Sierra Atlantic's VOQ. Review on Five Best Looking Cellphones

The Sierra Voq is a “Smartphone”, a Windows Mobile. It's sold at rediff.com. It's an unlocked Tri-band GSM world phone, a Windows Mobile PDA with a color screen, built-in QWERTY keyboard and an USB interface, and an audio/video media player - an we can use SD card only 1GB permitted.

The advantages and disadvantages of WMS are common to all Smartphones, including those from Microsoft, AudioVox, Treo etc., while each individual phone tries to add some unique distinguishing design elements. I’ll talk just about my Voq. The Voq is currently available in two versions: A10 is the tri-band European GSM version(900/1800/1900 MHz), while A11 is the tri-band North American GSM version(850/1800/1900 MHz). I am the proud owner of the A11 model.

Stuff I especially liked about the Voq:

• The flip-open QWERTY keyboard is the signature feature of the phone, and it works quite well.(Sexy looks) The keys are very small, the labels are a bit hard to read, and the big hinge in the middle gets in the way a little, but it’s a huge advantage to have a full keyboard for typing text. Typing message with the thumbs is very easy once we get used to it.

  
  




• The 220 x 176, 2.2-inch color screen is clear and sharp, and capable of playing video.

  
  




• The built-in SD card slot is a great way to add extra memory.

  
  




• The unique MyVoq text entry software is pretty cool.

  
  

Stuff I didn’t like so much:

• It is relatively big and heavy for a cell phone compared to most current models, although many other Smartphones are comparable. That’s probably the main factor that killed it for Sierra – most people just don’t want a big, heavy phone these days.

  
  




• The style and feel of the phone are not the greatest either. It’s all the odd bulges that don’t fit all.

  
  

Initially I felt that the ring tone is too quiet but later doing some research I found it to be the best. I really love it. I posted my review on expansys.com and many guys from around the world widely appreciate me for giving a solution.

There’s also an IrDA infrared port on the top of the phone, used to beam contacts or establish data connections with other IrDA devices. Unfortunately the Microsoft WMS software can’t exchange Contacts with Palm PDAs using the Beam function unless you buy optional 3rd-party software.

The color screen is nice – no complaints. Unfortunately the backlight goes out after a few seconds of inactivity(configurable) to save battery power, and the screen contents are nearly invisible without the backlight. The display itself blanks a couple of minutes. The only indication that the phone is on is the green LED at the top right flashing every 5 seconds or so – which it does whenever the phone is on. The lack of an always-visible status display is a minor drawback of the phone compared to other cell phones.

It's got the flight mode, wherein you need not swith of the phone when travelling on a flight.

The power on/off button is on the upper right corner of the phone, a location where it can easily be pressed accidentally. It only takes a momentary contact and not much pressure to turn the phone on. Fortunately an update was made to the firmware to have the Key Lock function lock the power button so it can’t turn the phone off accidentally while being carried in a bag or pocket.

I like the quick mode selection by pressing the power button to call up a list of options, including Flight Mode(no radio communication) and user-configurable profiles like Silent, Meeting etc. One can use MP3, WMA as ringtones. There’s a vibrate mode, and you can specify ring and vibrate at the same time. You can also specify custom ring tones for individual contacts.

MyVoq, which I mentioned above in the list of features I like, is a unique software application built into the phone by Sierra. It launches automatically when you press the MyVoq button or just open the keyboard. You just start to type, and it guesses what you are typing by looking at the format and comparing it to the phone’s contents(Contacts, file names etc). If it looks like the first part of a phone number or a Contact name, and the part you have typed so far matches one of your Contacts, a button pops up at the side of the display to take you to that contact. If you type an arithmetic operation symbol like “+” after a number, it assumes that you are doing calculation and offers calculator options. If you type more text, it assumes that it is a text message or a note and offers to send it or save it. Nice!

You can also use the phone keypad to enter text with the built-in EZTap predictive text entry software, but it’s no match for the T9 predictive text entry found on other phones. However, with a QWERTY keyboard available, you probably won’t need it.

Voice dialing is supported, either by speaking digits or by voice tags attached to Contacts. But it’s more of a gimmick than a useful feature.

The speaker phone function is easy to access - just press and hold the Send/Answer button for half a second.

You can make voice recordings, and you can play music and videos on the phone with the built-in Windows Media Player or other alternative players. Sound plays through the phone speaker if there are no headphones connected. Unfortunately there isn’t a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack – the Voq uses a 2.5mm jack with 4 contacts for stereo headphones+ microphone. Sierra includes a mono headset with clip-on microphone with the phone, but their stereo headset is an extra-cost option.

A full battery charge from empty takes about 100 minutes, typical of most phones. About Windows Mobile for Smartphones:The version included with the Voq phone is WMS 2003 Second Edition. WMS 2005 is out now, but Sierra says that it won’t be supported. It’s pretty slow to boot up: a little under a minute until it’s ready to go on the Voq. That’s an eternity to wait for your phone to turn on! It also takes about 15 seconds to shut down when you power off. At least in operation it’s usually reasonably responsive on the Voq with its 200 MHz XScale CPU.

You can also use ActiveSync to synchronize your Outlook contacts, calendar and email with the phone.

There are a couple of built-in games, typical cell-phone stuff, nothing exciting. I tried downloading and installing a few other free games, but they weren’t very impressive.

I've had the phone for several months now, and I am really satisfied. Hence guys/gals go for it.u get for less than Rs. 4000/- today either from rediff.com or indiatimes.com! Enzoy.