Jørgen Sundgot gets up close and personal with the very first Personal Mobile Gateway-based products in this review of neo's neoFone NF-10, neoChat NC-10 and neoSnap NS-10.
Despite a certain amount of attention from the media, few people will be intimately familiar with the PMG (Personal Mobile Gateway) concept from IXI Mobile. Briefly put, it's a microserver-client architecture in where a PMG server harbours WAN connectivity - such as GSM or CDMA - to be offered to PMG clients (known as PMG Companions) by means of Bluetooth. Recently, IXI Mobile established the neo brand under which it has brought the neoFone, neoChat (Page 2-3) and neoSnap (Page 4) products to market; this review covers all three.
neoFone NF-10
Exterior
 | The neoFone is small and minute, despite its highly enabling server capabilities
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A PMG phone, the neoFone NF-10 plays host to server capabilities in a thin, small and light package weighing only 65 g and measuring 10 x 4.4 x 1.8 cm. Despite its minute appearances, it offers a 16-bit colour display placed far up on the front of the handset with a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels. Just below this, two navigational soft keys are placed on either side of a four-way navigational pad with an integrated notification LED, under which a standard numerical keypad can be found. On the left side are volume up/down buttons.
Ergonomics
As small as it is, the neoFone is a bit on the slippery side thanks to its lacquered finish, yet still lies well in ones hand. The keypad emits some noise, but not more so than it being acceptable - however the navigational pad is not only quite noisy, but its design also lacks physical hints towards the different directions. Furthermore, the notification LED integrated into this pad is annoying beyond description - although fortunately, it can be turned off.
Features
Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz connectivity is a must for a device that is to play the role of a central communications server, and the neoFone also offers up GPRS support and an integrated Fax modem for data communications. For PAN connectivity, the neoFone relies exclusively on Bluetooth, and is compatible not only with PMG devices but also any other Bluetooth device capable of utilizing the profiles it offers.
The remaining feature set is best described as mediocre, with a WAP 1.2.1 browser offering a window to the world, while SMS and MMS messages can both be sent and created with ease. Basic PIM features are also present, as is a perfectly adequate voice recorder and 4 MB of memory to store a sizeable amount of data - including pictures taken with a PMG Companion such as the neoSnap NS-10 digital camera.
Configuration of the handset's PMG-related features was delightfully devoid of technical dialogs; users are merely required to pair PMG Companion devices in the standard Bluetooth manner, after which the handset automatically provides GSM or GPRS connectivity upon request from companion devices.
Performance
With a user interface closely resembling Nokia's Series 40 platform, the NF-10 is easily navigated and offers speedy responses to interaction with the keyboard. Surprisingly, it is also exceedingly speedy when it comes to text input, rivalled only by Nokia - a carrot for heavy messaging users, although there are no e-mail or instant messaging clients present; for that, users will be required to acquire a PMG Companion such as the neoChat NC-10.
Throughout our testing period, the neoFone NF-10 performed very well in terms reception, and also offered high quality audio during voice calls. Its Bluetooth range hovered in the 8 meter area, and although the handset fell short of its claimed standby time of up to 200 hours, it did deliver 160 hours - as well as the claimed 3 hours of talk time.
Availability
Although not currently commercially available, the neoFone NF-10 is expected to be available in Italy in May, where pricing will be operator dependent.
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