E-TEN glofiish X500 smartphone gets official

While its hard to take a Pocket PC phone seriously that goes by the name of "glofiish," and even harder to take it seriously when it ain't got no 3G data, we're still fairly impressed with E-TEN's new X500 phone. The glofiish X500 packs in SiRF Star III GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g WiFi, and an EDGE radio all into a 0.6-inch thick form factor. While it was at it, E-TEN stuff in a 2 megapixel camera, 2.8-inch QVGA screen, 400MHz Samsung processor, 128MB ROM, 64MB RAM and a microSD slot. No surprises, since we spotted this thing a few weeks ago, but now it's getting "official," with an expected November launch and that silly glofiish moniker. Still no word on price.

[Via Mobility Site]

[Jonathan Keim @ Oct 30th 2006 11:22AM]

which network? verizon?

[naz @ Oct 30th 2006 11:34AM]

no, its a quad-band gsm phone. and it wont be offered in america for a while, though you can always import it unlocked and use it on Cingular/T-Mo

[Alex @ Oct 30th 2006 5:29PM]

Wi-fi b/g, bluetooth 2.0, fast 400 mhz proc., quad-band/EDGE, 2 megapixel camera, fm-radio AND GPS!! best upcoming phone if 3G is not a priority. Here's some additional pics with video & a review(in Russian):
http://www.mobinaute.com/mobinaute/article.php?id=20061030112319
http://www.hpc.ru/lib/arts/2232/

[technology today @ Oct 30th 2006 11:29AM]

it would have been better if it had been 3 or 5 mp camera.what do you guys say
for more

[Dan @ Oct 30th 2006 11:30AM]

Verizon doesn't have EDGE, so...

[naz @ Oct 30th 2006 11:36AM]

o, and when i say it wont be offered in america for a while, i mean a while if at all.

[kOa7 @ Oct 30th 2006 11:43AM]

This is easily the best GPS/Wifi-G/GSM phone out there at the moment - good enough CPU for any app, lighter and thinner than other models, USB connector (no proprietary cables/adaptors to carry around for syncing/charging, just plug it into your notebook with a standard USB mini connector).

Obviously if you need a keyboard, you'd have to look at one of the lesser options.

My only question is does it support USB host mode?

[Tarasil @ Oct 30th 2006 12:14PM]

Good phone...

[RikF @ Oct 30th 2006 12:27PM]

The d-pad looks a little ... unwieldy. Other than that it looks like a winner :)

[Rick wilson @ Oct 30th 2006 1:43PM]

FINALLY! I've been eyeballing any GPS/Wi-Fi enabled phone on any shore for any price. And this form factor with what it gives you seem to be the best.

Just wonder what it costs, probably $800'ish, thats gonna be the only kicker. Any info on which service will have this phone?

[zuye @ Oct 30th 2006 2:06PM]

only if it had a keyboard, back to wiating for the 8525

[R @ Feb 8th 2007 6:02PM]

Check out the ETEN Glofiish M700 with the qwerty

[JC @ Oct 30th 2006 2:52PM]

This will be the phone to make me upgrade from my Eten M600. The added GPS is going to be awesome!

[E71 @ Oct 30th 2006 3:24PM]

Assuming the HTC Trinity (P3600) has that (disabled) GPS chip we've all been talking about, this phone seems kinda .... boring.

[Nogami @ Oct 30th 2006 8:50PM]

Looks pretty nice, but MicroSD sucks... Shame they couldn't figure out a way of putting a regular SD slot in it.

[sebos @ Oct 31st 2006 12:09PM]

On swiss distrib. website there is a price already
http://www.eten.ch/
532 Euros