HTC Universal (AKA SPV M5000) - Review, Part 1

Michael Gartenberg | August 22, 2005, 11:09 AM

I’ve been working with the HTC Universal (AKA SPV M5000) now for a few days and so far it’s been a great experience. As promised, here are my first thoughts. If there’s something I haven’t covered here, let me know and I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can. First some background. There’s no way to say whether this is a good device or not without context. Some prefer to set the context of how an “average” person might use such a device, but there’s really no average when it comes to things like phones and PDAs. It comes down to suitability for task (and there’s a reason the P in PDA stands for personal). Like automobiles, there’s the Hummer and there’s the Prius. If you’re in the market for one, it’s not likely the other will suit your needs.

Having said that, the Universal is clearly the Hummer of the Smartphone world. It’s larger than the i730 and XV600, there’s no way you’re going to call this device ubiquitous. Having said that, there’s no shortage of features. The Universal runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 and has WiFi, Bluetooth, a two (yes two) megapixel camera, a second VGA camera for video conferencing, a full backlit QWERTY keyboard, VGA screen, and a 520MHz processor. It’s a full 3G phone but I just tested it with a stock carrier SIM using GSM and GPRS and that worked just fine. Remember, this is a WM 5 device so there’s program memory AND storage memory and no more messing with silly sliders trying to tweak things.

My first thought was that the form factor was going to be way to big to use on a daily basis but the wizards over at HTC tweaked the device carefully in ways that make it very usable. First, it’s a clamshell device so you don’t need to carry it in case. That means even though it’s larger than most other devices, the screen is protected and I was able to carry it easily in the pocket of my jeans or coat making the carry size smaller than other devices. To make it easier to use, HTC added phone buttons to the side of the unit making it easy to answer calls when the clamshell is closed. This is  great feature since it also means that you won’t be smearing the screen with your face, which is an issue that plagues most other Smartphones. Second. Bluetooth on this unit works well making it a natural for using with either a Bluetooth headset (if you don’t mind the look) and even better, worked perfectly in my Acura. That means in the place where I use the phone most, I don’t need to worry about form factor. Finally, the battery life is amazing. Unlike most of the Smartphones I use, I was easily able to make it through a heavy day of use with power to spare. The unit is rated for five hours of talk time and I found using it moderately for voice, keeping Bluetooth active and using WiFi through the day were no problem. Since the unit charges through a mini USB connector, just plugging into a laptop with a standard USB cable will charge and sync. Overall, while this is not a  tiny phone, the design features make the usability work very well for every day use.

WM 5.0 for PocketPC is great. The biggest change is persistant storage so if your device runs down, there’s no need to fear losing data (in fact there’s no backup tool built into the device which makes me nervous, unfortunately I haven’t found one that works with WM 5 yet). All the standard MSFT apps have been updated and there’s also a new PowerPoint viewer that works really well with the VGA screen. The keyboard is excellent, with a lovely orange backlight. The only issue is that it’s hard to see other symbols on the keys in low light if the backlight isn’t on. Not a big deal but something that could be tweaked a bit. I also found WiFi and GPS coverage to be not as strong as other devices I have used but I suspect that’s due to the fact that this is not final hardware. Coverage mind you was perfectly acceptable, just not as strong as I’d prefer. The camera worked very well and took nice well saturated 2MP outdoors. There’s a little LED “flash” but at the end of the day, this isn’t a camera for indoor shots. For outdoors, it runs rings around other integrated cameras and offers cool modes such as panorama and burst. Don’t toss your digital SLR just yet but it’s a nice backup. I didn’t test the video conferencing capabilities yet but I hope to shortly.

I found a few glitches in terms of compatibility, the AIM Messenger software wouldn’t work and a number of games broke as well. Others ran very slowly, mostly I suspect to the combination of VGA Screen and WM 5. Your mileage will vary here. Some new titles failed to run at all and some old stuff from the iPaq v1 era ran just fine. It all depends on how well developers followed MSFT guidelines. Sadly one app that doesn’t work is ORB. Video and music don’t work at all. I had a brief chat with Ted Shelton the CEO of ORB who told me there’ a fix in the works and it should be ready by the time WM 5 devices are broadly available.

Overall, the Universal is an amazing device, there’s nothing else quite like it on the market. The combination of a QWERTY Keyboard, the VGA screen, the ability to swivel into “tablet” mode make this device one of a kind for now. The addition of 3g, BT, WiFi mean that you won’t lack for connectivity and the overall usability of the device, despite the size is amazing. I had no problems integrating the unit into my daily routine, which is something I have never been able to do with any other PocketPC based phone device. Others were simply too large with batteries that couldn’t get through a day of heavy usage. This is not a device for everyone but if you’re looking for something that can be used as a decent (if not tiny) phone with a QWERTY keyboard, VGA screen , the ability to do email and read and write MSFT Office formats with lots of connection options, then this is the device you’ve been waiting for. Up next, the Smartphone WM 5 Experience.