I had a chance to briefly demo the Verizon Voyager today and it is an amazing combination of technology in a compact package. The question I kept asking myself as I toyed with the device is whether this mobile gadget is an iPhone killer as many in the media speculated.
Before I answer, let’s go through the pluses and minuses.
The Pros:
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The video is extremely crisp but the internal screen could benefit from being larger.
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The keyboard is extremely comfortable – even for large thumbs and the fact that no shift key is needed to press number keys is great.
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The external touch-sensitive screen is amazing as the haptic feedback mechanism gives excellent response.
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TV viewing with the aid of an integrated antenna.
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Comfortable feel in the hand.
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Solid construction feel.
The Cons:
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The browser is slow.
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The browser doesn’t render very well on complex pages like TMCnet.
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The TV cannot be viewed in many places like large (relatively anyway) cities in Connecticut.
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The internal screen is not touch-sensitive.
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Device ease of use is average at best.
The Verdict:
This is a great device for the non-office worker who doesn’t live and die with their Microsoft Office synchronization. As an entertainment vehicle it excels as it allows the user to watch videos, listen to music and also keep in touch with friends by receiving text messages and calls while they are enjoying their multimedia entertainment.
If you are looking for a phone that is as intuitive and easy to browse on as an iPhone, this is not your device. This is not an iPhone killer.
Now will this phone be enough to keep people from defecting to AT&T where they will pick up an iPhone? Yes – for some anyway. Why? Because it does many things like provide TV and GPS that the iPhone does not do. In addition, the keyboard is great… Perhaps one of the best mobile keyboards around.
What would make this device better? I would gladly give up 2 screens for an individual screen larger than each of the two. In addition, a 640x480 viewing experience would be ideal and a baseline for effective mobile browsing. In addition, as more and more people need to browse while away from their computers it is essential that mobile browsers speed up.
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![12420506412[1].jpg](http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/assets_c/2009/06/12420506412[1]-thumb-autox70-6495.jpg)
Great phone