vB Easy Archive - Is the VX6700 really that bad?

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Is the VX6700 really that bad?
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Posted by: suza271

Hi everyone,

Please forgive me, as I am new to the forum as well to PDAs. Actually, I don't even have my PDA yet. I just ordered a VX6700 off of ebay and am expecting it any day now. My last phone was the V by verizon. I actually really liked it, but I need a PDA for my job to access Outlook on the road. I chose this model because it has a similar keyboard and seems to have what I need. I am sad, though, because it won't have the Navigator option. Anyway, on to the questions:

First off, I've heard A LOT of complaints about this phone. Is it really that bad? Am I going to have trouble using it? I am not that computer savvy, and need something that I will understand.

Second, all of this business about hacking and reconfiguring. I think it might make more sense when I get the phone, but it seems really confusing. I feel like you need to hack to make EVERYTHING work on this phone.

Third, I guess I'm confused as to what I need to sign up for to make the phone work properly. I don't want to sign up for EVO or whatever it is if I don't need to. But, I would like my Outlook to work most of the time. I would like to be able to check my e-mail when I need to. Also, am I understanding it correctly that when I send an e-mail it counts as 1 text message? I read about that 2000 text message thing I can add on for free, though. What I want is, to be able to call on the phone with about 400-500 minutes, get my Outlook e-mail, text people, and very rarely send or receive pictures.

Fourth, am I always online with this phone (like a computer)? Or, do I need to connect somehow. And, while I am online, am I being charged per minute?

As you can see, I have a lot to learn about these things. Any help would be appriciated!

Susan

Posted by: Kirvus

Susan – The pda features are great and then adding the wireless (802.11b and verizon’s broadband) expands the possibilities. I haven’t had many problems with this phone, but with most things out there; there are some bad ones along with the good ones.

As for getting things to work, from your post all of the things that you want it to do, it already does out of the box. Verizon has restricted a few things and the only way to change it is editing the registry. As with all electronic devices there are always people that customized to their liking.

Third, with this phone you HAVE to get a minute plan (phone calls) and a data plan (email and internet use). So you will pick your data plan according to how much you think you will use it. There are three options : pay as you go (very expensive if you actually use the data), 10mb for $25 (very expensive if you go over the 10mbs), and unlimited for $45 or so.

Fourth, you are always online with this phone. You are charged per kb usage……ie data plan.

Posted by: suza271

Thanks so much, Kirvus.

Posted by: Ride9650

just one correction: you are not always online

Posted by: pyrobot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ride9650

just one correction: you are not always online

I believe he meant it as an exageration of the amount of time people seem to spend online with their phone.

Posted by: suza271

But, will I always be receiving my Outlook e-mails? Or, will I need to log on to receive them? Thanks.

Posted by: Ride9650

Verizon has started offering the option of having push email, though its not really the same as a blackberry. The default setting requires you to manually connect and check through the messaging program(unless you keep your internet connection always on, then I think theres a way to set it so it checks every so often)

Posted by: ajm

Verizon includes Wireless Sync which will go get your POP3 email (or Exchange or whatever) and push it to your phone when you have new mail. This means your phone doesn't have to poll a server to find out if there are messages waiting to be downloaded.

To answer the OP: A lot of the complaints are from before the ROM update came out and fixed the problems. A lot of people also incorrectly configure the phone and install garbage software. Instead of being patient and learning how to mitigate their problems they whine about how terrible it is. The phone is a computer, thus it is much more complex than a regular phone and you can expect a learning curve. This should go without saying. I think it's worth it. I'm rewarded with more mobile capability than I would be with just about any other device available in the world today.

Posted by: suza271

When I asked the Verizon person about this, he said the push program was included in the price of the Unlimited Data plan. Is this true?

Posted by: ajm

True. But even without the unlimited data, I think the software (and feature) are included anyway. I wouldn't want to pay for that data by the KB though.

Any Verizon rep will try to convince you to get the unlimited data. So will most people here. So will I. Realistically there is nothing practical that is cheaper than unlimited data except for getting no data at all -- to get none at all, you'll need to choose a pay-as-you-go data plan and add the National Access Block "feature" to your account so that you cannot use data at all (including all PIX messaging). VZW reps may say you can't do this--that you must get unlimited--but they're wrong.

Posted by: schettj

Uh just to gently raise a yellow warning flag....

The 6700 (I have the sprint version) is a very very good windows moble pocket pc phone. However, it's also a windows mobile pocket pc phone - and those are not at all simple to use, and can be very easy to use "badly".

The most important feature of this phone, as a mobile PDA, is the always-available data network you get with an "all you can eat" data plan... with one of those you'll have always-connected email (even POP or IMAP, you just set the account up to check for new messages every 30-60 minutes) and you'll have web access...

If you don't want to pay for that, or don't need it, then this probably is way more complicated then you'll like. You can still overcome the learning curve, but it's not a little curve.

And yes, you can tweak, hack, and generally beat the living daylights out of this phone to make it exactly what you want. There are geek sites for ppc phones (I don't know if this site likes people posting links to other sites, but I have given you the name just there

)

Best of luck with it - it will either be the best phone you ever had, or the worst.

Posted by: mdrobnak

A correction - you can get a data only plan, it will be $5 additional to get a # that includes no minutes. Any airtime you use is $.40/min.

I had the update on the UTStarcom site and it didn't solve the problems for me. I was rebooting the device 2-5 times a day.

-Matt

Posted by: srainess

interesting... just activated phone from ebay. Verizon rep did not mention anything about data plan to me. Just about messages... I guess I should check account. I have a mindpsring dialup account, and have configured the phone to dialup access. Its slow, but just to check mail, its not bad.