6800 review from 6700 perspective.

[jimnutt]

So, I've had my 6800 for a couple of days now and wanted to pass along my thoughts. First off, I love the physical size of the unit. It's not significantly bigger than your average flip phone and indeed, is thinner than most. It fits comfortably in a shirt pocket. Adding an extended battery makes it about the same thickness as an Apache with the standard battery. I much prefer the keyboard layout and it has Cap lock and Fn lock indicators (woohoo!). Instead of the numbers on the keyboard being across the top row, they are instead organized like a phone pad centered on the J key. Still no control key, but I can live with that. The jog wheel on the side is great for one handed navigation, essentially echoing the up/down action of the d-pad. Pressing in on the jog wheel acts the same as the center button of the d-pad. The d-pad does take a little getting used to instead of the joystick, but I'm thinking it should be more reliable and less prone to breakage. There's a second "Ok" button under the jog wheel, further enhancing one handed operation. There are also hardware buttons for messaging, ie, the camera, voice speed dial (or voice command) and the comm manager. There's a switch on the side to turn wifi on and off. It appears to be software driven, not hardware as it is possible to get the wifi on with the switch off. The standard battery is a 1500 mAh unit and covers most of the back of the unit. The extended battery from Verizon is 2200 mAh and comes with a curved cover that doesn't really look too bad. It does add a fair amount of thickness to the unit, but if you've carried an apache with an extended battery you won't notice it.
The camera is a 2 mp unit, I've only taken a couple of shots with it, but it seems to be pretty good. As on the Apache, it does better with outside shots. Here's a shot taken inside

And here's one taken outside:

There are a lot of options on the camera app and I've not played with any of them yet.
Hacking the ROM is more difficult, as shipped, the unit is locked and will only accept ROM updates signed by Verizon, of which there are none. So you first have to unlock the ROM by installing a new bootloader. This is fairly simple, it's the next part that gets scary. To enable the GPS and Rev A EVDO you have to install the Sprint ROM with a radio update. The problem with this is that it screws up your phones ability to authenticate to the network and you'll have to spend some quality time with Verizon tech support to get it reauthenticated. They seem to be pretty good about it, it just takes time, I called at 11:30 pm and it took about 30-45 minutes. The good news is that you only have to do that after upgrading the radio, just upgrading the ROM won't cause a problem.
There is one very pleasant surprise with the 6800, compared to the Apache, the internal storage is enormous. There's much less reason to cook your apps into the ROM instead of just installing them normally. Because of this, you can use a fairly stripped ROM and still have plenty of storage for apps and data. In my case, with Opera, Mobipocket, PocketBible, Navizon, WisBar Lite, Pocket Mechanic, MortPlayer and a whole bunch of other stuff installed, there's still 115mb free in Storage. So, you can pick your kitchen for stability and not necessarily features. Me, I went with the base kitchen and left off all the shareware OEMs, installing only things a CAB file is hard to locate for. As far as the kitchen itself, if you've cooked your own Apache ROM you can cook a Titan (6800) ROM, the process is basically identical. The good news is that it takes less time to burn the ROM to the device, the bad news is that it doesn't work well under Vista. However, you can copy your ROM to an microSD card and burn it to the device that way as well.
That pretty much covers it, basically, if I didn't mention it, it's pretty much the same as the Apache. Oh, the GPS... yes, it's there (if you update to the latest Sprint radio) and yes it works with Google Maps, etc. It can take a little while to acquire satellites initially, but it works very well once it does. I've even managed to keep lock while indoors, so I'm fairly impressed. And Rev A does seem to work on Verizon, at least I'm noticing significantly faster download speeds than with the Apache.
All in all, it's a good upgrade. I wouldn't have spent my money on it (I'm holding out for the Raphael for that... mmmm VGA screen *drool*), but it's certainly an upgrade from the Apache and if you get offered one, take it.

jim

[Trident]

Probably the most concise and informative review from a perspective that I can appreciate.
My Sprint PPC6700 has started showing some signs of failure, but I'm keeping it until it's unusable or I can get a Raphael. I look forward to having a device that I don't have to modify- and I think that the Raphael will be the closest thing to that.

[PocketPcUser]

The only shortfall, that I can see with the Touch Pro, is that HTC FLO3D, doesn't play well with others, at all. You can't use the Today Screen, when you have TouchFLO3D enabled, as per a review of the final ROM Version. Also, there isn't much updated, about the Touch FLO; other than maybe the updated "Today Plug-in", which really becomes the today replacement. Also, the weather animation, is really attractive; but, I'd rather see Spb Mobile Shell get that, then sacrifice my entire Today Screen, to get it.
But, HTC does still deserve the credit, for putting out a really nice device, that most users will be able to use, without any additional programs, installed.
The huge feature for me, is the updated Activesync driver, that lets you choose to use it with Activesync, or in WM5torage-like mode. I also see the lack of buttons, a little concerning.
I was concerned, at first, that the existing buttons, were touch-sensitive. I was glad to hear, that they are really just buttons.
It still has quite a lot of decent features, so I may still upgrade to that device even with the concerns.

[jimnutt]

I agree about the Raphael, it looks like a sweet device and I hope Verizon doesn't cripple it when it comes out on their network (Sprint isn't an option where I live). I nursed my 6700 as long as I could, indeed, I would have been happy with a new Apache that worked. But the refurbs are getting to be in bad shape, so I wasn't complaining too much about having to accept a Titan instead :>. If the Apache hadn't died I would be holding out for the Raphael, it just has too many nice features. Of course, it'll be a lot easier to hold out with the 6800...

[WanderingMinstrel]

Thanks for the info, jimnutt! Nicely done.
I'm waiting to see what happens with the Qwest switchover from Sprint to Verizon next month. I may find myself with a 6800 whether I wanted one or not. My tweaked 6700 is still delivering everything I need; I'm happy with it; and I had intended to wait and go the Raphael route myself. But it looks like I won't have that option when Qwest decides to clue me in on their repackaging. I'm more 6800-optimistic after reading your posts.

[jimnutt]

One thing I think I forgot to mention is that the stock battery is 1500mAh versus the 1350mAh of the Apache. Of course if you're using the GPS, you'll probably eat that up pretty fast. Just a quick run of acbPower meter on mine and it looks like it's averaging about 200ma. But then, I've not tweaked for battery life and the display was full bright. When the backlight went dim (it doesn't seem to shut off completely), the consumption dropped to about 114 ma.

[shaggylive]

good job, very concise.
I got my apache replaced in Oct, was kinda sad, until the microSD card popped out! yea, didn't have to buy a new card after all. (traded my 2gb mini to my bro, who I told to get the micro when he was going to buy a regular 2gb sd. )

anyway, I'm really happy with the d-pad over the joystick.
I can't say the same for the camera unfortunately.. I really think it's the same camera from the apache, just with software focus instead of manual, but I really liked that manual focus. with the apache I could use qipit.com but now I can't, although 3mp is kinda needed for it to work the best.