Big review of E-TEN G500

September 22, 2006 | Pavel Koza | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 174x
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(69 votes) | category - -

Big review of E-TEN G500

When I recently reviewed the E-TEN M600, I expected it to be the last article about an E-TEN device on this server for some time. The opposite is true, though, owing to a new distributor on the Czech market: two brand new E-TENs are lying on my desk for me to review. One is a slightly updated M600, now called M600+, which I am dealing with in another article. This review is focused solely on the E-TEN G500, which is, as I suggested in the introduction, the first Pocket PC from E-TEN with an integrated mobile phone and GPS module for easy navigation.

After the first encounter with the G500, it seemed that there were very few differences from the M600, so I thought I would write just a short comparison. However, a closer inspection revealed a number of differences that justify a full-fledged big review. On the other hand, there are several common features, whose description may sound familiar to you if you have read the recent review of the M600.

I would like to thank Sunnysoft, a Czech-based mobile solutions company, and Eshop, a distributor of E-TEN devices on the Czech market, for lending me the two specimens for testing purposes.

Note :: The tested device had an English ROM version WWE_101_0097. All parameters, benchmarks, applications and screenshots relate to this version of the system. Other versions may yield different results.

What is in the box?

The device was a testing unit that had gone through several tests before. That was why the contents of the box were incomplete with only the basic items left. According to the manual, the package should contain the following:

E-TEN G500
One stylus
Battery
AC adapter
USB synchronisation cable
Stereo headset
Leather case
CL adapter
Car holder
Protective display sheets
CD-ROM E-TEN
User manual

Note :: Box contents may vary depending on location/country where purchased.

Unlike the M600, this model does not ship with a cradle but only with a 130-centimetre USB synchronisation cable. The AC adapter (standard parameters: 5 V, 2 A) can be connected only to the synchronisation cable and not directly to the device. Fortunately, the E-TEN can recharge over USB. The connector is smaller than that used e.g. in iPAQs and LOOXs, so you cannot borrow a charger from your colleague.

The case is different from that bundled with the M600 and compared to other generic cases, it ranks among the better ones. It would be na?ve to expect a designer piece that specialised outlets offer for dozens of dollars. This is made of genuine leather (brownish-black on the outer surface, light brown inside) and its design allows maximum control of the device, which means you do not need to take it out very often. A downsize is that it does not provide much protection. You’d better not drop the device on a hard surface. The display is protected by a flip with two pockets for memory cards. The flip holds closed by a magnetic buckle. The case can be worn on the belt using a removable belt clip. However, it did not convince me and I preferred not to use it.

The stereo headset is just ordinary: it comes with a small jack (2.5 mm), collar clip, a simple remote control with one button, volume control and integrated microphone, and two earphones on cords of different length. The qualities of the headset are discussed below in a chapter devoted to audio features.

The stylus is telescopic, 12 cm long when fully extended. It holds comfortably due to its thickness (5 millimetres in the thicker part). Noteworthy is a detailed user manual. The rest of the items are much the same as in other devices. However, a car holder and a CL charger that recharges the device directly without the need to use the USB cable or an adapter were missing from the package.

Design

The G500 strongly resembles the M600 and the two can easily be mistaken for each other at first sight (if you fail to notice a blue inscription G500 below the display). When you place the devices next to each other, their differences will become more apparent. First of all, the G500 is slightly higher with a more massive area between the display and the top. This is probably where the GPS module is located, as suggested by a tiny “GPS” inscription there. The dimensions are otherwise virtually the same: 5.42 x 2.44 x .91 inches / 119 x 62 x 23 millimetres. The G500 is heavier, at 6.7 ounces / 190 grams. See table below for comparison of the dimensions and weight with other devices.

The dimensions and strongly rounded corners contribute to comfortable grip. This device, too, is optimised for right-handed people, i.e. for holding in the left hand with the bulk of controls concentrated on the left-hand side. The device is assembled very well and appears sturdy, all parts fit perfectly. The only removable part, the battery compartment door, is slightly wacky but produces no noise, which is within the acceptable (by my standard:).

Pocket PC	Dimensions (mm/in)	Weight (g/oz)
E-TEN G500	119 x 62 x 23 5.42 x 2.44 x .91	190 6.7
E-TEN M600	111.7 x 60.7 x 22 4.40 x 2.39 x 0.87	165 5.82
HP iPAQ h6340	119 x 75 x 18.7 5.42 x 2.94 x .82	190 6.7
HP iPAQ rx1950	113,6 x 70,6 x 13,5 4.47 x 2.78 x 0.5	125 4.4
HP iPAQ hw6900	118 x 71 x 18 4.65 x 2.8 x 0.71	178 6.33
Qtek 9100	109 x 58 x 23,7 4.29 x 2.28 x .93	160 5.64
T-Mobile MDA Compact	108 x 58 x 18 4.25 x 2.28 x .72	150 5.29
T-Mobile MDA III	125 x 72 x 19 4.92 x 2.83 x .75	210 7.5
Yakumo Omikron	117 x 67 x 23 4.61 x 2.64 x .91	165 5.82

Let’s start our tour of the device on the front panel. And it is there that we encounter the first controversial element – a blue-shining frame around the display and buttons. Check the photos to get the idea. Why should it be controversial? Well, such shining and blinking decorations can be viewed from two different angles. In the eyes of a potential customer, it is an attraction that differentiates this model from drab competitors. However, in the eyes of a user, it turns out to be a not so bright idea. One of the reasons is that it cannot be switched off. It just activates whenever the backlight goes on. Considered the heated debates about the usefulness of blinking blue and otherwise coloured LEDs implemented in some devices and accessories and the efforts to kill them, I cannot help seeing the blue light of this scope and intensity as a heavy blow to users who prefer reading e-books or playing games in the dark. To say nothing about usage of the E-TEN for navigation in the car where any superfluous light may be dangerously distracting.

But back to the front panel. Right in the middle is a colour display (11) with a 2.8 inch diagonal. Below is a small four-directional control (D-pad) with a separate central button (16), and two pairs of buttons on its sides. The upper pair comprises standard WM5 software keys (12, 13) for controlling the system without the stylus. The lower pair of buttons controls the phone module (green (14) and red (15) handset symbol). Although the D-PAD does not look promising in this respect, it supports diagonal directions and can therefore be used to control sophisticated games. I tried a few of them but it was not very comfortable, though. Above the display is a phone speaker (7), two user-definable buttons preset for Speed dialling or navigation (9) and the M-Desk application (10), respectively. Close to the very top are two LED indicators. The one on the left (6) blinks blue and indicates Bluetooth activity, the right-hand one (8) blinks green or red and notifies of standard events and charging. All buttons but one can be assigned only one function.

The lower part of the rear of the device is occupied by a removable door of the battery compartment which hosts also a SIM card slot (25). A lock (26) prevents the door from opening accidentally. An opening for the stylus is cut in the door (27). Above the door are several pinholes that improve the sound of the device’s main loudspeaker (24). Yet closer to the top is a built-in camera and a small mirror (23). Further up is a rubber-capped external antenna connector for reception of satellite signal (22) and the number in the scheme (21) is assigned to an integrated antenna of the mobile phone.

There are various controls and other elements on the sides, too. On the left-hand side is a user-definable button that activates and controls the camera by default (1), volume slider (2), a small round button (3) that launches voice dialling or, if you hold it down for a while, sound recording, a miniature stylus-controlled soft-reset button (4) (it will hard-reset the device if you hold down the power switch, press the reset button and then hold down the hang up button for 15 seconds), and finally, a rubber-capped headset connector (5). On the opposite side is the main switch (19) and a door-fitted miniSD card slot (20).

The remaining two sides are much less interesting. The top side is free of any controls; the bottom side hosts nothing but a data connector and (17) and microphone pinhole (18).

Parameters

The E-TEN G500 resembles its predecessor E-TEN M600 in design as well as in parameters. It is hard to compare with competitors as there is only one in this category: Mio DigiWalker A701. Compared with other Pocket PCs in general, the E-TEN scores about average. That does not mean that it has some major weakness or constraint, on the contrary, it offers a well-balanced set of features. And this is crucial for multi-purpose devices such as this, as we discuss in the conclusion of this review.

The device runs a Samsung S3C 2440 processor with a clock speed of 400 MHz, which offers an optimum performance/consumption ratio. It is not the most powerful chip available, still you will hardly find too demanding an application for the processor to handle. Yet it is a step away from the ideal: there is no way to adjust the processor speed, which is desirable when you need maximum time on battery at the expense of computing power. The memory is just enough for a WM5 device: 128 MB of FlashROM (NAND type) for the system and data, and 64 MB of RAM (SDRAM type) for applications. These figures can be considered a standard. After a HW reset, the user can access 70 MB of FlashROM and 31 MB of RAM. The device is brisk and responds swiftly, which is due to the very fast FlashROM, besides other things. I did not encounter any problems with the device’s performance over the several days of testing and the device ranked among the fastest I have ever tried.

The device’s transmissive TFT display will neither impress nor surprise. Its 2.8-inch (73 millimetres) diagonal, resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, and support for 65 thousand colours are all values you probably know by heart. The display is quite well readable indoors yet it is not the absolute star performer. In comparison with the Qtek 9100, the E-TEN sports a warmer colour scheme, which means white has a slight yellowish tint. It is not serious yet noticeable in direct comparison. There are eleven levels of backlight intensity; the setting is common for battery and mains operation, unfortunately. The backlight stays on even at the lowest setting and goes off only when the device is idle. The E-TEN does not offer automatic backlight adjustment; instead, it features another two automatic controls: one is based on the remaining battery power – the drier the battery, the lower the backlight intensity. The other dims the backlight gradually after a certain period of inactivity. Naturally, it depends on the preset backlight timeout but if this is longer than a minute, the automatic control can conserve some energy.

Two remarks about the display: Firstly, outdoor usage of the device is affected by the fact that the display is TRANSMISSIVE instead of the commonly used TRANSFLEXIVE type. Whereas a transflexive display uses sunlight to bolster backlight, which means backlight can be turned down to a low level or switched off, a transmissive display needs to be intensively backlit all the time and without it, the display is virtually unreadable in direct sunlight. The point is that keeping the backlight near the maximum level depletes the battery quickly. Secondly, the touch-sensitive layer. It is OK in most situations, only when you drag the vertical scroll bar (you scroll a window up or down) and stop, the image will flicker briefly as if the device could not decide where exactly you stopped. It sounds awful but it is an aesthetic rather than functional problem. The layer is otherwise sufficiently sensitive and accurate.

This is another PDA in a row with an integrated mobile phone and rather dull audio performance. Let’s not waste too much time on this area then. The headset connector is a 2.5-mm jack, as has become a standard in Phone Edition devices. Few users are therefore likely to opt for alternative headphones – firstly, adapters to the more common 3.5 jack are generally of bad quality and secondly, if you use a pair of headphones without a remote control and microphone, you rid yourself of the comfort of a handsfree. In addition, the headset, more specifically its cord, functions also as an antenna for the integrated FM radio. When you plug in the headset, you can choose if you want to hear the sound from it or from the built-in speaker. The earplug-type earphones produce sound of average quality with no noise and more than sufficient maximum volume but the overall impression is flat and drab. It is OK when you listen on a commuter bus but you should look for a different solution if you require higher quality. The integrated loudspeaker is not bad. However, it is rather unfortunately located on the back, so it plays into the hand or desk, which harms the quality and mutes the sound. The volume could have also been higher...

Finally, sound recording and a very special feature: unlike all other devices I know, the E-TEN offers microphone sensitivity adjustment for three types of input – recording of a phone call, recording of a phone call with a Bluetooth headset, and recording of external sound. The difference is striking, as you can hear from these samples [125KB]. Unfortunately, there is no automatic adjustment option... Another test [219KB], in which I recorded spoken word at different distances from the source, clearly shows that the E-TEN performs best at a close range and quality decreases with the distance. On the other hand, you have the option to adjust microphone sensitivity, so if you regularly record meetings, for instance, you can fine-tune the settings to obtain very good results.

Next for the scrutiny are the E-TEN’s communication capabilities. The basic interface is USB, unfortunately without the USB Host functionality. The connector is E-TEN’s proprietary, so you won’t be able to use standard cables. At least it is compatible with the M600 series. You would be vainly looking for an infrared port: there is none.

The device’s Bluetooth module version 2.0 (class II) and its driver look promising at first sight but it is actually a false impression – they do not offer very much. Basically, the BT implementation offers the same as the BT driver from Microsoft but in a nicer wrapping. I tried all Bluetooth devices and peripherals I could find at home but succeeded with only some of them. A Jabra BT200 handsfree worked fine, only the volume could have been higher. I was even able to ActiveSync over Bluetooth with a Dell Latitude X1 laptop during a phone call. I also successfully transferred a file between the E-TEN and the iPAQ h4150 over Bluetooth at first attempt. I was eventually able to pair the E-TEN with stereo headphones from HP. The maximum distance was 8 metres, which is an excellent result. However, the quality was not very good at the farthest point with a lot of dropouts. On the other hand, I could not pair the device with a BT AP because the PAN profile is not supported. Connection to GPS was partially successful: while Navilock BT-338 worked fine, Navilock BT-313T did pair but TomTom could not find it.

Rather surprisingly, the E-TEN G500 integrates an FM radio tuner, which is a very unusual function in Windows Mobile devices. It requires the headset to be plugged in for the cord serves as an antenna. You can tune in to radio stations either manually or automatically and store six of them as presets. The volume can be adjusted separately from the rest of the system and the radio application can switch off the display to prolong the time on battery. If there is an incoming phone call while you listen to the radio, the radio’s volume will automatically drop and come up again once the call is over. Reception is quite good with some stations crystal clear and with just a little static in others. Enjoyable.

What makes a mobile device really mobile is independence of mains outlets. This device is powered by a replaceable 1440-mAh Li-Ion accumulator, which provides enough power for many hours of operation, as you can see in test results below. Real-life performance is yet better because hardly anyone will keep maximum brightness of the display all the time, for instance. On average, I had to recharge every two days. By the way, this is one of very few WM5 Pocket PCs, if not the only one, that has a backup battery, which is actually pointless due to the different philosophy of storing data in this operating system. It appears to be a legacy of its predecessor, the M500, but does not do any harm, so why bother.

Standard usage, maximum backlight intensity - 3h 55min
Vide playback, maximum backlight intensity - 6h 03min
Active GPRS, maximum backlight intensity, no workload - 7h 04min
Active Bluetooth, maximum backlight intensity, no workload - 7h 44min
Active GPS, maximum backlight intensity, running TomTom GPS - 5h 32min

Note: Due to a bug in Spb Benchmark, the standard test keeps the device busy opening an extremely large Word document all the time. This reduces significance of the test because it has little to do with everyday use of a PDA.

As you can see, the results are similar to those of the E-TEN M600. A power-efficient processor helps achieve such good times on battery. Add a small battery status indicator in the top right corner of the screen and ability to recharge over USB (even if the battery is completely flat, which is not a common feature), and you will find the E-TEN G500’s power management excellent.

E-TEN as a mobile phone

The integrated phone module can be viewed from two completely different angles. From the technical point of view, the E-TEN G500 is far from the cutting-edge. Featuring a plain quad-band GSM/GPRS module (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), the device will hardly be admired as a miracle of the latest technology. Although the antenna is integrated, I did not notice any problems with reception over the few days that I used the device in the city. The GSM module supports standard features such as second call and call redirect, show caller ID, send my caller ID, conference call etc. Naturally, you can send text messages and multimedia messages, the latter using the MMS Composer utility. An incoming call is signalled not only by sound, text and vibrations but also by blinking of the blue frame around the display in a firework-like celebration of modern communication.

As for data transmissions, there is nothing to write home about: the device has neither a 3G nor EDGE-capable module. Its GPRS module (Class B / Multi-slot Class 10) is rather out-of-date and if you compare transmission speed with, say, the iPAQ hw6915, in areas with good EDGE coverage, you will notice a substantial difference. On the other hand, GPRS was slow but reliable. This is the reality that you either accept or not. The E-TEN can also transmit data over a CSD connection (GSM data), which hardly anyone is likely to use for its high price and low speed.

The maximum volume of the phone speaker is slightly louder than in average devices yet I sometimes had problems understanding the caller when I found myself in a noisy environment. There was also slight rattling and echo at higher volumes (the echo can be eliminated by careful adjustment of the microphone sensitivity; the E-ETEN does not have automatic adjustment, unfortunately). The speaker volume in the handsfree mode was perfectly sufficient with the maximum level so loud that I was worried about the speaker’s membrane:) However, as I mentioned above, the headset’s volume is not very high.

That much for the technical point of view. However, as a fervent user of Pocket PCs from HTC, I was surprised by the E-TEN’s great suite of bonus applications. These in combination with standard software from Microsoft make the device a very powerful, feature-packed telephone. I am describing them below without any specific order because people have different priorities.

First of them is an extremely handy utility for those who often send text messages. When active, the utility will notify the user of an incoming message by displaying a blue envelope on the Today screen (analogically, a missed call is depicted by a handset), and display the text in large letters in a new window, so you can immediately see the first few words. If there are more unread messages, you can browse them and use either of three available actions – reply, call sender, or delete the message.

Another, equally useful application is a call filtration tool called CallFilter. You can choose from four modes (accept all, accept selected, reject all, reject selected). That means you can create a white list and a black list of phone numbers. Setting the application is quite tedious because you have to enter numbers manually – a huge room for improvement here. One thing that will make it easier for you is a possibility to enter just the numbers in both lists and synchronise with the contacts database, which will assign names to the numbers. The idea is good yet there is a minor flaw: when you blacklist a number, it is not rejected immediately but after a short while enough for the caller to hear one short ring before he or she is advised by a mechanic voice that the user does not accept calls. In other words, no change as compared with the M600, unfortunately.

Another special application is Scenarios. As the name suggests, it makes it possible to create 4 different profiles (general, meeting, outdoors, and quiet) and switch between them easily. The settings include ringing and call volume, vibrations and backlight. When you get used to it, you will never want to stop using it.

To make the list complete, I should mention a dialling utility that can display ten numbers you dial most frequently, and a SIM Toolkit application.

Like most other Phone Edition devices, the E-TEN G500, too, can serve as a modem for a PC when connected over the USB or serial cable. There is the utility Modem Link, familiar to users of HTC devices. After installation of a modem driver [6KB] (I used the same as that for the M600, since the device was identified as M600 in WinXP), I created a new connection and went on-line. The connection was established without any problems but it was unstable and virtually unusable. I informed the vendor and started writing some sharp words about E-TENS inability to produce a working modem. Fortunately, three days later an e-mail arrived with an installation CAB file for the PDA, an INI file for the desktop, and instructions how to install and configure the modem. When I did so, the modem miraculously started working properly. It was quite slow (ca 4KB/s, which is good enough for GPRS connection, though) but without any problems. I tried “working normally” but managed only with a great deal of patience. I ran Outlook connected over VPN to our corporate server, ICQ and several instances of Internet Explorer, where I wrote this review, by the way. The only problem was with file upload, which the GPRS could not handle for some reason. Otherwise, I was not limited in my work in any way. Nevertheless, you would not want to stay on-line permanently over GPRS, especially if you are used to a megabit internet. By contrast, all attempts to connect over Bluetooth failed, like the last time. The DUN profile is still lacking, probably...

Summing up, the E-TEN G500 is an average phone with a slightly outdated data communication standards, but with an excellent software suite. Over the two weeks I used it as my primary PDA, it did not impress nor disappoint me. It just worked – people could call me, I could call people, text messages flew smoothly in both directions... The 400-MHz processor is powerful enough to ensure that there are no performance issues, such as inability to accept a call due to overload (what a change from the iPAQ hw6915, isn't it?) and the phone part responds almost instantly to commands. It is simply a functional phone (or a simply functional phone? :)

E-TEN as GPS navigation

The E-TEN G500 integrates a GPS module for reception of satellite signal. It is built on a sensitive, 20-channel SiRF Star III chipset from RoyalTek (by the way, if you check the RoyalTek website, you will find that E-TEN is the main investor in this GPS solutions company).

Similarly to the iPAQ hw6900, the E-TEN supports assisted GPS, i.e. it can download several data files with information about satellites from the internet. This significantly reduces the time necessary for the initial establishment of the position. The GPS utility is quite sophisticated and supports automatic updates. Nevertheless, the initial positioning is not very fast despite this functionality and 20 available GPS channels. It very much depends on the conditions – if you have a good view of the sky and stay in one place, you will get the position within a few seconds. If the conditions are not so ideal (e.g. while driving a car), it takes much longer. Sometimes I could drive the whole way from home to work (about 15 km/ 40 minutes) without getting the position! This is in a stark contrast with the fact that once the position was established, there were very few dropouts, significantly fewer than in the aforementioned iPAQ, for instance. The number of active satellites was around five, which is more than enough for seamless navigation.

A rather questionable feature is an integrated TMC (Traffic Message Channel) module that receives traffic information disseminated in the RDS system over airwaves. By the way, the aforementioned FM radio is actually a bonus, the primary function of the module being reception of the traffic information to avoid traffic jams. Early versions of the ROM did not have an application to control the FM radio, this feature was added later. All it takes is to plug in the headset and tune in. This is definitely very useful and represents a competitive advantage over other GPS-equipped devices, because they lack TMC. So, what is the problem? Well, the module uses a slightly modified communication protocol that is not natively supported by navigation applications. The only one that does is Destinator 6, which I do not posses and therefore could not test the functionality. I could only test that it works using Royaltek Demo [32KB], which displays raw data from the RDS system. Maybe next time...

WM5 includes a standard applet that makes it possible to use the GPS with several applications simultaneously. I tended not to use it, because some applications did not work properly with it. When I turned the virtualisation off, all applications worked perfectly. I tested mainly TomTom 5 but drove with iGO and Dynavix a couple of times as well. There were problems neither with the device’s performance nor the GPS module. Hadn’t it been for the lengthy initial positioning, I would not hesitate to declare this E-TEN the best Pocket PC with an integrated GPS and mobile phone I have ever seen. On the other hand, if you allow the device establish the position before you set off, it will reward you with excellent sensitivity. If that’s not enough, you can plug in an external antenna to further improve reception.

E-TEN as a camera

The E-TEN is another pocket device capable of capturing still images and short videos. As usual in this segment, the quality of the integrated camera is poor. A few years ago, it would have been a miracle but nowadays, it is a rather ridiculous attempt to add another line to the device’s specs. You can judge for yourself from the photos below. If you are interested in more details, check the Big review of E-TEN M600, because the camera is identical.

As for the technical specifications, there is not much information available. The chip’s maximum resolution is 1280x960 pixels (1.3 MPix). This applies to still images (other supported formats include 640x480, 320x240 and 176x144 pixels); the maximum resolution for video is 320x240 pixels (supported are 176x144 and 128x96 pixel formats). Available are standard features, such as white colour balance (automatic/bulb/fluorescent lamp/direct sunlight/shade/overcast sky/night), saving as BMP or JPEG (images) and 3GP (video), several shooting modes, optional date and time stamp etc. I appreciated that all the settings are available on-screen in a graphical interface, allowing you to set everything from one place without switching between multiple windows.

Key question about s camera is how it works and what the resulting images are like. The camera is easy to control: taking snaps is easy and comfortable even with one hand thanks to the shutter release button located on the side of the device. However, the speed is an issue. It takes more than 5 seconds for the camera application to launch, capturing an image with the finest resolution takes approximately the same time. If you are saving to the memory card, it takes just a few seconds more. As usual, you can download some original full-size images here [2811KB]. Snaps taken at a close range aren’t any better. The camera just isn’t very good.

Finally, here is a short video [2218KB]. To sum up, the E-TEN has an integrated camera with interesting and convenient controls but that’s all what is praiseworthy about it. The quality of photos is not tragic; I have seen worse-performing devices. However, if you are serious about digital photography, this is definitely not the way to go.

Expandability

Compared to the M600, the G500 offers even fewer options to expand its capabilities. It has a miniSD slot that can be used only for a memory card. Due to the absence of an infrared port and USB Host, and the Bluetooth driver’s limited capabilities, expandability options are in fact restricted to memory expansion.

Software

Although it may seem otherwise (due to support for BT stereo headset and other features), the pre-installed operating system is Windows Mobile 5 Phone Edition WITHOUT the latest update called AKU2. That means it lacks the main innovation brought about by AKU2 – a full fledged PUSH email from Exchange Server, as well as other minor improvements. The software suite includes all available applications from Microsoft for this platform, including Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, Pocket IE, Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, MSN Messenger, Terminal Services Client and, of course, a complete set of phone-related applications.

Besides the aforementioned utilities, the device comes with some more pre-installed applications. Quick Link is an application launcher in the form of a Today screen plug-in. A utility called M-Desk helps with device settings and control. A backup utility is present for maximum protection of your data. Besides manual operation, it offers automatic backups at a specific time or when the battery power drops below a certain level.

Other bonus applications are from the multimedia realm: ImageMaker is a simple yet handy image editor, Image Wizard will help you spice up your images in five steps (add frame, apply effects etc.), and a versatile Multimedia Manager can display your content as well as to create impressive presentations from it.

Last but not least, the manufacturer included voice recognition software in the ROM. It requires fluency in English. I played with it for a while but if you do not obtain recognition results close to 100 percent, it is hard to use and not very helpful.

The bundled CD-ROM contains only basic applications, such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft ActiveSync.

Pricing

The E-TEN G500 will carry a price tag of around $520 USD (without VAT). It is not exactly cheap but despite certain drawbacks and limitations, you are getting a handy gadget replacing a pocket computer, mobile phone, and satellite navigation. The only comparable competitor I have reviewed is MiTAC Mio A701, which sells for approximately the same price.

[POLL]

Impressions, Benchmarks & Tests

It may sound like a cliché but a pocket device needs to be viewed as a whole, not as a sum of parts, the least as a set of figures in millimetres, grams, megahertz and megabytes. Although the Parameters chapter may seem to suggest otherwise, the E-TEN G500 is all but a poor device. For each parameter, you would undoubtedly find a Pocket PC that excels this one. However, an absolutely perfect device whose features would excel all others just does not exist. Every device is a compromise and it is up to you to judge if it offers the right mixture of parameters and functionalities for your needs.

With most of the features and functions discussed throughout the review; the only remaining capability to test is video playback. The E-TEN scored 81 percent in the TCPMP benchmark, which means you need to optimise videos for 320x240 pixels if you mean watching movies on the PDA. Scaled-down files run smoothly.

The E-TEN G500 is a good device for a reasonable price, whose parameters will satisfy a wide range of users. The integration of mobile navigation and mobile phone into a single, compact device is an attractive solution for those who are looking for a work tool rather than an interesting toy, and those who prefer to carry around one gadget for all purposes. Before you decide to buy, consider carefully if the parameters do match your requirements. For instance, GPRS will suffice for e-mail and browsing of (optimised) web pages, but may fail if you need to send a large attachment. This is just one example and there are many more, due to the small size and the large number of integrated modules.

Obviously, there is nothing like an absolutely perfect device. The problem is not the absence or quality of certain features that the manufacturer decided to economise on – it is your choice in the end. What I mean is, besides the controversial blue frame around the display, a non-standard protocol for communication with the TMC module, extremely long initial positioning, and a few other points I made in the previous chapters. On the other hand, none of the issues is serious enough to hamper usage; they are all bigger or smaller drawbacks that you can live with and some of which may be fixed by a ROM upgrade in the foreseeable future. In other words, if you are planning to spend your hard-earned money on this E-TEN, I won’t discourage you:)