Loox T830

Pocket LOOX T830 One of the more interesting and unique devices to hit the market is the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX T830, which appears to be designed on JOAT (Jack Of All Trades) principles, offering the best of all worlds, instant communication, speed, and connectivity. Have FSC designed a machine which can achieve those goals and hit a top position in the market? Read on to find out. The 21st Century is becoming ever more complex and hectic with communication both in and out of the office becoming increasingly important, users are now wanting to exchange SMS, MMS and Email communications, make phone calls, browse the web and of course take the occasional photograph or video. PDAs are being developed with the aim of meeting those needs. The Pocket LOOX T830 strives to hit these requirements head on and therefore contains six main areas of functionality within the device: Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Mobile (cell) Phone Camera GPS Navigation Unit Push Email 3G Connectivity We will investigate each of these in turn as we move through the review. However this initial part of the review will concentrate on the design and external features of the device along with detailing the various extras that are delivered with the machine. Note: all photographs are thumbnails which may be clicked on to load a larger sized image. In the box The LOOX T830 arrived courtesy of Clove Technologies, our greatest thanks to them. No time was lost in ripping open the layers of shipping packaging to reveal the LOOX box. As expected FSC have maintained their 'house style' boxing theme and the product ships within a stylish pale green box which sports a large clear picture of the machine itself along with text detailing its features and specifications. The prime highlighted features offered on the packaging are: Always in touch with your business Desktop-like messaging experience thanks to instant, direct e-mail push Business travel made easy with the latest GPS navigation technology 24/7 accessibility Integrated mobile phone E-mail push function From the above it is very clear that FSC are aiming the LOOX T series squarely at the corporate business market, but as I hope to show it is not just the business worker that can benefit from a fully featured convergence device. Once the box has been opened and the goodies revealed we find within a goodly package indeed, FSC always provide a decent level of bonus equipment! Supplied with the T830 were: Pocket LOOX T830 (stylus fitted) 1500 mAh Lithium Ion Desktop docking cradle Spare stylus Mains power adaptor with UK / USA adaptor PC to Mini-USB sync cable Wired Headset with control Leatherette clip on belt case with magnetic closure Getting Started instructions EU Declaration of Conformity End User Software License agreement End User License agreement Help Desk Information leaflet Pocket LOOX Accessory Brochure Warranty Multi-lingual Safety booklet (6mm thick)!! 5 Points Software voucher for www.pocketloox-choice.com Getting Started CD for PocketLOOX The Getting Started CD for PocketLOOX includes: ActiveSync 4.1, Outlook 2002, USB modem drivers, User Guide in PDF format, and Notes on ActiveSync 4.x. Needless to say the T830 was extracted first, oooh'ed and aaah'ed over, battery inserted and put on charge. Those few initial moment though were enough to form two initial impressions of the machine; it is not the prettiest machine I've used, in fact some might say it is downright ugly, and it is no lightweight. When you are holding the T830 you know you have a solid device in the hand! However as you can see below the size and weight may be needed to achieve the specifications designated by FSC when the T series was created Specifications Manufacturer: Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) Supplier: Clove Technologies UK Ltd Product Name: Pocket LOOX T830 Price: £395 (£464.12 inc VAT) Type: Handheld with UMTS, GSM, integrated GPS solution, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth Software: Windows® Mobile™ 5.0 Phone Edition Available languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian Processor: Intel® PXA270 Processor with 416 MHz based on Intel® XScale™ micro architecture Memory (MByte): Flash memory (ROM): 128 / System memory(RAM): 64 Display: 2.4-inch, 240 x 240 pixel, 65,536 colors, transflective TFT touchscreen, LED backlight Battery: 1500 mAh Lithium Ion, exchangeable, Charging time (when not in operation) max. 4 hours Operating time: Up to 4 hours GSM talk time, up to 150 hours standby Weight (kg): Approx. 0.195 Dimension: (H x W x D) in mm 126 x 64 x 21 Interfaces - Interfaces / Data: USB 1.1 slave, USB 1.1 host, Bluetooth and Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b/g) integrated; WiFi certified - Interfaces / Audio: Built-in microphone, speaker, headphone (3.5 mm) - Expandability: SD/MM Card slot with I/O functionality Special features - GSM 900/1800/1900 Mhz - UMTS 2100 MHz - VGA camera for video telephony via UMTS - 2 Megapixel auto focus camera for picture capturing Ergonomic features: - Five way navigation button - Three way jog dial - QWERTY keyboard - TouchScreen - Power on / off - Status LED - 2 customisable application buttons - Radio LED Applications - Fujitsu Siemens Computers SpeedMenu - Fujitsu Siemens Computers Keylock - Fujitsu Siemens Computers CONNECTMOBILITY - E2C - Fujitsu Siemens Computers Voice Recorder - Fujitsu Siemens Computers Audio Path - Fujitsu Siemens Computers Panning - Fujitsu Siemens Computers Password - Outlook Mobile, Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, MSN Mobile, Pocket Internet Explorer - Microsoft® Windows® Media Player 10 for Pocket PC - Pictures - Terminal Services Client - Solitaire - BubbleBreaker - Voice recorder - Microsoft® Active Sync Additional software - Via attached software voucher www.pocketloox-choice.com - ActiveSync Software support (Microsoft® Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003, XP) Form Factor Looking at the T830 from the front the machine looks rather nicely styled with the silver 'control' areas contrasting with the dark silver base colour on the unit. The silver trim serving to 'vanish' the edges into the background which acts to visually reduce the size of the machine. At the top / front of the T830 are two LED indicators located at either side of the camera slide. As expected these are multi-function and indicate as follows. The left hand LED is used for Antenna related functions, the right for a Battery / Events indicator: Left LED - Green Flashing - GPS System activated Left LED - Blue Flashing - Bluetooth system activated Right LED - Orange Steady - Battery fully charged Right LED - Orange Slow Flashing - Battery charging Right LED - Red Quick Flashing - Battery is overheated! Right LED - Blue Slow Flashing - New message available, missed call or schedule reminder active Right LED - Green Slow flashing - New e-mail waiting There are two oddities here, one that there is no indicator at all to represent WiFi being active and that there are two types of notification for mail; 'New message available' and 'New e-mail waiting'. The Blue notification serves to cover Email, SMS, and MMS messages and is the usual notification which may be set in the Events Manager, but the Green notification actually indicates new Email which has arrived via the Push Email system. This is not controllable via the Events Manager - more on how to get to grips with this later! VGA Camera Between and below the LED indicators can be found the VGA camera (used for video calls) which is protected during daily use by a sliding cover. The cover is easily moved with a finger touch, and is notched internally to prevent accidental unhiding of the camera. The Screen The screen on the T830 is small, 240 x 240 pixels and therefore even below QVGA standards, and measures 2.4 inches across the diagonals. The square form has obviously been chose to allow it to fit in a 'candy bar' body and support a QWERTY keyboard. The screen although tiny is extremely vivid and sharp, readable in sunlight, and it does not suffer from any stylus bounce or misalignment. Screen taps are registered immediately and accurately and over the course of a days use no alignment drift issues were seen. The only issue I have with the screen is that FSC have not eliminated the 'black border' which was first seen on pre-production, it has hoped that this would be removed prior to the devices reaching the marketplace, but alas it seems not. However once the machine has been used for a few minutes the human brain effectively masks the border out from the field of vision and it ceases to be an issue. Control pod The control buttons are (top to bottom, left to right): Answer button - Single press - the online keyboard for telephony is displayed. Answer button - Press and hold - toggles the speakerphone on and off during a phone call * Answer button - Press - toggles the on hold mode during a call Softkey button 1 Application button 1 - Single Press - Calendar Application button 1 - Press and hold - New appointment Cursor pad with centralised 'action' button Softkey button 2 Application button 2 - Single Press - Inbox Application button 2 - Press and hold - New Message End button - Single Press during an active call: ends the call. End button - Single Press for an incoming call: ignores the call. End button - Single Press in the Today screen: puts the device into Standby mode End button - Single Press in other applications: switches to the Today screen End button - Single Press for active data connections: terminates the data connection ** End button - Single Press whilst device is turned off either turns it on, or brings up the keylock screen. End button - Long Press during a call: ends the call. End button - Long Press while not in call: the Profiles menu is displayed. * - Any other connected devices, e.g. BT headset or receiver, are deactivated or activated accordingly. This means that the loudspeaker can be activated even with the headset connected. ** - Each time you press the button, a connection is terminated (call, data connection) or the device switches to the Today screen. You may have to press the button several times consecutively. This is a real pain to live with as there is no standard way to turn the T830 off without terminating a connection and you may want to maintain that connection if Push Email is important to you. One way I've found to circumvent the problem is to use the 'off' shortcut within SBSHs iLauncher application. Or if you are not an iLauncher user - search the web for PowerOFF.ZIP, install it (5Kb) this gives you a small application which will turn the machine off, with a shortcut in \Windows\StartMemnu\Programs - from there I use the SoftKey hack applet to assign 'PowerOff' to the left hand soft key. It works for me, in a nice convenient position and easy to get at! Keyboard The mini QWERTY keyboard is contrasted against the base colour by using a darker tone of grey which works well, the only lack here is that the numeric numbers used for phone dialing do not appear to be differentiated from the rest of the keys, this is unlike the Treo PE devices which show a clear colour coded demarcation. However this is not the lack it seems. As an example, when pressing non-numeric keys each lights with a pure white light internally (as do the command keys above) to allow one to type in low light conditions. However if the initial key pressed is a numeric key then the lighting is as before with the exception that the numeric keys light up with blue backlighting! At the same time one is switched directly to the phone application and the key press registered. This is an uber-cool feature and very impressive! IMHO of course. One lack on the keyboard for UK users is that there is no pound (£) symbol, for this to be entered one can press and hold the Symbol (#) key as this will bring on screen a symbol keyboard from which non-QWERTY characters can be selected. This can of course be navigated using the cursor keys on the jog dial. A brief press on the Symbol key serves to replace the current character with a related character with an accent, e.g. the letter “a” is changed to “á”. Up to 5 different related characters are available. Pressing the button again switches to the next available related character. Other 'special' keys on the keyboard are: Lock / Shift key (single press) - The Shift key causes uppercase characters to appear. In the case of overlay keys, the character printed on the upper left of the key appears when that key is pressed. Lock / Shift key (double press) - Set permanent use of upper case letters (indicator shows in the bottom today screen bar). FN key (single press) - Allows the use of the secondary key function as indicated on the keyboard FN key (double press) - Permanently toggles the secondary function keys on (indicator shows in the bottom today screen bar). FN key (long press) - Toggles the keyboard backlight on / off. DEL key - The Backspace key deletes the character to the left of the cursor. Asterisk key (long press) - The Pocket PC is set to Silent Mode, or Silent Mode is deactivated. All tones and the vibration alarm are activated or deactivated. Enter Key (brief press) - The enter key terminates a command line. The command you have entered is executed when you press this key. Enter Key (long press) - The device lock (key lock and display lock) is set or cancelled. Tab key - Moves to the next TAB stop position Windows key - Pops up the Start menu As you can see FSC have certainly put a good deal of thought into their keyboard design! The keyboard should suit the user who likes the Blackberry (cough) style of data entry and does not want to move towards a clamshell or slide-out keyboard design. Immediately below the keyboard, between the TAB and Windows keys is the microphone, used for phone conversations or voice note recording. The sides on the T830 are where the 'rounded end' styling starts to fail, it may have looked great on the LOOX 720 and N series models but on the T series it is just too chunky and does make the machine look big! Taking that lack of style into account FSC have at least tried to make any buttons on the side of the T830 rounded in the same manner so that at least they match in. The right hand side of the T830 sports at the top the button used for recording voice notes, this is with a single press, if pressed and held a secondary function is available. As a default this is unassigned, leaving the user free to assign it to any of the standard button functions available. Towards the base of the machine is the SIDO MMC/SD card slot, and as is usual this is filled initially with a plastic blank which can be removed to allow a cards to be fitted. The T series LOOX includes technology that will support HCSD cards which means that up to 8Gb of storage is available. The left hand side of the machine serves to hold the Jog dial and below this the Camera button. The Jog dial is one control I believe should be fitted to all PDAs as standard, its inclusion allows screens to be scrolled through with ease so that navigating through applications like Pocket Breeze, Pocket Informant become much simpler and leisure pursuits like eBook reading become a positive dream. The Jog mechanism itself feels sturdy and well constructed with a return spring of just the right weight so that one may give a gentle jog downwards to scroll a page, release the control and it moves back to the center position ready for the next Jog! The control can of course be pressed in and this has the same effect as pressing the Action control in the center if the cursor pad. Below the Jog dial is the Camera activation button, if pressed normally this activates the Camera (see later) but it given a long press then the FSC SpeedMenu system is called up for use (again see later). If the camera mode has already been engaged and the camera active, a slow press on the button to the half position activates the auto-focus on the camera. The base of the 830 is even more spartan, holding the Mini-USB port which either engages into the Docking Cradle of allows a PC to USB Sync cradle to be fitted. It should be noted that FSC do offer as an accessory a USB Host cable but unlike the N series LOOX this is an optional extra and not part of the package. To the left of the Mini-USB port can be seen the gold plated connector for an external GPS aerial, again available as an optional extra, which increases GPS sensitivity, and can be useful for those owners who with to use GPS in a car with a coated windscreen. The top of the T series LOOX holds the port for either the wired headset supplied within the box or allows a third party set of headphones to be attached. To the right of the device is the silo for the stylus, which uses an internal spring and notch design to hold the stylus itself in position. Its not the best of lock designs and certainly not the worst design as any wear that occurs should affect the stylus and not the housing. This means that once styli become loose one can just buy a replacement stylus pack instead of requiring the T830 to be serviced. The back of the LOOX is a little more interesting as it contains top left two inset joined holes which can be used for affixing a carrying lanyard. To the left of the lanyard ports and at the far right hand side of the housing are the secondary mounting feet which when used in conjunction with the elongated third foot (on the battery cover) give a three point positional for the device. This applies the same principle as a three legged stool meaning that it can't rock, or in the LOOX case, slide around the desk. The feet themselves are rubberised which serves to give good grip. There is no danger of the machine slipping or sliding off the desk! This area of the back also holds the main speaker for the device, behind an attractive piercing in the body shell, and this is in turn protected by a mesh internally which prevents any ingress of dust or other foreign particles. Below the speaker grille the 2 Megapixel auto focus camera is located surprisingly enough without a 'vanity mirror' next to it, good news for me at least as I've never seen the point of such mirrors! Adjacent to the camera is the port for attaching an external GSM radio antenna, protected as on most phones with a rubber plug. I wonder how long it will take for that to come lose and be lost! The rest of the back is taken up by the battery / SIM cover, which can be removed by gently applying pressure on the area below the camera and drawing it backwards towards the base of the machine. Once the battery / SIM cover is removed the battery can either be inserted or removed, for this to be achieved the red battery lock must be slid open to release the battery. On the immediate left hand side of the battery lock, in the bottom of a small hollow, is the soft reset button. It's an unusual place for the reset button to be located as on most devices it is on the outside, but I guess as it is located internally there is no concern about any dust entering the machine via that port. The SIM card is inserted into the T830 via a sliding mechanism, which is good to see as a goodly number of other new devices are using very flimsy pop up metal mounts. This method of SIM loading ensures good connections and the only slight disadvantage is that it can be a little troublesome to get the SIM card back out again, good fingernails are needed! PC Docking The docking cradle supplied with the T830 differs somewhat to that supplied with the N series machines in that it has a tall transparent plastic guide that the T830 slides down prior to it locking into position when it engages on the mini-USB port. This gives the user a great level of confidence when sliding the machine into dock, as no real careful positioning is needed, the mount back serves to take care of that issue for you. This does mean that when one wishes to withdraw the LOOX from the cradle a two hand approach is needed as one hand must hold the cradle against the desk while the other is used to remove the machine. The cradle itself is reasonably styled with a thick heavy base unit which serves at the back to hold two mini-USB ports. The port on the left hand side is used for connection to the PC via the USB to Mini-USB sync cable supplied, the port of the right is used for the connection of the mains power supply. Needless to say one should be very careful to ensure that these are connected the right way round - just in case. One feature missing from the cradle is that there is the facility for mounting and charging a second battery, there is enough room behind the docking slide so its a pity that FSC did not deign to include it! Once the T830 is docked it is held at a pleasant working angle at about 30 degrees to the vertical. From such a position the keyboard can be accessed with ease, as the angle of mounting together with the high base seven to offer an ergonomically correct position for typing a quick message or entering data. Headset I generally hate and despise wired headsets with a vengeance, I always find that they tangle at the slightest urging and do not improve my use of any phone. I tend to prefer to use a good Bluetooth headset. This belief has not been reduced at all after seeing the headset that FSC supply with the LOOX T models. First of all it is a very unusual design in that once the ear buds have been fitted into the ears a loop of loose cable hangs down in between them which loves to tangle of shirt buttons, lapels, etc. The left hand wire leading to the ear bud holds a single button which may be pressed to either answer or terminate a call, there is no facility that I could see for calling up Voice Commander and initiating a call via the headset. Further down the mess of cabling can be seen what looks like an eye containing the FSC logo, a central button and two buttons on the side. From this protrudes a small reinforced cotton loop which mounts via a plastic stub. This looked a much more promising and sophisticated control. Alas however this proved not to be the case, the central button on the eye is not a button, just eye candy and serves no function at all. The two side buttons when pressed together release internal locks which allow the cotton / plastic loop to be unlocked and removed. Am I missing something here, not that I can see! I can strongly recommend that if you are the owner of a T830 then extract the headset, admire it as a piece of modern art, unlock the loop a few times, play with it for a while and then consign it back into the box! Go and buy yourself a decent Bluetooth headset you'll be much better off, and not tangled within he wires on the 'one eyed monstrosity'! If you decide to try and put the headset into use you'll find that audio quality is good and clear with very high volumes of sound being attained. The only annoyance is that a disturbingly loud click is heard over the audio each time the single button is pressed to answer or end a call. The ear buds are not fitted with any padding and therefore are not that comfortable to wear for any length of time and also have a tendency to fall from the ears unless 'screwed' into position tightly. The Case What can I say about the case, it is black, leatherette, slightly padded with what feels like thick cardboard, and closes with a loose magnetic lock. The LOOX is held internally via pressure from the sides of the case which is engendered by thick elastic material which forms the ends of the case. The belt loop is leatherette coated spring steel of decent strength but as leatherette is somewhat slippy by nature it frequently pops off the belt after a few minutes of moving around or sitting and standing. Again a weak area of the LOOX package and I'd recommend sourcing and buying a decent third party case very quickly! The Stylus The stylus supplied with the T series LOOX could have been improved upon, it is 95mm long, with a flat elliptical body of 5mm width and 2mm thick. The top end sports a rather aggressive hook which when docked into the LOOX silo prevents it entering too deeply into the body cavity. The body itself is two piece plastic and aluminum and due to the reduced thickness can ten to flex slightly while in use. This means for me that it is slightly uncomfortable in the hand, it is not quite long enough for the body to stretch above the hand so the docking hook can tend to catch against the back of your hand when in use. The flat elliptical nature of the stem prevents the stylus been spun in the hand which may suit some users but for those of us who stylus twiddle it stops half the fun The point has a rounded end which I assume is there to echo the rounded edges of the main body, the lack of a narrow 'sharp' point however can tend to occlude the screen behind the stylus when in use. The stylus does work but out of preference I tend to find I pick up and us the styli provided with the LOOX N560 instead. Size Matters! Yes the Pocket LOOX T830 is big, some might say very much like an intelligent brick, that was certainly my original impression, big and ugly. However after using the machine for a week the looks have somewhat sublimated in my view and the size has changed its aspect. It is still big, there is no doubt of that, but now that size tends to speak of a high level of functionality, sturdiness and build quality. In the hand it feels rugged and strong and surprisingly not that heavy after a few days. This should in fact appeal to the business user as it engenders the thought that it can be slung quickly into a briefcase before departing on a business trip. Some of the other modern machine around need careful placement in a pouch or case, no so the LOOX it can handle a but of wear and tear! Historically as can be seen by the size chart it is in fact smaller than a lot of the early Phone Edition machines like the Xda II and IIS and even compared to the more modern Xda Exec it offers a slightly smaller form factor along with increased functionality. So yes it's big, but it can be lived with, used, and even enjoyed! Continued....................