Datawind's PocketSurfer 2 is a mobile internet browsing device. It connects to the web over GPRS, and the included SIM card comes with one year's worth of access, though that's limited to 20 hours per month. After the first year, you will need to pay £40 every 12 months to maintain this connection.

Don't expect the Datawind to do much other than surf the net, though — it runs on a proprietary OS, which makes it impossible to install third-party applications, unlike the likes of Nokia's Internet Tablets. The menu system you're greeted with after startup is, in fact, nothing more than a website hosted on Datawind's servers.

The device has no built-in features to speak of, and each menu icon simply links off a web service. Clicking on the word processor icon, for example, takes you to an online editor. This means that only tasks, which you can perform with a browser alone can be done on the PocketSurfer 2. Datawind claim that they use a compression process to speed up web access on popular websites. Loading times were acceptable, but far from impressive.

Unfortunately, not all the websites we tried were accessible on the device — YouTube showed one frame every ten seconds or so, and many other web applications were so slow and cumbersome so as to be unusable. For some sites though, the device worked well. Browsing news sites and blogs wasn't as easy as on some platforms, but the ability to stay connected without being shackled to the confines of a Wi-Fi hotspot was undeniably useful.

The wide and squat screen isn't very impressive either. The resolution of 640 x 240 pixels may sound generous compared to the 320 x 240 pixel resolution that's commonplace on many smartphones, but it's unhelpfully cramped by the bizarre header that consumes around 10% of the already limited vertical space. Images are very washed out too, and the colour reproduction is beset by awful colour banding, which ruins the browsing experience on some sites. While such complaints might not bother those who need to access static websites, and who don't worry too much about picture quality, it's still far from ideal.

Input is taken care of with a Motorola Razr-style keyboard, but while we can live with short-travel keys on a mobile phone, the Pocket Surfer 2 feels horrid. The keys give little feedback and attempting to type even the shortest of emails left us tearing our hair out in frustration. The browsing experience is little better as you have to scroll to the extremities of the screen to pan left or right, which can quickly become frustrating on fixed width websites that are wider than the screen.

If you're looking for a pocket-sized device that gives internet access anywhere, anytime then the Pocket Surfer 2, at least on paper, fits the bill. In reality it's a poor choice. The awful screen and suspect keyboard are inexcusable on a device of this type, and are enough to make a good smartphone equipped with Wi-Fi and GPRS or 3G look like a far safer option. And if you don't mind being restricted to surfing the web in the confines of a Wi-Fi hotspot, Apple's gorgeous iPod Touch only costs about £20 more.

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Otaku  - Slightly more detailed spec li   |17/01/08 10:01 AM http://www.taki ngthingsapart.o rg/index.php?op tion=com_conten t&task=view&id= 56&Itemid=75 Reply | Quote

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