The HTC Vox (S710) aka Orange SPV E650 phone ..

Specs :

Windows Mobile 6

Slide-out qwerty keyboard

2.0 Megapixel digital camera

1050mAh battery

Bluetooth

Wireless network adapter (WiFi)

GSM/GPRS/EDGE capabilities

To cut it short, the E650 is a horrible device. If you look at the specs or feature set, you would think it’s a pretty good phone for it’s price. However, a series of software and also some hardware issues make it the biggest waste of money I have spent in some time.

So what’s wrong with it ? Everything .. it’s not very usable as a phone because it seems to have some of the most basic bugs that I encountered when I got the first generation Windows based smart phones (The SPV classic, or e100 and later the e200 as well which wasn’t much better). Trouble answering calls, swapping calls and hanging applications, that for instance prevent you from opening the contacts list. If that happens, all you can do is restart the phone so you can start making calls again.

Hardware problems; the whole sliding keyboard is very clever but it needs some work. It just doesn’t feel stable enough when you’re holding it in your hand. Especially during making a call, you can feel the slide starting just by slightly squeezing the phone. So it doesn’t feel nice in your hand, which I think is important for a phone. And even when you are using the keyboard to type something, you’ll notice it’s not really that much faster from for instance an on screen keyboard (as used on touch screen phones). The keys are just too small to use effectively. Add to that the fact that when you open the phone it takes at least 5 seconds before you can do anything as Windows Mobile 6 rotates the screen for you. I won’t even go into what happens when you open and close it quickly 10 times. Hope you brought some lunch.

Even if you would only use it as a PDA, it’s still not very useful. The calendar works awkward compared to other Windows Mobile devices I’ve had. It’s more clicks to get anywhere and do anything. I prefer my M700 to this one and will start using it again as soon as I get it back from repairs.