Unlike other HTC designs, the Touch design used to make the Verizon Wireless XV6900 is actually growing on us, especially as we find hardware that does a better job responding to the gestures and input that drives the overlay. The XV6900 looks great, outside and in, and Windows Mobile users who know what they are getting into will have a great time with the calling and scheduling features, as long as there isn't too much typing involved. Instead of coming up short in the multimedia department compared to Sprint's Touch, Verizon Wireless should have run with that ball and created a vastly improved experience, perhaps including their trump card in V Cast Mobile TV. Instead, media playback and Web browsing were both below average, and tethered modem support was buggy enough to scare us away. Release: April 2008. Price: $300.
Pros: Nice new colors on the shell and interface. Responsive touchscreen, works best of any Touch-style device we've tried.
Cons: Onscreen keyboard not great for input. Lacks IM clients, multimedia services. Tethered modem support wonky.
Poor
Mediocre
55% GOOD
Very good
Excellent
Full review of the Verizon Wireless XV6900:
Design - Very good
The Verizon Wireless XV6900 bears an obvious resemblance to the Sprint Touch by HTC, as they are essentially the same phone. That being said, we definitely like the design of the XV6900 on Verizon Wireless much better. The glossy white paint job is very cool looking, and we even like the subtle tweaks Verizon has made to the TouchFLO interface that HTC overlays on top of Windows Mobile 6. The new color scheme, with more red accents in the system icons and better use of full color icons throughout the overlay, was more appealing than the monochromatic interface we found on Sprint's phone.
We also had far fewer issues with responsiveness with the Verizon XV6900's touchscreen. While the Sprint Touch stymied us at every step, the XV6900 was mostly responsive. About four out of five times, swiping the screen brought up the TouchFLO Today screen, which is far from perfectly responsive, but much better than we'd seen on other HTC Touch devices. Perhaps these screens are simply a mixed bag, or perhaps they are getting better with age (or maybe it has something to do with Verizon?), but this was probably the truest representation of what HTC is going for, which is an easy-to-use menu system that hides most of Windows Mobile in favor of convenient icons and touch menus.
Calling - Good
Call quality on the XV6900 was very good. Calls sounded nice and clear on Verizon Wireless' network here lower Manhattan, though our phone reported very low reception. We only saw a single bar or two throughout our tests, but this didn't seem to affect call quality, or even data transmission. The phone has all of the features we like, including a nice speakerphone that is easy to activate, Bluetooth for handsfree and conference calling. Voice dialing is handled by tagging, while we prefer speaker-independent voice recognition. The XV6900's TouchFLO interface brings over one of our favorite features from other versions of the Touch: the contact screen. Basically, you get to arrange pictures for your nine favorite contacts in a Brady Bunch style grid. It's fast and fun, as long as you have pictures of your favorites loaded.
Messaging - Mediocre
It wasn't just the lack of a keyboard that hurt our messaging experience on the XV6900. The phone has some nice options to make up for the lack of keys, including an onscreen 20-key SureType keyboard. We found it to be easy enough, though the XT9 autocompletion wasn't quite as intuitive as the autocomplete software we've seen on the BlackBerry Pearl with the same keyboard layout. The worst part about messaging was the lack of IM support. The phone comes with no IM client built in, which is a real oversight. All the normal Windows Mobile e-mail features are there, and Verizon Wireless includes their own Wireless Sync to check e-mail accounts that don't use Exchange ActiveSync. But, even with our keyboard woes, we still miss having a dedicated IM client on board.
Multimedia - Mediocre
Of all the innovations that HTC's TouchFLO interface brings to Windows Mobile, no feature is so ignored as the media player. The Verizon Wireless version of this interface gives you basic control over tracks playing in the Windows Media Player, but otherwise this phone does little to improve the music and video playing experience. In fact, where the Sprint Touch includes support for Sprint TV and the Sprint Music Store, the Verizon Wireless XV6900 doesn't support either V Cast videos the V Cast music store, let alone the V Cast Mobile TV service. It's too bad Verizon didn't leverage these services on this consumer-focused device, as they would have broadened its appeal.
Otherwise, we had no trouble synchronizing the phone, with a 4GB microSDHC card on board, with our music collection, and everything came through in tact, album covers and all. The phone doesn't have any sort of headphone jack, you'll need to buy an adapter that fits mini-USB, which is pretty rare. But stereo Bluetooth worked just fine with our speakers.
Web browsing - Good
Once again, HTC and Verizon drop the ball improving Windows Mobile where it counts. The Internet Explorer browser grates on us more and more every time we use it. It isn't accurate, capable or fast, and better browser lie around every corner. We would have preferred an Opera browser, or, better yet, let's see the improvements Microsoft themselves have recently been promising. In any case, the browser worked in a pinch, but our homepage came out mottled and poorly constructed, with images that looked pixilated and low quality.
Scheduling and productivity - Mediocre
Just as we found with the Sprint version of this phone, if you have to view anything with the Verizon XV6900, you're in luck, because the phone is capable for quick looks at your To Do list, calendar or even Office documents. The problems come when you try to interact with these features. The keyboard, even with the SureType layout, just isn't made for long, complicated text entry. Better to put together a schedule on the desktop, and just use the XV6900 on the go, because it has all the features we've come to appreciate from a mobile version of Microsoft Outlook. We just hope no appointments pop up while we're away from our desk.
Laptop sidekick - Mediocre
Of all the features we tested, the tethered modem support frustrated us the most. We've always had issues with the software that carriers require to use broadband access with our laptops. They are usually buggy pieces of software that seem to conflict with our systems and cause problems, and the Verizon VZAccess Manager was no exception. The program had problems from the initial install, and to get the entire setup working required multiple installations and uninstallations, restarts and stops. In the end, we could never get it to work consistently, every time we tried it. What a nightmare for a roadwarrior to deal with. On the unlocked GSM version of the HTC Touch we enjoyed the Internet Sharing app, which cuts out the carrier desktop program entirely, and always seemed to work. That's what we'll always prefer.
Versus
Looking at the two EV-DO-enabled Touch devices available on the U.S. market, our score numbers don't tell the whole story. The Sprint device scored higher than this Verizon Wireless phone, but mostly because of the online services, like the Sprint TV service and the Sprint Music Store. The Verizon XV6900 has the same media player capabilities, it just lacks these online options, which admittedly aren't that much of a system seller for us. The XV6900 also lacks an IM client, but there are quite a few available for download, since this is Windows Mobile, after all. We liked the design of the Verizon phone better than any other touch we've seen, including the Touch Dual, thanks to the cool white shell and the improved look of the TouchFLO interface. So, Touch buyers who were going to skip the 3G multimedia services anyway, this might be the one to choose.
Price and availability
The Verizon Wireless XV6900 is available now for $300 with a two-year contract agreement 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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