The official HTC P6500 'Ask Paul' thread

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

It's big, it's bad (well, actually it's quite good)... it's the P6500! :(

Here's your chance to question me on the HTC semi-ruggedized behemoth that makes up for in specifications for what it loses in asthetics! The P6500 features...

• Windows Mobile 6 Professional
  
• 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7200
  
• 1GB NAND Flash
  
• 128MB ROM
  
• 128MB RAM
  
• 3.5" 240*320 QVGA screen with LED backlight and anti-glare design for outdoor use
  
• Internal diversity antenna
  
• UMTS (850/1900MHz for NA, 2100MHz for Europe, 800/1700MHz for Japan) and GSM/GPRS/EDGE (quad-band, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
  
• HSDPA
  
• 3GPP Release 5 compliant
  
• DL up to 3.6 mbps and UL up to 384 kbps
  
• EGPRS Functionality
  
• EGPRS class B
  
• Multi-slot class 10
  
• PBCCH
  
• Standalone GPS and A-GPS mode (optional)
  
• WiFi 802.11b/g, Security 802.11i and AES
  
• Bluetooth 2.0
  
• Fingerprint scanner
  
• 3 mega-pixel CMOS camera sensor with auto focus and video flash light
  
• Removable and chargeable Lithium ion polymer battery, 1500mAh
  
• 360-degree 3-way jog wheel paired with OK button
  
• 2 MMC/SDIO card slot
  
• External GPS antenna connector
  

It's pretty cool actually, for example I have a 16GB SD in one of the slots at the moment, and could even double up for a massive 32GB storage + 1GB onboard NAND flash! Got questions? Fire away! :D

The HTC P6500 is £528.99 in stock now at devicewire.com.

P

[Guest hotphil]

Geez that's massive! Surprised your MacBook took the weight.... But I have somehow just realised that i NEED that fingerprint reader.... maybe on the next model!

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Still no VGA?

W...

T...

F...

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

VGA would have been the icing on the cake.

Mmmm, 3.5" VGA I would have been tempted to switch device :D

P

[Guest MECX]

I think you should take a pic of you making a phone call on it paul :-P

[Guest xorangefirex]

That phone is absolutely massive. I had no idea of it's size while looking at its spec sheet a few months ago. I would also like to see a picture of you holding it up to your ear.

[Guest pbarclay]

That phone is absolutely massive. I had no idea of it's size while looking at its spec sheet a few months ago. I would also like to see a picture of you holding it up to your ear.

This phone is ideal for that retro Michael Douglas in Wall Street look. Plus, it probably weighs so much that just holding it to ear in turn several times a day will save on a gym membership!

For me, its about the difference between a workphone and a home walkabout for the weekend. My Touch Dual's best feature is that is looks quite like a cheapie PAYG from a distance and doesn't attract the attention of inner city neanderthals. In addition, the TD is jeans friendly - you would look very pleased to see someone with a P6500 in your trousr pocket! I imagine the 6500 probably slips into a suit pocket or perhaps a belt case.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Remember the target market people.

Actually, it fits in my jeans pocket alright... and is a damn sight nicer than most other semi-ruggedised PPCs i've used :D

P

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

But I have somehow just realised that i NEED that fingerprint reader....

It's annoying. It's a gimmick. It was on my Ipaq 5450 4 years ago....

I turned the feature off after 3 or 4 days as I couldn't change the timeout period for the lock and I'd forever have to change hands to get one of my 'enrolled' fingers to actually swipe properly. By virtue of swipeing down the sensor it collects dirt and dead skin and needs cleaning quite often otherwise it doesn't scan properly. It can only store 5 fingerprints at a time. Useful for data encryption etc but as a device lock I prefer a password.

Other than that I still think it rocks ( quite literally - you could use it as a rock to bash someone trying to mug you etc :-)

Still trying to get a barcode scanning app to work though.

M.S

Edited April 10, 2008 by Mysterious Stranger

[Guest Amplificator]

It's annoying. It's a gimmick. It was on my Ipaq 5450 4 years ago....

I turned the feature off after 3 or 4 days as I couldn't change the timeout period for the lock and I'd forever have to change hands to get one of my 'enrolled' fingers to actually swipe properly. By virtue of swipeing down the sensor it collects dirt and dead skin and needs cleaning quite often otherwise it doesn't scan properly. It can only store 5 fingerprints at a time. Useful for data encryption etc but as a device lock I prefer a password.

Other than that I still think it rocks ( quite literally - you could use it as a rock to bash someone trying to mug you etc :-)

Still trying to get a barcode scanning app to work though.

M.S

Do you honestly believe that nothing has happend in 4 years in terms of technology?

I'll bet you that it's the same kind of fingerprint scanner found on laptops these days because they are really small and pics up every time you swipe your finger (at least on 3 Lenovos in my household)

Edited April 10, 2008 by Amplificator

[Guest Syphon Filter]

Do you honestly believe that nothing has happend in 4 years in terms of technology?

I'll bet you that it's the same kind of fingerprint scanner found on laptops these days because they are really small and pics up every time you swipe your finger (at least on 3 Lenovos in my household)

Quite, I agree. Also the design of the fingerprint readers is intended that the first bit of your swipe action actually removes crap off the sensor.

I have two Thinkpads here with fingerprint security, both work VERY well...sure they misread SOMETIMES, but overall, i'd say 95% of the time, it just works as intended.

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

Do you honestly believe that nothing has happend in 4 years in terms of technology?

I'll bet you that it's the same kind of fingerprint scanner found on laptops these days because they are really small and pics up every time you swipe your finger (at least on 3 Lenovos in my household)

In terms of fingerprint reading technology? No. What makes you think the technology has changed dramatically? Fingerprints haven't ;-)

The readers in consumer electronics still use passive capacitance sensors - the software apps may have changed but the sensor is still the same tech it was when used 4 years ago by HTC with the same low resolution scans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint_a...ion#Capacitance

They are no smaller now than they were then, and it looks exactly the same with the gold bar on the silver strip.

Quite, I agree. Also the design of the fingerprint readers is intended that the first bit of your swipe action actually removes crap off the sensor.

I have two Thinkpads here with fingerprint security, both work VERY well...sure they misread SOMETIMES, but overall, i'd say 95% of the time, it just works as intended.

Well, I've had a p6500 for 2 weeks and as I've said I find it gimmicky and have disabled it as it can't scan my fingerprints reliably...due to accumulated sweat'n'skin on the hard to clean sensor perhaps.

I too have laptops with fingerprint sensors - I'm using a HP nc2400 right now. Works fine on this as the sensor is angled in a valley so swiping does indeed clear the sensor.

M.S

Edited April 10, 2008 by Mysterious Stranger

[Guest xorangefirex]

To be entirely honest it would be cool to have a fingerprint scanner, but it really is absolutely unnecessary. If they are similar to laptop scanners then it will work perfectly fine and perhaps Mysterious has had an incident with acid or was born without proper fingerprints. Stranger things have occurred.

[Guest sikhcentral]

Is there anything out there at the moment with similar specs to this but with VGA screen, qwerty keyboard and 3.5mm audio jack? The i-mate Ultimate 8502 caught my attention but it hasn't got a VGA screen, forward facing camera, SDHC slot or 3.5mm audio jack. Anything in the pipeline with anything near what I want?

Edited April 12, 2008 by sikhcentral

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

To be entirely honest it would be cool to have a fingerprint scanner, but it really is absolutely unnecessary. If they are similar to laptop scanners then it will work perfectly fine and perhaps Mysterious has had an incident with acid or was born without proper fingerprints. Stranger things have occurred.

No fingerprints? could be why I'm so0000 mysterious...

It worked fine for the first week then it got annoying, like I said. The way they work is pretty basic, we have more complex ones at work ( that actually take an image and compare to a database rather than 'read' resistance accross a panel during a swipe to make up a numerical value / map) and I can get in to work fine every monrning sadly:-(

My laptop one is also fine - it's curved though so a swipe will clear the sensor. The P6500 one is flat and has grooves for dead skin to gather in.

M.S

[Guest pbarclay]

No fingerprints? could be why I'm so0000 mysterious...

Perhaps you just really like pineapples - pineapple workers often lose their fingerprints due to the keratolytic effect of bromelain.

http://bodd.cf.ac.uk/BotDermFolder/BotDermB/BROM.html

Seriously though, my Sony VAIO fingerprint reader is also superb and is far better than having to enter repeated passwords for secure log in to the machine and to various secure websites.

A good internet experience does require more than 240 x 320 pixels and, for the cost and size of this machine, you would have thought a VGA screen should have been included. You can argue that the pixel density is high enough on a 2.6" but at 3.5", the screen area is 80% bigger. If the machine is intended for corporate use, surely a 640 x 480 screen gives a near laptop experience for data entry into commercial databases and the like. I bet HP produce a ruggedised version of the 214 soon enough.

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

Perhaps you just really like pineapples - pineapple workers often lose their fingerprints due to the keratolytic effect of bromelain.

I didn't know that! I really do like pineapple! But when I was a teenager I started eating them for breakfast and the enzyme in them started making my tongue tingle so I stopped eating so much - seems the enzyme used to be injected into cattle to tenderise meat etc...

Seriously though, my Sony VAIO fingerprint reader is also superb and is far better than having to enter repeated passwords for secure log in to the machine and to various secure websites.

Is it the same tech. used? ( capacitive resistance) ? Is the swipe area slightly curved?

I bet HP produce a ruggedised version of the 214 soon enough.

From HTC no doubt. We're just guniea pigs...

M.S

Edited April 13, 2008 by Mysterious Stranger

[Guest AEP]

Hi, Paul!!! Congratulations on the P6500! I've been looking to get my hands on one for aaaaages. Finally found someone in Chicago who somehow has a couple in stock and am expecting to get one.

But I've got a few questions about the phone which I hope you can answer:

1. I'm seeing conflicting reports about whether it actually has GPS or if it requires an external GPS attachment. I know that it has a port for an external GPS antenna. But do you _need_ this antenna to make the GPS work, or does the P6500's GPS work out of the box? If an antenna is required, what do I need to buy?

2. How do headphones sound plugged into a USB jack? I know that other devices use this sort of audio hookup, but I've never used one and I'm a musician, so it's something I'm nervous about. It the sound any different from what you'd get through a standard headphone jack?

3. Where and how did you get the phone?

Thanks so much! I'm really excited about this phone and would be very grateful for any guidance you can give with these last few questions.

Yours, Alan

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

1. I'm seeing conflicting reports about whether it actually has GPS or if it requires an external GPS attachment. I know that it has a port for an external GPS antenna. But do you _need_ this antenna to make the GPS work, or does the P6500's GPS work out of the box? If an antenna is required, what do I need to buy?

Defo has GPS - the external port is for an external antenna and the unit does not need one to function with GPS - I have co-pilot 6 running fine.

M.S

[Guest AldPixto]

The fingerprint security popped up so frequently, like in the middle of searching for contacts or using the GPS, that I turned it off to keep my sanity. What criteria does it use and can it be adjusted?

Still... I might turn it back on (and re-enroll my fingers) before taking a plane trip because I feel that taxis, airports, hotels, and meetings are the most likely place to lose a phone.

[Guest AldPixto]

The encryption settings screen says:

Encrypted files can be read only by the

device. WARNING: Encrypted files cannot be

recovered after hard reset or clearing

storage. To help prevent data loss, back up

data from storage cards to another location.

I assume this means part of the encryption keys are stored in flash memory.

So do I have to worry about losing this information (and my ability to read

my encrypted SD cards) if the battery discharges or if I remove the battery

for too long a time?

[Guest AldPixto]

I used to run a Linksys WAP11 WiFi 802.11B access point. It worked fine with my laptops, HTC Universal, and HP iPAQ HW6945 phones. The P6500 could "see" the access point but never connect to it.

The P6500 WiFi worked correctly at cafes and libraries, and I couldn't find any settings for enabling or disabling 802.11B vs. 802.11G.

After replacing the Linksys WAP11 with an EnGenius ECB3500 I can use my P6500 WiFi at home.

Has anyone else experienced problems with the P6500 connecting with older 802.11B-only access points?