Audiovox PPC-6600 / PPC-6601 / XV6600 (HTC Harrier)
Average Ratings
Don't get the Audiovox vx 6600
As a PDA it is excellent. Loved it. As a phone it was horrible. Verizon taughted the best network, but I always have trouble connecting in the Fairfield County Connecticut area. The internet does not end when OK was shut down costing me a lot of money. The phone was cumbersone to use, could not save a number to existing contacts directly. Ringer volume is horrible and even with louder recorded ringtones it was unaudible when sitting directly by myside in the car or in my pocket in a restaurant. The phone would lock up for no apparent reason. I returned it after 1 week, however, if their was a fix to the volume, I probably would have kept it. That was just to unbearable.
Where's The Antenna?
I was really excited about this phone when it launched. Audiovox is like the Chevy of the phone business. They offer alot of the popular features for a reasonable price. This phone is no exception. EVDO, Camera, Video, Bluetooth and a Keyboard. The first thing I noticed with this phone is the lack of antenna, and it really shows on this phone. I am a Verizon Dealer in Indianapolis and some of my customers live out in the sticks if you know what I mean. My largest customer order 2 of these and every available accessory and complained about all of the dropped calls. After getting 3 replacement units from verizon they decided to switch to the samsung i730 which is a much better phone even without the camera/video. The main problems with this unit is the absense of an external antenna, if audiovox would redesign this phone with a better antenna it would be a hit. The bluetooth on this phone is another complaint, its range is very short. My advise do purchase this phone unless you work in a great verizon reception area and dont use a bluuetooth headset. If you do you will be really disapointed. Here is the facts. If you a plam user get a treo 650,If microsoft get the samsung i730 and blackberry is 7250 is my absoulute favorite pda phone. I am not the only one that thinks this blackberry sales have went up 400% for the last 2 years.
Probably the best PDA Phone Available to date
This phone is an upgrade from the miserable Motorola v710 which had crippled Bluetooth, among other very bad qualities.
Many say the phone's size is a Con, however, for a PDA phone it's a Pro. You can't expect to have a PDA phone be as small as the Motorola Razor and still function well as a PDA. The screen has generous real estate while still comfortable to use as a phone.
First, to review it as a phone: To those who complain about soft ringtones, yes some are soft, but the beauty of this phone is you can add your own VERY LOUD ringtones-problem solved. The earpiece volume is low, even on the highest setting. Not good if you're in a noisy environment, but hopefully those using this phone are using it partly for business, and not out trying to talk to friends from a noisy dance club floor (use an LG phone for that). Speed dials and call history are nicely detailed with info because, hey, it's a PDA, too. The Bluetooth operation is excellent. Side note to the Acura owner: it'd be nice if every Bluetooth device worked perfectly with every car or other device, but nothing is perfect, and to say the phone is a failure because it doesn't work with YOUR car's factory Bluetooth is short-sighted; saying the v710 is better is simply untrue--it was a joke!. Signal strength is remarkably strong (using Verizon) when considering that there is no external antenna; even in spotty areas it does well.
As a PDA, this phone is great. It's a Pocket PC (Windows Mobile), so it's already feature-packed. Syncronizes with Outlook well, SMS messaging and e-mail work great! To the person having trouble with e-mail: make sure you're not blocking inbound IMAP or POP/SMTP TCP ports; you don't have to use Verizon's mail service.
With heavy usage, the battery lasts about 3-4 hours.
To the others: I've never had a phone COME WITH a car charger; not a fair "con". The included pouch is lacking; however, I've never had a phone come with a nice case or clip--buy a nicer one for $20.
AWESOME PHONE!!! READ THE MANUAL FIRST AND PLAY WITH THE PHONE BEFORE COMMENTING!!
This is truely and awesome phone.. and for the [person] that said "if I put it in my pocket, it will dial out or start programs" You sir, should not own a pda! and to the others that complain about the ringer being too low... DOWNLOAD A LOUD ONE!!!
If you read a little deeper in the manual, or played with the phone, you would have found the key lock... [...]!
This phone rocks!!!!!! Buy it!!
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH people!!!!
[...]
Ed. note: removed personal comments / responses to others
Extremely Happy
I'm new to PDAs and so I don't have much to compare to. I have been digging into this phone though and I wanted to give my review if I can help someone. I'm so happy with it and have to think hard for cons. In any case, here it is:
Pros:
-Touch Screen (very responsive)
-Lots of cool software available
-Bought a 1GB memory card (lots of music : )
-Can organize in categories/folders (word, excel, contacts, etc.)
-Blue Tooth
-Active Sync (very cool)
-signal clear (Sprint is my carrier)
-Of course Qwerty Keyboard!
-Easy to get on the Internet (IE)
Cons:
-What is up with charging you for voice activation?
-Case does have a button over the screen.
-Wish it came with an extra battery and car charger
-When answering with Blue Tooth, it takes a while and you can miss a phone call.
I think when the 6600 comes out I might want to pick that one up.
All in all... my friends are getting sick of me bragging about this phone! Hope this helps...
Danny
Faster is always better
If you want more from your phone than just a phone this is the way to go.
Pro's
Email is easy and fast. Easy to set up. Works great and with EV-DO very fast. The slide out key board is a great feature. The screen is very good. With the new 1Gig SD cards I can hold all the musiic I want or store a full length movie.
Cons,
The blue tooth is a little buggy. When on battery the pda shuts down and drops the blue tooth connection, so when you get an inbound call you cant answer it from your headset.
The Verizon folks are very helpfull but the tech's are not up to speed yet on some of the phones features.
The EV-DO capability will be even better once more of the multimedia streaming sites are better set up for PDA and phone users.
Not all it's cracked up to be...
I got this phone 5 days ago, and for the first day I was very pleased. However; the honeymoon ended after that. Since then I've had to do 2 hard resets as directed by Verizon support and 25 soft resets to correct various issues. The phone locks up about once a day and refuses to make calls until I reset the phone. It has been extremely painful to reinstall all my apps and resync everything after the hard resets as well. The speaker volume is very low. I had seen this complaint in this forum, but I didn't know it would be that bad. I had to make a call from a data center and switched to speakerphone, just so I could hear the call. Voice command is an excellent app, but if I give a command through the bluetooth headset the answer comes across the speaker. This phone seemed to be the answer I was looking for, but it turned out to be less than expected. I plan to return it to Verizon and try a replacement to see if it will correct the issues. There were a lot of excellent reviews about this phone, so I felt compelled to share my experience so others will take the time to really demo this phone before purchase. If the new phone fixes the issues, I'll post again.
Outstanding Device
This is my first pda device. However I did my homework. You will get Use to the size, and you'll be glad it is the size it is. Purchased 2 weeks ago and it's all I can do to keep from smiling every time I pull it out.
Easy to use and thats good because the manual is almost as bad as Sprint's support line.
Get a 2nd battery, car charger, Screen savers.
Also get Voice Command.... It's great.
Pro: Excellent screen resolution, ease of use, just plain fun to use
Cons: no voice dial, get that w/voice command. Cannot use blue tooth with voice dial. Thirsty battery. Hopefully Sprint will offer a free upgrade to 5.0. They should.
Finally look around. I got mine for $280.00 @ sprint. took a bit of haggling but I feel I got an excellent price.
Great Phone! Very happy.
I gotta tell you guys, I really like this phone. I went out and bought the Treo 650 first. I used it for a month, then took it back to get this one. I liked the Treo, but it doesn't do what I need it to do. I buy and sell on Ebay. So I need to be able to check my Paypal account and prices of items at a moments notice. The Treo 650 couldn't even go on Paypal! This phone works. The only drawback is support from Sprint because it's not a phone that they regularly sell. You have to be patient and go through the B.S with first tier tech support to get to the 2nd tier support. The best way to describe this phone is to say it is a pocket pc first, and a phone second. If you are a person that needs you other "brain" on call first like me (smile) get this phone. And guys it's not that big. I mean really. If you want a good phone the Treo is probably it. Don't get me wrong, ppc6601 it has good clear phone usage. But the Treo is cute and a little smaller. Hope I was helpfull. Good luck with choosing right PDA/Phone!
Great Phone - OS could use upgrade
I got the phone about 1 day after I ordered it! The provisioning was an issue as Sprint rarely gets this right the first time.
Equipment list:
The phone doesn't come with much - 1 battery, no car adapter, an extremely limited manual and a charging station, and a dreadful case with a button over the delicate screen!!!!
PROS:
The phone is fast, bright, and well designed. It has 128MB of memory although 256 would have been ideal so it can handle full backups as well. The keyboard works fine and is easy to access. The sound is perfectly acceptable. It has plenty of buttons that can be programmed.
This unit lets you tweak it to meet your needs which is great. I've used and abused it and the battery holds a charge for over 3 hours of heavy use.
The large screen can display a good amount of data - even for browsing the web.
It does a nice job of syncing fields with Outlook contacts - an OK job with e-mail.
I'm new to Pocket PC AND the unit but I have already used it for e-mailing, browsing the web (particularly looking up prices when I'm out shopping), msn messenger, voice dialing(not included), playing music, keeping track of my DVD's so I don't buy duplicates.
CONS:
It is a little large (which also is a pro for the screen)
The MS components need patching -
Active Sync doesn't have the reliability for saving settings that PocketMirror does or the degree of control on conflict.
Windows 2003 SE still has the known bugs that I would beg Sprint to make the OS upgrade available for those of who dumped a big wad of cash on this model.
Voice Command is not included - I can get a free phone that supports voice dialing, seems like this should be included!
Car adapter also not included - I don't know anyone that gets a serious phone who doesn't need a car adapter - should be included!
The case is crap - doesn't swivel, button over the screen - there would be lawsuits if they released a toy or childseat this poorly designed.
