Kyocera, everything you want in one place
Written: Aug 17 '02
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Pros: Battery Life
Reception
Multifuntionality
Cons: Crashes (but saves data)
Build quality
Large body size
The Bottom Line: Despite the flaws, it's a very useful device for anyone who uses a palm and phone separately.
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| lorenzo68's Full Review: Kyocera QCP-6035 Smartphone |
Like many gadgets that make big promises, you can't tell whether the Kyocera 6035 is right for you until you buy one. It works for me, but at the expense of several unexpected disadvantages.
Advantages:
1. Excellent battery life. I have gone several days without needing a charge. I am tempted to leave the charger at home for weekend trips, but I haven't screwed up the courage yet.
2. Excellent reception in the New York City area. I used to use a sprint PCS phone in NYC, and reception in Manhattan was awful. I switched to verizon plus the kyocera, and no longer have any trouble.
3. Integration between phone functions and palm functions are well thought out. Finally, you can have one list of phone numbers on your PC, Palm, and phone. An unexpected benefit is the ability to put someone on speakerphone and be able to look something up on your palm. This phone can even categorize your calls and output them to a spreadsheet on a pc. If you need to expense your calls, this is amazing! It will pay for the phone in short order because in the past, I have never bothered going through the fine print of my phone bill to strip out business related calls.
Disadvantages:
1. Palms crash. My IIIxe crashed all the time, and would lose all the data in it. The 6035 crashes too, but a reset doesn't erase your data. Thank god. When you're away from the host PC, a 6035 crash doesn't leave you without your info. The downside is that I suspect my 6035 after a crash will duplicate information on my PC. Notes, addresses, etc. It doesn't do a complete duplication, but still some. I haven't figured out the pattern yet. To avoid this, I have the PC overwrite the 6035 after a crash. I lose the data created on the 6035 since the last synch, but at least I don't have to dedupe my contacts list.
2. The build quality isn't as high as I would like. Under heat, sweaty hands, or some other mysterious force, the buttons can go a little loopy. Nines can become three's, etc. When the phone is having a fit like this, I use the number interface on the screen to dial. After the phone has rested in a cool dry place for a while, everything reverts to normal.
3. The size may be too big for some people. For me, the battery life and palm functions are worth the step up in size though.
Conclusion
In my opinion, the 6035 is the fruit of a wicked battle between the marketing people and the engineers at Kyocera. There are so many clever, tiny things that work so well, I can't imagine that the big clunker problems were unnoticed. Somewhere on the drawing boards of the Kyocera keiretsu, the engineers have designed the perfect phone. However, the marketing people cheapened up the design to lower its price point, and voila, we have the 6035. It's a great idea that survived the corporate meat grinder. It's worthwhile, but better manufacturing and sturdiness would make it amazing.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399
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Epinions.com ID:
lorenzo68
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Member: Lorenzo
Location: New York
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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