Not recommended for the Hard Core phone user
Written: Jul 18 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: All the powers of a Pocket PC with a built in Phone & Full Internet
Cons: Speakerphone or Ear Bud only
Single Band only
Phone features a little buggy
The Bottom Line: I recommend this phone as long as you intend to use the data services more than the voice.
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| mudduckii's Full Review: Toshiba 2032SP Smartphone |
I purchased the Toshiba 2032SP about 2 months ago. I was anxiously awaiting Sprint's new line of Pocket PC phones as I had been wanting a Pocket PC, but didn't want to carry around both the PDA and a phone. When the Toshiba 2032SP came out, I was one of the first in line to purchase this new gadget. Unfortunately with the 1st generation of a new product, comes a few bugs and limitation.
There are 4 main complaints I have with this phone/PDA.
1. The phone was built for speakerphone only unless you want to also carry an ear bud. Being a man, and not having a purse, It’s a pain to carry the Phone which measures 5” Tall X 3” wide X 1” thick, and also carry the ear bud.
2. This Phone is single band only. This means if you are not close to a major city, your phone is dead. The PDA still works, but you will not be able to call anyone or use any of the special Data features like e-mail, internet, etc.
3. The phone feature is a little buggy and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles many of the other Sprint phones have. For example you cannot assign different ringers for different phone numbers. And the biggest complaint I have is if the PDA is off and in your pocket it will automatically turn itself on and start ringing (that I like) what’s buggy here is, once it turns on, it recognizes every button pushed, and will try to activate all those commands before you can do anything on the phone. For example this PDA has quick launch buttons on the bottom to open up the PDA Home, your tasks, calendar, etc. Almost every time my phone starts ringing, if it’s been in my pocket, when I pull it out I can’t answer the call because the calendar is opening, then closing, then the tasks come up, then the calendar opens again, then the home page opens, etc. By the time the PDA lets me have control of it again, I’ve missed my call, and I have to call that individual back.
Things I did like about the phone include:
1. This phone has a built in modem and Pocket Internet Explorer installed which I could use to access the internet through Sprint’s Vision service with unlimited browsing (WHICH IS AWSOME!!!!!!!). Although the pocket internet explorer doesn’t have all the bells and whistles a PC’s IE has, it is more than capable of accessing all the sights I usually frequent. To clarify, YOU CAN GO TO ANY WEB SITE BY TYPING IN THE URL IN THE PHONES BROWSER. The biggest complaint I have with this is some Java applets don’t appear to work on the Pocket PC’s version of IE. For example the real time scores on MLB.Com will not display on this phone, but I can always go to Yahoo’s or ESPN’s HTML based live scores. Hopefully the next release of Pocket PC IE will fix this problem.
2. You can assign different wav files as the ringers. While the phone didn’t have all those other ringers most have, you can plug the phone into the docking station (which comes with the camera) and upload any wav file you want to the PDA. You can then take those wav files and assign them to incoming calls, voice mails, e-mails, etc. While all the other phones are limited to the ringers they came with or those you can download, skies the limit on this phone. Everyone gets a real kick out of my phone when the theme song to Sponge Bob Square Pants starts playing as I receive an incoming call.
3. The ability to finally download my phones Address Book is a lifesaver. I have pretty much used my phones address books to store personal info and phone numbers for many years now. My biggest complaint has always been if you buy a new phone, you have to re-enter all those phone numbers and if you loose or break your phone. You’re out of luck. The phone companies have no way to extract those phone numbers. Since it’s a built in PDA, I can sync it up with MS Outlook on my home PC and download all the contacts to a safe place.
Other Critiques/Info:
1. You will want to get a memory card for this phone if you intend to use the PDA much. Otherwise you will run out of drive space real fast. Especially if you start adding your own ringer, wallpapers, etc.
2. E-Mail doesn’t work as smoothly as it does on other Vision Phones. My wife has a Sanyo Camera phone, and every time I send her an e-mail to her phone, it plays the ringer she has designated to inform her a new e-mail is available. The Toshiba 2032SP has e-mail, but it doesn’t know you have e-mail unless you manually check it. Since it uses Pocket Outlook, it has more functionality than the other Vision phones, but It would be nice if it told me a new one just came in.
3. This phone is a little expensive. When I bought mine, I paid $500, so I recommend getting the $4 a month insurance. The screen is delicate enough, I think I would cry if I bumped into a door and shattered the screen and didn’t have the insurance.
4. Battery life is also pretty poor on this phone. You will need to charge it every night, and if you use it a lot, get a separate charger for your desk at work, or for your car.
5. Although it does have full internet, it is using a dial up modem to retrieve these sights. I’ve been spoiled with Broadband at home for about 2 years now, so it seems like an eternity waiting for some pages to load on the phone, but Sprint does give you unlimited Internet time. Overall slow internet is better than no internet when waiting for a plane in the airport, or trying to find sports scores while sitting at a table in a restaurant.
Overall, I do like the phone, but I think they still have a long way to go on perfecting the integrated Pocket PC’s and phones. I would like to see more features integrated with the phone software they added to the Pocket PC, but overall it gets the job done. I’m not one to use my cell phone for talking much, but I LOVE having full internet at my fingertips. If you talk a lot on your phone, I would not recommend this phone unless you don’t mind taking along the hands free kit, or don't mind annoying everyone around you with your personal conversations.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
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Epinions.com ID:
mudduckii
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
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