INTRODUCTION

    Current mobility trends require a true mobile device companion to be as sleek and powerful as possible, while keeping the price competitive. E-TEN began their attempt to build a device fitting this mix a while ago with their X600, and are now upgrading the concept with their new Glofiish X650. The interesting part though is when E-TEN manages to go beyond competing against other devices and fits this X650 with extras like GPS, a VGA screen, and other treats you won’t see mixed together that often. Will all this mix of features in a sleek design prove to be worth making the X650 your next companion, or will it turn out to be a lame duck like its sibling, the X800? Read on to see!

WHAT’S HOT

    The X650 packs a 500MHz Samsung SC32442 processor, 256MB of ROM, 64MB (48MB accessible) of RAM, a 2.8" VGA screen, Quadband GSM with EDGE, a SiRF Star III GPS receiver, 2MP camera on the back, a 1530mAh battery, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and 802.11b/g. For even more specs, check out PDAdb.net.

PRODUCT FEATURES

    After the unboxing video, there were a couple of things I liked and a couple of things I didn’t. I love how the the leather case integrates with the device for starters. It includes slots that allow you to connect your headphones to the 2.5mm jack and there are also a couple of extra slots to keep the speaker uncovered for when you choose to listen to something without taking the device out of the case. I didn’t like the fact that if this device includes a GPS, it should also include a car charger and an extra high capacity battery to help deal with it, and didn’t.

    In Part 1 of our video review I go through the Glofiish X650′s hardware and design. I must start by saying that I’m overall very pleased with the hardware design of the device. It’s sleek, light, attractive, and powerful from a spec point of view, though still to be tested. VGA on a small screen is definitely a very intelligent combination. I’ve come to be very fond of using this device on a daily basis simply because of how comfortable it is to read with it and how the screen resolution helps you see more on a small screen.

    Sadly, as with every device, nothing is perfect. Aside from the badly assisted collapsible stylus and low RAM, one of the things I don’t mention in the video is that the screen is not flush with the rest of the plastic and is actually deeper into the device than others I’ve used making the use of software thumb keyboards difficult. Another thing I don’t mention is how uncomfortable it is to use the front hardware buttons because they are too small and close together.

    In Part 2 of our video review, I go through the first half of the 24 built in applications in the device. In the end, some of these apps are fairly simple and standard so I focused on covering the most important ones in the videos.

    Since this device sports a sort of a high end design to it, I would’ve preferred that E-TEN would’ve given these applications a similar high end look to them like HTC did with the Touch. Many of these have juvenile imagery or icons and some pixelate a bit because of being designed for QVGA devices. I would also recommend that some of these are further tested for stability since I’ve had to un-install some of the startup apps like the backup utility because the device would often hang after the first couple of minutes. Another thing I don’t like is the lack of a MIDlet Manager and Adobe LE in the device.

    In Part 3 of our video review, I continue on what was left of the software package within the X650. There wasn’t much left to cover here but as you can see there are some differences as opposed to other Windows Mobile Pro devices.

    The only problem I find here is that the device has too little RAM to handle the VGA screen applications and the rest of the ones you’d decide to add. This as a direct result renders either poor performance with multiple applications being open or a "Memory Low" message when opening demanding applications like Pocket Internet Explorer. My experience at the moment, and which I’m beginning to hate, is at it can’t survive without a daily soft-reset.

    In Part 4 of our video review, I put the X650′s video and gaming performance to the test. All in all, I am tremendously impressed with the X650′s video performance. I was expecting that a relatively slow device would render some sort of video lagging but what I’ve learned is that even with its low RAM resources, it can play QVGA videos seamlessly. VGA videos definitely showed to be a problem for the device so keep this in mind whenever you choose to have a movie keep you company while on the go.

Even though there weren’t any apparent Bugs in my overall testing of the device, I became a little irritated on its call sound quality. It could be attributed to my review unit so please remember to make a test call before you choose to purchase it.

HELP SUPPORT

   I’m quite pleased with E-TEN’s help and support. Their website does a good job in bringing coverage to all their current devices with a lot of flash images of their X650. In their support link you’ll find the X650′s user manual after you’ve registered it.

BUGS AND WISHES

   I did quite a lot of testing to the X650 and I must say I found it to be almost bug clean. Sadly though, the bug I found was call quality. It could be just a problem with my unit so give it a test for yourself to make sure your device doesn’t have this problem. It wasn’t really a deal breaker but I work in a very noisy environment and if I had the in call volume in mid level, I would not be able to hear anything and if I placed it at maximum volume, apparently the sound was too tough on the speaker bringing you a crashy sound. The people listening at the other end would also complain of hearing I had the call in speaker mode, when I really didn’t. This got worse with bluetooth headsets. As for wishes:

• Larger hardware buttons would be welcomed
• 3G networking is a need in the market E-TEN is targeting with this device
• A longer lasting battery, a car charger or an extended battery would’ve been great
• A flush screen would make it possible to use a thumb keyboard
• A Java MIDlet engine, Adobe LE and a little cut on some unnecessary applications

PURCHASING

   
You can pre-order the X650 at eXpansys for $559.95, so yes, that price is a bit too high for a device with low RAM and no 3G.

PROS

• Sleek design
• Crisp VGA screen
• GPS
• 
  

  Good video performance

CONS

• Laggy and unstable
• Screen is not flush
• Too little RAM for so much
• No 3G
• Lack of software and hardware essentials

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    Yes, there were cons in the package, but the X650 has kept me company for the past weeks, and even though some important things are missing, features like that VGA screen and the GPS on a small and sleek device just make me forget about the problems and continue carrying it around. I do commend E-TEN for the Glofiish X600 series and do hope there is a more powerful predecessor to the X650 soon. But even after mentioning that, my overall experience with the X650 has been positive and I will continue to enjoy the fact that it fits perfectly in my pocket and that its screen brings me a marvelous experience while reading ebooks or watching a movie that no other device I’ve used in the past has given. The lack of 3G, high price, and lack of RAM may be prohibitive to some.