Pocket PC Thoughts: Sprint's PPC 6700 Pocket PC Phone Edition Reviewed

Opening Statement
I'd been waiting to get my hands on a review unit of Sprint's latest Pocket PC offering since late September. These things are hard to get! Anyway, arriving at my door, the packaging of this unit was very similar to most other HTC-based devices I'd seen (or most other devices in general!). Bucking a growing trend of the no-cradle packaging, we get a nice horizontal belt holster, cradle, USB charging / syncing cable, and mini-USB to wall outlet cable for charging. The adoption of mini-USB for charging and syncing is wonderful - and long overdue. Goodbye proprietary cables.

Upon opening the box, you'll find a joyous plethora of things including:

• Manual & Quick Install Guide w/ CD (Outlook 2002, Demos, etc.);
  
• Horizontal phone holster case;
  
• USB cable & AC charger;
  
• Headphones;
  
• Cradle;
  
• PPC 6700.

Figure 1: The PPC 6700 in its cradle. The cradle has an additional battery charging slot and 2 mini-USB connections on the back - one to the computer, the other to power.

The thing that blew me away the most about this device was the size. More on that later, but suffice it to say it made a BIG impression! Putting that aside, the device has very sturdy construction, and has a fair amount of weight. It is lighter at just over 6 oz than its often-complained about bigger brother, the JasJar (10.1 oz), but HTC seems to have accomplished this by using plastic quite a bit more than on the JasJar. Thankfully construction quality isn't sacrificed. The keyboard is the same style as the Universal's, unlike the round individual buttons of the K-JAM, and is backlit with white lights. The keys are responsive, have a nice feel to them, and leave only the desire for a full number row.


Figure 2: The PPC 6700's backlit keyboard in low light. The white color is a lot more pleasing to my eye than the red or blue on the Jasjar or K-JAM.

The soft buttons are placed next to the Q and P keys, causing them not to line up with the screen which can be a bit disorienting at first. The joystick (yes, joystick - it's raised enough to qualify) is very easy to use, and the addition of a Start & OK button above it (missing on the K-JAM) is a nice feature. Moving away from navigation, the unit also has a dreaded antenna nub sticking up, which in use doesn't get in the way as much as it seems to get on the nerves. The unit's left side has an IR port, scroll button for volume, dedicated IE button, as well as record button. The right side has a camera button and the bottom houses a microphone, 2.5mm jack, mini-USB connector, & reset hole. Finally the top has that horrible antenna (the device would be more beautiful in my opinion without it), a Mini-SD slot, and power switch. Where is the stylus you ask? In the antenna housing - it pulls out and is a fixed length. It has a tight fit, so I doubt it will fall out like a JasJar's or a K-JAM's.