Audiovox XV6600 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless)

by Audiovox

Product Details

Product Manual [11.76mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 2.8 x 0.7 inches ; 7.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007Q3TNW
• Item model number: XV6600
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,027 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Powered by the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system and with support for corporate email accounts, the XV6600 is designed for maximum efficiency, wherever you are. A full color display slides down to reveal an integrated QWERTY keypad, while integrated Bluetooth keeps you on the cutting edge of connectivity. It's the ultimate power tool for mobile professionals.

Click the image to see the XV6600 in action, or take a closer look at the phone's features: page one - page two.

Design
The XV6600 follows the standard form factor of the latest Pocket PC devices, with one major addition; as mentioned, a sliding QWERTY keyboard is hidden below the screen. A generous, 240 x 320 full-color touchscreen display dominates the face of the unit. Just below the display is a five-way selection button that allows you to navigate and control the Windows Mobile interface. Meanwhile, shortcut buttons positioned both above and below the screen offer quick access to your Outlook calendar, contacts, messaging, Internet Explorer and more. Alternatively, the device can be directly controlled with an included stylus that slides out of the rear of the XV6600's case.

Under the hood, the XV6600 sports a 400 Mhz Intel PXA263 CPU with 128 MB of RAM and 64 MB of embedded flash memory storage. The unit's SD IO memory slot supports additional flash-based memory so you can expand available storage. The Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC operating system is completely touchscreen-enabled and features advanced handwriting recognition that is compatible with all of the device's applications. There's a standard stereo 2.5mm headset jack, while USB data and charging is handled by the XV6600's docking ports on the bottom of the device.

Calling Features
Many of the XV6600's calling features are integrated with the Windows Mobile operating system. For instance, the included Pocket Outlook software features a contacts list that is cleverly integrated with the phone's dialing functions. Meanwhile, the phone's handwriting recognition software can be used to dial numbers and enter contact information. The XV6600's built-in speakerphone makes it easy to talk without having the phone to your ear. Polyphonic ringtones are available, as is a vibrating alert. Caller ID and call waiting are also supported. Lastly, the XV6600's Bluetooth connectivity makes it easy to sync the unit with a wide range of handsfree, wireless headsets and car kits.

Messaging, Internet and Tools
The XV6600 is designed as a complete mobile office solution, so Internet and messaging capabilities are robust. The unit comes packed with pocket versions of Outlook, Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger. In addition to keeping track of contacts, Pocket Outlook features integrated calendar and email functions. Microsoft's ActiveSync software keeps the device synced with all of your PC's Outlook information (via USB, IR, or Bluetooth connection). Users who want Internet connectivity on the road with their laptop or PDA can tap the XV6600's wireless modem capabilities (Verizon Broadband Access data plan charges apply). Verizon's next generation EV-DO broadband wireless network is compatible with the unit, meaning you can tap into blistering Internet speeds in areas where EV-DO coverage is provided (see below). Meanwhile, the unit fully supports basic text messaging, as well as multimedia messaging (MMS).

A generous toolset ships with the XV6600's Windows Mobile 2003 software. Pocket Outlook includes to-do lists while pocket versions of Word and Excel are included so you can review and edit documents on the go. A calculator, alarm clock and voice memo recorder round out the tools package.

Entertainment
The XV6600 delivers the ultimate music experience. You can store MP3 files and easily exchange them with your PC or stream them from the internet. The included Windows Media Player application can also play videos for even more mobile entertainment. The XV6600's wallpapers and screensavers can be customized to suit your tastes. Windows Mobile and Java-based games are also supported.

EV-DO Wireless Broadband Coverage
Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered. View EV-DO demonstration.

Vital Statistics
The Audiovox XV6600 weighs 6.8 ounces and measures 4.9 x 2.7 x .7 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.6 hours of digital talk time, and up to 144 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 800/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
XV6600 handset, USB Sync Station, lithium-ion battery, headset, spare stylus, travel charger, 22-pin DC jack converter, carry case, user manual, quick start guide, companion CD.

Product Description

Audiovox XV6600 Bluetooth Pocket PC PDA Phone . The Audiovox XV6600 smartphone gives you the power to manage your connected life! The huge, 65,000 color touchscreen is ideal for the Microsoft Pocket PC platform, complete with Pocket Outlook, Word Excel and more. With 128MB on-board memory and Bluetooth wireless technology, if Superman had a cell phone, this would be definitely be the one!. Includes:. Phone ; Battery ; Travel Charger ; Phone has some scratches. Dimensions:. Weight: 7.35 oz ; Size: 4.90 in x 2.75 in x 0.74 in; Features:. Platform / Operating System - Microsoft Pocket PC ; Network Compatibility - CDMA 800, 1900 ; Digital Camera - No ; Built-In Memory - 128 MB ; Ringtone Types Supported - WAV, CMX, MIDI and WMA; Predictive Text Entry - Yes, T9 ; Expandable Memory Capacity - Yes, microSD/TransFlash Format Compatible ; Streaming Multimedia Support - Windows Media Player protocol ; MP3 Player - Yes MP3 Player Built; in Attachment Viewing (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Use Pocket Versions of Word, Excel and More ; Bluetooth Wireless Technology ; QWERTY Keyboard , Full Backlit Keyboard ; Infrared Port s ; Data Capable / Use This Phone As A Modem ; PC Synchronization ; HTML Web Browsing -; Multimedia Messaging , Via MMS; Text Messaging (SMS) , 2-way ; Email Client , Microsoft Pocket Outlook Built-In ; Instant Messenger Built-in , Windows Messenger Built-In; Polyphonic Ringtones ; Ringer Profiles ; Picture Caller ID; Games - Yes, Downloadable; Customizable Graphics , Downloadable ; Speakerphone ; To-Do List ; Voice Memo; Alarm; Calculator ; Calendar ; Vibrate ; Multiple Numbers Per Name;

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All the good, the bad and ugly, June 25, 2005

By 

Rick Van Hazel (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Audiovox XV6600 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)

I'm ranking this 4 stars against the other phones that verizon has to offer. So the only reason it is 4 stars, its the only pocket pc available from them currently. A Samsung i730 is due out -soon- whatever that means.. but i couldnt wait.

The good:

+Touch screen phone buttons

+Large vibrant color screen

+Battery life is great (for me), I noticed someone wrote a review mentioning battery life was bad. That is true if you have Bluetooth on all the time.

+Slide out QWERTY keypad that lights up for visability

+Microsoft Operating System, and limited versions of Outlook, Excel, Word, Internet Explorer

+Ability to write on the screen anywhere with stylus and have it recognize handwriting

+SD Memory port

+Bluetooth

+A decent Digital Camera built in

+Ability to get POP3 or IMAP email (unlike proprietary palm or blackberry)

+Plays mp3's and media with media player 9

+Terminal services

The Bads:

-Internet Explorer revision is 4.0 and it is locked by default so i cant install an update.

-Cant seem to install software easily or the phone is completely locked from putting anything non verizion on it.

-Handwriting recognition is fair at best. It seems to recognize cursive better than manuscript. I've tried to customize the letter menu to how i write, but after spending a hour doing so, it worked worse than it did with defaults.

-Cant use MP3 ringtones, must be .mid or .wav (what were they thinkin on .wav??? if you cant do mp3)

-Bluetooth kills battery life

-No 802.11x wireless

-Screen Scratches fairly easy

The Ugly:

--Had it lock up a couple times where i couldnt do anything and had to pull the battery.

--Earpiece on phone is not very loud

--Ringers are not hardly noticible in volume


If there were any other options pocket pc wise on Verizon, I would definately look in to them. But this is the only thing they have and its better than blackberry and palm, even with its problems. I love the email abilities of this phone, and the scheduling is great, plus you can link up to your PC and sync them.

I can live with the various glitches here and there, but the ringer and earpiece volume is something they didnt think through so well. A speakerphone would have also been nice. The phone does have some great portable features in excel, word and the browser isnt too bad. Its fairly quick browsing internet considering its using the standard phone network. But the browser does limit you to what kinds of sites you can go to because of its 4.0 revision.

One thing I thought was pretty nifty is the terminal services or remote desktop client thats built in. I was able to log in on one of my web servers and poke around.

This phone definately has some good features and some irritating qualities. So until Verizon releases the Samsung pocket pc, I have to rate this the best phone they offer.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Features good - battery bad!, June 1, 2005

By 

R. L. Mester "sombrant" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Audiovox XV6600 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)

As a network admin, I was asked to provide 15 of the bosses and administrators with smart phones. After much investigation, we settled on the Audiovox xv6600. We've been using them for two months now and the results have been mixed...

The good -

Wireless sync works great with Exchange server and does provide a nearly real time connection to the office and critical data from Exchange. The internet (which goes full broadband in about 4 days in my area) is also a very useful function. The ability to read Word and Excel docs has been well received. Finally, the bluetooth function is useful but buggy.

The Bad -

The battery on every single one of these units will not make it through the 8 hour work day - even if the unit is never removed from it's pouch and used. In fact, about 7 of them will not make it past 2.5 hours! The functions are great, but when the unit is unuseable due to poor battery performance, you have to question it's value. Incidentally, Audiovox still has no enhanced battery available.

Additionally, my users have to perform resets (sticking the stylus in the reset hole) at least once a day as the phone function 'hangs'. Sometimes the unit times out while trying to dial out (even with a full signal). The unit will then not receive or send calls at all until you reset it. This problem is probably more attributable to the phone software operating on a Microsoft based operating system or possibly due to the wireless sync function.

Finally, the Bluetooth wireless headsets are great while they are working. In fact, mine works great on my regular (nonsmart) phone. But the xv6600 often needs the headset to be reinstalled or randomly chooses not to allow it to answer calls. But I attribute that to the burden of the Microsoft operating system it resides on. A challenge my nonsmart phone does not need to overcome.

Finally -

The xv6600 is a good idea, but it has a lot of bugs and creates a ton of support tickets for us. All in all, I'd be satisfied with it if the battery could just last all day. The other issues are ones that Windows users get used to after a while and learn to live with (freeze ups, nonreponsive programs, etc).

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good PDA-Phone, October 28, 2005

By 

Jay Brandt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Audiovox XV6600 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone)

There are 2 types of devices like this - there are the PDA-Phones and Phone-PDAs. By this I mean that there are PDAs that have a phone built into them and there are phones with PDA functionality added. This device is a PDA-Phone. It's primarily a good, full featured PDA, similar to anything you'd by from HP, for example. As a phone, it's pretty much just a standard phone - standard sound quality and standard reception. The key here is to think about which you need more - a PDA or phone. If your primary need is a phone and you want PDA functions, get the Samsung i730, but if you're a PDA person who's tired of carrying a phone around as well as your PDA, get this product.

Pros:
Very nice screen - as good as my HP 2215 and about the same size. With 64k colors, it shows photos, video, etc. clearly and with good color reproduction.
Fairly fast processor - a 400mhz processor, just about matching my HP2215 and considerably faster than my wife's HP1945. Applications are responsive - even processor intensive applications such as transcriber and voice command. I know you can get faster PDAs, but this one is certainly more than good enough for 99% of everyone.
Good amount of memory - even without a SD card, 128mb will do for most folks and since it has an SD slot, you can pump it up easily.
Easy to use phone application - this was my first experience with the Windows Mobile O/S and the phone application is very easy to use. Not too many "bells and whistles", but it works just fine.
EVDO - the web browsing on this thing via EVDO is just wonderful. In my city I'm consistently getting 400 to 500kbps, which is nearly as good as you'd get in a busy Starbucks using their not so cheap Wi-Fi connection and it's everywhere, not just near a hot spot. With added software I can even transfer files at reasonable speeds to and from my home computer from just about anywhere.
Keyboard - I don't use it much, but it sure is handy when I want to type anything of more than a few words. I've got some pretty fat hands and have no trouble with hitting the correct buttons either. Good tactile feedback on them as well. And the blue glow from the backlighting is cool too.
Sound quality (non-phone) - I use this device as an MP3 player as well and it performs very well (though the included headphones are a waste of space - don't count on using them if you want decent quality). Sounds at least as good as the Creative Zen Jukebox we use in the car.

Cons:
Weight - for a PDA or a phone, it's a bit chunky. Much heavier than either my Sony-Ericson phone or my HP2215. But, to be fair, it's replaced both and is probably lighter than both put together.
Size - big for a PDA, easily 15% longer than my 2215. Huge for a phone. Again though, probably overall smaller than both put together.
Battery life - just below average for a PDA and not good at all for a phone. I've been getting about 2 to 2 1/2 days of standby time out of it. I will say that I got much worse at first. This, I discovered was because the default for the device is that *any* button can turn it on. If you keep it in your pocket, you'll be turning it on so much, the battery life will easily drop to just a day or less of "standby". Fortunately, there's a "lock buttons" application setting that changes it so only the power button will actually turn on the device. Talk time hasn't been an issue, but then again, I don't spend hours a day on the phone.
Backup program - whoever wrote the built in backup program for this device should be ashamed of themselves. Never has it taken so long to backup a mere 25mb to my SD card. HPs backup program is easily 5 or 6 times faster.
Voice Command Via Bluetooth - Verizon/AudioVox needs to fix this - it doesn't work at all.
Quiet ring tones - the ring tones that come with this device are horribly quiet. They're fine in an office environment, but get into the car and you'll miss your calls. The good news here is that it's easy to fix by just getting a louder ring tone - and since it's a Windows Mobile device, you don't even have to buy them - just get any ol' .WAV or MIDI file and you can use that. I ripped down a nice loud sound from a CD and saved it to the device as a .WAV and I'm quite please with the sound.
Phone sound quality - truthfully, while everything is understandable by both you and your caller, the phone sound quality is just not as good as a real top of the line dedicated phone. My wife's Motorola E815 is noticeably better sounding. But again, all I was looking for is to be understood and this phone provides that very well.
Face grease on the display - one of the problems that any device like this is going to have is that since you hold the display up to your face to talk you're going to get a pretty nasty film on the screen. Plan on cleaning it a lot. A buddy of mine says he's got a screen protector/anti-glare cover for the screen that fixes this, but I've not actually tried it yet. Also, if you're going to use a headset, this becomes a non-issue as well.

Things I don't care about but that you might:
Camera - 640 by 480. Yup, it's got a VGA camera and flash. Seems to take decent pictures.
Charging cradle - it can charge the device and an extra battery at the same time. Nifty, but I'll never be so far from charging that I care.
EVDO availability - only in about 50 cities right now (I think) and most airports. My city and all the close by ones are completely covered, so I couldn't care less that EVDO is not available in the back of beyond. However, if you live in the back of beyond, you certainly would.
Price (service) - EVDO isn't cheap. Even with my corporate discount, it's nearly $40 per month, which is nearly what I pay for my home broadband that's literally 10 times faster. For me, this didn't matter as I'm going to use this a lot. $40 is a high price to pay if you're just going to use it sometimes though.

Overall, I don't regret my purchase at all. I was looking for a good solid PDA that would provide enough phone functionality to allow me to go to a single device and the 6600 has done that for me perfectly.