Verizon SMT5800 Cell Phone Review - Software

Mark Brezinski
Published on March 17, 2008 Comment on this

Summary
Windows Mobile Standard is basically a slightly crippled version of Windows Mobile Professional. It's limitations are annoying, but it's still a very capable software suite. It's ridiculously extensible, so any feature you're missing is probably just a download away. The downside is that the phone is pretty bare bones out of the box, so chances are you'll need to make use of the phone's extensibility right off the bat.

OS (8.0)

As a Windows Mobile Standard phone, the SMT5800 gets eight points. Windows Mobile Standard is a powerful operating system that's very flexible. Its downside is it tends to need a lot of hardware to back it up or else it'll run very slowly.

Home Screen Score (6.0)

The SMT5800 comes with the typical Windows Mobile Standard home screen. Recently used applications will line up across the top, just underneath the signal and battery indicators. Under that is the time, along with a reminder that you're using Verizon Wireless. Next down is where upcoming appointments will be listed. The final few home screen items are the current profile, voicemail and text inboxes, and a Verizon-added "Get Applications" link that no one should never use. The botom has soft key shortcuts for the Start menu and contacts list. Some versions of Windows Mobile also have a media player plugin on the home screen for managing your music, but the SMT5800 doesn't come with this feature.

Extensibility (7.0)
Windows Mobile Standard is as extensible as always. If you feel some application isn't quite up to snuff, or you want something that doesn't come built-in, then a solution is just a quick Google search away.

Customizability (4.0)
Though the extensibility makes the phone very customizable, out of the box there's not much to do. The home screen layout can be changed, as can the wallpaper and color scheme. The phone supports profiles, and it has some specific power settings. You can't change the global font, or reorganize the main menu, however. We did like you could set any application to a speed dial.

OS Responsivness (5.0)
The SMT5800 is sporadically responsive, which makes the times it lags all the more frustrating. Windows Mobile Standard is generally slower than most other smart phone operating systems. In the SMT5800's case, however, it's quick to navigate and open most applications. Some menus and applications take longer than others, and dialing is really frustrating. The screen is also slow to respond to the QWERTY keyboard being slid out, which is typical for Windows Mobile sliders. The SMT5800 is very responsive compared to other Windows Mobile phones, however; if you're looking for an upgrade, chances are the SMT5800 will seem speedy by comparison to something like the original Motorola Q.

Browser Features (7.0)
Mobile Internet Explorer is the browser the SMT5800 is packaged with. It can handle both WAP and HTML. Javascript is supported, but the browser had problems with our test page. We had no such issues with cookies or encryption; in fact, there are a ton of encryption settings.

Browsing Interface (6.0)

Mobile IE's interface isn't complicated, especially if you've used regular IE before. The left soft key will bring up bookmarks, the right soft key is the menu. In the menu you'll find typical browsing tools and view options.

The different views are one column, fit to screen, and desktop. True to their names, one column will squeeze everything into a single screen width, fit to screen will shrink down the page so it's visible in its entirety, and desktop is a traditional browser view (albiet limited by the non-monitor-sized display). Unlike more advanced mobile browsers such as the one on Series 60 devices or Safari, IE doesn't have a page overview, which displays a miniature map of what you're viewing in relation to the entire page.

IE's implementation of web history is poor. Opening up your history will literally display a list of URLs without any description, organization options, or dates. Favorites receive better support, since you can create folders and manage them, so we'd recommend using them instead of trusting your site's fate to web history.

Browser Access (5.00)
It takes eight steps to browse to a specific web page with the SMT5800, which is about average. The first step is to open up the Start menu (1). From here you'll have to browse to (2) and click on (3) the IE shortcut. After the browser launches, you have to hit the menu key (4), then hit 2 on the keypad (5) to select the "Go to address" option. From here you'll have to erase whatever URL begins in the address box (6) and type in your own (7). At this point you're just a soft key's click (8) away from browsing to the site you desire.

We choose to measure browser access in steps rather than by time. When browser access time is thrown into the equation, arbitrary variables like geographic location can suddenly sway the result dramatically. Typically time is a good indicator of hassle since it either implies an overly-complicated sequence or slow responsiveness. In this instance, however, counting the number of steps is the most consistent way to measure phones against each other.

Gaming (3.0)

The SMT5800 isn't made for gaming. The d-pad is really squat, making it hard to use the up and down arrows. Also, the rest of the externals keys are so crammed together you'd either need small fingers or ridiculous coordination to get a great gaming experience. Regardless, the SMT5800's two built-in, full-version games aren't particularly taxing on reflexes. The first is Bubble Breaker, which is like a less interactive version of Bejeweled. The second game is Solitaire, a game who everyone who owned Windows 3.1 is familiar with. The SMT5800's gaming options are good for passing by the time quietly, but not much more than that.

Calculator (6.0)

The calculator application on the STM5800 has a very simple interface. The d-pad is set to the four basic operations, with the center key set to the equals sign. Some advanced operations, such as square roots, inverse fraction, and memory functions, are located in the menu.

Alarm (2.5)
The SMT5800 is cursed with the basic Windows Mobile alarm functionality. Only one alarm can be set at a time. Like the calendar recurrence options, you can set the alarm to sound every day, every day except Saturday, or every day except Sunday. Again, we're not sure why you can't sleep in the whole weekend, but we're sure Windows Mobile has its reasons. The snooz timer has some good options available for customization

You can set the snooz timer, tone, and even jot a note to remind you why your phone wakes you up every day except Sunday. While this is more robust than the older Windows Mobile Standard alarm functionality -- whose only fields are set time and alarm on/off -- it still isn't good.

Document Software (4.5)

The SMT5800 has interesting versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. In an effort to keep Windows Mobile Professional different from Windows Mobile Standard, certain things have been disabled. Regardless of anyone's opinions on the practice of crippling software, we think everyone has to agree that Windows Mobile Standard's approach to this is laughably bad. These programs have been crippled so they can only edit -- not create -- documents. Of course, the easy work-around for this is to simply keep a blank Word, Excel, or Powerpoint document saved somewhere. That way you can keep "editing" the blank file, and save your progress as a new one. This "feature" isn't so much a cripple as it is a pointless detour. With such an easy solution, we have to ask ourselves why anyone thought this would be a good idea.

Other Software (0.0)

The SMT5800 has a file browser, which typically deserves a point or so. Unfortunately, the included file browser is absolutely abysmal. You can't easily manage multiple files, which is one of the main purposes of a file browser. There is also an interesting communications manager, but it doesn't offer enough functionality to merit any points.

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