History Voxtel in the market Windows Mobile-device has less than a year. Nevertheless, the communicator, which will be discussed in this review, the fourth in the line of the company. Unlike our competitors, Voxtel not seek to satisfy the needs of fans of the top models of smart phones. The company initially focused on mass production of devices occupying a niche in the lower price range. And, we can say that it manages to. Thus, the firstborn of W420 was and remains one of the most affordable smartphones. W740, though, and does not possess a functional filling, however, is very inexpensive compact communicator with a 4-megapixel (!) Camera. The hero is our today's review, model W520, claims to be the most affordable mobile devices with Wi-Fi module on board.
 |
Developer Voxtel W520 is the company TFW, we know from previous models produced under the brand of Voxtel. Basis for the communicator was taken very familiar and repeatedly proven OMAP 730 Processor 200 MHz, so the wonders of the performance of the W520 is not worth waiting. Significant advantage of this "stone" - low power consumption and, consequently, good battery life, but the results of tests will talk a little lower. Generally, with regard to hardware stuffing, the novelty is almost completely repeats the previous model, Voxtel, whose characteristics can be found in the following table. Also, for clarity, we included a comparison of one of the heroes of last year - hit a compact Qtek S200, similar to the W520 in characteristics. Looking ahead, we can say that our hero has inherited the best of its predecessors, and, most importantly, pleased with new solutions for Voxtel. In general, look and compare:
 |
With regard to complete W520, it has not changed in comparison with the latest model W740. Communicator will be supplied in the kit with only the most basic peripherals, namely: a stereo headset, cable, miniUSB, charger and installation CD containing Microsoft ActiveSync. Do not forget that we are dealing with the budget unit, so that a modest configuration does not have to wonder.
Ergonomics and Design
W520 housing made of quality plastic in dark gray, similar to S200. Unlike his predecessors, gravitating to the strict forms, our hero has a streamlined shape, sharp corners of his non-existent. In his hand typewriter is, as poured, no backlash is observed. Pleasantly surprised and the number of government communicators. If previous models ergonomics partly sacrificed minimalist design, the W520, in spite of its compactness, the manufacturer equipped the record for Voxtel number of hardware buttons. Thus, under the display, where is usually a control unit can detect a circular 4-way control key. In the center of the buttons confirmation, several serving areas over clicks. Left and right of the navigation keys are located, respectively, the call button and hang up. Pleasantly pleased with the fact that they are metal coated and have a convex shape, 1-2 mm acting on the body.
 |
In addition to the two additional keys, attached to the soft buttons on the operating system, added the call key and return to the Start menu. Number and location of the bottom of the W520 resembles the control unit Qtek S200. The upper part of the front of the device is decorated with elongated speaker in a metal bezel, the right of which we can expect a surprise. There are even a function key, by default, causing Internet Explorer. It is slightly recessed into the body and is aligned with the LED. The location of this key, of course, not the most convenient, to reach it with your thumb without moving the device, not everyone can, but the fact of its existence is certainly enjoyable.
 |
We proceed to the inspection side of the machine. Ironically, on the right side we find the usual buttons, volume control, they moved to the opposite side. Such an arrangement is often used in conventional phones. However, a similar situation, we were able to observe and W740. The volume control is also metallized and a few above the surface of the body, to manage it quite convenient. Beneath it, at the base of the communicator, there is another metal control element - the button on the camera. All connectors, namely access to the headset (W520 has a built-in cross-section 2,5 mm) and a slot for memory cards miniSD, located on the left side of the device. MiniSD slot in communicators Voxtel applied for the first time, and this is another difference from previous models.
 |
The upper bound of the device is preparing a few surprises. First, there was something lacking for W420 and W740, namely - separate on / off button of the communicator. Secondly, lo and behold, the stylus holder! In recent years, slowly began to wean users from the fact that it is located in the upper right corner. Himself as a stylus, according to today's standards, made originally. He has a monolithic structure and its length is virtually identical to the device. A sort of stylus in retro style. I must say that using it is very convenient. Removing the stylus from the pencil-box also does not cause any difficulties.
And on the bottom W520 are standard connector miniUSB.
On the back of the device, you can find the speaker box 2-megapixel camera and plug that covers the exit to the external antenna.
Is to say that when designing a model in Voxtel take into account all defects of its predecessors, so for ergonomics W520 can deliver five. The buttons are spaced very well, their performance is also not satisfactory.The metal parts look great on the device, and even add to it "status." The disadvantages of control can be attributed the fact that of all the hardware buttons, only two can be reprogrammed to your taste - the call button camera and browser.
The attentive reader must have already asked the question - where is the soft reset button? In this regard, the W520 is echoed by his predecessor W740. The reset button is located under the battery cover - on the left, just above center. Of course, the location is not the best, given the intermittent-treatment to the control on the Windows Mobile-devices in general:)
Screen
W520 has the same screen as its predecessor W740: diagonal is 2.4 inches, the resolution is standard - 320x240, number of colors displayed - 65 536. On the small screen with QVGA resolution picture looks sharper, due to small grains. Despite the small size of the display, no problems with management or the readability of textual information is not observed.
 |
However, the W520 has inherited from the W740 not only all the technical details, but the implementation of the display. If you remember, W740 was at the bottom of the screen a number of touch keys to control the basic functions of your device. Apparently, the developer wanted to do something similar in the new model, but for some unknown reason, touch keys in W520 are absent, but a place reserved for them. That is the part of the display, which formed the image is not the entire surface of the screen and a little less. Black bar at the bottom of the screen does not cause discomfort during the operation, but a visual impression of some incompleteness. Brightness on the device has six degrees adjustment - from subtle (zero) to maximum (5). Completely disable the backlight can not. Maximum level is enough to use a communicator in bright sunlight. For comfortable reading books minimum illumination may not be sufficient for these purposes, you can set the slider to "1".
 |
As for the quality of performance and viewing angles display is identical to that used in the W740 and complies with current devices.
Speed and memory
Opportunities CPU TI OMAP 730 are well known, its popularity is due kommunikatorostroenii low power consumption and low cost. Recently, the use of processors with 200 MHz gradually decreases in proportion to the needs of users of smartphones. Nevertheless, its application in low-cost communicators completely justifies itself, the processor handles basic tasks, though somewhat limits its owner in respect of current games and watching videos in high definition. To assess the performance of machines, we traditionally have used Spb Benchmark test suite from a company Sbp Software House. Let's see what we have.
 |
As shown by tests, the hero of our review outperforms previous models Voxtel, but a little does not reach the Qtek S200. As expected, the performance of miracles W520 is not shown. If we ignore the numbers and describe the efficiency of the device from a user perspective, we can say that the main objectives machine copes well. Navigation through the menu instantly, for a standard office applications communicator takes about one second. To assess the quality of video playback, we used a well-known to our readers the player TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player) version 0.72RC1. We only recall that a norm accepted to take the result of 120%. Test rollers are made in the most popular resolutions and encoded the most common codecs for DivX and XviD. The results are shown in the table.
 |
The results also seem quite natural. The only thing that surprised - the poor quality of playing movies in the resolution of 216x160. We can say that W520 is suitable only for video on the resolution of 320x176, which, however, looks very decent for its small screen. Memory size W520 - standard. Memory (RAM) is 64 MB, of which 43.88 MB user available for data storage (ROM) allocated 128 MB, of which the user is 66.10 MB. Immediately after rebooting the device free to remain approximately 27.5 MB of RAM. Well, the figures - not bad. These figures show the majority of modern smartphones. For memory expansion is provided miniSD card slot, hot swappable.
Sound
Sound capabilities W520 correspond to the level "above average". Speaker located at the rear of the device, it sounds loud enough to not miss a single call. It is almost flush with the rear cover of the device. Accordingly, if the device lies on the surface of the screen up, sounding somewhat muffled. In any case, do not listen to the call will be difficult. Vibrate device has an average power. Voice speaker W520 is also very good. Caller's voice perfectly audible. During testing, the volume control at all times been established at the fourth division of six. To listen to music the user is desirable to acquire an adapter for 3.5 mm, since the W520 is equipped with 2,5 mm audiodzhekom. The quality of music playback - on average. Not particularly demanding for the sound to the user machine may well be replaced by mp3-player.
Sociability
Telephony device provides the tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900. However, like previous models Voxtel, does not support high speed data transfer technology with EDGE. This point, of course, does not add points device.
Bluetooth-module W520 operates under the drivers from Microsoft and supports almost all the profiles: - File Transfer (file transfer)
- DUN (using device as modem)
- HID (Connection of Bluetooth-keyboard)
- A2DP (stereo playback over Bluetooth headphones)
During the testing device is normally in contact with phones Sony Ericsson W300i, Nokia 6630 and Nokia N-GAGE QD, as well as with his younger brother, communicator Voxtel W420. Session Bluetooth-connection with the headset from Sony Ericsson, Jabra also has been successful. In short, the work of the wireless interface has not caused any complaints, all the declared service functioned without problems. Well, finally, the most interesting. As we said at the beginning of the review, W520 - the first low-cost device Voxtel supports Wi-Fi. When testing the device operates at maximum speed of 11 Mb / s, which corresponds to the standard 802.11b. However, support for fast 802.11g is not necessary for the communicator, it is rather a marketing tool manufacturers. Despite the fact that Wi-Fi was first used in the production of Voxtel, working last beyond praise. Machine very quickly finds the access point, the connection keeps stable. In a word, first try out is not lumpy. Separate program for managing Wi-Fi is not provided, will use the services of third party developers. All wireless interfaces obey the familiar program of Wireless Manager.
 |
Luggage
In the device installed CMOS-matrix with a resolution of 2 megapixel, similar to the one we saw in the model W420. Nevertheless, the picture quality was much better than. This is especially noticeable in the photo, taken in conditions of artificial lighting. In this regard, compare the novelty of W740 does not make sense, since the last camera is considered one of the best solutions for mobile devices (not least thanks to 4 M matrix). Below you can see examples of photographs taken of the W420 and the same images taken with the camera W520. As they say, progress is evident.
 |
| Voxtel W420: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W420: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W420: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample photo 1600 x 1200 |
Interface control the camera exactly the same as the previous models Voxtel. In the menu the following options:
- Selecting the picture (photo, video, portrait, self-timer, a series)
- scale (in this paragraph is set digital zoom at full resolution zoom value is not changed)
- light (white balance settings: auto, day, fluorescent, incandescent, night)
- special effects (normal, black & white, sepia, cold, warm)
Also be possible to set the brightness, saturation and contrast of the image.Resolution photos can be selected within a wide range: 160x120, 176x144, 320x240, 352x288, 640x480, 1280x960 and 1600x1200.
Shooting video is only possible in the resolution of 176x144 with or without sound. Recording Format - WMV. By default, the device is set limit on the duration of the video in 30 seconds, which can always be corrected. A 30-second video at maximum quality takes about 3 MB. Video quality - normal for communicators. With the example you can also check below.
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample video (wmv, 2837 KB) |
 |
| Voxtel W520: sample video (wmv, 1436 KB) |
Sample video
Runtime
W520 battery capacity is 1100 mAh. As usual, the battery life was tested in three basic modes: 1. Maximum load. The brightness set to maximum, the speaker volume is also included GSM-module, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, through Windows Media Player in a cycle of playing "heavy" video. Battery life was 2 hours and 50 minutes. 2. Normal operation. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi disabled. The brightness is set to the second division of the account. On the PDA was started reading the text in Haali Reader with automatic scrolling. Time work was 19 hours 22 minutes. 3. MP3 Playback. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned off. Lights - the minimum value (note below). Listening through headphones at maximum volume. We used Windows Media Player and files with a bitrate 192 Kb / c. Hours - 13 hours 25 minutes. The results, which showed the W520, is commendable. Thus, in the mode of reading electronic books and listening to music, our hero is running much longer than most competitors. The device is worse than just Qtek S200 at maximum load. This may be due to software management features wireless interfaces.
 |
We note one more nuance. The fact that completely disable the screen by standard means, without disrupting Windows Media Player, you can not. Therefore, when testing of battery life in MP3-player mode, the backlight was turned on and set the minimum level. Even though this device has shown excellent results. Total for everyday use, implying 15-20 minutes of calls a day, about 30 minutes use GPRS, 30-40 minutes of reading electronic books and periodicals include W-Fi, machine confidently lasted two days. In a more modest load device can be recharged more often.
Soft
Voxtel W520 is running Windows Mobile 5.0 with latest service pack AKU 3.3. As is the case with their predecessors, a set of additional software on the device - an extremely modest.Present application to manage wireless interfaces, Wireless Manager, which we mentioned above, is there an emulator Java applications from Esmertec Java, is able to bring a smile to his curious localization (eg, para About translated as "about», Exit - «Care and the Move -« move ").
Cverh addition, there is a soft-program package W520 SIM Manager, as a developer whose company listed Tech Faith Wireless. This utility is very easy to use and is designed to copy the entries from SIM-card and phone memory.
Notes Users
I must say that communication with Voxtel W520 for a week has left only the most positive impression. Regarding ergonomics, carp absolutely no sense. It is curious that one day I was "lucky" to forget in the office of the stylus. I discovered this only after two hours, though quite actively used the machine for reading books, phone calls and e-mail viewer. In short, to perform most common tasks to resort to using the pen is not necessary. But, admittedly, the speed of the W520 - not the highest. This is especially noticeable when opening large documents or zooming photos. Strong stimulation of this point does not cause, especially if, before you have used the communicators based on TI OMAP 730/850. If you do not load a page Today heavy launcher, like WisBar or Spb Pocket Plus, machine will work smartly enough. For quick access to programs for such devices personally I use a bunch of Spb Mobile Shell plus SBSH iLauncher.
Hard Reset
The instructions to the previous models, communicators Voxtel, unfortunately, there was no information on how to do a hard reset, without resorting to the device menu. The instructions to the W520 user also does not find ways to describe the hard-reset. More accurately described only the procedure to return to factory defaults through the menu, but when you want to Hard Reset, not always to this menu, you can get. So I decided to gather all the data on the Hard Reset'a on devices Voxtel and post here. In the case of the W420 and W740 for a hard reset, press and hold the three keys - call (green button), rebound (red button) and turn on the camera. In parallel with the stylus to press the button Soft Reset. Let me remind you that the W420 is located under the rubber cover, next to the connector miniUSB, while the W740 - a battery cover on the left. In the case of the W520 way to carry out a hard reset is a little different from what is described above (an hour's time was well spent, the desired combination is found:). Here we keep only two keys - a challenge and a camera. At the same time the stylus press the button Soft Reset, located in the battery compartment. In any case, recall that before the Hard Reset'om need to backup the system, because all you installed software along with the data will be destroyed.
Price
Starting price Voxtel W520 will be 13,599 rubles ($ 525). Thus, W520 will be one of the most affordable PDA that supports W-Fi.
Output
Voxtel W520 is designed to occupy a niche that was formed after the withdrawal from the market model Qtek S200. At the moment, is the most affordable and compact smartphone with Wi-Fi on board, though not differing speeds.Possible rival of our hero could be called P3400 from HTC, but it has at least one disadvantage compared to the W520 - the lack of Wi-Fi, but in this price segment, it can play a decisive role in selecting the device.
As a result, the unit will become a reliable workhorse for those who buy the device for mobile work with documents, conducting e-mails and Internet access. Excellent ergonomics and compact size of only "play into the hands» W520.
Pros: - excellent ergonomics and compact size
- decent battery life
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (a rare combination for a budget model)
- large and comfortable stylus
Cons: - rather weak processor
- lack of EDGE
- modest set of additional software
- involved is not the whole working surface of the screen (the black bar at the bottom of the screen)
The authors, translation:
Andrey Bychkov (aka 13lurfan)
