Audivox SMT 5600 - Near perfect Smartphone

Michael Gartenberg | October 12, 2004, 09:21 AM

I can finally talk about the phone I alluded to a few weeks ago. The mystery device is in actuality the Audivox SMT 5600 which is available from AT&T today. The phone itself is near perfect for a device like this and when I say that, I mean something that’s a phone first and foremost but can do a lot of other things. First, the form factor is amazing. It’s the smallest Smartphone you can get, so it’s ubiquitous in size but as you decide to leave other devices behind, you can still do things like surf the web (the new one column view in Pocket IE helps a lot), check e-mail and use IM. The fact that it has Windows Media 10 Mobile as part of the OS (this is the first and only shipping device with WM10 Mobile) means that it will also sync content directly from Windows Media 10 on your desktop including TV shows if you have Windows Media Center as well as full support for the Janus DRM. How useful is it? Well, since WM 10 transcodes intelligently, I was able to fit four episodes of the West Wing on my phone and was able to watch them while I waited for my MRI one evening last week. But at the end of the day, it’s a great phone and that’s where most Smartphones fail. The battery life is excellent (unlike issues I’m hearing with some of the other new Smartphones), sound quality is great and the Bluetooth support really works well, including the HandsFree profile. I’m a fan of hierarchy of devices for mobile use, but at the end of the day, sometimes you only want one. For me, that’s the new Audiovox. At $199 from At&T Wireless, it’s a steal.