14 DAY TRIAL // I believe users already got used to Eten's policy of launching updated "+" models that include advanced features compared with the initial devices. glofiish X500+ is one of these cases ? an improved version of the last year Pocket PC device codenamed glofiish X500. The most important differences between the 2 models (and the only ones) concern the screen and the embedded software. X500+ got a better display capable of supporting an unparalleled resolution of 480 x 640 pixels, and an up-to-date operating system ? Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional. Usually, when you develop an improved version of a previous model you also try to make it faster than the "original" by including a better processor or more memory, but this is not the case. So, let's see if glofiish X500+ is faster than its oldliner brother?
Announced in November 2006, Eten's glofiish X500+ has been made available on the market in June 2007 at an estimated price of USD 700, but that widely varied depending on location.
Design
Eten worked hard on its device?s design and it surely shows. In less than 2 years, the Taiwanese company heavily modified the form of its device and made it thinner and thinner. Looking back at the old bulky designs of M600 or G500, it hardly seems possible for the X500+ to have been manufactured by the same company. Almost everything has been changed, starting with the compact form or the compound used.
Eten's glofiish X500+ can easily compete with any of HTC's devices, less the Touch model which is a masterpiece. Anyway, the X500+ is one of the slimmest Pocket PC's manufactured by Eten with only 15.5 mm thickness. The rubberized plastic gives a stylish look and feels very good to the touch. Moreover, the Pocket PC doesn't catch any fingerprints when being heavily used but instead will get soiled sometimes. It looks just like a candybar, simple and compact with excellent ergonomics. The external buttons have been smartly embedded onto the phone's sides so that it will not make any dissonant note. Only the Volume keys and the Voice command button placed on the left side of the device make an exception. For music lovers, on the same side there's a 2.5mm port jack that will enable users to plug any compatible headsets. The Power button and the camera key are strategically placed on the right side of the device. Between these two, there's a very small slot where you will notice the Reset button. On the bottom, there are 2 unprotected openings: the miniUSB port and the microSD slot. The back of the phone includes the 2 Megapixel camera with flash and the external speaker.
I hope you're not used to get out the stylus from the top of the device, because Eten placed the stylus on the downward, on the bottom of the device. Besides the 2 contextual keys and the Accept/End calls that are surrounding the silver 5-way navigational key, there are another 2 shortcut keys, above the big display which will give you access to the M-Desk and to the GPS viewer. Unfortunately, the phone lacks a QWERTY keyboard, but this is probably due to its slim design or ergonomics reasons. The exact measures of the device (113.5 x 60.5 x 15.5 mm) and weight (146 grams including battery) make it a perfect fit for any businessman pocket.
Display and Camera
This is by far the best 2.8 inch display on the market. The TFT-LCD screen supports 65k colors and 640 x 480 pixels VGA resolution. With more pixels on the screen, images and movies viewed on the X500+ are sharper and show more detail considerably enhancing the mobile multimedia experience. I have noticed that the use of the Quick Links bar on the main display seriously slows down the device.
Using the built-in 2-megapixel Auto-Macro camera, which helps capture images at close distances, Namecard Manager lets users photograph a business card, and then uses OCR technology to identify and extract contact information, adding it to the device's contact's list in just a few easy steps.
Glofiish X500+ has not been manufactured to compete with other devices regarding its camera pictures quality. Instead, Eten offers rather a mediocre quality of the images, but it?s no wonder as most of the Pocket PCs don't feature better camera modules. The 2 Megapixel camera can take pictures in various resolutions varying from 176 x 144 pixels to 1600 x 1200 pixels resolutions. The camera has all the standard features such as: white balance, self-portrait mirror and LED flash. Again it's all about the light and ... luck. Just push the button and pray that the camera catches the moment you so much desired. You can only shoot clips in 3GP formats at a max resolution of 320 x 240 pixels.
Check out the pictures below to figure out more about the pictures? quality.
Menu and Software
Glofiish X500+ is based on the Windows Mobile 6 Professional platform and comes complete with the latest mobile applications for business and leisure. The new operating system offers superior functionality to the user compared with the older Windows Mobile 5.0 OS. Nevertheless, Eten's software offering is clearly inferior to the one included by HTC onto its devices. The menu interface looks pretty much the same in most of the Eten's devices and the only difference comes from some of the new applications included. Some of these require the use of Namecard Manager, designed to simplify the process of updating contacts on the X500+, others require the use of Internet connectivity (Windows Live Messenger).
Obviously, the new operating system has a nicer and smoother interface which will certainly please every user. Besides the changed interface, Windows Mobile 6.0 brings new features and adds new options to the already embedded functions. The Messaging feature received a wide range of improvements not present into the previous Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. The most important are the Exchange Server Search, which enables users to search the mailbox on server using specific filters and criteria, and the HTML support which enables users to receive, compose and send e-mails in HTML format. Windows Live is also a new premier service offering for Windows Mobile 6.0, as well as the Windows Mobile Update that will help you keep your device more secure and up-to-date. There's also a new feature that enables users to share their mobile device Internet access with a PC via USB or Bluetooth called Internet Sharing. Internet Explorer Mobile has been improved (Ajax support) to enhance the browser experience.
Both Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional devices may include Office Mobile. Eten glofiish X500+ runs the latter, thus it features enhanced Word mobile editing tools (cut, copy, paste, spell check and word count), toolbars and paragraphs. These are only some of the most important new features introduced by Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional operating system, many more have been updated to new improved versions (i.e. Voice Command).
Again Eten didn't include a Java Emulator onto the device, so you can get one that works from here. The device also lacks the X-button close feature which should enable you to completely close an application from the "X" button. You also won't be able to power off your device unless you battery is completely depleted or you simply pull out the battery. The features I mentioned above are well integrated in almost all HTC devices and I believe the?re not that hard to implement.
If you by any chance own an Eten X500 or M700 model then you can now upgrade your operating system to Windows Mobile 6.0 for free here.
Communication
Maybe the lack of 3G connectivity will hurt some of the possible buyers, but X500+ has the rest of the connectivity tools. There's no change compared to the older X500 model and we have the same techs: GPRS (Class 10, 32 - 48 kbps), EDGE (Class 10, 236.8 kbps), Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) and miniUSB for PC synchronization or simply for charging the device. Just like the M700 model, the X500+ has troubles in attaining even mediocre data transfer speeds. With only 37 Kbps for download and 27 Kbps for upload, it's very clear that EDGE speed could be easily taken as GPRS speeds.
Bluetooth tests results are almost a copycat of the EDGE results with 37 KB/s data transfer speeds instead of Kb. This is disappointing especially because Eten suggested that X500+ features EDR technology. I had no problems with the WLAN connection which has been working smoothly. This may be a viable solution for those that were expecting 3G technology. The same GPS receiver with SiRF Star III chipset that has been embedded in glofiish M700 and X500 models will help you get directions with X500+ also. The device doesn't offer any GPS software and is limited to a GPS Viewer application, which seems to be experience problems in fixing your location or not fix it at all.
The quad-band (GSM850 / GSM900 / GSM1800 / GSM1900) network compatible device has an excellent signal reception, but sometimes the sound may have a strange echo. Anyway, it only happened to me twice in 1 week on heavy use, so there's no reason to believe that it happens too frequently.
Processor and Memory
Eten glofiish X500+ has the same Samsung S3C2440 as its older X500 brother, which runs at 400 MHz speeds. On a standard Pocket PC, this CPU may seem powerful enough these days, but surprisingly enough, the processor can't handle complex operations, and even gaming could become a pain.
That's because the device doesn't feature a graphical chipset and the VGA display places quite a lot of "pressure" on the CPU. From tests you can obviously notice that the Pocket PC is slow on everything: reading/editing documents, gaming, processing, data transfers. For those of you that already own the X500 model I wouldn't recommend an upgrade to X500+ if you're looking for speed. Those searching to buy their first Pocket PC, this model can offer you the best display on the market, but it's much slower than any other device in its class.
Glofiish X500+ has 128 MB Flash ROM and 64 MB SDRAM, but also a microSD slot card which enables users to expand storage space up to 2GB.
Multimedia
It seems the Eten tries to "pump up the volume" by working hard on the multimedia parts of its latest Pocket PCs. The 192 polyphonic sounds that become a usual feature for the glofiish series greatly improve the quality of music played. In addition, the powerful battery assures any music lover that it won't run out of energy for very long time by these days standards. The external speaker placed on the back of the device sounds very good, better than TyTN's in my opinion. But you have to watch how you're holding it, so you won't cover the loudspeaker by mistake. The 2.5mm jack port is another "innovation" for Pocket PCs which mostly had USB compatible headsets. Now you can easily use your own headphones if you don't like those that are coming in the sales package.
Even if a little bit low, the music sound is above average on the standard wired headset. Windows Media Player 10 can run almost every multimedia format that you can think of: AMR, AWB, MIDI, MMF, RMI, AAC, 3GP, AVI, WAV, MP3 and WMA. There's also a basic FM tuner that can memorize about 150 stations (50 stations per location). Unfortunately, you won't be able to smoothly watch movies on the device because the CPU cannot handle the playback. Missing frames and big lags is what you get instead.
Battery
I was expecting good results before testing the battery and it seems that my expectations were easily met. As seen in the screenshot, the 1530 mAh Lithium-Polymer battery had enough energy for a little bit over 7 hours of standard use (backlighting set to maximum). The test reminded me of the glofiish M700 which had the same battery and had the same results.
This means that the better VGA display included onto the X500+ model does not drain more energy than the usual QVGA featured by the majority of the Pocket PCs. Again, it takes about 4 hours to completely recharge your battery, but I suggest you to use the charger and not the USB cable if you want to lower the time.
Impressions
Eten's glofiish X500+ is one of the best-looking Pocket PCs on the market together with its older X500 brother. The VGA display which renders resolutions of 480 x 640 pixels greatly enhances the detail grade of the image. You will be simply astonished only by looking at its menu. Opposed to this, the CPU fails to offer a stable and reliable platform for the user because of the powerful display. Overall, I believe that X500+ won't have the success of its predecessor (X500), because Pocket PC buyers are (still) looking for speed more than they?re looking for an stylish design. While not a total fiasco, glofiish X500+ will most likely get many software updates (as Eten already accustomed its customers to), but will definitely remain with the same CPU. Omnisoft's site offers the device for about USD 700 here.
The Good
The main attraction of this device is by far the VGA display and nothing else. Probably the Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional could also be among the positive points of the device, but Eten has already offered the operating system free of charge for X500 and M700 owners. The battery is also one of the best and really suits a businessman which is on the go and doesn't have enough time for frequent charges.
The Bad
The lack of a QWERTY keyboard significantly limits the functionality of the device. In addition, the CPU is not powerful enough for the VGA display. Maybe Eten would better test its devices before launching them on the market. The Pocket PC is too slow on everything, either if you want to watch a movie or simply play a game. Anyway, the biggest disappointment is the lack of 3G and the low data transfer speeds of the EDGE and Bluetooth connections.
Sales package
Eten glofiish X500+ Pocket PC 1,530 mAh Lithium-Polymer battery Extra stylus USB sync cable AC adaptor Wired headset Leather case User guide CD
Photo: Tudor Raiciu for Softpedia.com