Hot from Taiwan, hot on specs and hot in performance: the new AnexTEK moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone.

And, for a change, the English-speaking world is to get this phone before Asia does!

This latest incarnation from the Wistron company is a far cry from its earlier SP230 model for which we had the scoop review last year.

With Windows Mobile 5.0 running on a 520 MHz XScale PXA272 and all the connectivity you’d want plus a 1.3 MP camera this would be a serious contender if you’re looking for an all-in-one device.

How does it perform, how does it feel and how is the quality of the phone, the camera and the PDA?

Those questions we will look at in this First Impressions review.

We’ll have another, more in-depth review, in a few weeks.

The moboDA 3360 has been eagerly anticipated in our office for some time.

After all, it was more than a year and a half ago since we first wrote about the original AnexTEK pocketpcphone. See:

http://digitalreviews.net/reviews/022004/anextek_sp230/anextek_sp230.htm and

http://www.pocketpcreviews.net/reviews/022004/anextek2.htm

AnexTEK was a newcomer in the decidedly crowded field of smartphones but that didn’t translate in “just another” phone. On the contrary. As I said then: “They’ve got a good many things right”. 20 months later that still holds.

The moboDA moniker (probably from merging the words for mobile and Digital Assistant) will be the name of a whole series of converged devices and it seems that AnexTEK will speed up the launch of new models in 2006 when at least two more new models are expected to be introduced. These are all indications that AnexTEK is trying to become a serious player in the very competitive smartphone market.

The initial announcements of the new AnexTEK phone, some months ago, gave the impression the 3360 was a rather large device so I was prepared for something akin to my very first mobile phone, weighing in at a pants-pulling 2 kilos or so…

I was pleasantly surprised how well the device looked and felt in my hand.

Of course it is a rather large phone at 123 x 61.5 x 23 cm but at the same time it’s also a rather small PDA.

My iPAQ 4700 is longer and wider but the moboDA certainly is a bit thicker than your average Nokia or PDA.

Personally, I like a phone that’s a bit longer and feels a bit more substantial than most phones on offer and I love the larger keys that come with it.

This makes it more of a “blokes” phone rather than one that the ladies would be enamoured with.

Could the phone have been a tad smaller?

Sure, but you’d also miss out on some valuable display area.

aving been used to the magnificent 4” VGA screen of my iPAQ, I’m spoiled.

Does the 2.8” 65,536-color TFT (240x320 cm) disappoint?

Certainly not! The display area is quite sufficient for most tasks. Any smaller would have taken away from the PPC functionality; any larger would have become unwieldy and uncomfortable for a phone. I would say they’ve struck a happy medium here.

How heavy does it feel? It weighs 150 g (including 30g for the 1300 mAh LiON battery).

Compare that to my iPAQ 4700, which I do not consider a “brick” – yet it weighs in at 187 grams!

Overall, the “feel” of the 3360 is great.

The moboDA doesn’t have a rugged look though so care should be taken.

This is not a Nokia that you can chuck in your pocket with your keys and expect to survive. And it’s probably not feasible to get new covers either…

My pet peeve about PDAs and phones is that most of them feel rather slippery.

The 3360 is not too bad in that regard but as you can see from one of the photos, I had to resort to putting some rubberized strips along my iPAQ…

Doesn’t look good but feels great!

Two things surprised me pleasantly: in the box was an Australian power cord, indicating that AnexTEK are serious about servicing our continent in addition to the rest of the English-speaking world, and in the box there was also a belt carry case.

I had been wondering about the need to get a pouch of some sort to protect the touch screen and thought that no-one (not even Piel Frama) would already have the right size carry case. With great foresight, AnexTEK provided a simple but quite adequate case so that you can have the 3360 on your belt.

What else was in the box?

Everything you’d expect for a device like this including a massive and well-written manual.

However, there’s no cradle for it as you might expect with a PDA but then again, this is primarily a phone…

When you do recharge it from mains you need quite a setup: see the accompanying photo.

Perhaps a car charger would have been handy or the ability to recharge from a USB port.

The photos should tell the story of what’s what on the outside but they may not tell the whole story.

So here are some salient points.

There is an expansion slot for SD/MMC cards on the left side which accommodates SDIO accessories.

I query the placement of the SD slot as there seems to be room enough at the top of the device which would be handier for GPS receivers.

The left side also sports the volume control, the IrDA infrared port and the reset hole.

Come around to the right where the power button resides, along with the record and camera button.

The bottom side has a universal connector and earphone jack.

The back has the speaker, the camera lens with “flash” and the battery/SIM card cover.

The removable battery has a 1300Ah capacity, which seems ample but I will report in the next review how much useful time this will translate to in the various modes (standby, talk time, camera mode, while using Wi-Fi and when used mainly in the PDA mode).

First off, the GSM is Tri-band (GSM900/1800/1900) with GPRS class 10.

Wi-Fi is the standard 802.11b/g (AnexTEK emphasises the low-energy consumption of the device), Bluetooth version 1.2 as well as infrared.

A bit peculiar is the Wireless Control menu where there is a box to tick that says: “Insert/Remove Wireless Card”.

It sounds like you’d have to physically insert a Wi-Fi card but that’s not the case.

Perhaps this is a standard WM5 menu that caters also for devices without built-in Wi-Fi.

If that’s the case they may want to change the spelling of  “Wirless”… 

What I will miss is the FM radio on my Nokia but if you’re within Wi-Fi range you might try one of the Radio applications that are available from different vendors.

Initial calls made on the moboDA were very clear and dialling via the touch screen or the numeric keypad was very comfortable.

Ring tones were fairly limited but that’s no problem of course.

There were a half dozen ring types but my favourite was missing: vibrating AND ascending volume…

I haven’t fully checked out the claimed Talk Time of 4 hours but it seems reasonable.

Standby time is said to be 150 hours.

Our next report will also include endurance figures for using the 3360 in primarily PDA mode.

The display is large for a phone and still practical for PDA use.

It’s not VGA sharp but quite good for daily use.

One peculiar thing is that the brightness keeps on defaulting to medium bright, even though I set it to full bright several times…

Most important is also the built-in memory: 64MB of RAM and 192MB flash ROM.

This is quite adequate for the moment and again, fairly standard for today’s Smartphone or PDA.

I’m a strong fan of the added functionality of the new Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.

It’s pleasing that AnexTEK waited to bring out the 3360 with this OS, unlike some other players that are dropping devices this month with still the old and dated Windows Mobile 2003.

So now you’ll have the pleasure of using Excel Mobile, Word Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile plus Windows Media Player 10.

Here’s some alphabet soup for the audio/videophiles: the 3360 has support for MP3, WMA, WMV, MP4, H263, H264, MIDI, WAV, AAC, AMR, 3GP and AVI.

The moboDA 3360 has a (by now fairly standard) 1.3MP camera with a “flash”, capable of taking video. The quality of the camera is not bad but if you take pride in your photographic endeavours, you’ll tote a proper camera along as well.

Easy to use? Very.

We’ll have more on camera functionality in Part II.

At this stage we don’t have any direct comparison material at hand such as the Samsung i730.

Some commentators, like Darius Wey from PocketPCThoughts mention that: “the moboDA outperforms the Samsung i730 in more ways than one. The i730 took a little long to arrive on Western soil and it's now being shadowed by new Windows Mobile 5.0 devices such as the moboDA and Einstein. Besides, will the i730 be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 5.0? Hard to say.”

It will be interesting to make direct comparisons with other, similar specced devices but at the same time that is also a bit of a futile and academic exercise.

Why?

Any phone, even if it’s rated the best in the field, will be outclassed in 3 months time (or even sooner!).

The question to ask is: will it deliver value for money on all the core functions that you are buying the device for?

See the Conclusion at the end for my initial findings.

Let’s summarise our First Impressions.

The moboDA 3360 with the new Windows OS, excellent phone functionality and decent PDA and camera utility, is a good example of a state-of-the-art converged device.

The moboDA 3360 ain’t no brick but certainly is – by necessity of being a converged device -- a large phone.

Is it the best phone on the market or the best PDA?

Of course not.

Producing an all-in-one singin’,  dancin’ wonder means that some aspects have to be sacrificed.

But is the end result a very decent product that doesn’t disappoint in all the core functions that you bought it for?

Most certainly.

Is there room for improvement?

I have never reviewed a device that could not be improved upon.

I’m not thinking here of the addition of a Qwerty keyboard, either as an option or as a slider, to make better use of the PDA functions.

I would suggest rather the following enhancements and improvements for the 2006 models: a simpler charging method (a la Nokia with a lightweight charger) and a more rugged built. The covers feel rather “plasticky”…

In the meantime I’m looking forward to using the moboDA 3360 on a daily basis for the next few weeks so that we can bring you a more in-depth user report with additional findings.

And undoubtedly we’ll find a few more aspects that might warrant improvement and hopefully heaps more things to like as well.

I talked to Arthur Ny Chang from AnexTEK Global.

He indicated that the moboDA 3360 will be priced around the 650 US dollar mark and will initially be available in the English speaking countries, followed by the T-Chinese version and later, the S-Chinese version.

In case you have to ask (like I did): T-Chinese stands for Traditional Chinese as is spoken in Taiwan and Hong Kong. S-Chinese stands for Simplified Chinese that you’ll find in China and Singapore.

European languages will follow thereafter.

And the all-important question: what color does it come in?

I’ve seen black and silver versions but the shiny silver/blue edition is the one that you’ll be able to buy.