Review: HTC SMT-5800
The 5800 is loaded up with Windows Media Player. It is a very capable application for playing your music and video content. You can open it from the Today screen or by going into the main menu via the Start key. The library segregates your content by music, videos, TV, playlists and what was played last. The music menu gives you several different ways to sort your library: all music, artist, album and genre. WMP had some trouble sorting through the music stored on our microSD card. It wasn't able to place the songs into their albums, so the album sort view was rendered useless. We could only choose to see all of our songs, even though each song was tagged correctly.
Once you pick some songs and start playing them, the music player interface itself is basic and utilitarian. The center of the D-pad becomes your play/pause button. Hitting the D-pad left or right advances to the next track or takes you back to the previous track. Hitting the D-pad up and down raises or lowers the volume.
The right soft key opens up the music menu. Some of the menu items duplicate the D-pad's actions, but there are a few selections that let you adjust the player's options and check song properties. The options give you only basic control over the player, but you can assign different functions to the D-pad, which lets you customize it a bit.
Since the 5800 does not have any headset jacks, you have to use stereo Bluetooth headphones or a USB-to-3.5mm adapter if you want to listen in private. The default for the music player is to play through the external speaker. Sound quality through the speaker was so-so.
WMP gets the job done, but it certainly doesn't raise the bar.
CTIA Fall 2007
CTIA 2007
Samsung Refreshes Galaxy S Series with S Pen, New Cameras
Samsung Upgrades its Wearables
iPhone 14 Plus Offers a Big Screen For Less
HTC 5800 / Fusion / S720
