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Performance
Unfortunately, this is the one area you'll want
to read because this phone does have one minor but very serious issue that
many have complained about. In fact, a majority of owners are quite
angry and shocked that something like this managed to slip by prior to
releasing the phone to the market, which I might add was originally delayed
more than once in the first place.
Missed Call Issue
The Qtek 8500 suffers from what I believe is a
hardware/network related issue and not necessarily a ROM issue. If your phone
is inactive for a certain period of time and you try and call, it will not
ring nor register the call in any way. Open the phone and close it
again and it will basically "wake up" and begin to register all calls.
It appears to go into a deep sleep mode where it is unable to pickup
incoming calls or even text messages. I tried everything, including
working with the folks that designed the SmartTweaker software, but were
unable to find a solution to the problem. In fact, I spent most of my
time just trying to find a solution prior to posting this article. However, note that HTC is very aware of the problem.
What has seriously frustrated me is that I've read some of their responses to owners and they only seem to
confuse them rather than give them any sort of hope. I find this quite
unbelievable actually. Such an expensive phone can't even perform one
of its main and most important functions.
Update 08/27/06: After extensive
testing, I can confirm it is not a hardware or network issue, but rather a
result of the ROM loaded on the device. Thanks to the brilliant folks
over at MIGsofT
LTD.UK, they were able to provide their CID unlock service in order
to confirm that it is definitely a ROM issue that plagues the Qtek 8500.
They provide a service that will allow you CID unlock your phone so that you
can load a third-party ROM on the device. Before we get into it
further, most readers may be a bit confused by the term "unlocked", and is
why I'll try to briefly explain the difference between each.
What is CID unlock?
CID unlock is not to be confused with SIM
unlock. When you purchase a phone that is "unlocked", that means that
is SIM unlocked so that you can use any carrier supported by the device.
In this case, any GSM carrier such as T-Mobile or Cingular. CID lock,
on the other hand, can also be referred to as a vendor lock. It basically prevents you
from loading any other ROM that is not supported or officially released by
them.
Using their service and downloading and
installing the I-mate ROM will solve the missed the call issue.
On top of that, the I-mate ROM brings a few improvements as well, primarily
in regards to performance. For those with the 8500, I strongly
recommend you load the I-mate ROM. It is the best ROM release for this
phone for the time being. Instructions and more information can be
found on the
Imei-check.co.uk Website. Also, for those who don't have the
device and are planning on purchasing one, this is the option to take as
well. The I-mate Smartflip was the the last model to be released and
will cost you substantially more money that the Qtek model. You can
save some of your hard-earned cash and purchase a Qtek 8500 now for roughly
$350. I've seen the I-mate Smartflip sell as high as $650.
Bluetooth
**click to enlarge**
The Qtek 8500 was tested with a number of
bluetooth devices, including the Motorola H3 headset, CoPilot SiRFstarIII
GPS receiver and the excellent WAAS enabled i.Trek M5 GPS receiver that
Semsons sent over
for testing.
The Motorola H3 headset worked flawlessly with
the 8500 and upon powering the headset for the first time, it was
immediately recognized. All other devices were also quite simple to
install and I did not encounter any issues pairing any of them with this
phone.
The Motorola H3 was a pleasure to use with this
phone. Not only does it compliment its design perfectly, but
performance was above average. Once I turned it on, the phone quickly
picked it up without the need to go in a search for a new device. Now,
some have experienced some issues with the End button on their bluetooth
headsets. Apparently, some say that it does not actually hang up the
call. I did not experience this issue and all notification sounds were
heard through the headset. Now, keep in mind that while the Qtek 8500
does support A2DP out of the box, many have said that they get sound in mono
only. Unfortunately, I do not have an A2DP headset yet to confirm
there is indeed an issue.
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Using the Qtek 8500 with bluetooth GPS receivers
was a pleasure. Both the receiver bundled with CoPilot and the one
from Sensons worked flawlessly. I would like to add that the
Semsons
i.Trek M5 is an excellent WAAS enabled receiver and much better than the one
bundled with CoPilot. Not only was its tracking and accuracy much more
impressive, but this receiver sports an auto on/off feature and has one of the
longest battery life of any product of its kind...more than 30 hrs!
With it, I was easily able to track between eight and ten satellites quite
frequently. Highly recommended!
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I loaded two GPS Navigation Suites on the Qtek
8500 and tested them extensively.
Mapopolis worked flawlessly on this
phone, with little to no lag. However, the phone's unimpressive specs
truly were apparent when using
CoPilot Live 6. The phone hesitated a
bit, particularly when using the excellent 3D menu this version does
feature. Also, re-routing when purposely taking the wrong route was
quite slow. To be quite honest, it seemed slightly slower than the
older Audiovox SMT-5600. That is not to say that it is not capable of
running this software. In fact, I was quite pleased with how it
handled both, despite the unimpressive processor and memory capacity this
phone does sport. If I'd have to choose, I would strongly recommend
Mapopolis in terms of a performance perspective.
Update 08/27/06: Surprisingly, the
I-mate ROM also played a significant role in performance when it came down
to CPU intensive applications such as GPS navigation. Both CoPilot and
Mapopolis performed quite well. CoPilot loaded faster and was not as
"sluggish" as it was when first tested. While I still recommend
Mapopolis for this particular phone, the phone with the new ROM was able to
handle both with ease.
Camera
I don't think the Camera Software itself is as
bad as some have stated in some of the horrible reviews I've read on this
device. It works as intended and does offer you a slew of advanced
options. Now, when it came down to picture quality, that was a whole
other story! The Camera on the Qtek 8500 is absolutely horrendous.
Heck, the VGA camera on my Audiovox SMT-5600 took better pictures, and this
phone sports a megapixel camera. Needless to say, I was quite
disappointed. Pictures taken outside in bright daylight looked good.
However, indoor shots in artificial lighting as well as night shots were absolutely
horrible. The camera also failed to take decent shots of neon or florescent
signs as well, a test I like to do when testing such a device. Changing settings, including setting it to night mode,
seemed to make pictures look even worse than at its auto settings. To
give you an idea, I have provided some unedited pictures taken with Qtek
8500 below. Click on the icons to view.
Pic1 - Outside Daylight
Pic2 - Outside Night (Auto Setting)
Pic3 - Outside Night (Night Setting)
Pic4 - Indoors Artificial Lighting
Pic5 - Florescent Bar Sign (Unlit)
Pic6 - Florescent Bar Sign (Lighted)
If you take a look at the night shot using the
night setting, you can't even make out the picture and looks as if it was
taken in motion. I assure you that I took that same picture multiple
times with a steady hand. If anyone owning the Qtek 8500, I-mate
Smartflip or Dopod S300 have been able to take better night shots, I'd
seriously like to see them. Share them in the
forum thread.
Update 08/27/06: While I still think the
camera on this phone is absolutely horrible, the new ROM did seem to
slightly improve picture quality, enough to make a mention of it. A sample pic below...
Pic 7 - Indoors Artificial Lighting
Voice Recordings
Voice recordings on this phone were impressive,
especially when compared to older Smartphones. Recordings are loud,
clear and with little background noise. The only thing you will notice
is that they sound as if you had the treble all the way up when playing a
sound or music file. However, I will say I was impressed and I believe
it is good enough for its intended purpose. The original unedited sample recording
is provided below. Click on icon to play.
Sample
Voice Recording
EDGE Performance
One of the most notable features of the Qtek
8500 is its EDGE support. This means you should achieve much faster
data transfer speeds than a standard GPRS Smartphone. With that said,
extensive testing was done to try and capture its true potential. I
ran a variety of speed tests, including those from
Broadband Reports,
2Wire
and SpeakEasy. Tests were run in different locations and sometimes
very late at night to ensure there was no excessive load on most test
servers. The Qtek 8500 did about average in speed tests, especially
considering many users have not been able to achieve any impressive results.
The highest speed I was able to achieve was 117/ kbps, which is right in the
middle when you consider its EDGE radio is capable of speeds up to
236.8/kbps. However, keep in mind that it is still much faster than GPRS and the average speed during testing did not fall below 82/kbps.
I highly recommend speed tests from Broadband Reports for the highest
reliability.
Reception & Call Quality
Now, despite the serious incoming call issue,
this phone has what I think is the best reception of any Smartphone I've
used. Using Cingular service in Miami, FL, I will maintain all four
bars consistently, even indoors. Very rarely would I hit two or three
bars. Those calls I was able to make and receive were clear and I did
not experience any dropped calls. I was seriously impressed with its
reception and call quality.
Update 08/27/06: My most important
concerns was reception and call quality when loaded the ROM. The phone
has excellent reception and I can confirm that loading the I-mate ROM did
not affect reception or call quality at all.
Battery Life
Do to its sleek form factor, the Qtek 8500
sports a rather small 750mAH battery pack. However, don't be fooled by
that. Battery life was excellent, even with bluetooth enabled.
When I first saw the size of the battery pack, I was quite concerned.
However, most users will be impressed with its ability to hold a charge for
an extensive period of time.
Build Quality
Build quality is quite good, but really
subjective. Yes, the phone is designed quite well and both the display
and keypad are impressive. However, the phone is so light, that it
"feels" like your holding a dummy display phone as it is primarily made of
plastic. When you look at the front of the phone, it gives you the
illusion that the external display is much larger. It is not, and
there's plenty of area that is prone to scratches over extensive use.
A screen protector for the external display area would be ideal.
Update 08/27/06: The I-mate ROM does bring
some interesting questions in regards to performance and memory usage.
With the previous models I had, memory usage was almost at its maximum,
sometimes resulting in constant low-memory prompts. The I-mate ROM
comes with the ClearVue Suite pre-installed, meaning that it will further
affect the available free memory on the device itself. However, things
were completely the opposite. Available free memory after installing
the I-mate ROM was roughly 12MB and memory usage with this new phone was
not an issue at all. Below is a screenshot of available memory after
installing a number of applications, some on the device itself.
I've read of many complaining about the lack of
memory, considering the ClearVue Suite does come pre-installed.
However, out of the three phones I played with, this is by far the best.
Available storage memory remained between 10-12mb. I'm a bit
puzzled by this and would like to hear from others.
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