Revised PocketSurfer2 gets unlimited lifetime surfing in UK, old one gets cheaper here

DataWind's PocketSurfer2 hasn't exactly made a huge impact here in the US, where it was unceremoniously re-dubbed the PC Edge prior to being released to the back cabinets of electronics retailers next to piles of unwanted Shifts. It's seen more success in Europe, where surfers on the go can now buy a nicely upgraded model, the PocketSurfer2R. It shares the prior device's basic layout and 640 x 240 screen, but contains a GPS receiver inside and a small touchpad to the upper-right of the keypad. More notable, though, is the new "Immortality Plan," which won't guarantee that you'll still be rocking out when your grandkids retire, but, for a one-time fee of £60 (a little over $100), offers unlimited surfing over the lifetime of the device. Given we're stuck paying $25/month here, we'd call that a bargain. This new model won't be coming stateside, at least not yet, but the older one has received a $100 price drop to $199.

[Erwos @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:42AM]

$100 for unlimited device, non-tethered data seems like a plausible idea. The Kindle is doing that to some success.

[Kieran @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:13PM]

Problem is the actual device is going for £199, so you're looking at £249 in total (cba to convert to dollars). For that price I'd rather get a second hand N810 to replace my N800 and probably a decent sized mine-sd card.

[1234321 @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:06PM]

first, the second hand n810 won't give you unlimited long-range surfing
and second dont upgrade, the n810 max storage is 8GB compared to 32GB on the n800, and its quite thicker and the camera doesn't swivel
and the OS same anyway, not enough reason to step up

[Mikey @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:43AM]

I if only the life time surfing applied to the US...

[Mikey @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:44AM]

I ain't got no gud englash?

If only there was a way to edit these comments...

[Mike @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:56AM]

You're American -- we understand.

[Loonyx @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:47AM]

Is this just another rebranded eee pc?

[Mike @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:57AM]

Yes. Now run along to TUAW.

[iEye @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:47AM]

Unlimited browsing for free?

We can only dream....

[sockatume @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:57AM]

I'm not sure where the Immortality plan fits into their business model. They charge £6/month for unlimited browsing, and £40 for renewal of the contract each year, so that's £112 (about $200) per year that they're missing out on. Quite why they think anyone would elect to get the subscription instead of the Immortality Plan I'm not sure. I suspect crossed wires somewhere.

[Shadowise @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:18PM]

The £40 is for another years usage at 20 hours / month.
The £6.99 / month is unlimited usaged.

You don't have to have both.

[StalematE @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:03PM]

that keypad looks horrible to use...

[sockatume @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:30PM]

If it's anything like the original, it feels like the Razr keypad. Fine for hunting and pecking, but you'll never touchtype on it. Too much resistance.

[Galley @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:30PM]

Yes, it is a tad on the fugly side.

[Danny @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:31PM]

I was just thinking the same thing. Keyboard gotta go.

[Bren @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:17PM]

What network does it connect to?
what are the download/upload rates?

[telepheedian @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:20PM]

They should offer this in the US, although I admit the first thing I would do is take the sim and put it in a 3G modem for my Eee.

[kayoshin70 @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:38PM]

Knowing the pathetical allowance limits in almost all broadband providers in UK that is too good to be true and those on mobile devices are even worse.....

[Call me Kenneth @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:57PM]

Um, everyone knows that the original model was truly appalling, right..? http://tinyurl.com/3eqeez

[Beddoes @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:15PM]

Yeah, i had a go one one of these once and its truly terrible.

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:29PM]

"Unlimited lifetime surfing" sounds cache.....!!!

[Zoltan @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:48PM]

try http://www.pocketsurfermobile.com for more info and where to get the best price.

[Callum Bush @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:27PM]

I was asked to trial the previous version for a large UK mobile phone retailer, and to decide whether it should be ranged. It was truly terrible, it literally broke itself within a week as a result of my (light) use, the power button wouldnt work and the superglue sticking the metal panels on it gave way.
....the OS was terrible and it was slower than british transport. nuff said

I like the concept of the product, but they've had far too much time to make this decent and apparently they've failed terribly even on what I believe is their third attempt.

[Dakota @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:48PM]

From what I've heard about this device, it uses some form of Remote Desktop setup to some random terminal server.

From their manuals:
http://i36.tinypic.com/2qdx7d4.png
http://i37.tinypic.com/15cc4cm.png

Internet Exploiter, it seems.

[XDS @ Oct 10th 2008 12:49AM]

Some kind of VNC based setup ? , If so this is NOT worth buying even if it does have unlimited wireless internet GPRS/3g(some places) for life for about 400-500$ USD total.

Drop the device cost to 100USD and the immortality fee to 40USD and then we'll talk.

[ric @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:32PM]

These things are really bad. Sure, unlimited data, but at very, very slow speeds and using a weird pre-production-quality (someone in the factory had literally shaved the side off the USB charging cable so it fit) device that acts as a dumb RDP terminal server connection to a Windows server at their end. Load up a page (slowly) and whilst you're reading, you'd expect it to be loading up the rest of the page, wouldn't you? Nope, it's RDP. It loads when you scroll and not before.

A truly terrible device, and I *really* tried to like it