Test Driving the Audiovox SMT5600 at Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com

Test Driving the Audiovox SMT5600

Published

on February 7, 2005

The other day, Josh bartered an Audiovox SMT5600 from a common friend of ours and after finding that he couldn’t leave his blackberry behind, decided to loan it to me for a while to test drive. I am going to post my personal review of the phone on this page, but have decided not to do so in a one-time post. I think the review would get too long for this format, so I have decided to write a series of posts about my impressions. (For reference sake, I am coming to this device most recently from a Nokia 3650)

So after three days of use, here are my initial thoughts on the phone…

Things I like:
• Initial setup and ActiveSync was really easy
• Provides more contact data than any phone I have ever seen
• Pocket IE beats my WAP browser on 3650 hands down!
• Camera is better than 3650
• Phone is not just a black box (I will explain this one more later)
• It’s nice that it charges over USB
• Lots of customization!
• Constant connectivity is nice (easier to achieve than with other devices I’ve used)
• Automatic profile selection (chooses meeting profile during appointments)

Things I am not crazy about:
• Battery life stinks (more like a PDA than a phone)
• Data input is miserable
• Reception doesn’t seem as good as my 3650
• I have had to reboot it several times
• The rocker “directional pad” is difficult to use

The general impression is favorable, but I am starting to wonder if a smart phone is for me or not. I will talk about this as well as breaking out many of the items listed above in future posts, so stay tuned…

1 Response to “Test Driving the Audiovox SMT5600”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 jthousand
February 7, 2005 at 5:42 pm

Hey Brian, I’m looking forward to hearing more about the phone on tinypodcast. (Without ever touching the phone) I feel like I need this phone.

Josh’s Lifelog

RSS

@croncast hey, isn’t @resalequeen’s Wheel of Fortune going to air soon? Someone capture it, so we can all watch! #
Parking at the Beaverton Farmers’ Market is INSANE today. #

(0)

@jmartens It doesn’t include Mobile Safari (iPhone). The numbers for that are lower. #
Sad that ORBlogs is closing. Hope the PDX Geek contingent can save it. And it’s awesome that the ORBlogs guy was behind Fuelly.com. #
@JoshProStar Here’s an Andy Grove quote: “Only the Paranoid Survive.” #
Continue to be amazed by the big battery and Atom CPU’s effect on battery life on this Eee PC 901. 3 solid hours of browsing, 60% batt left. #
Missing Full Screen in Google Chrome. It matters on the Eee PC’s 1024×600 screen. At least you can hide the bookmark bar with Ctrl+B. #
Just did a sticker swap with @davest. Scored a cool Instructables sticker from the Maker Faire that happened at IDF! Thanks, Dave! #
Ha ha ha! Heart (the band) tells the McCain/Palin campaign to stop playing “Barracuda”. http://tinyurl.com/68qbxb #
(from the same article): “Jackson Browne and Tom Petty have also asked the campaign to stop playing their music.” http://tinyurl.com/68qbxb #
Another chapter in my ongoing love saga with the battery life of the Eee PC 901 - the battery charges super-fast. ~1hr from 20% to full. #
At the Hillsboro Library for the afternoon. Needed to get some thinking and writing done, change of venue was required. #
Cool Pogue writeup of Earth Class Mail (think GrandCentral for paper mail). My friend Matt is a dev there (Bvtn) http://tinyurl.com/6pqfj3 #

(0)

@jmartens It doesn’t include Mobile Safari (iPhone). The numbers for that are lower. #
Sad that ORBlogs is closing. Hope the PDX Geek contingent can save it. And it’s awesome that the ORBlogs guy was behind Fuelly.com. #
@JoshProStar Here’s an Andy Grove quote: “Only the Paranoid Survive.” #
Continue to be amazed by the big battery and Atom CPU’s effect on battery life on this Eee PC 901. 3 solid hours of browsing, 60% batt left. #
Missing Full Screen in Google Chrome. It matters on the Eee PC’s 1024×600 screen. At least you can hide the bookmark bar with Ctrl+B. #
Just did a sticker swap with @davest. Scored a cool Instructables sticker from the Maker Faire that happened at IDF! Thanks, Dave! #
Ha ha ha! Heart (the band) tells the McCain/Palin campaign to stop playing “Barracuda”. http://tinyurl.com/68qbxb #
(from the same article): “Jackson Browne and Tom Petty have also asked the campaign to stop playing their music.” http://tinyurl.com/68qbxb #
Another chapter in my ongoing love saga with the battery life of the Eee PC 901 - the battery charges super-fast. ~1hr from 20% to full. #
At the Hillsboro Library for the afternoon. Needed to get some thinking and writing done, change of venue was required. #
Cool Pogue writeup of Earth Class Mail (think GrandCentral for paper mail). My friend Matt is a dev there (Bvtn) http://tinyurl.com/6pqfj3 #

(0)

XP on Eee PC 901 notes: It just feels FAST. I can’t believe I’m saying this about Windows. Suspend/resume takes about 4 seconds. Sweet! #
Here’s how I got XP w/SP3 onto a USB stick to install it on the Eee PC 901: http://tinyurl.com/27clyw (well, @gwynnebaer helped me #
Into iPhone and mobile devices? You should go to @ravenme’s O’Reilly iPhoneLive conference in Nov.: http://tinyurl.com/66mqr7 #
@lyzadanger For me, hashtags have been obsoleted by Summize/Twitter Search. A search there will find all instances, with or without the #. #
Just had a great phone conversation with a reporter from AdAge about Kindle Evangelism. Article should be up on Mon, will link then. #
Hey Intel tweeps - have you been having problems with TinyURL? Help us figure out what’s going on. Search TinyURL on Intelpedia, add ur info #
Why does Niall Kennedy’s blog want to use Gears on my computer? http://tinyurl.com/6bxgm7 #
@jmartens Picasa 3 (beta) is an update to the app itself, with an update to Web Albums at the same time. #
Dear Twitter: Looking for a overclocker willing to be interviewed by an HS student at a pretty technical level. Email or @ me if interested! #
@blath Thanks for reminding me! I’ll post something in the Case and Cooling forum if I get no hits. #
Hey, cool! Mike Belshe, who wrote Lookout search for Oulook (and was acquired by MS) is on the Google Chrome team! http://tinyurl.com/6bxgm7 #
Since it launched, Google Chrome accounts for 5.07% of the visits to TinyScreenfuls.com. I knew I had geeky readers! #
Since it launched, Google Chrome has become the #3 browser to visit softwareblogs.intel.com (behind IE and FF). It unseated Safari. :-O #
@scaleovenstove Yes, for my blog, I definitely give more weight to feed subscribers than to site visits. Intention and attention count! #
@lyzadanger Yes, Macs are still rare at Intel, but that measures hits to our external ISN blog, from sw devs all over the world. #

(0)

Thanks for the kind words/offers to talk re: my freakout last night. I’m OK. It happens from time to time. Life would be boring otherwise! #
@sircusa has a GREAT analysis piece of Google Chrome over at Ars. You’re sick of Chrome hype. Read it anyway. http://tinyurl.com/5nkhwt #
I’m reading Bruce Schneier’s “Beyond Fear” (finally). I love books that show me a new way of thinking. Tons of application, too (more soon). #
@bobuva Nice! Bruce Schneier is one of my Nerd Idols. Would love to meet him some day. #
@CarriBugbee Um, a good night’s sleep? And a pint of ice cream may or may not have been involved. #
Heh. Got Google Chrome? Type “about:internets” in the omnibar (without the quotes, of course). Welcome back to Windows 95! #
@chippy Hint: The internets are a series of tubes… #
Finally, a magazine available on Kindle that I might consider subscribing to: MIT Technology Review http://tinyurl.com/5brv8c #
Just noticed a glaring omission in Google Chrome: No “button” that lights up when a page has RSS feed(s) to subscribe to. Oops! #
I’m convinced that most of the world’s problems would go away if people listened to more rockin’ music. Also: Weezer Pork n Beans is good. #
@leahjones The wording of the Chrome EULA (that they claim rights to what you upload) is the exact same as YouTube’s EULA, FWIW. Still dumb. #
@jenvteal I have a couple of Twitter accounts for experimenting with groups, etc. (@pulseofintel, @intelsoftware, etc.). Many personalities. #
Just got an email about the new version of Shozu for iPhone. Says that it can now geotag, and offers the choice of 640×480 OR 1600×1200 pics #
@CarriBugbee how do I sleep when my brain is going a million miles an hour? I don’t. #
Ooh! A treasure trove (OK, 4) CC licensed books and story collections, for your Kindle, iPhone, or other reader: http://tinyurl.com/5dvkdc #
Many thanks to Small Beer Press for making those works available under Creative Commons. #
Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches. #
Dear Everyone that was worried about the Google Chrome EULA: They’re going to change it. You can relax now. http://tinyurl.com/6zhx4h #
Google’s excuse for the heinous EULA terms: “we reuse EULAs as much as possible”. That’s why the rights claim looks just like YouTube’s. #
@kellyrfeller Dude, you’re going to be on Oprah!? That’s awesome! Knock em dead! #
Dear LazyTwitter: In Mac OS X, how do I write an ISO image to a USB flash drive. Not copy the file, but image the volume. In Disk Utility. #
@billpearson Twitter status reports?! DO WANT! #
Hmm. Turns out I can’t make a Windows XP ISO into a bootable, installable USB drive in Mac OS X. Bummer. #
@sumwan I like iSquint or VisualHub for converting video files. Videora is good, too. VLC can do it with some hackery. #
LOL I just got a spam comment on my blog from “sarah palin”. Who knew she spammed free web hosting on the side? #
Attention, Portland! Neal Stephenson is coming to talk at the Bagdad theater on Sept. 16. You must attend, or forfeit your nerd cred. #
(Hat tip to @lyzadanger for the Neal Stephenson news - http://tinyurl.com/6r6qfe) #
Looks like Dell’s netbook, the Inspiron 910 “Mini 9″, has officiall broken cover (hat tip @jkkmobile): http://tinyurl.com/6yv5mt #
Dell “Mini 9″: Atom CPU, Ubuntu 8.04 or XP SP3, 4 or 8GB SSD, 512MB or 1GB RAM, Black or White, 1.3MP, .3MP, or no cam, $349, $399, or $449. #
@brampitoyo Yes, the Dell entry into the new “netbook” segment has been long awaited. Nothing stunning about the Mini 9, but it looks solid. #
I’m currently putting Windows XP on my Eee PC 901, so I can try out Google Chrome on it. Seems PERFECT for netbooks: fast shell for webapps! #
@brampitoyo I’m working on something of a “netbook roundup” for Intel Software Network with @jmoriarty. Will cover similarities and diffs. #
Got Windows XP running on the Eee PC 901, with Google Chrome, Firefox 3, Picasa 3, etc. It[s quite snappy. I’m impressed. #
I forgot that there are actually Windows apps that I like (Picasa, PuTTY, etc.) #
Will be putting Chrome through its paces on the Eee PC. It bills itself as a shell for web applications, right? So far, so good. #
Battery life under XP on the Eee PC 901 is still terrific. Even better than under Linux, I think. That little Atom processor rocks! #
@mtrichardson I know. But on Windows, PuTTY is the best SSH shell I know of. #
@Jmartens Picasa 3 beta came out this week. #

(0)

Headed to Emma’s kindergarten open house this morning to meet her teacher. She starts on Thursday! #
Got Google Chrome, installed in my Windows VM. Now, if only I had time to play with it! This is shaping up to be a busy day! #
I’ll agree with everyone so far - Google Chrome is FAST. Even in a Windows virtual machine, with a bunch of other stuff running. Impressive. #
Retweeting @blogan: Google Chrome’s “Inspect Element” feature is like Firebug. Very powerful. Developers should love it. #
@trishussey You’re right. Google Gears makes the Eee PC a much more capable little system. I use Google Docs as my offline office suite. #
The fact that I want to use Google Chrome made me finally switch back to Parallels’ Coherence mode, so I can put it on my big monitor. #
I can’t believe that ChromeSetup.exe is only 475KB. It didn’t seem to be a downloaders stub. Is it really that small? #
The next big question I think the Google Chrome team needs to answer: extensibility. How about compatibility with Firefox extensions? Plz? #
Got Google Chrome? Type “about:memory” into the Omnibar. I love that it compares FF and IE’s memory footprint if they’re running. #
What other hacks are there for Google Chrome? I tried about:config, which doesn’t work. Is there a list somewhere? #
Ooh. Google Chrome just informed me that the Flash plugin crashed, and was killed. Browser stayed up, though. Nice. #
Showing @bljarv a tweet from inside Ubiquity. #
@jmoriarty I haven’t had any problems with Chrome CPU usage, but I’m running it in a VM, which has a lot of CPU overhead anyway. #
I think I’m having an anxiety attack. Mildly freaking out re: just about everything. #

(1)

At the Oregon State Fair. Yes, we’re insane. #
@SarahCofer Yes, we’re at the fair for a little longer. Where are you at? #
@TheBigTomato We’re having a great time. Thanks for asking, and nice use of Twitter monitoring! #
@SarahCofer Sorry I missed you! We were by the Lego table, but way before I got your tweet. Fair was awesome! #
What I’ll be doing tomorrow: Playing with Google’s new web browser, Google Chrome. The implications of this are HUGE. Really huge. #
I daresay that Google Chrome is probably the most impactful news we’ve heard in software this year. Besides maybe the iPhone App Store. #
@templestark I haven’t seen anything that says Google Chrome won’t work on Mac. It’s open source, based on WebKit (which powers Safari). #
@templestark I see now. The initial beta will be for Windows, but Mac and Linux versions will soon follow. Sucks, but not surprising. #
The Google Blog says they used parts from WebKit AND Firefox when building Chrome. I wonder which parts? I can has Firefox extensions plz? #
Reading the Google Chrome comic book. Some very interesting stuff about how it’s parallel/multiprocess. Take note, @tersteeg! #
Chrome does some nifty stuff with memory management and has its own task manager view, too. Cool! #
“Chrome bot”: Google tests tens of thousands of real world pages using its crawling infrastructure. Within 20-30 minutes of a new build. :-O #
@ericskiff Yes, Google is releasing a browser called Chrome tomorrow. It’s on Digg, and Google released the news via a comic book. #
@mmoney The Chrome comic book is definitely worth reading. A lot of good, fundamental info in it. It’s very “Google”. #
Chrome’s new Javascript virtual machine, V8, is independent from the browser, so it can be used in other projects. #
Chrome’s address bar, called “Omnibox”, offers search suggestions, and full text search over your browsing history. That is very cool. #
And it captures the search boxes from sites you’ve been to, so you can search, say, Amazon or Wikipedia, later directly from the “omnibox”. #
Interesting security features in Chrome, too. Like popup control and process jail. Each tab is its own process, with very limited permission #
And Google Gears is built into Chrome. I love Gears - it’s super useful to access stuff like Google Docs offline. Now it’ll be baseline. #
@cdibona, Google’s Open Source dude, is all over the Chrome comic. I actually recognized his face before I saw his name! #
Some screenshots of Google Chrome: http://tinyurl.com/6rgbgz #
@segphault Yeah, that could happen. But it’s open code from the start, so if it’s good, people will make it happen. Trust @cdibona! #
@LeStew I don’t think Chrome will ever unseat Firefox, just like Firefox hasn’t unseated IE. Even though it’s better. #

(0)

@jltitus I use mediatemple, but I’m considering switching to asmallorange. #
Just noticed a cool new Google Reader feature - inline preview! Haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere. Here’s my post http://tinyurl.com/5e8tfn #
Oops. I’m an idiot. That “new” Preview feature in Google Reader? It’s part of the Better GReader addon I installed the other day. Oops! Sry! #

(0)

@robertbrook For now, yes, I’m exploring the Eee PC’s default Xandros Linux install. But I’ll soon be putting Ubuntu and other on it to play #

(0)

At Powell’s, working with the Eee PC 901. After 1.5 hours, battery is still at 83%. I freaking love that little Intel Atom chip! #
An Ars SXSW panel on community AND Ken Fisher is writing an O’Reilly book on community building? YES PLEASE! http://tinyurl.com/5ov8es #

(0)

Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com