- The good: The HTC Vox S710
boasts a best-of-breed design that packs a full QWERTY keyboard into a
compact slider design. The Windows Mobile 6 smart phone also offers
excellent call quality, solid talk time battery life, Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi, and a 2-megapixel camera. - The bad: The
S710 doesn't support 3G, and the camera delivers off-colored photos.
The device can be sluggish at times, especially with numerous
applications open. - The bottom line: The
HTC Vox S710 is an outstanding smart phone that brings a solid set of
features and good performance into one sleek device; only the inclusion
of 3G support could make this smart phone better. - he good: The HTC Vox S710 boasts a
best-of-breed design that packs a full QWERTY keyboard into a compact
slider design. The Windows Mobile 6 smart phone also offers excellent
call quality, solid talk time battery life, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and a
2-megapixel camera. - The bad: The S710
doesn't support 3G, and the camera delivers off-colored photos. The
device can be sluggish at times, especially with numerous applications
open. - The bottom line: The
HTC Vox S710 is an outstanding smart phone that brings a solid set of
features and good performance into one sleek device; only the inclusion
of 3G support could make this smart phone better.
- Reviewed by:
- Bonnie Cha
- Review date: 7/13/07
When HTC unveiled the HTC S720 (the CDMA variant of the Vox) at CTIA 2007,
we couldn't help but be disappointed that it was being released in
Canada first. And here we are, four months later and still no signs of
a U.S. release--though the company has said it will come out later this
summer. Lucky for us, we got our hands on an unlocked version of the
HTC Vox S710, and the Windows Mobile 6
smart phone delivers on almost every front. It offers excellent call
quality, all the tools to keep a mobile professional productive on the
road, and a dynamite design that packs a full QWERTY keyboard into a
compact slider chassis. So what's its downfall? The lack of 3G.
The extra boost of speed could really have pushed the S710 ahead of its
competition. Even without it, however, the HTC Vox remains a very
powerful and able smart phone. There's no word yet on when the Vox will
be officially released in the States, or whether it will be a CDMA or
GSM version, but if you can't wait, you can purchase an unlocked
version (for use with T-Mobile or AT&T Wireless) now for about $450.
Design
The main attraction of the HTC Vox S710 is its design, and it's easy to
see why. The smart phone combines some of the best elements of the
company's other smart phones to make for one killer device. It has the
compactness and cell phone chassis of the Cingular 2125, while still managing to pack in a full QWERTY keyboard thanks to a slider design much like the Sprint Mogul.
The S710 measures 3.9 inches long by 1.9 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick
and 4.2 ounces with a candy-bar style and soft-touch finish, making it
more comfortable to hold and use as a phone than the bulky Cingular 8525 or wider T-Mobile Dash. The trade-off is that the S710 on the thicker side, so it will make for a tighter fit in a pants pocket.
On front of the device, there is a 2.4-inch diagonal screen that
displays 65,536 colors at a 320x240 pixel resolution, but be aware it's
not a touch screen. That said, text looked sharp, and images and videos
popped with vibrancy. We didn't have much problem reading the screen in
various lighting conditions, though it gets a bit washed out in direct
sunlight, and we also noticed that it can get pretty dirty with smudges
and fingerprints. To personalize your phone, you can change the layout,
color scheme, and background image of the Home screen, as well as
adjust the backlight.
Below the display, you'll find another benefit of the Vox's
design--a dedicated alphanumeric dialpad along with the standard
navigation controls. The keypad allows you to dial numbers without
having to search for the number buttons in a sea of other keys
(รก la Dash or BlackBerry Curve).
You also get two soft keys, a shortcut to the Home screen, a back
button, the Talk and End keys, and a four-way navigation toggle with a
center select key. Given that these controls are squeezed onto the
lower third of the face, they are a bit on the smaller side, so users
with larger fingers may encounter some difficulties when first trying
out the smart phone.
To expose the full QWERTY keyboard, just slide the front cover to the
left, which also triggers the screen to automatically switch from
portrait mode to landscape mode. As we've come to notice with similar
slider smart phones, the S710 experienced a delay when changing screen
orientation. Otherwise, the sliding movement is smooth and solidly
locks into place. We wish there was the same kind of locking mechanism
in its closed state, as it's easy to nudge the front flap when holding
the phone
The HTC Vox S710's keyboard features smallish, square buttons, but
the extra spacing between them makes it quite manageable for cranking
out e-mails, text messages, and notes without much problem. It may
require a short period of acclimation, but it's certainly roomier than
any of the latest BlackBerrys and the Dash, so if you can use those
keyboards, you'll be fine with the Vox. Like the T-Mobile Wing,
there are two small LEDs at the top of the keyboard that illuminate
blue to confirm the Caps or Alt functions, as well as two additional
soft keys.
On the left spine, you will find the volume rocker and voice
command/recorder launcher, while on the right side, there is the camera
activation key and microSD expansion slot. The camera is located on the
back of the device, along with a self-portrait mirror. The power button
is on top of the unit, and a mini USB port is on the bottom. Finally,
in a unique twist, the SIM card slot is located on the back of the
front cover, which you can access when the phone is in its open state.
HTC packages the S710 with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a wired
headset, a software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons,
please check our cell phones accessories, ring tones, and help page.
Features
Underneath all the fancy hardware, the HTC Vox S710 isn't much
different than other Windows Mobile smart phones. The Vox runs the
latest Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition. We won't touch on all the
details of the operating system (You can learn more about the OS in our
full review of WM6),
but some notable additions include Windows Live integration, and you
now get the full Microsoft Office Mobile Suite instead of third-party
software for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (view
only) documents in native format. The Vox also features Direct Push
Technology out of the box for real-time e-mail delivery and automatic
synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via
Exchange Server. The S710 also supports POP3 and IMAP accounts, but now
you can also view e-mails in their original HTML format, regardless of
account type. Other PIM tools and utilities include Adobe Reader, a
task manager, a voice recorder, a calculator, notes, and more.
As for voice features, the S710 is a quad-band world phone and
offers a speakerphone, smart dialing, voice commands and dialing, and
text and multimedia messaging. The address book is only limited by the
available memory (128MB RAM/64MB SDRAM; 50MB user accessible) while the
SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts. You can store up to 12
numbers for a single entry as well as home and work addresses, e-mail,
IM screen name, birthday, spouse's name, and more. For caller ID
purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo, a caller group, or one
of 25 polyphonic ringtones.
Wireless connectivity is the one area where the HTC S710
disappoints. Sure you get Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0, but the
addition of 3G support could have really pushed the Vox ahead of the
competition. But alas, you're left to surf the Web via EDGE speeds or
by hopping onto a hot spot. On the bright side, the S710 was able to
find and connect to our test access point immediately, so we were
surfing the Web in a matter of minutes. As for Bluetooth, the smart
phone supports wireless headsets, hands-free kits, object exchange,
file sharing, and A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets.
The HTC S710 is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera with zoom and video
recording capabilities. The options are pretty standard for a camera
phone. You have your choice of five resolutions and four quality
settings. There's no flash, but you do get white balance settings,
including one for night shots, and various effects you can add the
picture. There's also a self timer, time stamp option, picture counter,
and flicker adjustment, among other things. For video, the Vox can
capture clips with or without sound in MPEG4, Motion JPEG, or H.263
format. There are only two resolution choices, but you get the same
white balance and color effect settings. Picture quality
was disappointing, mainly because we couldn't quite get a shot with
good lighting and coloring. We adjusted the white balance a number of
times, but as you can see from our standard test image, there's an
orangeish overtone--a shame, since there's sharp definition.
Finally, the HTC Vox S710 is outfitted with Windows Media Player
Mobile, supporting a number of popular audio and video formats--AAC,
MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV, to name a few. If you have TV shows
recorded on your Windows Media Center PC, you can transfer them to your
device for on-the-go viewing. The S710 also includes an Audio Manager
application as an alternative music browser and player.
Performance
We tested
the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) HTC Vox S710 in San
Francisco using AT&T Wireless service, and call quality was
excellent. We enjoyed clear sound with plenty of volume when talking
with friends, and our callers also reported good audio. We had no
problems interacting with our bank's automated voice response system,
either. For the most part, speakerphone quality was also quite good. We
heard a slight background hiss, but we could still hold a conversation,
and our callers said they didn't even realize we had turned on the
speakerphone as they noticed no drop in call quality. We had no
problems pairing the S710 with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset.
Powered by a 201MHz Texas Instrument OMAP processor and about 24MB of
program memory, we worried that the S710 would suffer from sluggish
performance, but for the most part, this is not the case. There were
times when the system got bogged down when we had numerous applications
on, causing a slight delay in response time but nothing that truly
slowed down our productivity. We were able to transfer and view various
Office documents and PDFs, as well as music and video. Music playback
through the phone's speakers was OK. Songs sounded tinny through the
single speaker, and upping the volume only blew out the sound. As
usual, plugging in the included wired headset, as uncomfortable as it
is, improves the experience. Video playback was surprisingly decent, as
pictures looked great on the S710's sharp screen, and audio and video
always synced up. That said, the smaller display isn't optimal for
longtime viewing.
The HTC S710 is rated for 7 hours of talk time and up to 7 days of standby time. In our battery tests, the Vox well surpassed the rated talk time with a total of 11 hours on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the S710 has a digital SAR rating of 0.8 watts per kilogram.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business ,internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer
No comments:
Post a Comment