SMARTPHONE - R380s. Review on Ericsson R380s

Are you planning to buy a Palm Handheld? Are you going to be able to use ONLY the features that come built in with a Palm Handheld? Are you never going to use the handheld for purposes, other than those already provided? say for example, install MS Spreadsheet for Palm OS, MS Word for Palm OS, Adobe Photoshop for Palm OS etc. If so, then Ericsson R380s might be just the Cellular phone for you. In addition to all the regular Cell-phone features like Vibrate Alert, WAP etc., The number pad, “Flip”, of Ericsson R380s opens, and below is a 83mm X 28mm ‘screen’. It offers almost all features that a Palm Handheld offers viz, Address book, Calendar, To-do list, Appointment book, Calculator, Clock, Alarm, Notepad, Touch-screen “Typing”, Touch-screen “Writing” Certainly, it has its disadvantages as compared to a Palm Handheld, but whether it would be worthwhile spending so much more for a Palm Handheld, or not, is something every person can decide for themselves depending upon their usage.

DIMENSIONS : 159mm X 51mm X 26mm weight:164 gms. [A Palm Handheld is much thinner(slimmer) and lighter, much more convenient and comfortable to carry.]

BATTERY : In spite of a Li-Ion, 950 mAh battery R380s gives only about 72 to 80 hours of standby time. This is much less compared to other cell-phone models, which give in region of 150 to 200 hours of standby time. This is probably due to the higher memory capacity.

PHONE : Quite rightly, Ericsson phones are reputed to be the best receivers of signals. In places where other popular brands including Nokia shows just 25% Network Strength (only one “bar” of the network indicator) Ericsson easily show 50% strength (two “bars” of the network indicator).

WAP : The larger “screen” makes the use of WAP more comfortable and easier to read.

MEMORY : The phone has a total of 1.2Mb memory for data storage. [A Palm Handheld provides more than 4.0 Mb depending on the model you chose]

TOUCH-SCREEN TYPING/WRITING: Open the flip and for any options be it entering a new “Contact”, “Appointment” or any other data entry, you can do it in two ways. 1) you can “type” using the 4 row 49 key “keyboard” by clicking on letters or numbers with the Stylus provided, or 2) simply write on the screen with the Stylus. [A Palm Handheld has both these features and the ‘response’ is faster compared to R380s]

ADDRESS BOOK : For each “contact” the phone allows you to store his/her Work Phone No., Residence Phone No., Cellular No., Company name, Address, e-mail address, and Notes. I have stored about 300 contacts, and it takes up only about 0.24Mb of the total memory available. The list of the contacts is displayed very nicely. On the top you have ABC…..DEF….GHI… “Tabs”. Clicking on any of them displays a list of the contacts in alphabetical order. There also is a “search” option, which allows you search for any contact using any detail that you remember, be it his/her name, or last name, or tel. number, or cell-number. You also have the option of listing the contacts in three different ways viz. sorting them by ''First Name”, or “Last Name”, or “Company”. Clicking on any of the contacts, displays all the details of that contact. If you click on any of the phone numbers displayed, the phone automatically dials the number. Uniquely, against the Cellular Number of the contact there is “SMS” displayed. Clicking on “SMS” the phone takes you directly to SMS Typing/Writing mode. [A Palm Handheld displays the list on a narrower screen, and (quite obviously) is unable to dial a number or send an SMS, but not only does the “search” option yields the result much much faster, but even the entire list of contacts is displayed almost instantly, whereas R380s takes a few seconds to display the entire list.]

MESSAGING : The touch-screen technology makes it extremely convenient to Type/Write an SMS or an e-mail message as compared to repeatedly punching number-buttons of a regular cell-phone.

EXTRAS : R380s has a “Notepad” to keep notes a “Calculator”, Clock with ONE “home” time as well as ONE international time. [A palm Handheld has all this and with the response to touch-screen being faster, makes it easier to use the notepad etc.]

PC CONNECTIVITY : The R380s comes with a CD for installing a software on a PC and a Parallel Port connecting chord, that allows you to connect the phone to a PC and backup all the data of the phone to the PC. There is also a “Synchronisation” facility that updates the data both ways. You can edit, add any data on the PC and it is transferred top the phone, or editing/adding any data on the phone is updated on the PC.

All things considered, I opted for a Cell-phone-come-PDA-in-one because it suited my needs more. R380s costs much less than a Palm Handheld, my cell-phone usage is very less, I don’t have to carry a separate Handheld or a digital diary, but more importantly, most time of the day, I am indoors, hence the size and the weight is not a bother. If YOUR needs are similar to mine, I would strongly recommend Ericsson-R380s