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PDAs are very fashionable items and if you are a returning reader to TrustedReviews you’ll know that we have looked at some pretty cool devices over the past few months. I was still quite excited when Fujitsu-Siemens told me that it was sending over one of the new Pocket Loox 610 PDA’s for me to look at. I quite liked the older Pocket Loox 600 even though it did suffer from some minor problems, so I was keen to see how it had evolved.

I was therefore disappointed when the Pocket Loox 610 arrived and the only part that resembled the Pocket Loox 600 was the four way rocker and its two accompanying shortcut keys. The design of the Pocket Loox 610 is fairly generic and could have come from any number of Taiwanese manufacturers. I just expected something a bit more stylish from a Tier 1 manufacturer like Fujitsu-Seimens. That said, it does have some pretty powerful hardware underneath its plastic shell.

The outer shell of the Pocket Loox 610 is its biggest flaw; it’s wide, chunky and uncomfortable to hold, unless you have very big hands. The Pocket Loox 610 definitely looks like the ugly duckling compared to the HP iPAQ 5450. There is also a small antenna protruding from the top, even though this model doesn’t have built-in Wi-Fi. There’s a top mounted headphone socket, a card slot for MMC/SD cards and a slot for CompactFlash cards that supports both Type I and II media. There is an eject button for the Compact Flash slot but it is a bit fiddly to get to as it has been recessed into the casing. But at least you won’t end up with a MicroDrive stuck in the device if you don’t have long finger nails.

On the left hand side is a button to access Fujitsu-Siemens’ own quick menu application that gives you easier access to certain applications. Below that are two further buttons for up and down scroll or volume up and down. Finally there is also an IrDA port and a hole for soft resetting the Pocket Loox 610. On the top right hand side is a slot for the stylus and towards the bottom is a connector for the charger. At the bottom of the Pocket Loox 610 is the sync port that is either connected to the cradle or directly to the supplied USB cable.

The front features the four way rocker button as well as four shortcut keys that give you access to the calendar, your contacts, the to do list and finally to a Fujitsu-Siemens utility called FSC Connect2Air. The Connect2Air application allows you to switch on and off the integrated Bluetooth module. It also gives you access to Pocket Plugfree and ActiveSync. Pocket Plugfree is the application for connecting to your various Bluetooth devices and it’s pretty straight forward to use, although it’s not completely user friendly.

Bluetooth is a great inclusion in any PDA and this is one of the best parts of the Pocket Loox 610. There is however a higher-end version available which adds integrated 802.11b wireless LAN as well as another 64MB of integrated memory.
The reviewed version features 64MB of memory plus an additional 28MB of non volatile memory that can be used for secure file storage or backups. The processor is from Intel and is an Xscale PXA255 with a clock speed of 400MHz. This is a similar spec to what you would find in many other PDAs.

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