New Toy – Very Small Computer July 31, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , trackbackOkay, I know I shouldn’t succumb to the joy of gadgets, but this one is very seductive. My new Vodafone 1605 (aka. HTC TyTN) phone / PDA / baby laptop / camera / dictaphone thingy arrived last Tuesday, and it is amazing. I haven’t yet figured out how to get it to feed the cat, but I’m sure that function is in there somewhere.
So far, I’ve used it to take photos, make a blog entry, scribble some notes, wake me up on time, send a few emails, keep my contacts and appointments and even to make phone calls.
It’s about twice the size of my old Nokia, so I don’t look like I’ve got a book up against my ear when I’m talking on it, and it fits into phone pockets in handbags. Vodafone have coloured it an elegant mushroom-grey, rather than the silver or black of the standard model from HTC.
Just about every form of connectivity is catered for, from GPRS and 3G to wi-fi and the new HSPDA which Vodafone will apparently be starting to roll out this summer, and which will give broadband speeds on the mobile network. The wireless worked well in a cafe in Bloomsbury after I set it to optimise connectivity rather than battery life.
It runs Windows Mobile 5, with Mobile versions of Word, Excel and Outlook. To use those, you’ll probably want a keyboard, which is cleverly tucked away underneath.
I found the keyboard good to use, though if you’ve large or unsteady hands it will not be easy.
The screen is very bright and clear, and could probably be used to watch films. It is a touchscreen, working well with stylus or thumbnails. If you use your nails, keep them long to avoid messy fingerprints.
I’ve put a 1GB Sandisk MicroSD card into it for extra storage, which added about £40 to the £50 Vodafone charged me for phone (with an 18 month contract and some muttering about the wonders of TMobile). That is a little fiddly because it is so very small – about the size of my thumbnail – but seems to work well and means that I can store music, documents or whatever else takes my fancy. Make sure you format it before you put it in.
The email is MS Outlook, and works well with my IMAP email server.
There is a facility for push email through MS Exchange if you’re so
inclined, but I’m happy to just pick my emails up every now and again.
If someone needs me urgently it is, after all, a phone. This also
keeps the costs down a lot.
The big disappointment is the camera. The shutter speed seems very slow, and the flash not particularly useful, so photos at night do not work too well. This may be operator error – I’ve yet to figure out what all the little symbols mean. I haven’t tried the second camera, for video calling, and probably won’t use it much.
One other area which worries me is the way that Vodafone charge for data transfer, which is by the megabyte with no ability to buy a fixed price pack. I hope that changes soon because they are very uncompetitive with TMobile in this area.
This is the best multifunctional device I’ve seen in a while. It renders PDAs, and possibly the Blackberry, obsolete and may mean that it is less necessary to carry a laptop. I’m hooked.
Technorati Tags: Vodafone 1605, HTC TyTN
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