|
Written by Piers Karsenbarg
|
|
Sunday, 27 May 2007 |
 There seems to be an ever growing trend nowadays for mobile phone companies to 'do a Blackberry' and release phones with a keyboard on the front and the UBiQUiO 501 is no different. I’ve never been a big fan of this form factor which is the reason why I haven’t gone for this more business-orientated type of phone. However, as always I was willing to give it a go so let's take a look at the UBiQUiO 501.
 UBiQUiO 501
Specification
- Processor: TI OMAP 750 200 MHz
- Platform: Windows Mobile 5.0
- Memory: 128MB ROM/64MB internal RAM
- Dimensions: 122 (L) x 65 (W) x 13.5 (D) mm
- Weight: 135g
- Display: 2.5" QVGA Colour TFT
- Cellular Radio Module: GSM 900/DCS 1800/PCS 1900, GPRS Class 10
- Device control: 5-way navigation control
- Connectivity: Bluetooth – 1.2 with A2DP, WiFi - 802.11b/g, mini-USB, IrDA
- Camera: 2MP
- Expansion: mini SD slot
 UBiQUiO 501 Box
In the box:
- AC Adaptor
- Mini USB cable
- Stereo headset
- Stylus (only one I noticed)
- Battery
- Manual, CD with ActiveSync 4.5
 UBiQUiO 501 Accessories
Starting with the phone
Up until recently the first thing I would do when getting a new phone would be to slap in the CD and install the bundled synchronisation software (ActiveSync in the case of Windows Mobile devices) however, I’m one of those few people that have gotten around to installing Windows Vista so I was able to just plug the phone in and pull up the new Windows Mobile Device Center (it’s an American product, remember!). I’m not going to go into detail with that now, just to say that it picked up the phone and connected pretty quickly.
First Impressions
As I said earlier, the phone is similar to a Blackberry in terms of form factor with a QWERTY keyboard on the front. Being the proud owner of an Orange SPV M3100 I’m used to the keyboard being hidden out of sight so I was a bit dubious about using this phone, but I soon got used to using the keys. Other than that the UBiQUiO 501 is a very handsome looking phone, very business-orientated and you would definitely fit in very well with the hordes of businessmen and women on the commuter train on the way to work in the mornings holding one.
 UBiQUiO 501
Overview
The 501 is a very thin phone at only 13.5 mm thick, as such it sits in your trouser pocket or suit jacket with little or no bulge. Although it’s got the keyboard at the front it’s not too wide and will fit in your hand comfortably, making calls is pretty comfortable too.
To look at it from the front the second thing that you notice after the keyboard is the very small screen above it. In between that and the keyboard sits the directional buttons as well as the OK button, Start button, messaging button, IE button, two soft keys and the standard dial and hang up buttons.
 UBiQUiO 501 Keyboard
From the top there is the slot for the mini SD card; on one side is the power button, the camera button and a rocking up/down button and on the other is the IrDA point and the mini USB connector as well as the reset button. On the back is the very lonely looking camera as well as the slot for the stylus. All in all a fairly plain looking phone.
 UBiQUiO 501 Screen  UBiQUiO 501 Top  UBiQUiO 501 Front  UBiQUiO 501 Bottom  UBiQUiO 501 Left  UBiQUiO 501 Right  UBiQUiO 501 Back  UBiQUiO 501 Camera
Using the phone
When you start to use the keyboard, you’ll notice that the keys are very comfortable to use with your thumbs, giving a good feel when using them in a way that shows that careful thought has been given during the design process. In fact it’s very possible to write long articles when using this phone and most of this review was written on the device with almost no discomfort, which is not something I’m come across before.
Now we come onto the screen, this is one of the two things that let this phone down (the second I’ll come onto in a minute). It’s incredibly small at only 2.5 inches, the same size as the latest iPod screen, this in combination with no scroll wheel made it very difficult to read long text messages etc. You either have to use the stylus/your finger on the scroll bars or the directional buttons which I don’t find ideal. However, if you’re comfortable with this it shouldn’t cause you too much of a problem. The screen's resolution is the same as the Orange SPV M3100 and M700, just with a screen less than half the length.
The Texas Instruments processor makes it very easy to run quite a few programs at the same time without too much hassle and the battery lasts more than a day without charging which I consider to be a good thing considering the amount of time I spend using the phone both to make calls and connecting to the internet.
 UBiQUiO 501 Battery
Connectivity
There’s no easy way to say this so I’m just going to come out and say it: there’s no 3G. In a phone that is blatantly aimed at businessmen and women there’s no high-speed internet access. Yes it has WiFi access for when you’re in a café or in the office but only GPRS for when you’re on the go. To me that’s like using a 56K modem when you’ve been used to having broadband. I rely a lot on mobile internet access (when you have the practically unlimited access that T-Mobile’s web’n’walk service gives you, so will you) for checking e-mail, checking the many newsfeeds that I read during my train journey to and from work and so on and I really noticed the difference in download speeds. So that was a big downer to me, if you’re not so reliant on being connected all of the time then it probably won’t be so much of an issue, but for me, unfortunately it is.
Software
There are no special extras installed when you get the phone. It comes with Windows Mobile 5, even though we're seeing Windows Mobile 6 on the latest devices now (we're told an update will be available soon though) and the 501 is yet another phone that doesn’t have MSN Messenger pre-installed, the only justification that I can see for this is that if it is aimed at the business market then I guess there aren’t many companies that have internal Windows Messenger networks...
I did get a bit excited when I saw the GPS icon in the settings, but my hopes were dashed when I found out that this was standard with most Pocket PCs and it just hadn’t been disabled in the registry – I’ve never gotten my hands on an network-unbranded phone previously so had always used phones where this option had been removed.
 UBiQUiO 501
Finally
Overall the 510 is a very nice phone to use, the keyboard is very comfortable in operation and all of the buttons are within easy reach which makes it a phone that's very easy to use when writing long pieces of text without too much “thumb-strain”. The screen is set at a fairly decent resolution so you don’t get eye strain either and the battery has a decent capacity so you can get away with forgetting to plug it in overnight.
Unfortunately, the physical dimensions of the screen (its small in comparison to its competitors) and the lack of scroll wheel made it quite difficult to navigate around long documents and web pages. For me however, the thing that really let the phone down was the lack of 3G connectivity. Considering this phone is aimed squarely at business users who would use the phone to send and receive email (especially with the keyboard right there in front of you) I find it very strange that this wasn’t a feature. Once again, if this is something that is not important to you then perhaps the UBiQUiO 501 is the device for you, especially if you find yourself composing long streams of text whilst on the go.
The UBiQUiO 501 is available from eXpansys, click here for more information.
 |
|
Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 June 2007 )
|
Windows Mobile Reviews 
