Phone review : gSmart t600 from GIGABYTE - mobile HDTV in your pocket !
April 27, 2008 [Pocket PC phone] | By Edward J. R.
Imagine that you would be able to receive standard terrestrial digital TV (in DVB-T standard, in UK known as "FreeView") inside of your mobile phone. Wouldn't it be great? Unlike DVB-H that is especially designed for mobile devices, DVB-T is actually designed for regular TV sets, and unlike DVB-H, with DVB-T you can receive regular TV channels and not some cut-down mobile versions, and finally unlike DVB-H, the DVB-T has no monthly fees and thus is completely free!
DVB-T is now a standard for terrestrial (i.e. not-cable, not-satellite, but regular one) TV in Europe, Australia, Taiwan and many other countries (not USA though).
Here we present a full review of a Windows Mobile phone that is one of the first 2 (the other one is from LG and is not a smartphone) mobile phones in the world that can receive DVB-T: the gSmart t600 from GIGABYTE company from Taiwan! Interestingly DVB-T receiver that is built-in into t600 is very sensitive (more about it below!) and we were able to receive TV not only in moving cars, trains but also inside of an airplane (before departure of course):
... so if you are commuting to work, waiting for an airplane depature, or just boring yourself because you are waiting for something, with t600 you can get full TV experience combined with a Windows Mobile phone in one device!
Not only reception is very good in t600, but also quality of the broadcast is perfect (here: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - Global Edition):
The reception of TV in the full, non-mobile standard of DVB-T, is the primary feature of this phone, so here are our impresssions from longer testing of this reception:
- sensitivity of the DVB-T reception with t600 is not just good, it is very good: it is the same or better as in the case of the regular DVB-T receiver with active DVB-T antenna (i.e. antenna that is powered from the receiver and it has built-in amplifier and LED light in the front)
- to receive TV signal one must use a telescopic antenna that is placed in the stylus slot - it can double as stylus but there is regular stylus in the package too:
- Stereo headset is also included in the package but it is not working as antenna for the TV reception.
-
in control panel (settings) there is an icon for setting up channels:
... where it is possible to set country, city or user defined setting:
... and where it is possible to scan for channels too (in the user defined case, note: now selection of countries is bigger + users can scan all frequency ranges or define their own range):
- the TV software application for TV reception is called "gSmart TV player", looks like this (note the on-screen graphics/letters):
.. and has the following functionality:
- switching TV channels (only with cursor pad of the phone - on photo above: the big wheel that is not a wheel but 4-way cursor pad)
- (icon in upper right corner) switching audio channels - if given TV channel is using 2 channels for various language versions instead of using them for stereo effects - it practically means that in some countries where main language is not English, you are able to watch American productions like The Simpsons, Hereos, etc in English instead of local language
- (in lower row, first from the right) icon that upon touching is switching off video and the phone serves the purpose of audio-only (radio mode)
- (in lower row, second from the right) indicator of battery life that shows approximation how many minutes of watching is remaining
- (in lower row, third from right) indicator of TV signal strength that shows signal strength and is green if level is good enough for TV reception or red if signal strenth is not enough
- (in lower row, first from the left) clock
- (in upper row, first form the right) name of the TV channel
- (in lower row, second from the left) volume level indicator
- there is no teletext feature and no EPG (channel guide) feature - standard features of DVB-T technology - but it is possible that GIGABYTE will offer it as software upgrade later on
- TV reception is possible also in moving vehicles like cars and trains, and during our tests in a car: if the car speed is above 80 km per hour the signal is breaking out from tme to time and at 110 km per hour the signal reception becomes not possible
- all in all TV reception in DVB-T standard is very good and while watching TV is using a lot of battery power - roughly 90-120 minutes on one battery charge - it is enough for use cases when user is only shortly away from power socket - like commuting or standing in a queue
When it comes to features not related to TV reception, then one fantastic feature is ability to use this phone as SD card reader, so that user can copy files to/from this phone without the need to install ActiveSync (Windows XP) or Windows Mobile Device Center (Windows Vista):
... and home-screen contains several useful elements, including tiny icons to call various functions quickly, including "H/V" icon for immediate switching of orientation (horiziontal/vertical):
Note above that the number in the battery icon shows how many minutes of battery time are remaining!
Interestingly both Live Messenger (the new MSN Messenger with ability to transfer files in both directions also) and Remote Desktop are included. Remote Desktop allows for connection to Windows Server 2003 computers:
... or to any Windows XP or Windows Vista powered computers with remote-desktop feature enabled. The quality of remote dekstop usage on this phone is perfect and several options are available.
Other things worth mentiong about this phone are:
- it has no GPS and no 3G - it supports only GSM but it is quad-band GSM with both American bands
- mobile data transmission is supported in GPRS standard
- VITO Audio Notes program for phone-call recording can record both sides of the conversation - what is not possible in all mobile phones - in this way user can auto-record all phone calls if needed
- the VGA display of 640x480 resolution is of excellent quality
- the stereo headset provided is of proprietary standard - industry-standard 2.5 mm phone headsets are not working with this phone (but most Windows Mobile phones use proprietary stereo headset socket)
- the USB connector for charging and synchronization is industry standard: mini-USB !
- WiFi and Bluetooth are included
- the camera application is very good and contains many features, and allows for taking 2 megapixel photos of decent quality (see sample photos: an airplane and a wristwatch) and can record videos in formats 3GPP, MPEG4 and WMV (Windows Media) in resolution up to 320x240 pixels
The phone comes in a box with typical for GIGABYTE (Communications) logo in the form of big eye:
Conclusion: while this phone doesn't have everything what is nowadays possible it does its primary job - digital TV reception - perfectly. It is almost incredible but obviously possible: this phone can receive regular digital TV signals in DVT-T standard that is available in many countries all over the world - designed for regular TV sets - and it is a wonder that this regular TV signal can be received in a mobile phone at all! Additionally you don't have to pay anything like it is in case of DVB-H. gSmart t600 is a nice phone and if you are commuting or spending time on waiting from time to time, then you can receive full TV signal with it and this phone is worth buying.
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