|
|
Eten M700 Cellular Phone
| Manufacturer | Eten |
| Model | M700 |
| Release Date | Available Now |
| 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| Operating System | Windows Mobile 5.0 |
| Processor Speed | 400 MHz |
| Processor Type | Samsung S3C2440 |
| Size | 117.5 x 59 x 19.8 mm |
| Weight | 165 g |
| Display Type | TFT touchscreen, 65K colors |
| Display Size | 2.8 inches |
| Display Resolution | 240 x 320 pixels |
| Ringtone Types | Polyphonic (192 channels), MP3 |
| Ringtone Vibration | Yes |
| Phonebook Memory | Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall |
| Call Records Memory | Practically unlimited |
| Memory - RAM | 64MB |
| Memory - ROM | 128MB |
| Memory Slot | MicroSDHC |
| GPRS | Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps |
| HSCSD | No |
| EDGE | Class 10, 236.8 kbps |
| 3G | No |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g |
| Bluetooth | 2.0 |
| Infrared Port | No |
| USB | MiniUSB |
| Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging |
| Browser Type | HTML (PocketIE) |
| Games | Solitaire, Bubble Breaker |
| Camera Pixels | 2MP |
| Camera Resolution | 1600 x 1200 |
| Battery Type | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1530 mAh |
| Stand-by Time | Up to 200 h |
| Talk Time | Up to 7 h |
The E-Ten Glofiish M700 is a fine device for some functions. The GPS it houses is second to none, the device offers plenty of shortcut keys and the phones operating system zooms along at a decent speed. Unfortunately the build on the phone itself does not live up to E-Ten standards, leaving me to scratch my head and wonder how the makers of the X500 a model that has such a strong build factor could go so wrong when implementing the M700.
Editor review
Eten M700 Cell Phone Review
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Design
First look at the phone reveals a relatively simplistic sliding keyboard design. The model I tested came in a grey on grey color scheme, not the most pleasing on the eyes but this phone isn't about the form factor, consequently, I wouldn't expect it to be the most exhilirating phone to look at. The phone measures in at 4.64 x 2.32 x .78 inches. On the top left of the front side there is a GPS key that automatically accesses the phones Sirf III GPS receiver. While the right side of the M700 houses the new Mkey, a new function on the E-Ten that takes users to the phones main functions screen. Below the phones sizeable screen users can find two softkeys, on the left side the key is programmed out of the box to access the speed dial function, while the rightside softkey is used for contacts. Below those keys are the Green Send key on the left side, and on the right side is the Red End Key. Between the softkeys and call function keys is a D-Pad and selection button, again I found the D-Pad to be akward and hard to operate.
{mosgoogle}
Looking to the left side of the device, the E-Ten M700 features volume keys near the top of the left side with a voice recorder/voice command button located below the volume keys.
The right side of the M700 has several buttons, the first at the top is the devices Power Button which also serves to bring the device out of hibernation mode (A helpful tool for energy conservation). While the bottom right side of the E-Ten device features an instant launch camera button, press the button once to launch the phones camera.
The top of the phone is actually blank, while the bottom of the phone features a MicroSD slot for easy memory card loading up to 2gb's. and a Mini EXTusb port for charging and syncing the device.
The back of the phone features the devices camera, as well as an LED flash for added use when taking pictures. The back of the E-Ten M700 also features a sizeable speaker slot for speakerphone use.
Finally pushing on the side of the phone reveals the devices sliding qwerty keyboard which houses a strong blue backlit feature. The keys on the keyboard are not spaced out, however I found them to be big enough for typing and texting purposes and easy to see in low light areas.
Features
The most notable feature on the E-Ten M700 is the devices Sirf III GPS receiver with its low power chipset for greater satellite capture. The device picked up the GPS in less than 30 seconds, way above average for a mobile device. Its also important that I mention that it picked up the signal while I was indoors, compare that to the Nokia N95 which takes up to 10 minutes in some cases to find satellite signals. The GPS on the M700 it should be mentioned does not include GPS software, I would suggest the TomTom Navigator 6 package or Pharos Ostia for use with the system. The M700 also features a location SMS application that will send your coordinates to another phone.
The phone also comes loaded with Windows Mobile 5.0. While 5.0 is not obsolete for most intensive purposes E-ten is allowing users to upgrade for free to Mobile 6.0 via their website.
The Glofiish M700 is also equiped with the Cyberon's Voice Commander 2.0, a voice recognition system. Voice Commander can be utilized with voice dialing, or for sending out voice commands such as "start calendar", "today's appointments", and many more.
The phone also features an FM Tuner that supports the US, Europe, and Japan. I found the overall product pleasing with fairly good sound quality, but no where near perfect. If you decide to use this feature I wouldn't suggest the auto find feature as it hardly worked, instead try manually finding your local stations. While this function wasn't perfect it did work and it did find my local stations without any real hiccups.
When all was said and done the E-ten M700's 400 mhz Samsung processor proved to hold its own when running even several applications at a time, while the GPS proves once again E-Tens lead in the Global Positioning market, at least on cellular devices.
Camera
In terms of the the M700's camera functionability the 2.0 mega pixel camera operated with some noticeable color tones that appeared to be off, looking through my reviews I realized gray and yellow undertones often occur, the M700 however did not have a problem so much with graytones and yellow tones but rather it appeared to took sharp pictures that blended their coloring together in the middle of many of my pictures, while some colors were completely different than they were in realtime, also several of my pictures were undersaturated. One big qualm I have with the M700 is the phones inability to capture motion, if the object is moving it become so blurred that the image was destroyed as it left behind a streak of coloring. The camera can take still images with a resolution settings of 1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, and 160x120. While also utilizing a video resolutios of 320x240, 176x144 and 128x96. The devices camera also offers the standard settings found in many of todays cameras such as white balancing, led flash, and indoor and outdoor settings based on your environment.
Display
The screen on teh E-Ten M700 was crisp and bright, I used the orange coloring scheme and found it easy on the eyes. The Display features a 2.8" inch screen with a pixel resolution of 240x320 while outputting 65,000 colors. The backlighting on the devices appeared to help make the screen appear as more than it is. You can also set the screen brightness using an on screen slider while also auto-adjusting brightness relative to battery level and idle time
Audio
The audio on the E-Ten M700 came through with average quality sound when output was made through the devices 2.5 millimeter headset jack. Their was low noise output from the background and the volume transitioned smoothly between soft and high. One unfortunate aspect was the phones inability to create a louder playback, when the volume was adjusted using the side loaded volume rocker the highest level seemed to be quite soft in comparison to other devices, the N95 in comparison could get quite loud, think MP3 player levels. I also attempted to record using the included headset and I must admit that the recording came out better than I expected. In terms of the phones ability to record using the loudspeaker, I would say stay away from that function, however playing music and recordings over the loud speaker did prove to be of higher quality and volume levels than when the same audio was played through the headset. The phone supports all the major audio file types and works well enough for casual use, but by no means is it good enough to replace your MP3, although the phones A2DP did allow for suitable MP3 Bluetooth Stereo playback.
Messaging
There really isn't alot to report on the messaging end, the phone works well with Microsoft outlook through Microsoft Exchange servers, and emails and MMS messages were sent in a smooth manner. I do suggest upgrading to Windows Mobile 6.0 so your email messages can be viewed in HTML formats, besides the upgrade is free. Other than that the POP and IMAP functions worked well and email and text messages were easy to type on the phones sliding qwerty keyboard.
Internet
The E-Ten M700 features the GPRS/EDGE network which worked well on both Cingular and Tmobile. I found internet explorer to be a little cumbersome, then again I have always chose to upload Operamini when possible. Overall the internet moved smoothly with little delay, while offering a no thrills browser experience. I tested the download speed and found an average of 154kb/s, not bad on the Edge network.
Connectivity
The M700 is a Quadband GSM(850/900/1800/1900) device that features Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR and 802.11 b/g WiFi. The phone connected easily with Tmobile and Cingular, and offered excellent reception on both network, although I did notice a low hissing noise on several calls, I wasn't able to determine if the noise came from phone usage or network issues, however it only happened on several occassions and hardly seemed to be of any real concern. The Bluetooth application uses a Bluetooth manager which features a wizard for syncing devices to your device. The wireless manager also allows you to control your phone, WiFi, and Bluetooth connections all from the same application. One plus appears to be that a passcode was not needed to enter new devices, I assume the M700 uses the standard 0000 when attempting to connect, and since devices are automatically sent to this code it appears to auto sync the connections.
The phone also features a WLAN Utility which gives users a more complex look at their signals, the application allows for power saving functions, and offers the ability to examine your settings Tx rate settings. Overall I would say signal strength through the WiFi connect was on par with HTC devices which I have always found to be top notch in terms of WiFi settings.
Conclusion
The E-Ten M700 may not appear to be the sturdiest of designs, but it does offer a nicely packaged set of addons. The GPS unit is ahead of the competition, allowing for quick satellite pickup and the ability to track a bevy of satellite info at a fingers touch. While the shortcut keys are a nice addition their design is flawed and made for akward use. Aside from the phones build I actually found the processor to be quite fast, and the internet to work as well as one could expect on the GPRS/EDGE networks. The slider may have stuck slightly but that could also be attribute to the phones tight gapless build factor. Overall I would recommend the M700 if a keyboard is absolutely necessary, otherwise I would try the E-Ten X500+ which houses a stronger build factor without the keyboard function.
|
| Overall rating: |
|
7.0 |
| Styling: |
|
6.0 |
| Ease of Use: |
|
10.0 |
| Display: |
|
8.0 |
| Voice Quality: |
|
6.0 |
| Battery Life: |
|
6.0 |
| Quality/Build: |
|
6.0 |
Was this review helpful to you?
|
User reviews
|
There are no user reviews for this listing.
To write a review please register or login.
|
|
|
|
|
