The packaging is nicely presented and serves to show exactly what you are buying, a Pocket PC Phone Edition running the latest Windows Mobile 2003. Click on Thumbnails to view large pictures.

• Everex E500
• Stylus
• Cradle
• USB sync cable
• AC adapter
• Stereo headset
• Leather case
• Companion CD (since I received an early release, this CD still didn't come with OEM applications loaded, it is loaded only with Microsoft Software, the supplier will provide it later including Arabic features)
• Quick start guide
• User manual

• Stylus
• Cradle with independent slot for additional battery charge
• USB sync cable
• USB sync cable with DC-in plug
• USB host cable
• Battery pack
• AC adapter
• Leather case
• Car charger
• Portable keyboard
• GPS kit

How does it fit in my hands?

The E500 feels perfect in my hand. The size makes holding it very comfortable and there is enough heft to the unit to give it a quality feel. It is also solid, it didn't creak, crack or flex when squeezed it. I didn't notice any rattling while shaking it either. (Update: I've noticed later that there was a spring sound coming from the unit)

Comparing Everex with i-mate:

Software Loaded

• Pocket Outlook (Calendar, Tasks, Contacts and Inbox)
• MSN Messenger
• Pocket Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Transcriber
• Pocket Word
• Pocket Excel
• Microsoft Windows Media Player 9
• Microsoft Reader
• Picture
• Terminal Services Client
• Notes Taker
• Voice Recorder
• ActiveSync 3.7
• Calculator
• Games: Solitaire and Jawbreaker
• Phone Application (Depends on region)

Additional Optional Software will be included on CD is IAI Arabic applications. More details will be available when this device will be released, it was discussed to provide MMS software since this device supports MMS. (Update 11-Jan-2004: The supplier released the device with Imaginet Pocket Arabizer bundled instead)

Specifications:

Operating system	Windows Mobile™ 2003 software for Pocket PC Phone Edition
Processor	ARM 9, 200 MHz, 32-bit RISC processor
Memory	32 MB Flash, 64 MB SDRAM
Display	2.8”, 240 x 320, 4,096 colors STN Display
Dimensions(LxWxH)	117 x 67 x 23 mm
Weight	165 g
Communications	GSM tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS Class B / Multi-slot Class10
Camera	Built-in, 300K pixels, up to 640x480 resolution
Expandability	SDIO card slot
Interface/Audio	Built-in microphone and speaker, external stereo headset jack
Interface/Data	IrDA, USB Sync, USB host (via cradle)
Ergonomic Design	Touch screen for stylus or fingertip, Joystick, power button, 4 quick application buttons, record button, volume control
Battery	1050 mAh Li-Polymer, rechargeable, replaceable

The following screenshots when views “System Console” in settings:

You can also control the contrast:

Phone Features

This device is a triband phone “SIM free” not locked to any service provider. As highlighted before in i-mate review, Everex shares the same phone functions since this has to do with Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition Devices OS. You can keep the device always connected to GPRS and in the same time receive calls and SMS messages. Since this is a Class B GPRS device, it will hold the GPRS connection if there is a call, and reactivate it when the call ends.

The phone volume is controlled separately from the device volume, a vibrate mode can be selected also.

Making a phone call can be done from the dialer, contacts, speed dial, call history, and SIM manager. You can answer a call by pressing the answer hardware button, or can be rejected by the reject hardware button, a busy tone will be sent out. When another incoming call is received the device will notify you, if you accept you can setup conference call, you can choose to swap backwards and forwards between 2 callers by pressing swap on the dialer. One more feature I like is that you can take notes during a call, and after you finish it can be saved as an attachment to the call. While listening to MP3 and multitasking if you received a call during that the device will pause WMP, and when you are finished with the phone call, it will not activate until you go to WMP and select play. (Update: November 30,2003: The signal quality of this phone is not bad. There is an annoying echo can be heard by the caller when the Phone volume is maximum . Including the handshaking signal can be heard as well.)(Update: December 31,2003: The supplier provided a fix for this problem they confirmed that the new units will not have this problem)

I was trying to enable speaker phone mode with no success which can be enabled by holding down the receive button until the speaker comes on, to turn it off you can hold the same button again. I will miss this feature for sure. You can interchange your SIM card information between Everex and another device, using SIM manager you can transfer contacts from SIM to contacts and visa versa. SMS messages can be sent in different ways, from Inbox SMS account, or from the phone dialer itself or a selected name from the contact list.

The Camera

To use the camera you have to start Digital Camera application from the program menu. Tap on “preview” button to take a picture, or press “Action” key located in the center of the joystick. You can assign a hardware button for easy access to thins function. So far MMS software is not available; the supplier is planning to make it available through software download, or bundled in a CD, for now you can send pictures to other people as an email attachment. Taking pictures with this camera is really difficult; you cannot verify the picture on the device because it is located on the front panel above the screen, so you will direct the front panel facing the object. The supplier suggests that this is mainly for video conferencing. I am not sure how good a video conferencing on a GPRS will do, but so far we will still need to see how it will be applied.

Here I used a booklet in front of the camera; obviously it is not very clear due to poor lightening in my office.

You can create frames and slide show

Here is a sample photo I've taken from the backyard (Resolution 640 x 480)

Everex Performance

Utilizing SPB Benchmark from SPB Software House , You can have the ability to compare similar machines on a common testing software platform. I excluded benchmarks that dealt with ActiveSync and SD Card memory speeds. Because ActiveSync speeds are directly dependent on how many USB devices you have in the chain, if you have USB 1.1 or USB 2.0, and how fast your particular PC is. SD/CF memory speed tests imbed the speed of the SD/CF card itself, and really can't be extracted from the raw results. All testing was done using a freshly hard reset unit, with only SPB Benchmark loaded in Main Memory. The results were then taken from the unit, and compared utilizing SPB Benchmark's visualize capability. Anything you see in red denotes that the particular unit won that specific test.

	Compaq iPAQ 3970 (2002, 400Mhz)	HP iPAQ h1910 (2002, 200Mhz)	HP iPAQ 5450 (2002, 400Mhz)	Dell Axim X5 (2002, 400Mhz PXA250)	Mitac Mio 528 (2002, 206Mhz)	T-Mobile MDA (2002, 200Mhz)	Toshiba e310 (2002, 206Mhz)	Everex E500 (2003, 200Mhz)
Spb Benchmark index	846	669	761	752	926	1062	813	731
CPU index	855	602	853	912	896	1008	935	1016
File system index	855	627	887	855	872	1037	976	898
Graphics index	785	2084	491	434	1607	1734	498	258
Platform index	638	494	603	629	717	881	762	838
Write 1 MB file (KB/sec)	656	447	670	657	654	791	772	729
Read 1 MB file (MB/sec)	15.7	11.2	15	15.9	17	19.6	16.6	17.5
Copy 1 MB file (KB/sec)	710	491	726	716	697	790	768	717
Write 10 KB x 100 files (KB/sec)	480	372	520	477	470	540	533	569
Read 10 KB x 100 files (MB/sec)	5.36	4.24	5.15	5.26	5.03	6.45	6.01	7.63
Copy 10 KB x 100 files (KB/sec)	379	290	406	376	389	461	453	548
Directory list of 2000 files (thousands of files/sec)	118	76.9	105	112	114	118	132	25.8
Internal database read (records/sec)	380	272	618	398	478	608	536	818
Graphics test: DDB BitBlt (frames/sec)	19.9	172	49.1	41.8	193	204	46.9	67.6
Graphics test: DIB BitBlt (frames/sec)	11.3	17.7	12.8	12.3	20.4	21.3	21.2	12.8
Graphics test: GAPI BitBlt (frames/sec)	175	325	53.7	47.1	198	217	52.2	24.6
Pocket Word document open (KB/sec)	21.3	15.5	19.9	22.5	30.3	32.2	30.5	39.2
Pocket Internet Explorer HTML load (KB/sec)	4.73	3.7	4.5	4.73	4.57	7.19	6.74	7.51
Pocket Internet Explorer JPEG load (KB/sec)	82.4	50.5	74.6	79.7	63	70.7	67.7	144
File Explorer large folder list (files/sec)	210	169	220	238	258	311	302	560
Compress 1 MB file using ZIP (KB/sec)	62.7	45.6	60.1	65.5	96.1	107	104	204
Decompress 1024x768 JPEG file (KB/sec)	406	268	387	423	297	322	302	293
Arkaball frames per second (frames/sec)	89.3	94.5	41.5	38.2	92.3	107	40.1	54.6
CPU test: Whetstones MFLOPS (Mop/sec)	0.061	0.033	0.062	0.061	0.044	0.046	0.046	0.042
CPU test: Whetstones MOPS (Mop/sec)	55.1	27.5	55.2	54.1	33.1	34.1	34	27.6
CPU test: Whetstones MWIPS (Mop/sec)	3.97	2.19	4.01	3.96	2.85	2.98	2.96	2.71
Memory test: copy 1 MB using memcpy (MB/sec)	56.2	43.7	61.9	65	57.6	71.3	59.5	52.2

With a 200 MHz ARM core based processor from “unexpectedly” Samsung, the device delivers a snappier performance than most of its competitors in the low-end range. It does, however, offer a sizeable amount of on-board memory for a low-end unit with 53.3 MB of RAM and 2.2 MB of non-volatile memory through its File Store.

Battery

I am pleased with the battery performance; I guess the processor and the smaller STN screen contributes to this factor. However I didn't include battery performance figures because there is a big difference in usage time while the screen is turned on as opposed when it is turned off. It's really important to note that these kinds of tests really don't give you the full picture with regards to real world battery life. A typical user will not be leaving their Pocket PC on for hours at a time. Instead they will turn it on for a few minutes, do some work and then turn it off. This type of usage will repeat throughout the day.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my time testing this device. I think the Everex E500 is what a typical user is waiting for at a lower price point. With the included internal memory, built-in camera, solid design, SDIO, WM2003 and the offered range of accessories, it might satisfy many people. The argument will be about the STN display, you might accept it and live with longer battery life, or reject it; this is up to you to decide. Well if this thing has a good battery life, then the STN screen and 200 MHz processor might make sense. You will find it very easy to use and you might favor it as your primary phone instead of the regular phone. With the Everex E500 you are online within seconds when needed. If you are a Power user or an average customer that mainly uses a PIM, likes to play a few games, listen to MP3s, read e-books, and prefers as small Pocket PC Phone as possible, this one might be just the one you've been looking for.

Suggested retail price: $530 (This is not the final market price it could change when the product is finally released)

What's positive?

• Good performance
• Small size
• Built in camera
• SDIO Slot
• Removable battery
• Supports MMS

What's negative?

• STN Display
• Bluetooth is not integrated
• Speaker phone is not available
• The awkward location of the camera made it useless for taking pictures

Last date revised: January 11, 2004

Remember: This is a review of the Engineering Unit. This is not the latest hardware design. Problems and bugs are therefore to be expected with both the hardware and the software. Also note that these are only my initial impressions about this device.