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Kyocera SmartPhone QCP-6035
Author: Drew Lanclos
Date Posted: April 11th, 2002
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| Bottom Line: Functional, stylish, and very intelligently designed. On the other hand, it's pricey, doesn't play with GSM, and a bit hard to find. |
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Hardware
Outside of the written specs listed on the last page, the phone has several other features worth noting. The first and foremost, of course, is the phone flip. This (mostly) protective cover shields the screen from your face while you use the phone in its closed mode. It also provides the dialing surface, and four macro functions related to the phone. Incidentally, these buttons are located directly over the four standard Palm buttons, so basically the functions of those buttons get remapped whenever the flip opens and closes.
One of the more useful functions is the speakerphone button. Hit the button and you can now talk to your friends and associates at will. While speakerphone is on, you can also open the flip so that you can use your Palm software while still talking to the other party. Opening the flip during a call will automatically turn on the speakerphone, so that's nice too. Alternatively, the phone has a 2.5mm headphone jack that works with most of the standard cellphone headsets on the market.
Another one of the base buttons is the voice-mail button - Hitting this button will automatically log you into the voicemail system on your phone and let you check your messages, provided your phone vendor has it set up properly for you - Ours didn't. Since the phone always maintains a connection to your cellular network, it will also periodically check for new text and voice messages. The phone will automatically download text messages for you, and notify you of new voice messages.
The phone has a shuttle-dial on the left-hand side, so it's useable whether the flip is opened or closed. Opened, and it operates just as on any other Palm - Scrolling the screen, and selecting items. When the flip is closed, the phone software takes over, and the shuttle acts as your primary control mechanism while navigating menus and selecting phone options.
The screen is approximately the same size as on the Palm m100-series. It could've been a bit larger, but not at the cost of sacrificing the size of the phone. I hear some people complaining about how they feel their regular commonplace cellphones are too big and bulky...I have to wonder what they'd say if they saw the QCP-6035. While it is certainly larger, I feel that its size actually makes it more manageable - It doesn't feel as flimsy.
The infrared port on the top of the phone is particularly interesting. Its functional not only as the standard Palm iR port, but it also acts as the phone's backlight button. The Kyocera uses reverse-lit backlighting for better visibility in low-light situations. This button can also act as the suspend button for the phone, though I found its operation to be a bit less than 100% reliable. It would always operate the backlight, but whether or not it would wake the phone from sleep mode properly was another matter entirely. The phone has built-in power-on protection to avoid battery waste. Basically, if you push the button once, the phone prompts you to push it again, or press 1-2-3 to exit the keyguard. Using 1-2-3 always worked, but the phone wouldn't always respond to the backlight button press. In reading comments of other users on various websites, it seems this isn't an isolated problem. It doesn't heavily detract from the operation of the phone, though, so it's easily overlooked.
I'll also take a second to mention the special cradle that Kyocera makes for this phone. Since the flip-cover opens downward instead of upward, the cradle was designed so that the phone could be used or configured while sitting in the cradle. Also, a space in the back of the cradle allows you to charge a second cellular battery, for the professional on the go. One caveat - The cradle will only charge one battery at a time - Once one is full, it will begin charging the other, and it's first-come first-serve. The standard battery for the Kyocera is a lithium ion battery, with general usage (including Palm functionality) time of around a week, and six hours talk-time. Like any other cellular phone, you can turn the transceiver off to save battery power if you don't need to accept any incoming calls, or if you run out of cellphone minutes.
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