Pocket PC Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Like the Curve 8900, it turns out that Motorola's SURF is a device that kinda needs to be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated. In light of TouchFLO and its endless competitors, the skin Moto's developed for this thing -- while tasteful and seemingly finger-friendly -- really isn't anything to get terribly excited about, but it does an adequate job of making the superficial surface of Windows Mobile reasonably finger-friendly."

Not a bad effort, especially for those who remember the MPX220. If I'm not mistaken (I'm not that familiar with Motorola's offerings over the years), this is the first WinMo touchscreen phone from Motorola since the aforementioned ill-fated MPX. This isn't exactly a flagship device, but should fit nicely for those who don't need a hardware keyboard. Running WM6.1 Pro, the SURF has a Qualcomm 528MHz processor, 128MB RAM (nice to see this becoming standard), quadband GSM, triband HSPA, 3.1MP camera, and a trackball control. It's not clear whether GPS is available except in the AGPS category. Pricing and availability has yet to be announced.

"The Iolite -- not "Lolite" as we'd previously thought -- appears to rip the Touch Diamond's basic form factor from this tiny lil' image that's been leaked on Expansys, but steps down to a WQVGA display from VGA. On the upside, Europeans still get their 7.2Mbps HSDPA fix, TouchFLO 3D and AGPS make it through unscathed, and the 3.2-megapixel cam carries over."

Hmm, seems like a budget version of the Diamond with a lower-res screen. On the other hand, it should nicely fill niche between the more basic Touch Viva and the Diamond - that is, if the price is right. Apart from the WQVGA screen, the Iolite features some pretty hefty specs with 528MHz Qualcomm processor, 288MB RAM, quadband GSM (good), dualband HSPA (not-so-good), GPS, 3.2MP camera, and is pretty svelte at 103gms and about 4"x2"x0.6" if I've got my conversions right. No word on pricing or availablity just yet, but that should be just around the corner. Check the link for the (very small) image.

"Sliders with numeric keypads aren't exactly the most common form factor for Windows Mobile handsets to begin with, but throw in some HSUPA and you've got a very rare combo indeed. Samsung's SCH-M470 fits that most unusual bill, throwing in a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and WiFi -- not to say you'll necessarily need it while you're cruising along at the sickeningly fast speeds the HSPA specification originally intended."



The kicker here is that the SCH-M740 (what an appealing name - not!) will only be available in Korea. I read a report the other day that there's now over 300 devices available globally with HSDPA, but only just over 60 with HSPA (i.e. HSDPA + HSUPA). What's the difference? Broadband level upload speeds, that's what - if you've ever tried transferring files while mobile or put up a big email attachment, you'll immediately see the benefit of this. Oh, and the phone doesn't look to bad either, if not quite as sexy as the Touch Dual - or the girls showing it off ;).