Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Raising the Ante - the Pharos GPS Phone 600 Reviewed
Posted by Doug Raeburn in "HARDWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Using the Pocket PC
The 600's primary appeal is based on its convergence device aspects so, as a Pocket PC, it's pretty much status quo as Windows Mobile 5 devices go. As stated before, you do pay a bit of a price for the unit's svelte size… if you're accustomed to the 3.5" or greater screen sizes of most non-Phone Edition Pocket PCs, the 600's 2.8" screen will strike you as a bit small. But they pack a lot of quality in that smaller screen… it's bright, sharp and displays vibrant and accurate colors. Performance is excellent overall. Program launching and screen input is very responsive.
The 600's 1,530mAh battery does a good job of keeping the phone running. Darius Wey stated that he got 2-3 days of standard usage with the comparable Glofiish X500, and my experience with the 600 seems to bear that out.
The 600 supplies the standard set of WM5 software. This includes:
Figure 10: SPB Mobile Shell's take on the Today Page.
Figure 11: MobileMenu is easier to navigate than the Programs page.
Figure 12: The Now screen displays when you power up.
SPB Mobile Shell is included as a Today Page supplement and launcher. Judie Hughes' excellent review of this product can be found here. SPB's Full Screen Keyboard is also part of the bundled applications.
As you'd expect with any mobile phone these days, the 600 is Bluetooth 2.0 enabled. However, unlike most mobile phones, the 600 is also Wi-Fi enabled (802.11 b/g). So even if you decide to pass on your carrier's data plan (or go with a less expensive and more limited plan), you can take advantage of Wi-Fi hotspots.
Using the Phone
Figure 13: Using the built in WM5 dialer.
Figure 14: And selecting your number from the Contacts list.
The 600 offers the standard Pocket PC Phone dialing interface. You can dial a number directly or select a contact from a list. This screen gives you access to speed dial entries and call history, and allows callers to be added to your contacts list.
Figure 15: EZdial searches your contacts quickly and efficiently.
An enhancement to the dialing interface called EZdial is bundled with the 600. It uses predictive text entry to look up contacts on the fly as you use the numeric keypad. The most likely matches are displayed as buttons near the top of the screen. If a photo is available for the contact, it's displayed as well. This gives you the ability to retrieve entries from your contacts without having to pull up the contacts and use a stylus.
Phone operation was excellent from all perspectives. Signal strength was at 5 bars nearly constantly and rarely fell below 4 bars. Sound quality through the earpiece was very good, although some calls had a slightly hollow sound. People who I called reported that sound was very good on their end as well.
