vB Easy Archive - Review - SMT-5600 as a notebook replacement

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Review - SMT-5600 as a notebook replacement
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Posted by: sracer

It seems like the older I get, the larger gadgets seem. When notebooks were released, laptops suddenly seemed huge. Pocket PCs made notebooks seem unwieldly. Well, the worm has turned again and with the advent of Windows Mobile-based Smartphones, Pocket PCs now have "brick-like" tendencies.

My latest gadget (an Audiovox SMT-5600 smartphone) was the only electronic device that I took with me on my latest cross-country trip back to NY. As a veteran "mobile warrior", I previously used notebook PCs, and Pocket PCs, plus a cell phone for all of my electronic needs. But this was the first time that I used a single device for EVERYTHING.

My travel pack consisted of my phone, AC adapter, extra battery, both T-Mobile contract and prepaid SIMs, a 512MB miniSD card, Freedom BT folding keyboard, 3/32-to-1/8 stereo adapter cable, and standard "hands-free" headphone/mic.

I loaded up my 512MB miniSD card with: Ocean's 11 movie, Meatballs movie, a few hours of music (Santana, Malo, and UltraLounge), some electronic Bibles, a few games, Pocket Streets Maps, and various notes.

When I boarded the plane for the flight to NY, I put the phone in "Flight Mode" (turns off the cell service portion of the phone) and fired up Meatballs. It was a fun way to kill 90 minutes of the 6+ hour flight. When the movie was finished, I fired up some music and jotted notes on a yellow pad for the upcoming singles character study. Took a break from studying to play a few games of chess on the phone (the computer opponent kicked my butt) while music played in the background. After that, I loaded up the UltraLounge playlist and tried to catch a few winks.

I had a stop-over in Detroit, so I took the phone out of "Flight mode" and did a little web surfing... catching up the news, latest articles on Slashdot, etc. Eventually I made it to NY. Checked the battery level remaining... 80%!

While in NY, I visited with my parents and my brother and his family. I had some music that I wanted them to hear, so I attached the 3/32-to-1/8 stereo adapter to the phone and connected it to the audio inputs on my parent's VCR (yeah I know, but they don't have a stereo system). Music playback from the phone thru the VCR to the TV was surprisingly good. My parents were amazed by the capabilities of this phone.

At night we'd watch the NBA playoff games, and I'd place my keyboard and phone on a folding tray table. I'd do a little nighttime surfing and email reading, as well as use Agile Messenger to IM my wife. Other days, I'd type up my notes for my study.

On the trip back, I watched Ocean's 11 and did more studying.
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I have a T-Mobile contract plan ($19.99 a month) plus their $4.99 T-Zones plan. (I need the $4.99 T-Zones plan for internet access). Unfortunately, it only comes with 60 anytime minutes, and since they charge $.45 a minute after that, I have a T-Mobile to Go prepaid SIM. That only costs $0.10 a minute. So when I run out contract minutes, I swap SIMs and use prepaid minutes.

It cannot be overemphasized how useful it is to have an integrated device that does so much. This phone is a lite-PPC, videocamera, digicam, MP3/WMA player, portable movie player, games, ebooks, notetaker, and PIM. Having Pocket IE with built-in connectivity is more useful than I initially thought. Although I had a 2nd battery, I never needed it. Unlike a PocketPC which will drain completely after 3-4 hours of hard use, this phone was very miserly with battery consumption. No matter how much I used it, there was still plenty of battery life.

Using this smartphone as my only device for a weeklong trip has exceeded my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I was able to accomplish with this phone.

My only complaints are that Pocket IE is still as limited as its PPC cousin, and there is no general provision for landscape mode on the phone. Except for those two issues (which are not unique to smartphones, I had to deal with the same issues with a PPC) this has been by far my best experience with mobile devices.

Audiovox SMT-5600 Final Grade: 9/10
T-Mobile, T-Zones, TMO-2-Go final Grade: 9/10

Posted by: Omega2008

Nice review!! The Windows Mobile OS for Smartphone is a very useful, adaptable , and just all around great platform to use. Thanks for the review its very insightful.

Posted by: another_punk

Haha! That's a very good story!

I wish I used my phone like that. Maybe after I have a 1gb miniSD in there, I'll probably will load up some movies.

Posted by: optikalsaint

awesome review. i just loaded up opera for all my mobile web browsing. its A LOT better than pocketIE. also since youre already on a tmobile contract you might be interested in knowing that they are running a special right now-- 1000 minutes with unlimited n/w for $39.99. would prolly save you some money if you use a lot of prepaid minutes.

Posted by: Sir Topas

This is a great review! If I am not mistaken, this phone is just the Imate SP 3 rebranded, yes? They look exactly the same.

I have the Imate SP 2 and I just love it for the same reasons. The only thing that is different for me is that if I used my phone to do all of that over the same period of time, my battery would have way less of a charge than 80% after all that usage. Do you use the battery that came with the phone or did you upgrade to a different one?

Posted by: choiza

nice review...if I had read this earlier it definetly would have convinced me to buy the phone earlier! Well I have now anyways, and am loving it!

I'm curious as to what programs you use with your keyboard? Word processors, etc?

Posted by: sracer

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sir Topas

This is a great review! If I am not mistaken, this phone is just the Imate SP 3 rebranded, yes? They look exactly the same.

I have the Imate SP 2 and I just love it for the same reasons. The only thing that is different for me is that if I used my phone to do all of that over the same period of time, my battery would have way less of a charge than 80% after all that usage. Do you use the battery that came with the phone or did you upgrade to a different one?

Thanks!
I am using the standard battery that came with the phone. I bought a 2nd battery off of eBay. But as I mentioned earlier, I had no need to use it on the trip.

Originally, I bought a battery "extender". This is an external unit that holds 4 AA batteries and you plug the USB cable into it and charges/powers the phone that way. Unfortunately, the circuitry in the 5600 is a bit wierd... it will only charge/power from the AC adapter or from a PC that has ActiveSync installed. VERY STRANGE.

I'm also using Windows Media Player. I'm a big fan of wmv and wma on mobile devices and have had the best luck with those formats. Are you using BetaPlayer (which many people seem to use)? If so, maybe it is possible that it uses more CPU and thereby more power.

Posted by: sracer

Quote:

Originally Posted by choiza

nice review...if I had read this earlier it definetly would have convinced me to buy the phone earlier! Well I have now anyways, and am loving it!

I'm curious as to what programs you use with your keyboard? Word processors, etc?

I use the keyboard for ALL of the programs on the phone. There are hotkey shortcuts to directly launch applications, and you can totally traverse the menus and such with it. Once I establish a Bluetooth connection between the phone and keyboard, I never have to touch the phone... all can be done with the keyboard.

As for data entry. I use text editor called WordPad. (I don't recall where I got it, but a google search for wordpad and smartphone will find it.) It is great for plain text entry.

When I absolutely need to have formatted data, I will compose my document in html (using WordPad). There are some hotkey combos for common tags. I can preview my doc in PocketIE to see how it looks. When I return, I load the html into Word finish/fix the doc and save it as a native .doc file. I haven't had the need to do that too often, but when I do, it works just fine.

Posted by: Sir Topas

Quote:

Originally Posted by sracer

Yes, I use Windows Media Player for the smartphone, and in just using it to play my mp3s for an hour at the gym, it sucks up about 20% of my battery. I can only imagine if I played DVDs on it for a few hours on a plane!