14 DAY TRIAL // The Asian company E-ten, one of the HTC's main competitors on the handheld devices market, managed to conceive one of the most versatile device, the M600 Pocket PC. The device was launched at the end of 2005 as an answer to Qtek's 9100 model. A few months later, E-ten decided to update its successful M600 with a new device ? M600+, just like they did with the G500 model. So, basically, the M600+ has the same features and design as his older brother M600, only with more memory and a better camera. If you already own an M600 model I don't think the new M600+ could make you feel better, and that's simply because its features doesn't justify its price. Still, there are some more visual changes about which we will discuss later on.
Design
As I have stated above, the M600 and M600+ designs look similarly, the main differences between them being rather inside of the devices than outside. The device sports a cool candybar design, measures 111.7 x 60.7 x 22 mm and weighs exactly 174 grams (including battery), surprisingly, that's almost 10 grams heavier than the older model. Perhaps it's the new material from which the phone is made of. That is the visual difference from the M600- the new plastic used for M600+, which is mat, while the older model had a rather glossy plastic, very easy soil. The back of the device, the part which covers the battery, is also slightly changed as the bumps on it are now slightly bigger which makes the phone more comfortable to hold in the hand. It features four buttons and a D-pad at the lower part of the front. Two of the buttons can be used as Shortcut Keys, while the other two are the Answer and Reject keys. None of the buttons can be used as Soft Keys, which is good for single-hand use, and that's a big drawback, because the device also lacks a QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is small and extremely inconvenient to use, especially when you are playing games. At the left side of the phone, there's the camera button, a slider for adjusting the volume and the voice commands button. The power button is placed on the top, to the right, standard for this kind of devices. Unfortunately, the Eten M600+ has no lit buttons and that makes it very hard to use in dark areas. Also, there are two LEDs placed at the upper part of the front side. The left one indicates whether Bluetooth or WiFi is turned on, and the right one is a Service Light and blinks: in green when the phone is turned on, in orange ? when you have a missed call or new message, and in red ? when the phone is charging. The slot for the SD cards is also placed on the upper side. Lower on the left side, you can find the headset port. Again, the 2.5mm stereo has a small rubber covering it, which is quite hard to remove. Furthermore, on the bottom of the device there's an USB port. The stylus, as usual, is placed to the left of this socket, and yes, it's extendable. All in all, the device looks solid, with polished finishes, nice to touch.
E-ten M600+ comes with a powerful Samsung S3C 2440 400 Mhz processor and features 256 MB Flash ROM, 64 MB SDRAM memory. The memory can be extended through the SD/SDIO card slot, which can be further more, used for attaching a GPS plugin. The device runs Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and specific applications and utilities that come with the system such as: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Explorer, Media Player, etc. Also, many more can be downloaded and installed, courtesy of the unlimited possibilities given by the operating system. Overall, the device works decent with all applications, but because the processor is not among the most powerful, don't expect wonders from it. Depending on how many applications or what kind of applications you are using, you'll have lags when browsing through menus.
One of upgrades of the M600+, its camera, is different from the M600's 1.3 megapixel. The 2.0 megapixel camera, can take pictures at an improved quality, and features a flash, which unfortunately lights up only during exposure, and not during picture framing. That makes it useless in low light or dark areas because you will surely not be able to see what you're looking at (ouch). Also, the camera features a small mirror for self-shots just below the camera. The interface is pretty standard and there are only a few icons when it's in shooting mode. The pictures are definitely better than the ones taken with the M600, and that's not only because of the higher resolution. But don't try to compare it with even the lowest digital camera capable of taking photos with a 2 megapixel resolution. The standard mobile version of Windows Media Player can be used for playing music and/or videos. It supports MP3, WMA and WAV formats, for music and WMV and 3GP, for videos. Music can be played with the integrated speaker, but when tested, it revealed a horrible sound, so my advice is to listen to the headset. The headset, which is standard 2.5mm stereo, is a better option if you want some sound quality.
Even if the device is a quad-band, you won't be able to take advantage of high data transfer technologies. There's no EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA, there's only GPRS. Other than that, users can find another upgrade- the Bluetooth 2.0 technology. Also, the device features an integrated Wi-Fi module for wireless Internet connection. At least, Wi-Fi transfer speeds are higher than GPRS ones, so it makes it a good option when browsing the Internet and streaming. The USB port can be used to synchronize the device with the PC and for file transfer.
The Good
Decent processor, good storage capacity, Wi-Fi connectivity, Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and Bluetooth 2.0 are the strong points of the device. Also, the design is not bad at all, E-ten improving their design line.
The Bad
The lack of QWERTY keyboard and EDGE hurts the M600+ badly. If you have an M600 device, you only need to buy yourself a card for memory expansion and you almost got yourself a new M600+, minus processor and Bluetooth 2.0. The impossibility of using the buttons as SoftKeys makes M600+ difficult to handle and almost impossible to use with only one hand. The 2 megapixel camera is a step forward for E-ten, but the quality of the pictures is still far from good.
Conclusion
E-ten has still much to improve to this device. Released only a few months ago, the device should've included at least EDGE connectivity, if not even UMTS. Design only won?t sell this device, so buy it only if you can afford it and don't need high speed data transfers,' cause you ain't gonna get it. You can check here for availability.
Standard kit includes:
- Pocket PC - Charger - Wire stereo headset - Craddle - USB cable for synchronization - Horizontal belt case - CD with the software - Manual
Here are some snapshots of the device:
Photo: Tudor Raiciu
