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First Looks: Dopod S300 Smartphone

By Mendelson Tiu - 21 Jun 2006

The Future Is Now

The Future Is Now

No, this gadget is not what you think it is. Although looking like a certain communicating device from a prominent science fiction television series, what you are looking at is the newest addition to the Dopod family - the Dopod S300. Dopod says this THE phone for users who value design, form factor, and features.

One Sleek Phone

The S300 is one of the world's 1st ultra-stylish, ultra-slim Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone, and it's a statement that is quickly proven by its black finishing and thin, clamshell form factor - 15.8mm thick to be exact.

The S300 will quickly leave an impression on its users, first of which is the external 128 x 128 pixel screen that stylishly displays time, battery life, and signal. The 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera and dedicated music controls are also placed strategically in front of the phone to allow users to listen to music or take a picture without flipping open the phone. Volume control, voice tag, and dedicated camera buttons can be found on the sides of the S300 that although small are surprisingly very accessible. Opening the S300 reveals a larger, 240 x 320 pixel QVGA screen and a well-designed keypad. The keypad is a simple with each key sufficiently spaced out for easy input.

The Right Tool In Your Hands

The S300 packs a lot of wallop despite its small size. Apart from being powered by a TI OMAP 850 processor, the S300 also runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphones – the first of its kind in the market. No longer will you have to worry about losing your data when the phone runs out of battery because the S300 has moved from battery dependent ROM storage to persistent data storage.

All one has to do is to recharge the S300 and all upcoming appointments, contacts, important files and documents will still be in place.

Continuing in Dopod fashion is 2D/3D customizable interface that places all commonly used programs right in the main screen as the layout seen in contemporary phones. The S300 also provides a mobile e-mail with push mail feature that accesses email accounts such Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail when paired with Microsoft Exchange Server. Pocket MSN is expectedly available as well for chatting on the go.

Need to read your reports, presentations, and charts? With a ClearVue Document Viewer supporting Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and PDF files, you will always get the chance to do so regardless where you are. Dopod has even incorporated dual language support (English/Chinese) that can create, view, edit messages, and compose emails in both the English and Chinese languages. Also, the operating system can be switched to Simplified Chinese for faster texting. Wrapping up the wireless capabilities are a combination of EDGE, GPRS, and Bluetooth v1.2.

Final Thoughts

This phone certainly lives up to the expectation of being a smartphone, most notably its 150 hours of standby time despite its ultra slim profile. And although the onboard memory maxes out just 64MB, users can easily address any potential storage issues by purchasing a microSD / TransFlash card for storing photos, videos, and music files. Overall, the Dopod S300 is a very good alternative for users who want to have the latest smartphone with an ultra-sleek profile.

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