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Qool Labs QDA Lite

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By Reuben Lee, CNET Asia
Jun 23, 2006

Singapore-based manufacturer Qool Labs offered a glimpse of its first Windows Mobile 5.0-based PDA-phones at this year's CommunicAsia tradeshow held in Singapore. One of them, the QDA Lite, sports several enhanced features over its QDA Oh! predecessor, including a faster 520MHz processor, higher-resolution camera, and most importantly, onboard Wi-Fi connectivity. We take a closer look at this latest handheld to see if it has what it takes to compete with the big boys.

Upside:
Qool Labs has added a number of key feature upgrades in its latest QDA Lite PDA-phone, with the most significant being the onboard wireless LAN which was sorely missed in the earlier QDA Oh!. Like the recently announced O2 XDA Atom Exec, the triband QDA handheld will also come with Intel's PXA 270 520MHz processor, which should ensure better performance and less lag time when running multimedia-intensive applications.

We were surprised to find an SDIO card expansion slot on the QDA Lite instead of miniSD which has become a standard among the latest range of PDA-phones. However, this is a move likely to go down well with many handheld users looking for affordable storage expansion options, since SD memory cards are one of the cheapest in the market today. Unlike miniSD, SDIO card products are also more readily available.

A 2-megapixel camera onboard the QDA Lite is a nice, but not impressive, upgrade for snapshooters, while the new Windows Mobile 5.0 means users can now take advantage of the new features in the operating system.

While the name seems to suggest that the QDA Lite is a lighter edition of its predecessor, we have yet to confirm this with Qool Labs since the official weight of the PDA-phone has not yet been released. What we can confirm is the slimmer form factor (18.7mm for the Lite and 23.9mm for the Oh!), though the Lite does have a longer and wider footprint.

Downside:
Even with the reduced dimensions, the QDA Lite is still larger than the O2 XDA Atom or Dopod 818Pro, which has become somewhat of a standard size for PDA-phones these days. The QDA Lite's also lacks the aesthetics appeal, with its white-grey exterior looking rather plasticky and an overall design that's somehow not as sleek as the other PDA-phones out there.

Outlook:
The QDA Lite may not be the best-looking PDA-phone, nor is it the most ultracompact model in the market. But what's promising about the Qool Labs device is its strong set of onboard features which should appeal to those seeking a simple, yet functional handheld. Watch out for our full review.