HTC 5800 Fusion Review

Introduction:

The HTC 5800 Fusion could be considered the CDMA counter-part to the GSM HTC S710 Vox. The 5800 Fusion has currently only been released by Qwest, but it is also rumored to be released by Verizon Wireless within the next few months. The 5800 is a smartphone, which uses the newest Windows Mobile 6 Standard operating system, but unfortunately is lacking a touch-screen. The device is targeted to business professionals, which are looking for a full-featured Windows Mobile smartphone with an integrated QWERTY keypad that allows for easy text input.

The Retail Package includes the HTC 5800 Fusion smartphone, 1050 mAh Battery, Wall Charger, miniUSB Data Cable, Stereo Earbuds, miniUSB Splitter, 2.5mm Splitter/Adapter, Leather Carrying Pouch, Installation CD, and User Manual. The first splitter connects to the phones single miniUSB port, and splits it into 2 miniUSB ports. The second splitter also connects to the phones single miniUSB port and splits it into one 2.5mm headset jack and one miniUSB port. These accessories allow for maximum flexibility when you are required to connect several different devices to the phone at the same time.

Design:

Atfirst look, the 5800 appears to be a standard candy-bar style phonewith a large display, navigational d-pad, and numeric keypad. However,sliding the phone open sideways, reveals the full QWERTY keypad. Theslider is spring-loaded, which makes opening and closing the unit veryeasy. When opened, the images on the display are automatically rotatedinto landscape mode.


The QWERTY keypad has 3 rows of keys, which have a bright bluebacklighting to them. The keys themselves are a large size, but theyare smooth to the touch and close together, with no space separatingthem, unlike on the S710. Because of this, we found that it is mucheasier 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 forCaps Lock and Function.


With the slider closed, the only way of navigating the phone’ssoftware is by using the d-pad and left & right soft-keys locatedunder the display. The d-pad is a little smaller than we would havehoped, but it works well and can easily be used to make menuselections. The numeric keypad shares the same blue backlighting as theQWERTY 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 theedges of the phone. On the left side is the Power on/off and volumerocker, and on the right side is the Camera button. The only featuremissing here is a dedicated Voice Command or Speakerphone button.



The HTC 5800 Fusion is a relatively compact smartphone, consideringthe amount of features that are incorporated into it. We found theoverall smaller footprint of the 5800 more user-friendly than theMotorola Q9m which we recently reviewed. It fits well in the hand andis easy to hold, thanks to the ribbed battery door cover, and whenplaced in your pants pocket, it feels no bigger than a standardcandy-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

Theoverall construction of the 5800 is out of soft-touch plastic, which iseasier to hold onto than the shiny finishes that have recently becomepopular on most phones. The exterior is a silver-gray color around thesides and back, with shiny chrome inlayed around the display. Locatedon the lower left-edge is the microSD card slot, which supports up to2GB, and on the bottom is the combination miniUSB charger/data port.Right next to it is a small lever that pops-off the plastic batterydoor cover. The standard 2MP camera is located on the top-back of thephone and has a small circular mirror that can be used forself-portraits.



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


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

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.

Camera:

The 5800 comes equipped with a standard 2MP camera, with no Flash or AutoFocus system. The camera may be activated by going into the programs menu, or by holding the dedicated side button on the right edge of the phone. The application only takes about 3 seconds to load, and uses the entire screen as the viewfinder, with camera option icons located at the bottom. There is only a brief second delay in taking an image, with an additional 3 seconds to save. Image quality is average for a 2MP device, and results are better than the images we took using the 1.3MP Q9m. However, we did not like the fact that the 5800 can only take images in portrait mode, instead of the traditional landscape mode. Pictures taken outside have good color saturation, but suffer from soft edges, with indoor pictures looking best only when a lot of light is present. Once images are saved (either to the phone or microSD card) you can view them in the Album.




Multimedia:

Like all the other Windows smartphone phones, 5800 has a pocket version of Windows Media Player, which is a combined audio and video player, capable of playing MP3, WMA, and WMV files. In the Library you will find all your music and videos saved in the phone and in the microSD card, sorted by Artist, Album and Genre.


During playback of a song the, interface is almost empty because it is also used for visualization of video files. The buttons are small, but they only replace the functions of the d-pad. By using its directions you can fast-forward and rewind in a certain track, to change tracks, to Play/pause or to control the volume. The player has options for Shuffle/Repeat and it is capable of creating Playlists.

Audio can be played through the built in mono-speaker, through the included stereo earbuds, or by using a Stereo Bluetooth device. We recommend using the last two options, since music played via the built-in speaker does not sound good at high volumes and causes a lot of distortion to be heard.

Software:

The HTC 5800 comes with 128MB of ROM and 64MB of DDR SDRAM, but you can increase the size of the memory by installing a microSD card up to 2GB in size.

As with most other Windows Mobile 6 devices, the 5800 comes equipped with Microsoft Office, including the mobile versions of Word, Excel and Power Point. We found that using the programs to be quite easy for opening E-Mail attachments and files on the microSD card. Also, we did not encounter the problems opening large files, as with did with the Q9m, since the 5800 does not use the less-powerful Documents To Go applications. As an add-on, the 5800 also comes with Adobe Reader LE to view PDF files. The only application that we see missing is a ZIP File opener.



There are only two preloaded games that come bundled with Windows Mobile 6: Solitaire and Bubble Breaker, but new applications can be downloaded and added.

Performance:

The application performance is better than the S710 and Q9m, thanks to the faster 400MHz processor that comes installed. We did not experience the application freezes and the overall sluggishness that occurred while using the other two devices. Yet we would still recommend closing unused application to increase CPU and Memory performance.

The Reception and Sound Quality on the HTC 5800 are both acceptable, but not quite as good as we encountered on the Motorola Q9m. During a call, we could hear some background static present in the earpiece. We also noticed that even with the earpiece volume turned up to maximum, it still was not loud as on other phones. Turning the Speakerphone on was not much better, with distortion being heard at the highest volume, which still was not as loud as the speakerphone on the Q9m. While we are not ecstatic with the call quality, like we were on the Q9m, it is still acceptable and not as bad as other devices.

The included 1050mAh Battery is rated at 5 hours of talk time or 8 days of standby time. During our tests, we were able to achieve up to 4 hours of talk time or 5 days of standby time on a full charge, which is equivalent to the talk and standby times we received using the Q9m and S710.

Conclusion:

The HTC 5800 Fusion is a nice addition to the smartphone line offered by Qwest, including the Motorola Q and HTC Mogul. It is the only smartphone currently offered that features both a standard dial-pad on the front, and QWERTY keypad that slides out from the side. While we were not impressed with the layout of the QWERTY keypad, like its S710 brother, it is still useful for typing in messages, and can then be slid under the phone and out of the way. The main features of this phone are the large 2.4” QVGA display and Windows Mobile 6 operating system. Both work well together, with applications opening fast and being able to connect to the Web using EVDO 3G speeds. The camera is average and is not designed to take “vacation photos”, but is still useful enough when needing to capture a quick picture. The only feature that we would have like to have seen included on the 5800 would be WiFi access. This would allow for easier home and on-the-go connections. Overall, the HTC 5800 Fusion is a well-designed smartphone, which offers its users many features in a small and easy to carry package.