[raduci]

Great review you almost convinced me. Can you post some camera samples ?
Thank You

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[PaulOBrien]

The only ones I have to hand are REALLY awful, taken indoors.

As I said, the camera is average to poor.

P

[sjcraig]

Hi Paul,

Great review! Need some advice - considering replacing my MPx220 with either Sansung i320 or the Ubiquio 501. I tested the i320 for a month and liked it very much except for a small dislike (but acceptable) of the battery life and small keys. How would you compare the Ubiquio side my side with the Samsung i320 and which would you go for?

Thanks,
Stephen

[kwues]

Awesome review Paul!!! any news of availability, pricing, or images for the i-mate version (which design do you prefer)? Also any possibility in posting a small video of the the 501 in use, if it's not too much to ask? Appreciate your time, thank you.

Regrads..........

[PaulOBrien]

sjcraig, on Nov 11 2006, 11:03, said:

Hi Paul,

Great review! Need some advice - considering replacing my MPx220 with either Sansung i320 or the Ubiquio 501. I tested the i320 for a month and liked it very much except for a small dislike (but acceptable) of the battery life and small keys. How would you compare the Ubiquio side my side with the Samsung i320 and which would you go for?

Thanks,
Stephen

It's hard to compare, as it's apples and oranges - one's a Smartphone, one's a Pocket PC.

The keyboard on the 501 is bigger and battery life is better, but it is bigger and uglier.

I personally love the i320 if you can take the so-so battery life and proprietary connector.

P

[PaulOBrien]

kwues, on Nov 11 2006, 18:08, said:

Awesome review Paul!!! any news of availability, pricing, or images for the i-mate version (which design do you prefer)? Also any possibility in posting a small video of the the 501 in use, if it's not too much to ask? Appreciate your time, thank you.

Regrads..........

Unfortunately I'm unable to post a video of the 501 in use, as it's gone back now (it was a loan unit).

Which design do I prefer?

I haven't seen the i-mate in person yet, but it does look a bit slicker (see below)...

P

 jaq3.jpg (32.28K)
Number of downloads: 533

[kwues]

Paul, thanks for the heads-up photo of the upcoming i-mate JAQ3 (looks interesting) I hope it's the same thickness as the UBiQUiO 501 (it should be right?)....anyways thanks again for the great review...

This post has been edited by kwues: 14 November 2006 - 03:30 PM

[PaulOBrien]

Should be, yeah!

P

[kwues]

Hey Paul, don't mean to sound repetitive, its just that there are a few doubters out there saying that it i-mate will more than likely not have an 850 version( I personally think they will have one )....basically I just wanted to know in your honest opinion what you think/know the chances are that i-mate will indeed have an 850 version....also curious to know if you heard anything about a scroll wheel for the JAQ3, in the picture you posted if you look hard enough it looks like there might be one on the upper left and also this site shows a picture with one reinforcing the picture you posted (how true it is, only time will tell), the site also mentions that the JAQ3 will have AKU 3.0 pre-installed.....

Here is the link to additional info:

http://pdadb.net/ind...?m=specs&id=638

This post has been edited by kwues: 15 November 2006 - 12:17 AM

[Belgoboy]

Paul (MVP), on Nov 14 2006, 00:09, said:

It's hard to compare, as it's apples and oranges - one's a Smartphone, one's a Pocket PC.

The keyboard on the 501 is bigger and battery life is better, but it is bigger and uglier.

I personally love the i320 if you can take the so-so battery life and proprietary connector.

P

Sorry for asking but what in fact differentiates a smartphone from a Pocket PC. I would think the 501 is superior to the i320 that I just saw today because it offers the touchsreen option as well as wifi.

[Pondrew]

Belgoboy, on Dec 4 2006, 00:13, said:

Sorry for asking but what in fact differentiates a smartphone from a Pocket PC. I would think the 501 is superior to the i320 that I just saw today because it offers the touchsreen option as well as wifi.

The simple answer (that you've just answered yourself!) is that a Pocket PC has touch screen whereas a Smartphone (the large S because Microsoft had and presumably still have 'Smartphone' registered as a trademark and use the capital S to distinguish from non-Microsoft smartphones).

There are often other differences tho...

[MitchellO]

The Treo 750v does have a tab key of sorts. Pressing the shift key + space bar will act as a tab key. Works on the 700wx too.

[MitchellO]

Pondrew, on Dec 6 2006, 04:25, said:

The simple answer (that you've just answered yourself!) is that a Pocket PC has touch screen whereas a Smartphone (the large S because Microsoft had and presumably still have 'Smartphone' registered as a trademark and use the capital S to distinguish from non-Microsoft smartphones).

There are often other differences tho...

Palm is messing with that a bit with their line of WM5 Treos. It even calls the Treo 750v a "Smartphone" right on the box, even though it is a Pocket PC Phone Edition. Definately has the one-handed design of a smartphone though

[raven2000]

Hey Paul,

Just wondering if you could answer couple of my questions. First of all, how is the reception on this phone? I used to have reception problems with my Cigular 8125. How is the incall voice quality/clarity? Can the person on the other side of the conversation hear you clearly? Overall how would you rate this as a phone? Finally, is it possible to overclock this device like it is with Wizard?

Thanks for your help!

[LookingGlass]

Hi Paul

Thanks for an extremely useful review! I'd tried calling Expansys to answer my questions and . . .

Anyway, there is one thing that troubles me: I use a Palm OS Treo (I've had all of them but now use a 90. It's very light and I didn't like the newer thumboards as the keys were too close to the bottom edge making it a strain to hold the device and type). I didn't buy a newer Sony Clie for similar reasons: the weight and configuration of the thumboard all flagged up RSI for extended use. How do you rate the 510 in this? I find that I write for hours sometimes and my thumb joints begin to ache quite fast after a few days if the keys are two heavy or if there is a jolt associated with the clicking. Sounds petty, but for me it makes the device usable or useless! If the thumboard is ok (the old Treo's were perfect) then it seems to me that so is the 510 and I'm off to the shops!

A secondary tiny question regards the keyboard backlight: does it actually shine through the keys?!? Sounds daft but I dimly remember one device where the backlight shines out from around the edges of the keys but jot through them! I think that was a Treo!

~

[LookingGlass]

. . . is writing here allowed?? Paul, I've sent my UBIQUIO back. Two key reasons 1) Notes kept crashing (maybe my tying was too fast for it. My Treo never had such problems) and 2) the 2MP camera provides no better final resolution that my Nokia with only 640x480 res. I've attached a file of the pictures I got.  UBIQIO_510_Photo_quality.doc (44K)
Number of downloads: 380 Great looking device but ultimately a toy!

[ZSX]

Well, I have a Ubiquio 501 and I must say there were originally some problems with crashing, especially on the old ROM. Fortunately, Expansys is very proactive about it, and they have released a new ROM so you can flash the phone yourself. The new ROM is incredibly stable and now the phone is rock solid.

The good news is that an even newer ROM release is going to be available soon!

[gerryr]

ZSX, on Jan 18 2007, 19:56, said:

Well, I have a Ubiquio 501 and I must say there were originally some problems with crashing, especially on the old ROM. Fortunately, Expansys is very proactive about it, and they have released a new ROM so you can flash the phone yourself. The new ROM is incredibly stable and now the phone is rock solid.

The good news is that an even newer ROM release is going to be available soon!

Hi ZSX

Is it running the AKU 3.3? (if it is you should get a screen during boot up saying Microsoft Direct Push )

Do the keys make a loud click when typing? minor thing I know but I think that would put me off the thing.

tx
gr

[ZSX]

gerryr, on Jan 18 2007, 20:34, said:

Hi ZSX

Is it running the AKU 3.3? (if it is you should get a screen during boot up saying Microsoft Direct Push )

Do the keys make a loud click when typing? minor thing I know but I think that would put me off the thing.

tx
gr

Yes, it is running AKU 3.3.

The keys are not all that noisy, at least in my opinion, and it is nice to have both tactile and auditory feedback.

[ipub]

Hello!

My first post here but I thought I'd say thanks for your review. I bought one of these 501's off the back of this and have to say you've been very fair in your assessment.

I was using an old o2 xda iis and have to say that this ubiquio is very similar only that its a little more sturdy as it lacks moving parts, smaller screen and sharper image. My xda was made of metal and has been dropped on pavements many a time. I very much doubt this 501 could take that sort of a drop being made of the same plastic as the dell keyboard I am typing on.

The expansys staff have been pretty helpful with problems (and if you read their forum there are certainly plenty of people with them re this phone) although I only had one. When I turned it on it refused to accept most sim cards. A hard reset sorted that out as mentioned on the support sites.

The CPU is pretty slow but not unbearable. The ROM is much more stable than the XDA iis thats for sure. That baby crashed everytime I closed any application I installed myself and sometimes whenever it felt like.

If you're looking for a fully functional PDA that is a bit smaller than average but still feature packed, this is the one for you. Just don't expect it to be amazing. It does what it does well but certainly isnt flashy about it.

Thanks again for the review!

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