E-Ten Glofiish M810 Review

We have been putting the Eten Glofiish M810 through its paces over the last few days and its definitely a device of two parts, there is the hardware part and the software part and the two unfortunately are miles apart. Read on to get our full thoughts on this QVGA Windows Mobile Professional device.

Features of E-TEN Glofiish M810

• Windows Mobile 6
• UMTS / HSDPA
• Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHZ
• WiFi (802.11 b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0
• QWERTY Keyboard
• Integrated GPS Receiver
• 2 Megapixel Camera
• 2.8" 320 x 240 QVGA Screen

The E-Ten Glofiish is a Windows Mobile Professional touch screen device with a slide out QWERTY keyboard aimed squarely at the HTC TyTn line of devices.

Looking at the exterior of the device it is extremely well made and a joy to hold in your hand, it is quite heavy but for me that just added to the feel of quality. The stylus is very short and is telescopic and not the best to use.

Externally, looking round the device starting at the bottom there is a charging port and it is a mini USB type which is good to see becoming an industry standard.

On the left hand side we have the ear piece volume +/- button as well as a record button for voice memos and access door to the micro SD card slot.

The right hand side of the phone has a quick access to the camera button and the screen on / off button.

Looking at the back of the phone it has a plastic rubberised finish and houses the 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash.

On the front of the phone you have a video camera, D Pad, phone end and send keys and two function keys for interacting with the Windows Mobile Software.

The phone slides open easily to reveal a full Qwerty keyboard although the keys are not the easiest to use they are well laid out but are not very responsive and have very little give so typing was not a great experience.

Turning the phone on it went through the normal screen calibrations and then it went into a customise mode where it seemed to install 20 or so software patches which I hoped would improve the experience of Windows Mobile, how wrong could you be.

The device was just way too slow to get any enjoyment from. Pressing an on screen button and having to wait 2-3 seconds for a response is just too slow in my opinion.  Moving through menus with a finger or a stylus were just as frustrating with the same delays. I did manage to improve things dramatically by turning off the incoming beams and also disabling the task manager, but you really shouldn’t have to do all this to get the device to perform adequately out of the box. The M810 comes pre-installed with SPB Mobile Shell and a few other bits of extra software that does improve the home screen experience, this could also be causing the slow response times.

The screen is a QVGA 320 x 240 display and looks very crisp and clear however the refresh times are again cause for concern.

The Glofiish does have quite a few nice additions like inbuilt Sirf Star III GPS (although no actual mapping software was available to use) it did manage to get a satellite fix very very quickly with strong connections even inside near a window. Also included is an FM Radio (Need to use the supplied headphones as an aerial) which is nice to have, if you have the patience to get there through the laggy menus.

The 2 megapixel camera takes reasonable pictures with natural-looking colours, but it is not a dedicated camera replacement by any means but again the addition of a flash is nice. The picture on the right was taken in bright sunlight and for a 2 megapixel camera compared with the iPhone it is a much better camera.

Call quality was very clear at both ends of the call but again hanging up a call and switching calls suffered from the lag problem which caused dropped calls and failed dialing at times.

Conclusion

The device looks and feels great in the hand, it has inbuilt Sirf Star III GPS, a nice QVGA screen, FM Radio and fast connectivity (HSDPA) but its just way too slow to use, it only has 64 MB of RAM which I think is where the problems with lag are coming from, most if not all high e
nd touch screen Windows Mobile phones now come with a minimum of 128 MB of RAM and we are also starting to see dedicated video chips too to help with smooth animations and fast menu navigation. Turning off the task manager and removing some of the pre-installed software did speed the device up dramatically and it did become much more responsive and I started to enjoy using it, but you have to ask yourself why were these installed as part of the Rom in the first place when they have such a bad impact on the usability of the phone.

Technical specification of E-TEN Glofiish M810

Operating System –
Windows Mobile 6 Professional

Processor –
Samsung S3C 2442 500 MHz

Memory –
ROM: 256MB
RAM: 64MB

Display –
2.8" QVGA (320 x 240) TFT LCD

GSM Bands –
GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850, UMTS1900, UMTS2100, CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA

Connectivity –
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
USB 1.1 Client (mini-USB connecter)
WiFi

Input –
Slide-out QWERTY-type keyboard, 38 keys
5 Way Block

Expansion –
MicroSDHC

Camera – 
2.0 Mega Pixel, 0.3 Mega Pixel camera for Video telephony

GPS –
SiRFStar III

Battery –
Removable Lithium-ion1530mAh

Weight –
179g

Dimensions –
59 x 109.5 x 17.5mm

Thanks to Clove Technology for supplying the review device

Disclaimer, the device featured in this review was returned to the vendor after completion of the review.