E-TEN glofiish M700 Pocket PC Phone with GPS
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Introduction
Ever since E-TEN's glowfiish M700 arrived about ten days ago, I've been bouncing around the house, humming that slightly modified lyric line in my head. I can't seem to stop. Weird... I know. But hey...what's a guy to do? I've had a couple different E-TEN Pocket PC Phones. My first experience, with the M500 was rather disappointing. You can see my New Equipment Blogs with the M500 here: (Day 00, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4). The radio just would NOT hold a call on the Cingular/ATT 850MHz band. When I was approached with the E-TEN G500 review, I was a bit cautious. E-TEN products are nice, but I was still smarting from my M500 experience That device wasn't bad, but still had trouble holding calls in Nashville, TN. Today, kids, it's the brand, spankin' new E-TEN Glowfiish M700. What kind of gadgety goodness has E-TEN bundled up in the M700 for us? Does it shine or <sigh> glimmer any better than the other two devices I've looked at? Let's take a look and find out!
Review Date: February 28, 2007
Picture Highlights
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| This is what the M700 look like in-hand. The screen is small, but the device is quite large. There's a great deal of device real estate above and below the LCD that could have been used for additional screen space. | I have no idea why E-TEN colored the "phone keys" on the keyboard a dark color. It is very unlikely that I'd make a call with the device in landscape mode; and I don't see enterprise users doing it either; but that has nothing to do with E-TEN or the M700 and everything to do with device use. |
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| All of the software the device installs after a hard reset is removable | The FM Radio app which provides just medicore reception . |
Overall Impression
I've been looking at a lot of devices lately and this one unfortunately just didn't do it for me. I was very disappointed in its benchmarking performance and its small screen. For the price of the device, nearly $700USD, you would expect some kind of navigation software to be included and that the case be made of metal. I also expected a little more performance punch for the money.
The device offering really doesn't offer anything new, either. The iPAQ 65/6900 series devices have been offering GPS, keyboard and phone for a while now. The 6900 series also added WiFi to the mix, as does the M700. However, the iPAQ 6900 does it for about $150-$200US less than the M700.
I also ran into a number of dropped calls during my 10 day stint with the device. Living back in the Chicagoland area, I shouldn't have ANY dropped calls, really. Although some (1-2 in the 10 day period) would have been understandable. I had 5 drops in one conversation alone with the M700, which indicates that I either have a great talent for frequenting all of the weak signal areas no matter where I live, or the radio ROM still has issues with the US GSM bands that need to be addressed.
The keyboard implementation, which is the big draw for the M700 could have been a lot better, too. It's not bad, but could have been better. The biggest problem I've bumped into is the tactile feedback. The keyboard is VERY stiff, and could be a little easier to work with. I'm also not pleased with the alternate key layout, AND the fact that the backlight only lights the letters and not the entire key.
However, I see the M700 as a first generation device. This is the first E-TEN device with a slide out keyboard, targeted at the Enterprise. I suspect that future generations will be much improved.
Rating
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