Windows Phone Thoughts: Hands-On With the Gigabyte gSmart Phone

As A Pocket PC
The gSmart Pocket PC Phone performs just as well as any other Windows Mobile 5.0 device equipped with the widely-accepted Intel XScale PXA272 Processor at 416 MHz. However, the device has only 64MB of Flash ROM, which is likely the reason they included a 256MB mini-SD in the standard box or Accessory Pack.


Figure 16: In case you want to know, this is the version of Windows Mobile 5.0 on this late pre-production sample.


Figure 17: The 5-way joystick makes for great gameplay, especially if your game could utilize the additional hardware buttons around it.

Take another look at Figure 17: when you slide the device open to reveal the keypad, the Input Panel is automatically set to keypad mode. This mode is very similar to standard cell phones, where pressing 2-9 repeatedly will give you the corresponding letters of the alphabet. Pressing the asterisk (*) will change between lower case, upper case, and numeric mode; the pound (#) key is a backspace; the 1 key is a space. For some reason, the response time was very slow in this version of the firmware, so if you happen to be a pro in this regard, you won't be entering text anywhere near your regular speed. Also, there is no predictive text associated with this input method. Hopefully, Gigabyte will address these issues.


Figure 18: The jog dial can be swiveled up and down and pushed in to activate Voice Commander (or whatever you assign to that action).

Again, Gigabyte does not hold back, and integrates all the little (and not so little) tweaks that usually require third-party programs to fill in the void on many other Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.


Figure 19: Customizable multifunction buttons make the gSmart much more versatile.


Figure 20: Filtering out the SIM Contacts and sending DTMF tones to the speakers are nice add-ons in the Contacts applet.

What should have been included in every device from its inception was the ability to toggle between ActiveSync mode and using your Pocket PC as an external USB storage device. While third-party application Softick Card Export II PPC makes that possible for select Pocket PCs, the gSmart has managed to integrate it here.


Figure 21: Whether this was Gigabyte's or Microsoft's doing, this USB Connection Mode is so much appreciated and long overdue.