Dopod C730

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Features
Other than the addition of 3G and HSDPA connectivity features on this quadband Dopod, the biggest difference between the C730 and the older C720W is the operating system. The C730 runs on the latest Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, while the C720W is powered on the Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone edition. For a full review of Windows Mobile 6, click here.

That said, we didn't feel that there's a major overhaul between the two platforms, though there are some definite improvements on the newer OS. For instance, the WM6 ships with Office Mobile by default so we could view and edit Word and Excel PowerPoint documents on the smart phone without the need to install third-party applications. PowerPoint files, however, remain view-only. One other thing to note is that the programs don't allow the user to create new documents, at least not on the Standard edition devices.

Other refinements include the ability to view emails in all their full HTML (only on Exchange 2007) glory as well as a more friendly user interface for emails, contacts and calendar. There's also a task bar on the top row of the home screen which displays the most recently used programs. Windows Mobile 6 additionally integrates some services to give a more desktop-like experience such as the Live Search function and Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger).

We like how WM6 attempts to integrate all the various programs and services together for a wholesome experience, but we also noticed that keeping an always-on connection drains the battery rapidly. Syncing with our Exchange server was a breeze. One thing we noticed was that if we had already specified to sync, say, Contacts via a PC connection, the device would not allow us to sync Contacts again over-the-air. We had to disable the selection on the sync profile before we could do that.

As a multimedia device, the C730 is pretty much like the rest of the competition and there aren't big surprises. The 2-megapixel shooter on the back is still missing an LED flash and the handheld sorely lacks a front-facing camera for 3G video calls. It supports Bluetooth stereo (and AVRCP) so we could use our wireless headsets if we didn't want to utilize the onboard speakers on the back of the unit.

With Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, the C730 can read AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA and AMR files. Rather disappointing is the omission of an audio jack. Instead, we had to rely on the mini-USB port on the top of the phone for plugging in a USB headset, charging and synchronizing.

There's also a nifty Internet Sharing program which allows the user to deploy the C730 as a modem to share Internet connection with a computer over Bluetooth. While we're at it, this Dopod is also Wi-Fi-enabled.

On the technical specifications, the Dopod C730 is powered by a 400MHz Samsung processor with 64MB of RAM and 128MB of flash ROM. There's about 20MB of free memory to run applications.