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February 23, 2005
Sendo X: DO NOT BUY
I’ve been a happy user of the Sendo X phone for the three weeks now. Here’s a quick review of why I chose it and how it’s worked out.
Introduction
I wanted a new phone for two reasons: my old Nokia 6310i was a great basic phone, but it wasn’t so good at hooking up to the rest of my gadget network. The battery life was beginning to drop, and it was becoming less reliable; I’d already had it repaired once. I was also hoping to get a smartphone that could do some of the tricks my old discarded Psion Revo PDA was so good at.
Why did I go for the X? It had the following in its favour:
- The phone works well with Mac OS X. Apple’s iSync lists it as being fully compatible, so no problems there.
- Bluetooth compatibility. One less wire to lose is always good.
- Some basic personal information management to keep track of things like email addresses, birthdays, appointments and so on.
- Media handling. I wanted to be able to view documents on the go, and maybe listen to music too, though my iPod is great at that.
- It’s a Series 60 phone. Series 60 is the best smartphone platform out there, at the moment (that’s not necessarily saying much). It’s also relatively easy to develop for, and I liked the idea of being able to code applications for the phone that I could make available to others. Series 60 phones by and large have good screen sizes as well. I had fond memories of the Revo’s software too (The Revo ran EPOC release 5, a predecessor of the operating system Series 60 runs on).
- It’s one of the cheapest Series 60 phones currently available.
How it’s worked out so far
As it turns out, the Series 60 software isn’t quite as good as the Revo in some areas, and it does lose out more than I thought it would for not having an integrated full keyboard. But it’s been good enough for my needs so far. I’d hoped I could use it as a random note-taker, which I have been doing. I also hoped I’d be able to write creatively on it, but I’ve been doing absolutely none of that; T9 predictive text is only bearable for a few sentences.
It’s changed my habits in a few other ways. I purchased it in a bundle from Expansys with a gigabyte memory card, thinking I could use it to store music and documents to read on the go. I’ve wound up doing neither! My iPod is a far better music player, while the X’s screen just isn’t big enough to read A4-sized documents comfortably on. What has been great is the camera. It’s intergration with the phone has meant that I have a camera with me at all times, so I’m happy enough to take a quick snap or two whenever the thought occurs. I would never have considered buying a standalone digital camera. It would just have been one more gadget to lug around with me. I’ve never been one for taking photographs anyway; I think I’ve taken more since I got the X than I did for the previous three years in their entirety.
As a phone, the X has been fine, with better sound quality than the 6310i. It did take my fingers a few days to forget how the 6310i worked and get used to the (only slightly different) keyboard shortcuts of the X.
Using Bluetooth to connect to my iBook has been flawless. Everything just worked, without wires. This was a pretty liberating experience, compared to the 6310i’s interpretation of Bluetooth, not to mention the ordeal undergone getting the Revo talking to an MS Windows PC (not that there were problems with that, just that the softare installation, restart cycle and wire connection setup routine took ages. Once that was done, it wasn’t too bad).
Programming the X
As far as programming the X(or any Series 60 phone) goes, it looks like I’ll need a Windows PC, tricky solutions like GnuPOC for OS X notwithstanding. I will be keeping an eye on GnuPOC, just in case it matures to the point where a simpleton like me can use it. There’s also the option of getting to grips with Python, as a Python interpreter is now available for Series 60 phones. This would probably be the easiest way to start in Series 60 programming, and it seems readily doable via my Mac too… maybe someday. My current programming language obsession is Haskell; I’ve not much room for yet another programming language at the moment.
The downsides
The phone’s only real negative is the battery life. I never used to turn my phone off at night, but if I leave the Sendo on all night the battery only lasts about three days between charges. Turning it off at night pushes this to about four and a half. The 6310i managed to last a week between charges when I first got it, though two years of battery use saw this go down to about four to five days. And of course, with Nokias you’re bound to find somebody else with a charger if you’re stuck. The Sendo X charger is specific to that model; it can’t be used even with other Sendo phones. Don’t expect to find one anywhere other than where you left it…
Other minor quibbles are that if you’re not careful dust can be trapped behind the screen. It also feels slightly too thick, at only 22mm, because length- and breadth-wise it’s so compact.
Conclusion
It’s funny to think of how my good experience with the phone is so different from my original criteria (especially needing to view documents) but looking back, it was pretty unrealistic to expect any smartphone other than a Sony-Ericsson P910i or its siblings to perform that role well. The price of the Sendo was far less than you’d pay for the P910i, though it was still the most I’ve ever paid for a phone, and the most I think I would ever pay for a mobile phone, no matter how useful I thought it would be. And there’s no way I’d bring a P910i with me everywhere; it’s just too bulky.
But I’ve never been disappointed with the X! Reading documents on it is mostly an ergonomics issue, not a software one, so it’s good to know that if I absolutely have to browse a document on the go it can be done. The cameraphone side of things has been great fun to play with, which more than made up for my poor conception of what it was I wanted.
Overall, my experience has been a great one. UI-wise, the phone isn’t great (more a Series 60 problem than a Sendo problem) but it’s always responsive. Sendo implemented a great summary screen that’s been pretty useful so far (if you want something similar for your S60 phone, try this. I’ve not used it myself!).
So, why the loud ‘Do not buy’ at the top of this article? Because, about two weeks after I received the phone, Sendo announced the X2! It’s basically an X in a much smaller form factor. You’ll be able to buy it direct from Sendo for just over two-thirds of the price I paid for the X (it should cost about 225 euro). Sigh. It’ll not be out until the end of the summer, so if you can wait until then I’d recommend doing so. I’m very happy with the X; the biggest disappointment is that if I’d waited a bit longer, I could’ve had the X2!
Posted by Oliver at February 23, 2005 04:36 PM
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