Introduction

Microsoft dabbles in a bit of everything; from software, to gaming machines, to smartphones. Powered by the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, the smartphone doppelganger of the desktop OS, the Audiovox SMT5600 has a look and feel most users will already be familiar with.

Released for Cingular / AT&T Wireless, the Audiovox SMT5600 allows consumers access to productive Microsoft Office and Outlook features.

With the latest in personal information management (PIM) functionality, such as over-the-air access to Outlook Calendar, Inbox, and Contacts, users can easily transfer their most important information to their smartphone, as well as receiving access to corporate e-mail through Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and third-party middleware providers.

Design

The Audiovox SMT5600 is rather unassuming, with conservative lines and colors sure to attract business consumers in a corporate environment. Physically, the SMT5600 is not very large. With a block form factor of only 108 x 46 x 16 mm, and weighing just 100 grams, it's much smaller and slimmer than its competitors (Treo 650, MPx220, and BlackBerrys); fitting conveniently in the palm of the hand.

More than half front of the SMT5600 is occupied by a large 176 x 220 px screen, capable of displaying 65K colors. Navigation is accomplished with a bi- directional rocker keypad situated below. Rather unique, it rocks up and down, however left, right, and selection requires pressing. While more convenient than a conventional 4-way keypad, it doesn't provide the ease and range of motion as a joystick. The beveled numeric keys are standard, with a comfortable size to allow convenient messaging through predictive text.

The back of the SMT5600 contains the lens to the 0.3 megapixel camera; able to capture images at up to 640 x 480 px. While good for wallpapers stored on the phone, it lacks in quality to allow prints to be made. For self-portraits, a convex mirror situated next to the lens allows users to see where to aim the camera. Additionally, by peeling off a rubber plug a connector port is exposed, allowing users to attach the SMT5600 to a car antenna. Sliding the back cover off, underneath the battery reveals a slot for a Mini SD card. While rather inconvenient to get to, users have room for extra storage for images, video clips, music, and other data.

Connection ports and soft keys are located around the edges of the device, with an infrared port and on / off button located on top, USB / charger outlet and stereo 2.5mm headset jack on the bottom, volume side keys along the left, and a quick access camera button to the right.

Out of the box, the Audiovox SMT5600 comes with a standard 1050 mAh Li-Ion battery, mini-USB cable, AC adapter, stereo headset, carrying case, and a companion software CD including Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7.1, SMT5600 configuration tools, and a soft copy of the user manual.

Camera

In times of need when a picture would save a thousand words, the Audiovox SMT5600's built-in 0.3 megapixel VGA camera is able to capture photos at sizes of either QQVGA (160 x 120 px), QVGA (320 x 240 px), or VGA (640 x 480 px) resolutions, providing 16-bit color depth at 64K colors.

Additionally, camera features and controls include digital zoom (2X or 4X), ambience effects (Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Night, Grayscale, Sepia, and Cool), and image correction balance (Brightness, Gamma, Hue, and Saturation). Should users want to take self-portraits, or just be included in the pictures; a mirror located beside the lens can be used.

Approximate image file sizes are 50 KB for VGA, 14K for QVGA, and 6K for QQVGA, encoded in JPG file format. Video clips can be recorded at either Sub-QCIF (128 x 96 px) or QCIF (176 x 144 px) resolutions; encoded in either MPEG-4, H.263, or Motion JPG AVI formats.

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