Kyocera QCP 6035 SmartPhone – Yes ; Genius – No !!
Written: Apr 20 '01 (Updated Apr 20 '01)
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Pros: PDA/Phone all-in-one. Handles nicely, good quality sound.
Cons: Should be 15% smaller, no expansion slot , color screen would be way cool.
The Bottom Line: This is so close to being a killer product. Next version will be awesome. Wait unless you really need this now.
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| jcare's Full Review: Kyocera QCP-6035 Smartphone |
A Combo Digital Phone and Palm PDA all in one chassis. Be still my heart !! For two years since I took the plunge with my Palm VII I have been waiting for this device. I nearly strayed when the Palm IIIc and the Handspring came out, but I remained true and faithful to my goal .. As the old Chinese proverb says be careful What you wish for , your wish may come true
To put the bottom line at the top – this phone isn’t quite ready for primetime, but it is really close. All those Qualcomm engineers who left to join Kyocera should be proud of their first attempt. But it is just that, a version 1.0 piece of hardware and software. Give it 6-12 months to shake the bugs out or wait until they come out with an upgraded model and I say jump at it.
At First Glance
One of the advantages of my profession is that every now and again I get to try some neat new piece of technology for free. So I tested the Kyocera QCP 6035 for a couple of weeks to check out its capabilities. The obvious appeal of the SmartPhone is that it replaces a regular cellphone and a PDA – freeing up jacket or belt space. Considering the number of times I have had to perform the Palm to Phone shuffle when looking up a number this convenience is amazing. Just tapping a name in the address book will automatically kick off a phone call (or an email). This is what I had been looking for. Score one for the SmartPhone.
Almost everywhere I used the phone at least one person approached me and asked me what it was. Score another point just for the cool factor.
The Screen
The screen is backlit green and black, which can be reversed by pressing down on the IR switch. It is smaller than a regular Palm – at least a Palm VII, but is the same size as the new m100 and m105. It is easily visible; even in sunlight, but only if you are looking straight at it. More than about a 15 degree viewing angle and its difficult to read – for example if you are trying to show a colleague something on the screen.
Several reviewers have commented on the stylus being sharp and scratchy – but as I used one of my old custom Palm styli I didn’t have a problem. The buttons – for tasks, address book etc are actually recessed into the frame, so that the flip top does not come into contact with them.
How is it as a Phone ?
We’ll get back to the Palm piece later, but don’t forget that this is actually a phone too!! I found the signal to be crisp and clear and liked the fact you can actually use the phone in speakerphone mode. It’s a little tinny, but gets the job done inside a conference room – outside the ambient noise causes problems. It has all the standard features such as speed dialing, plug-in headset, various rings and buzzes for special numbers etc. Even with the Palm address book available I programmed in about 20 voice-activated numbers and it has no problems distinguishing the names. It also gives me some security as no-one else in the office can successfully mimic my Brit accent. So, as a phone – its pretty darn good.
In terms of size it is of course larger than the average cellphone – I use a mini Samsung 8500 which makes the comparison even worse. The actual size of the Smartphone is just over 5 ˝ by 2 ˝ and about 7/8 of an inch deep. As I had so much data stored in the device its weight was just over 7 ounces. The extra inch or so in length really kills you, as it becomes hard to fit into a pocket or a pocketbook, but examining the logistics and screen size I’d say the engineers did a pretty good job.
Back to the PDA
Because I had read several other Epinions and magazine reviews I immediately upgraded the Palm OS from the 3.5.1 version shipped with the phone to 3.5.2. This was pretty painless and I didn’t encounter any real problems with the OS. You also have to remember that the connection to the Internet or Email is not always on – you have to physically connect at a blazing 14.4k speed.
You can access email through a variety of tools, but be aware you have to buy a perpetual onetime license to access exchange servers via Outlook. I used the email functionality to basically download header information for corporate and private mail – picking and choosing what I really want to see. Many of my colleagues, being permanently attached to the net at T1 speeds send very large emails so I had to be careful with what I looked at. Internet access is via HTML, WAP or standard Palm PQA web-clipping. I really didn’t use it that much except to check some stock prices and figure out how delayed (again) my United Airlines flights were.
Other Thoughts
Battery life was pretty impressive – I am a heavy PDA user during the day, and wireless access really does drain the batteries. Although the lithium battery supposedly lasts 120 hours in standby mode - I managed 2 days of heavy use before recharging.
There is no expansion slot in the device – another sign it is a 1.0 version. But as you have 8MB of RAM it can store a lot of stuff. You cannot play MP3 files or take pictures with it – but to me that is marketing fluff and nothing to do with a functional PDA anyway.
Psst – don’t tell anyone , but the SmartPhone slid off the roof of my rental car and smacked into the parking lot. No damage.
The recessed buttons would be really hard to play games with.
The Final Word
This is so close to being the next cool and killer product. Unless you absolutely cannot wait or need to be the first person on your block to own one, I'd suggest you wait until the next version/release - hopefully that will be a little smaller and all the software kinks will be worked out. Its still worth three stars though as it does perform its basic functions and it is, for now, unique.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 456
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Epinions.com ID:
jcare
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Location: Southeast Pennsylvania
Reviews written: 270
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About Me:
Bullets can hurt people. Both in guns and PowerPoint.
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