A Very Decent Device But not Perfect

I'm a consultant, and one client has provided me with a Blackberry for several years, but since that company was recently sold, I won't have my free Blackberry (or that job) anymore. My cell phone contract with awful T-Mobile was up, so I sought alternatives at Verizon for both my cellphone and blackberry, as I believe that Verizon has much better coverage than T-Mobile.

I decided to go for the Audiovox 6600, as the salesman lowered the price to $250.

After using it several weeks, I must say I really like the device, although the first two weeks or so really required a lot of tinkering to get it working right. However, there are solutions to many of the issues I had.

The first thing I noticed was that the ring tones are all really soft, but I soon figured out how to download freeware ring tones that are more than loud enough. But it's a shame that Audiovox didn't package the phone with a decent ring tone.

Downloading my Yahoo email wasn't that easy: I've got quite a bit of email at Yahoo and the device tried to download everything all the time. After talking to Verizon's help desk -- which went better than I anticipated -- they got a workaround solution: a Verizon email account downloads my Yahoo email, but only keeps 30 days of it on its server, and then my phone syncs with that.

I also downloaded enhancements for the home page of the phone: a better calendar / task manager program, a weather bar and an RSS reader that flashes headlines on the screen.

The device has pocket word and pocket excel, which are nice to have. It also has a media player and a few games, and you can download many more programs from numerous websites.

So I'm reasonably satisfied with the software end, although it took a while. However, there are some hardware issues.

First, it's nice that there's a keyboard, but it's nowhere near as good as the Blackberry keyboard, which I can use to type a fairly long message. The 6600 keyboard is not that easy to use: the keys just don't have the same feel as the Blackberry. I also wish you could slide the keyboard out with one hand so it would be easier to dial while driving. I can use the touchscreen to dial, though.

I have no problem with the screen: it seems very crisp and clear.

The battery doesn't last that long, really. It's ok for my purposes, but since I'm often in the car going between clients during the day, I can recharge it in my car. Yes, I sync my email and get the RSS feeds updated once per hour, but even still, this phone cranks through the battery.

There is a camera, but its only 640 x 480, nothing like a regular digital camera. Good to have if you really need a picture I guess, but the pictures aren't really that great. I didn't get this device for the camera: in fact, I didn't even realize it had a camera until after I bought it. I still haven't taken a single picture that I've wanted to keep.

It has bluetooth, but I couldn't figure it out after playing with it for about an hour. My PC and device could see each other, but not communicate or something. I don't really need Bluetooth, I was really just experimenting.

I've had Sprint and T-Mobile before, and neither one of these providers required you to type in your password to get your voicemail if you were calling from the phone. It's annoying that Verizon makes you do this, as it makes accessing voicemail from the car cumbersome.

The phone reception seems fine to me: this phone has much better reception that my run-of-the-mill T-Mobile cellphone.

If you're not tech savvy, or you're not willing to put the time in to download alternative ringers, calendars, etc., then this phone may be frustrating for you. But if you like to tinker, then it may be a decent choice. This is not going to be a great productivity tool from day 1, but then, I don't think anything is. Just beware that it's not a breeze.