Want some widescreen, smallscreen internet access, but fed up of trying to type in URLs on a phone’s numberpad? You need a PocketSurfer, and we’ve just tested the latest, the PocketSurfer 2R, out and about – hear our verdict inside.
Cracking it open, not much appears to have changed. The low quality LCD is still present sadly, along with the flat keypad of the original, but there’s one very smart change: the crusty D-pad cursor has been scrapped in favour of a small but effective trackpad. You can skip around a page happily with it, but it still needs some tweaking: it’s supposed to allow double taps for left mouse clicks, but it’s nigh on impossible to pull off. Datawind knows about this problem though, and says it will fix this in the next batch out of the factory.
Browsing has hardly changed either. It’s fast, but there’s still no sound or flash video capability, but all your main webmail apps work, and can be integrated with the PocketSurfer’s email client. A nice GPS touch is Google Maps loading up on start-up to show where you are.
Ultimately, it’s hard to see quite who this is aimed at other than campers who *need* to check their email in their tents. The battery’s coped all weekend and is still going strong, but the widescreen web viewing isn’t any easier or faster than Safari on an iPhone, and you can still email just as quickly on a BlackBerry. It’s only selling point is the massive amount of data you can chomp through (20 hours worth a month out of the box, or permanently unlimited for an extra £60, and no, you can’t use it for Bittorrent), so if you think you’re going to run over your phone contract’s monthly data allowance, this might be worth a thought. Otherwise, just download Opera Mobile.
Out this week | £199 | Datawind
Strange that the screen is still the same crappy type, as the screen is supposedly “improved” in this later version.
Also does anyone know if the £60 unlimited for life option, is truly unlimited – ie. as many hours as you want per month, or is it a lifetime of 20 hours per month, as included in the first year of use.
I was at the launch, and the impression given was that it really is unlimited. PocketSurfer uses some clever crunching and compression on the server side to make its data use as light as possible, add that to its poor Flash support (it does it, but only a frame every 3 seconds or so), and lack of any real media abilities, and you’d actually find it pretty hard to rack up an obscene usage level!… unless you’ve got something specific in mind?! Do tell!….
I spoke to the company’s COO last week and he confirmed that it is completely unlimited. If you don’t want that, it’s £40 a year after the first year for 20 hours a month. But as James says, if you manage to go over that, I’ll be quite impressed. And slightly worried.