E-TEN - Glofiish X500 review - page 2
unusual PDA with GPS and excellent screen
Review date: 02 February, 2007. Review by: Sandra Vogel
Well, certainly you are getting a PDA that, apart from 3G capability, ticks all the boxes. The higher-than-usual resolution screen (most Pocket PCs are 320 x 240 pixels), gives much greater clarity to images and text, and this will matter most to those who like to Web browse, read ebooks or look at other documents. At 2.8 inches corner-to-corner the screen is pretty large for this kind of device, too.
The GPS receiver is a boon if you are a sat-nav fan, since if you add some navigation software you don't need to worry about buying a separate sat-nav device. Even without such software the X500+ can manage a GPS-related trick: it can pinpoint your latitude and longitude and pop this into an SMS message. Handy if another device can pick that information up and use it to find you.
Windows Mobile 6 Professional is a step up from Windows Mobile 5.0 and offers a huge number of small tweaks designed to enhance usability. Anyone using their PDA alongside a Microsoft Exchange Server network will find additional enhancements are within their grasp.
In addition to these features the X500+ includes a 2-megapixel camera that has an unusual added capability; business card scanning. You photograph a business card and its contents are - in theory - captured into the Contacts application. During testing we had to do a bit of editing on some card data, while in other cases every piece of information was captured perfectly.
An FM radio is also included and this is another relatively rare feature in Pocket PCs. Add it to the device's ability to play music files and you have plenty of audio options. Be warned, though, that the provided headset has a 2.5mm jack and is required for FM radio use as it contains the antenna. When testing the battery we got eight and a half hours of music from a full charge with the screen forced to stay on.
There was about 30MB of free storage space on our review sample and a microSD card slot for you to add more. E-TEN adds a few other applications including an icon-driven alternative to the Windows Mobile Today screen and something called Birthday Reminder, which keeps track of anniversaries.
Verdict
Because the Glofiish X500 is not supported by an operator contract it is rather expensive. But it is comparable in functions to T-Mobile's new MDA Compact III and O2's new XDA Orbit, and may be worth adding to your 'compare list' if you are considering either of those.
Company: E-TEN
Contact: 0161 868 0868
