Verizon SMT5800 Cell Phone Review - Multimedia

Mark Brezinski
Published on March 17, 2008 Comment on this

Summary
As a Windows Mobile phone, the SMT5800 relies heavily on Windows Media Player (WMP) for its media playback. As fortune would have it, WMP is a solid little program, so the SMT5800 could've been far worse off. The phone doesn't have any dedicated media controls, however, and can't control music playback from the home screen. There's a plugin that essentially puts a tiny media player on the home screen, but it wasn't included. Even so, controlling music without dedicated keys is simply a pain. The SMT5800, while a more gifted media device that other business handsets, still can't compete with dedicated devices.

Accessing Music Software (2.91)
With the SMT5800, a song is always about 6.87 seconds away, which is a bit of a pain. This is actually slower than typical smart phones, due mainly to the lack of a ready music shortcut. Some versions of Windows Mobile have home screen plugins that will allow you to play music very easily. The SMT5800 does not, so we were forced to browse the old-fashioned way. Learn more about this test by clicking here.

Dedicated Music Controls (0.0)
The SMT5800 does not have any dedicated music controls. Everything is software-based; even the volume control -- which is handled by the volume rocker on most phones -- has to be managed through the software.

What we mean by "dedicated music controls" are hardware keys/buttons/etc. that perform media control functions. We also count keys that may have other funcitons, but change to perform media-specific functions when a song is playing in the background. As a general rule, we start music playing, then browse to the home screen or close the phone; if a button still controls the music, then we award it points here. To further clarify, if left and right on the d-pad skip between songs when the music player is open, but cease to do so when music is playing the in the background no points are awarded.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (6.8)

Those with Windows-based PCs are probably familiar with how Windows Media Player works. WMP for PCs is a capable media player, and the mobile version -- which graces the SMT5800 -- is very similar.

The mobile version of Windows Media Player (WMP) is simple to use. It still won't automatically add songs to your library, however, which was a bit annoying. It will perform a scan when prompted, however saving you a drag and drop job. WMP will support playlists, but only if they were created or previously imported into your PC's Windows Media Player. You can also create a playlist on the device, which is fairly simple to do. You can sort your music by title (all music), artist, album and genre. There is no active search. Your files do inherit their ratings, as given by a PC version of Windows Media Player and you can rate music on the device and have those ratings sync back to your PC.

There is no equalizer or visualization, though these are uncommon features even amongst music-oriented handsets. One interesting feature is the ability to map or remap shortcut keys for many different functions. You can play music in the background, however this isn't the default. You'll need to go into the player's settings and uncheck the "pause playback while using another program" box. While a nice option to include, we really disagree with the choice to make it the default. We can see many beginner-level users not finding this setting right away and wondering why their music goes away when they go off to check email.

Online Song Downloading (0.0)
Despite being a Verizon handset there is no support for Verizon's VCast music store.

Streaming (2.0)
As a Windows Mobile Standard handset, the only streaming audio format you can listen to is WMA (windows media audio). Streaming MP3 and all other formats will result in an error message.

Podcast Support (0.0)
Podcasts find themselves again neglected.

Music Sync with PC (7.0)
Synchronizing music with the PC can be done two different ways. The ubiquitous method is connecting the phone and using Windows Media Player to sync. You can also use the included software, but we believe you're better off just sticking with WMP.

Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
The SMT5800 is capable of playing WMA files, with or without DRM, as well as MP3 and AAC files.

Music Interruption (10.0)
If you get a call while listening to music, the playback will pause for the duration of the call, then automatically resume. This is exactly what it should do. The only way the phone could've garnered more points in this area is if it also had fade-in options.

Video

Video Software Access (3.26)
It took about 6.14 seconds for us to get a video up. Surprisingly, it was a bit faster to get the video to play than it was to get the song. Overall, this score isn't bad. Typically videos have a long load time, but the SMT5800 started playback fairly quickly (for a Windows Mobile smartphone, at least). Compared to our running average of all the phones we review, as of this article's publication, the SMT5800 was actually about a third of a second faster. More info on this test is here.

Video Controls (5.0)
The video player is also Windows Media Player, so the controls for video playback are identical to those of musc playback. Left and right skip around, up and down control the volume, and select will alternate between play and pause. The "Now Playing" list can be accessed via the left soft key, and the right soft key will pull up the menu. The menu will let you stop the playback, open the library, or fool around with shuffle and repeat settings, amongst a few other, minor options.

Video Software & Organization (4.0)

Both music and video use Windows Media Player, but videos aren't organized nearly as well. Videos are only differentiated by title and genre. This is disappointing, since the videos do retain their tags, so the potential for additional search/sort criteria is definitely present.

Video Sync with PC (7.0)
As with music, Windows Media Player will worry about synchronization so you don't have to.

Video Formats (3.0)
The SMT5800's copy of Windows Media Player will allow you to watch 3GPP, MP4, and Windows Media files. Flash, Real, or other, more obscure video files.

Video DRM (5.0)
As a Windows Mobile handset, it should be no surprise that the only supported DRM is for Windows Media Video files. Of course most phones don't support any form of video DRM so this is a bonus. You can purchase DRM protected videos from places like Amazon's Unboxed Store.

Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
We were able to play back all our test files with no issue. Each test file, which different bitrates up to 768 kbps, played without any stuttering, slowdown, or crashes.

Online Video Downloading (0.0)
Currently there aren't any handsets that offer a software-based client for video downloads. The SMT5800 is just another face in the crowd.

Video Streaming unscored
We don't score video streaming because there is no standard for us to judge it against. As such we just browse to a few popular sites and see if they work. Youtube and Zoovision were both beyond the scope of the SMT5800. In a shocking turn of events, however, the phone was able to play videos streaming from WindowsMedia.com.

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