Tech Blog: Dopod C500.. some pros and cons

Every mobile device has pros and cons. The features it can offer matters on every user’s preferences. Presently, I can say that no mobile device can offer a whole lot of features at the same time brings appeal to majority of users.

I have replaced my D838 Pro with a smaller Dopod unit called C500 (a.k.a. HTC S710). I know some tech geek would argue why on earth I downgraded from much adored PDA phone to this newbie smartphone which will probably attract most consumers only because it sports WM6 OS and a slide-out QWERTY keypad?

Well, like what I’m trying to point out, I realized that the feature that matters most to me on mobile phones is being able to do one-hand operation when typing sms. I tried downloading a phonepad software into my D838 Pro but I still find it knotty typing quick messages with just one hand. And the bulkiness of the unit still makes me wanna leave it at home sometimes and just carry my old phone which I could easily slid in my pocket. This is when I saw the C500. The fact that it still resembles the modern looks of an ordinary candy-bar phone with numeric keypad, it also holds underneath a qwerty keyboard despite its tiny size. Although it runs on WM6, it is still categorized under smart phones, which means other capabilities of PDA may not be inherent on this device. Anyhow, on my daily usage of this smartphone, here are some PROS and CONS I noticed:


PROS

· Small and elegant with good rubberize finish
· Having both Numeric keypad and QWERTY keyboard
· Hot-swappable SIM card slot, no need to take out the battery
· Searching through contacts and inbox (email or sms) for any name, number, or words is without a hitch. You can do so by directly typing on numeric keypad. (This is very useful when you have hundreds of messages stored and you want to search for particular sms/email/contact)
· Quick synching via Outlook contacts. You can organize all contact names in outlook then synch with this device swiftly (either via bluetooth, wifi, or usb cable)
· Flight mode is readily available. This profile will simply turn off the mobile and radio frequency so you can still use your the device while inside the hospital or plane (but I would still suggest turning the unit off)
· Built-in software includes Windows Live, Messenger, and RSS. Runs on WM6 standard
· I still find the Voice Commander cool to play with. Also the Audio Manager (an alternative to Windows Media player) can trim MP3s to turn into sweet ring tones


CONS

· It looks compact but when you try to hold with your right hand, it feels a bit loose. Perhaps this is because the qwerty keyboard slides out to the right. It doesn’t seem to have the same locking mechanism as the D838 pro.
· Camera does not function as barcode reader like what is intrinsic to D838 Pro or N95.
· No IR. I thought I don’t need this anymore as the phone already have bluetooth and wifi. Unfortunately, when I was trying to transfer a word document to my office laptop (where all means of connectivity – except IR – were turned off because of their so-called policy.. gees) I found this phone useless on this aspect. I had to transfer to my colleague's phone via bluetooth then IRd it to my office laptop
· Non-3G / HSDPA ready. I thought also I’d never use this as last time my phone bill sky-rocketed because I accidentally left my 3G phone connected to the net. Initially it was easy to accept as well that this new device doesn't have 3G as this also eats up battery power when phone detects a 3G network and tries to re-establish connection. However, it was unfortunate to know that I couldn’t use my Broadband simcard onto this smartphone. Now, I can somehow say that 3G is as important as wifi in todays telecoms infrastructure. So with this phone, I can only connect to the net via GPRS/EDGE (which is a bit costly than broadband connection) OR try & find some wifi hotspots for less costly or free internet access.


These are just what I noticed based on the features I normally used. Nevertheless, I still love this phone and never regretted having this as replacement to my PDA.

Ciao!

c",)