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The XV6900 features HTC's Touch-friendly Today screen with the time in large characters, message and missed call indicators, and shortcuts to the phone, messaging, screen lock, software shopping on Handango.com and the camera album. There are tabs for weather (there's no fee required for weather beyond Verizon's data plan costs), an application launcher (you can specify the applications in the launcher) and profiles. Swipe your finger up in the Today screen or in any application to bring up HTC's rotating panels: one has shortcuts to email, SMS, IE, notes, the wireless manager and voice recorder (you can't change these). Another has three multimedia apps: music (Windows Media Player Mobile), Photos and Videos (both launch the camera album. The last one has a 3 x 3 grid for photo caller ID dialing. Switch between these panels by swiping your finger right or left across the display. Make it go away by sweeping your finger down across the display from top to bottom. It works quite well, though it takes a firmer touch than the iPhone since the display is resistive (pressure sensitive) rather than capacitive (electrically sensitive). You can also scroll in IE and the built-in applications by dragging your finger across the display. There's also an enlarged Start Menu option, which makes it easier to select items with a finger. But TouchFLO and the enlarged start menu are the extent of the touch-centric customizations. As we've mentioned in prior Touch reviews, HTC can't re-write Microsoft's operating system or re-design WinMo's entire UI, and this means that there are still plenty of standard Windows Mobile items that are better dealt with using a stylus. For example, create a new appointment then try to change the time using the small pop-up selector-- not easy with a finger. Design The Verizon "Touch" weighs just 4 ounces and isn't much larger than a Moto RAZR. The design is clean and simple: the front face has just the square d-pad and call send and end buttons. There's a camera button on the right side, a volume slider on the left and the power button up top-- that's it. The entire back cover slides off (with less reticence than other Touch versions) to reveal the battery and the microSD card slot. No, the slot isn't under the battery door, but rather under the right side's chrome trim. You can't open that section of the trim (use a fingernail) unless you first remove the battery door. Annoying.
The smartphone has a single HTC ExtUSB port that works for charging, syncing and stereo headsets with that connector (not included with the Verizon version). A splitter (ExtUSB to min USB and 2.5mm headphone jack) is included so you can use the mini USB port for charging or syncing while a 2.5mm standard headset is connected. The XV6900 has a single LED under the earpiece grille above the display that flashes green when the phone has service (it's not annoyingly bright). The LED glows amber when the Touch is charging and green when charged. Phone Features and Data The XV6900 Touch is a dual band digital CDMA phone with 1xRTT and EV-DO rev. 0 for high speed data. As with the Sprint Touch, call quality is good, though not as good as the best Motorolas, and volume through the earpiece is adequate (you'll need the speakerphone or a headset when in very noisy locations). The speakerphone is decent: not impressively loud but it is clear with very little distortion at high volumes. The included stereo earbud headset's volume and sound quality are excellent. The XV6900 works well with most Bluetooth headsets, though range is average and not quite as good as the XV6800. Signal strength is just OK, and folks in poor coverage area might want to think twice about the Touch. Though even when the phone dropped to one bar or less, it didn't drop a call and call quality remained good. The ringer is clearly audible and the Vibrate feature is so violent it sounds like a small drill when on a hard surface like a desk. Like the Sprint version, the XV6900 comes with Cyberon Voice Speed Dial which requires that you record voice tags for contacts and applications. The phone assigns the camera button (press and hold it until speed dial launches) to speed dial. Voice Speed Dial is accurate and reliable, and works with Bluetooth headsets as well. The Bluetooth headsets we tested worked well with the Touch, offering average range and good voice quality for incoming and outgoing calls. We tested the Jawbone and Samsung WEP-200 and each worked well with no static when within 15 feet of the smartphone.
The phone has the usual Windows Mobile Internet Explorer Mobile and Messaging which handles SMS text message and email. The Verizon XV6900 can send and receive MMS messages (Pix and Flix in Verizon lingo) using Messaging the application. The PDA phone supports POP3 and IMAP email along with Microsoft Direct Push mail and Exchange. There's a link to download Verizon's Wireless Sync, but given the phone's strong syncing capabilities, most folks probably won't need that pay-for service. Performance and Multimedia If the original GSM Touch was the PDA phone that said "I think I can", then the Verizon and Sprint versions are the ones that say "I know I can". The XV6900 is as powerful as the Verizon XV6800 and Sprint HTC Mogul in terms of horsepower, running on a 400MHz Qualcomm CPU with an ample 128 megs of RAM and 256 megs of flash memory. The RAM is used like RAM in your PC for running programs and with 128 megs and approximately 76 megs free at boot, the XV6900 can run several demanding applications simultaneously. The 256 megs of flash ROM are used for storage and there's 141 megs free out of the box-- plenty for a wide selection of 3rd party programs and a large PIM database. For music, videos and other large files, the XV6900 can use microSD cards and the device supports SDHC high capacity cards greater than 2 gigs in capacity. Video playback is good on the XV6900 Touch, though this is a business more than a multimedia phone, we had no trouble with 450kbps Windows Media Player files. The phone feels responsive for a Windows Mobile device, with relatively little lag. Use a firm touch on the screen or you might think the device is slow to respond when in fact it needs more than the iPhone's feather-light gestures to register taps and swipes. The GSM Touch was marketed heavily as a music phone to compete with the iPhone that came out just after it. Verizon isn't marketing the XV6900's music capabilities heavily but as with all Windows Mobile devices, the device makes a good MP3 player. Windows Media Player mobile isn't exactly replete with advanced features, but all the basics are there including playlists, shuffle, skin support and syncing with Windows Media Player on the desktop (including PlaysForSure DRM files). And you can install a 3rd party music player to gain more features if you wish, but we'll give the Touch and Windows Media Player Mobile extra points for supporting AAC files (many Windows Mobile devices don't). The Touch family of phones have excellent audio quality through stereo wired headsets and Bluetooth stereo headphones and headsets using A2DP. We tested it with the Plantronics Pulsar 590 and got excellent sound quality by Bluetooth standards with decent bass and good separation.
Battery Life Though the XV6900 has a relatively low capacity battery for a Pocket PC phone, battery life isn't bad. The phone's 1100 mAh Lithium Ion battery held up well under average use and we managed 1.5 days on a charge with moderate use and 3 days of light use. It's hard to refer to "average" use these days when a device has many features; but with 30 minutes of talk time each day, an hour of music playback with screen off each day, 30 minutes surfing the Net and checking email once/hour from 9-5, the XV6900 lasted just over 2 days. If you watch videos for an hour or more per day, or MS Direct Push email, expect to charge nightly. Verizon claims 3.5 hours of talk time and we managed 3.25 hours in our tests. Conclusion It's small, it's stunning looking and smart. Verizon's version of the Touch is a great choice if you want a touch screen and some serious PDA phone power. We like the fast processor, ample RAM and EVDO performance combined with unexpectedly decent battery life for a small battery. HTC's TouchFLO UI make common tasks easier to accomplish with a finger and more fun. But keep in mind that it's still Windows Mobile, so you can't escape the stylus forever when entering data or homing in on tiny hyperlinks in the web browser. If you don't need a QWERTY hardware keyboard but do need a smart phone, the Touch is definitely worth a long, hard look.
Web sites: www.verizonwireless.com, www.htc.com Price: $299 with a 2 year contract from Verizon Wireless
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