E-TEN's VGA and HSDPA-packin' Glofiish X800 now shipping

We've had our eye on this willowy little minnow ever since we first gave it a proper once over at CeBIT earlier this year, and now E-TEN has announced that its everything-but-the-keyboard Glofiish X800 WM6 Pocket PC is finally shipping (we saw it unlocked on MobilePlanet for $650). Very similar to a number of 3.5G HTC devices already on the market, the X800 steps up the game by offering a sexy 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 screen, 500MHz Samsung processor, and dedicated SiRFstar III GPS chipset. Still, if you can hold out just a little bit longer, a QWERTY-fied M800 boasting the same specs is right around the corner.

[boe @ Nov 5th 2007 10:22AM]

Dang - I would love it if they made a CDMA version of this phone - this shows off how antiquated the mogul/titan/6800/htcCrap is.

[yoyodude64 @ Nov 5th 2007 10:31AM]

yea good point...i would love to see this baby in the US

[boe @ Nov 5th 2007 10:35AM]

For anyone that doesn't know about the mogul - it was released in June on Sprint and they still can't figure out how to make the BT work properly. They released a "fix" that made the phone freeze up as well as shutdown services so they pulled it. I'm hoping for the Verizon user's sakes that it isn't released on Verizon. Frankly I'd really like to see Sprint step outside the box for a moment and stop buying defective HTC products.

[ryan @ Nov 5th 2007 10:54AM]

HTC products Aren't defective, and their not Crap. The CRAP that the providers put on the phones make them perform like shit. A great example is the T-mobile dash. The MyFaves software always runs in background eating resources. It was a hunk of garbage as a dash, but re-flashed with the HTC S620 Rom, it's great. best phone I've had. also, there is a whole forum dedicated to HTC phones to allow them to reach their potential.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/

[what-about-the-artists @ Nov 5th 2007 10:32AM]

talking about phones, I heard an add on NPR New York Public Radio this morning about 9:15am. It had something to do about some guy tapped by Google to make the Google Phone that would take on the iPhone. I think he is hosting an event or something. I was like WTF did I miss the launch and rushed home to read about it here but I don't see anything. I doubt someone would do a hoax on an NPR add. Did anyone else in the New York area hear the add? Or could Engadget call NPR to inquire about the add?

Pity i didn't pay more attention to it.

[r19578 @ Nov 5th 2007 10:42AM]

This thing doesn't support SDHC, an SDHC 'patch' from 3rd party makes it unstable. This is 2007 man. I'll go with ipaq 610c even if lacking VGA

[rovermud @ Nov 5th 2007 10:44AM]

Hey artist....Google is announcing their Google phone plans today. That's probably what they referred to on that NPR ad.

[3rdsun @ Nov 5th 2007 12:26PM]

It would be great if this ran Google OS or something other than WM. And it would tear the shit out of iphone

[josh @ Nov 5th 2007 1:20PM]

I am not a fan of the iPhone. From an implementation aspect I have serious issue with them simply stripping down OS X and shoving it on a mobile device. It means that the core design of the OS was not created with a mobile device in mind but rather hacked together after the fact, which among other things leads to some serious security issues (more found since June than either Symbian or WM in the history of either OS).

That said, putting Google OS on this, or skinning WM to present a better user experience, or swapping to Symbian, or whatever isn't going to in anyway "tear the shit" out of the iPhone. Effective one handed use of the iPhone may be unreasonable but regardless the interface is slicker than either offering, and the platform has a much more unified experience than an OSS implementation like the google phone is reported to be, or the hodgepodge of WM (without even getting into third party apps). For the segment that Apple is after it is going to take a seriously concerted effort between software and hardware to offer a competitive experience. If MS were committed to the consumer space rather than the business space with WM they might be able to (the live search integration shows that they can make something really slick if they stop and think about it) considering their close relationship with HTC, but right now they haven't put forth a good effort. MS seems schitzophrenic about the phone right now though, wanting to do both business (which has treated them well. It gets lost in the noise but they do outsell RIM and the iPhone combined) and consumer, but really ends up just a half assed middling implementation that detracts somewhat from the business aspect and doesn't deliver for the consumer.

This hardware in specific isn't going to be even a blip on the iPhone radar regardless of the OS it is running. Honestly I think something like the Tmobile shadow despite the lack of touch screen would have a better chance and that doesn't say much. However the Shadow has better media functionality and better messaging, which happens to be a chunk of the segment the iPhone goes after. This device can't really say either.

[Ellianth @ Nov 5th 2007 1:05PM]

That scrollbar just ruins the picture.

[Scott @ Nov 5th 2007 2:00PM]

Does it come with a home screen shortcut to Task Manager so you can attempt to deal with Windows Mobile's multitasking woes?

[Fred @ Nov 5th 2007 3:22PM]

Yes. The Glofiish phones have that shorcut represented by a RAM chip icon.

[applefreak @ Nov 5th 2007 2:37PM]

that looks like a pretty sweet OS

[matthewfkennedy @ Nov 5th 2007 3:51PM]

we should have this in the states by, what? 2009?