What kind of mobile phone do you have? Are you considering upgrading to a new Treo or XV6700? Our very own Sven had recently scribbled “A Week With the XV6700.” To this, long-time Lockergnomie Rob Vonderhaar responded with the following:

I’ve had (and worked extensively with) both the Treo 700w and the XV6700. In response to your question about Voice Command, it absolutely does work just fine on the 6700 (just be sure you have version 1.5). It was one of the first programs I added to my 6700, in fact! Unfortunately, the big problem with Voice Command is common to *all* WM5 devices - and that’s the inability to activate and use it from a Bluetooth headset or handsfree device. It works ONLY by assigning a button on the phone itself to trigger it, and then interacting with the phone’s mic and speaker. As with any other call, once you get the call established, it will be transferred to the Bluetooth device. But this shortcoming really lessens the whole value of voice command, and it’s frustrating that every other cheap phone with Bluetooth can be voice-commanded directly from the headset with a tap of the headset button.

This is apparently a Microsoft design problem (what else is new?) having to do with the Bluetooth stack, and although many people have tried to hack workarounds for it, I haven’t seen anyone really succeed yet.

I don’t think you can say that one is “better than” the other - they just have different strengths, and it all depends on what you want. I tell people to go with the 6700 if they’re technically inclined, don’t mind doing tweaking and buying/installing other software (like Voice Command), and place a higher priority on PDA functions like browsing and MS Office functions (email, Word, PPT, etc.) vs. phone functions.

On the other hand, the 700w is a better phone (eg, a vastly better speakerphone, much easier one-handed dialing, much louder Bluetooth volume, much louder ringer volume, much louder announcements from Voice Coomand, and add’l Palm enhancements to WM), but it’s less of a “power user PDA” due to the smaller screen, less program memory (about 25 meg available vs. almost 50 meg on the 6700), 25% slower processor, and no integrated WiFi.

Like I said, I started with the 700w, swapped it for a 6700, and ended up swapping a final time back to the 700w again (after talking Verizon into it!) There are things I miss about the 6700, but for my purposes I am happier with the 700w. To each their own! For a bulletpointed wrapup, here’s the comparison.

[tags]pda,bluetooth,phone,microsoft,mobile phone,treo,cell phone,wifi,windows mobile,700w,treo 700w,xv6700[/tags]