EAGLESTEVE continues his review of the HTC U1000 aka HTC ADVANTAGE from :
HTC U1000 / ADVANTAGE AS A PHONE
Size as a phone and users’ satisfaction level
If you’re only looking for a phone, then the U1000 would not be appropriate for you. U1000 is a data first and voice second device, although it does a reasonably good job as a phone.
The phone size is a major criticism, although I personally do not agree with this criticism. Another criticism is that the phone does not have an embedded earpiece and that the speaker’s sound volume could not be adjusted to a level to prevent those around us from hearing our caller’s voice. The third criticism is that the sound quality on speakerphone is not as good as a normal headset. The last and final criticism is that this phone lacks a vibrating function to be used during meetings. However, when used with bluetooth headset with vibration features, all the above problems could be resolved.
Normally, when we speak of bluetooth headset, we conjure an image of a cyborg hanging the bluetooth earphone on his ear, walking about talking to himself, and subjecting his head to constant radiation throughout the day. So some of us are put off by the prospect of using such headset.
Fortunately there are at least two rather creative bluetooth headsets that suit U1000 users perfectly. The first of these is an extremely compact and lightweight LG Style-i headset which receives and makes calls even if the phone is charging.
Some other features include a caller-ID display, a keypad, 3-way calling and call waiting. It weighs just about 0.79 oz, with talk time of Up to 8 Hours.
The second solution, coming from Chronotech, is a bluetooth headset designed to look like a wristwatch.
The bluetooth headset cum watch face can be detached from the wristband and worn on the ear when making and receiving calls. After the call, the watch face is reattached back to the wristband. With this solution, now you can have the convenience of a bluetooth but the freedom of not having it attached to your ear at all times.
How good is Dopod U1000 as a phone?
A poll has been conducted among the U1000 users. Users were asked to rate this device as either excellent, above average, average, below average, or fail. The result of the poll with a sample size of 58 at the time of this writing, were as follows:
Not surprising, the only two users who rated the device as a failed phone due to its size are users who simply refuse to use bluetooth headset of any kind. Other than size, the other factors causing dissatisfaction in the U1000 as a phone include the lack of vibration feature and the lack of embedded earpiece. Surprising to me however, is the extremely high 84% percentage of users who think that U1000 is at least as good as an average phone.
I should also mention that U1000 is a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA device with 3.5G capabilities that can be used around the world. In Australia, where much of the rural areas do not have GSM network (They are most CDMA), my previous GSM phone had always left me high and dry without any mobile phone signal. Once I was travelling in Tasmania for 14 days. I had weak GSM signal only for 3 days of the trip while in major city like Devonport and Hobart, and completely without signal in other part of Tasmania. With U1000 such problem should become history, as a 3.5G enabled phone allows 90+ % of Australian population to be covered. During my most recent snow trip to Snowy Mountain, I had strong coverage everywhere I went.
The signal strength of U1000 is excellent as compared to any other phone that I’ve used.
The smart search feature is easy and quick. If I want to call David Tan for example, I simply press 3 key (which contains def) first. Immedialy all names that contains the d,e,or f characters are listed), then the 2 key (which contains the letters abc). Immediately, the list is shorted to those names containing da,db,dc,ea,eb,ec,fa,fb,fc only. I continue with the 8 key (containing tuv), 4 key (containing ghi) etc until David Tan’s appears on the list. Normally, I don’t need to press more than two keys to see the name of person to call. Once I can find David Tan on the list, I simply touch that name to bring up the contact screen, presenting me with the option of calling his mobile, home, office, or simply send a text message. Alternatively, we could also made call using the voice dialing feature, so making call is really easy.
Although not provided out of the box, we can very easily customise the today screen to include a large button for making phone call (even a dedicated button for each of the frequently called number). I have also turned my left software key into the phone lock button. In addition, I have installed a Phone Profile application on the today screen to allow me to quickly switch between the Silent, Soft, Normal, Loud, and Car profile.
In order to overcome the absence of vibrating feature for meetings, I have assigned an ultrasonic ring tone (See http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/ for details) to the Silent Profile, so that I do not miss any call during meeting although my phone did not “ring”. If one prefers, it is also possible to record the sound of a vibrating phone and assign that as the ring tone for the Silent Profile. Therefore, although U1000 has disabled the vibrating feature (Someone has actually opened the unit and found out that a vibrating motor does exist in U1000, although HTC has deliberately disconnected it, most probably to protect the microdrive), it is a minor issue which could be easily overcome by these measures.
Most of us using our PC to send and receive mail keep our contact together with their email address on the outlook contact database on the PC. Naturally, we would want to maintain their full details including the telephone numbers and address there. When you first buy an U1000, you could use the ActiveSync program to transfer this outlook contact database into your U1000 to be used by the phone application. After that point, you may add, delete, or edit contacts either in U1000 and/or the desktop outlook database, and ActiveSync would automatically synchronise the outlook contact in both the desktop and U1000. This is a great improvement over all my previous phones where there is no link between what I enter in my phone and the desktop outlook. Before I had a PDA phone, my desktop contact database is synchronised to my PDA, but the PDA was not my phone. So each time, before I make a call, I had to search for the phone number on my PDA and retype the number into my Samsung phone. What a big improvement U1000 has made to my phone usage! Of course, this feature is common to all PDA with phone capability.
So, for me, comparing U1000 with my previous phones, U1000 is a better phone in virtually every aspect, despite its size.
Dave Evans of Howard Forums commented that “The X7500 is simply the best phone I’ve ever used with a BT headset.”
I think he was not exaggerating.
VoIP (Voice over IP) on U1000
I have installed the SJPhone VoIP client on my U1000 and regular use it to make calls. With a low call rate of mere 8 cents un-timed, to anywhere in the world, the benefit is enormous. Be sure to use either a wired headset or bluetooth headset though, otherwise the speaker’s sound will be looped back to the microphone, giving the other party a distinct echo effect. The quality of the voice is not as good as a landline but is similar to that made with a calling card.
PORTABILITY AND MOBILITY OF U1000
With the dimension of U1000 is 98 x 133.5 x 16.8 millimetres, weighing 359 grams including the battery, Dopod U1000 is bigger than most PDA phone and challenging for one-handed use.
So, is it really possible to bring it around like you would with a normal phone? I guess for ladies who are accustomed to putting their phone in their handbags, there is no significant difference between the U1000 and the normal phone. As for the guys, my own opinion is that U1000, while not as light as small as a regular phone, could be just as portable. As I have mentioned, my preferred way of using this device is without the hardware keyboard and leather case, so the unit fits in easily to any standard size pocket. (see pictures below).
As you can see from the above pictures, although U1000 is not as small as a regular phone, it is still possible to carry it about very easily. However, I believe that if it is any bigger, it would no longer be possible to carry it around as easily, and would certainly affect the attractiveness of such device. In contrast, the HTC SHIFT is a device that could no longer be carried on one’s body easily. A backpack would most certainly be a necessity for a device like the SHIFT, making it far less attractive as a mobile device. Talking about SHIFT, I consider U1000 to be a far more sensible mobile solution as the later can be switched on instantly, has far longer battery life, requires only one SIM card, has more complete features (including Camera, GPS, Phone, MP3, and Voice Recorder that can be turned on instantly), and yet able to do almost everything that SHIFT could. The only drawback of U1000 over SHIFT is that if I wish to use any desktop software, I would have to use remote desktop to do so, although the question should be “how often do I really need to do that?”
Back to U1000’s size again, although I have said that 5 inches screen is the most ideal for a truly mobile device, it is still my wish that future replacement model could reduce the amount of metallic frame around the screen, making the overall size smaller without reducing the screen size. I would also like to see the thickness reduced as well, if possible.
Coming up next: The Multimedia functions
