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Review of ETEN M600 Pocket PC phone

Version 1 (we will be updating this review and extending it, so please watch version number to see the changes!)

In this review we are testing ETEN M600 Pocket PC phone - a phone - also Made in Taiwan but by different manufacturer than HTC. Through this review we also show you that to get very good Windows Mobile phone you don´t need to buy a phone made by HTC: HTC is making these days majority of Windows Mobile phones: for operators (like T-Mobile or Orange), for distributors (like i-mate or Qtek) and for big brand companies like HP and Palm.

ETEN M600 is a mini Pocket PC phone for GSM/GPRS with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, full size SD card slot (SDIO compatible) and enough power to run Skype.

As far as size is concerned the ETEN M600 belong to the catory "mini Pocket PC phones" - it is only slightly bigger than HTC Magician (and roughly the same size as HTC Wizard):

The additional size is caused by thicker battery - 1400 mAh capacity - compared to 1200 mAh in HTC Magician. Fortuntely the SD card slot is not mini-SD but full size SD - also SDIO compatible. In other words one can use very cheap SD cards of big size instead of being forced to buy more expensive mini-SD cards. Apart from the price important factor is that SD cards are available in sizes up to 4 GB (1 GB, 2 GB and 4 GB) while currently mini-SD cards are available usually in maximum size of 512 MB (0.5 GB) and sometimes (rarely) also 1 GB.

Generally the ETEN M600 has very nice stylish design and is available in black color - that is these days considered to be very stylish (as opposed to silver color, that is garish):

ETEN M600 uses telescopic stylus:

... and generally the construction of the phone is solid. Above you can see the Li-ion battery of M600. This battery has special "lock" mechanism that fixes its position in the phone.

From the bottom one can notice the USB and power connector:

It is not a mini-USB connector but a proprietary one. However the phone is charging properly through USB cable - so power supply is not necessary to charge the battery - one can do it through PC or USB compatible power supply.

One of the biggest advantages of this phone is a full size SD card slot that is accessible from the top:

Thanks to this slot one can use even 4 GB memory cards. But that´s not all! Thanks to this slot one can use any SDIO devices like GPS receivers, barcode scanners, RFID scanners, etc, etc. Pocket PC phones with mini-SD can´t use these SDIO devices.

When the phoen is switched for the first time, it is branded by ETEN in typical for ETEN style and colors:

... but it can be switched to default Windows Mobile theme (or any other theme) easily:

The phone is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 and a 400 MHz processor made by Samsung:

Typically for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC phones the ETEN M600 has 128 MB of flash ROM and 64 MB of RAM:

Contrary to Windows Mobile 2003 programs are installed only in flash ROM or memory card but not in RAM. RAM is used only for running programs - like it is in regular PC.

As you can see above in the home screen in bottom right corner there is small icon that calls wireless switcher called "Wireless Manager":

With "Wireless Manager" one can switch on and off all 3 wireless interfaces of the phone: GSM (including GPRS), Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN in standard 802.11b).

Interestingly also profiles are available, which make it possible to quickly change settings of the phone - accordingly to the occasion and circumstances:

Speaking of wireless interfaces: apart from cellular radio interface (here: GSM with GPRS), Bluetooth is one of the most heavily used ones:

Among Bluetooth profiles the headset profile is one of the most often used ones, so let´s take a look at how one can use Bluetooth headset with ETEN M600! Firstly user needs to pair Bluetooth headset with the phone:

... so that later one can use it for receiving and initiating phone calls:

In upper right corner please notice little icon of a headset that indicates that Bluetoot headset is (virtualy) connected and that the phone call goes through the headset.

Apart from above mentioned Bluetooth manager, another intersting program is the WLAN Utility for Wi-Fi configuration:

With WLAN Utility one can configure the Wi-Fi:

... and one can connect both to Wi-Fi access points and to other computers and devices (peer to peer - without access points):

The ETEN M600 has a fast 400 MHz processor from Samsung - that is of different architecture than Intel or Texas Instrument (TI) processors. This processor brings very good perfomances to this phone and Internet browsing is very fast: not only Internet browsing of mobile versions of websites:

... but even regular full size websites are browsable (with Wi-Fi) with this phone.

We have tested Skype client for Pocket PC in ETEN M600:

... and the quality is good! This phone can handle Skype easily - contrary to several phones with 200 MHz Texas Instrument processors - that can handle Skype only with dificulty. M600 has 400 MHz processor and owners don´t have to worry that there will be problems with Skype.

We have tested also streaming and it works perfectly:

We have even tried streaming over GPRS for several hours (here: over 3 hours of streaming over GPRS - without any interruptions):

... and it also worked flawlessly!

Interestingly ETEN M600 has an "AppInstaller" in ROM:

... that makes it possible to install - on demand - some additional software, like for example Voice Commander:

Interestingly the microphone settings can be changed separately for GSM (phone calls), recording (of voice notes) and Bluetooth (for Bluetooth headset):

Pros:

full size SD card (to use SD cards of size up to 4 GB and to use SDIO devices)
built-in Wi-Fi
overall small size of the device
stylish design
Bluetooth 1.2 for increased perfomance over version 1.1
fast processor - good both for Skype and for very fast usage of various applications
quad-band GSM - so it can be used to the max both in USA (GSM850 and GSM1900) and in Europe/Asia (GSM900 and GSM1800).

Cons:

lack of EDGE (relevant only in countries and operators that use it)
lack of UMTS

Conclusion: if you need a small Pocket PC phone with full size SD card slot, then ETEN M600 offers this functionality - contrary to phones made by HTC: all small Pocket PC phones from HTC use mini-SD card slots. All in all the ETEN M600 is worth recommendation and if you don´t have flat rate EDGE or UMTS service in your country or if you don´t want to pay additionally for mobile data, then lack of EDGE and UMTS may not be a problem. The fact that this phone has built-in Wi-Fi makes up for the lack of UMTS. Actually these days even Wi-Fi networks that are available for free for Skype usage are available and since ETEN M600 has built-in Wi-Fi, it is very suitable for such application: as Skype phone!

Please note: we will be extending this review yet, so please come back here and watch for the new version of this review!