We get deja vu opening up the XV6800, the latest QWERTY slider from HTC. Does the wealth of buttons and radios distinguish this phone from the friends?
Review summary of the Verizon Wireless XV6800:
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 Though at one point we might have been enamored with the wealth of connectivity options and buttons on the XV6800, and, for that matter, its brethren on other networks, clearly the design needs some help if it's going to succeed. The sluggishness of the phone kept us from enjoying the wide keyboard design, and the dated browser meant this wasn't the smartphone we reached for when we needed to surf the Web. There were nice touches, like the Wi-Fi switch and the dedicated voice dialing key, and we won't complain about Windows Mobile for calling and scheduling apps any time soon. But this phone is being lapped by more exciting devices, with real Web browsing and multimedia capabilities beyond what Windows Mobile can offer. For business, this is a powerful phone, but it might require some patience. Release: November 2007. Price: $400.
Pros: Lots of buttons cuts down on menu drilling. Great connectivity options, including EV-DO and Wi-Fi. Windows Mobile has great calling and productivity features.
Cons: Buttons are easy to hit accidentally. Sluggish at times. Trouble installing Broadband Access app for tethered modem. Web browser needs an upgrade.
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Full Verizon Wireless XV6800 Review:
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Design - Good
The Verizon Wireless XV6800 looks almost exactly like the AT&T Tilt and HTC Mogul on Sprint, and kind of like the T-Mobile Wing. These phones vary a bit in their button design and specific look, but in general they are HTC-built, full-QWERTY slider phone. If anything, the XV6800 might win the prize for the most buttons, but this award should come with caveats. First, Windows Mobile 6 benefits from lots of buttons, and that isn't necessarily a good thing. Buttons are a shortcut for menu digging, of which there is an abundance. Second, holding the XV6800 is like walking through a mine field; it is very easy to trip the wrong button. The power off button especially, though this just turned off the display, never the whole system.
The 2.8-inch display is nice, but at QVGA resolution and 16-bit color depth, it's starting to look a bit dated. Or perhaps that's the Windows Mobile interface, which has some nice touches, like the calling screens, but doesn't look as pretty in the calendar and scheduling apps. The keyboard is as wide and comfy as you'll find on a phone in these parts, and includes a shortcut to the phone's File Browser, a certain omen that the end is near.
Calling - Very good
Calls made on the XV6800 on Verizon Wireless' network in Lower Manhattan sounded very good. We called friends and loved ones from a street corner as city buses passed, and our calls sounded nice and clear. We would have liked more battery life, as the five hours of talk time we got came in just shy of HTC's six hour estimate, but that wasn't bad for just talking.
Once again, Windows Mobile proves itself as one of our favorite smartphone systems for calling. The address book is robust and responsive, and we definitely like the way it starts searching for contacts as you type from the Today screen. The phone also features all our favorite calling options, including a nice, loud speakerphone, Bluetooth for handsfree dialing and conference calling. There is a button for voice commands, and we wish the phone used speaker-independent dialing instead of tagging, but we like the dedicated key, so we'll take what we can get.
Messaging - Good
These Windows Mobile 6 phones from HTC are so close in creature comforts that it's a shame to see a major component missing. The XV6800 lacks an onboard IM client, and though we're sure there are third-party options available, this sort of app should definitely be included. SMS and MMS worked just fine, though we would have liked tighter integration with the address book. For e-mail, we definitely prefer the Outlook app to Verizon Wireless' own solution, mostly for the new shortcuts and HTML viewing enabled by Windows Mobile 6. Verizon's option is necessary for POP and IMAP on the go, but if you're synchronizing or using an Exchange Active Sync server, Outlook does a fine job.
Scheduling and productivity - Very good
For calendar jocks and mobile document junkies, Windows Mobile 6 is about the most capable smartphone OS. The Verizon XV6800 includes Office Mobile from Microsoft, and synchronizes nicely with your Outlook calendar, if that's what you're using. The integration is tight, and Windows Mobile can do things with Outlook that other systems cannot, like inviting attendees to meetings, a feature we use often. For documents, we wouldn't say no to more capabilities, but on the rare occasions we've had to edit a Word doc or check out a PowerPoint presentation on the road, it comes through.
Laptop sidekick - Very good
The XV6800 was a fine tethered modem for our Dell D420 laptop, once we got it working. See, American carriers require all sorts of drivers and software to use your smartphone as a USB modem on their network, and in our experience this software is often buggy and problematic. The XV6800 was no exception. We had to install multiple times, restart frantically, and eventually we got the phone to work. Once. Then it quit, and no amount of restarts, hardware resets and reinstallations could get it to tether again. We did manage to run speed tests in our single success, and we saw download speeds close to 500Kbps, which is pretty good. But there is a better option out there. On the HTC Touch Dual we tested in Amsterdam, we fell in love with Internet Sharing, a one-click option to tether your phone to a carrier's network. It worked seamlessly and consistently, and it's time to demand it here as well.
Multimedia - Mediocre
There aren't any multimedia options for the XV6800 beyond the standard WinMo 6 stuff. The device synchronized fine with Windows Media Player on our desktops, and we were happy to find a microSDHC slot capable of handling 4GB cards, though our in-house collection jumps from 2GB to 8GB. Still, the media player on Windows Mobile is in serious need of a feature boost, and perhaps a cosmetic update as well. Verizon Wireless has left off V Cast support, but we think that's for the best. We'd like to see V Cast videos phased out in favor of V Cast Mobile TV on Verizon's smartphones, anyway, so if there isn't Mobile TV reception, no need to bother with short clips.
Web browsing - Good
Web browsing is manageable with Internet Explorer, but nothing to be enthusiastic about. We fully expect a desktop-grade browser for Windows Mobile soon, so for now Internet Explorer Mobile is simply biding its time. Pages looked messy, with significant layout problems in every render mode. The browser opened pages fairly quickly, at least as fast as our AT&T Tilt, but both phones suffer from the same problem, and that problem is a Web browser trapped in the past.
Odds and ends
HTC phones feel underpowered, and this shows in the XV6800. Opening and closing the screen rapidly chokes the phone on layout switching, and it simply cannot keep up. Also, apps tend to pile up and slow down the phone in Windows Mobile 6. The XV6800 has a "Running Programs" app, which just shows what programs are taking up precious RAM, and it amazed us how this list grew and grew without our intervention. Apps don't close when we closed their windows, and background apps, like the contact list and tasks apps, tended to open without warning and stay open. We're not ones to lay blame, but something needs to be done to ensure a speedier user experience, without the slowdown.
Price and availability
The Verizon Wireless XV6800 is available now for $400 with a two-year contract and an instant online discount of $100. A mail-in rebate of $50 is available, when signing up for a qualifying data and voice plan.
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