This is probably love at first sight. You will fall for this beauty, which incorporates a still camera, a video camera, a voice recorder, a Web camera, a movie viewer and MP3 support, the moment you lay your eyes on the packaging—with the glitzy model holding up the device in all its shining glory! Your love will grow stronger when you hold it for the first time. But alas, love is blind. No sooner than you’ve held the device and had a first close-up look, will you want to look away! Starting with the design, which is pretty compact for a device that packs in so much, the Orite will flatter to deceive. It has a small screen that has to be flipped open, and is roughly as big (or small) as that of a Nokia 3310! The device should come with 16 MB of on-board memory, but the unit we received had only 4MB on-board and no flash cards, tying it down to the PC for good. To load MP3s onto it, you need to manually go to the device in ‘My Computer’ and create a directory called ‘MP3’. Hereafter, it’s drag-and-drop. Photos taken with the “3.2 mp” camera were grainy despite us using the flash, and even worse with the 8x digital zoom! Video at 640 x 480, though, was all right. The package includes a carry case, a USB charger, cable, driver disk and Ulead PhotoStudio, and is priced at around Rs 9,000. Expensive considering the feature set..
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One of the sleekest PDA phones in the market, the new Xda II Mini from O2 runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 PocketPC Phone Second Edition and is a tri-band GSM/GPRS device. It is sleek and is encased in a silver body with ribbed black sides and curved corners. The layout makes it easy to handle, with the camera button, volume slider and voice recorder keys on the left, the MMC/SDIO slot on top, the power button next to the stylus silo, the IR port on the right and the headphone jack next to the USB port at the bottom. The front facia is neatly laid out as well, with minimal controls. A square-shaped bank of keys under the screen is comprised of an enter/action key in the centre surrounded by a four-way navigation key. This is flanked by symmetri- cally designed ‘Send’ and ‘End’ keys on top and two applica- tion buttons assigned to ‘Contacts’ and ‘Calendar’ at the bottom. The camera, voice recorder, contacts and calendar buttons can be re-assigned to other applications, depending on your preferences. The lens and a self-portrait mirror are at the back. With an Intel PXA 272 processor providing 416 MHz of horsepower, and 64MB of flash ROM and 64MB of RAM under the hood, the Mini boasts a 2.8-inch TFT LCD touch screen that can display 64K colours at a resolution of 240 x 320. Connectivity options include Bluetooth and infrared, with support for additional memory through the MMC/SDIO slot. A 256 MB SD card is bundled. Voice clarity on the O2 Xda II Mini is excellent, even with the speakerphone. The screen is clear and vibrant, but you may face issues in direct sunlight. A neat feature is the ability to change the orienta-tion of the screen from portrait to landscape with just a tap of the stylus—handy for spreadsheets and documents. The 1,200 mAh Lithium Polymer bat- tery should see you through about three days with standard phone and PDA use. Overall, good features and the sleek form factor are the highlights of the package. Poor image quality from the camera and the high price tag are the potential deterrents.
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It is not often that Nokia releases a phone that resembles an existing model, at least in terms of design if not on the whole. At first glance, the Nokia 6670 can easily be mistaken for a 7610. Nokia has sculpted the 6670 along the lines of the stylish 7610, though it restrained itself on the keypad design to advocate this model’s business goals. Based on the Series-60 platform, the 6670 has all the traits of the business series, including tri-band operation, Bluetooth, a 65K colour screen, a 1-megapixel camera, 8 MB of internal memory—enough to store your business contacts—and a 64 MB MMC card. This time round, Nokia has provided the NetFront Web browser as the built-in option. NetFront supports all major Web standards and is more accurate in the layout of pages, thanks to which pages look similar to what they look like on a desktop. However, considering the small screen size, its usefulness is questionable. As far as its core competence—the phone—goes, the device is like any other Nokia phone—good signal reception and voice quality. However, on the usability front, the tacky keys do not help much. Being a business phone, this should be of paramount importance since it is the only mode of data input. We think the 6670 is a stopgap measure from Nokia to kill time before it releases the uch-awaited 6630.
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The MX series of mice from Logitech are revered by the gaming community as the best piece of hardware a gamer can get his hands on. Until recently, the MX series boasted of an 800 dpi optical sensor that was precise to the last millimetre and resulted in accurate tracking of
the mouse pointer on the screen. Now, with the introduction of the MX-1000, Logitech is on the verge of triggering a revolution. Instead of an LED light source though, the MX-1000 uses a laser for accuracy—as opposed to ordinary light, a laser beam is more coherent and results in minimum scattering when it hits a surface. The MX-1000 has eight buttons that can be programmed to one’s liking using the simple-to-use ‘Set Point’ application. It uses RF for com-munication and can be con-trolled from as far as ten feet away. Most interestingly, Logitech has included a rechargeable Li-ion battery, akin to those in cell-phones. But eventually, at Rs 5,500, the MX-1000 is a piece of luxury.
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Someone had to cash in on the growing paranoia about security, and Microsoft is leading the pack—stepping in with the Fingerprint Reader. This USB device eliminates the need to type in passwords, and ships with a software disk and manual with minimal information. Setup is simple, with a graphical representation of both hands shown on screen. Simply click on the finger to register that finger's print. You can register all your fingers if you like! Akin to an auto form completer, this thing allows you to register any password field. Just put your registered finger on the scanner while the password entry window is selected, and input your username and password. Useful for logging into Messengers, e-mail accounts and more! Another neat feature is having shortcuts to Web sites on its one-touch menu. Just put your registered finger on the scanner, and a small menu pops up from the system tray with links to your registered Web sites. It works like a charm, but is expensively priced at Rs 4,514.
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Compaq’s V2036AP is a neat-looking 14-inch widescreen laptop. This notebook sports a black-and-brushed metal finish and weighs just 2.36 kg. Powered by a Pentium M 1.7 GHz Dothan processor with 256 MB of DDR memory, it can handle most office and multimedia applications with ease. The build quality is great, and the layout of the ports on either side makes them easily accessible. Goodies include a combo drive, 802.11b wireless LAN, a 6-in-1 card reader, a FireWire port and JBL Pro speakers. The battery life at 150 minutes was average, and less than similar models we have tested. Thankfully, though, it’s a quiet operator and the battery doesn’t heat up too much!
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This neat little gadget from Travel PAC promises to put to rest all the low battery jitters with your mobile phone. You can charge Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones using the device straight from the USB port on your desktop or notebook computer. It comes with a USB cable which has an adapter at one end and a Nokia/Sony Ericsson plug at the other. A thoughtful addition is a cigarette lighter adapter for charging in your car and an AC plug in case you want to use standard power sockets. The USB connects to these devices to draw power as well. In our tests, we could even charge the Nokia 2280, a device not on the compatibility sheet. If only it was compatible with other cell phones, what with Samsung and LG making their presence felt in the market. It is slightly expensive at Rs 905, but the conven- ience is worth it. A very useful tool for all the frequent travellers.
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