HTC 5800 Fusion Review

User Interface:

Since the 5800 uses the Windows Mobile 6 Standard operating system, current smartphone users will feel at ease with the default home screen, which shows recently used applications along to top, the current date & time, any upcoming appointments, and text & E-Mail alerts. There are five ways to have the home screen displayed (Windows Simple, Windows Default, Large Font, Windows Basic, and Windows Live Default), several color schemes, and background images that allow for user customization.

Pressing the left soft-key brings up the Programs Menu, which shows application icons in a 3x3 grid arrangement. Moving between the icons is easily done with the navigational d-pad.



Phonebook:

Searching and dialing a number from the phonebook has never been easier. You can start inputting the number or the name you want from the home screen, no matter if it is first or last name, but if you press the key for the corresponding character just once, it is as if the system for predictive text input is turned on. For instance, if you want to look up “Neo”, you have to press 636 (6-MNO, 3-DEF, 6-MNO) and almost immediately the phone will show you all matching names. Then using the down button to select the contact and pressing the Send button to dial.

Looking through the phonebook is possible by means of list of names. You can search here too, but only by name (not by number) and the phone will not display which symbol you have input, so if you misspell one you will not be able to see what to clear (with back/clear button) and to edit it.

When adding a new contacted, there are many fields that can be entered. You can enter several phone numbers, addresses and e-mails, etc. But here (like Pocket PC System) you cannot add two phone numbers of the same type, for instance, two Mobile Phone numbers. You can also attach a personal photo and a music file to each contact, but the displayed photo is so small when you receive a call or when you make a call that it is pointless, though there is plenty of space on the screen for a larger picture.

By pressing the green Send button from the home screen you can see the current call history. From here, you can easily add a number as a new contact or as a new number for already saved contact.


Organizer:

In the phone menu you can find your electronic calendar, where you can save your appointments. They have options for subject, starting/ending time/all day event, location, and notes. You can use options like: Reminder (PRIOR NOTICE 1/5/10/15/30 minutes, 1 hour/day/week), Recurrence (Once, Every (same-day-of-the-week), Day (same-date) of every month, Every (same date-date-and-month) for every year, and Sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential). You can also add Attendees (required or optional) from your contacts where e-mail addresses have been added and where meeting requests will be sent.

Viewing the calendar can be done by the day, week, or month, and you can choose starting day for the week and the week duration (5-6-7-day week). The appointments for the day are clearly shown in their time limits, so you can see your free time at a glance. This is one of the new features of WM6 compared to WM5.


Separate from the Calendar is the Tasks Menu. For a given Task you can set Subject, Priority (normal, low, high), Start/Due Date, Reminder (to be notified if it’s due), Category (business, holiday, personal, seasonal) and Note. The Task can have Recurrence (Once, Every), Day (same-date) of every month, Every (same date-and-month) for every year and Sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential). Examining the tasks in a list you can easily see which of them are finished and which are not. The tasks options can be: Sort By (status, priority, subject, start date, due date) or Filter (all, recent, no categories, active, completed).

The Calculator is located in the Accessories Menu and can only be used for simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, and square roots.

File Explorer is the mobile version of Windows Explorer, and it allows you to view the content of the phone’s internal memory and the card memory, reaching even to the system folders and files. You are not limited to viewing only the phone types of files, but you can see all system files, but there is no option for selecting several files together.

The Voice Recorder has to be activated within the Main Menu, as there is no designated button. With this tool you can use it to record voice notes with no limitation of the time duration, which depends only on the available free memory. It is unfortunate that the 5800 lack a Voice Command feature, such as on the Motorola Q9m, where you can speak commands for the phone to perform. It is only capable of Voice Activated Dialing.


Messaging:

The Messaging screen is categorized into three sections, Text Messaging, MMS, and New E-Mail Account. Text Messaging is nothing new and works just like most other phones, by entering in the recipients cell number or E-Mail address and typing the message with either the numeric keypad using T9 predictive input, or by using the QWERTY keypad. MMS is almost identical, except it allows you to attach a picture, video, or audio file with the message. For normal E-Mail use, you begin by entering the E-Mail address in which you want to setup an account for. It will first try to automatically setup the account by gathering the POP/IMAP/SMTP information from the web. If it cannot find the required information, it will ask you to manually enter in the Incoming Mail Server address (POP/IMAP), Username, Password, and Outgoing SMTP. Once the E-Mail account is properly setup, you can send and receive E-Mail just like you were on a standard computer. There are also options for the phone to automatically check your E-Mail accounts every few minutes. This way, the phone will notify you when a new E-Mail has been received.


Windows Mobile 6 comes preloaded with the mobile version of Live! Messenger (MSN). Your Windows Live account will be added in Messaging when you add your associated E-Mail account. This is the only Instant Messaging program that comes pre-loaded, so you will not be able to use AIM or Yahoo Messenger.

Connectivity:

The HTC 5800 Fusion is a dual band all-digital Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone that operates on the 800Mhz and 1900Mhz CDMA Qwest network. Non-voice data, such as Web and E-mail, are transmitted using the fast 3G EVDO network, but it is limited to EVDO Rev 0 speeds. Unlike the S710, the 5800 does not have built-in WiFi.

You can also connect the phone to a computer by using the included miniUSB cable, but you are required to install the included Microsoft Active Sync program on your PC first in order to achieve an easy synchronization between the phone and Microsoft Outlook.

Bluetooth 1.2 is included and allows up to 20 parings, including Stereo Bluetooth A2DP, Headset, Handsfree, and File Transfer.

All Windows Mobile phones come equipped with Internet Explorer Mobile for web browsing, and the 5800 is no exception. Internet Explorer has the option of One Column View for avoiding horizontal scrolling, and in this mode everything is arranged one column below another, and therefore the original layout of the site is no longer preserved. The trouble is that in Desktop View, the browser does not correctly display most sites, and they are again shown differently from a standard PC, which requires a lot of scrolling in both directions. Either way, it is impossible for the Mobile IE program is display web pages as they would appear on a PC due to the small screen size on the phone, but it is still a step-up from using a WAP browser.