Verizon SMT5800 Cell Phone Review - Messaging

Mark Brezinski
Published on March 17, 2008 Comment on this

Summary
Windows Mobile Standard offers a good set of both email and texting software. BlackBerry users will argue that nothing matches RIM's email interface but Windows Mobile does a solid job for most users. The only area where it falls annoyingly short is in regards to managing multiple messages at once. The phone can only select one message at a time, so mass organization or deletion is simply not possible. Given that the SMT5800 has a QWERTY keyboard with shift keys, it seems a bit ridiculous that the phone can't highlight multiple files.

Supported Email Services (8.0)
Windows Mobile is as understanding as always about email services. In addition to IMAP and POP accounts, it will also automatically look up settings for popular email services like Gmail, Yahoo!, or AOL.

Push Email (3.0)
If you meet the prerequisite of having access to an Exchange server, then the SMT5800 will allow you to use Direct Push. This is the only service it supports out of the box. There is always the option to install other services later, however.

Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The SMT5800 will support at least five email accounts.

HTML and Attachements (7.0)
A somewhat annoying, somewhat useful feature on Windows Mobile Standard phones is how it handles HTML in emails. Initially, HTML will not be shown, which is a good security precuation. If you wish to view the HTML, you'll have to answer "yes" to a few pop-up questions first. If you frequently get newsletters, this feature will be annoying, but of course most phones don't do HTML email at all. In terms of attachments, you can just click on a Word, Excel, or PDF file and it'll open in the appropriate program.

Email Customizations (5.0)
Most of the email client customizations involve how the inbox is setup. You can choose to show the date and time an email was received, alter the sort method, or make other small changes to the interface. The email client gives you a few options or customizing your inbox. You can set a priority for email, opt to show the date and time, alter how messages are sorted, and sundry tweaks to the interface. You can also create signatures and rules for when a signature should be included. You can't change fonts or increase the number of emails that fit on-screen (only 5 will display at a time). Those serious about email won't like the 5 emails per screen limit, as there aren't any quick ways to scroll through them.

Time to a New Message (5.51)
We were able to browse to a blank email form in 3.63 seconds. Without a shortcut key, this is pretty quick. There is a bit of menu work to get from start to finish but everything was very responsive. Click the link in this sentence if you'd like to learn more about our testing.

Email Usability (5.0)

Windows Mobile Standard's email client is solid. It'll provide the average user with enough tools to write, send, and manage their emails, but a power user might find it a bit lacking. It's hard to manage multiple emails easily, and the only customization option available is your signature. Though not as powerful as the options on a BlackBerry, the SMT5800 should get most users get through their emailing day.

Supported IM Services (0.0)
There are actually no IM services built in to the SMT5800, for some reason the Windows Live instant messaging client that comes standard on most Windows Mobile devices has been removed here.

MMS Support (5.0)
MMS messaging receives basic support. You can send MMS messages straight from an album or the camera/video capture application directly. SMS and MMS messages are kept separate, however, and do not even share an inbox. The SMT5800's main saving grace in this area is both the MMS and SMS messages have easy to use interfaces for creating and manging messages.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
As a lifeless machine, the SMT5800 sees only sequential ASCII characters. It will never know the simple joys a smiling, yellow face can bring.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (5.0)

The SMS and MMS interface is basically the same as the email interface. If you can use that interface, you can use this one. Also, all the same grievances we had with email we also have with SMS/MMS, mainly that managing multiple messages at once is a pain. There's also no support for advanced features like threaded text messaging as found on Palm devices.

Time to a New SMS Message (2.12)
We were able to open up a blank text message entry form in 4.72 seconds. This is a slow time. Navigation was bogged down a bit by the herd of menus standing between you and your texts. The messaging application shortcut is located in the Start menu, in the center of the first screen. Once in the messaging application, you'll need to select either Text Messages or MMS. This will bring you to either's inbox, where you can bring up a blank text message from the menu.

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