You get the feeling the designers of the Pocket LOOX T830 asked themselves what components a Pocket PC could possibly contain and then proceeded to pour them all inside the casing, one by one. This is a feature-rich device with barely anything missing.
It's also large. It only just shades under the 200g marker too, and that means you are going to have to want to use all the feature, because, and trust us here, you will notice its dimensions and heft in your pocket or bag.
The end result of all that feature-cramming, then, is a Pocket PC that can do most things the genre is capable of, but one you'll pay a space-price to carry around, not to mention the price in cash -- around £450.
Design
So, we've established that this is a large Pocket PC. The classic components of screen, keyboard and button bar are joined by a sliding cover above the screen that protects the VGA camera when you are not using it to make video calls.
Unusually for a Pocket PC, the screen is square. Despite it not taking up as much space as a more conventionally tall screen would, the keyboard is somewhat squeezed at the bottom of the handheld.
Individual keys are pretty small and you may find you need to tap them with fingernails rather than the flat of a finger. They are raised at a wide variety of different angles from the base plate, with one corner often much higher than its opposite number. Maybe this is meant to make the keys easier to type on. It certainly makes for an unconventional look.
In between the screen and keyboard is a bank of large buttons. In its middle is a rectangular navigation key with a large central select button. On its left and right are a pair of rockers whose top sections are the softmenu keys and whose bottom sections are shortcuts to the Windows Mobile messaging and calendar software. Acting as outriders on the far left and right edges are the Call and End keys.
Fujitsu Siemens has been sparing with its use of side buttons. The left side has just one, with long and short press functions. A long press runs a software application called FSC SpeedMenu, which we'll get to later, and a short press opens the main camera.
Above this button is a scroll button. It's not a fully rotating wheel, but it gives you up and down movement just the same, and has a press-to-select feature.
The right edge has a single button too, and this launches the built-in Voice Notes software.
Features
Where do we start? The Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX T830 is tri-band, with 3G support, and as already noted it includes a front-facing camera for video calling.
The main camera shoots stills at resolutions up to 2 megapixels and has an auto focus that kicks in if you press the side button halfway down. There's no flash and no self-portrait mirror, though.
These two things, and infrared, are about the only absent features we can think of. Bluetooth 2.0 is built in, as is Wi-Fi with support for both 802.11b and 802.11g.
The GPS antenna means you can use the T830 as your satellite navigation device. You'll need to buy software and a cradle for your vehicle, as it doesn't come with either.
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Glen Micallef 11 May 2007
Good: Good processing power, understated elegance, GPS, WiFi, BT, 3G, screen renders colours very well
Bad: A 2mm unused black border round all edges of the screen
Comment: I believe this is the best product I've ever bought. It's the only product I own that is worth every penny I paid for it. By the way, I did NOT pay the price listed here, but about £200 less. This device is crammed with useful features and it's good at multitasking. My only issue is with the screen, as mentioned above, that 2mm black border round the screen, which could have been used, since the screen is not very large, at 2.4". Apart from that, the screen has excellent resolution due to the small dot pitch, colours are vibrant (unlike certain devices that fail to display e.g. some shades of red) & has good contrast, being readable even in sunlight. The package comes quite loaded with stuff to get you started. Solid build quality; even my friends & colleagues have remarked about this. I sincerely cannot understand CNET's ratings sometimes; they compare it with the O2 XDA Orbit, which has a meagre 200MHz TI OMAP processor, a microSD slot, proprietary earphone jack, and isn't even a 3G phone and give it a rating of 8.2, then they rate this amazing piece of kit at 7.9. I think the T830 beats the Orbit hands down. Some have complained that the T830 is somewhat bulky, but it fits well into most trouser & shirt pockets, probably due to its design. Thanks for reading
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