Eten Glofiish X500 Review

With developing of technologies and mobile phones as part of them, people get used to having more and more features in their phones and combining multiple devices into single one has become a standard. Windows Mobile-powered phones have been available for many years now, and as those pocket computers are the most advanced phones on the market, they have been manufactured mainly by hi-tech producers in Asia. Taiwan has become the world leader in this category, and HTC is the most popular manufacturer, with their devices sold under various brand and carrier names. But the rivals become stronger and stronger, and brands like Eten have started their own lines of phones getting a piece of the market share.

You know the ETEN thanks to its previous models, numbered M600, G500 and M600+. They're all Pocket PC Phones running on Windows Mobile operating system and featuring WiFi or GPS functionality. At the end of October 2006, the manufacturer announced a new name for its PPC line up - “glofiish” and the first phone to carry it is the new E-TEN X500. The letter “X” in the model name clearly shows that it is part of a completely new series - combining both of their strongest points of the previous "G" and "M" series– the X500 is Eten's first device to feature Wi-Fi and GPS, and it is packed into 0.6”(15.5mm) slim body which makes it world's thinnest PPC phone with GPS and WiFi up to date.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (MM)	Weight (OZ)	Weight (Gramms)
Eten X500	4.4" x 2.3" x 0.6"	113 x 59.5 x 15.5	5.2	146
Eten M600+	4.4" x 2.4" x 0.9"	111.5 x 60.5 x 22	5.8	165
Eten G500+	4.7" x 2.4" x 0.9"	119 x 62 x 23	6.7	191
HTC Wizard	4.3" x 2.3" x 0.9"	108 x 58 x 24	5.6	160
HTC Artemis	4.3" x 2.3" x 0.7"	108 x 58 x 17	4.6	130
HP 6920	4.7" x 2.8" x 0.7"	118 x 71 x 18	6.3	180

Otherwise the phone is similar to other models from the brand and features 2-megapixel camera with LED flash, 400MHz Samsung processor, and EDGE-data, still lacking update to 3G frequencies, which can be considered as one of the its main drawbacks. It moves to microSD slot for smaller size, which reduces the amount of maximum memory available, but a nice addition is that finally Eten has used a standard miniUSB slot for connecting to a computer and charging.

Box contents:

• Eten X500 phone
• Wall charger
• miniUSB cable
• Leather case
• Stereo headset
• CD with software

We are disappointed by the leather case coming with the phone, or to say it more accurately – we hate it. There are several reasons for that. The carrying case does not have a belt clip and you have to always either hold it in your hand or have an empty pocket to put it in. Since we are talking about a Pocket PC with a weight of 150g, it not the most convenient thing to have in a pocket all the time.

When a call comes in, there are two options – either take the phone out of the case and hold the case while talking, or talk with the phone still in the case – both not the best option. In addition to that, the case has an opening for the 2.5mm jack, but lacks one for the camera.

On top of that, we accidentally dropped the phone – it slid out of a jacket's pocket and plunged on the ground. We though no damage would be inflicted (had our T-Mobile MDA's dropped on numerous occasions) but the next time we had to use the X500 we noticed its bottom surface is dented. Any decent case would have protected the phone in such situation, but the X500 didn't.

When we returned back to our MDA with belt-holster we realized how brilliant idea it is – it's more comfortable, saves space, and is way more secure!

Strangely, the phone doesn't come with a USB Cradle for PC Synchronization, as previous models did – M600 and M600+. The G500 didn't have one, but it came with Car holder because of its GPS navigation functionality; X500 glofiish has both WiFi and GPS, but none of the “high-end” accessories are present. Keep in mind this is not something standard, but a downgrade when compared to manufacturer's past models.

The X500 is a standard candybar design, with very slim for its class profile. It is only 0.6” (15.5mm) which as we noted is currently the slimmest Pocket PC with GPS and Wi-Fi. Its weight is 5.2oz (146 g) which is about average for a Pocket PC. When we put it side by side with the Wizard, we preferred the HTC-rival as more handy, but this is just a personal preference. Made out mainly of plastic, it has solid construction, which unfortunately can be easily damaged, as our “crash test” showed. A stylish ornament is the brushed metal trim around the display, which houses the Glofiish brand name. The back is made of mat black plastic that easily catches fingerprints but can also be easily cleaned.

			X500 and M600+
X500 and M600+	X500 and M600+	Blackberry Pearl, X500, M600+	X500, Pearl, M600+

The front side is dominated by 2.8” touch-sensitive display with QVGA resolution (240x320 pixels) which can display up to 65k colors (16bit). It is well visible from various angles, with slight color tolerance towards the red – the blue has a touch of violet and the white – a touch of pink. Compared to the display of the HTC Wizard (8125 and MDA) thought, it is brighter with a lot stronger contrast.

X500, HTC Wizard, M600+

We are happy to see that the X500 now has real soft keys in the place of the shortcuts, previous models had. The GPS and M-Desk shortcuts are now above the display, which in sum makes six keys on the front side. All of them are flush and made of the same silver plastic the front side is made of. Pressing them is relatively hard, especially for the upper ones.

Between the two software keys is situated the D-pad: it is composed from a central key and slightly raised directions around it, in the form of a rectangular. Its construction could have been a lot better – the sides are hard to press, and since the whole D-pad is not very large, very often the directions instead of the central OK key were pressed. The backlight of the keypad is strong enough to be seen in the dark, but the d-pad is not illuminated which is another drawback.

The left side of the device houses a double key for the volume control and a voice recognition key. The volume up and down are way too close to each other and very hard to distinguish. At the opposite side are the power key and the camera shortcut – they are both totally flush which is the reason that they can't be felt by touching, which is worse in dark place, because they lack backlight. Between them is the soft reset button.

As a Pocket PC device, the X500 uses its touch screen as main navigation and it features a stylus for pressing it, in the bottom right corner. As previous models, this one is telescopic and extends when you slide it out of its hinge.

Strangely, it can get in, in the wrong direction. If it happens, you won't be able to get it out, before you open the battery cover:

a problem with the stylus

Just below the shortcut keys and above the display, are situated two LED service lights. They are fast and easy way to see the current condition of your headset. The left light is for local connectivity – if the Bluetooth is on, it will flash in blue, and if the WiFi is on – in orange. If they are both on, the small LED will flash in both colors. The right LED is for the status of the phone. In standby mode it will flash in green, while a missed call or unread message will color the flashes in red. A solid red light indicates charging via the AC charger or a cable.

Interface:

As a Pocket PC Phone running on Windows Mobile 5.0 the X500 is identical in software to previous Eten models – the M600(+) and the G500. It also has customized homescreen with shortcuts to many applications, which is very handy for easier access to almost everything the phone has. They are big in size, with scroll buttons to the right which give access to all of them, making 55 in total!

It comes very close to desktop computer with a Windows XP and is suitable for people which use the computer more or less. More often than now, navigating through the menus and using the device is relatively quick and enjoyable thanks to the powerful processor (400MHz clock rate). The added software by “M-Desk” is quite useful. By default it is launched by the right shortcut key in the upper line. This software provides shortcuts to various menus of the phone, divided in four tabs:

• PHONE
• PDA
• FUN
• SYSTEM

As a WM PPC Phone, X500 can be customized in many different ways and the easiest one is changing the visual themes. If you have to use more advanced software, the phone can be adjusted to perfectly suit your needs.

Phonebook:

The phonebook has no restriction on the amount of contact that can be added – it only depends on the memory available. When you open the phonebook all contacts are displayed as a list; each field consists of the name and the number of the contact, while a letter placed beside them indicates what the type of the number is (w – work; m – mobile, etc.). Pictures are not displayed even if there is one attached to the contact.

The line displayed at the top of the screen is a search field, which starts searching through the names and numbers on entering a symbol – the more symbols you type, the more accurate the match is – it's quite useful! There are tabs with different letters (divided in groups of three) just below it. This way you can arrange the contacts so that only the ones beginning with a given letter are displayed. These two search features are quite handy and they make finding a particular contact in the phonebook very quick.

Too bad that's not the case when adding a new name to the phonebook; the device offers way too many capabilities, including multiple work and home numbers, but there's only one for mobile –something quite inconvenient as that's exactly where we wanted to add multiple numbers to. The numerous address, e-mail and other address fields confuse you even further – it would have been a lot easier if the most frequently used fields are highlighted in some way. We would choose this to be done with the Name, Picture, Mobile number and e-mail fields and thus finding them would have been easy, eliminating the need to go through the long list. This is not a shortcoming on the ETEN, but on all Windows Mobile devices.

Personal photos and ringtones can be assigned to each contact; there's no restriction on the size of the pictures but they are visualized in very small size even on an incoming call – we think they are useless. You can also add a note to each contact.

Another major drawback is that a Missed Call number cannot be added to an already existing contact. To do this, you first have to add it as a new one and then Cut and Paste the number into the contact you want. These complex manipulations not only lose your time, but there's also a chance that you lose the number. That's what we experienced. We cut the number, then copied another text by mistake, and the number was gone. That's a problem with all WM PPC phones, not only with Eten ones.

Dialer:

Dialing is done after pressing the ANSWER button, no matter which menu you're currently in. A large numeric keypad is visualized, featuring buttons that are easily pressed even without a stylus. Speed Dial and Call History are the other two shortcut buttons. The first one is a added by Eten and it displays the most commonly used 10 numbers. The Call History (standard for all Pocket PC Phones) is a list displaying all call activity of the phone (incoming/outgoing/missed). You can easily dial a recently used number when viewing this menu.

Organizer:

Alarms can be directly accessed through the home screen. They are three, and they all can be configured to be active for certain days of the week, and you can also assign names and different sounds to each of them. All alarms can be active simultaneously, and overall they are easy to use and do what they are supposed to. Maybe they should have been a few more, as we wouldn't mind having five plus alarms in our pocket computer.

The next tab in this menu is the clock; there is a field called Visiting next to it which can be used as a World Clock – select another location and the phone starts using its local time. The clock has an option to be displayed on the title bar of all the menus, which is handy.

The Calendar can be viewed for a particular year/month/week/day. Appointments are easily added to a certain date and alarms can also be assigned to them. When viewing a particular day, hours are displayed in red and blue background respectively for the “light” and “dark” hours of the day, instead of indexing them with PM and AM – this is done for saving your time.

Tasks are added via the Task menu and each of them can be assigned a date for activation and a priority; you can easily indicate that a certain task has been completed by placing a tick next to it in the list with all the tasks – thus it will not be displayed on your home screen as uncompleted.

The Calculator is simple but its buttons are relatively big and can easily be pressed with your fingers. Features like scientific calculator and unit converter are still missing.

The phone features a complete set of voice commands which are also speaker independent. The voice commands menu is entered by pressing the small button on the left side; after that you can easily select or find a particular contact there. Digit dialing is also supported; it's quite possible that the phone has a problem recognizing your contacts' names, but that also depends on the person who's using it (although it's speaker independent).

For better voice recognition, different commands can be trained, as well as the names in the phonebook. “Training” is actually done by recording a voice tag for each command or number.

Messaging:
Different message types are placed in a single menu - SMS, MMS and e-mails. There is nothing unexpected here. Entering text is done by one of the following touch display methods:

• Block Recognizer
• Keyboard
• Letter Recognizer
• Transcriber

We think that the on-screen keyboard is the fastest and most convenient way to do it, but if you train the other methods, they can also be quite handy! Combined with the T9 predictive system, entering text with the phone is really quick.

In addition comes “Easy Keyboard” that is a variation of the standard on-screen keyboard – not very impressive one.

Everything is standard in the e-mail menu; there's an option for downloading headers only and you can also set a limit in KB per message. EDGE data upgrades the old GPRS but still we miss 3G UMTS on this phone, which rivals have already launched - UMTS/HSDPA on the HTC TyTN (Cingular 8525).

Connectivity:

Finally Eten have removed their proprietory connector and have replaced it with standard jacks: miniUSB for connection with a computer and for charging, and 2.5mm stereo jack for music. This means you won't be able to use accessories from previous models, but will be able to use a great variety for other Windows Mobile (and not only) phones. This is very wise decision that we greatly welcome!

The supported version for Bluetooth is the latest up to date – it's v2.0 + EDR and supported profiles include: Headset; OPP; GAP; A2DP (Bluetooth Stereo Audio). Compared to previous Bluetooth versions, much higher transfer speeds can now be achieved thanks to EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). Theoretically, power consumption is also reduced. The A2DP profile is useful for stereo audio streaming with a compatible device.

As other E-TEN phones did, the glofiish X500 comes with preloaded Bluetooth manager that replaces the original one. Compared to the latter, this one has more user-friendly interface with large colorful icons and text explanation to each function. It is more comfortable for novice user, but more advanced customers will prefer the standard manager known from other PPCs.

The phone features an integrated Wi-Fi 802.11g module for wireless Internet connection with connections speeds of up to 54 Mbps. You can easily connect to a home/office network, or any public place where “hotspot” service is supported. Wi-Fi transfer speeds are much higher than EDGE ones, and using it for Internet and streaming, as well as VoIP services such as Skype, is not a problem.

The mobile version of Internet Explorer is used for internet browsing; loading standard pages in full size is not a problem, because of the relatively high resolution (320x240 pixels) of such devices; to achieve even greater comfort during browsing, we prefer using the display in landscape mode (in Eten phones this can be easily done using the M-Desk application). Full-screen usage is almost mandatory when the page has loaded.

There is also One Column View option which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling but increases the need for vertical scrolling. The page is narrowed and thus it changes its initial look.

Camera:

The camera is nothing special, and is very similar to that of the M600+: it is 2-megapixel unit located on the back of the device, featuring LED flash and a mirror for self-portrait shooting.

Starting the camera takes about 7 seconds; the time between taking two consecutive pictures at the highest resolution (the time needed for saving it to the phone also is included) is about 6 seconds which is an improvement when compared to 11 for the M600+.

The camera is started by the button on the left side. The interface is pretty straight-forward and there are only a few icons when it's in shooting mode: a button for selecting between camera and camcoder mode, a Settings button, a Close button, as well as information icons indicating the status of the flash, the picture/video size, and how many you can take with the memory available. Taking pictures is done by pressing the button which launches the application. The Settings menu is designed using big-sized icons; there is a capability for setting the resolution, white balance, the flash mode, the shooting mode (whether it is Portrait or Landscape oriented) – these are all standard settings. There is an option for automatically stamping the Date on the picture. As expected, various effects are available: Normal, Negative, Gray, Retrospective, Mirror. We think that the Mirror effect is the most interesting one.
Overall, the interface is quite awkward to use and there is almost no functionality when the camera is in shooting mode, which makes taking pictures even more sluggish. The flash status and resolution icons could have easily been made to act as buttons used for changing the corresponding settings!

The pictures are what we expect to get from a 2 megapixel camera without auto-focus. Overall they are well exposed, the purple fringing is reduced (although this problem is still present) and the colors look realistic, although it is often that single color dominates the other producing a bluish or reddish image.

Outdoor images

When we tried taking a picture using the flash in total darkness…”something” was seen in the pictures but the quality (if it could be called this way) was way below the necessary minimum to be worth discussing it. The pictures are awful and framing them is also almost impossible because the flash does not light up until the shoot button is pressed. This of course is normal for the great majority of phones (except probably K750 with its Xenon flash).

Indoor images in 3 levels of lightning

Media Player:

X500 is equipped with the standard mobile version of Windows Media Player. It is a multimedia player for music and video files. MP3 format is supported, as well as WMA  and WAV. After updating the library with files, all supported types are found, and they can be added to playlists. This function is not well implemented and organizing them is quite hard. Songs can be viewed by artist, album and genre, as these are taken from the ID3 tag of the files.

The supported video formats are WMV and 3GP, while the quality of the latter is pretty low. They can be viewed in fullscreen and the picture quality is quite good and looks very nice on the three-inch display.

The options buttons (next/previous, Play/Pause, etc.) are small and inconvenient both during Music and Video playback. When audio files are played, the video visualization window is still displayed, which is a lapse as it only takes up place on your screen. You can have these problems solved by adding new skins for the Media Player or by using another player, which can be additionally installed.

During the test we noticed that the multimedia player does not come as a heavy load for the phone, and we used Skype to chat while it was playing in background. We even used it for playing 1411 kbps WAV file. Music can be played with the integrated speaker, but that's only suitable if you use it as a ringtone. If you want to listen to the music you can use the headset included in the package, as well as Bluetooth Stereo via the A2DP profile. The headset jack is a standard 2.5mm stereo and for better sound quality you can attach regular wired headphones.

The phone also has built-in FM tuner. This is a nice old-school addition to the music player which helps for music on the go and can also bring you the news in audio format without the need of complicated new advanced technologies like internet streaming. 
The interface is very colorful and looks attractive. The buttons are well sized and easy to press. You can easily save your favorite bands and we are happy to see that there is no dumb limit of 10 stations for example – you can save 50 bands for three locations, or total of 150 bands. We are very pleased of it and used it with pleasure.

Software:

It's a pity that the RAM is still 64MB and the internal memory is 128, which is same as the M600 and half the memory of the M600+. Internal capacity can be expanded through the microSD card slot placed on the bottom of the phone.

WM for PPC provides unlimited capabilities for installing software. The only restrictions are the memory available and the hardware of the phone. The first problem is easily solved by getting a memory card as there are microSD cards with capacity of up to several GB. Every PPC comes with programs that are modified, “pocket” versions known PC applications. Such programs are the mobile versions of (Microsoft) Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Explorer, Media Player, etc. Many more could be downloaded from third party sources.
There are numerous programs created for this platform, almost as much as the ones intended for PCs with Windows operating system. The most popular are the various utilities for personalizing the PPC, multimedia players, file explorers, Instant Messengers, etc. Skype is an interesting software which is a VoIP program known with its PC version. It works flawlessly and you can use the Cradle or WiFi for providing Internet connectivity

Eten adds a few useful programs that more people will find helpful – the one with biggest meaning to us is the Backup Utility – this can create a backup of your personal data (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Personal Profile, Network settings, My Documents and Messaging) in just a few KBs (in our case everything BUT the My Documents took only 100KB). It will automatically backup your phone if the battery level is low.

Other applications include multimedia viewers - Image Wizard and Multimedia Manager (a standard image previewer and file browser displaying thumbnails) and a simple Image Maker (a utility allowing for drawing).

GPS:

If you travel a lot and need to know where you are or how to get somewhere, the X500 can help.
It comes with GPS received built-in, but in order to use it the consumer needs to install navigation software. Many titles are available on the market, and for our tests we used TomTom 5 which will set you back about $150 with Maps. HTC Artemis, X500 main rival actually comes with TomTom preloaded, but only features one city map. If you want to purchase full US/Canada coverage maps, the cost is about $110. In contrast with the X500 buying TomTom and maps costs $150 – so the actual savings are about $40. The main idea of having TomTom preloaded is not in saving $ - it is giving the consumers the ability to check out the navigation service. Almost all of us have to travel or find an address from time to time, and having full maps in your pocket is just priceless.

The X500 comes with the latest generation SIRF III chipset. Compared to its predecessors, it allows faster time to fix, lower power consumption and higher sensitivity. The SIRF III architecture allows the equivalent of 200,000 correlations, in contrast to the older ones which used sequential search process allowed a few hundred to a few thousand only. This increases the GPS sensitivity and allows it to work in many indoor environments, through urban canyons, and under dense foliage. SIRF III chipset supports both WAAS in the US or EGNOS systems in Europe for even better accuracy.

For our tests, we used TomTom Navigator 5.21. The installation went very smooth. After starting the application for the first time, we TomTom found the internal GPS and after about 12 seconds we have a location lock! The time it takes for the GPS to acquire its location for the first time is called cold start and the 12 seconds we got was an excellent result. If the navigation application is closed and the restarted, the GPS needs just a little over three seconds to reacquire its location.

Each navigation software offers different interface and functionality, and since E-TEN does not come with anything preloaded and I'll not go into great details about it. The important thing is that the ETEN's display is adequately large and bright, and offers pleasant map viewing in most conditions, except in super-bright direct sunlight. Thanks to the fast 400 Mhz CPU, the phone has not problems whatsoever rendering or scrolling maps. Route calculations are also extremely fast, and were about 40,000 route calculations in about 3 seconds. Most navigation software packets also offer voice guidance, which sounds just excellent through the ETEN's rear speaker.

Eten has done just excellent job with the battery times. For instance, the G500's could be used for navigation with the screen on for only 2.5 hours. The new X500 offers between 5 and 7 hours, and in our real life test we got exactly 6 hours of continuous GPS usage. This is just great compared to our stand-alone Holux 236 GPS (with SirfStar III) which has about 8 hours, but does not even have a display! That is the reason why probably the company has decided not to include mini-USB car charger in the sale package, which considering its low price is a shame.

Performance:

Thanks to its Samsung 400MHz processor it operates faster than many other PPCs (some of them use half the power) and can handle more CPU-intensive operations like VoIP telephony. The overall Spb Benchmark index for the X500 is almost twice higher compared to the one of T-Mobile MDA which runs on TI OMAP850 195 MHz CPU. Even though we have not tested yet the HTC Artemis, we expect its performance to be similar to the MDA's since it uses the same processor.

Here are the results:

Eten X500 performance compared to Eten M600+ and HTC Wizard-based Pocket PC

But when it comes to using it as a standard phone you won't be that satisfied: during our Signal Reception test, it performed below average and lost its signal before the majority of other devices.

During a call the incoming sound volume is above the average – you will hear the otehr party loudly, but the voices sound high-pitched, lacking most of the low and low-middle frequencies. The other party heard us exactly the opposite way – muffled and monotonous – without the high-frequencies part of the voice.

The phone is powered by 1530mAh li-polymer battery. According to the manufacturer it will run it for up to 7 hours of talk time, or 8 days of standing by, which is way above average for a Pocket PC. We are also very pleasantly surprised by the 6 hours of GPS navigation time with the screen on during our testing.

Conclusion:

The X500 is high-tech pocket assistant with great functionality. It brings wireless network and GPS navigation in slim stylish body with average size. Its 400MHz processor beats its rivals and its 2-megapixel camera is a good performer for this class. It suffers from weak keys design (they are not comfortable) and inferior carrying case. Overall, if you are looking for Pocket PC which can be used for GPS navigation, look no further. The X500 GPS features the latest SirfStarIII chipset, comes with exceptional battery life, and thanks to is bright and color saturated display, map viewing is a pleasure.