Eten X800 Review

Introduction:

In 2007 we noticed stronger presence of different Windows Mobile based phones. The model we are about to introduce in this review, Eten X800, is one of them. Arriving as the high-end model of Eten, it is the first 3G phone produced by the Taiwanese brand. On top of that the device has a remarkable VGA display resolution, which is four times bigger than the one on the regular QVGA displays.

Eten X800 uses Windows Mobile 6 OS, and is equipped with GPS and Wi-Fi. Considering all the characteristics mentioned above, without doubt we can say that it targets the business consumers.

In the box you will find:

The box definitely contains everything you need to make a full use of the device. The leather case is of high quality, something which we deffinitely like!

Design:

The contrast between black and grey plastic is what the manufacturers have chosen to use for the design of the X800. It has dimensions standard for its class, not small, but rather well fitting in the hand and it is operated with ease and pleasure. Due to its size, carrying the device in small pockets is uncomfortable and we would recommend using the case provided in the phone set.




You can compare the Eten X800 to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool.

Unfortunately, finding a phone with a touch sensitive display and a resolution higher than the standard 240x320 doesn’t happen very often, but with the X800 you have a 480х640, or four times the fineness with which the device can produce images. This is one of the few phones on the market, offering such type of display, for which the staff from the Taiwanese company really deserves praise. The rest of its characteristics are as follows: size 2.8”, TFT type and up to 65536 colors. The picture of the display is with well saturated colors and you won’t have any trouble reading it even in direct sunlight, due to the strong brightness. A VGA camera is positioned over the display, which will be used for video calling. Both service LED indicators are located here as well.



X800 has a Start menu and confirmation keys, which are small and hard to press. The rest of the buttons are big, with a very good feedback and operating with them is easy and pleasurable. Another change the designers have made is to take away the 5-way D-Pad and replace it with a joystick. You won’t have any difficulties working with it since it’s very easy to distinguish from the rest of the buttons.

If we turn the phone, on the left side we will see positioned the headset jack, reset, record button and the volume keys. The buttons have a weak tactile feedback and are hard to press due to the fact that they almost blend with the panel.


We had the same trouble with the Power key as well, which is located on the right hand-side. The camera shortcut button, which although small in size is very easy to press, is positioned here also.


X800 disposes of a 2 megapixel camera with a flash, located on the back side of the device. The loudspeaker is also here.

Typically for a Windows Mobile Professional smartphone, the X800 disposes of a telescopic stylus for more precise display operations, which is located in the lower right.

Interface:

Eten X800 is a Windows Mobile 6 Professional based device and as a whole, its software and possibilities are almost entirely identical to the other phones using the same operating system. Nothing will surprise you if you have previously used the OS. You should bear in mind that certain problems and positive features are present not only in this phone or the make’s models, but for the models using this operating system (WM6 Professional).

In order to make the phone user friendly, Eten, like the other manufacturers (HTC, LG, etc.), personalizes the home-screen, utilizing a limited variant of the SPB Mobile Shell software. There is a toolbar in the upper part of the Home screen, which expands when selected. There are four icons by default, but two more can be added and the order in which they appear can be rearranged. We will examine the toolbar as preset in the factory. The first icon indicates the battery remaining, but when selected a menu appears showing the last twelve applications used. The second one is a shortcut to the World Clock and Alarms menu, the third one leads to the Weather Forecast and the last one gets us to the Dial Tab, where you can set up to six contacts for speed dial, characterized by name or picture attached.

In addition you have one more menu for a fast access to the phone’s functions. It is activated by tapping the QuickBar (Home) button and consists of nine shortcuts to different applications, including flashlight (that uses the camera LED). A customized task manager, including good finger touch control, which facilitates termination of running applications, has been added as well.

The X800 has the M-Desk menu preloaded, as the rest of the Eten models. It is activated by double tapping the QuickBar button . This software provides shortcuts to various menus of the phone, divided in four tabs: 1) Phone; 2) PDA; 3) Fun; 4) System.

The rest of the interface is standard for this OS.

Phonebook:

The phonebook is the typical for the OS, which although good, is on the average when compared with other smartphones. The number of contacts that can be added is not restricted and depends only on the memory available. When you open the phonebook all contacts are displayed as a list; each field consists of the name and the number of the contact, while a letter placed beside them indicates what the type of the number is (w – work; m – mobile, etc.). Pictures are not displayed even if there is one attached to the contact.

The line displayed at the top of the screen is a search field, which initiates a name and number search on entering a symbol – the more symbols you type, the more accurate the match is – it’s quite useful! This one searches all names entered for the contact, but if you want to find an acquaintance by other field like “company” for example, you have to use the “Search” application. There are tabs with different letters (divided in groups of three) just below it. This way you can arrange the contacts so that only the ones beginning with a given letter are displayed. These two search features are quite handy and they make finding a particular contact in the phonebook very quick.

Too bad that’s not the case when adding a new name to the phonebook; the device offers way too many capabilities, including multiple work and home numbers, but there’s only one for mobile –something quite inconvenient as that’s exactly where we wanted to add multiple numbers to. The numerous address, e-mail and other address fields confuse you even further – it would have been a lot easier if the most frequently used fields are highlighted in some way. We would choose this to be done with the Name, Picture, Mobile number and e-mail fields and thus finding them would have been easy, eliminating the need to go through the long list.

Personal photos and ringtones can be assigned to each contact; there’s no restriction on the dimensions of the pictures but they are visualized in very small size even on an incoming call – we think they are useless. You can also add a note to each contact.

The problem of WM5 because of which you couldn’t add an unknown number from the call history to an existing contact, is eliminated here.

Dialer:

You can dial a number not included in your contacts by inputting its numbers. The virtual keyboard is visualized when the Answer button is pressed. Here you can input the number desired. Information on the last dialed number will be displayed and you can call it by pressing the green receiver again.

Pressing the buttons you will start imputing the digits of a possible number, but at the same time you will search the phone book as if imputing a text by a predictive text input system. So, to call John you can press 5-6-4-6 and the matching contacts will be visualized in the list.

Organizer:

Alarms can be accessed through the home screen toolbar, by tapping on the clock icon. Three of them are available, and they can all be configured tobe active for certain days of the week, assigning names and differentsounds to each of them. All alarms can be active simultaneously, andoverall they are easy to use and do what they are supposed to. We arerather disappointed that their number is limited to three, as it was inthe previous version of the OS.

The next tab in this menu is theclock; there is a field called Visiting next to it which can be used asa World Clock – select another location and the phone starts using itslocal time. The clock has an option to be displayed on the title bar ofall the menus, which is handy.

The calendar, whereyou can save your appointments, can be found in the Programs menu. Youcan use options like: reminder (PRIOR NOTICE 1/5/10/15/30/45 minutes,1/2/3/4/5/6 hour/day/week), recurrence (Once, Every(same-day-of-the-week), Day (same-date) of every month, Every (samedate-and-month) for every year, sensitivity (normal, personal, private,confidential). You can also add attendees (required or optional) fromyour contacts where e-mail addresses have been added and where meetingrequests will be sent.

Examining the calendar can be done byday/week/month/year/agenda and you can choose starting day for the weekand the week duration (5-6-7-day week). The appointments for the dayare clearly shown in their time limits, so you can see your free timeat a glance. This is one of the new things of WM6 compared to WM5.



You have Tasks menu, where you can addto-do items. For a given Task you can set subject, priority (normal,low, and high), start/due date, reminder (to be notified if it’s due),category (business, holiday, personal, seasonal) and write a note. TheTask can have recurrence (Once, Every (same-day-of-the-week), Day(same-date) of every month, every (same date-date-and-month) for everyyear and sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential).Examining the tasks in a list you can easily see which of them arefinished and which are not.

The tasks options can be: sort by (status, priority, subject, start date, due date ) or filter ( all,recent, no categories, active, completed ).

TheCalculator is simple but its buttons are relatively big and can easilybe pressed with your fingers. Features like scientific calculator andunit converter are still missing.

‘Notes’ are simple notes inwhich you can input text by the keyboard or by hand as an image. Theycan be synchronized with outlook.

Search is an applicationsearching in all files in the phone. You can specify certain types offiles ( calendar /contacts /excel/ messaging /notes /etc ), but thebest option is All Data which will rummage everything in your phone.

FileExplorer is the mobile alternative of Explorer in Windows environmentwith computers. We use it to view the phone memory, including thesystem folders of the device which feels like working on a PC.

Messaging:

Different message types are placed in a single menu - SMS, MMS and e-mails. There is nothing unexpected here. Entering text is done by one of the following touch display methods:

We think that the on-screen keyboard is the fastest and most convenient way to do it, but if you train the other methods, they can also be quite handy! Combined with the T9 predictive system, entering text with the phone is pretty quick.

In addition comes Easy Keyboard that is a variation of the standard on-screen keyboard, but not a very impressive one.

Connectivity:

Nowadays, talking through the phone is not enough – Windows Mobile phones are pocket computers that are used for Internet, and as GPRS/EDGE are not fast enough, 3G modules are built-in. The sad thing is that like GSMs, 3G (UMTS/HSDPA) networks also use different bands on the different continents (2100 MHz for Europe and Asia and 850/1900 MHz for America/Australia, with 1700 MHz prepared for launch by T-Mobile) which means if the device is optimized for usage in one of the continents group won’t work in the other and vice verse. The Eten X800 is quad-band GSM and tri-band (850/1900/2100) UMTS/HSDPA, which allows it to be 3G used in both Europe/Asia and in the US, over the AT&T’s 3G network. The сupport of HSDPA (3.6MBps) will allow for even faster than the UMTS data transfer. X800 II will be usable in ANY GSM or UMTS network around the globe, but lacking 1700 MHz won’t work as 3G in T-Mobile US’ future network when it launches.

WiFi and Bluetooth come standard. Bluetooth is mainly used for connecting to other nearby devices, as accessories (earpieces, car-kits, multimedia devices) and for data transfer (transfer of files to/from another phone/PC). Cable connection can also be used, via the miniUSB port.

Like all other Windows phones, you need to have ActiveSync installed on the computer to connect to it. The program will let you easily synchronize the phone (contacts, emails, and organizer) with Outlook.

With WiFi you can connect to a wireless LAN network covering you, use it as an Internet source and view the shared documents (input \\name-of-computer in Internet Explorer and you will see what is shared).

Internet:

The mobile version of Internet Explorer is used for internet browsing. Because of the high resolution (640x480 pixels) of such devices, loading standard pages in full size is not a problem, and the scrolling is greatly reduced when compared to a QVGA. Full-screen option is present.


There is also One Column View that should "optimize" the rendered page for the display, but we are not fan of this option even in phones with lower-resolution displays. The page is narrowed, thus changing its initial look.

As it is a Pocket PC, you can always use third party software to replace the original one. We prefer using MicroSoft Deepfish browser instead of Internet Explorer, but unfortunately it is still in beta mode. We can hope soon there will be better browsers for this OS.

Camera:

The camera is nothing special, it is a 2-megapixel unit located on the back of the device, featuring LED flash and a mirror for self-portrait shooting.
Starting the camera takes about 5.5 seconds; the time between taking two consecutive pictures at the highest resolution (the time needed for saving it to the phone also is included) is about 16 seconds.

The interface is pretty straight-forward and there are only few icons when it's in shooting mode: a button for selecting between camera and camcorder mode, a button for switching between cameras, a Settings button, a Close button, as well as information icons indicating the status of the flash, the picture/video size, and how many you can take with the memory available. Taking pictures is done by pressing the button which launches the application. The Settings menu is designed using big-sized icons; there is a capability for setting the resolution, the white balance, the flash mode, the shooting mode (whether it is Portrait or Landscape oriented) – these are all standard settings. There is an option for automatically stamping the Date on the picture. As expected, various effects are available: Normal, Negative, Gray, Retrospective and Mirror. We think that the Mirror effect is the most interesting one.

Overall, the interface is quite awkward to use and there is almost no functionality when the camera is in shooting mode, which means taking pictures becomes even more sluggish. The flash status and resolution icons could have easily been made to act as buttons used for changing the corresponding settings!

The pictures quality is below the average for a 2MP camera. When inspected at 100%, they are blurry, which is a consequence of the heavy noise and the low level of detail. The colors are realistic, but not saturated enough, which makes the images grayish and monotonous.



A camcorder is also present, with option to record videos in QVGA (320x240), QCIF (176x144) and Sub-QCIF (128x96) resolutions in 3gp format. Their quality is very low, since the frame rate is very low too.

Eten X800 sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution
* Note that due to codecs support, you may not be able to play the file.

Multimedia:

X800 is equipped with the standard mobile version of Windows Media Player. It is a multimedia player for music and video files. MP3 format is supported, as well as WMA and WAV. After updating the library with files, all supported types are found, and they can be added to playlists. This function is not well implemented and organizing them is quite hard. Songs can be viewed by artist, album and genre, as these are taken from the ID3 tag of the files.


We recommend converting videos to MPEG4 using h.263 codec with a quality lower than 512 kbps, otherwise the video will be skipping when in full-screen mode and there will be skipped frames.

The options buttons (next/previous, Play/Pause, etc.) are small and inconvenient both during Music and Video playback. When audio files are played, the video visualization window is still displayed, which is a lapse as it only takes up place on your screen. You can have these problems solved by adding new skins for the Media Player or by using another player, which can be installed additionally.

The phone has a built-in FM tuner as well. This is a nice old-school addition to the music player which helps for music on the go and can also bring you the news in audio format without the need of complicated new advanced technologies like internet streaming.

The interface is very colorful and looks attractive. The buttons are well sized and easy to press. You can easily save your favorite bands and we are happy to see that there is no dumb limit of 10 stations for example you can save 50 bands for three locations, or total of 150 bands. We are very pleased of it and used it with pleasure.

Software:

It's a pity that the RAM is still 64MB and the internal memory is 256, which is the same as the old M600+. Internal capacity can be expanded through the microSD card slot placed on the bottom of the phone.



WM for PPC provides unlimited capabilities for installing software. The only restrictions are the memory available and the hardware of the phone. The first problem is solved without any difficulties by getting a memory card as there are microSD cards with capacity of up to several GBs. Every PPC comes with programs that are modified, “pocket” versions known PC applications. Such programs are the mobile versions of (Microsoft) Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Explorer, Media Player, etc. Many more could be downloaded from third party sources.

There are numerous programs created for this platform, almost as much as the ones intended for PCs with Windows operating system. The most popular are the various utilities for personalizing the PPC, multimedia players, file explorers, Instant Messengers, etc.

GPS:



The X800 comes with a built in GPS receiver and the latest generation SirfStarIII chipset, which we've seen in earlier models of Eten, such as M700 and X500. The SIRF III architecture allows the equivalent of 200,000 correlations, in contrast to the older ones which used sequential search process and allowed a few hundred to a few thousand only . This increases the GPS sensitivity and allows it to work in many indoor environments, through urban canyons, and under dense foliage. SIRF III chipset supports both WAAS in the US or EGNOS systems in Europe for even better accuracy.

Each navigation software offers different interface and functionality, and since E-TEN does not come with anything preloaded, we won’t go into great details about it. The important thing is that the ETEN's display is adequately large and bright, and offers pleasant map viewing in most conditions, expect in super-bright direct sunlight.

Performance:

We used Spb Benchmark to compare the Eten X800 system performance with the Eten X500, X600 and Toshiba G900.

As we mentioned above, the phone uses Samsung SC3 2442, 500 MHz processor and has 64 MB RAM memory. When testing it, except for a few minor delays in the menu, the phone was pretty stable even when loaded with the music player open and chatting on Skype at the same time.

We are happy with the quality of the sound while talking, which is important for any phone. The strength of the sound is at good levels in both directions and the voice reproducing quality is not much worse either. Our only remark is to the sound of the phone which is slightly muffled, which reduces its clearness. On the other hand the voices are clear and natural, but there is a light background noise, which is annoying in longer conversations.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a high-class Windows Mobile phone, then you should check out the X800, with its high-resolution VGA display, global 3G, GPS (SirfStar III) and all that combined in acceptable dimensions. Yet again there is no such thing as perfect and you’ll have to compromise the lack of QWERTY and the low quality of the camera. Whether you are willing to live or not with those disadvantages is totally up to you, but if you want a phone with such resolution and similar functionality, the alternatives (Nokia E90 and Toshiba G900) are way bigger.