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Review: Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX - Page 3 By Jørgen Sundgot, Monday 14 October 2002
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Rappore Pocket PlugFree deserves a longer description, since it's the application that controls the integrated Bluetooth capabilities of the LOOX. Aware of the external Bluetooth switch on the right side of the LOOX, PlugFree controls all Bluetooth communications on the device and automatically shuts down Bluetooth connectivity when the hardware switch is set to off. The setup procedure is very easy, and the LOOX supports an extensive range of Bluetooth profiles including important ones such as Serial port, DUN, LAN access, FTP client, OBEX, Headset and SDAP. Using the client prior to setup is also simple, and in fact I'd say it in some cases is too simple since it constantly tries to help users. One example is Pocket Internet Explorer popping up every time one connects to a LAN network over Bluetooth - which is just annoying. Another is that the client does not cache previously discovered Bluetooth devices - not even bonded ones, which slows down the process of getting connected and is in the way. Eventually, it all works, but the usability flaws that seem meant to improve the user experience actually end up degrading it instead.

The LOOX can scale its speed down to save power, but the process is needlessly complicated
The last piece of software I'm going to mention is the CPU Setting choice in the system settings dialog, which allows a user to control the speed of the 400 MHz XScale CPU. This can be set to one of two choices; standard mode or power-saving mode. In my experience and slightly unscientific tests, the power-saving mode increased battery life by an hour or so, but made little or no impact in terms of performance since neither the Pocket PC operating system or many 3rd party applications are optimized for XScale processors yet.

On a general note, the device compared well to other XScale device in terms of speed - which is no surprise due to the aforementioned lack of optimizations. What I find lacking is the option to let the processor detect and automatically adjust its speed according to the needs of the user, since switching between the two available modes is a complicated operation hidden deep in menus and settings dialogs.

To talk a bit more about the battery life of the Pocket LOOX, it's quite impressive for such a versatile device. Personally, I've managed to squeeze 6-7 hours of use out of it, mostly due to its 1500 mAh Lithium ion battery which is among the largest in its class. Although no XScale optimizations are currently in place to allow vastly improved power management (or so they claim, whenever they arrive), Fujitsu Siemens has done a good job of delivering a device that has a battery that will let a user combine it with a Bluetooth phone and not worry about running out of power right away.

The Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX is currently available in Europe and Asia Pacific markets from Fujtsu Siemens' website and retailers in a range of countries for a price of 550 EUR. Americans; you'll have to wait a bit longer.

Conclusion

On a whole, the Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX is one of the best devices out there right now, and it also sells for a fairly reasonable price. Its powerful processor, good amount of RAM and versatileness thanks to its two expansion slots lets a user do just about anything with it, although the Bluetooth application draws down the overall impression since one of the points of having integrated Bluetooth is to be able to use it quickly and hassle-free. Unfortunately, it's not available outside Europe - yet, but if it were it would give the only device that competes with it - the Toshiba e740 BT - a very good run for its money.

  • What's positive: Excellent display, long battery lifetime, powerful and versatile
  • What's negative: Bluetooth experience could have been better
Overall:


Pros:

Cons:

Conclusion:
%
Poor


Price and availability

Available in the U.S. in December 1969, the is priced at TBA .

 
 
 
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