|
Introduction
Over
the past couple of
years I
have experimented with various PDAs such as the Clie TH55, Treo 600,
iPAQ 4150,
Sony Ericsson p910 and most recently the Fujitsu Loox 720 and iPAQ
hw6515. The
Loox became my main companion because it is a near perfect PDA but the
Treo 600
and iPAQ hw6515 tempted me to try more converged devices. The
Treo’s screen was
simply not good enough for me and made the device feel 90% phone and
10% PDA.
The hw6515 had a better screen but was still a bit cumbersome and felt
more
like a big phone than a PDA- without doubt the PDA functions are all
there and
work well but the form factor and screen were not enough to make me put
my hand
in my pocket as it still felt like too much of a compromise for a
hardened PDA
user. The p910i was not to my taste at all- very slow and I found the
OS clunky
and cumbersome to say the least. It was also a large device which
lacked pocket
ability… So, the search continued for a Smart Phone which was a
proper PDA and
a Phone in the one small device. Every machine so far had dropped bits
off
somewhere in the development process and this did not bode well.
My
wife
lost her mobile phone the other day (for the 3rd time in a
year.
Grrrr.) so I decided to get her a contract phone as her pay as you go
usage was
increasing every month. After much searching and looking at
XDA’s, Treos etc.
etc. I plumped for the MDA.
First
impressions
The
Loox
720 has been wonderful for me- fantastic screen, WiFi, lots of memory
etc. etc.
but I haven’t used it since I turned on the MDA. I knew
immediately that the
Loox was going to be replaced as this was the first device I had used
which
accomplished a decent phone and PDA in one. Despite the small screen it
is
standard at 240 x 320 and runs all 3rd party software
available,
barring a couple of very high end games. As for design it is near
perfect- it
looks and feels like a phone (almost iPod like) yet crams in full
Windows
Mobile effectiveness. It’s strange at first dialling using the on
screen
numbers but this is probably easier than tapping away at tiny keys seen
on
other Smart Phones.
Battery
Life
I
would
rate the battery life as good considering its size and the fact that I
am a
heavy mobile user. So far I have had no issues with power even though
some days
I am making and receiving up to 50 calls- a charge is required each day
but all
of my PDAs have been sat in cradles for good proportions of each day so
this is
no real struggle. The added advantage of the MDA is that it uses mini
USB which
opens up the accessory range for any new user. Simply purchase a USB
car
adapter (couple of pounds) and you can charge the MDA whilst driving
using the
supplied cable. Chances are you may already own a mini USB cable to
that gives
a second charging/sync solution at work. The lack of an included cradle
is a
pain but not unusual for mini USB devices. You can buy one for under
£20 but I
prefer to have that kind of thing in the box.
The
phone side
The
telephony side is excellent. I expected either poor call volume or a
reduced
signal level but both are BETTER than my RAZR V3, indeed the call
volume is
superior and takes a lot of hassle away which was there previously with
the V3.
I’m not overly convinced by the input methods (skins) but the
speed dial
feature works well and the general integration with the PDA functions
is
excellent. Clicking on a contact’s number starts a call and this
has brought a
whole new meaning to my contacts database as I am actually bothering to
keep it
updated now. On the whole I am extremely satisfied with the MDA phone
capabilities and having proper text input for text messages helps even
more. A
superb business tool!
The PDA
side
Moving
from VGA to QVGA is always hard but in this case the much smaller
screen
dimensions ironically help. eBooks have been easily readable and day to
day
usage has not been affected too much by the lesser number of pixels.
Movies
look good after conversion with DVD to Pocket PC studio and even
Virtual Pool
Mobile plays like a dream on it- you will notice a difference when
using QVGA
games and applications where before you used the VGA versions but I
have not
found myself crying over the loss of VGA which I expected to do.
Speed
is
good but I have had problems with iLauncher and cLaunch which both took
ages to
refresh after a soft reset and sometimes after simply turning the
device on.
Spb Pocket Plus does not have this problem so I will find time to
notify the
relevant developers about this. MSRW does not play at all- it is a very
high
end game but I was surprised at this because Virtual Mobile Pool,
Ancient Evil
and Street Duel work perfectly. I’m pleased to say that
Mastersoft SuDoku works
perfectly as well and was the first game I installed. So far only MSRW
has not
worked properly.
Memory
is
the big issue with the MDA- 64MB is simply not enough for any Pocket PC
these
days. I only have PocketBreeze, WeatherPanel and Spb Pocket Plus in RAM
and
still I am struggling with below 20MB program memory available.
Interestingly
the MDA loses memory as well which was a problem I had with the Loox
until the
update was released by Fujitsu- I will look into this further to see
what
causes it but suspect answers will be hard to come by…
The
stylus
is small but again has not been an issue even though the Loox one I am
used to
is much larger. Buttons are sensibly placed and don’t litter the
casing like
some devices and all in all as a PDA is it basic but strong enough to
cope with
what all but the most obsessed users will throw at it.
TomTom
Navigator 5.0 works well on the MDA and in fact is much quicker than on
the
Loox. Maybe this is down to the lower screen resolution but in
practical use it
makes little difference to route planning and the ability to take
instructions
when driving. Pairing various Bluetooth devices such as headsets and
the TomTom
has also been very quick and simple. I have a new WiFi SD card which I
haven’t
tried yet but I expect few problems setting that up (even I can manage
that!). UPDATE- I have had a few problems but sorted it in the end.
GPRS
has
been a pain in the a** and I still have no connectivity. This could be
an MDA
problem, a Vodafone problem or a user problem. Hmmmm…
Conclusion
The Loox
is on eBay, the MDA is my constant companion and I am delighted with
the
quality of this unit. I can find little wrong with it and am fairly
certain
that my traditional PDA days are over. Now that there is a 128MB QTEK
device
available that makes things a touch difficult. I don’t have the
money for that
at the moment but feel sure that the extra RAM will solve the main
drawback of
the MDA.
|
