E-TEN Glofiish X500+ Pocket PC review

E-TEN is a Windows Mobile Pocket PC manufacturer that likes to be first. In the case of the Glofiish X500+ it has come up with the first device to run Windows Mobile 6 Professional and have a built in GPS antenna and have a 640 x 480 resolution display. The 640 x 480 screen on a Windows Mobile machine is the biggest rarity of the three. The last time I saw one of these was on an Orange SPV M5000. Riyad reviewed this way back in January last year. It has been a long wait to see the resolution crop up again.

The screen isn’t especially large – just 2.8 inches corner to corner. But the increased resolution means it is pin-sharp. If a major use of your PDA is reading of any kind (from email to ebooks, web pages to Word documents), then the increased clarity the higher resolution offers will be a real boon. It also comes into its own for viewing photos and movies.



The other two features in this unique trio are less rare, but it is still nice to see them together. Windows Mobile 6 Professional offers a range of advantages over Windows Mobile 5.0 – I covered them here and won’t go over them again in this review.

The GPS antenna is potentially a very useful for travellers. There are plenty of satnav applications that will run on Windows Mobile and if you add one – via the microSD card slot that sits on the bottom edge of the casing, you are set to go.

The SiRFStar III antenna is superb at obtaining and maintaining a fix. Sitting at my desk, about two feet from a bay window and with the X500+ on my desk pointing at one end of the bay it happily found a fix. Obviously you can’t carry this too far – at least three satellites need to be in clear view and an antenna does need access to the sky to be able to see them.