Windows Phone Thoughts: Travelling with Pharos: A Review of the Traveler 117

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Travelling with Pharos: A Review of the Traveler 117

Posted by Don Tolson in "Pocket PC Hardware" @ 09:00 AM

Camera

The Traveller 117 actually comes with two cameras -- a VGA (0.3mp) resolution front-mounted unit used for video calling only, and a 2.0 megapixel fixed-focus unit on the rear panel. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really test the front camera, since video calling isn't supported on my plan with my cell provider (Rogers in Canada).

The rear camera is bit lower resolution than we have come to expect nowadays and having a fixed-focus lens is definitely a downside. It means that there is no zoom capability at all, and you have to physically move to the focal length of the phone, rather than having it auto-focus for you.

The pictures coming out of the camera are OK by cell phone standards, given the resolution of the camera and lens. Here are some examples:

Figure 17: An indoor shot, taken under warm white florescents, reflected off a bone white ceiling. The colour composition is pretty accurate and doesn't seem to lean to any one area of the spectrum.

Figure 18: Here's an outdoor shot, taken on a grey, cloudy mid-winter day here where I work. Again, colour composition and saturation are relatively accurate for a phone camera.

Figure 19: Here's an action shot, taken during a swimming practice at the local pool. Lighting is pretty good here, and the Traveler does a pretty fair job of stopping the action (notice the two swimmers in the bottom right of the picture). It does tend to over expose the direct-light sources (ceiling fixtures and the TV screen), but it does a good job with the reflections off the water. Here, you can really see the effect of an infinite, fixed focus lens...

Conclusions

It's tough to think of the Traveler 117 has a successor to Pharos' earlier GPS Phone 600, since they've taken so many departures from the original look and feel and capability of the unit. This really is a whole new line. And while the Traveler 117 doesn't have every bell and whistle of the current high end phones, it doesn't have the price tag either. Personally, I don't know if I can do without a keyboard on my phone anymore, but if you're not into a lot of text use, and need a good quality navigation partner, the Traveler 117 is a very worthy companion.

Don is an Associate Director with Fujitsu Consulting, and the lead of its Enterprise Mobility practice.

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