Design:

Familiar and Fashionable:

The overall design of the Blackberry 8530 is quite identical to that of the Curve 8250. It is slightly taller than the 8530, but narrower, thinner and lighter. The Curve is built with stylish fashionable design aimed at the younger lots. Instead of a chrome bezel, you have a rubber strip around the side with convenience keys bulging out of its sides. The media control keys are located on the top of this device and the fascia colonizes the track pad in place of a traditional track ball.  Track pad shapes out to be one prominent thing you would appreciate no matter what kind of person you are. This is one of the strong points in this mobile. Talk, End, Return, and Menu keys have been redesigned. But sadly, this hype is let down by the screen and the LED Indicator light. Rather than the screen, the LED irritates you with it being greater than the tip of a ball point pen. RIM has made sure that overall, with a narrow thin and lighter design this device feels like a much compact device in your hand. It is very plasticy however; we will not go as far as to call it cheap feeling, but RIM is really toeing the border here.
For rough users this is a news that they would love to hear. With the Curve 8530 being smaller and lighter dropping this down will not be a problem compared to the delicate phones in the market. Weighing nearly 106 gm this beauty would never trouble your pockets.

Display:

The display screen is 2.4″ with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels supporting 65K colors, the same as the original Curve. While this resolution is fine for general use of the phone like navigating through the operating system, emails , calendar or alarm clock etc; this makes a huge difference in when it comes to the part of web browsing. The screen gives you an annoying experience when you try to zoom a full web page, and the appeal is not as good as the one seen in 8900 or storm.

Keyboard:

The keyboard in design is not much different from its siblings in the series. It comes with small plastic keys which are easy enough to type on, though not as fast as the QWERTY keys in 9xxx series. If you are hoping for an escape from the plastic spaced out keys, then you are out of luck. The keys are small and tightly packed and raised such that typing or tapping out email is not a problem. Overall, this QWERTY keyboard is designed for ease and reliability.

Track pad:

What sets the two devices apart is that the 8530 replaces the trackball with an optical trackpad.  The 8520 was the first RIM device we saw with this, but we have seen it on all RIM devices since save the trackball pad-less 95xx series.  The trackball was not perfect, but we are far from being crazy about its replacement.  We definitely appreciate the sensitivity options, but no matter what we have it set to we just cannot be as precise as with the analog ball.

Buttons and Ports:

In the bottom portion you could see a 3.5mm headset jack, microUSB charging along with one or more convenience keys. On the right side there is the volume rocker with a second convenience key.  The top houses the play back keys.  The battery door features a nice looking carbon fiber finish, which is the only visual difference from the 8520. The camera is just above the door.

Features:

Despite being more of an entry-level device, the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 comes with a good set of features, more so than its T-Mobile counterpart.

Operating System and Processor:

The system used here is the Blackberry OS 5.0 which makes navigation much faster. With this Operating System, you would find that RIM has made slight polishes to the menus and some screens. The quick version is that, there are a few tweaks over 4.6 and 4.7, but the average user will only notice that the drop-down menus look different.  The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has a slightly faster 528MHz processor than the 8520, and the RAM is doubled to 256MB, along with 256MB ROM.  With this increased memory the OS runs very smoothly. The device runs very quickly, helped out by the boost in memory up to 256MB of ROM and 528MHz processor. The processor allows you to navigate through the operating system very quickly but still is not very strong compared to 8900 models.

The phonebook, organizer and other PIM functionality remain virtually unchanged.  For anyone who has used a BlackBerry before you will be right at home.  For first time users you can store just about anything you want about a contact, and the full-featured calendar allows you to customize reminders, recurrence options and much more.  Other basic PIM functionality, like tasks, memo and a calculator are available, and voice dialing is handled by Nuance, as always.

Connectivity:

This blackberry boasts a lot about connectivity. Indeed, it very well can and has the right to. In its arsenal are GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi and 3G Sprint antenna. The connectivity included are Bluetooth friendly and there is support for mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets and audio video remote serial port dial up networking. It is blessed with GPS/A-GPS, 3G, and WiFi. Enabling a WiFi is sure a relief as it brings more WiFi connected devices to its garage, and provides an alternative way to get online. With blackberry OS 5.0 to its back up, there are some slight improvements to the browser like page rendering. One short fall could be that the 3 G coverage is not extensive as AT &T but no troubles were observed in the coverage region.

One major advantage the 8530 has over the 8520 is 3G cellular data, EVDO Rev. 0 in this case. Unlike GSM units, 3G and GPS are not mutually exclusive.  While it does feature the reworked browser first seen with the Bold, the RIM browser is pretty archaic when compared to other smartphone platforms. BlackBerry Desktop Manager handles desktop sync as always.  It is used to manage calendar, tasks, contacts and email synchronization with your desktop.  You can also use the data cable to load media onto the memory card, and Media Sync will allow for iTunes syncing of non-DRM files, like we have seen with other recent Blackberries.

Camera:

RIM Blackberry Curve 8530 is equipped with a 2MP camera. Compared to other PDA models, the camera falls way below the mark when it comes to auto focus and resolution, and it is also devoid of a flash.  Even though the resolution is low, the photos could distinguish between colors distinctly even when the sunlight is low. Both the camera and video interface remain familiar, and for an entry level model it is more than sufficient.

Multimedia:

The media player is good and simple to use, but not overly loaded with features. Music is something you would love in this product. Of course, the phone comes with all required add-ons to support music. The playback is quite impressive due to the speakers with robust volume and without sounding too less. With a standard 3.5 mm jack you could plug in your favorite headphone or ear-buds without an additional audio adapter. With media controls on top of the Curve, it is easy to control the player without looking at the screen.

Blackberry Curve 8530’s media player supports MP3, WMA9, AAC LC AAC+, eAAC+, AMR NB, MiDi music files, MPEG4, and H 264 video clips. The photo viewer supports BMP, JPEG, WBMP files. To support all these features the makers have provided the microSD expansion slot located behind the door which can support up to 16GB giving plenty of space to store multimedia files.

Convenience Facilities:

The Blackberry 8530 comes with voice activated dialing, Speed dial, chat view text and multimedia messaging. You can also add Verizon’s Visual Voice Mail service for an additional $2.99 per month. There is also a link to MyVerizon to get information about your account, such as voice and data usage, account balance, and features. Other Verizon services available on the Curve 8530 include VZ Navigator, V Cast Music, and VZ Navigator. The phone’s address book is only limited by the available memory and has room in each contact file for multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, work and home addresses, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a photo, group ID, and/or custom ringtone. A shortcut to VzwTones is loaded on the device so you can download more ringtones to your device.

Additional Software:

Software package is typically cool including Social networking applications, Blackberry maps Pandora and the likes.  The sprint version of this phone comes with NFL, TV, Music applications, Sprint navigation, Sprint NASCAR. Despite, the enormous swarm of applications you get, one must accept the hard times we have with launching the applications or making them perform reliably well. The web browser suffers from JavaScript issues, and it gives you an annoying experience when you try to browse a real web page.

Wifi:

It has taken a long time for the makers to include WiFi into the Curve series. Including it has finally been a dream come true.  WiFi networks work really smooth and it gives no issues while browsing the net or finding a hot spot.  The WiFi included in the 8530 supports the IEEE 802.11b/g.

Combining voice and data:

Previous models did not allow reception of calls or reading of emails, browsing the web at the same time. This was because the network was unable to support both voice and data. Having the Wifi associated into the Blackberry 8530, you could establish a second connection to RIM NOC over the net.  So now, you have the ability send mails or browse while you are chatting.

Messaging:

Every object has its own strong and weak points. The strength of this Curve, or any Blackberry for that matter is messaging. With strong net connectivity, it allows you to deliver email in real time or get into Black Berry Enterprise server. It has all necessary features in its arsenal including Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live, Google Talk. As always, email setup on the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 PDA Phone is about as perfect as it gets, we simply put in our email and password and that was it; we did not have to enter any server information. The push email arrived nearly instantaneously in our testing. With the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) the user can have up to 10 email addresses on one device.

There is a built-in attachment viewer, so you can open Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, JPEG, and GIF files. In addition, the device ships with DataViz’s Documents to Go Suite Standard Edition (you’ll need to upgrade to the Premium Edition if you want the ability to create new documents), but you can download more productivity tools, games, travel aids, and much more from the BlackBerry App World.

Performance:

With tack pad being a big leap over its brethren, the Curve 8530 hits out well with its operating system. The OS used currently, Blackberry OS 5 which to its credit, is used only in this Curve.  This OS is packed with better application permission management, ability to flag messages for follow up and ability to manage profile settings.  Plugged in, is a processor which is quite weak compared to its peers; this accounts for the frequent system hangs. Hence, this device delivers a less power packed performance.  The call quality appears muffled and bleak, thereby making us to repeat several times. The story is same with speaker phone, with the background noise garbling the voice quality. Problems would be little if you switch to the headset mode. The swift 3G speeds have made websites access quick. You could download a 2.5 MB song around 56 seconds.  Overall, the performance is very snappy with little problems here or there.

Voice Clarity:

As we just mentioned, disappointing enough, the call quality is just average giving you a hollow sound coupled with a feel that you are using your dodgy cell phone when making calls to the Curve 8530.

The Package:

Verizon offers the smartphone in black or smoky violet and ships with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a software CD, and reference material.

Battery:

This Blackberry 8530 Cell Pone is packed with an 1150m Ah lithium ion battery which offers a talk time of 4.5 hours and up to 10 days of standby. The 4.5 hours of talk time is a noticeable departure from the original Curve’s 6 hours, especially since they use the same battery. But shockingly, it beats the claimed hours by giving you a 5.5 hours talk time. This Curve 8530 is gifted with an SAR rating of 1.31 watts per kilogram and has a M4/T4 hearing aid rating.

Warranty:

The Blackberry Curve 8530 PDA comes with one year manufacturer’s warranty for parts and labor.

Verdict:

Being the close cousin of Curve 8520 the Blackberry Curve 8530 lacks some of the higher end features such as world roaming capabilities and a high end resolution display. This being the negatives, the Curve has made some credible changes including an optical track pad, dedicated media controls and new processor. It also includes Wifi which is a feature lacked in the previous models. With the price tag being very less, this is surely bound to attract first time smart phone buyers.

Blackberry Curve 8530 Smartphone - Technical Specification Table

Design:

A huge one:
The HP Jornada 728 looks like a small scale laptop, but then, it cannot be called a palmtop as well since it is even bigger than a normal palmtop. The design, on the other hand looks like it is an archaic model. Some of the critics have also reported that it is more like a toy than like a mini computer. It measures about 7.4 inches wide, 1.3 inches deep and 3.7 inches high. These are rather unusual dimensions that you will not see nowhere in these days. Weighing about 18.2 ounces, it is also not very comfortable to hold in your hands. Hence, basically the design part of the PDA is completely archaic. So, at present, you can buy it only if you love antiquity.

6.5″ Display:
The 6.5 inch LCD screen may turn out to be a great plus. But then, it is not using the latest technology, which is the TFT matrix. Instead, the Color CTSN passive matrix is used here. This is means that the Jornada 728 Handhled PC comes with an old screen technology. It may not create a derogative feeling in the users, but still, to know how good a product is, we need to compare it with the other similar products and the Jornada 728 is clearly behind them when it comes to the technology that is used.

Features:

Since the model is a bit old, there will also be lesser features and also they will be less advanced than the modern PDAs. Even then, HP tried its best to incorporate the best technology available at that time. Let us see if they are applicable to the current trends of living.

Processor:
Since the processor is a very important thing regarding any electronic device nowadays, it is necessary that we should choose a PDA that comes with a reasonably good processor. Looking at the HP Jornada 728, it seems to have a good enough processor for a PDA. The 206MHz 32-bit Strong ARM SA1110 processor seems to be quite good for the applications featured on the PDA. Although the device will not be functioning at an ultra high pace, there will still be no complaints regarding its speed. You could not expect anything better in this part of the device since this was the then best available processor.

Operating System:
The operating system is one of the major drawbacks of the Jornada 728. It comes with the already superannuated Microsoft Windows 2000. This is a very old operating system and its oldness can be determined by the number of newer versions released by Microsoft after it, till date. Although it works fine without too many issues, the main problem with it is its compatibility. If you want to install any software on the device for any purpose, then the problem arises. Many of today’s software applications are not compatible with such old operating systems, and if you are really in need of such applications, then you need to browse for them on the internet, download them and then install them separately. This is a big headache but only if you are a frequent user of many applications. Conversion of data may also be problematic sometimes due to the change in operating system. Hence, the users are advised to look over their decision towards buying the Jornada 728.

Memory:
Memory is very important for a device to store data and also to perform better. The Jornada 728 comes with a 64 MB of RAM and 64 MB of ROM, which is of type CompactFlash 1. The RAM is also SDRAM type so that there may not be many compatibility issues. But there is no option for the integration of memory on the Jornada 728 and the built in flash memory may not be sufficient for all. It can hence, only manage to save documents and PDF files but then, saving many mp3 files may not be possible.

Touch screen:
This is at least one of the more useful features of the Jornada 728 Handheld PDA. It comes with a touch responsive screen so that there is no need to place a joy stick or any other thing for the purpose of navigation through the device. There is also a stylus provided along with the device so that it will be great to use instead of the finger.

Keyboard:
This PDA surprisingly provides a complete keyboard so that even though it consumes a lot of space, occupying about 76% of the total device, it will be very easy for typing over the device. Since, it is very difficult to type documents lime Word and Excel on the touch screen keyboard, HP has provided this special full keyboard. Anyway, the device is already big and this keyboard has got nothing to do with it. Hence, it is a very good option provided by HP on the Jornada 728.

Internet Connectivity:
HP quotes that the Jornada 728 PDA comes with a High-performance internal modem with a bandwidth of 56Kbps and of version v.901. This can be considered as a good enough modem that helps you to connect your device to the internet wirelessly. With a reasonable speed, you can browse the internet and the bandwidth of 56 kbps means that it will be a speedy and secure internet connection. Along with the Internet connection, there is also e-mail support for your device along with a few attachments like POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, and LDAP, MS Internet Explorer for Handheld PC (ver. 4.01), which are likely to help you browse the internet.

Infrared:
For the sake of wireless communication, the Jornada 728 has a built in Infrared port system. Even though it is quite surprising regarding the absence of Bluetooth technology on this PDA, HP has made it over by providing the Infrared port. This will be a lot helpful for the transfer of data such as documents, PDF files, music files and many others. The transfer of the data is also pretty fast there are also no reported connectivity issues. Hence, this has eliminated the use of a data cable for the transfer of data between devices. You can also transfer data files between the device and your infrared provided mobile phone. This is also another useful feature provided by HP.

Software:
The Jornada 728’s package sports a decent software package that is also quite useful for office works. There is Microsoft Pocket Word which allows you to take and type notes and documents, or transfer the Word files from your desktop to read and edit them on your device while you are away from your office. Then there is Microsoft Pocket Excel which allows you to view and edit excel files on the HP Jornada, or you can also fill out different kinds of forms while you are on the go. Microsoft Pocket PowerPoint allows you to create presentations on your desktop, and then copy them to show on the HP Jornada. Or, you can also use a PC Card or a VGA adapter in order to project them on to an external monitor or a VGA projector.

Microsoft Pocket Access allows you to take the database information and fill in custom forms, when you are away from home. Microsoft Pocket Outlook allows you to keep track of different tasks, calendar events, contacts, and electronic mails. Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4 allows you to browse the internet from home on the HP Jornada or you can also subscribe to channel content. With the specially designed Microsoft Windows Media Player, you can listen to WMA or MP3 music files on your device. The Microsoft Voice Recorder allows you to record voice messages for later reference. Lastly, the Microsoft Terminal Server Client connects to the internet with the help of a Windows Terminal Server. Hence, at least, there is a very good package of software in the Jornada 728 PDA.

Performance

Overall, the performance of the HP Jornada 728 is quite satisfactory, except for a few issues, which are not that significant nor they are that frequent. A reasonably good processor, along with a good, but very old operating system, makes a mediocre combination and although it is reliable, it is not that necessary to choose such an old combination however good it is, since it may cause compatibility and speed related issues in the future. Lack of Wi-Fi is also another drawback of this PDA. This device was released at a period when Wi-Fi was no big deal. But there is a built in modem that can connect you to the internet. Hence, to conclude, even though the Jornada 728 is a reasonably good performer, you can see that it is very old fashioned and hence it develops a negative image in the minds of the users. But otherwise, it is fine.

Connectivity:

Coming to the connectivity options that you will find on the Jornada 728, you will find that there are quite a few of them. When you look at the sides and the back portions of the PDA, you will find the following connectivity ports: One IrDA infrared port, as we have already discussed for the transfer of data files, One RS232C serial port, One RJ11 modem port, for connecting your device to the internet, One PC Card Type II card slot, for reading SD memory cards, One CompactFlash Type I card slot, which holds the SD RAM cards used for storing data, One Smart Card reader slot, Audio speaker and microphone, which can be used for recording voices or sending voice messages, Stereo earphone jack to which you can connect your headphones or earphones. You can also connect it to external speakers if necessary but not to a home theatre system or a 5.1 channel audio system since there are no drivers installed in the device. Hence, it is a good thing that there are sufficient numbers of connectivity options on the Jornada 728.

Battery:

The Jornada 720 comes with a normal Lithium ion battery, which has a battery life for a period of 14 hours, as quoted by HP. This battery is only rechargeable but not replaceable. Hence, HP has provided another coin cell battery, which is a 3V battery and is known as CR2032 coin cell battery, for the sake of battery backup during emergency cases. But, if the lithium ion battery gets damaged, then there no replacement for that and it means that the whole device must be replaced and a new one must be bought.

Warranty:

The HP Jornada 728 comes with a warranty for parts and labor for a period of one year from the original date of purchase.

Verdict:

The HP Jornada 728 is one of the first generation PDAs that were released into the market quite a few years ago. First up, the size of the device is not comfortable to hold or keep in your pocket since it is too big for doing them both. Then, there are minimal features including the very old operating system that may cause compatibility troubles regarding some of the applications. But the performance aspects and the connectivity options on the Jornada 728 are the satisfactory ones. The battery is also a problem since it is irreplaceable. The cost of the device is obviously very low since it is an old model. But, all the readers are advised to go for another better option, just in case they are still in dilemma after reading this review. There are many wonderful PDAs in the market today, and from HP itself. So, you can choose another good PDA for pretty much the same cost.

Check Latest PDA Reviews, other HP PDA Models in this website.

HP Jornada 728 Handheld PC - Technical Specification Table

Design:

Bewitching indeed:
The Blackberry 7250 looks a lot better than its counterparts. It has got a unique class and beauty when it comes to the design that makes you feel the PDA as an asset rather than a burden. It is also a great masterpiece for you to show off to your friends and colleagues. To be more technically specific, the Blackberry 7250 measures (L x W x D) 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches and weighs just about 4.9 ounces. This obviously means that it is quite sleek and also is very comfortable to hold in your palm and so, you will be able to easily type with your other hand. Even if you are a thumb typist, the PDA is so comfy to hold in both hands. Detailing more on the physical structure of the PDA, it is big, flat, and rectangular in shape with beautifully curved edges and smooth glossy finish. If there was one thing in this PDA that is different from its precursors, it would be the keypad. The QWERTY keypad has the keys drifted towards the sides, giving the device a curvy appearance.  Overall, it is a good effort put in by RIM, in producing a very alluring design.

Display:
The 2.6″ full color display of resolution 240 x 160 pixels, will provide you a lot of space for things like reading and typing emails, playing a few games, watching photos and viewing videos. Since this is not an entertainment oriented PDA, this resolution is pretty good enough for almost all the functions and operations. The landscape type of display means that you have a comfortable view of the web pages while you are browsing, just like on your desktop computer. Nothing flashier regarding display is required, like you will see on some other modern PDAs, and hence, this is certainly good enough.

QWERTY Keyboard:
The RIM Blackberrys are the few of those PDAs which feature the QWERTY type keyboards. Obviously, there is no other choice but to provide a complete keyboard since the PDAs are mainly meant to replace the computers on a small scale. At present, there are two kinds of providing this facility; while one is the Blackberry, the completer QWERTY keyboard that the other one providing is a full touch screen enabled device so that the keyboard can be seen on the screen and letters can be typed by simple touches. But since there is no option of touch screen here in this case, there is no other, go but to provide a QWERTY keyboard. Although this may make the device a little larger, more often than not, people tend to prefer to this over the touch screen type.

Features:

Since the Blackberry PDAs are considered to be very innovative in nature, you will find that they contain many features and options that are new and unique. The RIM Blackberry 7250 Smartphone is certainly not an exception to this. There are no exaggerations here, and all the features that are seen are present in order to make life easy for the businessmen. This PDA is also one of those which is more inclined towards professionalism rather than towards entertainment.

Wireless Email:
The most powerful of all in the arsenal of the Blackberry 7250, is its capability to send ultrafast emails even when you are on the move. The special messaging or mailing service that is provided, gives you the option to send and receive mails and messages wherever you are and whichever time of the day it is. Just at the push of a button, you will be directed towards the mail centre and there you can type and send them instantaneously or you can also save them as draft files for later use. Since the device will always be connected to the internet, you can receive mails at all times. With email integrations facility, this wireless email function works with various servers like the Blackberry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, and Novell GroupWise. The integration can be done by using a new device email account or by using an already existing email account.

Organizer:
This organizer is a special way of arranging the icons on your device. It has got different styles of organizing the menu options and also other shortcut keys to different functions in the device. Like on many other PDAs today, the Blackberry 7250 also has a grid type view of the menu and submenu icons. You can also change this by changing the settings. You also can decide what icons should feature in the main menu, as the shortcuts and so on. Customization is at its best when you are allowed to choose. Hence, your PDA will always be organized.

Web Browser:
In order to browse the internet through your device, of course, you need a browser. The RIM Blackberry 7250 PDA Smartphone has got a browser that is very easy to use and to get used to. Easy functions and shortcuts to different websites through bookmarks, are some of the special features of this browser. Another advantage of this browser is that, it is easy to download stuff and save them to the memory, which can be synced to the computer later.

Phone and SMS:
Though it may look funny, it is a fact that many mid range PDAs have no option for you to call or to send messages to other mobile phone. Most of the PDAs are designed to work as mini computers and hence you do not often see phone and SMS options on these. But in the recent past, it has occurred into the minds of the designers that having this option will certainly attract the users and will boost the sales. The Blackberry 7250 has a very good phone system in it, with good quality speakers so that you can enjoy good quality hearing experience. Just like on a conventional mobile phone, you can dial any number and talk. In addition to the email option that it has, the Blackberry 7250 has the option for you to send SMS to any mobile in the world. Hence, this option will prove to be one of those that will make this Blackberry a very popular PDA in the market.

GPS: Nothing is Foreign No More
GPS is a very useful application nowadays as the world is becoming smaller day by day due to technology. Particularly, if you have to travel to new places frequently, then GPS is a blessing. It shows you the map of the area which you are in, and it shows different important places in your vicinity and also the routes to them through the internet. Details regarding such places, if available, are also displayed as a part of GPS so that nothing will be new to you in a foreign place. Have the GPS with you and you will feel every place as your hometown.

Wireless Network:
With the Blackberry 7250, you can always stay connected to the internet and interact with the world. The RIM wireless modem with tethered modem compatibility, which is built inside the device and the 800/1900 MHz CDMA2000® 1X networks and Ev-DO networks that are provided, you can connect to the internet very easily and stay connected for a long time. This facility is very utile to the business professionals who keep on moving from place to place and to those who need to contact many people at a time for long durations. For this, you do not need any wireless modem or a wireless PC card.

Security:
With the availability of corporate data access, there is always a risk of losing your private and confidential data. To avoid this, you need very good security and also options like password setting, so that your data will stay safe and secret. There is a password setting system as usual and you can set your own passwords to both the keypad and also to the files that you want to be safe. When integrated to the Blackberry Enterprise Server FIPS140-2, you can get the support in order to encrypt the files into different other forms like AES or triple DES. This means that your personal data will be encrypted into some secret codes and then they will be saved so that there will be no potential data loss from your device. All this means you can always be safe and secure.

USB Compatible:
The USB function is so important in the digital world, that there is no electronic device today without USB compatibility. It makes synchronization very easy and this will enable you to exchange data between you PDA and your computer. Particularly in the case of the Blackberry 7250, this is a useful option since as we have seen earlier, there is no option to increase or upgrade the internal memory of the device. Therefore, this might help you in saving the data in your mobile to your computer and hence by time to time clearance of the internal memory of your device, you can always have sufficient memory for various purposes.

Performance:

We have now seen all the features of the Blackberry 7250. With so many useful features in the basket, you must certainly expect its performance to be top notch. All the features that we have discussed above boost up the performance of the device. The phone function is also pretty useful, and by the way, it is no normal phone. You experience landline voice clarity and signal quality with the Blackberry 7250. The internet connectivity is very good and the signals are solid. This means that you have continuous connection to the internet, which is always desirable.

Battery:

The Blackberry 7250 has got a very good battery, which is very much needed by a business professional. You normally get 3 hours of talk time and more than 8 days of standby battery backup with the renovated battery technology that is possessed by this PDA. The battery, unlike those of many other PDAs, is removable as well, so you can buy a spare battery and keep it for emergency purposes. You can also buy a travel charger so that it will be useful when you are on the move.

Warranty:

There is a limited parts and labor warranty for a period of one year from the original date of purchase. The rest of the details can be found inside the warranty leaflet at the time of purchase.

Verdict:

As we have seen, the Blackberry 7250 is one of the prime products of RIM, and is also well received in the business world. With a cute and sleek design, the device looks so professional even though it is a little bigger than normal. With lots of features, more than what you normally see on a regular PDA, along with good performance aspects, the Blackberry 7250 is a very good all rounder that does all the jobs required by you. Even though it is more professionally oriented, it provides some options for your entertainment as well. The price is also very reasonable for the amount of utility that it provides. However, this PDA is only one of many that Blackberry has released over the years. There are also other devices, which look even more stylish and at the same time, provide more options for entertainment. Hence, you can also have a look at them here, so that you get a PDA that suits you the best.

Check Latest PDA Reviews, Nokia Smartphone Reviews, Specs in this website.

RIM Blackberry 7250 PDA - Technical Specification Table

Design:

Reluctant to make design changes:
As the design of the Tungsten E2 was very well appreciated by everyone, Palm has not changed it much and stuck to the same design as far as possible. The same compact and sleek form factor makes it look very decent and quite professional. Its curvaceous body is very pleasing to look at. You feel that you are having a plaything rather than a PDA device. Going deeper into the details, the measurements of the Tungsten E2 which are, (H x W x D) 114 x 79 x 15 mm. It also weighs only 133 grams. Thus it is incredibly light in weight. This fact makes you quite happy. Doesn’t it?

You will find the scroll buttons and the jockey right at the bottom centre, as usual. The buttons that hold the main functions surround the scroll button. There are four standard customizable buttons in all, and they are used as shortcuts to various programs and applications on the device. The display screen occupies quite a large portion of the device. Although all these are very common to all PDAs and mobile phones, the way they look on the Tungsten E2 makes it a very special PDA.

Display:
Right at the top of the requirements list sits the Display of the PDA. The Tungsten E2 now has an improved display system. The 3.7 inch TFT LCD screen is one of the bigger screens you will see on the PDAs. The screen is specially designed to be pretty bright at all times. With a screen resolution of 320 x 320 pixels along with the high colour pattern that comprises about 65,536 colours, instead of the usual 320 x 240 pixels and 64,000, you are always assured of very good display from the Tungsten E2. The special feature of this screen is that it makes everything more fine tuned and hence the pictures on the Tungsten E2 are more vivid, candid and also more natural. This means that you can easily read the screen contents in direct sunlight as well. Hence, you have got one of the better display mechanisms in your hand.

Features:

Lots of features are coming up. When you browse through the Tungsten E2, you will find very good applications, options and features with various functions. Some of them are related to professional works and are official in terms of utility. The others are very funny and entertaining so that you can relax for some time. Here is a detail picture of all the software and other various features in the Tungsten E2.

Processor:
The processor is the backbone of a PDA device. Any device’s potential can be estimated by the quality of the processor it has in it. As usual with the PDAs from Palm, the processor that is used here is the 200MHz Intel XScale processor, produced by Intel. This is one of the fastest processors that you will see featuring in the PDAs. Although there were a few problems in the past regarding the performance of these processors, Palm has made sure that nothing of that sort happens this time around by making subtle changes. Hence you will be comfortable using the device, not being bothered about the little problems that stop your device all of a sudden.

Operating System:
Almost all of the PDAs and mobile phones from Palm feature an operating system that is designed by Palm itself. The Tungsten E2 comes with the Palm OS Garnet version 5.4.7. This is the latest OS from Palm and is also more user friendly than any other OS of Palm. Although most of the PDAs are coming with Microsoft Windows as their Operating System, Palm still stuck to its own OS. But there is nothing inferior when it comes to the Garnet OS and it has all the features and flexibility in it to make it easy for the users to get used to it quickly.

Protective Lid:
The Tungsten E2 surprisingly came out with a protective flip over cover in order to protect the screen. This cover is made of plastic. As we all are aware of the LCD screens and their delicate nature, we always wanted either a tougher screen or a protection for the delicate one. You obviously do not get a tough screen since all of them are made of liquid crystals. So, Palm has opted to go with the outer protection using a plastic lid. This lid is also special because you can remove it if not needed. If you are travelling or if you feel like protecting it, then you can always put on the lid. Hence, this is one of those features that will make the users happy.

Non-Volatile File System:
The Tungsten E2 comes with this special feature, the Non-Volatile File System, whose function is clearly known from its name. This special software makes sure that all your important files and documents are not lost under any circumstances, unless you delete them. Even if your device is damaged or switched off due to low battery power, this software securely saves all the documents automatically so that you can open them the next time you switch the device on. It means that your files will be non- volatile as they do not change or get deleted easily. This feature is just like the hibernate mode that you will see on the laptop computers. Thus your files are always safe with the Tungsten E2.

Wi-Fi:
Wi-Fi has become one of the vital features of any electronic device nowadays. It is now featured on electronic gadgets ranging from iPods to Televisions. The Palm Tungsten E2 is also not an exception to this. This feature was not available on the previous PDA from Palm, the Tungsten E. Hence this is certainly an add-on. To utilise the Wi-Fi option, you need to buy the Wi-Fi card that is specially designed for the Tungsten E2 by SyChip. The encryption of this Wi-Fi card is also restricted to WEP. Hence there is no WPA or WPA2 in the Tungsten E2. This may be a bit inconvenient to some of the users but that is the way it is.

Memory Card:
As the Tungsten E2 is claimed to be a very good music player along with being a good PDA, it will need some internal or external memory to support its functions. The internal memory given is too little for anything. A 30 MB of internal memory is provided. As this will be enough for all the contacts and other documents in the device, you will need to buy an external memory card separately from the stores. But at the same time, you cannot buy every memory card in the market as there are a few software limitations when it comes to the memory card compatibility. The Tungsten E2 supports only SD memory cards and that too those that have a capacity below 1 GB. This may be one of the few drawbacks of the E2. Memory Cards with higher capacities will not be compatible. Therefore, you need to buy multiple cards of 1 GB capacity, if at all you want good memory for your device.

Bluetooth:
Bluetooth has been a revelation of late and has changed the outlook of communication. It also, like the Wi-Fi, appears on just about any electronic device in the world. This feature allows wireless communication and data exchange from your device to any other device that has Bluetooth feature. Hence you can exchange data between devices with this feature. The Tungsten E2 also did not pose any problems while using this application and it was pretty quick in searching for devices too. This also easily syncs with other devices. But if the synchronisztion is between two Tungsten mobiles, then the connection is a bit faster and the files are also sent quicker.

The Athena Connector:
The Athena Connector, also known as the multi connector, is a very special feature of the Tungsten mobiles, especially the E2. It is a universal connector that is specially designed to get your Tungsten E2 connected to various accessories and cradles. This connector consists of a mini USB cable that can be used for syncing. You can also connect your PDA to your computer for charging and also for transfer of files such as music, pictures, videos and documents. With the help of this feature, you can also save your files in your computer and hence clear the memory off your mobile. With this multi connector, you can also read cards and others and so this feature is multi purposeful.

Documents to Go:
The Documents to Go is a software package that has in it all the required applications that will make you a very good official. Just like the Microsoft Office tools package that you will find on the mobiles and PDAs that come with the Microsoft Windows as their operating system, you will see the Documents to Go application in the Palm OS. This is also a very good software package. It has all the applications like the word documentation, spreadsheets and also the presentation documents. Thus you will always be at work wherever you are and always be on top of others when it comes to work. All the applications are satisfactorily good and are also easy to get used to.

Kinoma Player:
The Kinoma Player is a media player that plays different digital media. This one is a very special player that was designed by those who have already designed the QuickTime player for Apple. This player also featured on other PDAs like the Windows Mobile and the mobiles from Symbian. There is a lot to tell you about this player. This was the first ever mobile media browser. The built-in Kinoma Guide that you will find inside this player allows you to search, browse and stream music and videos on the web for almost half a terabyte of media. You can readily listen to your favourite music on the web through this one. This player also plays audio, video and picture files directly from different network websites such as YouTube, Flickr, Audible and Live 365. Hence you have a lot of options that entertain you whenever you want.

Miscellaneous:
The miscellaneous features include the stylus that can be used for easy scrolling; the Desktop Email sync feature helps you a lot for easy typing, sending and receiving the mails; the web browsing feature is also fine and the browser is also quite easy to get along with. The Palm Photo software is specially designed to make your pictures look even greater. The mp3 playback and video playback features are only additions to the innumerable features that are already there. You can also view PDF files with a special application in the Palm OS. But this requires a conversion step for you to access the files in the PDF format. There is a special feature called the VersaMail. With this, you can read mails and also compose and draft the mails that you want to send. When you go back to your computer, you can then sync your device and then send them through the internet. You can also avail the Wi-Fi feature in this case.

Hence, all these features that are discussed above not only look stylish and modish, but they are also very professional and always keep you on the top of your work. It is quite natural that you are bewildered at this moment by looking at the various features and applications, but this does not restrict the performance of the Tungsten E2, not even the slightest part of it.

Performance:

The Tungsten E2 has a very good number of features in it to suffice all the needs of business professional. Along with being so official, it is also pretty entertaining and you will be satisfied with its performance too. At first there has been a doubt regarding its performance because there are a lot of options, features and applications. But Palm has not compromised with the aspect of performance. The Tungsten E2 has passed all the tests, which were conducted by the experts and has easily done it. Since all the points regarding the performance of the Tungsten E2 have been covered under the features section, all that can be said here is you will never regret buying the Tungsten E2.

Battery:

The Tungsten E2 contains a lithium ion battery of 1050 mAh. This is new and reinforced battery and hence you get a very good battery backup and also slightly more than the normal battery lives of the other PDAs in the market. Particularly when you compare this one to the battery life of the Tungsten E, this fact is significantly evident. Hence you can enjoy for a longer period of time with your PDA.

Warranty:

This is one of the surprising points regarding the Tungsten E2. The Palm Inc. offers parts and labor warranty for a period of just 90 days. There have been a lot of complaints regarding this from the customers and users of the Tungsten E2. A mere 90 day warranty is obviously not enough, but Palm supports this by stating that if the PDA is good for the first 90 days, then it will remain good further, well, this may not be true for all the cases.

Verdict:

You have made a good decision if you have already selected the Tungsten E2. If you have not decided yet, then think over it because you do not normally get such a good PDA for such a reasonable price. Not only the price, but the PDA itself is very good indeed. The design part of it is very commendable. It is one of the sleekest PDAs from Palm. In addition to the fact that they are pretty useful for professionals, the features that are discussed above are very good in number. The device also did not report any problems during testing and also there were almost no complaints from the users. The battery life is pretty good, considering all the multitasking options that a PDA has to run at a time. The only thing is that this PDA looks stunning if it comes with the Windows operating system. Their combination looks perfect; but nevertheless, the Palm OS is good enough. Everything else is fine and it will be good PDA for people from all walks of life.

Palm Tungsten E2 - Technical Specification Table

Design:

The form factor and make:
The HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld PDA is a based on a design that HP bought from HTC in 2002 and used them in several iPAQ form factors. The 110 is the 4th device to have the same form factor. However, HP has not updated the design and the phone reminds you of how things were like in 1999.  At 2.7 x 0.5 x 4.6 inches, it is thin and light weight and weighs a measly 3.68 ounces, amongst the lightest in the market. As far as the design is concerned, it is too simple and HP could have tried much better than this.
The plastic face is textured to convey the impression of brushed metal. The back side is made of black plastic and tends to retain a lot of fingerprints and smudges. The casing is quite sturdy and the battery cover latches securely and the SD Card mechanism feels strong. There is a SD Card slot on the left and a power and audio note button on the right. The top has some space for the stylus and a 3.5mm Standard port for headphones. The Stylus is a rugged metal barrel and is not of the telescopic design that most other models have.  It also houses the LED indicator and a light sensor. There is neither a camera lens nor slide out phone controls.

Keypad:
Coming to the details of the Keypad, the buttons on the keypad feel lighter and flimsy. The Directional pad is large and easy to use and the buttons are good for average use. If you are into Action gaming, the buttons might be unacceptable. The layout of the buttons is rather odd- the Start and the OK/Close buttons are the innermost pair unlike other devices where they are the outermost.  It lacks dedicated soft keys for one handed use, but you can re-task your Calendar and Messaging buttons for the purpose. The iPAQ allows press and hold choices on its three re-mappable buttons. So, you can launch about 4 programs from the buttons with soft keys or launch 6 applications without soft keys.

Display:
The iPAQ has a larger screen than most phones in the market. The 3.5″ inches screen is simply marvelous. The only downside is perhaps that the resolution is available in QVGA only. However, it seems less sharp than a 2.8″ screen and has polarization issues as well. The latter makes the screen glow and is very evident in landscape mode and gets annoying when you watch videos with dark scenes. The Auto Sensor adjusts brightness automatically and the built in screen lock function allows you to tap the app on the screen to lock it and another tap to unlock it. The phone’s display is as good as one expects out of a QVGA.  The resolution is not lively and a high screen protector would help with the polarization problems.

Features:

Connectivity:
Connectivity is top class in the iPAQ 110 Pocket PC PDA.  It has with Bluetooth 2.0/EDR, along 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. It is more connected than the last generation level PDAs. It also comes with HP’s wireless connection manager from where you can manage both WiFi and Bluetooth connections. The WiFI range on the phone is amazing, not only was it able to detect all Wi-FI routers in the area, but also was able to connect with the home network as well. Web pages loaded fast and data transfer was easy. There is a complaint though, the iPAQ claims to have connected to the network sometimes, when it actually was not.  Can get annoying sometimes!
Bluetooth on the iPAQ is good. HP uses the Widcomm stack unlike others which use the pathetic Microsoft Bluetooth stack for Windows Mobile. It allows you to discover services on another Bluetooth enabled device, access the internet or a LAN using a PC. Even in a radio crowded area, the connection between the iPAQ tested and another phone was solid.  There was no hitch in the connection while loading pages over Wi-Fi wile using Bluetooth headphones- a chronic problem on several devices. However, when blue tooth is activated, Wi-Fi’s performance took a hit.

Windows Mobile Office 6.1:
The iPAQ 110 runs the standard package of Windows Mobile 6 which translates to the latest version of Mobile Word, Excel & PowerPoint 6.1.The phone is far from being classic as it is one of the very few phones in the market with 6.1and is compatible with Office 2007 so you can open docx, xlsx and pptx file formats on the Pocket PC. Apart from the basic application package, a PDF viewer (ClearVue) and a HP photo application and a few other apps are present. Windows Live is another feature on the phone. The Windows Update manual can be switched to either automatic or manual modes.  However, HP has not included Microsoft Outlook keeping in tune with its policy. There are third party options such as syncing to Mozilla via Birdiesync.

Syncing:
Since the iPAQ runs MW 6.1, one needs to use the latest version of Active Sync- ActiveSync Version 4.5 on your Windows. Active Sync 4.5 allows simultaneous WI-FI and ActiveSync connections making syncing easier than ever before.

Software:
The software bundled on the HP iPAQ 110 is similar to the fare offered on WM5.0 PocketPCs. Windows Mobile 6.0 adds several improvements – better ways to share events, calendars, etc., full HTML display with images and display advanced formatting. However it is still inferior to the desktop version. There is the Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Live Messenger Client and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile offered. WMP 10 Mobile supports WMA, WAV and PlaysForSure files. The sound through the integrated speakers is average. Through the stereo headphones, there is an improvement in sound quality. The best sound performance with the HP iPAQ 110 is with the Plantronics Pulsar 590a Bluetooth wireless stereo headphones- it allowed great channel separation and full volume. The other applications provided are ClearVue PDF Viewer and Microsoft’s Picture and Video viewer. It also comes with 2 basic games: Bubble breaker and Solitaire. Third party applications run really smooth on the 110.

Gaming:
The great screen and the fast processor make gaming an absolute pleasure on the phone. The rectangular D pad on the phone is great. Audio through the speaker is decent and several Pocket PC games run very smooth. If you are a hard-core gamer, this iPAQ 110 Pocket PC would not disappoint you.

Expansion:
Most Devices do not have a SDHC slot like the 110 does, giving it an advantage in the microSD age. SDHC cards allow you to store data up to 32GB, giving it more solid storage than any but the most advanced multimedia devices.  16GB card can store up to 4000 songs or 20-100 feature length movies. The iPAQ 110 has a total of 64Mb, with about 20 Mb free after boot. It has a 256MB flash memory with 196Mb available for usage. The RAM is on the shorter side, however actually is good by Pocket PC standards.  The SD card supports SDIO, though the most popular SDIO is Wi-FI and is already built in.

Accessories:
The HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld PDA is provided with a 120mAH Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, an AC Adapter with power cord, a Mini USB Sync/Charge cable, a slip case and a HP iPAQ companion CD.

Performance:

What is inside?
The iPAQ 110 is the first device to have the new XScale PXA310 processor, built by Marvell. The PxA310 and the PxA320 are based on Intel’s chips. The new PXA320 runs at a clock speed of 624 MHz as high as the older PXA270 line. However, Marvell claims that the 310 is capable of delivering 50-100% more performance than the PXA270.

VGA resolution:
When tested for VGA resolution, its average speed was a whopping 264% making it the best in the Windows Mobile Segment (beating competitors like the Advantage).

Speed:
File operations on the Hewlett Packard  iPAQ 110 are fast and so are the graphical operations because of the lower resolution. The only major selling points of the new processor are the lower power consumption and integrated video functionality. A 624Mhz needed 530mW for playing video, much higher than the PXA320 which needed only 320mW. What difference will 200mW make? Averaging this over a few hours, the battery life of the PXA320 processor based phone will be 20 percent higher than the PXA310. The iPAQ 110 lacks an applet for controlling CPU clock speed; however it seems to do a good job on its own.

Media functionality:
Coming to the details of the integrated video functionality, the PXA310 was able to play MPEG-4 parts such as H.264.  It was as good as the Axim’s X51v’s hardware acceleration. Code compatibility was good as well, DivX and Xvid files worked perfectly. In layman terms, the iPAQ 110 has a tremendous multimedia performance. It can handle high quality desktop videos with out a synch. The new processor makes it a power intensive device; however that still does not extend battery life.

Battery Life of iPAQ 110:

The HP iPAQ 110 Classic comes with a standard rechargeable 3.7v Lithium Ion battery which is 1200mAh in capacity. The battery life on the iPAQ is really good in spite of having a lot to power- a large display, Wi-Fi, a high end CPU and even Bluetooth radios. On starting with a full battery, playing high end videos, switching on Wi-Fi and other applications, it took 4 hours for the battery to go down. That is exceptional considering most phones have difficulty in crossing the 3 hour mark. The battery should be able to last 2-3 days with moderate usage. So, in short, the iPAQ 110’s battery life tramples all competition in its league. It equals the Dell Axim’s battery life and is twice the battery life of the iPod Touch. In other words, simply an amazing battery life.

Warranty:

There is a one year warranty on parts and labor on the HP iPAQ 110 Classic and a warranty of 90 days for technical support in most regions.

Verdict:

The iPAQ is the fastest processor available on a PDA. It has a large and excellent display not found in the mobiles and smart phones of the time. It has integrated Wi-FI and Bluetooth and a software bundle that covers Office Mobile, email, music & video playback, picture and PDF viewing.  It does get overshadowed by its more advanced sibling the unreleased iPAQ 210, the 110 is not just a data repository, but is capable of tasks like Internet, Entertainment etc.  The Battery life could have been better and the built in speaker was disappointing. However, it is an easy choice for people who are looking for an affordable PDA minus the phone and who want to complement this PDA to their mobile phone.

Check HP iPAQ 111 Review in this website.

HP iPAQ 110 PDA Pocket PC - Technical Specification Table

Design:

Old-school style:
Kudos to HP, the HP iPAQ 111 Classic PDA is designed old school style. The design reminds you of a bygone era when people used to depend on PDAs and mobile phones were bulky. This is yet another phone in the HP series to have the same form factor (Note : This design was bought from HTC in early 2002 and has been used in HP models ever since).  The iPAQ 111 is about 2.7 inches wide, 0.6 inches thick and 4.6 inches tall. At 4.1oz it is a reasonably light phone and is bulkier than its predecessor the iPAQ 110 Classic.  The phone’s casing is built of Plastic, but has been textured to convey the impression of a brushed metal surface. On the left side of the body is present the SD card slot and on the right are present the power and audio note button.  Like all the other models in the 110 series, the PDA has a telescopic stylus which is hard to get used to initially.

Keypad:
The keypad is delicate and the buttons feel light and wayward. There is the start and OK buttons in the innermost of the keypad buttons. This odd design and its lack of dedicated soft keys for one handed use, make it difficult to use the keypad. But once you get used to it, the Directional keypad and the buttons are great to use.  There are dedicated buttons for Calendar and Messaging which can be re-tasked for other purposes. Since it is a PDA phone, the keypad has been designed keeping in mind the business users. Hence, if you are into hard core gaming on your phone, the 111 Classic’s keypad would not really appeal much to you as the buttons are not conveniently located for gaming.

Display:
PDAs usually have a big screen and the iPAQ 111 is no exception. At 3.5″ the screen is large and is astounding. Unlike the 110 which was available whose screen was available in QVGA resolution, the HP iPAQ 111 Classic uses a Color TFT Active Matrix. It has excellent contrasts and brightness, but when it comes to resolution, it is a disappointment. The PDA has a one of the lowest resolutions in the market at 320 x 240 pixels.  The problem with low resolutions is that reading long text would cause one’s eyes to turn sour. Aligning the touch screen would take some time. But once, you are ready, the touch screen is great to use. The screen is sensitive and responds to touch well. The phone suffers from polarization problems which gets annoying especially when you watch videos with insufficient lighting.
Overall, the resolution could have been much higher and the display could have been better than a QVGA.

Features:

Microsoft Mobile Office 6.1:
The iPAQ 111 Classic Handheld PDA has Windows Mobile 6.1 and hence the latest version of all Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel etc. are provided. Apart from all this, there is a PDF viewer and a Photo application package provided by HP. There is the Mobile Windows Media player on it, which is pretty much adequate for listening to music.  Who says all this is classic? This is advanced features on your PDA and the presence of Windows Live is another bonus. To keep updating your Windows, you can get it done automatically or manually. If you would want Microsoft Outlook, you will need to shell out separately for a third party application that would enable you to sync with your PC.

Synchronization:
There is the Active Sync 4.5 provided on the OS which allows simultaneous Wi-Fi and Active Sync connections making syncing painless.  Syncing between Outlook and the PC is pretty simple too.

Wi-Fi:
Compared to the last gen PDAs, the 111 Classic is more connected and has loads of options for you to connect : Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.  It has 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi whose range is great. Not only was it able to detect most routers, it managed to connect to the network quick as well. The browsing was fast and data transfer was easy. Like the 110, the PDA reports that it has connected to the Internet when it actually has not.

Bluetooth:
The 111 Classic iPAQ has Bluetooth 2.0/EDR which uses the Widcomm stack. The Bluetooth enables you to discover services on other devices and allows you to access Internet using a LAN connected to a PC. Though Wi-Fi worked without a hitch when Bluetooth headphones were activated, the browsing speed fell down drastically.

Internet Browsing:
This HP iPAQ 111 Classic PDA Pocket PC device is pretty good enough for Internet browsing.  Its low resolution does not really worse things here. The Internet Explorer provided has pretty decent options that would allow you to browse Internet easily.  Did we mention that one could download other browsers as well? Opera ran best in the 111 iPAQ. The rate browsing on the device is sufficient for rare browsing. Browsing Internet through Wi-Fi is easy and the inbuilt Bluetooth would allow you to browse Internet as well.

Gaming:
A huge screen and a great processor, gaming does not get any better on the phone. There are tons of games that are available that you can play on your PDA. While most games run smooth, the problem arises because of the keypad. The rectangular D pad is good to use, but if there are other buttons you would like to play with, it gets a bit annoying and confusing .However, the PDA is good for chess, card games and even some more graphically more intense games. If you are into some serious gaming, the PDA is great. It could have been better if there were some improvements in the key design.

Software Bundle:
Aimed at the Business oriented users, the PDA offers a variety of apps similar to the fare offered by Windows 5. It has its share of improvements – more innovative ways to organize data.  Features like full HTML display with images puts it way ahead of its league. However, Mobile Windows is still inferior to its desktop companion. There are the Windows Office applications such as Word and Excel that allow you to edit/view your documents, making it perfect for users on the go. There is the Windows Live Messenger client, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player 10 which is simply marvelous.  WMP 10 has the capability to play WMA,WAV and PlaysForSure files. There is tremendous improvement is sound quality yet the sound is still pretty average.  HP has provided software to view PDF and TXT files with the ClearVue PDF viewer to view PDF files.  The Microsoft Picture and Video viewer lets you view pictures and videos. In terms of interface, all these applications are standard.  You can install other applications on to your PDA, such as Mozilla and Opera for mobile. Third party applications seem to run smooth on this PDA.

Performance:

The HP iPAQ 111 runs on the Marvell XScale PX310 processor at a clock speed of 624MHz, faster than the PX270. Performance wise, Marvel claims that 310 is about twice more efficient than the 270. Another feature of the processor is its low power consumption. It requires much lesser energy to run on than its predecessor the PX270.

If you have long text files, reading could have a bad impact on your eyes, the low resolution just adds to the problem. The resolution of the PDA is horribly low, even by most standards. But perhaps, that explains its long battery life. Nonetheless, the resolution could have been much better.  When it comes to playing video, the PX310 was able to play MPEG4 files with ease. It had no problem with DivX and XViD files either. Performance wise, the Phone simply tramples out competition. It can handle high quality videos without a synch.

Accessories:

The package includes a 1200mAH Lithium Ion battery, a Mini USB sync cable, a slip case, an AC adapter and a HP iPAQ companion CD. So, basically pretty much a stripped down package. The battery is replaceable and the USB sync cable lets you sync your PDA to a PC. The Power Adapter provided does tend to get heated up after a while, but that is not much of a problem either.  The CD provided has some basic software that would boost up the functionality of your PDA.

Battery Life of iPAQ 111:

A standard 3.7c Lithium 1200mAh battery is provided in the device and in terms of battery life, the PDA is amazing.  It lasted a solid 3 and half hours in spite of having to power up the large screen, the processor and Wi-Fi. When power intensive applications such as videos were played, the battery lasted a solid 3 hours better than most PDAs in the market. The battery lasts about 3 days with moderate usage. That is great even by reasonable standards. Consider this with the iPod Touch which lasts half the time this PDA does.

Warranty:

There is a guaranteed warranty of one year on parts and labor of the HP 111 iPAQ Classic and apart from that the technical support is available for 90 days from the date of purchase.

Verdict:

The trend now is to have a PDA with a phone, however not many phones can claim to successfully combine the best of both. The iPAQ 111 Classic handheld is a pure PDA and is great at what PDAs do the best – Organizing data.  It’s amazing display, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an amazing software bundle overshadow most other PDAs in the market. Of course, the PX210 processor is faster than the 111’s PX110, but that would not make much of a difference. The Battery Life and the speaker are average and if been better could have made this phone a must buy.  So, if you are looking for a PDA that complements your Phone, this is recommended.

Check other Latest PDA Reviews in our website.

HP iPAQ 111 Classic PDA - Specification Details

Design:

Expect the best from Sony:
Trust Sony to come up with something so well designed. At 4.1 x 2.9 x 0.7 inches, the SJ30 is rather squat. This CLIE’s weighs a trim 4.9oz that includes the nylon flip over lid as well. Sony has managed to make the 2.9” screen appear larger than it actually is, by shrinking the bezel of the unit. The battery of the phone is not only rechargeable, but is also replaceable. Just remove one of the screws from the back panel and you can alter it. The Candy bar handheld provides a flip over lid, which protects the screen and the memory stick slot. The lack of a clasp makes it easily to open sideways or flip open. The glossy finish gives the plastic case a metallic look. In fact, the SJ10, the SJ20 and the SJ30 look pretty much similar.

Keyboard Design:

The Sony CLIE PEG-SJ30 PDA has the 4 application buttons and the scroll rocker. The buttons are bigger and easier to use than that of the Sony T Series CLIE. You can speed up switching and scrolling by the jog dial button and the back button. Together, they are very useful to control much of the functioning of the phone. The Date Book Button and the Address book button are too close to each other, making it difficult to distinguish in between them. Of course, that would bother you only if you are into gaming. The average PDA user would not face much of a problem with the keys. The Charge indicator LED lies below the rocker.

Screen:
While Sony has tried to cut down costs elsewhere on the phone, one area they splurged is the screen. The 320X320 pixel TFT screen is simply beautiful. Its colors are well reproduced and are a tad bit better than the T615. However, the whites seem to have a bluish tinge and yet another flaw in the screen is that the small wavy shadows along the bottom edge of the screen. It is usable both indoors and outdoors.  The Screen, when set at reasonable brightness, is usable in direct sunlight as well.

Ports and Accessories:
Sony PEG-SJ30 Hand Held PDA comes with a stylus, an adapter and a USB Connector. It is an efficient package if you frequently travel. The Stylus is on the thinner side and is difficult to get used to. The SJ30’s pale gray flip offers protection to the Power button (and prevents the phone from getting switched on accidentally) and the memory stick slot. It also has the HotSync Port that debuted on the T series.  However, one of the main drawbacks is the lack of a Cradle. If you simply cannot do without a cradle, you can purchase one from Sony (30$).  You can transfer information to other Palm OS handheld owners using the IrDA infrared port and the USB connector for transferring pictures, Word files, and Excel files etc. from your PC to your PDA.

Features:

Memory Stick Slot:
The SJ30 offers a space of 16MB, which is sufficient to store a lot of data. The SJ30 provides a Memory Stick slot which allows storage of enormous amounts of data and applications. With it you transfer digital content between your Clie handheld and other Memory Stick-compatible products like the digital cameras, digital camcorders, and even PCs.  The SJ30, like all the other phones in its series, is slower than average. However, it is appreciably better than the monochrome SJ20.

Applications:
As far as the applications are concerned, The SJ30 PDA Smartphone has a nice bundle of software. The SJ30 enables you to view and edit in Work and Excel. Sony includes Intellisync and HotSync to Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook. PictureGear Project lets you view pictures and convert them. CLIE Paint allows you to embellish your pictures. The World Alarm Clock allows you to put up to 5 Daily Alarms. Since the SJ30 uses the same HotSync port, it can use accessories and cables designed for other Sony models as well. Upgrading to the 5.0 premier, will give you access to features like the PowerPoint viewer.

No MP3 Player:
Unlike the T and the NR Series, the SJ30 cannot play polyphonic ringtones nor does it have a built-in MP3 player. However, if you want an MP3 Player, you could go for the MP3 Audio player adapter which would cost you another 129$.

A Note for Mac Users:
The SJ30, like all the other PDA’s from Sony does not support Apple Macintosh. It perhaps is the only Palm OS Licensee that does not support Macintosh. The Missing Sync is the best thing that can help Macintosh users synchronize with the phone.

Performance:

The CLIE PEG-SJ30 runs on a 33 MHz Dragonballz processor, sufficiently fast for most of the daily-to-use applications. It runs Palm OS 4.1 and has 16 MB of RAM. Though 16MB is plenty for a Palm OS based device, it would not hold much music. If you want most of its musical capacity, the memory cards could be handy.

Applications do not take much time to launch. Scrolling and switching between screens is very fast. However, reading files from a memory card is comparatively slower. The prospect of unlimited storage seems to cover up for this minor fault.

What the PDA lacks:

The SJ30 lacks the enhanced speaker and enhanced infrared port of the T615C which is now being sold for around the same price. The most noticeable drawback of the phone is the lack of a Cradle and a MP3 player. The battery life could have been a bit longer and the screen sturdier.

Battery Life:

The phone’s Lithium ion battery lasts a reasonable amount of time. At maximum brightness, the battery lasts around 3 hours. With the backlight at quarter power (usually the brightness at which most users use), the phone lasts 9 and half hours, that is much longer than the monochrome SJ20 with all its backlight on. However, it is much lesser than Sony’s estimate of 15 days of 30 minutes usage per day.

Warranty:

The PEG-SJ30 comes with 90 days manufacturer’s warranty. If you register your PDA at Sony’s official website, the warranty is extended up to a year from the day of purchase. However, the LCD screen and the outside casing are not covered under warranty.

Verdict:

The SJ30 is a stylish palm OS handheld. Price wise, it is the cheapest in the color PDA segment. It lacks the high end features available on the T615 (The T615 was meant to be a High end phone that later was down-graded to a mid range phone. Hence it has all high end features that the SJ30 does not have). However, it is an attractive and a highly portable PDA at budget price. The software provided by the phone is generous, especially the ability to view and edit Word and Excel files. Mac Users, however, should shell out more for a synchronizing platform. While, the poor speaker and the lack of a cradle maybe a turn off for some users, there are many who would be impressed by its High resolution screen. Thus it fares reasonably well against its competitors in the market Palm’s m130 and Handspring’s Treo 90.  If you are looking for a mid range color PDA for managing information and displaying photos, the SJ30 is definitely worth its price.

Check 2010 Best Handheld PDA Reviews, Samsung Smartphone Reviews, specs in this website.

Sony CLIE PEG-SJ30 PDA - Technical Specification Table

Sony Ericsson’s latest Cyber-shot camera PDA phone has an extremely impressive mix of imaging and phone functions. There are very few issues in the handset, but in total, it is a welcome addition to the market.

Sony Ericsson C901i sports a 5-mega pixel camera that features Smile shutter, auto focus, Bestpic, Smart contrast, Face Detection, PhotoFix along with geo-tagging. In addition to all these features, the Sony Ericsson 901i also comprises of xenon flash instead of photo flash LED, video stabilizer, video recording, red eye reduction, as well as video and picture blogging capabilities.

Design:

Sony Ericsson has great passion experimenting handset design. The maverick placement of the navigational key in last year’s K850i and combination of touch input and mechanical input found on W960i are proof of this. The C901i PDA Smartphone is also however, anything but experimental in design. It is an aboveboard candy bar style handset, and for our money paid, the simplicity and style in design is a major asset. The design is more clear having everything where it is to be located, and all its elements like number pad, dedicated keys and screen are well spaced and are easy to use.

Keypad Design of C901i:

The keypad and controls are well designed, with each key raised on a slight angle. The keys are easy to press and their tactility is really notable. The glossy surface of the keys makes your hands feel slippery and there are lot of chances that you might accidentally press a wrong key. At the heart of keypad is a comfortable 5-way navigational pad along with two selection buttons. The only blot in the design of the buttons is that the Answer and End call buttons are not raised and are placed between clear and shortcut keys, which makes it difficult to access them.

Handsome Handset:

The model C901i Cybershot Camera Phone looks and senses like a premium quality handset, comprised of lustrous plastic parts mixed with steel trimmings. The edges of the device are embellished with classy-looking silver and black lines which resembles emo leggings from a Tim Burton film are pleasing accents and helps giving C901i an overall impression of a very handsome handset.

Some intelligent tweaks in the design:

The design is altered by moving the volume controls to the bottom of the device making it uncomfortable to adjust the volume while you are on phone. Its slim handset streamlined makes it another superb piece of design. The only disadvantage of the model is that it is lint and dust attractive in the groove when the lens cover is closed.

Position of the Camera:

Turning the handset over reveals the surprise of the Cyber-shot camera. It seems like there is no covering to the lens of the camera, at least there is no sliding lens covered. The 5-mega pixel camera of C901i is actually under sliding lens mechanism. A gentle push exserts the top half of the phone and discloses the camera lens and LED camera flash. Although this design is unique it also carries some negatives. If the user holds the mobile in right hand as many of us do, it is difficult to open the cover because of the position of the hands. Sliding open the camera reveals an impressive feature: touch-sensitive controls surrounding the display. The various other functions include shot-mode, self timer and face detection. The buttons are very responsive and a nice touch is a fact that they alter on and off depending on the mode you are.

Two New Views:

The Sony Ericsson C901i has retained its intuitive user interface. General browsing and scrolling through menus is very fast compared to its previous model, making it one of the fastest Sony Ericsson PDAs. The main menu has included two new views, in addition to the standard grid layout- rotating and single icon layouts.

Features:

As everyone anticipated, Sony Ericsson has thrown nearly all the well known camera phone features into the new C901i. The model is incorporated with a camera of 5-mega pixel resolution, a range of auto focus modes including macro and face detection, a photo-light flash which can be set to stay on for shooting video and digital image stabilizer setting. The image settings can be adjusted with a selection of touch-sensitive icons which will be active when the lens cover of the camera is pulled open. During the tests that were conducted on the camera, the only holler found was that, the flash cannot be set to “On” and the only options present were “Auto” and “Off”.

Organizer And Apps:

Sony Ericsson C901i is offering a vast range of time-management features. Yearly, monthly and weekly views are offered by calendar. Whenever you enter a date of birth in the phone book, C901i automatically prompts to add it to calendar. Two types of tasks can be stored by using to-do application: simple tasks and phone calls.

Alarms are a part of the main menu and it provides five slots for alarms. Text and picture can be added to alarms. Furthermore, their behavior can be defined when the phone is in silent mode.

Optical zoom:

Photos are quite impressive in C901i, but the images are  slightly upstaged by Samsung’s G800. We should thank the Samsung’s optical zoom. There is no optical zoom on C901i, but you do get the features like face detection technology, auto-focus and a fairly effective flash.

Geo-Tagging:

For the photographers using camera phone who are very eager to show their chums where the photos are taken, it is an ear-warming news that the C901i supports geo-tagging. Unlike its cyber-shot vis-a-vis C702, the C901i does not include a dedicated GPS receiver. This means that location data needed to be tagged to photos is evolved by sending and receiving location data on-the-air and this would be added to a costly mobile data bill if you are not careful. Before going to trigger happy with your new camera phone, you may need to double check the geo-tagging option which is found in the final menu of the camera settings under “Add Position”.

Headset Attachment:

Along with the most Sony Ericsson phones in this price range, the C901i also supports HSDPA data speeds for fast browsing and also includes a Walkman style media playback menu. This latest Cyber-shot phone similar to other Sony Ericsson handsets supports Sony’s own M2 Memory Stick memory expansion (as opposed to the most common microSD) and headset attachment, which basically supports Sony’s proprietary inputs, so you should strictly stick to the headset in the box.

Texting:

The communication establishment features of C901i include SMS, MMS, email messaging all with T9 predictive text input. A host of PIM features are also included like a voice recorder, video and image editors, an FM radio and an RSS reader. The TrackID feature is also included, which allows you to record few seconds of any second through an external micro phone. Then the recording is sent to music database and if the song is recognized the title, album and artist name are sent to you.

A2DP Bluetooth:

Except for the 5-mega pixel camera, the C901i is not offering any spectacular features. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack, but an adapter is included allowing the use of standard headphones. The inclusion of A2DP Bluetooth profile permits you to stream music to a compatible set of Bluetooth headphones.

FM Radio with RDS and TrackID:

The integrated FM Radio of C901i carries memory for 20 channels and supports RDS. It has great interface and takes good advantage of the TrackID music recognition service. The radio can be minimized in the back ground like the music player.

Performance:

The new C901i has got Sony Ericsson’s exceptional call quality and ease of messaging. The menu navigation of the model is very fast and lag free.

Camera Performance:

The large display is excellent for using camera as it is very easy to line up the images. Photos produced are not splendid, but they are more than good enough to use C901i as a secondary digital camera. Image noise is moderate, the poor color reproduction is the main black spot with the display. The camera can also be used as video recorder, as most of the mobile phones the video quality is not very brilliant.

Tests on 5-Mega Pixel Camera:

After we saw the average image quality in last year’s cyber-shot range, and again in the C702, you may not necessarily expect excellent photographs with the new model C901i. In the tests conducted over C901i, the 5-mega pixel shooter is kept through different paces in a variety of situations, both outdoors in natural light and indoor in studio lighting, the result is pleasing and there is a vast improvement in the picture quality compared with the earlier models.

Auto-Focus:

The auto-focus is faster and sharper, and can take excellent images without the artefacts found in the shots from the C702. The new models reproduction is not excellent-for example, the camera saw reds and deep shade of pink in a couple of shots, but overall the colors are rich with strong contrast.

Xenon Flash:

Xenon Flash performance almost adds to C901i, but the produced images are a bit softer compared with those taken with C905 in pitch dark conditions.

Video Recording:

Although it is limited to QVGA resolution of 30fps, C901i is also capable of video recording. LED flash can be used in video recording. The clips are recorded in MP4 format and take almost 3MB for recording of every minute.

Voice Quality:

The C901i is HSDPA-capable and operates on popular 2100MHz band. Voice calls are crisp and clear although the volume could have been louder. The handset comes with 160MB internal memory; the memory stick micro (M2) is also included, but in actual there is no card in the sales package.

Battery Life:

Battery life is of really great concern, where C901i have to be charged by the end of second day. If all the unnecessary animations are turned off and the display brightness is adjusted to 60%, one can manage to double the charge cycle. But it is a shame that, you have to turn off the “bling”, the animated wall paper from designer Nicholas X Morley-but it definitely makes a huge difference.

Package Details:

The Sony Ericsson C901i package consists of Sony Ericsson C901Cybershot OEM Factory unlocked handset, Lithium Ion Battery, one button ear piece, Memory micro M2 stick, USB data cable, CST-60 Universal Wall charger(110/220v), Sony Ericsson software, User’s Guide- English may downloaded off of this product’s page in the form of a PDF file. Please note that if this mobile brings a memory card, you may get a different memory denomination card than the one originally mentioned in the manufacturer’s global site. This discrepancy occurs due to the fact that manufacturers package different configurations in different countries where they launch their products.

Warranty:

Sony Ericsson C901i comes with one year manufacturer’s warranty.

Verdict:

The Sony Ericsson C901i is all killer and no filler. It is definitely an excellent cyber-shot camera smartphone. Every part works as intended, which is more that can be said to lot of phones now-a-days. Its design is slim, simple and stylish and the pull-out camera makes it genius. It is obvious that C901i does not have GPS receiver feature of C702 and many of its competitors, but in real no one is happy with receiver in C702. The main disadvantages are video recording maxes out at QVGA at 30fps, no document viewer, memory card slot beneath the battery cover, disappointing retail package contents. The Sony Ericsson C901i is a great value in terms of image quality.

The lagging features of the new model are location of the volume controls, a bit hit and miss lens cover, proprietary head phone or charger port and the fact that no M2 card is included. Despite these minor disadvantages, we still feel that the Sony Ericsson C901i is a best buy for a camera phone users along with a lot of PDA features. Though it cannot be said as a serious PDA, it is for the people who would like to see the fun side of it.

Check Nokia Smartphone Reviews, Samsung Smartphone Reviews in this website.

Sony Ericsson C901i Smartphone - Technical Specifications, Features

Same sleek design with a better and brighter display:

Design wise the m515 looks a lot like the Palm V with similar buttons and quite a comparable layout, but this one weighs a little heavier at 4.9ounces. Though some of the latest Palm OS based devices have got scroll wheels and built in keyboards, palm has decided to keep things simple in m515 Handheld. The device itself looks like a classic and with its metallic finish, it turns out to be one of the slickest PDA in the market. M515 has got a 2″ 16 bit active matrix LCD display of resolution 160 x 160 pixels and supports 65,000 colors. The display has been made brighter and they can be adjusted to display at low, high and no brightness levels with just a tap with the stylus. It has got stunning reflective qualities that allows you to view the display in a variety of lighting conditions, even in bright sunlight, however, the display itself is bright enough.

Stylus:

The Palm m515 Handheld PDA ships with a metal or plastic alloy stylus that fits into a silo on the right side of the device, and a side-swivel hard leather flip cover that fits into a silo on the left side of the device. Unfortunately, unlike the Palm V series, the silos are not the same size so the device cannot be reversed for left-handed users.

Palm m515 Accessories:

Coming to the accessories, the Palm m515 comes with a detachable leather flip cover that is the reminiscent of the Palm V’s. The package also includes a power adaptor, USB docking cradle for recharging the device and to make connectivity with your system.

All accessories that worked with the m505 and m500 are compatible with the m515. And hence, no re-accessorizing is required if you are upgrading between m500 models

Basic features of m515:

As in the case of most of the other PDA devices in the market, PalmOne m515 has also chosen to run on the 33MHz DragonBall VZ processor at its core. This model also comes with Palm 4.1 OS that supports USB connectivity and in addition to this the operating system has got a lot of enhancements such as vibration alerts, flash alerts and even the ability to write graffiti and use the virtual keyboard simultaneously.

Memory:

As in the case of its predecessor, the m515 has 4MB of flash ROM for the sake of upgrade the OS if required, in future. There is a small slot in the rear of the PDA in order to add a postage stamp sized memory card. The memory cards supported are MMC and SD. The bottom part of the 515 has got a Palm Universal Connector that allows you to connect some of the add-on accessories like modems, cameras, and GPS receivers too. And hence, the only major difference between the m515 and its predecessor the m505, is the addition of an 8MB RAM, which makes 16MB in total for you to store data and third party applications. This is not the first PDA to have 16MB RAM , Sony and Handspring have already done it. Nevertheless, having twice the memory is more than welcome.

Software included in m515:

Talking about the software, the m515 has got all the signature applications such as the contacts book, calendar and notes. Palm has added a few more applications as bonus. They include Palm connectivity software which connects the handheld to your mobile for accessing the net. The MGI PhotoSuite Mobile Edition allows you to play the photos and video clips in your mobile and directly from memory cards. This software supports formats such as .JPG, .TIF, .GIF, .PNG, .BMP, .MOV, .AVI and .WMV. The DataViz Documents To Go Professional Edition for viewing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Includes a desktop application which is used to transfer files to the handheld. Files are automatically updated with each synchronization. The Palm Reader helps to read the ebooks on your Palm handheld and the device itself includes two ebooks called “The Empty Chair” and “STSCE4 Interphase” in English. AvantGo Mobile Internet Service which allows the users access web content wirelessly or via desktop synchronization. Palm has also included the PowerOne Personal Calculator which is an improved version of Palm OS original calculator.

Playback performance:

Though the m515 can playback videos, it does not have the capability to play sound and so, you will end up watching silent movies. The photo playback is decent. Palm had included a shooting game, its version of Serious Sam, which ran impressively without a hitch. The high resolution graphics is not as good as the ones found in some of the other latest PDAs.

Battery:

The Palm m515 comes with a Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery. We had mentioned the display of the m515 is bright enough but this comes at the cost of it battery life. The battery life is quite low. On using the device normally, for about 40 minutes per day, with the display on its brightest setting, the device will require a recharge on the end of the fourth day.

Warranty:

Palm supports the Palm m515 with one year limited warranty for parts and labor.

Verdict:

Plam has done a great job with the m515, it has made it everything its predecessor failed to be. The super compact design, highly improvised design and the expansion slot has all given some happy success to the PDA. Yet, it lacks a clear competitive advantage over Sony’s high end CLIEs. Many current Palm owners may be wondering if the m515 is worth upgrading to from their current device. It is a minor upgrade, but if you are carrying around a Palm V still and want a new PDA, the Palm m515 would be a significant and worthwhile upgrade.

Check other Handheld PDA Reviews in this website.

Technical Specification Details of Palm m515 PDA

Attractive design:

All the smartphones of the Samsung family have the same design veins. Samsung Eternity, as in the case of all the other touch phones, has the hallmark features. It has a candy bar from factor with an extremely slim profile, having dimension as, (H x W x D) inches 4.3″ x 2.2″ x 0.5″ and weighs just 3.88 ounces. Though it weights a bit lighter than its counterparts, it still retains a sturdy feel in your hands. Eternity is having a black colour theme which is simple and at the same time, very attractive. The glossy texture that surrounds the display and the shiny metal spines are particularly very attractive. The only regret that we have with the design is that, we would have preferred a metal cover for the battery, rather than the plastic one that has been provided.

Touch sensitive display:

The Samsung Eternity has a large 3.2″ touch sensitive display. This display has a resolution of 400×240 pixels and has support for 262,000 colours. All the images and graphics that are displayed are very sharp and the text is legible. The brightness, font type and the backlighting time can be changed as per your wish. The size of the display is apt for browsing, watching videos or even for typing in the virtual keyboard. The only three physical buttons that are available sit just beneath the display. They are the talk, end and the back buttons.

The user-friendly interface:

The touch interface of the SGH-A867 phone is very responsive and easy to use, but in case you find any difficulties with it, then you could always change the calibration. Most likely, you will not be finding any issues with selecting the menus or scrolling through the long menus. The intensity of the vibrating feedback which is extremely helpful could also be adjusted. The TouchWiz interface of Samsung is truly unique and accessible. Having joined hands with AT&T, it has added some of its own widgets which includes a shortcut to the mobile TV application. A secondary shortcut bar can be seen towards the bottom of the display which gives you one touch access to the phone dialer, contacts list, and the main menu too. The main menu can be set to be displayed either as a set of icons or in a format of list, the choice is yours, said that, both the types are intuitive and have easy access to a wide range of features. You will be finding large alphanumeric characters in the phone dialer application. Activating the loudspeaker when on a call is just as easy that it can be done in one touch.

Buttons and Controls:

The left side of the Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 Touch Screen phone has a volume rocker and a headphone jack which doubles as a charger port. The headset that is included uses a proprietary connection. The right side has a camera shutter and a menu shortcut button. The shortcut menu that appears as a result of pressing this button includes shortcuts for phone dialer, main menu, the music player, the web browser and the messaging menu too. The top of the phone has a dedicated screen locking control as in the case of Apple iPhone. The camera lens sits in the rear of the phone, but unfortunately, Eternity neither has a flash nor a self-portrait mirror.

The virtual QWERTY keyboard:

The virtual QWERTY keyboard that Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has on offer is similar to that of the other touch sensitive phones of Samsung, offering separate keyboards for alphabets and numbers or symbols. But Eternity has managed to pull up another advantage by adding another keyboard for the Emoticons. Another thing that we loved about the virtual keyboard is that, they have dedicated punctuation keys that are extremely handy. All the keyboards take full advantage of the display, thus allocating you only a small amount of space for typing your messages. Dedicated shift and spacebar keys are available in the keypad. It is extremely easy to deactivate the predictive text and switch to the French and Spanish menus. Accelerometer of the Eternity allows you swap between the standard alphanumeric keypad and the graffiti applications by just rotating the device. On the whole, the complete interface is entirely user friendly.

Personalize your Samsung Eternity:

Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 PDA Phone can be personalized with a variety of background colours, wallpapers, alert tones and greeting messages. Additional ringtones can be downloaded from AT&T’s Media Mall service. The Eternity offers demo versions of four games, Monopoly, Ms. Pac-Man, World Series of Poker, and Block Breaker. The full version of these games and some additional titles too can be bought from AT&T.

Phone book entries on Eternity SGH-A867:

You can make about 1000 entries in Samsung Eternity SGH-A867’s phone book. Under each entry, you can have multiple phone numbers, two addresses, company name and job title, nick name, birthday, email IDs, URLs and notes too. Remember, the SIM card stores and additional 250 entries. The callers can be assigned to group, photos and given one of the eleven 72-chord polyphonic ringtones. Do not panic, you can use your one set of MP3 tracks and audio files as ringtones.

Features:

Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has full Bluetooth with stereo profile. The absence of Wi-Fi and voice dialing left us wondering why? They stand out to be the most glaring omissions in the PDA smartphone. Coming to the part of email, though AT&T’s Mobile e-mail service offers access to a variety of POP3 services, it is a Web-based application that does not sync automatically. In addition to this, the IMAP4 is also largely unavailable. This makes the email service, not that ideal for the business users. The basic PC syncing for images, MP3 files and other date files are offered by Eternity. But, it cannot sync with Outlook e-mail, calendars, and contacts. Additional investment in third party syncing software is required if you need exchange of the contacts for sure.

Miscellaneous features:

The other miscellaneous features include text and multimedia messaging, calculator, calendar, notepad, task list, alarm clock world clock, timer, stopwatch, currency and unit converter, speakerphone and vibrating alerts. The voice recorder and USB mass storage facilities are the most useful ones among the lot.

The browser:

As in the case of Behold and Instinct, the Eternity also possesses a full HTML browser and also carries on the same disability to support flash or animation. Most of the pages are displayed well. It has got very intuitive onscreen controls, but we liked the iPhone’s multi-touch interface better which allows you to use a magnifying button to zoom the contents in the display. Scrolling through the lengthy web pages and selecting URLs from crowded pages could be unpleasant.

The 3G connection was just good, but not excellent. While using the web browser, some of the pages took longer to load and very sluggish when scrolling. Streaming video take long time too. But once they are loaded, they run well. They never freeze or drop connection.

Camera:

Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 multimedia smartphone has a three mega pixel camera, that has a lot of features in common with Behold’s 5-megapixel shooter. It takes images in four resolutions varying from 2,048×1,536 down to a 400×240 wide resolution that uses the full expanse of the Eternity’s display. There are a range of other editing options too, which includes four quality setting, a self timer, exposure metering, an auto focus and six scene settings that include night, action, landscape etc, white balance, onscreen gridlines and brightness. The other options include four color effects, and three shutter sounds along with a silent option. You can also select from either of the three shooting mode that include continuous, panorama and mosaic. You can have loads of fun with the sixteen fun frames available and also with the smile shot mode that promises you to detect when the person to be captured is smiling. The absence of flash is a big minus, having a three mega pixel camera. Overall, the menus are simple and easy to use.

A mini-Camcorder too:

Eternity SGH-A867 has a camcorder option too. It shoots clips with sound in two resolution that includes 320×240 and 176×144. The options that you have with the camcorder are fewer when compared to that of those you have with the still camera, yet, it has a decent collection of them. The clips that you shoot that are particularly meant for the multimedia messages are capped for just 1 minute. But if you want to shoot for a longer time, then you can choose the standard mode.

Image quality:

The quality of the images shot in Eternity are pretty good. The colours are bright and vibrant. But the absence of flash played a major role in degrading the quality of photos. Though you provide with adequate illumination, it does not help much. The quality of the videos were good too. They are better than the quality of videos shot using any other camera mobile phone. The images and video clips can be easily copied to your system using multimedia message or the Bluetooth or using the provided USB cable.

Memory:

Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has an internal memory of 200MB, which can be expanded using a microSD card.

Navigator:

Assisted GPS  and AT&T navigator service offer the Eternity turn by turn directions. The Where and Yellow pages mobile applications can also be used. Some of the other applications that are included in eternity include WikiMobile, My-Cast Weather, and Mobile Banking. A tumbling device is also available that lets you roll a pair of virtual device right on your display.

AT&T mobile TV service:

Coming to the seller feature, the AT&T mobile TV service, which is a live TV service that uses Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology. It brings more than 150 simulcast and time-shifted programs from content providers such as ESPN, CBS, ESPN, Fox, Comedy Central, NBC and MTV. The quality of the broadcasts were nothing less than flattering.

Other services:

Since Samsung Eternity is a 3G UMTS handset, it has the support for AT&T’s Cellular Video service and AT&T Mobile Music. While the former offers lots for streaming video content, the latter brings wireless song downloads through a variety of partners. Though the interface of both the applications have minimalist deigns, they have support for a wide range of file formats. The other interesting features that these applications have on offer are, album art, play lists, shuffle and repeat modes, XM Radio Mobile,  MusicVJ, a Pandora, a Billboard Mobile channel, Music ID application, music videos, and a community section with access to fan sites and downloads.

Call quality:

The quality of the calls are good. The voices of the callers sound natural. Since the volume levels are a little low, you will have to increase it when in noisy places. Slight GSM buzz could be noticed but it was minimal though. The quality of calls using Bluetooth headset are good too. The automated calling system could understand you  quickly, but only if you are in a quite room. Same is the case while having a conversation using the speakerphone. While listening to music, usage of a headset will provide you with the best experience.

Battery life:

For a feature phone, the Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 3G Mobile Phone has a surprisingly high capacity 1300 mAh Lithium Ion battery that is user replaceable. Battery life for a 3G phone with a large display and plenty of multimedia apps is quite good. Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 gives 5 hours of talk time and 10.42 days of standby time.

Warranty:

Samsung offers Eternity SGH-A867 one year warranty.

Verdict:

Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 TouchScreen SmartPhone has a lovely deign and interface. The diplay is large, bright and clear. You can get access to voice mail, email, photos, and other features at the touch of a button. The Samsung Eternity succeeds as a multimedia device, but without Wi-Fi and full e-mail support, it stops well short of being a business-friendly device. And hence, if you are a multimedia freak, Eternity is the one for you. But if you are a corporate, choose Blackberry pearl.

Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 - Technical Specifications, Features