One More Thing: The Gigabyte g-Smart i300

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.phonedaily.com/news/?news_id=4429' target='_blank'>http://www.phonedaily.com/news/?news_id=4429</a><br /><br /></div>We're not done yet! The other Gigabyte g-Smart on show is the i300 - a feature-packed, box-like Pocket PC Phone Edition measuring in at 102.5mm x 51.5mm x 19mm.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060608-gSmarti300.jpg" /><br /><br />So, what's in this one? Expect to find 64MB RAM, 256MB ROM, 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS (SiRFstar III), tri-band GSM/GPRS support, a 2.0-megapixel camera, a 2.4" QVGA (240 x 320) 262K-colour TFT-LCD, a miniSD slot, an FM tuner, and Windows Mobile 5.0.<br /><br />Any of you care to share your thoughts on the design?

[moriahcom]

Looks like an old retro AM radio. They almost got the inside right. We just need Quad band with Edge (at least).

[bkerrins]

If all I ever wanted was design I'd only buy Apple. I need functionality more. I agree, needs EDGE at least if not UMTS and quad band. GPS is exactly what I'm looking for with my PPC phone.

[RogueSpear]

What is it with all of these companies? There are so many "and the kitchen sink too" converged devices coming out lately and most of them are throwing in yesterday's news. EDGE is yesterday's news and they can't even manage to get that in there? Let alone UMTS.

Finally it appears as though some folks are throwing in 802.11g in their devices, but that's pretty far and few between. I could care less about the speed gain. I just want to finally disable 11b on my APs.

Bluetooth is another bone of contention. V2.0 is still spotty at best. And then when they do actually use 2.0, sometimes A2DP isn't included. These kinds of narrow sighted design decisions aren't anything new for sure, but I'm still hanging on to my iPAQ 3975 until someone decides to do a device the way it should be done.

My overall outlook on the Windows Mobile scene has been on a stready and sure decline for years now. Besides the hardware itself, WM5 is about as appealing as MS Bob. Let's hope whatever comes next is a HUGE improvement. I'm still holding on to hope...

[l0wey]

What is with these HW companies.
EDGE at least.
and surely this device deserves full WM5 not the crippled phone edition?

All the rest of the specs look really good.
However, I'll bet there is no A2DP, and they will use a proprietary headset connection.

Hardware manufacturers take NOTES:
Minimum features for a GSM WM5 mobile device.
1. tri-band GSM with GPRS/Edge(at least)
2. Bluetooth any flavour with A2DP and AVRCP profiles.
3. Wireless (any flavour)
4. GPS
5. NO NON STANDARD CONNECTORS - for anything! Headphones
6. 400MHz CPU (at least)
7. Big battery
8. SD or mini SD minimum - NOT MICRO.
9. FM radio
10. Keyboard (not essential but very nice to have)

Every - that is EVERY - device I have studied lately (I'm ready to purchase the moment I find the one!) has a subset of the above features but they always fall down on at least one of the above points.
I hereby challenge ALL hardware manufactureres to achive all the above features in one device. I've got the cash ready to go..

ETEN nearly got my dollars with the M500 but they left out wireless.
If the Atom or Eten E600 had built in GPS they would be perfect.
The HTC's are too slow (and also no GPS).

I'm a consumer and I do not want to compromise nor do I want to carry around half a dozen devices.

Gigabyte are getting there but I need to see these things in Australia.

/rant

[moriahcom]

Yeah, my company creates mobile apps and our enterprise clients are all looking for a converged devices that will do it all. GPS for GIS apps, camera for documentation, WiFi for onsite LAN connection via access points, EDGE for offsite connection and sync, Bluetooth for hands-free phone so they can continue with construction or installations, plenty of RAM to handle our database and other apps, camera and SD to save photos and document the site.

Don't get me wrong, I have been a fan of PDA's since the 3600 came out but it would be nice to see a jump in technology regarding battery life and processor speed.

Come on HTC roll the dice.

[Darius Wey]

and surely this device deserves full WM5 not the crippled phone edition?

Huh? What's crippled? The Phone Edition version is the full Windows Mobile 5.0 package, plus the phone interface.

However, I'll bet there is no A2DP, and they will use a proprietary headset connection.

Actually, you'll be surprised. Almost all Asian manufacturers (except HTC) have been able to include A2DP on their pre-AKU2 and AKU2 devices. My E-TEN M600 has A2DP support, and it doesn't even have AKU2 yet. The use of Bluetooth headphones in the Asia-Pacific is huge, so it would be stupid of these manufacturers to exclude A2DP if they plan on shipping their devices to their biggest market.

[RogueSpear]

What was running through my mind is one of the new Sony W series phones that actually has Bluetooth V2, a fair amount of memory that's potentially expandable to 4GB, yet no A2DP. That just makes no sense to me.

[phreaker18]

well i must say that the specs r good for the aisan market.... but EDGE would have been definitely welcome.

the design looks right out of an old german design book.... they could have done a better job with the in the face ugly look.. :roll:

[UltimatePDAQuest]

Hey folks, just found this site : http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&amp;id=500

Check it out! It looks like the Gigabyte g-Smart i300 may have the EDGE after all if these "updated" specs hold true.

Detailed Technical Specifications of Gigabyte g-Smart i300

Brand: Gigabyte
Browse all Gigabyte devices PDAdb.net
Special Features: integrated Sirf Star III GPS reciever
GPRS Class 10
192 tone polyphonic (MIDI) ringtone
voice command
vibrating call alert
built-in antenna
flash
macro mode
autofocus
FM radio
stereo speaker
mini-USB connector
Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP)
pre installed AKU 2.0 software kit
PDAdb.net
Release Date: October, 2006 PDAdb.net
Related Page: http://www.gigabytecm.com PDAdb.net
Datasheet Views: 280 times PDAdb.net
Datasheet Time: Jun 10, 06 18:27:41 PDAdb.net
Physical Attributes
Dimensions: 2 x 4 x 0.7 inches (width x height x depth) PDAdb.net
Dimensions in millimetres: 51.5 x 102.5 x 19 millimetres PDAdb.net
Bounding Volume: 100.3 cubecentimetres PDAdb.net
Mass with battery: 153 gramms PDAdb.net
Software Environment
Embedded Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (Magneto) PDAdb.net
System Kernel: Microsoft Windows CE 5.1.195 PDAdb.net
Microprocessor, Chipset
CPU: Intel XScale PXA272 | Browse all devices based on XScale PXA272 PDAdb.net
CPU Clock: 416MHz PDAdb.net
CPU Clock Multiplier: 2 PDAdb.net
Internal Systembus Clock: 208MHz PDAdb.net
Databus Width: 32bit PDAdb.net
CPU Core: Intel XScale PDAdb.net
Level 1 cache: 32KB data cache / 32KB instruction cache PDAdb.net
Instruction set: ARM v5TE PDAdb.net
Memory
ROM size: 256MB PDAdb.net
RAM type: SDRAM PDAdb.net
RAM size: 64MB (accessible: 50MB) PDAdb.net
Graphical subsystem
Display: color transflective TFT PDAdb.net
Colordepth: 18bit/pixel (262144 scales) PDAdb.net
Resolution: 240 x 320 (76800 pixel) PDAdb.net
Diagonal: 2.4" (61 millimetres) PDAdb.net
Viewable size: 1.4" x 1.9" (36.6 x 48.8 millimetres) PDAdb.net
Dot Pitch: 0.152 millimetre/pixel PDAdb.net
Audio subsystem
D/A converter: 16bit audio sampling, stereo PDAdb.net
Audio Input: mono microphone PDAdb.net
Audio Output: 2.5mm, stereo PDAdb.net
Interfaces
Positioning Device: Touchscreen PDAdb.net
Navigation Pad/Jog: 5-way navigation block PDAdb.net
Expansion Slots: miniSD PDAdb.net
Serial Connector: 115200bit/s PDAdb.net
USB Connector: USB 1.1 client, 12Mbit/s PDAdb.net
Infrared Gate: IrDA 1.2, 115200bit/s (SIR/CIR) PDAdb.net
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 PDAdb.net
LAN: Not supported PDAdb.net
Wireless LAN: 802.11b, 802.11g PDAdb.net
Wireless LAN Speed (max): 54Mbit/s PDAdb.net
Modem: Not supported PDAdb.net
GPS Module: Integrated PDAdb.net
Integrated cellular phone
Supported cellular networks: GSM 900MHz, GSM 1800MHz, GSM 1900MHz PDAdb.net
Supported WAN standards: CSD, GPRS, EDGE PDAdb.net
Other peripherals
Built-in Camera: CMOS sensor, 1680x1280 (2.15 million pixels) PDAdb.net
Recordable Image Formats: JPG PDAdb.net
Camcorder: 320x240pixel, 30frame/sec PDAdb.net
Recordable Video formats: 3GPP, MPEG4, WMV PDAdb.net
Power Supply
Battery: 920mAh, Lithium-ion, removable PDAdb.net
Estimated Battery Life: 8 hours PDAdb.net
Avarege Current: 115 mA PDAdb.net


Comments?

[salem]

Gigabyte is a rising star and seems that they're so aggressive at pushing more functions onto this tiny machine to compete with HTC.

I've considered their model for a few time, but withdraw from choosing them because its screen is too small.

This time, gigabyte apparently compromises its screen size for a bigger speakers on the front . If the sound quality is very good, it must be a bonus, but i don't expect much.

Buttons are also too little. Some big-screen PDA phone get at least 6 buttons now along with the joystick.

And where's the TV tuner? I thought it's a good killer app to differentiate themselves from so many competitors. Although I've heard that the tv tuner in previous Gsmart model doesn't work well, it can still have a WOW-factor---- many laymen say "WOW" when they heard of it.

CPU is very big concern too. I've been very tired with the slow performance of ppc phone. So far it seems that Atom O2 Exec can achieve a reasonable speed. If this model is only as fast as O2 Atom, then there'll be no incentive to buy.

http://attach.mobile01.com/attach/200606/mobile01-0c9582c9b744d88d73e80c603a4b7104.jpg

[ppatt]

I am currently deciding between Gigabyte i300 and ETEN X500 but I definitely want EDGE. I have found incorrect specs on pdadb.net but I have emailed them when I find them because I like their site so much and they are providing a valuable service.

They claim that ETEN Glofiish X500 supports microSD, transflash and SDIO but I cannot confirm that anywhere else. I have emailed a reseller for a confirmation.

I was informed by a reseller that all Gigabyte first generation cellphone deivices that they sold came back defective but this may or may not be true.

I regret the lack of X500 IrDA in the X500. Pdadb does not indicate that X500 has A2DP but one formum poster indicates that it does. A2DP is a shopwstopper for me as I've already purchased Motorol HT820 bluetooth stereo headphones. PDADB indicates that all 3 models I was looking at have stereo audio output, inparticular 2.5mm stereo on X500.

I am still undecided until I can resolve various features on X500 and i300 :

EDGE
A2DP
headphone jack
i300 reliability (I guess someone has to get one to know)

BTW, what is AKU 3.2. I will look but any refs are appreciated.

Thanks.

[Darius Wey]

I am currently deciding between Gigabyte i300 and ETEN X500 but I definitely want EDGE. I have found incorrect specs on pdadb.net but I have emailed them when I find them because I like their site so much and they are providing a valuable service.

They claim that ETEN Glofiish X500 supports microSD, transflash and SDIO but I cannot confirm that anywhere else. I have emailed a reseller for a confirmation.

I have an X500 in my hands and can definitely confirm that it supports microSD (the new name for TransFlash), and any IO peripherals in the microSD format (bear in mind there are very few, and with the sort of hardware the X500 has, you probably don't even need any).

Pdadb does not indicate that X500 has A2DP but one formum poster indicates that it does. A2DP is a shopwstopper for me as I've already purchased Motorol HT820 bluetooth stereo headphones. PDADB indicates that all 3 models I was looking at have stereo audio output, inparticular 2.5mm stereo on X500.

The X500 has A2DP and it works well (much better than other A2DP-capable devices I've tried).

BTW, what is AKU 3.2. I will look but any refs are appreciated.

AKU stands for Adaptation Kit Update. Think of it as a "service pack" for Windows Mobile. It includes a bunch of updates designed to enhance the overall user experience (bug fixes, new features, etc.).