HTC 5800 Fusion Review

Design:

At first look, the 5800 appears to be a standard candy-bar style phone with a large display, navigational d-pad, and numeric keypad. However, sliding the phone open sideways, reveals the full QWERTY keypad. The slider is spring-loaded, which makes opening and closing the unit very easy. When opened, the images on the display are automatically rotated into landscape mode.


The QWERTY keypad has 3 rows of keys, which have a bright blue backlighting to them. The keys themselves are a large size, but they are smooth to the touch and close together, with no space separating them, unlike on the S710. Because of this, we found that it is much easier to press a wrong key by mistake than we would have liked. Located at the top-left of the QWERTY keypad are two LED indicators for Caps Lock and Function.


With the slider closed, the only way of navigating the phone’s software is by using the d-pad and left & right soft-keys located under the display. The d-pad is a little smaller than we would have hoped, but it works well and can easily be used to make menu selections. The numeric keypad shares the same blue backlighting as the QWERTY keys, and its primary function is for dialing numbers to call, with the Send and End keys on either side of it.



There are only three other buttons that are located around the edges of the phone. On the left side is the Power on/off and volume rocker, and on the right side is the Camera button. The only feature missing here is a dedicated Voice Command or Speakerphone button.



The HTC 5800 Fusion is a relatively compact smartphone, considering the amount of features that are incorporated into it. We found the overall smaller footprint of the 5800 more user-friendly than the Motorola Q9m which we recently reviewed. It fits well in the hand and is easy to hold, thanks to the ribbed battery door cover, and when placed in your pants pocket, it feels no bigger than a standard candy-bar phone.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
HTC 5800	4.10" x 2.00" x 0.70"	103.5 x 51 x 19	4.20	130
Motorola Q9m	4.64" x 2.62" x 0.47"	118 x 67 x 11.9	4.76	135
BlackBerry 8830	4.49" x 2.60" x 0.55"	114 x 66 x 14	4.60	130

The overall construction of the 5800 is out of soft-touch plastic, which is easier to hold onto than the shiny finishes that have recently become popular on most phones. The exterior is a silver-gray color around the sides and back, with shiny chrome inlayed around the display. Located on the lower left-edge is the microSD card slot, which supports up to 2GB, and on the bottom is the combination miniUSB charger/data port. Right next to it is a small lever that pops-off the plastic battery door cover. The standard 2MP camera is located on the top-back of the phone and has a small circular mirror that can be used for self-portraits.



The large 2.4” 65k color 240x320 pixel QVGA display dominates the front of the phone. (The retail box says 262k color, but this is a misprint.) The screen is bright and shows images with good color detail and high contrast, with text being shown without any jagged edges. We also found the display to be very usable outside in sunny conditions. Normally, the display will be used in Portrait mode, but when sliding open the QWERTY keypad, the image will rotate 90-degrees and be used in Landscape mode. The only downside to this is that while in Landscape mode, the d-pad must be used by the left hand.


On either side of the earpiece speaker are 2 LED indicators. With the phone turned on, the green LED will flash every few seconds. When charging the battery, the indicator will be solid amber and will turn solid green when charged. When using the phone, the red LED will flash when the battery level drop below 10%. There is also a flashing blue LED to indicate when Bluetooth mode is set to On or Visible. It is nice to see the inclusion of these status LEDs, since most phones no longer have them.