Marcus’ Blog

An honest review of Dopod 818 pro

As I?m rather satisfied with my latest mobile phone I thought I?d share my experiences on my blog in case anyone is interested.

Please note that this is not a professional review of the captioned device. I merely point out my personal experiences and opinions on this phone.

I purchased the Dopod 818 Pro just before Christmas, and I did so after considering various converged mobile phones (PDA phones), including the HTC Universal (sold as Dopod 900 / MDA Pro etc), the HTC Tornado (sold as Qtek 8310 / 8300 among others), the HTC Wizard (sold as Qtek 9100/i-mate K-JAM), the HTC Prophet, and the O2 Atom.

Looking at all these models the HTC Universal is ideal in terms of features included (notably the included UMTS support), but it?s just too big and heavy to carry around.

The HTC Tornado is ideal in terms of being small and tiny, but it is a Smartphone and not a pocket PC, i.e. no touch-sensitive screen.

Looking forward, the absolutely ideal device is the upcoming HTC Muse. But unfortunately right now we can only ?muse? about this model as it?s currently on the drawing board and probably 9 months away from the shops around us (is that why they chose this name?).
Thanks to msmobiles.com for this picture of the device.

So after all these current and future mobile phones, I reduced my consideration set to the two phones that offer an acceptable intermediate alternative and that are available now: the HTC Prophet (sold by Dopod as the Dopod 818 Pro) and the O2 Atom (produced by Quanta).

VS.

If you?re all confused with these models ? take a look at this excellent overview: http://www.mypocketpc.ch/FAQ/Verschiedenes/15890.aspx

Before I purchased this new phone I was using an LG 8130 3G phone, which was not really a phone I chose myself, as it was provided to me by my company. I?d been looking for a PDA phone ever since the O2 XDA mini started selling, but have always refrained from buying that phone due to the lack of built-in WLAN.

I did consider buying it and sticking in a WLAN SDIO card, but that would prevent me from using a large memory card to store music. That would then become a barrier to the other reason for me to buy a PDA phone: to replace my IPOD so I don?t need to carry two devices around.

Well after a long debate with myself and some other folk I decided to purchase the Dopod 818 pro PDA phone.

The debate was between the O2 Atom and the Dopod and I finally decided for Dopod because:
- Dopod uses SD cards instead of mini-SD in O2 Atom: this means that currently larger memory cards are available at a lower price: this is important as I intend to use the PDA as an IPOD replacement.
- 802.11b and g supported by Dopod 818 Pro (while O2 Atom supports only 802.11b).
- Dopod 818 Pro is about 1,000 HKD (130 USD) cheaper than the O2 Atom.
- Dopod 818 is a Quadband phone and O2 Atom a tri-band phone. I.e. the Dopod 818 will work everywhere in the US and the O2 Atom will mostly not have reception (this is a minor reason, so I mention it last).

What I like:
- It?s a truly converged device. Includes phone, pocket PC, media player, 2MP camera.
- Listening to music while receiving a phone call works similar as in a car-kit; your music will pause, you take your call, and right after you hang-up the music continues. Great.
- The form factor is good; it?s a little on the heavy side, but it doesn?t bother me to carry it in a trouser or jacket pocket (but it?s too heavy for a shirt pocket).
- Lay-out of buttons on the Dopod is excellent. I can use most functions without touching the screen, and the two soft-menu buttons (which lack on the O2 Atom) are an important reason for that.

What I don?t like:
- The WLAN reception capacity is disappointing when compared to a laptop or to my previous PDA (an HP4150). My old PDA and my current laptop are both able to receive the WLAN signal in most places of my apartment. But the Dopod has to be much closer to the access point to pick up a connection. This is disappointing and must be somehow related to a different arrangement of the internal antenna in the Dopod. Or does the Dopod use a different radio chip-set?
- Processing speed could be better. This is an often mentioned disadvantage of the Dopod phone, owing to having a processor with a lower clock speed. As I haven?t been able to really used the Atom for comparison for long (I only used it for a couple of minutes in a shop) I?ve not been able to really compare day to day processing on each of the two PDAs. So I?m not sure how big of a concern of the Dopod this really is. What is concerning though is that when comparing the Dopod to my much older IPAQ 4150 (Compaq/HP) then the two devices are very comparable in speed. Actually, the older IPAQ is faster in many respects ? like starting up applications. These things are due to CPU speed but also to the new architecture of the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, which handles RAM differently. I have the feeling that this reduces start-up speed of applications.

So all in all I’m really happy with the Dopod 818 Pro. The concept of a converged phone finally starts to make sense. I finally don’t need to carry a second device with me.

No 3G support yet, but hey - who’s perfect anyway these days. I already know what my next phone will be: I’ll wait for the HTC Muse models to come out. Smaller, packing more memory, and supporting 3G.

Marc