vB Easy Archive - Verizon XV 6700 Review

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Verizon XV 6700 Review
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Posted by: jwindsurfer

Verizon XV6700 Review
Partially a comparison to the Verizon Treo 700W

The following statements are not just the opinon of the author, as such, they are fact. So if you have any disagreements with any of the following, I suggest you consult your local pharmacist, your medication may need adjusting.

Summary

Best Features:
Window Mobile!
It’s really not one feature it’s that fact that it has so many great useful or entertaining features. Phone, full keyboard, BlueTooth, large Screen, mp3, play movies, shoot movies, digital camera, Windows Mobile, games, WiFi, modem, high speed internet…

Worst features:
There are not many bad features and none of them are particularly significant. Either there’s some work-around or it’s a negligible inconvenience in most cases.
Battery life is not that great, more than the Treo 700W, though.
Not as easy to do one handed navigation. Not as easy to lookup phone numbers quickly. It appears Verizon went to more trouble making the Treo 700W easy to use similarly to Palm based Treo’s than they did with the XV700W. Maybe that’s what the extra $50 for a 700W is for

Because it has a slide out keyboard, there doesn’t seem to be a good case that can be used while allowing full use of the phone, like those rubber skins that are made for the Treo’s, I’ve got a thin metal one on the way to try, though. I don’t use hip holsters, I prefer to put my phone in my pocket but I’m pretty rough on my toys, so I prefer as thin as possible protecting case, so it will take up less space in my pocket, but also a case the allows full use of the device to cut down on the time it takes to get it from my pocket to actually using it for something, and also the possibility of losing a case you have to remove often to use the device.
No included full back up/restore feature, like a Palm devices have. I think there is 3rd party software for this, though. But who wants to have to buy a bunch of 3rd party software after spending up to $600 for a phone?

My Over-All Take - I bought the phone off of EBay for $455 with 1 GB mini SD card. That’s $100 savings over what I would have spent buying a new one from Verizon and a 1 GB SD card and a $200 savings over a Treo 700W. (I wished to purchase one without having a contract.) Immediately I appreciated the larger, wider or taller screen (depending on orientation when using.) Being slightly cheaper and having all the features and more than any Treo, makes this phone a great value. This economical superiority which often results in a not as refined piece of hardware, is not the case with the 6700 which is much more stable than the 700W. You can research elsewhere for the barrage of common problems occurring on the Treo 700W, and I mention this for as much as a comparison to the XV6700, as a warning to potential 700W purchasers after having many really annoying problems with a 700W I bought that I will never get compensated for by the responsible parties, Verizon and Palm. When I first saw the 6700 back in January when I was first considering the 700W or one of the similarly featured phones, I thought the 6700 was ugly and clunky looking, and though the 6700 in actuality is slightly smaller than the latest Treo’s, it appeared larger because it doesn't have as much of the rounded, tapered edges that are common among today's phones and notebooks. It really is more plain looking than a Treo, but this second try with the 6700 (the first time I just played with one in a Verizon store as well as a Treo 700W) it seems much more attractive and I’ve had other people say it’s cool looking, but I’m not sure if this was really because it has a lot of cool features, and the slide out keyboard is a cool looking gimmick (it’s very useful, though, don’t get me wrong.) I’ve had fun trying out many possible functions and features, like Divx movie playing, taking auto-stitching panoramic pictures, using it as a universal remote for my living room entertainment center, a mobile high speed modem for my laptop (downloaded the latest 350MB+ Saturday night UK broadcast Doctor Who episode one Sunday using the XV6700 as a modem for my laptop, because my home cable internet service went out for a period. I’ll score each feature I describe on a scale of 0 – 10. 10 being the best and 0 causing crying fits, migraine headaches, diarrhea or some other inconvenience. Graded on a curve I’d give the phone a 9.0, this would be in comparison to other devices available. Actually 10 would probably be more accurate curve derived grade, since I don’t think there is actually a better device out there that does what the XV6700 does, but I don’t give out 10s unless something is truly as perfect as possible even on a curve. On a perfection scale I’d give it an 8.0, which is a very positive grade, basically a very good device, but there could also be some significant improvements with either the hardware, the software or Verizon service (understatement with regard to Verizon service).

Speaker phone – 6 - The speaker phone is almost compatible, the 7600 is slightly clearer than the Treo, in general it is not as good as I would like it to be, it has a scratchy/fuzziness. It’s basically usable. I’ve heard speaker phone mode on some other cell phones that were quite clear and loud enough to be used a conference phone.

WiFi – 9 – works great, use it at work with skype and your EVDO unlimited internet and effectively get unlimited calling minutes. It really runs down the battery, though, so I don’t know how long would actually be able to use it for WiFi access, but if you had it tethered to a notebook by a cable that supported charging, too, your time would be extended by as long as your notebook could hold out, which can be several hours these days. The built in WiFi is a great feature. How do they fit so much stuff in such a small device? Is it perhaps alien technology? Was the first XV6700 actually discovered in Roswell, New Mexico?

EVDO - 8 - EVDO Internet connected immediately with no problems. I can load cnn.com. I never could with the 700w, it would always lock up the machine after a message about a script causing IE to run slowly (always chose the option to quit running the script, but the device always locked up anyway.) In truth, it seems like my non-EVDO Sprint Treo 650 loaded cnn.com faster and was generally, and this was probably due to the fact that it was going through a proxy and completely ignoring JavaScript.

Bluetooth – 8 – Bluetooth works well for syncing and headphones. It’s a better connection than I had with the Treo 700W. Must be configured to use a stronger signal, or maybe it has a better BlueTooth antenna, I don’t really know, but I can use it with my Scala BlueTooth headset at greater distances than I could with the Treo 700W, which I couldn’t even put in my pocket without incurring excessive static. We still don’t seem to have BlueTooth stereo headset support for listening to music yet.

Notebook tethering/modem support - 11 - using the 6700 as a modem works great with PdaNet. I hear Verizon is offering a $15 per month support for DUN, but the PdaNet doesn’t require this and in the long run is much cheaper than $15 per month. Blah to Verizon for being such a gouger. So far so good on the PdaNet tethering.

Windows Mobile 5 – 8.0 - pretty neat operating system. Of course, it's more of a resource hog than it should be, making it slower than a similarly hardware supported Palm device, and requiring more memory for optimal operation. It’s highly configurable and customizable, though, and very Windows operating system and document compatible with Window Mobile and included software. It just plain has more features than a Palm phone and the built in web browser is much better, too. Apparently, like the Treo 700W, this is the full Windows Mobile 5, not just the SmartPhone version, which is somewhat trimmed from the full version. It appears that there are more options in the 6700 than were available in the 700W, this is an addition to the built in wireless. This is especially the case with the camera. It seems to boot up quite a bit slower, even though it has a faster processor. Application speeds seem similar.

ActiveSync – 6 – Works fine. You can have some trouble getting it set initially. The most common problem I’ve had is that the setup program sometimes does not configure the required network connection to use TCP/IP and File and Printer Sharing(not sure if both are needed or which one is required if not both), so you have to check those if you have trouble getting ActiveStink installed and working. Unlike Palm, though, full back up and restore is not an included feature, so if you have to do a hard reset for some reason, you’ll have to manually install and configure everything again. I think there is 3rd party software that will do this, though. Also, I think due to some incorrect setting on my part, I initially could not sync any contact info, which is really annoying since this the Outlook data that I use most often. For some reason even though all my calendar info, notes, and tasks were synced, ActiveStink seemed to think it was supposed to sync with some default blank Outlook file for contact info and would always result in a blank contact list. After trying myriad different configurations and uninstall/reinstalls I was only able to get Outlook synced properly by importing everything into a new Outlook file, deleting the old file and re-setting up the sync. I’d been meaning to do the import to new Outlook file someday anyway, as the file I was using was an older Outlook file format and I would occasionally get error messages telling me that some feature was not supported and that I should upgrade to the new format. Otherwise after getting those remedied, ActiveSync is fairly fast and efficient and trouble free which makes the balance of good and bad features just usable. That may seem overly tolerant, but I’ve come to accept that anything Windows related can inexplicably fail at any time, but that I can usually fix it eventually. Unfortunately, I’m sure this is not true for everybody, as only the fact that I have been working with Windows in depth, as a programmer, probably gives me the success with addressing the problems that occur. Internet and Google help with that, too. I’d spend at least a day trying to self help a phone problem before submitting to the degrading customer service of Verizon.

Keyboard input – 7 - I had heard that the keyboard, even though it is bigger, was not very good. Well, I think it works better than the Treo's (I've owned 300,600,650,700w), but it would be even better if the keys had the height and spacing the Treo’s have while maintaining the bigger size of the keys. The XV6700 keys are slick and flat making it easy to either have your finger slip off and click another key, or not click any key at all. Locking the caps or the alternate keys on is not very intuitive, and is not indicated in the area at the bottom of the phone. The alternate keys lock is not turned on be default in many places, either, where they should be like in controls where only numbers are appropriate to enter.

Form factor – 8.0 - going from "phone" mode, vertical, to keyboard, horizontal, is a very small nuisance, the lager screen and keyboard more than make up for it. For some people, like me, the slide out mechanism is a potential item to easily break. I'll have to be more careful than I usually am. I dropped my 700W just earlier today, but the thick rubber skin protected from both scratching and concussion injury. I guess the form factor prohibits those rubber type skins you can use on many phones, I like those, they only slightly increase the size of the phone and provide great protection and keep the phone looking like new.

Screen - screen is plenty bright and text is very clear. It appears pictures are not rendered or displayed as well as the 700W, though. Pictures leave a little to be desired, being a bit fuzzy and unclear.

Verizon – 5 – Verizon is more of a money grabber than Sprint was, and also the customer service is worse. Phone minutes are more expensive, internet access is more expensive, there are more “gotcha” little charges. They charged me for switching my number to my old Sprint number after telling me there would be no charge. It just showed up on my bill. When I called to have my Treo 700W replacement activated with my account, they refused to do it for without charging me even though it was required on account that the first device malfunctioning. The Verizon rep did finally volunteer that I could do it on-line for free, which worked pretty quickly, though there were some initial problems initiating the change and also programming the phone. When I had trouble with the first Treo 700W, I got an extensive run-around trying to get support for it, Verizon and Palm reps each saying the other company was responsible. I made over 7 calls repeatedly being told to call the other company at different numbers back and forth. When I finally got to the Palm agent that would actually send me a replacement, he first tried get rid of my by having me start the whole phone shenanigans again. He did not first attempt to help me in any way; he just attempted right away to get me off the phone by steering me back to tech support. Only when I interjected that I had already obtained an incident number from tech support, was I able to arrange a replacement. And the agent was audibly disappointed either that they had to actually help someone or that Palm would actually have to stand by their product by spending the money on a replacement phone. Of course, I had to restate my name and account info and my problem to each person I talked to. This whole charade is really deplorable, and I really must be desperate to put up with such rude and incompetent service. Sprint treated me like a king in comparison. The replacement phone did come quickly, though, after that and I didn’t have to repay for shipping at all, like you inexplicable have to on returns for most companies. (Why should you have to pay for shipping for returning or receiving a replacement for a defective product? Anyway, I didn’t have to for the Palm/Verizon phone.) I’d rather deal with a polite, robotic offshore Indian tech support than the idiotic, jerks I had to deal with. So I consider a grade of 5 to be pretty bad, but sufferable in some cases. Normally I would not purchase a device that was a less than a 7 but I don’t usually have to deal with customer service, since I attempt to handle any problems myself first, and the XV6700 has so many awesome features such as the high speed internet, that I’m willing to risk using Verizon. Verizon phone coverage is great. I was able to use EVDO in Houston and Atlanta, and Baton Rouge, LA, but it looks like I’ll be stuck with 1xRT or hitchhiking non-encrypted WiFi access when visiting my Mom in North Carolina or Myrtle Beach, SC for now. I assume that broadband will probably be extended to every place where Verizon service is available eventually. I was also able to use the 1xRT on some obscure mountain in Montana 15 minutes away from the Big Sky ski resort in Feb. I actually had no signal bars showing but the phone both worked as a phone and as modem and internet device over 1xRT while there. In general the Verizon coverage and sound quality is good, as they claim it is.

So in conclusion, I’ll tell you NOT to buy an XV6700 not because it isn’t a great device, but because it is a great device, and I’d like to be the only one to have one, so I could brag about it without competition. I’m not sure if the Sprint EVDO is as fast or has the coverage that V has, but if it’s comparable, I’ll probably switch over after my year of V indenture is up. But by then there may be some even better device, like with a built in full size laser keyboard, an HDTV projector and an implantable remote mind control accessory to access any feature just by thinking about it. I’m thinking of a number between 411 and 1-800-Tech-Addict.

Posted by: harryguy082589

Quote:

Notebook tethering/modem support - 11 - using the 6700 as a modem works great with PdaNet. I hear Verizon is offering a $15 per month support for DUN, but the PdaNet doesn’t require this and in the long run is much cheaper than $15 per month. Blah to Verizon for being such a gouger. So far so good on the PdaNet tethering.

Verizon dosn't charge $15 a month.

Posted by: BenRaines

Actually if you are going to tether you are supposed to have the data plan and also pay an extra $15.00 for the use of tethering...

But it seems you don't have to... They just want you to pay more money..

I had several reps tell me the same thing when looking for a new provider...

I just switched from Cingular to Verizon...

No more of that damn buzzing noise...

And in Columbus, OH I get better service and true fast internet connections..

Posted by: AgeNt B

Nice review. I have been eyeballing the 6700 as I wanted something with a WIndows Mobile base. Once I get me NE2 next November, I plan to get that, or the upgraded version of the 6700.

Posted by: kimbercin

Can anyone tell me if you can still use pdanet with sprint with just your basic unlimited data plan and not be charged extra for tethering? I want to try this for occasional use, but dont want any unpleasant surprises in my bill. Can they even tell I'm tethering?

thanks!

Posted by: marcusa

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryguy082589

Verizon dosn't charge $15 a month.

That's why I put mine on Cricket. For a few pennies over $50 a month (total, including all taxes) I get unlimited minutes, unlimited text, pictures, and mobile web. Cricket's EVDO in my area gets around 300k which is not bad either.

Also, you should get Helmi's WM6.1 Kitchen, makes it a whole different phone.