Dopod 838

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Features
As with the new Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, the 838 sports several enhancements including a revamp of the onboard Office applications. For example, instead of Pocket Word and Excel, you now have Word Mobile and Excel Mobile, with added support for embedded images, tables and charts.

We like that the LCD screen automatically switches orientation from portrait to landscape when the keyboard slides out, and does the opposite when the keyboard is closed. However, we can't help but notice that it takes a while for the screen adjustments to be made. In certain cases, the handheld operations also lag considerably. Interestingly, the display tends to be less sensitive in the landscape mode, making stylus input challenging when the keyboard is slid out.

With Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, the 838 enables users to watch encoded videos though we experienced sluggish video playback on more than one occasion. Music playback, on the other hand, is of satisfactory quality, as expected of most Pocket PC phones today.

The speaker function can be activated by holding onto the Talk button. While it is barely usable, especially in noisy environments, it is no doubt an improvement over the Xda II mini. The onboard 1.3-megapixel camera produces decent pictures and a flashlight is provided for taking photographs in low-light conditions.

Most users should find the 128MB onboard ROM sufficient. For those who want more storage capacity, a miniSD card slot is available for memory expansion. Do note that the 838 comes with persistent storage. That means that all your data will be retained even when the battery runs out.

Performance
On normal usage, the Dopod 838 can last for one to two days before its 1,250mAh Lithium-ion cell drains completely. The battery itself is removable, and more can be separately purchased for longer periods of mobililty.

Dopod employed a 195MHz Texas Instrument OMAP 850 processor for its 838 PDA-phone which, in comparison, seems a lot slower than the Xda II mini's 416MHz processor. As Windows Mobile does not support the closing of applications, all the programs opened continue to run in the background when a new application is activated. For this reason, the 838 simply fails to handle multitasking, which results in a considerable lag particularly when running processor-intensive applications such as the Microsoft Reader. In some cases, each letter takes a second or more to appear when typing SMS messages. During tests, soft resets have to be performed periodically to get the handheld back in proper operational speed.

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