Friday, August 03, 2001

Kyocera QCP-6035

Kyocera (Qualcomm) QCP-6035 (smartphone w/Palm OS)

Reading the reviews on CNET about the Kyocera (Qualcomm) QCP-6035 (smartphone w/Palm OS). I have one and was thinking of posting my comments on the message board, but their submission system is busted (so I'm just going to dump my notes here and put it up on CNET someday in the future).

I bought this back in April 2001 and have not looked back since. It replaces a Palm IIIx and a Nokia 5160 that I used to carry around. It's perfect for receiving text pages because you get the entire palm screen to read the entire 160 character page at once rather than scrolling through it on a small cell phone screen.

For internet access (like the Palm VII) and using the PQA apps, I've just entered my AT&T Worldnet dial-up number and account information and that lets me browse the web and use the PQA applications. For getting internal corporate e-mail, I just dial-up to one of the corporate RAS modems and retrieve my e-mail that way (no VPN required).

The best trick of all is that you can use the Kyocera as a wireless 14.4kbps modem (just hook it up to your serial port, disable the hotsync application, tell windows that it's a generic 14.4 modem, and use the data/fax app on the Kyocera to set the phone to "modem" mode). That makes it possible to dial up your ISP, and then VPN into your corporate network to check e-mail on your laptop (large attachments are not a good idea, but can be done in a pinch).

The only bad points that I've found so far is that the screen is smaller than the IIIx (more like the new m500s) but still legible and the screen tends to get sweaty from holding up to your ear as a phone (using the speakerphone mode would cure this and also allow you to use the palm while you're on a call). Also, there is a buzzing noise in the earpiece when the backlight is on (electronic noise) but goes away as soon as the backlight turns off.

Sure, it's a little pricy, but get plenty of minutes because you'll want to use it as a wireless modem in as many strange places as you can find (if you own one, you'll understand).

posted by Wuphon's at 12:38 PM