Day One impressions....
The new scanner is waaaay better than the one on the DIAD IV once you get used to the different angle. I made it thru the entire day without having to manually enter a barcode; on my old DIAD IV I was probably having to manually enter 10% of the packages in my car because their labels were chewed up or otherwise unreadable. I am still stuggling to get used to the laser being a "bullseye" instead of a horizontal line. I like being able to scan labels regardless of their orientation.
There will no longer be an issue with customers pressing the signature key with their thumbs while signing. Yay!! On the flip side, the stylus is tiny and the little cord that keeps it connected sort of gets in the way when the customer tries to sign. I might wind up removing the stylus from the DIAD completely and keeping in my shirt pocket instead of making the customer fumble with it.
The keys are small and a bit confusing. I know that I will get used to them in time. There are numerous icons and functions that I have no clue about, and it was a challenge for me to transition between real keys and touch-screen keys during a delivery. I did not like the additional scan and little arrow up/down keys on either side of the DIAD; I kept pressing them by mistake. They are merely duplicates of keys that are already on the front and I found them to be of no real use or benefit. Sending text messages took me longer because of the small size of the keys, but I will improve with practice and I wont wind up typing gibberish due to forgetting to toggle between letters and numbers with that stupid "shift" key that was on the IV.
I liked being able to stick it in my back pocket. I dont care for belt clips or holsters, and never wore one when I had a IV. The small size of the V makes them unnecessary. I had a real problem figuring out what to do with it once I got back in the car; I have heard there is a new holder for the V that will replace the DIAD III/IV holders that are currently installed, but my car doesnt have one. When I stuck it in the DIAD IV holder, it jiggled around so much on bumpy roads that the scan key would continually get pressed against the inside of the holder. I had one delivery (immediately after a pickup) where the scan key had gotten pressed so many times that it took over 2 minutes for it to quit scanning and let me get back into EDD. My Telematics report for tomorrow will show that I had several hundred "recording in travel" occurences today. Oh well. I finally solved the problem by keeping it in my cup holder.
It "crashed" 4 times today, requiring me to restart it. There is a little indented restart key on the bottom that you can press by using the stylus or the tip of a pen, it has the same function as pressing "A K X" did on the DIAD IV. My sup said it may have been a loose battery, and that they will fix or replace it tonight.
Overall, I give it a B+. Its a huge improvement over DIAD IV.