ETEN P700

Eten is a newcomer to the UK smartphone market and Peripheral Corner recently began selling the devices through its website. We reviewed the P300 in the last issue (May, issue 59) and were impressed by its small form factor and attractive design – despite its lack of processing power. The Eten P700 (£462 inc. VAT) is a far larger and more powerful smartphone. Like theP300, it runs on Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC (Phone Edition), but it’s very different in terms of its design. Where the P300 is lightweight and appealing, the P700 is large and boxy. While the silver and black casing is plain and simple, the wide and heavy design makes it awkward to hold in the hand.

PDA FUNCTIONALITY

With its larger screen and wider expansion options – it has a Type II CompactFlash slot as well as an SD slot – the P700 offers more conventional PDA functionality than the P300.The buttons are usable, with a volume control wheel, recording button and reset switch along the left side, the power switch on top of the unit and the shortcut keys running along the front of the device. The directional pad is responsive, but looser than we would have liked. The stylus is well hidden in this unit and we had some trouble sliding it out of its storage silo on the right-side of the device.

It’s also quite a big and chunky stylus, which some people may like, but the end is squared-off making it hard to make precise taps. Somewhat unusually, the Secure Digital card slot is concealed underneath the stylus. You need to use the stylus to get a card in and out of the slot, which makes it tricky, but we liked the concept, even if it didn’t quite work as smoothly in practice. We had reason to doubt the build quality of the P700. After inserting the SIM card we were unable to close the back of the unit properly because the plastic clip had bent out of shape. Eventually, we managed to get it to shut, but we felt this was unacceptable for a new unit straight out of the box.

The CompactFlash card slot cover also felt a little flimsy when opened and we weren’t confident of its long-term life. The P700 comes with a number of extras, including a carry case, headset and a cradle for charging and synching the unit. This has space for an extra battery, which can be bought as an extra along with a number of other products, such as an in-car charger and GPS kit.

SPECIFICATIONS

Where the P700 excels is in its specifications. The unit runs on an IntelPXA255 400MHz processor with 64MBof RAM and 64MB of NAND Flash. It’s a tri-band GSM phone with GPRS and both Bluetooth and infrared connectivity. Because of the PDA’s size, this isn’t a smartphone you would want to use as your sole mobile, and it’s probably best suited to those looking for a connected PDA that will allow them to gather emails on the move and make the occasional call using the headset. T

he 320 x 240-pixel colour touchscreen can support 65,536 colours. While this puts the P700 on a par with the O2 xda II, we found that the screen was not as bright as the O2, which may help to conserve battery life, but does make viewing harder. There was no facility for adjusting the brightness level either. The P700 is clearly a business tool, which explains why it doesn’t come with an integrated digital camera. While the price will appeal to those looking for an affordable SIM-free device, we felt that the boxy design and quality issues made the P700 less than desirable.

RATING: 5

PRICE: £393/£462 (EX/INC. VAT) SIM FREE
PROCESSOR: INTEL PXA255 400MHZ
RAM: 64MB
BLUETOOTH: YES
CONTACT: 01252 792862 WWW.PERIPHERALCORNER.CO.UK