switch manually from 900/1900 to 900/1800).

[Scott R]

FYI, here's the phone in its intended form (http://www.pocketpcreviews.net/reviews/022004/anextek2.htm). That's a far more interesting device than this one.

Someone by the username aym_78 in this old Brighthand thread (http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102734) said he bought one with the flip-pad for $599 from Hugebee Tech. Here's the direct link (http://www.internetishop.com/product_detail.asp?main_cat_no=&sub_cat_no=&item=CL-HB-SP230). That model is tri-band 900/1800/1900. So what I want to know is whether this other model is safe to hold up to your head.

Scott

[gcherian]

The only phone I know of that is quad band is the V600. There were also problems, IIRC, with the tri-band European phones (900/1800/1900) at one time because 1800Mhz and 1900Mhz bands use the same GSM channel numbers, etc (some required you to switch manually from 900/1900 to 900/1800).

I think you are a bit behind in phone tech....

V400, V525, V600 (all from motorola) , NEC 525, Treo 600 are all quad band phones. I am sure it is not that technically difficult and we will be seeing more of these soon.... (hopefully !!!)


George

[BanjoFrog]

It's curious... the safety section of the 4100's owners manual says that holding the phone to the head is "contrary to the design of the product and is not recommended." They don't actually say it's unsafe. But why else would it be listed in the safety section? And why would they call it the "handset" if it's not intended to be used as such.

They also strongly recommend against using it unless it's at least 1.5cm from your body, otherwise it exceeds FCC RF exposure limitations.

Yeesh... is this new to the 4100, or are all PPC Phones this scary? Maybe this'll push me closer to a smartphone instead of a PPC phone.

-bf

[juliolezama]

I own a AnexTEK HugeBee Pocket PC Phone Edition. My phone is exactly as the picture posted of the Audiovox 4100 Pocket PC Phone. I am 100% sure they are the same phone. http://www.anextek.com/sp230.htm
What is all this about radiation going on? Does it means that my AnexTEK phone is going to cause me cancer or something like that?
By the way, I paid $600 for my phone and it came with the dial pad.

[Janak Parekh]

The only way to determine the effective radiation output is to look at the SAR rating. It should be in the manual. That test is specifically done by simulating a head being held to the handset. I really doubt the FCC would approve a phone with a SAR that passes the limits, and rather it's probably more an ergonomics thing.

gcherian: Not only those, but the rumored iPAQ 6300 series will have quad-band, as will the BenQ (try a search if you haven't seen the rumored specs already). :)

--janak