Larry Garfield takes a quick first gander at Audiovox' new Windows Mobile 2003 communicator, the PPC-6601. His only question: Why is this the weakest link?
Audiovox and Sprint have jumped on the bandwagon led by the T-Mobile with its MDA III, O2 with its XDA IIs - in Germany known as the XDA III - and assorted similar devices from other manufacturers. Not content with the standard setup as utilized by other carriers, however, Audiovox went ahead and tweaked the feature set, resulting in changes some will like - and some will not.
The Audiovox PPC-6601, to be available through Sprint in the United States, feels very wide when closed. It doesn't have a bad feel in the hand and is comfortably thin, but it is most definitely a handheld centric design as opposed to a phone centric design. The button layout is more phone-tilted, however, with the largest front buttons being the Call and Hangup buttons beside the not-bad-but-not-great-5 way directional pad. Above that are four rather small application buttons for Menu, Messages, Internet Explorer, and OK. It's very nice to see Menu and OK finally get their own long-deserved hard buttons, but it does push the Calendar and Contact buttons to the top, above the standard 240 x 320 16-bit color screen.
The PPC-6601's big surprise, of course, is its sliding keyboard. To be more specific, the front third of the device slides up to reveal a QWERTY thumbboard behind it. The slider is very smooth and locks well, but the weight balance then has the main weight positioned slightly above center, which after long usage will result in wrist strain. They keys themselves are actually just small nubs set within a colored key area, and although accuracy was surprisingly good and typing reasonably fast, the space key left a little to be desired.
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Unlike its twins from other carriers, the PPC-6601 does not include a camera. While that may upset some users, it does make it friendlier toward businesses that have no-camera policies, something that has caused considerable trouble for many camera phone users. Sprint says a version with camera, the PPC-6600, should be available in six to eight weeks.
More of an issue, however, is the removal of built-in Wi-Fi. Sprint's argument is that it was necessary for battery life and cost savings, but since the baseline device includes Wi-Fi we can't help but wonder what the cost was for a separate version. Wi-Fi support is included in the OS, but will require a SDIO-based Wi-Fi card to be useful - sold separately, of course. That's very disappointing.
On the plus side, the PPC-6601 still includes Bluetooth, which we expect to be the primary audio system since whilst the device can be used against-the-face, it's too wide to do so comfortably for extended periods. The main WAN connectivity is via Sprint's PCS CDMA network. Other vital stats include a 400 MHz XScale processor, 128 MB of RAM, and an SDIO capable SD/MMC Card expansion slot.
Software comes in the form of Windows Mobile 2003 SE, including all of the usual applications such as Pocket IE, Pocket Office, MS Media Player, and so forth with the usual additions for a phone-capable device. The only novelty is Sprint PCS Business Connection, a groupware client provided by Sprint. With regard to performance, everything seemed snappy and responsful, as we'd expect.
In all, the PPC-6601 looks like a generally good device, if a bit crippled in the wireless and photographic areas. The lack of a camera should appeal to some who can't use camera devices at work, but the lack of Wi-Fi is likely to be met with annoyance. Aside from these minor snafus, the PPC-6601 appears to be a good communicator entry.
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