Full Review

After using a PDA for a while, I thought it would be convenient to have the device double up as a phone. The PDA phones are too large to carry in a pocket. WiFi and a keyboard were key requirements. A touch screen would be nice but I have never been a fan of the stylus.

The HTC TyTn filled the bill. But then the S710 looked ideal, being so small.

The S710 has a crisp 2.4" screen -similar to that of most smart phones. It includes a usable keyboard, and the whole package is surprisingly small -it was a little disappointing to see the phone, because it really looks like your typical candy bar phone. And it is a stylish but not flashy design.

The main window gives access to:
-the connection manager, which selects which networks are active
-the last applications used
-the sound profile for the phone
-the message list
-your appointments

One button opens the contact list, and the other is the "Start" which shows the rest of the applications. So far the Windows interface is comfortable

WiFi worked without issues. Open "Start-Connection manager" and the menu "WLAN settings" to add your favorite WiFi network. The phone of course will locate the available networks.

When you are done, open Internet Explorer. There is a menu "Show address bar" where you enter an URL. The browser works OK. The screen is a little small. It is more usable the keyboard is open. Besides, with the keyboard open you can navigate with the two hands -one hand controls the arrow keys and the other controls the 5-way navigation control.

While you are at it, you could install Google maps from http://mobile.google.com The installation worked without a glitch, and having maps at hand is great even if the phone lacks GPS.

The other key application is Office Mobile. They can show and modify the documents, and the only caveat if that the applications cannot create new documents, an annoying and strange limitation. You should copy some empty documents to the phone.

You probably want ActiveSync. Connecting through USB is easy, except if you use a firewall. Windows has published instructions describing how to set up some firewalls. To begin with, it is better to disable the firewall before you establish the ActiveSync connection, and later figure out the configuration.

But setting up BlueTooth was a considerable pain. Microsoft did not support Bluetooth with the first release of Windows XP so the PC vendors shipped their own drivers. Then Microsoft introduced theirs with SP2, and the net result is that, unless you are very careful, neither driver works. Add to the mix one of the lousiest pieces of Microsoft software since Windows 3.1 -confusing menus, redundant help and unexplained failures. It took one day to set it up. The end of the review describes the process which seems to work, which could save you the biggest aggravation of using this phone. Still my PC loses the BlueTooth settings from time to time, and I'm still considering if it is worth the pain. All of these problems seem to be caused by the BlueTooth implementation in the PC, not the phone.

One problem with this phone is that because the wireless providers don't sell it, you have to set up the GPRS data connection by yourself. There are two places to configure GPRS, and they are not easy to find:
-"Start-Settings-GPRS authentication"
-"Start-Settings-Connections-GPRS"

As to the best say of finding out the setup for your wireless provider, the HTC phone support provided them. You can find information in Google as well. Of course, you need a data contract with your wireless provider.

By the way: the HTC phone support is great. No wait, very polite and well informed.

For security, the phone supports separate keys for the SIM and the phone. You want to lock the whole phone, probably. The problem is: it is not practical to use a strong long key because you have to enter it to make every call. And without a strong key, how can you trust valuable data to the phone? I'd like to see a strong key protecting the data, and another one which gives access to the phone features -and the contact list.

On retrospect, it is a phone as capable as most PDA's, in a very small form factor. If the size of the phone is important for you, this is a great option. If size is not important, consider a unit with larger screen and slide-out keyboard.

There are some rough edges in the software. The menu structure could be better organized. GPRS configuration is confusing, and Bluetooth is a nightmare. Considering that the big advantage of Windows Mobile should be seamless interaction with your PC, finding so many ActiveSync difficulties is disappointing. With the iPhone out there raising the bar for usability and Internet browsing experience -although it has its own bugs-, Microsoft will probably work hard to polish it up.


How to set up ActiveSync for the HTC S710 using BlueTooth
------------------------------------------------------
The process described below worked in my case. It assumes that the Microsoft Bluetooth driver are installed. If your computer has the vendor drivers, I would recommend that you uninstall them and let Windows install the Microsoft drivers.

First, add a Bluetooth COM port. From the PC, open the Windows Control Panel and click "Bluetooth devices". The window starts on the "Devices" tab. Open the "Options" tab and make sure "Turn discovery on" and "Allow Bluetooth Devices to connect to this computer" are checked

Then click on the "COM ports" tab. Hit the "Add" button and make sure the type of COM port is "Incoming". The phone will use this port to connect to ActiveSync. Note down the port name -for example "COM5"

Then open ActiveSync. In the menu "File/Connection settings" check the box "Allow connections to one of the following" and select the port number which was created before. Hit the "OK" button, but do not close the ActiveSync window.

Prepare the S710 for connection. "Start-Comm manager". Select the menu "Setting-Bluetooth-Security". Here you enter a descriptive name for the phone. You should use "OBEX authentication" so that a passkey is required to connect to the phone. Click "Done" and then select the "Bluetooth" option. Here you will stablish the connection with the PC

On the menu, select "Turn on visibility" and "Turn on Bluetooth". This enables the computer to see the phone.

Click on "Add new device" the phone will search for your PC. Click on the computer icon, and the phone will ask for a passkey. You won't need to remember the passkey after the connection is established. Enter a passkey and hit "Next"

At this point the PC will ask for confirmation to connect to the phone. Accept the connection and enter the same passkey.

Go back to the phone. It will show the list of services in the PC, and one of them should be ActiveSync. Make sure this is checked and click 'next'. The connection has been established, at last. For security reasons, it is recommended that you disable discovery for both the PC and the phone.

To try the synchronization through ActiveSync, Outlook should be running -at least, that is the case with me PC. On the phone click "Start-ActiveSync" On the menu select "Connect via Bluetooth". ActiveSync in the PC should connect and start the synchronization.

And one last ActiveSync quirk. In my system, after activating Bluetooth sometimes ActiveSync reports that the "Port is not available". The workaround is to go into ActiveSync within the PC, open "File-Connection settings", uncheck "Allow connections to one of the following", close the dialog, open again "File-Connection settings", and check again "Allow connections to one of the following". It looks like that forces a reconnection of the COM port.

The phone has a "Bluetooth explorer" application which allows to explore the contents of a shared directory in the PC. I could not make it work -probably because the PC is not configured properly. It is not that useful anyway.