Fishie
12-23-2004, 07:33 AM
Warning, this post has not been proofread and it is 7.35am over here, I have not yet slept.
So please forgive me if parts of it are badly written or incomprehensible.
Those who know me know that I am quite partial to clamshell devices.
Between several Ipaqs, Toshiba´s, Clie´s, Palm´s etcetera I have at points owned a Cassiopeia A 20 ( http://www.pdagold.com/hardware/detail.asp?d=19 ), a Jornada 620, a Mobilepro 770 and an Intermec 6651 ( http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6449&highlight=intermec+6651 ).
Back in January I first saw the Sigmarion3 up close and personal and fell in love with its beautiful screen.
I was still using my Ipaq 2215 back then but on the way home from Japan I lost the Ipaq between Paris and Brussels.
The Ipaq was replaced by a Toshiba e800 because I had witnessed the wonders of High res.
The Toshiba was awesome and I kept it far longer then originally planned because the SE machines were late in coming and when they finally arrived they didn’t have much over the Toshiba, so I decided to sit one generation out, sell the e800 and pick up the Sigmarion3 during my next trip to Japan(last October) and see if I could make it last till the release of Win mobile 2K5.
I knew from previous Handheld PCs I had owned that software is not compatible between the platforms.
Doing some digging for the Sigmarion3 I found this site http://handheldpcs.superboxes.com/ and figured that it might be worth a shot if indeed software could be adapted to run on the Sig.
After all it makes sense.
Just like most PPC´s the Sigmarion runs on the Intel XSCale PXA 255 processor clocked at 400Mhz(easily overclockeable to over 700Mhz btw) and the OS is WinCE 4.1 which is the base OS for PPC 2K3 SE.
Found the machine in a second hand and PDA store in Akihabara Tokyo and with the help of a great member of this forum (thanks jmbneaf, I we you big time) I flashed the OS to English.
It was very easy to do.
From there on the quest for compatible apps started.
For that I was helped by the aforementioned site and a very helpful Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handheldPCs/database ).
For PPC games and software there is another great resource that can be found here: http://www.wincesoft.de/
Gapi opened up the Sigmarion for PPC games and software that is hard coded to QVGA resolutions.
With files freely available at the sites previously mentioned it is possible to run the vast majority of PPC software on a Sigmarion.
There is no longer a need for hex editing either since fake DLL´s and a program called executability check remove the need to edit software to have it work on the Sigmarion.
If you want to see if PPC software works on the Sig you just let activesync do its work at which point for most software(there are exceptions with programs that work out of the box so to speak) activesync will complain that the software is not suitable for your device.
After that just go to the activesync folder on your PC copy the cabs to the Sig(ram or memory card doesn’t matter) and double click them and they will install fine, cabs even witouth a program like cab installer can be assigned by the Sig to memory card so they don’t automatically install into RAM if you don’t want them to.
Now on to the hardware.
The hardware would be typical for a high end PPC with 3 note able differences.
First the Keyboard.
It is after all a Handheld PC and as such comes in a clamshell format with a keyboard.
The keyboard is about half the size of a real keyboard and for fast typing that is a bit on the small side.
Its by choice though as one soon finds out.
While other clamshell devices have either a larger more comfortable keyboard or a really tiny one the Sigmarion has gone for the golden middle road.
Its ideal for holding it with both hands and using your thumbs to do the typing hile still providing normal typing functionality.
With most other devices its one or the other, the Sigmarion provides both.
Second the Screen.
The screen is 5.1 inch and has a WVGA resolution(800by480)so its higher res then VGA PPC´s but with similar DPI.
There are better screens out there but not by much, colours are rich and vibrant and white is WHITE and colour quality is a lot higher then on machines like the Dell x50v.
The screen is driven by a dedicated graphics processor which makes sure that the Sigmarion is quite a performer with regards to games and video.
Morphgear SNES runs almost full speed on it while lesser systems can run at higher resolutions with image smoothing on, no frameskip etcetera.
Even heavy 3D games like Flux Challenge(PPC version) run on it as good or better then they do on PPC´s.
Third mini USB connectors.
While there are a bunch of Pocket PC´s now that have USB host none of em have it integrated into the actual hardware.
The Sigmarion however has two standard mini USB jacks.
One is host and the other is Client(for syncing with a PC).
Drivers are present for peripherals like external full size keybards, mouse and mass storage drivers so you can connect a portable hard drive on it and it will be recognized out of the box.
The machine has standard SDIO and CF slots so it can take a bunch of memory cards and peripherals(I use the CF slot for a wifi card and my 1 gig SD card rarely leaves the machine)
Freshly bought the machine comes with an impressive amount of software.
There is the updated Pocket Office suite(better then the PPC equivalent) and a version of Windows Media player that plays more formats then the PPC version does.
It plays standard MPEG files for instance, something you need Pocket TV or another third party program for on PPC.
On top of those there is an awesome collection of value added software, some of it build into the ROM and some of it a free automatic download trough the Sigmarion´s mobile custom service.
OKI player, plays 3gp and a MP4 files.
Picsel viewer full version is built in and handles standard word files, webpages, pics and PDF files amongst others.
There is SheetCE a full excel compatible program an updated email program etcetera etcetera.
In short the machine is far more capable then any PPC out there with regards to email, surfing(thanks as well in no small part to its landscape oriented WVGA screen) standard PIM functionality, movies and games.
The standard battery lasts anywhere between 3 and 12 houres(wifi movie torture test and screen off MP3 playback)while the extended battery does at twice that.
Where it loses out on of course is size, its not a pocketable device.
Strong points:
Excellent and large screen
Functionality(USB, keyboard, built in and value added free apps etcetera)
Battery life
Speed
Weak points
Larger then the largest PPC
No full easy compatibility with PPC apps
In the end after a couple of months of use for me the Sigmarion manages to be a PPC replacement as well as a machine that allows me to leave my laptop home more often.
Some links with info:
A betaplayer benchmark page that compares playback speed on PPC´s and the Sigmarion.
http://blogs.shintak.info/articles/667.aspx
Quote: This is the best players for Betaplayer. (Docomo Sigmaion3 , HP hx4700 / Dell X30)
All movies are played without dropping frames.Especially hx4700 LCD is very bright and clear.
Sigmarion3 is the best platform for movie. X30 is very light and powerful player.
Also on the page is a picture of the Sigmarion next to the Dell X30 and the Ipaq 4700, good for size comparisons.
NTT DoCoMo´s Sigmarion product page with flash animations demonstrating its capabilities.
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/products/sigmarion3/
The Yahoo group for the Sigmarion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handheldPCs/database
German site with Gapi and some other files for Sigmarion
http://www.wincesoft.de/
Some PPC programs I have installed on mine and how they perform:
PPC versions:
Avantgo, full screen perfect.
Flux Challenge, QVGA perfect.
Mobipocket, full screen perfect.
Klaar Moonchild, QVGA bugged
Clearvue suite, perfect.
Handheld PC Quake, half VGA(640 by 240) perfect.
Morphgear, perfect and faster then on most PPC´s.
MSReader, full screen perfect.
Warfare, better then perfect, plays full screen and the high res screen realestate and graphics acceleration really makes the game shine.
NFCanvas2, full screen perfect.
NFPencil2, full screen perfect.
If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will be happy to reply.
So please forgive me if parts of it are badly written or incomprehensible.
Those who know me know that I am quite partial to clamshell devices.
Between several Ipaqs, Toshiba´s, Clie´s, Palm´s etcetera I have at points owned a Cassiopeia A 20 ( http://www.pdagold.com/hardware/detail.asp?d=19 ), a Jornada 620, a Mobilepro 770 and an Intermec 6651 ( http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6449&highlight=intermec+6651 ).
Back in January I first saw the Sigmarion3 up close and personal and fell in love with its beautiful screen.
I was still using my Ipaq 2215 back then but on the way home from Japan I lost the Ipaq between Paris and Brussels.
The Ipaq was replaced by a Toshiba e800 because I had witnessed the wonders of High res.
The Toshiba was awesome and I kept it far longer then originally planned because the SE machines were late in coming and when they finally arrived they didn’t have much over the Toshiba, so I decided to sit one generation out, sell the e800 and pick up the Sigmarion3 during my next trip to Japan(last October) and see if I could make it last till the release of Win mobile 2K5.
I knew from previous Handheld PCs I had owned that software is not compatible between the platforms.
Doing some digging for the Sigmarion3 I found this site http://handheldpcs.superboxes.com/ and figured that it might be worth a shot if indeed software could be adapted to run on the Sig.
After all it makes sense.
Just like most PPC´s the Sigmarion runs on the Intel XSCale PXA 255 processor clocked at 400Mhz(easily overclockeable to over 700Mhz btw) and the OS is WinCE 4.1 which is the base OS for PPC 2K3 SE.
Found the machine in a second hand and PDA store in Akihabara Tokyo and with the help of a great member of this forum (thanks jmbneaf, I we you big time) I flashed the OS to English.
It was very easy to do.
From there on the quest for compatible apps started.
For that I was helped by the aforementioned site and a very helpful Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handheldPCs/database ).
For PPC games and software there is another great resource that can be found here: http://www.wincesoft.de/
Gapi opened up the Sigmarion for PPC games and software that is hard coded to QVGA resolutions.
With files freely available at the sites previously mentioned it is possible to run the vast majority of PPC software on a Sigmarion.
There is no longer a need for hex editing either since fake DLL´s and a program called executability check remove the need to edit software to have it work on the Sigmarion.
If you want to see if PPC software works on the Sig you just let activesync do its work at which point for most software(there are exceptions with programs that work out of the box so to speak) activesync will complain that the software is not suitable for your device.
After that just go to the activesync folder on your PC copy the cabs to the Sig(ram or memory card doesn’t matter) and double click them and they will install fine, cabs even witouth a program like cab installer can be assigned by the Sig to memory card so they don’t automatically install into RAM if you don’t want them to.
Now on to the hardware.
The hardware would be typical for a high end PPC with 3 note able differences.
First the Keyboard.
It is after all a Handheld PC and as such comes in a clamshell format with a keyboard.
The keyboard is about half the size of a real keyboard and for fast typing that is a bit on the small side.
Its by choice though as one soon finds out.
While other clamshell devices have either a larger more comfortable keyboard or a really tiny one the Sigmarion has gone for the golden middle road.
Its ideal for holding it with both hands and using your thumbs to do the typing hile still providing normal typing functionality.
With most other devices its one or the other, the Sigmarion provides both.
Second the Screen.
The screen is 5.1 inch and has a WVGA resolution(800by480)so its higher res then VGA PPC´s but with similar DPI.
There are better screens out there but not by much, colours are rich and vibrant and white is WHITE and colour quality is a lot higher then on machines like the Dell x50v.
The screen is driven by a dedicated graphics processor which makes sure that the Sigmarion is quite a performer with regards to games and video.
Morphgear SNES runs almost full speed on it while lesser systems can run at higher resolutions with image smoothing on, no frameskip etcetera.
Even heavy 3D games like Flux Challenge(PPC version) run on it as good or better then they do on PPC´s.
Third mini USB connectors.
While there are a bunch of Pocket PC´s now that have USB host none of em have it integrated into the actual hardware.
The Sigmarion however has two standard mini USB jacks.
One is host and the other is Client(for syncing with a PC).
Drivers are present for peripherals like external full size keybards, mouse and mass storage drivers so you can connect a portable hard drive on it and it will be recognized out of the box.
The machine has standard SDIO and CF slots so it can take a bunch of memory cards and peripherals(I use the CF slot for a wifi card and my 1 gig SD card rarely leaves the machine)
Freshly bought the machine comes with an impressive amount of software.
There is the updated Pocket Office suite(better then the PPC equivalent) and a version of Windows Media player that plays more formats then the PPC version does.
It plays standard MPEG files for instance, something you need Pocket TV or another third party program for on PPC.
On top of those there is an awesome collection of value added software, some of it build into the ROM and some of it a free automatic download trough the Sigmarion´s mobile custom service.
OKI player, plays 3gp and a MP4 files.
Picsel viewer full version is built in and handles standard word files, webpages, pics and PDF files amongst others.
There is SheetCE a full excel compatible program an updated email program etcetera etcetera.
In short the machine is far more capable then any PPC out there with regards to email, surfing(thanks as well in no small part to its landscape oriented WVGA screen) standard PIM functionality, movies and games.
The standard battery lasts anywhere between 3 and 12 houres(wifi movie torture test and screen off MP3 playback)while the extended battery does at twice that.
Where it loses out on of course is size, its not a pocketable device.
Strong points:
Excellent and large screen
Functionality(USB, keyboard, built in and value added free apps etcetera)
Battery life
Speed
Weak points
Larger then the largest PPC
No full easy compatibility with PPC apps
In the end after a couple of months of use for me the Sigmarion manages to be a PPC replacement as well as a machine that allows me to leave my laptop home more often.
Some links with info:
A betaplayer benchmark page that compares playback speed on PPC´s and the Sigmarion.
http://blogs.shintak.info/articles/667.aspx
Quote: This is the best players for Betaplayer. (Docomo Sigmaion3 , HP hx4700 / Dell X30)
All movies are played without dropping frames.Especially hx4700 LCD is very bright and clear.
Sigmarion3 is the best platform for movie. X30 is very light and powerful player.
Also on the page is a picture of the Sigmarion next to the Dell X30 and the Ipaq 4700, good for size comparisons.
NTT DoCoMo´s Sigmarion product page with flash animations demonstrating its capabilities.
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/products/sigmarion3/
The Yahoo group for the Sigmarion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handheldPCs/database
German site with Gapi and some other files for Sigmarion
http://www.wincesoft.de/
Some PPC programs I have installed on mine and how they perform:
PPC versions:
Avantgo, full screen perfect.
Flux Challenge, QVGA perfect.
Mobipocket, full screen perfect.
Klaar Moonchild, QVGA bugged
Clearvue suite, perfect.
Handheld PC Quake, half VGA(640 by 240) perfect.
Morphgear, perfect and faster then on most PPC´s.
MSReader, full screen perfect.
Warfare, better then perfect, plays full screen and the high res screen realestate and graphics acceleration really makes the game shine.
NFCanvas2, full screen perfect.
NFPencil2, full screen perfect.
If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will be happy to reply.