Genio e550G Report

A bit slow on posting a report, but I finally splashed out for the Genio e550G (http://www.genio-e.com/pda/) - a long awaited PDA upgrade on the 6th June - the first day of release. I'd been itching to upgrade since at least last November but was determined to wait for the right device and am convinced I made the right decision. So what's so good about it?

Size - Much smaller than my GFORT and one of the smallest and lightest PDAs on the market with two expansion slots. 170g, 125x76.5x15.9

Screen - it spite of the small body footprint it sports a great 4" screen. I don't know of any other PDA in this size category which has a screen of the same size. Of course the screen has the normal

Processor - XScale PXA250 400 MHz. Much improved performance over the GFORT 140 MHz. Can handle downloading e-mail in the background while you are surfing or using other apps.

Expanison - In-built CF II and SD slot. USB host in cradle or with optional cable. PCMCIA jacket option. Hard to beat for expansion options and there are a huge range of Pocket PC compatible accessories to take advantage of.

Pocket PC OS and software - (Is this where the controversy starts ;-) I really like the OS. Very easy to use and the bundled apps cover all standard PDA needs. For the most part they are well designed but see the 'bad' section below for a few niggles. In addition there are now a humungous range of apps for the Pocket PC to cover almost every conceivable need and as mentioned above a huge range of compatible hardware apps. The OS is also very stable and never crashes. There are a wide range of input methods including keyboards, kanji drawing input, hand writing recognition and note recognition. Additional third party apps are also appearing. Setting up network and internet connections is very easy.

Bundled apps - A great selection is provided on CD including Japanese dictionary, JR Travel Navigator, Flash viewer, i-appli viewer, Personal Java, map viewing software and maps, photo viewer, T-Time Japanese e-book reader, Word, Excel and PowerPoint native format viewer (the Pocket versions of Word and Excel take files which are converted to pocket version automatically by Active Synch, neat speech tool which reads Japanese text, Windows Media Player 8, MSN Messenger and of course Pocket Internet Explorer. The is also a while designed customizable home screen app which is an ice addition to the Pocket PC native Today screen. I find I use both for different purposes. For the first time I feel like I have a useful desktop on my PDA.

Flashable ROM - Can update the OS with new updates.

Track record and accessories - Toshiba made a good impression with the first generation Genio Pocket PC. They made available a range of accessories and they are popular enough that 3rd party manufacturers make accessories which support the Genio.

Well designed and information packed web site.

And now for a few minor bad things:

Battery Life - This is by far the biggest problem with all Pocket PCs. Supposedly around 10 hours for the Genio at 400 MHz with front light off but I really doubt it would last this long with real usage. Using the front light, processor heavy apps playing lot's of multimedia or using energy hungry expansion cards all add load. You can manage all these things but what's the point having them if you are going to turn them off. It really is a serious deficiency for a PDA to have battery life problems and I'm sure Palm users everywhere will be shouting victory, but in my opinion this handicap is worth putting up with for all the other benefits. I haven't run out of batteries so far but I do find myself plugging in at every available opportunity and being careful not to waste power. Depending on how I end up using the device over the long term I may carry a spare battery jacket or get the PCMCIA jacket which also has inbuilt power.

In-built PIM (Pocket Outlook)) - There are a few niggles or things on my wish list which would make the PIM much better software. Just a small niggle. Pocket Informant is a 3rd party PIM app recommended by all the Pocket PC gurus which uses the Pocket Outlook databases and costs just $19.95

No in-built Bluetooth - Not such a bad thing in reality but some people may argue no built in Bluetooth is a disadvantage. I think there will be a new generation or two of Pocket PC by the time Bluetooth really takes off and in the meantime a CF or SD card will probably be perfectly okay in most situations.

No screen protectors - There were no screen protectors shipped with the Genio and as the screen is larger than usual no cut-to-size 3rd party ones are available yet. Have to cut one to size for now.

No scroll wheel - I missed the scroll wheel on the left at first but have got used to not having it and may actually be doing things more efficiently without it though. In fact though it's not really a wheel that you find on most Pocket PCs but an up-down scroll button. I like the button-wheel (like a mouse wheel-button) I have on my Sony video camera and would like this navigation option on more PDAs.

Cursor button - The default button was convex and a bit difficult to use. An additional button with an in and out concave design is much easier to use though. Still got to get used to this compared to the scroll button though.

Firmware/OS Update - An update was released just six days after the original release to fix a few minor bugs.

Price: At around 67,800 yen it's pretty expensive, beaten only be the iPAQ. You also need to factor in the costs of cases, screen protectors, extra chargers, battery jackets, PCMCIA card jackets and other peripherals like CF and SD cards if you don't already have these and want to make the most of the PDA.

Japanese OS: If you want an English version you are out of luck as no English version has been released or announced yet. The Japanese version was slightly delayed by about a week supposedly to ensure they had enough devices to meet demand so perhaps like the iPAQ before it demand will exceed the speed that they can be manufactured.

Overall all the many good points far, far outweigh the minor bad points and it is a very well designed and powerful PDA. I'd certainly recommend it as the best Pocket PC and arguably the most powerful PDA available on the market at the current time.