Big review of E-TEN Glofiish M700

February 14, 2007 | Pavel Koza | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 565x
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(280 votes) | category - -

Big review of E-TEN Glofiish M700

It hasn't been very long since I posted a review of E-TEN Glofiish X500, and here lies another device from this manufacturer on my desk. Upon first sight, the new E-TEN Glofiish M700 model has a lot in common with the Glofiish X500. The main difference between them which pitches the M700 against competitors, such as HTC TyTN and HTC P4350 (Herald) is a large sliding keyboard for quick and comfortable typing. Popularity of devices with an integrated keyboard - whether fixed, such as that in the HP iPAQ hw6900 or a sliding one, such the one in the HTC TyTN - has been growing, and E-TEN did not want to stay behind.

I laid my hands on an E-TEN M700 already in December 2006. It was a pre-production unit I was able to borrow from a company name E-Shop. However, I eventually decided to wait for the final version of the device because many features were apparently not finalised. It would have therefore been misleading to evaluate such a device. Having waited for a few weeks, I am now able to present this detailed review of the final version of the M700.

NB: The tested device had an English ROM version R32_WWE052_0300 (ROM) / R061114N (radio). A 2-GB microSD A-Data memory card was inserted, and the device was connected to an Asus S6F laptop PC. All parameters, benchmarks, applications, and screenshots herein pertain to that version of the system and may vary from other versions or configurations. You can see the pre-production unit in some photographs marked by a red dot.

What is in the box?

An extremely small box contains a usual set of items, including the following:

E-TEN Glofiish M700
Telescopic stylus
Battery
Case
Headset
USB synchronisation cable
AC adapter with replaceable plugs (only one bundled)
Quick-start guide
Protective display sheet
CD-ROM with software applications from Microsoft and E-TEN
CD-ROM with localisation and a selection of interesting freeware

Let‘s take a look at the accessories first. The case is completely different from that supplied with the X500. It is not made of leather only but of a combination of tough nylon (front and back) and leather (the rest). As you can see in the photos, the case is sturdy and keeps its form, protects the display as well as corners of the device while allowing access to most of the controls through several openings. A flip with two magnetic buckles that attach to the front protects the device against slipping out. On the back is an originally designed clip that fastens the case to the belt securely with maximum protection against falling off (see photo). The case weighs 62 grams. Overall, it is a very well designed and useful accessory.

The headset is identical with that bundled with the X500, i.e. quite plain. It consists of a gold-plated 2.5 mm jack, a remote control with a call make/break button and a volume roller, and two in-ear earphones on cables of uneven length. The remote control fastens to the collar (or another part of the dress) with a clip. Its sound qualities are discussed further below in the parameters chapter. Charging and synchronisation work the usual way. The small AC adapter has a replaceable plug for different types of mains outlets (there was only one for continental Europe in the package) and a miniUSB connector at the other and of the cable. The synchronisation cable is standard USB but quite short – only 90 cm. However, the standard connectors allow you to easily replace it for a longer one, if you need, which is positive.

The stylus is telescopic, measuring 65 millimetres when folded and 91 millimetres when extended. It is 4 millimetres thick and made of light metal with plastic tip and top. The protective display sheet is welcome even if it is just a basic solution – it will suffice until you buy a better quality anti-scratch protection. Finally, there is a quick-start guide for beginners, and two CD-ROMs with bonus applications.

Design

Perception of visual design is purely subjective. When I first saw the M700, I said wow, how large a device that is! Whether it is the layout of the front panel, a small display relative to the body, or the monotonous silver colour is hard to tell - perhaps a bit of each. Anyhow, I was surprised to learn that the difference in size between the M700 and other devices is not as big as it may seem. But yes, it belongs among the largest. The dimensions are 4.64 x 2.32 x 0.78 inches / 117.5 x 59 x 19.8 millimetres (with the keyboard closed). If you expand the keyboard, the width will grow to 93.5 mm. According to the official technical specifications, the device weighs 5.82 ounces / 165 grams but my scales showed 5.94 ounces / 170 grams (with a SIM and microSD cards inserted).

The shape is a perfect brick but with smooth rounded edges. It holds surprisingly well - the length is twice the width and should provide a comfortable grip even to users with smaller hands than mine. The casing is most likely made of a light plastic. The dominant colour is silver, with dark grey around the keypad.

The front panel is perfectly symmetrical without any disturbing elements, such as an external antenna. Quality of assembly is crucial in devices with an expendable keyboard. Upon close inspection, I discovered only one part that did not fit absolutely tightly but had a small leeway - the battery cover. The sliding keyboard is mounted on five rails, as you can see in the photos. The mechanism appears robust, with both parts fitting tightly. However, its real qualities will come to light only after several months of everyday use.

For comparison of size and weight of the M700 and competing devices see the table below.

Pocket PC	Dimensions (mm/in)	Weight (g/oz)
ASUS P525	116,8 x 59 x 19 4.57 x 2.32 x 0.75	162 5.73
E-TEN M600	111,7 x 60,7 x 22 4.40 x 2.39 x 0.87	165 5.82
E-TEN Glofiish M700	117,5 x 59 x 19.8 4.64 x 2.32 x 0.78	170 5.94
E-TEN Glofiish X500	113 x 59,5 x 15,5 4.45 x 2.34 x 0.61	146 5.15
HP iPAQ hw6915	118 x 71 x 18 4.65 x 2.80 x 0.71	178 6.28
HP iPAQ rw6815	102 x 58 x 19,5 4.02 x 2.28 x 0.77	149 5.26
HTC P3300 (HTC Artemis)	108 x 58 x 16,8 4.25 x 2.28 x 0.63	130 4.59
HTC P4350 (HTC Herald)	109 x 59 x 17 4.29 x 2.32 x 0.67	168 5.92
HTC TyTN (HTC Hermes)	112,5 x 58 x 22 4.41 x 2.28 x 0.87	176 6.26
Qtek 9100	109 x 58 x 23,7 4.29 x 2.28 x 0.91	160 5.64
T-Mobile MDA Compact	108 x 58 x 18 4.25 x 2.28 x 0.71	150 5.29

The front panel is dominated by a colour display (9) yet its dominance is not as conspicuous as in other devices. Above the display in the middle is a vertical slit that lets out sound from the phone speaker undistorted. Symmetrically on each side are a user-definable button and a LED indicator. The button on the left-hand side launches a GPS application by default (7); a LED indicator just above it (4) blinks orange or blue to indicate WiFi, Bluetooth or GPS activity, respectively. The button on the right-hand side launches an application called M-Desk (8), the LED above it blinks red or green (6) to notify if phone activity or system events (appointment, incoming message, etc.).

Below the display is a usual set of controls, including a cursor pad with a separate central button (14), two system softkeys (10, 11), and two phone control buttons (12, 13). The cursor pad has blue backlight, what else - E-TEN designers just love blue light:) The central button can only be pressed down but is so wacky that it resembles a joystick. The cursor pad is useful for navigation in applications but I did not find it very convenient for games, even though it supports diagonal directions and simultaneous press of multiple keys. Both software keys as well as both of the user-definable keys have a small bump for easier blind control. The shape of two phone buttons matches the device’s design elements. Unfortunately, visual design was given priority over practicality – they are quite small due to an aggressive cut-out.

On the rear is the usual digital photography set (22) including camera lens, flash, and a mirror, loudspeaker grid (24) and a large cover of the battery compartment (25) which host also a SIM card slot. We shall deal with the camera later on; for now just one comment on the mirror. It bulges above the surface, making the M700 rock when it lies on a hard. What is more serious is that the mirror quickly wears off. In addition, a rubber strip on the battery cover is useless because it does not touch the surface at all because of the mirror, failing to meet its anti-skid purpose. When you remove the battery cover, you will see a large battery kept tightly in its position by a small locking mechanism. Under the battery is a SIM card slot.

On the device's left flank are volume controls (1), a button that launches voice commands and sound recording (2), and a stereo headset connector (3). The connector's location is not ideal because when the headset is plugged in, the jack gets in the way when you hold the device in the left hand. On the right-hand side at the top is the main switch (19), a camera button at the opposite corner, and a submerged soft reset button in between them. (20).

Similar to other wireless-connected devices, the top side is free of controls or other elements. The crucial components (antennas or complete wireless modules) are located inside. By contrast, there is much more to see on the bottom edge. First of all, it is a standard miniUSB connector (17) for the synchronisation or power cable, a microSD card slot (15), a microphone pinhole (16) and an opening for the stylus (18). In the following chapter, we will closely examine the most interesting component, which is the integrated keyboard.

Integrated slide-out keyboard

A large extensible keyboard has become a key feature for many a PDA user. E-TEN decided to follow the trend and introduce a device with a keyboard of their own. There are already similarly equipped devices on the market, such as HTC TyTN (Hermes) and HTC P4350 (Herald), and i-mate JASJAR (Universal). This, of course, does not mean there isn’t room for more competitors.

PLEASE NOTE:: In some photos, you can see a pre-production unit because I did not have some of the other devices at my disposal when I was reviewing the final version of the M700. The photos are therefore meant as an overall comparison of the size and shape, and not of the details. The pre-production unit is always marked by a red dot.

When you look at the device in the “portrait” mode, the keyboard expands to the left. The sliding action is smooth, purely mechanical and manual without any spring mechanism, such as that in the HTC P4350 (Herald). The keyboard locks in both extreme positions. The keyboard comprises 41 keys and its design and philosophy closely resemble competing devices. The main part of the keyboard measures 86 by 29 millimetres and is divided into four rows by ten keys each, with the Space double-sized. Standard buttons measure 8.5 x 7.5 millimetres. However, some of the keys differ in size due to three backlight grooves (see photo). The keys are slightly bulging and are nice to feel. Most keys have a primary and a secondary function. The primary function activates by a simple press of the button, the secondary one requires pressing the required key simultaneously with the function key (the one with the red dot in the bottom left). Ten keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard are slightly darker and serve as the numeric pad. Above the top row are two software keys.

The backlight is impressive – its bluish-green colour is very pleasant to look at, it does not cause sore eyes at all and yet makes all the characters clearly readable and evenly backlit. The backlight has a fixed time-out of 20 seconds of inactivity after a press of a button. You cannot switch it off either. This is not a major issue, though. What is more serious is something you will notice in the dark. While in the pre-production unit, both the primary and secondary characters were backlit, as you can see e.g. in this Big review of HTC P4350 (Herald), the final version of the device backlights only the primary characters, with the secondary ones being printed red on the keys. Before you learn the keyboard layout by heart, you will have to give up night-time sessions. Likewise, the two WM5 system keys lack any backlight, which is partly compensated for by little bumps on them.

Entering characters with diacritics is rather clumsy, as in all such devices. For instance, if you want to type an accented letter “a”, you have to first press the “a” key and then simultaneously the function key and the spacebar. If there are more different accents available for the character, you have to press the spacebar repeatedly while holding down the function key. This seems as the only reasonable solution yet it is a pain, especially if you are typing a large chunk of text.

If I am to sum up my experience with the keyboard, it is nothing but praise for the M700:) The keyboard is well designed, with the keys nice to the touch; typing with two thumbs is quick and comfortable. Advantages of a large hardware keyboard have been discussed on this server countless times, among them fast typing with two (or more) fingers, easy typing while walking or riding on a bus or metro, WM5 soft-keys make it possible to control the system without the stylus etc. On the other hand, entering text with the device lying on a hard surface is not as comfortable because the bulging mirror on the back makes the device rock like a cradle. What I see as the most serious issue is the absence of backlight for secondary characters. Although this will concern only some users, it is indisputably a stupid omission.

Parameters

Let’s face it: the main ambition of the E-TEN Glofiish M700 is to be an “all-in-one” solution. It is the first PDA with a slide-out keyboard, cell phone, GPS receiver, and a digital camera packed together. Naturally, it is up to the customers if they accept this concept and are willing to pay a substantial amount for it or not. Nevertheless, the initial demand and repeated severe shortage on the market is a witness that E-TEN has managed to target an unsaturated market niche very precisely. None of the M700’s features alone would stand out (the parameters are much the same as e.g. those of the X500 or older E-TEN models) but packed into one compact device and smoothly interoperating, they deserve due attention.

The M700 runs a Samsung SC32442 processor with 400 MHz clock speed, offering good balance between performance and power consumption. On the one hand, you will be able to run CPU-intensive application, on the other you will not have to worry about battery power when you are away from a mains outlet for more than a few hours. Like in other devices with this processor, there is no way to adjust its performance manually. It is not a major problem though, because there is a certain degree of self-regulation built in the processor. There are absolutely no problems with performance in everyday usage: the system responds swiftly and you can easily run several applications simultaneously (MP3 playback and browsing the web, for instance).

The device is fitted with 128 MB of FlashROM for the system, data and applications, and 64 MB of operating memory to run applications. According to available information, there is going to be a "plus" version in the future that will offer a double-size FlashROM. After a HW reset, there is less memory available: 30 MB of RAM and 53 MB of FlashROM, because the device automatically installs 20 various utilities and bonus applications that take up 12 MB in total. While some of them are absolutely necessary for trouble-free operation, others can be uninstalled to reclaim some of the memory (they can be installed again using the Application Recovery utility). In comparison with devices with an Intel XScale processor, the M700 performs worse in memory operations (RAM 70 MB/s; FlashROM 4.59MB/s read, 826 KB/s write). The system may appear "lazier" in some situations but the overall impression isn't bad at all.

The graphic subsystem performs well enough for the majority of multimedia applications as well as games. The only task the M700 finds difficult to handle is playback of non-optimised video. The only solution is to scale the movie down. Unlike Intel XScale processors, Samsung processors do not have built-in support for multimedia operations. A specialised graphic accelerator is not present either, so the workload is completely on the processor, which is not fast enough to recalculate the video on the fly. However, it performed very well in games, movies scaled down to 320x240 pixels ran smoothly as well.

Spb Benchmark - 2994 points
GXmark - 1852 points
VSbenchmark 2006 - 1051 points
Dynamix 3D Benchmark - 74,14 FPS
Red Sector 2112 (game) - 7-11 FPS (highest level of detail, shadows on)
Z-Raid (game) - 58-60 FPS
OpenJazz (game) - 66-68 FPS
TCPMP - 81.57 % (194.52 % for optimised video 320x240 pixels, bit rate 512 kbps video and 128 kbps audio)

The device's touch-sensitive transflexive TFT display has a 2.8 inch diagonal (73 millimetres), 240x320 pixel resolution and supports 65k colours. In reality, the display looks much better than its ordinary specifications sound. The backlight offers 11 levels of brightness, unfortunately only jointly for the battery and mains operation. Funny is that after a soft reset, the backlight will reset to the default - medium - level. Like other E-TENs, the M700 lacks a light sensor to adjust the backlight to the actual conditions. Nevertheless, there are another two power-saving features. One of them will dim the backlight as the battery power decreases, the other will turn the backlight off after a certain period of inactivity. Obviously, how much energy it saves depends on the master timeout you set for the backlight but if it is longer than a minute, this feature will do the job. The touch-layer is quite OK. The only minor issue I noticed was that when you tap on the display in certain places, it will send slight waves to the corners (as if the display was soft and the tap deformed it). It was well visible at the beginning when I was calibrating the display but is not a major issue.

Having reviewed several devices from E-TEN, I dare say the manufacturer's engineers need to work very hard to get the audio right. Let's start with the 2.5 millimetre headset output. It provides average-quality sound with low noise, for a Pocket PC. The only adjustable parameter is the volume, which is acceptable if you are not planning to use your PDA as a replacement of a high-end MP3 player. The problem is the maximum volume. When set the volume to the highest level on the headset, in the system and in Windows Media Player, the output was still very soft. The sound becomes incomprehensible in any noisier environment - you really have to prick your ears to be able to listen e.g. on the bus. The integrated system loudspeaker performs better: it plays acceptably loud at the highest volume and the quality is better than average. On the other hand, it produces a rattling noise from medium volume up, which is particularly annoying when you use it in phone calls as a loud handsfree. Finally, for sound recording. There is not much to praise here, either. The E-TEN features a basic control panel to adjust microphone sensitivity but this can be done only manually. I achieved a good-quality recording over the headset. A close-range recording over the built-in microphone was worse, especially because of an annoying high-pitched noise but still acceptable. A long-range recording was deeply sub-par, rendering the device useless as meeting recorder. Sample recordings are available for download here [579KB].

As opposed to the audio capabilities, the M700 performs much better in communications. It lacks an infrared port, which has been the trend lately, but except that, the E-TEN M700 features all thinkable communications technologies. The most basic interface is USB (over a miniUSB connector). Similar to the iPAQ rw6815 and HTC Herald, the M700, too, supports two USB modes: "new" RNDIS and "old" USB Serial. Differences between them are described here. The main difference is that the RNDIS mode (selected by default) is much faster in this device. It is therefore recommended to use the RNDIS except for resolution of problems with connection. Other communication options include Bluetooth, WiFi and GSM. All these wireless modules can be controlled conveniently from one place using a utility called Wireless Manager.

The Bluetooth is version 2 and supports the new EDR technology for faster data transmission. All recent E-TEN devices use their own driver, Bluetooth Manager. It offers similar features as Microsoft's drivers but looks better. On the other hand, it seemed very slow. I subjected the M700 to a series of tests with the following results: two-way transfer of files between an Asus S6F laptop and the pocket device as well as synchronisation over ActiveSync between them worked flawlessly. Synchronisation management only seemed a little complicated as compared to devices from HTC. Another test included two-way file transfer between the M700 and other Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Whereas communication with an FSC Pocket LOOX T830 and HP iPAQ hw6915 worked at first attempt, there were some troubles with an HTC P3600 and Qtek 8310. I successfully sent files to the E-TEN but the opposite direction did not work. After a half-hour of experimenting, I discovered that the "Transfer via Bluetooth" option in the Explorer only works with devices with an extended profile for file sharing (in devices with Microsoft drivers, “FTP” must be selected in the Bluetooth settings). However, if I just want to simply transfer a file over Bluetooth, I need to use "Beam File" instead. How intuitive! The conclusion is that file transfer between the M700 and other Pocket PCs and Smartphones works, but always in a different way.

In another test, I tried pairing the M700 with BT stereo headphones in order to listen to music. It was quickly over: although the device paired with my HP Bluetooth headphones and allowed sound output to be redirected there, the quality was so poor that I terminated the test immediately. A Bluetrek G2+ wireless headset worked well but the volume was insufficient again. I also tried connecting to a BT AP but the M700 apparently does not support the PAN profile, so the attempt failed. Besides the aforementioned sluggishness the Bluetooth had also problems with stability. It started behaving strangely twice and required a soft reset to correct the problem. All in all, the Bluetooth implementation needs some more tuning.

By contrast, the WiFi was almost perfect. The device integrates an IEEE802.11 module supporting both the B and G standard, which means it will connect to virtually any access point. It also supports all the current security standards (WPA2, WPA, WEP, and TKIP) and could communicate with a D-Link DSL-G684T access point configured for WPA-PSK as well as newer ASUS WL-566gM access point with WPA2-PSK support. In the latter case, there were some minor delays but whether due to the device or the AP is hard to tell. While configuration possibilities are rather limited – you can only set a power-saving mode, the M700 displayed superior sensitivity to the signal and low consumption. I tried also Skype but failed – the standard version was too jerky (sample here [1299KB]) and the version for slow processors did not play any sound. It is funny, because other users told me standard SIP VoIP worked without any problems for them.

The device is powered by a replaceable 1530-mAh Li-Pol battery. And it does the job very well, as you can see from the test results below. The results may be different in everyday usage, depending on the features you use most typically, how bright display you prefer etc. I had to connect the M700 to the charger every other day. Charging over USB is a standard feature. However, total hibernation mode (in other devices activated by a long press of the main switch) is not supported. There is a handy utility that sits in the top bar, showing the battery status – it will spare you unpleasant surprises.

Standard test of common usage, maximum backlight - 7h 42min
Video playback, maximum backlight - 9h 12min
MP3 playback, display off - 24h 13min
Active GPRS, maximum backlight, no workload - 10h 06min
Active Bluetooth, maximum backlight, no workload - 10h 10min
Active WiFi, maximum backlight, no workload - 4h 54min

NB :: 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 is far from typical usage of a PDA. Tests with active WiFi did not appear very realistic, either. As of now, I therefore run PING to the default network gateway as part of the test. This places some workload on the processor and keeps WiFi transmission alive, with a dramatic impact on the test results.

Like some older E-TENs, the M700, too, has an integrated FM tuner whose primary purpose is reception of traffic information for GPS navigation (TMC, or Traffic Messaging Channel). Reception of radio stations is actually a welcomed bonus. It requires the headset to be plugged in whose cord serves as an antenna. You can tune to stations either manually or search for them automatically, and store six presets in the application’s memory. The application can set the volume for the radio separately from the system and deactivate the display to economise on battery power. When there is an incoming phone call, the radio will be automatically muted and return to the original volume once the call is over. Sensitivity is good, some stations played with full strength, others had some static. Overall, I enjoyed the radio quite a lot during the testing.

E-TEN as a cell phone

As regards voice communication, there has been virtually no change from the X500 model. The device integrates a quad-band GSM module that can be switch manually between the 900/1800 and 850/1900 MHz systems. The GSM module supports standard features, such as second call and call redirect, blocking of certain types of calls, ID presentation/restriction (CLIP/CLIR), restriction of numbers that can be dialled to a defined group (requires PIN2), voice mail and messaging, including short text messages SMS and multimedia messages MMS.

As regards MMS messages, the M700 comes with pre-installed JMMS application from Jataayu Software, as opposed to the more widespread MMS Composer from ArcSoft. I am not very experienced in composing MMS messages - I have sent about five of them in my life, not counting test messages when reviewing pocket devices – I liked JMMS better than the competitor. It appeared to be mode comfortable and have more features. Look at the screenshots below to see what it looks like and what it has to offer.

The M700 proved to be a decent cell phone. You can hear the caller almost immediately upon accepting the call, controls are very fast, too. The device’s powerful processor ensures that poor performance is never an issue when accepting calls even if the device is under heavy workload. Unfortunately, the overall good impression is degraded by the aforementioned sub-par audio capabilities. Some will find no problems but those who need to make calls in a noisy environment (and I do NOT mean a rock club) will have difficulties hearing their interlocutor. In addition, the speaker sometimes rattled loudly, further decreasing the sound quality. The device is not design with single-handed operation of the phone in mind – if it is important for you, buy a Smartphone.

Like the X500, the M700, too, features technologies for fast data transmission. No, no UMTS at this time yet, but just EDGE. In the phone settings, you can choose between Class 8 and Class 10, which will affect the ration between the uplink and downlink transmission speed. 3G enthusiasts will despise EDGE but I believe that most PDA users will be happy with it, because the increase in transmission speed over GPRS is immense, especially in areas with good coverage. The situation will, of course, be different somewhere in the middle of nowhere. You can see which mode is active in the top bar – it indicated either "G" for GPRS or "E" for EDGE. The M700 supports also CSD (slow and expensive data transmission over a GSM connection), which will find few users nowadays.

The M700 can feature as a modem for another computer as well. It worked without any problems thank to the Internet Sharing application. I successfully tested connections over USB and Bluetooth PAN profile. Both ways worked perfectly and provided reasonably fast access to the internet. The transmission speed averaged at 18 KB/s for downstream and 12 KB/s for upstream for GPRS Class 8, and 20 KB/s downstream and 10 KB/s upstream for GPRS Class 10 (measured in Prague-Vysocany district using Lupa Speedmeter).

One of the strong sides of E-TEN devices is a nice suite of phone-related applications. They are identical in all models, so the following few paragraphs may sound familiar to you. All the applications are very useful yet there is definitely room for improvement – time for E-TEN to start an innovation process. First of them is an extremely useful utility for those who love to text. 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). Most importantly, it will display the text in large letters in a new window, so you can immediately see the first few words. If there are several unread messages, you can browse between 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 up the application is quite tedious because you have to enter numbers manually. One thing that will make it easier for you is a possibility to enter just the numbers in both lists and synchronise them with the contacts database, which will assign names to the numbers. The idea is good yet there is a minor glitch: when you blacklist a number, it is not rejected immediately but after a short while – long 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, there has been no change for the better.

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. Highly addictive.

To make the list complete, I should mention a few other pieces of software: Frequency Dial, a dialling utility that can display e.g. the ten numbers you have dial most frequently of late, a SIM Toolkit application, and a SIM Manager that enables you to organise contacts on your SIM card. Unfortunately, a recent patch caused dysfunction of the SIM Toolkit application, the problem is reportedly being fixed. Last but not least, a handy Connection Manager will help you configure connection for your operator.

Summing up – the phone module as such is great but sound issues might soon start getting on your nerve.

E-TEN M700 as a GPS navigator

The E-TEN Glofiish M700 boasts a highly sensitive SiRF Star III module for reception of GPS satellite signal for precision positioning. The time necessary for the initial establishment of the position has been cut down substantially thanks to the SiRF Instant Fix and AGPS technologies, the latter making it possible to download some data from terrestrial servers instead of the satellites. In an ideal situation, it does not take more than ten seconds. I had some troubles with the GPS initially but once I corrected COM4 settings to 57600 bps, everything started working excellently. Sensitivity and speed of the GPS module are some of the most admirable features the M700 has to offer. It can easily compete with the best standalone GPS receivers, indeed.

Similar to other Windows Mobile devices with an integrated GPS, this E-TEN, too, offers GPS port virtualisation that allows access to GPS data to several applications simultaneously. I tested this functionality with TomTom 6 and iGO 2006 and they both worked without any problems. Accuracy and reliability were truly brilliant, so was speed of positioning. The M700 supports the traffic situation messaging service TMC. Unfortunately, at the time I was writing this review, there was no software available that could work with TMC information. According to some unofficial reports, Route 66 and upcoming Destinator 7 should include TMC support but I could not confirm the information. It is regrettable but according to a statement from E-TEN, negotiations are underway with several producers of navigation software, so there is at least hope for the future.

Besides others, there are two small GPS-related applications pre-installed in the device. One of them is a simple yet handy GPS Viewer, which reads GPS information and displays the actual position and status of satellites. The other is Location SMS and, as the name suggests, it sends out SMS messages containing your exact position. You can choose a pre-defined text from the list, select an addressee and wait a while for the device to establish the position. Then you tap on the Send button and that’s it.

The GPS module is a top-class one and would declare it the best functioning part of the M700.

E-TEN M700 as a digital camera

A digital camera has become an integral part of phone-enabled Pocket PCs and the M700 is not an exception. Previous E-TEN models proved that a miniature camera can produce great photos. I was therefore eager to test the M700’s capabilities.

Some technical details: the camera is based on a 2-megapixel CMOS chip. It can shoot still images (JPEG, BMP) with a resolution up to 1600x1200 pixels (1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, and 160x120), and short videos with a resolution of 320x240 pixels (176x144 and 128x96). The camera offers all the features commonly seen in integrated cameras, such as white balance (automatic, light bulb, fluorescent lamp, sun, shade, cloudy, night), saving as BMP or JPEG (images) and 3GP (video), several shooting modes, timestamp, choice of the storage location (internal memory or memory card) etc. The user interface is virtually identical with previous E-TEN models and deserves praise: it is graphical, fully on-screen, with everything at your fingertips without the need to jump anywhere else for settings. You can switch between the portrait and landscape mode in the menu, which will turn the interface by 90 degrees. This also affects how the images will display on a desktop computer.

Below are two animations that demonstrate the capabilities of the Camera application. The one on the left shows its menu for still images, the other for video.

In real life, the camera was a disappointment. It is relatively slow (the application takes around 7 seconds to launch, exposure and saving an image with the highest resolution to the memory card another 7 seconds or so). The quality is not very good either. In addition, there are annoying parallel horizontal lines across the images, well visible on the sky or any larger solid-colour background. As usual, I enclose original photos here [8670KB].

Close-up photos are not bad. They are not as good as they would be with autofocus but texts are readable. With a steady hand, you can shoot indoors but the scene must be absolutely static. The slightest motion will result in a blurred image.

The M700 features a small LED flash. As opposed to other recent devices, it is not very powerful, as you can see in the third image. Quite frankly, all three photos are quite bad and I would not recommend shooting badly lit scenes with the M700.

Conclusion? Well, nit much to say. The integrated camera is not up to scratch. Although it has a 2-megapixels chip and a nice application, the most important thing – quality of photos – is hardly average, images taken in the dark are too bad. It is usable when you want to capture an interesting moment and have no other option but do not expect very much.

Expandability

Due to a growing number of modules implemented, PDA's no longer need to be expanded by additional accessories as before. Who would want to add mode capabilities to a device that already has a cell phone, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS receiver, 2MPix digital camera, and, last but not least, a hardware keyboard? Yes, more memory would come handy. And that’s about all you can do, besides connecting some accessories via Bluetooth. The M700 being quite large, there could have been at least a miniSD slot. Anyhow, I tried a 2 GB card from A-data (the largest available I could find) which worked with the M700 perfectly.

Software

The operating system is the latest version of Windows Mobile 5 Premium Edition with the AKU 3.2 service pack. It includes all the standard software from Microsoft, such as Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile as well as many other applications including those related to the cell phone. On top of that, there are many bonus applications that install automatically after a hard reset. If some of them get damaged, you can easily re-install them using the Application Recovery utility.

Let’s start with ImageMaker, a simple yet handy image manipulation utility. Then there is Image Wizard, which will help you spice up your images in five steps (add frame, apply effects etc.); and a versatile Multimedia Manager that can display your content as well as create impressive presentations from it.

Quick Link is an application launcher in the form of a Today screen module. M-Desk is a utility for easy setting and control of the device. A Backup Utility is there to protect your data against accidental loss. Besides manual operation, it offers automatic backups at a specific time or when the battery power drops below a certain level.

EasyKeyboard is a useful tool that improves typing experience. It is a classic software keyboard which occupies two thirds of the display, instead of the standard one third. The keys are therefore large and easy to hit with the stylus. It is an intermediate stage between the standard software keyboard and a full-screen keyboard, such as Spb Full Screen Keyboard. Last but not least, the manufacturer preloaded voice recognition software in the ROM called Voice Commander. 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 device ships with some bonus CDs. One of them contained localisation software, the other standard applications from Microsoft.

Pricing

The price tag carries a considerable sum, which is hardly surprising considered all the features. In fact, the M700 ranks among the most expensive Windows Mobile devices on the market. The official price is around $700 USD (£450). For this money, you are getting a very capable device that will satisfy all your needs without any additional accessories. Nevertheless, it is up to you to decide if it is worth the price.

[POLL]

Final evaluation

Let me summarise my experience from several weeks of testing of a preproduction unit and more than a week of testing of the final version. The E-TEN Glofiish M700 looked very promising, expectations among users (and mine, too) were running high. I must say that despite some drawbacks, the M700 is a worthy companion. Most problems can be resolved by installing a new ROM version. If we can judge by previous models, it can be expected that patched and innovated versions of the system will soon be available because the manufacturer does seem to care. On the other hand, this was the final, marketed version where any serious issues are hardly pardonable.

Let me summarise my experience in three paragraphs, representing a range of satisfaction from excitement to disappointment. First of all, what impressed me about the M700 and what I liked. In the first place, it was the integrated GPS module, which provides excellent services when set up properly. The M700 can therefore replace any standalone GPS as to accuracy and speed. Another wonderful feature is the large, comfortable and well-designed integrated keyboard. Pity the secondary characters are not backlit, because the backlight is otherwise perfect. The M700's WiFi module does a good job, too. It is reliable as well as power-efficient and highly sensitive. In fact, the whole device is power-efficient: it achieved extraordinary results in synthetic tests and did very well in everyday life as well. The phone module falls in this paragraph, too, but with a big BUT - poor audio qualities of the device affect experience with the voice services. The GSM module otherwise works very well, data connection is fast and stable. A clear benefit is an extensive bonus software package, but some innovation is desirable.

Now, onto mediocre features that neither impress nor insult. A good example is the overall performance of the M700. On the one hand, the Samsung processor running at 400 MHz provides better computing power than an OMAP processor; on the other hand, it is no star performer either. This is most notable in video playback - forget about watching a movie without converting it to the 320x240 pixel resolution. The same applies to the memory. The M700's 128MB/64MB is a standard amount; it is likely that a beefed-up "plus" model is in the pipeline. The display would have appeared in the previous paragraph (the colours and backlight are brilliant), hadn't it been for two kinds of not-so-perfect behaviour. These include colour waves caused by a tap of the stylus, and return to the default setting after a soft reset. The last to mention in this paragraph is Bluetooth, which has a nice GUI but is quite slow, to say nothing about the malfunctioning AD2P profile (audio playback over stereo headphones).

We have come down to the least satisfactory features, and we cannot start with anything else but the audio capabilities. The M700 is just bad at handling sound, whether it is the volume or quality. Firmware updates might help a bit (as was the case with previous E-TEN models) but this part deserves a serious redesign. Another disappointment is the camera. Just take another look at the photos, extensive comments are not necessary. Obviously, it is not meant to be a flagship feature. But it worked in the M600+, why not in the M700? Finally, the design. It is a disputable quality but when I compare the M700 for instance to the E-TEN Glofiish X500, the M700 looks less attractive. In a high-end device, the material of the casing should not feel like the cheapest plastic. Troubles with the bulging mirror at the back and inconveniently shaped buttons on the front panel only add to the negative impression.

We can only hope that E-TEN fixes as many problems as fast as possible. Until then the M700 will remain a device with a great concept but underutilised potential, which is regrettable. It is very well usable in everyday life but not without some compromises that are a few too many for a device in this category. On the other hand, as soon as E-TEN fine-tunes the firmware (a new version is expected in a few days), it will be an excellent digital companion for demanding users.