Palm OS communicators not named Treo are few and far between these days: Jørgen Sundgot gets hands on with one contender, the GSPDA new Xplore M68.
It hasn't been easy for PalmSource over the course of the last couple of years. Licensees have been dropping like flies from the sinking handheld ship, and the OS maker hasn't seen any measurable amount of success in the smartphone and communicator areas - with one exception. These days, it appears palmOne's popular Treo line of communicators marks something of a last stand for the once-supreme Palm OS operating system.
So, does that mean the Treo line should be allowed to rule the market for Palm OS comunicators without any further ado? Not if you ask GSPDA, the company which just rolled out its fourth-generation Palm OS communicator, the Xplore M68. Having already cranked out the G18, G88 and M28 communicators, the company's latest candybar-style device foregoes a thumbboard in favour of a standard keypad, and offers a feature set that doesn't stand back to the Treo 650.
 | | GSPDA Xplore M68 |
Albeit not as aesthetically pleasing as the Treo (few devices are), the Xplore M68 is a compact and modestly attractive device which shouldn't have business users fretting. Powered by Palm OS 5, it weighs in at 130 g and measures 116 x 50 x 23 mm, and apparently packs a nice amount of power under the hood as navigating the user interface proved a comfortably snappy affair.
This is, of course, carried out through the 2.2". 65K colour TFT touch-screen display of the M68, which I found to be just barely large enough for its 160 x 220 pixel resolution. In addition, there's also a five-way jog dial, which is a method of navigation I can only describe as sent from above when coupled with good user interface design. To what extent GSPDA has implemented support for this in its platform I didn't have time to find out, but nonetheless it's a brilliant feature.
The European version of this device supports GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz, whilst the U.S. version supports the 850/1800/1900 MHz bands. Both editions feature GPRS Class 10, and also share all other specifications including support for Bluetooth and an integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera which records video in MPEG4 format in addition to capturing stills.
 | | GSPDA Xplore M68 |
Storage is courtesy of a roomy 64 MB of non-volatile memory as well as 32 MB of RAM, and for local connectivity the M68 handily includes an SD/MMC Card slot as well as Infrared and USB connectivity. On the software side, the device supports Java, as well as SMS, MMS, POP3 e-mail and WAP - but the most interesting aspect is the forethought which GSPDA has placed in adjusting the operating system for a phone centric environment.
A number of small tweaks, alterations and user interface changes have, as is the case with the Treo line of communicators, resulted in a device that is far more user friendly than your average Palm OS smartphone or communicator. Obviously, text input is somewhat hampered by having only a keypad as opposed to a thumbboard, but those who favour data lookup more than data entry might very well be just as well served by the M68 as by a Treo device - and that's saying something.
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