Audiovox PPC6601

Pros: great interface, powerful, camera, everything MS

Cons: doesn't come with a printed owner's manual

Summary: This is a fantastic phone. I don't understand those who dislike the keyboard: I've had just about every phone/pda (since Kyocera's 6135...remember those beasts??) and this keyboard is by far superior to Palm's Treo 600/650. I'll keep this pda for a long time because I've finally found a device that has both extraordinary power (the Palm, compared to this, is like one of those "DataBank" digital watches Casio put out decades ago) and, perhaps most importantly, stability. With ALL of the Palm devices, I was always resetting, forced to reset, and/or debugging. Moreover, I was always trying to integrate their very dissimilated software packages. For example, there are at least two "messaging" programs that come with the Palm device (Treo, at least): Eudora and then the ubiquitous, if not strangely omnipotent, "Messages" program. They're both very counterintuitive, to say the least, and with neither can you execute embedded hotlinks. And then we have the web browser: this program hasn't yet figured out if it's a WAP browser or a fully-functional-that's-far-from-fully-functional web browser. What it does do (such as download complete websites) it does so poorly that it renders itself redundant almost immediately. And what it doesn't do, it ought to: integrate WAP technology, CSS, Javascript, Zoom, etc. The Contacts look a mess, the Calendar couldn't be more insufferably bland and oh-so rudimentary (reminiscent of Sharp's Wizard of about fifteen years ago), and the Reminders are so elusive that they draw you away from whatever task they're representing (by interrupting whatever else you're doing on the device in order to announce its presence) and send you into a "hunt-and-peck" maelstrom...because once you tap "OK" (if just to say "#$%% off for now, I'm busy!" and get back to whatever it was you were doing), the reminder has either gone into hiding or is gone forever - and is there really a difference???

However, this device is something like Mrs. Baile of "As Time Goes By" (for those of you not familiar with this Brit-com, you should watch it!): ever-respectful of your position, beautiful to look at (in its own way), always has your personal well-being at heart, trustworthy of your valuable, and sometimes confidential, information, can be whimsical but NEVER cute, and can (and will) kick your ass if you're not working up to speed.

But, Hey Verizon! Give us a printed owner's manual, for God's sake! I printed it out from the CD at 118 pages...!! This thing needs its own briefcase!