Since the fall of 2005, Verizon has added an impressive array of featured PDA phones to its lineup, along with a major expansion of its high-speed 3G EVDO network. The Starcom XV6700, released in January 2006 just after the Windows Mobile Treo 700w.
The XV6700 is slightly larger than the Treo, but it definitely has a bigger advantage, as it has a slide-out FULL QWERTY keyboard. For most PDA users, a full QWERTY keyboard is a great feature and appeals to consumers.
Personally, I’ve had the XV6700 for about a year now. I’m going to take some time to discuss some cons and pros that I’ve personally found with the XV6700. The XV6700 is definitely a bigger phone and can be a pain to hold in your pocket at times, but they always have cases you can buy that have clips to strap them to your side.
Some drawbacks of the XV6700 are its size, phone, and a few other small issues. As I mentioned earlier, the PDA is a bit larger than most of their other PDAs, but it definitely makes up for it with its full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. I find that I have to restart the device at least twice a day, as well as reconfigure the pen about once a month. The phone capabilities themselves on the XV6700 are horrible. If you want a PDA that you will use A LOT for talking on the phone, I absolutely do not recommend this phone. You will get about 2-3 hours of talk time on this phone, then your battery will die. The XV6700 also has VERY poor sound output for voice conversations. You can turn the volume all the way up and barely hear the person on the other line.
I also used this phone with a Microsoft Exchange server, to automatically download my emails and such. This was a great feature, but if you’re like me and want to get your emails to your phone almost as soon as you get them, set the send/receive option to about 5 minutes. Well, unfortunately this causes the phone to lose battery life after about 6 hours.
If you are going to use this phone for texting, this is the phone for you! This is the best phone I have ever used for texting. It’s very handy with a full QWERTY keyboard and I can type a txt in no time. If you are going to buy this phone, I highly recommend upgrading to extended battery as well as broadband access through your phone provider. This phone is designed to be on a data network (3G EVDO) and therefore I highly recommend that you purchase it for this phone, so that you can take full advantage of its features.
My conclusion is that this phone has its flaws and flaws just like any other phone, but it really comes down to preferences and what you will be using it for. The one thing I can’t say enough is that if you’re going to want to use it as a phone a lot, I WOULDN’T BUY IT. Talk time on this phone is horrible. The XV6700 is great for texting and Internet access on the go.