Dopod 900

The highly anticipated and much-lusted after Dopod 900 a.k.a. HTC Universal has finally arrived on our shores. Touted as the holy grail of PDA-phones, the Windows Mobile 5.0 handheld comes with almost every imaginable feature possible, from Wi-Fi and 3G to a QWERTY keyboard and megapixel camera. Sounds too good to be true? We put the 900 to the acid test.
Design

In stark contrast to the likes of O2's delicate mini and Palm's handy Treo, the Dopod 900 is clearly a PDA by form. Measuring 81 x 127.7 x 25mm and weighing 285g, this handheld can scarcely be considered pocket-friendly. All decked out in gun-metal grey, with a matt-black backplate, the 900 looks dull yet solid. Thankfully, the construction and build quality are excellent despite the rotating top half of the PDA. Two rubber bungs on the base of the handset keyboard prevent any possible damage to the screen when closing the flip.

The 900 can either be used in closed mode as a phone, in flip-open mode resembling and half-masquerading as a small laptop, or with the flip locked in place exposing the display on top as your typical PDA. Design-wise, what the Dopod sacrifices in terms of portability and lightness, it gains in two main areas.

For one, the huge 3.6-inch VGA screen is excellent and comparable with other offerings such as Dell's x51v. No problems with the touchscreen display, either, which is adequately sensitive and responsive. Secondly, apart from the Treo, PDAs and keyboards have generally been a mismatched marriage. Credit to Dopod for incorporating a full-sized QWERTY keypad which looks and feels a lot like those of the Nokia Communicators fame, where the large, squarish keys are individually slightly raised, generously spaced out and offer excellent tactile response.

Whether it's resting the open Dopod on a table and tapping away with our index fingers, or holding it up and pressing with our thumbs, we were able to type messages and documents at decent speeds and comfort levels. No chance of mimicking the Treo's famed one-hand operation here, though, unless you have unnaturally long thumbs. Unlike its smaller cousin, the Dopod 838, the 900 lacks a convenient one-touch silent-mode button, though it does come with a volume control toggle switch on the side.

The choice of using a traditional 3.5mm earphone jack is a welcome one since you can plug in your favorite headsets without an additional adapter. On the other hand, we found ourselves accidentally pressing the side calling buttons located halfway along the left side of the handset, and accidentally ending a couple of calls. Also, we hardly used the navigational keypad below the screen, choosing to employ the directional pad on the keyboard instead.

On the reverse of the base rests the battery cover, a 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera sensor and photo light. Without a lens cover, dust tends to accumulate at the lens.

Unlike some toothpicks that other PDAs use, the stylus here is well-sized and comfortable to hold.

Features

As of Windows Mobile 5.0, Office applications have been upgraded such as added support for embedded images, tables and charts. Two onscreen buttons appear at the bottom of the display for easy program control and menu access. Unlike the Dell X51v, we didn't experience any stability issues with the Dopod 900's implementation of the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. Thanks to the Intel Bulverde 520MHz processor, multitasking didn't slow down programs or cause any noticeable lag, except when changing between landscape and portrait orientations.

The wireless manager program offers easy access and control over the phone, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. Web surfing on the Dopod 900 is a pleasant experience, thanks to the generous display resolution, ease of usage and widescreen viewing.

In flipped-open mode, holding the 900 sideways and pressing the dedicated camera button at the top right edge transform the screen into a large viewfinder, which is a joy to use. The camera display refresh rate is smooth as well. While the internal camera can also be used for photo-taking, its 352 x 288-pixel size is hardly sufficient. The main 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera sensor is capable up to 2-megapixel shots, possibly via interpolation, though we'd recommend software post-editing.

You can change light settings, apply effects such as grayscale and sepia, and shoot in various modes such as panoramic, burst and picture themes (think Neoprint-like frames). Sadly, photos taken are comparable with those of the O2 mini and of mediocre picture quality with grainy snapshots and poor color reproduction. Although the onboard photo light is relatively bright, low-light pictures suffer the same problems. As such, unless you don't expect much from your handheld camera, you'd tend to be disappointed with the image quality.

Using Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, the Dopod 900 performs as a decent multimedia device so long as you don't expect iPod-like sound quality. The speedy processor handles video playback smoothly, too.

While connecting to a PC, you can charge the PDA via a mini-USB cable. Besides 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, the 900 offers one SDIO/MMC slot for memory expansion.

Performance

While the Dopod 900 is technically functional as a phone whether the flip is opened or closed, its design somewhat wasn't very practical when we actually used it. For one, it does not have an external display. That means you cannot see the identity of your incoming caller if the flip is closed. On the other hand, if you do take out the phone, flip, rotate and lock the top half back in place, wait for the screen orientation to change back to portrait mode, and then press the call button, a good 15 to 20 seconds would have passed by. Besides looking rather clumsy, we sometimes missed our calls this way, which could be annoying to say the least.

Leaving the Dopod's display facing up like most PDAs is not advisable since the screen will be exposed to knocks and scratches. Disappointingly, the speakerphone produced muffled sound quality during a call. Also, the 900 suffers from poor voice pickup via its microphone, especially when holding the phone in closed mode. Surprisingly, there were a few occasions when a call was unexpectedly disconnected due to lost reception, even when we weren't traveling underground on the commute.

When we tested 3G video calls on the 900 with our 3G test units (Motorola E1000 and Sony Ericsson Z800i), image quality was generally acceptable with good volume range through the two onboard speakers. Special mention should be given to the design of the 900 as the notebook-like design of the handheld allows video calls to be made handsfree.

The 1,620mAh battery managed about one-and-a-half days on normal usage, including music on the morning commute, usual phone functions such as SMSing and calling, as well as the odd Wi-Fi surfing.

Basics
Frequency: WCDMA+GSM(900/1800/1900)
Size: 81x127x25 mm
Weight: 285g
Standby time:-GSM:220-260 Hours- WCDMA:190-250 Hours
Talk time:-GSM:5-8 Hours WCDMA:2-4 Hours
Color: Titanium black
Smart model: Microsoft Windows Mobile Version 5.0
Style: mini notebook

Interface/messages
Messages: SMS; MMS
Voice/video recording: Unlimited (up to memory capacity)
Voice control: Yes
Hands free: Yes

Communications
Data transfer: WCDMA(3G)+GPRS (2.5G)
IR: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
WiFi wireless LAN: Yes
USB: Yes

Screen
Colors: 65536 colors TFT screen
Size: 3.6 inch
Resolution:640x480 pixels

Multimedia
Original ring tones: MP3/WMA
JAVA: Yes
Multimedia player: Windows Media Player 10

Camera
CMOS resolution: 1.3 megapixels
Focus: Yes
Recording: Yes
Assist lamp: Yes
Memory slot: SD interface, up to 1G

Others
Handwritten functions: Yes
Browsing Office documents: Yes
3G telecommunications: Yes