The E-TEN Glofiish X500+

by Elrendhel
Date: 11/07/2007

Overiew
When I first heard the rumors about the E-TEN "Glofiish" X500+ back in late 2006, I was smitten by the initial specifications!  This device sounded like it could very-well be my "holy grail" PocketPC: a converged device that featured a Cell-phone, Full PDA, Integrated Camera, Integrated GPS, and most of all, a VGA screen, all in one device!  Woo-hoo!

I was overjoyed to confirm later in February 2007 some additional facts, such as:
1.) The X500+ would come with Windows Mobile 6 Professional,
2.) It's GPS would be SiRFStar III, and support TMC (Traffic Message Channel).
3.) The Camera would be CMOS based (not CCD!), have a 2-MegaPixel capacity, as well as a camera Flash!
4.) The addition of an integrated FM Radio and stereo earbuds that would act as the Radio antenna.
5.) Support for both WiFi "b" and "g", as well as Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate).

What you get in the Package
Included in my Full Retail Review Package was the x500+ itself, a long lasting 1530mAh battery, a second/spare telescoping stylus, a carry-case for the X500+, an AC charger with a US power-plug converter, a USB to Mini-USB sync cable for charging and synchronizing, a Distribution CD with a 90day Office Trial, and a fold-out quick start guide.

Introducing the E-TEN X500+
Sporting exactly the same shell as it's silver older brother (X500): the X500+ is now available in Black, which is the model that I chose for my review.  I like the new matte finish.  It is velvety to the touch and mostly fingerprint resistent unless you have oily skin.  I can't say if this finish is chip or dent resistent as I did not want to damage the review model that I was sent.

The front face of the device contains the ever-so-beautiful 640x480 2.8 Inch VGA screen.  Above this screen is a long toggle button spanning the width of the device.  On the left side of this button is the GPS hardware toggle which brings up the GPS Satellite Utility.  Directly below this button is the GPS/WiFi/BlueTooth LED indicator light.  Slightly above this and centrally located above the screen is the earpiece for the Cellphone.  Then, on the right-side of the toggle button is the M-Desk utility application. Again, directly below this button is an LED indicator light, this one indicates that the Cellular Radio is enabled (flashes green once every five seconds when active), and when the unit is being charged (solid red). Below the VGA screen is the green button for starting the Call process on the phone side of the device, and as such it brings-up the dialer interface.  Next is another long button spanning three quarters of the width of the phone, and these two sides (left & right) are the softkeys that correspond to the softkey menues on the bottom bar of the screen.  Below this bar, centrally located is the four way (up, down, left, right) D-pad, as well as the action/launch key in the center of the D-pad.

On the left side is the volume control (prior to a phone call it affects PDA speaker volume (and Ringer volume), during call it affects conversation volume).  Directly below these two buttons is the Voice Commander button, which invokes the Voice Commander application.  Towards the bottom left side is the stereo headphone/microphone jack.  Note that this port is the only way that you can sample FM broadcasts (a borrowed BT headset would not work, since the copper wiring of the headset acts as the FM antenna).  This headset port is unfortunately nonstandard at 2.25mm, instead of the industry norm of 3.5mm.

On the right side is the Power button (Sleep Mode/Wake button), the Soft Reset button pin-hole, and the Camera Hotkey.  Pressing the Camera Button the first time will place the PDA in Camera Mode.  A second press of the button will snap a picture.  If you toggled the camera from Still-shot to Video mode (by pressing the camera icon onscreen), the second press of the camera button will instead start the video, with a third press halting the video.  Whenever a picture or video is completed, you are presented with the option of viewing the video/picture, saving it, or deleting it.

On the back face, along the top you will find the 2 megapixel camera lens with camera light, as well as a "preview" mirror for self portraits. Next to the camera is the speaker.  Towards the bottom of the device is the battery compartment cover.  The SIM for cellphone service is located directly underneath the battery.

On the bottom of the device, you will find the MicroSD card slot, as well as the Mini-USB port for charging and Synchronizing PIM data, as well as the telescoping stylus.  While this is entirely opposite of every PDA I've ever used previously, I can totally understand why the engineers choose to place all of these opening on the bottom: less chance of dirt and foreign material "falling" into these holes.  It is, unfortunately for me, taking a lot of personal effort to undue years of reaching for the PDA top for the stylus.

My Initial Findings

Update that ROM BIOS!
I would highly suggest that anyone buying this device register it on the ETEN website in order to gain access to their download section. You can then download the latest and greatest ROM BIOS, which in my opinion is pretty much a requirement. 

My device came with the ROM BIOS version 486, but several aspects of the unit did not work well with that default load.  For example, Wireless WiFi "G" would not connect with ANY G hotspots no matter what I tried.  The hotspots were visible, but you couldn't do much more than see them: connections were impossible even with Encryption disabled. WiFi "B" worked, but only when connecting with a true-blue "B" Access Point.  "G" Access Points with "B Compatability" enabled were a no-go. Also, the device would freeze every other day, or randomly soft-reset itself on it's own. Upgrading to v543 ROM BIOS gave me a much more stable system, access to WiFi "G", and my attempts to use the Business Card capture obtained much better results (and I cannot say if this was due to a upgraded Card program).

Not Enough RAM!
No matter how much better the device performed after flashing the ROM BIOS, the one problem that I kept running into was the annoyingly small SDRAM footprint, which leaves very little room for the user to install their own applications.  For the purposes of the review, I chose not to install a microSD card to help offset the memory restrictions imposed my the smaller memory footprint.  This lack of forethought in design for such a high end device is a definite deal killer for me, and probably the biggest problem that any user will face with this device.  The default loadout leaves the user with approximately 22MB of Storage Memory, and 22MB of Program Memory.  Freed of the additional applets, the Storage Memory goes up to 41MB (or 48MB if you use the Hard Reset process mentioned below), and the Program memory up to 27MB.

The Software Build-out
Here are the applications included with the standard Build-out, and are installed the first time you start the device. Having a device that includes Windows Mobile 6 Professional is off to a great start to begin with.  Included with the Professional version is Office Mobile (which includes the Mobile version of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook), as well as Windows Live services such as "Search" and "Messenger", and lastly Media Player Mobile. Accordingly, anything installed above and beyond the default WM6 Pro earns extra points in my book, and this unit certainly does not disappoint in this department.  Here are a few of the more useful applets and some of their screenshoots (in no certain order):

 

 

 

 

Add Ringtone:  With this applet, you can download and specify which ring-tones are available for use on your x500+
Backup Utility: A generic backup services, and utilizes the core code used in "Sprite Backup for Windows Mobile.
Battery Meter:  A battery indicator in the form of a Today Screen icon.  Clicking on the Battery Meter takes you to the actual WM6 Battery applet.
Dialer Wizard: Allows you setup multiple Dial configurations

 

 

 

 

Connection Wizard: Eases the initial connection to your Cellular network.
Birthday Reminder: A reminder application with the ability to not only notify the user of a pending birthday, but allows the user to send an SMS message or E-mail message. 
GPS Viewer: A GPS applet that lets the user identify the satellites in the constellation that are active, and provides a generic compass.
Image Maker: A generic utility for painting your own pictures.

 

 

 

Image Wizard: Allows the user to add animated aspects (a frame, other icons, etc) to an existing camera picture.
Location SMS: A GPS applet that lets you send an SMS message with your Latitude and Longitude embedded.  Includes a list of predefined messages.
M-Desk: E-TEN's main utility program for configuring the
Namecard Manager: Scans your business cards and translates them directly into a Contact you can add to your PIM database.

 

 

 

 

Satellite Data Update: Allows the user to connect via Data service, ActiveSync, or WiFi to download the most recent ephemeral satellite data.
SIM Manager: Move contacts from the Personal Information Manager contact list to the memory storage area on your SIM and vice versa.
Speed Dial: Allows the user to predefine a set number of Contacts which can be autodialed with a single keypress.
Voice Commander: Allows the user to Automatically launch a program or dial a telephone number with a single button-press and a vocal command.

When do too many features cause bloat?
With the large number of bundled applications and utilities, I had only enough room to install one GPS program (GPS Tuner), and no other programs at all. If I uninstalled GPS Tuner, I could fit-in my Today screen plugins PocketBreeze, PocketWeather, and iLauncher.  So I was able to install approximately 4 user applications total. 

To alleviate this problem, after having compiled the bulk of my research on the default application load-out, I performed a hard-reset (Press and hold the Power button while pressing the reset button, releasing both at the same time.  Then, hold the phone disconnect button on the device's lower right corner.  When asked if you wish to perform a hard reset, press and hold the appropriate button until it starts down the right path.  Then, after the device goes through the screen alignment process and initial setup, a loader screen will appear.  Press and hold the camera button the right side of the device to bypass this installation process for the default loadout).   Doing so left me with a total of 48MB of Storage Memory (26MB extra!), as well as 27MB of Program Memory.

After that, I was then able to add four large applications (OCN5 "On-Road" Navigation software, as well as my favorite PIM PocketInformant and E-mail client FlexMail), in addition to GPS Tuner, and several smaller programs (Resco Explorer, Wizbar Advance v3, TimeTracker MX2, and Vehicle Manager).  This makes the device far-more useable, and frankly it was significantly faster.

Should a user never intend to use the PDA portion beyond it's default load-out, then this device will be fine in it's default state.  But if you intend to do much with the PDA side of the device, the secondary purchase of a 4GB or 6GB microSD card is pretty much a requirement, as may a hard-reset with the previously mentioned skipping of the default loadout. 

Camera
The X500+ sports a sweet 2MP (MegaPixel) CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Camera.  Older technology cameras utilized CCD-based (Charge Coupled Device) technology, which were less expensive to produce with the available technology in the past.  CMOS has the virtue of quickly becoming the more cost-efficient technology to use, so expect to see more CMOS based cameras in the future.   A good article to discuss the differences between the two technologies can be found here. 

The quality of the pictures taken by the X500+ were quite satisfactory.  My apologies, but the sample snapshots that I took were lost, so I have none to include in this review.

WiFi B and G
The WiFi transmitter works great in both B & G modes.  I tried both settings with two different WiFi access points I own, as well as several hotspots available around town, and all connected well.  (Note: connectivity with G was impossible with the default ROM version.  Once I upgraded to v5.43, everthing worked fine).

GPS (AGPS)
This was by far the most fun and interesting integrated component in the device by far, and was a function that I would eventually utilize everyday. ETEN does not pre-load the device with the actual software to use for "on-road" or "off-road" navigation, electing instead to leave this purchase decision to the consumer, so you will need to find your own sources for software.

That's not to say that you don't get any bundled GPS software.  They do provide several super cool GPS utilities: There's the GPS Viewer that is activated when you press the GPS button in the upper left-hand corner. It shows the satellite constellation map, as well as simple compass in addition to your latitude and longitude.   Another handy GPS utility is the GPS SMS applet, which allows you to send an SMS message with your latitude & longitude imbedded in it.  Also included in the GPS application build-out is the Satellite Data Update applet, which you can set to automatically download the latest ephemeral data (this constitutes the A in AGPS) via the internet so that when you next start the GPS you have a quick TTFF (Time to First Fix).  Setting it to automatically download the data everyday at 12noon meant my TTFF was approximately 14 seconds each time I turned on the GPS, which is fantastic.

For my "Off-road" use, I used GPS Tuner (I do some Geocaching and a lot of hiking), and for my "On-Road" navigation, I used OCN5 (for roadtrips and for calculating the most efficient route to a clients location).  I was unable to load OCN5 with the X500+'s default application build-out, but after the Hard-Reset and disabling the default buildout, I was able to load it.  Both programs are perfect candidates for off-loading onto your microSD card if you have one.

The only downside in the GPS category is that the TMC (Traffic Message Channel) function is apparently not compatible with Clear Channel "Total Traffic Network" here in the US based on my research.  I could not validate this statement because I do not subscribe to TMC.  ETEN tech support was not forthcoming on this issue, but the lack of TMC is not a deal breaker for me.

The rest of the SiRFstar III chipset worked perfectly for my purposes.  SirfStar III systems work well in any geographic area, but have improved algorithms over the SiRFstar II chipsets for keeping a signal lock even in those urban jungles we find ourselves walking nowadays.  I've actually had worse luck getting a good GPS signal "lock" when I'm in the middle of a city with a large number of skyscrapers than I have when I'm out in the mountains, which is actually to be expected. 

Battery Life
Battery life was actually pretty good, considering all the extra power-consuming devices on the X500+ (BT/WiFi/GPS/Cell radio, Camera, etc) that were constantly draining power.  Since I plug-in the unit each night when I go to bed, I wouldn't ever see myself running out of power during the standard day, even using all the tools heavily. Standby time typically measured approximately two days: battery dropped approximately 16% overnight (over 8hrs), so five more 8hr slots were possible.   Admittedly, I'm not much of a talker, so my battery life was substantially more for me than these tests suggest. Note: all these calculations presume the default screen Brightness of 50%.

When I ran the unit in just the "Cellphone + PDA" (little or no WiFi/BT/GPS), I could have used a little more than 5 hours of talk-time (based on the calculatation of one hour of talk-time consuming approximately 20% of the battery life). This is likely the average consumption for a regular user.

Using Cell+PDA with constant WiFi/BT+GPS off-and-on (for an hour total time) throughout the day, I could have used almost three hours of talk-time using the same calculation above.  This is the average consumption for a power user.

Using Cell+PDA with constant WiFi/BT+GPS off-and-on for most of the day, and watching long video clips for an two hours (to simulate watching a movie), gave me about 1 hour of talk-time using the same calculation above.  This will likely be the average consumption for a power user who enjoys utilizing every aspect of their device.

The Beautiful VGA Screen!
I love this screen!  Witnessing VGA on the X500+ is pretty much the same feeling I got when I went from an EGA computer screen to a VGA computer screen.  Did I mention how much I love this screen?   It's truly a joy to work on any application with this screen.  Fonts are crisp and clear, and use of ClearType setting is clearly visible (on some devices this options is less visible).  As E-TEN likes to point-out on their website (four PDA's taped together), having this VGA screen means having twice the resolution in both directions, which means that you can have twice the onscreen graphics space for pictures and games, and applications provide twice the resolution for displaying the same data.

Having said that, I will be the first to admit that love is blind.  Truly.  The VGA screen accounts for most of the processing undertaken when you have a high-resolution background (today screen), or load any high resolution pictures.  The X500+ effectively suffers from the lack of a dedicated video processor.  Since few other manufacturers are making a dedicated video processor on other VGA devices (the O2 Flame being the only device that I'm aware of that has it's own dedicated Video processor), I don't think it would be fair to ding the X500+ for this problem. Besides, those of us who are power users and play VGA games will be the ones most likely to suffer slow scroll rates.  The average user who just makes phone calls will still enjoy relatively fast scrolling in their web browswer, or when scrolling in Pocket Excel.

The backlight defaults to only 50% brightness by default, so the screen is capable of being readily visible in direct sunlight, although it will still have a washed-out look under such situations.   My use of GPS applications suffered from this washed-out look, meaning I had to cup my hand over the screen frequently in order to properly identify my position.

My Final Thoughts
The only real disappointment in the X500+ specification was the stunning lack of SDRAM memory, which I found to be greatly lacking for such a cutting-edge device.  The X500+ is powered by a Samsung SC32442 CPU running at 400MHz, and while it has 128MB of ROM (nice), it has only 64MB of SDRAM, so if you only ever expect to run one or two additional programs on your device, this should be more than sufficient for your needs.  But for a confirmed techno-geek like myself who enjoys running a full dozen mid-sized programs was met with a great deal of laughter on the part of the X500+.

I was also saddened to learn that the antenna for the FM radio's antenna was embedded in the included earbud set, which means if you are intending to use your favorite BlueTooth headphones, you will be channel-hopping without an Antenna, so expect weak signals.  I couldn't get my TMC funtion to be acknowledged in OCN5 either, but I am unclear of whether or not this was due to my lack of having purchased TMC service from Clear Channel (the US provider of TMC services), or if the service needs the earbuds with embedded antenna to work: I didn't try using the headset while using OCN5 (beta with TMC).

However, the GPS worked incredibly well in all of my test, as did the WiFi, BlueTooth, and Cellular radios. The initial BIOS version loaded presented many problems for me, but an update to V543 quickly resolved these issues. Stability of the device has been extraordinary, with only one instance of glitchiness/flakiness after the update to the new ROM version. Additionally, I found the bundled application suite to be very well thought-out, and quite usable to the general public. Every program in my arsenal of preferred applications ran well, and the availability of VGA graphics brought the experience to an unprecidented level of usability: absolutely every application looked twice as good as the QVGA versions.

All in all, I would consider this device a very credible contender to the likes of the AT&T Tilt if you are willing to forgo the thumb keyboard and 3G.  If you need 3G, look for the upcoming X800 series. The M600 will have the slide-out keyboard.

Late Note: Sadly, I have just been advised by my contact at MobilePlanet that the X500+ has just reached EOL (the end of it's lifecycle), so apparently E-TEN is moving forward with the X600 and the X800 series ASAP.  No further units of the X500+ will be produced, so if you want one, you had better get one quick!

Pro's

• VGA screen is very impressive!
• SiRFstar III GPS (AGPS) is incredible!
• Battery life is most satisfactory!
• Has both Wireless WiFi B & G, with full support for WPA/2 & AES!
• Has BlueTooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)!

Con's

• X500+ has already reached it's EOL (End of Lifecycle).
• VGA screen is only 2.8 inches diagonally.
• VGA screen does not have a Dedicated Video Processor.
• FM Antenna built-in to earbuds, which obviates use of BT headphones.
• GPS TMC may require FM Antenna, which is counter intuitive.

Final Conclusion
I would have given this unit a solid 5 stars if it had more memory (128MB of SDRAM for example).  However, this incredible lack of memory, in addition to a few minor issues lead to a full half-point deduction in the final score.

Score
I give this unit a 4.5 Stars (out of 5 Stars total).

The Specifics

Company Name: MobilePlanet (E-Ten US Reseller)
Company Address: 902 IAA Drive (Suite 1A)
Bloomington, IL 61701 USA
Company Tel#: -1-800-675-2638
Company Website: www.mobileplanet.com
Product Cost: $519 for the ETEN Glofiish X500+.

Thanks to Corey Leach and MobilePlanet for the 30 day loaner of an X500+ !

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