E-Ten's Glofiish M800: a better X800 with QWERTY

As we noted back in March, the only thing missing from E-Ten's quad-band GSM, UMTS/HSDPA, and GPS packing Glofiish X800 was the QWERTY. No more. Meet the Glofiish M800, ready to throw down with the best that HTC has to offer when it hits Europe in late November / early December for about €599 (nearly $850 pre-subsidy). For that you get all the best of the X800 -- WinMo 6 Professional on a VGA (480 x 640) touchscreen, SiRFstar III GPS, HSDPA data, standard 2.5-mm audio jack -- but with a beefier 500MHz processor and 1530mAh battery and new suit-tacular QWERTY in tow. Without a doubt, a worthy contender... on paper anyway.

[Via mobility site]

[Michael @ Oct 8th 2007 6:35AM]

Come on
Where is our iPhone contender? Why the crappy 2.5mm jack, I want to plug in real headphones without an adapter.

I'm getting so dismayed by all these companies that just don't seem to "get it".

[bombastinator @ Oct 8th 2007 7:12AM]

are you familiar with exactly how crappy the iPhone jack is?

The thing is standard size but it's buried too deep in the phone and you need a special narrow plug head specifically designed for the iPhone to be able to use it. Gimme the 2.5 any day.

[Michael @ Oct 8th 2007 8:24AM]

Absolutely. I used to own and iPhone so I know exactly how bad the jack is and I'm not asking for that. I'm asking for a real un-crippled 3.5 mm headphone jack and so much more. I think they did a good job adding the real keyboard, but these phones are still lacking in interface and syncing compared to the iPhone and it's so disheartening because I really want an decent iPhone replacement.
But even the iPhone has it's issues, hence the reason I got rid of it.
Just doesn't seem like any company can get it all together in one package, they all seem to lack logical design on one thing or another.

[Jeff @ Oct 8th 2007 9:47AM]

What's wrong with the syncing on Pocket PC phones? ActiveSync on windows mobile devices works great for Exchange e-mail (push technology). I'll admit, Pocket Outlook leaves much to be desired, but there are other e-mail client alternatives for Windows Mobile.

Meanwhile, the iphone can only sync via IMAP, so it's not truly push and defeats the purpose of their advertised Exchange implementation.

[Michael @ Oct 8th 2007 10:50AM]

Yeah but what about podcasts and MP3s and TV shows? How well does it sync those? Media management. Email is one thing and I'm glad you're happy with how well it does that. But we need good media syncing as well.

[Fred @ Oct 8th 2007 2:24PM]

Actually, it's Apple who doesn't "get it." The iPhone supports Bluetooth, so why leave out stereo bluetooth support? Listening to music is a huge part of the iPhone, and who wants to listen to music wirelessly just in mono?

The Glofiish phones support stereo Bluetooth. I have an X500, and the Motorola stereo Bluetooth headsets work great with it. Do you see anybody talk using wired headsets anymore?

[Richard Lai @ Oct 8th 2007 6:49AM]

Make the whole thing black then I'll dig it.

[bombastinator @ Oct 8th 2007 7:04AM]

Wow. Did they mention the AC cord hanging off the back you'd need to power the thing? I wonder how many milliamps the battery has.

[Rich @ Oct 8th 2007 8:43AM]

Read the entire article and you'll find out.

[freakmarket @ Oct 8th 2007 8:49AM]

About time ... the 640x480 screen on a WM device. Got to get that crazy price down.

[Jon @ Oct 8th 2007 8:49AM]

What is with that "on paper anyway" sarcastic remark?

[Ipaq3115 @ Oct 8th 2007 10:42AM]

the probably meant that it sounds good but you never know till you try it out.

[moosedude @ Nov 5th 2007 10:34AM]

I got an E-Ten M600, and the cell phone reception SUCKS!! From what I hear over at www.eten-users.eu, a lot of the E-Tens suck when it comes to reception... check it out..

[bombastinator @ Oct 8th 2007 10:02AM]

"read" is a strong word to use when dealing with machine translations.

They did mention an "accumulator" that was listed in mha, but it was 1530, which is an odd number for a battery. One could assume that it is in which case the statements of underpoweredness are likely appropriate. This machine may be pulling up to 50% more power for pda functions that a treo 650 or 700 which shipped with an 1800mha battery. the newer examples of that product range had 1200 mha batteries that were upped to 1600 after customer complaints, but again, the device had significantly less power draw than the reviewed system.

[Ipaq3115 @ Oct 8th 2007 10:44AM]

could this be my dream phone???

$850 - Probably not

[GuesT @ Oct 8th 2007 12:52PM]

Wonder if this is really better then the htc kaiser. Luckily I haven't took the plunge yet, but hopefully when this phone's released, the kaiser will drop in price.

[johnny hates waiting @ Oct 8th 2007 3:37PM]

Awesome finally the first phone that has atleast the basic requirments!

1) VGA screen
2) GPS
3) keyboard
4) Windows Mobile
5) Wifi
6) Bluetooth
7) 3g internet
8) More than 64 meg ram ( i think??)

Now does it function right?

[Ipaq3115 @ Nov 5th 2007 2:38PM]

Well it is missing one of the most basic requirements...

$400-$500...

Guess I'm just gettin' the M700...

[Panq @ Oct 8th 2007 3:31PM]

It's not quite there yet, but this is at least getting close to the kind of smartphone I would buy. Basically, something like Dell's Axim X51v combined with HTC's Kaiser - GPS, at least VGA screen, nice CPU and RAM, hardware keyboard, HSPDA, SDHC or CF, WM6...

Looking at the current few devices around which come close (basically just this, Kaiser, and iPhone), I'd be willing to bet that there will be something within a year or two which is good enough to shell out for. What HTC and co don't seem to realise is that if they beefed up the specs enough, people would get these to replace their laptops.

[Panq @ Oct 8th 2007 3:49PM]

Also, for the record, I would go out and buy the Kaiser this afternoon if it had a VGA screen.

[PM @ Nov 15th 2007 8:36PM]

Bingo! That is exactly how I feel... Kaiser + VGA = no-brainer for me.

[Aaron Gutting @ Oct 12th 2007 1:01PM]

Eten doesn't make a m800. This is a hoax.

[Ipaq3115 @ Nov 5th 2007 1:38PM]

They don't YET...

Yet being the key word.