Posted by Mia in 
Not so long ago we reviewed one of the most interesting models of the last generation communicator E-Ten – Glofiish X600, which launched the niche budget sets of the class all-in-one. Meanwhile, design and ergonomics of the novelty deserve to decorate a much more powerful and technically worked solution. But the striking design of E-Ten X800 with a support for 3G-networks have already been formed, so it was decided to issue an interim model, and take the empty niche between X600 and X800. From the first sight this novelty has a stylish and practical design, but from the second it has borrowed a delicious filling. The only thing lacking in Glofiish X650 – is the support for third-generation networks.
Design Features
The E-TEN Glofiish is one of the thinnest Pocket PC phones on the market. It’s only 0.58″ (a hair thinner than the 0.62″ Glofiish X800), and it’s fairly light at 4.8 ounces. Though not as amazingly compact as the HTC Touch, the X650 has a lot more inside and miniaturization can only go so far. The PDA phone has a soft touch finish that helps to keep it in hand, and the same minimalist rectangular design as the X600. The device “feels” OK in hand, but not nearly as pleasant as more curvy PDA phones. Build quality is good and the unit looks and feels well made. The X650 is more sedate looking than the somewhat flashy X800, and gets a no-frills design.
The camera lens and LED flash live on the back and the battery door at the rear is easy to remove unlike the X800’s. There’s a battery lock switch inside– be sure to flip it to insert or remove the battery. It won’t power up if that switch isn’t in the locked position. You must also remove the stylus before removing the battery cover since the silo (right bottom corner) opening is in the cover.
The volume buttons, voice command button and the reset hole are located on the left side while the power and camera buttons are on the right. The GPS antenna and wrist strap slot are up top and the mini USB sync/charge port and microSD card slot are on the bottom.
The nipple joystick on the X800 was decent but the X650’s is just a bit shorter and that makes a great deal of difference– it’s just not easy to use. Windows Start menu and OK keys are located above (rather than being tiny things as on the X800) in the silver section, with the two Windows Mobile soft keys in between. The GPS status app and E-TEN Home screen (short press) / M-Desk launcher (long press) buttons live in between the call, send and end buttons.
Glofiish X650 runs Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro.
It has a Samsung SC32442 processor with a frequency of 500 MHz.
RAM traditionally is small 64 MB from which only 47,20 MB is available. However, the user ultimately left with only about 19 MB, because of already installed service applications. But the manufacturer does not hurry to increase it – 64 MB uses almost all vehicles from E-Ten.
ROM size is 256 MB (which will please the user) 36 MB of which is occupied by preinstalled programs, but you can safely delete them.
Display
Glofiish X650 has a VGA-display with resolution of 480 x 640 pixels and a diagonal of 2,8″. The picture quality is high: large viewing angles, bright colors, a wide range of changes in brightness, high contrast and clarity – virtually not visible grain.
The display is highly commendable and is a perfect assistant for viewing movies and photos.
Camera
E-TEN’s last-generation cameras looked good on paper but didn’t impress us in the real. Their recent devices yield much better photos that compete well with 2-3 megapixel autofocus cameras on other Windows Mobile phones. Nokia still wins, but the X650 takes satisfying shots that will please most non-hardcore photographers. The Glofiish X650 has a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus lens and LED flash. It can take photos at a maximum 1600 x 1200 resolution, with several lesser resolutions available for caller ID, MMS and etcetera. There’s also a JPEG with EXIF data mode that includes latitude and longitude courtesy of the GPS (and the coordinates are accurate). A GPS icon in the viewfinder flashes red and turns white once the Glofiish has acquired a signal. In general, color balance is fairly accurate, images are sharp but not over-sharpened and indoor shots have relatively little noise.
Communication possibilities
Glofiish X650 has a full range of wireless modules. The device supports Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g, and of course GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GPRS with support of fast data transfer EDGE.
FM-radio
Glofiish X650 is equipped with FM-receiver. The work of this module is controlled by a simple but useful application that is stored in the Multimedia. FM-radio operates at a frequency from 76 up to 108 MHz, depending on the chosen place of residence. Frequencies can be entered manually as well as to search for stations in the automatic mode. In addition, each station can be given a name. The memory of the program is designed for 50 stations, which is quite enough.
Battery Power
The X650 uses the same 1530 mAh Lithium Ion battery as the X800. Battery power is slightly better than average for a Pocket PC phone, likely thanks to the lack of 3G and large battery. It is difficult to describe battery power with “average” usage. If you use the GPS to map a short (20 minute) route, surf the web over EDGE for 45 minutes per day, talk for 30 minutes per day on the phone, look up contacts and calendar items and manually check email once/hour, the battery should last 2 to 3 days. If you plan on using the GPS for an all-day road trip, get a car charger. If you use WiFi heavily or watch feature length movies, plan on charging each evening. The X650 takes quite a while to charge, compared to several current Pocket PC phones from other manufacturers– up to 3 hours.
Additional software
The Glofiish X650 software bundle is identical to the Glofiish X800’s. E-TEN has always added a nice helping of their own lightweight yet useful software and the latest Glofiish models have the best helping so far. First, E-TEN bundles a non-homebrew application that’s one of our favorites. This gives you 4 compact tabs with battery status, favorite or recently used apps, the weather (there’s no subscription charge for weather info), visual speed dial and world time. E-TEN’s Speed Dial is here, basically unchanged from prior models– it has two views, frequency and index dialing (you can switch between them and select a default). Press the left soft key in the Today Screen and you’ll get finger-friendly frequency dial buttons on screen or index dial where you press the letter C to see all matches (first name and last name) again in finger-friendly large on-screen buttons.
A task manager lives at the bottom of the Today screen and makes for an easy way to quit running programs since Windows Mobile doesn’t exit applications by default when you tap the close box. The X650, like the X800, needs this feature given the slim 64 megs of RAM. The Home button brings up a finger-friendly palette of commonly used apps and functions and the voice command button brings up the very good Cyberon voice command program. E-TEN’s long-lived M-Desk application is an alternative launcher with tabs and shortcuts for settings, applications, memory and power status, screen rotation, quick profile change, Bluetooth settings and more. If you press the Home button when in, an application M-Desk launches. E-TEN also includes a backup utility that backs up the Pocket PC to a micro SD card and an application restores feature just in case you delete one of the pre-installed programs and decide you want it back. Other E-TEN applications include Multimedia Manager (browser and viewer), a business card scanner and location-based SMS.
Conclusions
Glofiish X650 is one of the most stylish and comfortable VGA-communicators. We can not say that it has a very high performance, it can be called average. But its technical capabilities in comparison with other models of “all in one” class are a small step forward. In addition to the full set of communications capabilities, GPS-receiver and FM-radio, the novelty has also FM-transmitter, which allows sound to broadcast in FM-band.
The cost, compared to competitors (for example, GSmart i350), is even slightly lower, although the opportunities and the number of pre-installed applications on Glofiish X650 are worth this.
