The ETEN X500 is the third pocket pc phone we will review that has a rich set of connectivity options, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM Radio, and a built-in GPS receiver. The other similar devices are the HTC P3300 (Artemis) and the upcoming ASUS P535.

ETEN X500 is manufactured by Eten Corporation. Eten Corporation has been in the pocket pc market for some time now and recently they released two innovative models, the ETEN Glofiish X500 (a pocket pc phone with built-in GPS) and ETEN Glofiish M700 (a pocket pc with sliding QWERTY keyboard and a built-in GPS).

The ETEN X500 is not the first attempt of the company to produce a pocket pc phone with GPS (there was ETEN G500). What really makes the ETEN X500 to standout is the fact that it is the thinnest pocket pc phone (with the set of connectivity options it offers) in the market. The difference in thickness between ETEN X500 and other similar devices is only a matter of millimetres but this gives the company the right to promote ETEN X500 as the thinnest pocket pc device.

The specifications of the ETEN X500 are very good and at the time ETEN X500 was announced placed ETEN among the fastest pocket pc phones. At that time only HTC P3300 was already announced and by just comparing the specifications of the two you could see that ETEN was a much more powerful device.

The ETEN X500 is equipped with a SAMSUNG SC3 2442 processor running at 400 MHZ with 128 MB ROM and 64 MB RAM. There has been a long discussion about the processor of ETEN compared to the INTEL processor (520 MHZ) of ASUS P535. Some suggest that the Samsung processor at 400 MHZ would perform better than the 520 MHZ processor of ASUS P535. Recent benchmarks tests proved this to be wrong and place ASUS P535 as the fastest pocket pc phones in the market.

Nevertheless this does not mean that the performance of ETEN X500 is bad or not satisfactory. Despite the results of benchmark tests where the numbers to the talking, in real situations the performance of the Samsung processor is very good and there is nothing that can disappoint the demanding pocket pc user.

The display of the Glofiish X500 is 2.8 inch with 65,536 colors at the standard 240 X 320 resolution. The display is a touch screen and there are a number of options to adjust the brightness level to suit your needs.

In terms of dimensions, weight and ergonomics the ETEN X500 is similar to HTC P3300 and ASUS P535. As you can see from the table below the ETEN X500 is the thinnest of the three but it is a bit longer and some grams heavier. In any case the differences of the three models are a matter of millimetres and grams and we do not consider this a bit advantage or disadvantage for any of the devices. The fact is that all the three devices have a compact design, something very important for the ergonomics of the device.

The communication features of ETEN X500 are Quad band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM with support for EDGE, GPRS / EGPRS Class B, Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi 802.11 b/g. Compared to ASUS P535, the latest is tri-band (GSM 900MHz, GSM 1800MHz, GSM 1900MHz) and does not have support for EDGE while the HTC P3300 is also Quad Band with EDGE support. All three devices have support for Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

In terms of ergonomics the design and buttons setup of ETEN X500 is very similar to ASUS P535.The Glofiish has a navigation pad in the middle with windows mobile keys on the left and right and the OK button in the middle, the ASUS P535 has a similar design but with 2 rectangular buttons on the left and right of the navigation pad. On the other hand the HTC P3300 has the HTC RollR (Trackball and track wheel) with 8 buttons total on the left and right of the wheel. We find the navigation pad used on the ETEN and ASUS to be more user friendly than the HTC RollR. It is easier to navigate through the menus using the navigation pad rather than using the track wheel. We noted before that the way the HTC RollR is designed and manufactured gives you a feeling that it is very loose and that makes your effort to navigate difficult. You need to get used to the HTC RollR to be able to use it well. The navigation pad on the ETEN X500 is nice and you can use it using your thumb with no problems. As far as the other buttons (camera, volume control, stylus holder) t are concerned these are located on the left and right side of the device. The camera is located on the back and the SIM card under the battery.

The GPS used on ETEN X500 is the same as the one used on ASUS P535 and HTC P3300. They all use the SiRF Star III protocol. The ETEN X500 has also support for A-GPS (InstantFix). This technology allows the remote loading via Internet (GSM, GPRS, Wi-Fi or ActiveSync) of the position of the satellites for faster establishment of position. Also pre-installed on the ETEN X500 there are two useful GPS Applications. The first one is the GPS Viewer. GPS Viewer displays the position and status of the satellites in a very nice and graphical way and the other application is Location SMS. Location SMS can be used to send an SMS message with your exact position.

The camera of ETEN X500 is at 2.0 mega pixels with a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200. It is the same camera you will find on ASUS and HTC but with the difference that the camera of ETEN does not have Auto Focus. There are though a number of options to adjust the picture and video settings.

The expansion slot of the ETEN X500 is a microSD card. This is the same type for the HTC P3300 while the ASUS P535 has a miniSD expansion Slot.

The software that comes with the device includes the standard Windows Mobile 5.0 software (Windows Mobile™ 5.0 software for Pocket PCs , Microsoft® Office Outlook® Mobile (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Inbox), Picture, Notes, Microsoft® Office Word Mobile, Microsoft® Office Excel® Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, ActiveSync, Calculator, Game (Solitaire, Bubble Breaker), Voice Recorder, Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® Mobile, MSN® Messenger, Microsoft® Transcriber, Windows Media® Player 10, Direct Push Technology, Microsoft Reader) and in addition ETEN includes some other useful utilities like:

Phone Tools: Phone Application, Phone Setting, SIM Toolkit, Speed Dial, Call Filter, Wireless Modem, Dialer Skin, Add Ringtone, CSD Type, Voice Commander, Connection Wizard, SMS Sender, SIM Manager, Skype Reciever Switch
Multimedia Tools: Image Wizard, Image Maker, Multimedia Manager, Camera, Camcorder, FM Tuner
MMS Message
Utilities: Quick Link, Batte ry Meter, Zoom SMS, Bluetooth Manager, M-Desk, Scenario, Backup Utility, Application Recovery, Wireless Manager, Easy Keyboard
GPS Tools: Satellite Data Update, Location SMS, GPS Viewer

Similar applications are also found on the ASUS P535 and HTC P3300 so the extra software cannot really be considered an advantage for ETEN over the other devices but its nice to get these titles for free when you purchase a device.

On the box, when you purchase the ETEN X500 you can expect to find the following items:
glofiish X500
stylus
USB sync cable
AC adaptor
headset
leather case
Getting started CD
quick start guide
standard battery

ETEN Glofiish X500 Review – Conclusion

Overall the ETEN X500 is one of the best pocket pc devices around (in our opinion). It is a device from a company that is trying to produce quality and innovative pocket pc devices. It would be nice if the device had 3G support but this cannot be considered a major disadvantage because none of the other devices (ASUS P535 and HTC P3300) has 3G support. In the ‘cons’ we can note the lack of navigation software. ASUS P535 and HTC P3300 has TomTom navigator bundled while for the ETEN X500 you have to buy a third party software. In the box you get a good quality leather case but no a car charger.

The price of ETEN X500 is 430 GBP.