Box Content

As always we will start off by telling you about what you get inside the box. For a start you have an AC main charger, Mini USB cable, USB cradle, Stereo headphones, Manual, Quick Reference Guide and an ActiveSync CD with Outlook. So you are getting a lot of extras for your money and at £400 rightly so.

Features

• Operating System Windows Mobile 6 Professional (Multilingual)
• Memory 192MB ROM, 96MB RAM
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS Class 10
• WCDMA/UMTS Tri-band 850/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• Processor 520MHz Intel XScale 270 + Qualcomm 6280
• Bluetooth 1.2 with A2DP
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• Display 2.4" QVGA (240x320) Colour TFT
• Camera(s) 2MP main camera, secondary 0.3MP camera
• Memory Card Micro SD
• Connector mini USB
• Dimensions 123mm x 65mm x 15.7mm

Design

From a design point of view the UBiQUiO reminds us of the older Fujitsu T830, which housed a Qwerty keyboard under a similar sized screen at 2.4", though thankfully the device is a lot thinner and has a higher 320 x 240 resolution.

It measures - as you can see from the above - 123mm x 65mm x 15.7mm (H x W x D), which is a touch on the bulky side and at 157g this is not a light weight device to carry around. We found as a result of its bulk and weight this made it harder to hold and type one handed for longer periods of time.

Its screen was bright and oozed quality but we did find it harder to view, with icons and text being more of a challenge to make out.

This was always going to be a problem because normally devices running the Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS would have a larger screen, but if you can live with the size its remaining design features could prove interesting...

For a start the UBiQUiO features a full Qwerty keyboard with each button being raised and slightly apart, which certainly helped with typing. But the keys themselves are relatively small and after prolonged use they were not as comfortable to use.

On a positive note the keys were backlit for being used in low light conditions and with the shortcut buttons, joypad and the attached stylus pen, you have a great combination which gives you the best of both worlds - a Qwerty keyboard with the added functionality of fast menu access with a stylus.

To the side of the device is a microSD slot, camera shortcut button and a handy jogwheel to help with navigating around the OS. The power on/off switch is at the top with the hands free and USB connector at the bottom.

Software

With Windows Mobile 6 professional as an operating system you get the full version of Microsoft's Office mobile suite, so you can type in documents, create spreadsheets and view PowerPoint slides. There is also the standard Windows Live components, Media player, Microsoft Exchange Push support and Internet explorer to get you started.

Performance

With a 520MHz Intel XScale 270 processor the performance as you would guess was great, we had no problems playing back videos and opening documents.

The version we used for review was one of the first 503G devices, which has a low volume problem, but by reading some of the comments left on the eXpansys site it seems that UBiQUiO have sorted this out now.

As for memory you get 64MB ram and 192MB of ROM with only 43mb of this being free to add your own applications or data, so taking advantage of the microSD card is a must.

Camera

Its 2MP camera lacked a flash option, which will limit its usefulness in low light conditions, but its images were fine and with an added macro function you can take some descent close up shots.

Connectivity Options

Apart from the lack of a GPS receiver the UBiQUiO packs in an impressive amount of options. You have 3G HSDPA (3.6Mbps) Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, Bluetooth 1.2 and dual Wi-Fi support.

The latter was useful for linking up to hotspots and the mobile 3G HSDPA access was nippy when web browsing

For calls the quality was acceptable, though not as clear as other devices we have used in the past, though again this could be down to the devices earlier ROM problems that should have been fixed by now. The 0.3mp front facing camera can also be used to make 3G video calls if needs be.

Battery Life

From the 1500mAh battery you have up to 4hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby time, but Wi-Fi and 3G usage will reduce its life spam further