I’ve had my phone for a little over 3 months now and I love it. I do a lot of instant messaging throughout the day and this phone has cut the tether between me and my PC. I can actually go out to smoke and not miss a beat. The wireless capabilities of this phone are fantastic. I have written a couple of small apps using .NET and Web Services to keep in touch with my business. Development was fast and painless.
The size is just right. It fits great in my hand with the keyboard closed and is well balanced for typing with the keyboard opened. The buttons are the perfect size for my fat fingers.
The battery is adequate if you leave the IR turned off and don’t play too many games.
I get better reception with the VOQ then with my T616 on AT&T.
You can actually see the screen outside in the sun. Hopefully with the next version, they will use glass instead of plastic. A screen protector will suffice for now.
The OS is pretty fast but I wish their phone setup and configuration was a little more intuitive. I guess there is only so much you can do with windows on a small screen.
I love the speech recognition dialing feature. It is very accurate and easy to use. It has saved me thousands in auto repair bills.
The phone comes with document reading software so you can open Word, Excel, pdf and other standard files. My only gripe is that you can’t edit the files with this software. Usually this is not an issue for me. I delete the software and install what I need. In this case, the software is preloaded with the phone and can not be removed. For a phone that claims to be for business users, it might not have been a bad idea to provide editable document software.
I’m a very customer service oriented individual and hands down, Sierra Wireless’ customer service department is the best. These guys should win an award or at least be promoted to marketing (they have a better grasp of what the consumer wants). I call these guys with the dumbest issues and their always there to help.
Someone had better gotten fired for making this jewel of a call: “let’s leave Bluetooth out, nobody uses it anyway and I think it will die off soon”. Nice call goober. I am your target audience and I don’t leave the house without my Bluetooth headset. Hmmm let me get my VOQ to integrate with my new Acura, Audi or any other car coming out with Bluetooth car kit integration. @$#!%$ I can’t because the marketing people at Sierra Wireless have a good eye on the market and can see trends before the rest of us.
Pros:
-Keyboard
-Size
-MyVoq (nice software. I guess it wasn’t designed my the marketing folks)
-Runs Windows (with a smaller footprint since it doesn’t require Bluetooth drivers)
-Screen visibility in the sun
-Speech recognition dialing
-SD slot
-Wireless/Internet capabilities (email, web browsing, im, etc.)
-Technical support. Is A+ rated (despite the fact that they’re Canadians)
-Don’t need to spend $150 on a Bluetooth headset
Cons:
-Hellooooo where is the Bluetooth?
-No camera (maybe marketing is waiting till they come out with a Bluetooth enabled camera)
-Plastic screen (that’s just cheap. Didn’t you save enough on the Bluetooth?)
-Needs to be bundled with better business applications
-No Bluetooth (marketing must have their heads up their …..)
Submitted by: J. W.
Email: josh@emtb.net
Location: California
Date Added: 2005-03-07
