P4000 aka 6800 Complete review!

[Paragon]

Originally Posted by slypher

if you have a magnet (such as the ones in the cases for the 6700) near the 6800, will it cause the screen to flip like it does on the 6700?

This really bothered me and caused many unwanted resets on my 6700

-s

Yeah, that really bothered me a s well. I've been using the stock case that came with the P4000 as well as another that has an even more powerful magnet, and so far I haven't had that problem.

Dave

[phyrebird]

Originally Posted by Paragon

Keyboard
I mentioned in the review that the keyboard opens to the right. This is now pretty standard on all sliding keyboard HTC devices. With the keyboard now sliding out to the right, it puts the dpad on the left to be used with your left hand. I never noticed this till the other day when a poster on another site mentioned it to me. As I said this is the case on all HTC sliding keyboard devices. I'm not really sure why they chose this switch, in a predominantly right handed world.

Dave, I did a bit of thinking about this, and a thought occurred to me:

Perhaps the reason they put the d-pad on the left hand is because of the couple of generations now of gamers that have been using Sony/Microsoft gamepads where the d-pad is on the... you guessed it.. left. Just for kicks, I flipped my 6700 around and sure enough, it felt pretty natural.

Also, having not played with one, but also not having a long time with my 6700 to become used to it on the left, I could imagine taking the 6800 in hand with the right, flipping it sideways, then opening the slider. That part might just be me.

[Paragon]

Originally Posted by phyrebird

Perhaps the reason they put the d-pad on the left hand is because of the couple of generations now of gamers that have been using Sony/Microsoft gamepads where the d-pad is on the... you guessed it..

To be honest, I doubt it has anything to do with gaming. HTC has NEVER been one to make gaming any kind of a priority when designing their devices.

It does look like you have pointed out a good benefit though.

Putting a couple of buttons on the top of the P4000 helps in gaming as well. With the 6700 it was very difficult, now you can use it more like a traditional game pad.

Dave

[phyrebird]

I didn't really mean that they would have made the change to allow for gaming, per se...

What I meant is that the d-pad is kind of ingrained nowadays as being on the left side, so HTC could well have decided it was a matter of "natural ergonomics".

[Paragon]

Yeah. you could be right. I never gave it much thought, and was pretty undecided on one way or the other, till you brought it up. It probably is a good idea.

Dave

[bunnytrigger]

"There is a screen protector in the box. Give it to the dog to chew on"


you know plastic os not good for dogs right?

[Paragon]

Originally Posted by bunnytrigger

"There is a screen protector in the box. Give it to the dog to chew on"


you know plastic os not good for dogs right?

Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, my dog spit it out. Even he knew better than to use it.

[xmind2006]

Just got to play with a P4000 (Alltel) today from a co-worker. Man, looks nice (all black) and thinness is quite nice comparatively (to the 6700).

Likes:
1. The battery meter actually works when charging! (i.e. you can see the % of the battery while the phone is being charged)
2. 172 MB of Storage memory is nice increase over the 6700's 43.5 MB
3. The WIFI hard-switch is a nice touch
4. Having a jog-wheel is so much nicer than touching the screen all the time
5. CAPS and Function indicators is quite nice as well.

Dislikes:
1. Only 172 MB of storage, to be meaningful it really should be >1 gig. Of the 256 MB advertized Flash memory, ~84 MB is used by the OS.
2. I'd rather see an increased program memory instead of as 64 MB (28 after OS usage) really isn't enough.
3. I'm not too impressed with the d-pad. Better than the joystick of the 6700, but feels like "cheap" plastic. I personally like the 8525's d-pad a little better.
4. Don't care for the microSD on the very bottom of the unit and without a dust/water cover that most other cell phones come with.
5. IR is pretty much obsolete, and definitely any use it had as a TV remote is even less useful since the IR port is on the bottom of the device.


Overall, I'm not really as excited to get this new version as I was. There isn't anything that the P4000 does that my 6700 can't. The form factor is the biggest thing. So unless the P4000/Titan/Mogul/6800 can actually have an unlocked GPS, it'll be hard for me to justify the $$$ to get it just when it comes out. However, I have sold this phone (starting with the 6700) to about 4 co-workers now. (sold as in convinced them that this is the phone to buy, screw the iPhone type of sales pitch).

[shivers]

hey Paragon (or others using the P4000) ... any updates on the call/phone quality and clarity now that you've been using the device for a while? I know you mentioned some speaker pops in the past.

[Paragon]

Originally Posted by shivers

hey Paragon (or others using the P4000) ... any updates on the call/phone quality and clarity now that you've been using the device for a while? I know you mentioned some speaker pops in the past.

The speaker pops seem to have gone away. In fact I had forgotten all about them till now.

The sound quality of the phone is very good. The volume is better than the 6700. It 's improved, but it is still to low. I find that all Windows Mobile phones could use a boost in volume. I often wonder if their isn't some requirement in the platform that prohibits exceeding a certain volume level...and it needs to be increased.

Dave