Introduction, packaging
The name of Socket Mobile Inc. might sound quite unfamiliar for most of our readers, which is no wonder, as the main profile of the company is not telecommunication, but the production of networking equipment and accessories. The company with a 15 year old history has many Windows Mobile-related stuff in its portfolio, they make both software and accessories, the average user might rather know them from the previous category, we might mention the application called Wi-Fi Companion.
But they still have much more: an armada of barcode readers, WiFi- and Bluetooth-CF/SD cards, external antennas, modems, adapters. It has been almost a need to make a Pocket PC for all these accessories, which they have fortunately done. The result of this is the product family with a very nice name: SoMo. There are currently two devices here, SoMo 560 and the subject of this review, SoMo 650. On the manufacturer’s website we can see the following text at the handset: “More Than Just Another Pocket PC!” It will turn out from our review if this is indeed true, but I’d like to tell in advance that this is a shock-resistant, industry-designed PDA without any GSM features, which is of course compatible with all accessories of the company.
We have received the PDA from SpeedShop. We got it quite “naked, as there was only a charger with it, the boxed version comes with a desktop cradle, a data cable, a 2.5 mm jack headset and a 2.5-> 3.5 mm jack converter. The lack of the data cable hurt me the most, as the handset has a special connector, so I couldn’t sync it with my desktop PC without a cable.
Exterior
Although the manufacturer targets the average user with SoMo 650 (or at least they target them too), this is not visible at all on the exterior. The robust device makes us think of industrial machines, both in design and size. It weighs 178 grams and its size is 127 x 74.6 x 20.6 mm. They didn’t invest much in design; if the handset could talk it would probably say: I don’t look good, but I can stand the stress! The manufacturer guarantees that SoMo survives if it’s dropped from 1 m height – most people would say that all phones survive this, but it’s a different thing when a handset “officially” survives such a test.
This is not the most special thing of the PDA, but the materials used are. The rubber-like plastic cover is theoretically “antibacterial”, so it keeps germs away. I say this is no bad thing, as we all know that the dirtiest part of a household is not the toilet, but the computer keyboard, but I think we would still be surprised to put a cell phone under the microscope. Of course it’s true that no one died because of a cell phone that had an armada of germs on it…
On top of the front there are two status LEDs and the power button. The touchscreen display is below these, it has a diagonal of 3.5” and a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. On the bottom we can observe the microphone and the navigation controls. The latter are very easy to use, the keys are large, they have a good pressure point, the chance of mispressing them is practically zero. The back is just as plain as any other part; there are only a couple of logos and four rubber feet, along with the speaker.
On the bottom we can see the connector of the data cable and the reset gap; it’s interesting that the previous one is not covered by anything. On the right there is a huge button, which launches Radio Manager (or Wireless Manager by its other name) by default. The large stylus is also here, it can be taken out from the top.
On the top there is a rock steady rubber plate that covers the SDIO and CF slots. The latter is probably here because the manufacturer has lots of accessories that use this slot (like a barcode reader that costs about €520 EUR). We can see most stuff on the left, the list includes the following things (from top to bottom): 2.5 mm jack output, hotkey for the sound recorder, keypad lock slider and charger connector.
Hardware, speed, software
The operating system is Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC with Messaging and Security Feature Pack and it runs rather fast. The reason for this is that the heart of the handset is a 624 MHz Intel XScale PXA270 CPU, the amount of RAM is 128 MB and we also have 256 MB ROM, the amount of free memory for programs is 102 MB, and we also have 180 MB of free storage.
Unfortunately we have no speed test results due to the reason I have already mentioned (no data cable), as there is no Pocket PC edition (.cab files) of the software we use for testing. So we have the subjective judgment: SoMo 650 is very fast, I didn’t observe any slowdowns or choppiness, screen changes and program launches were all very fast.
We have lots of software, as the manufacturer installed all of their stuff on the handset. This means we have their great Wi-Fi Companion, Connect!Agent and all the drivers for the optional accessories (Modem, Ethernet and Serial I/O Utilities). They have even thought of those who would like to use the antibacterial PDA for reading barcodes, so in the menu we can see a Socket Scan folder, which includes five programs. All other software is factory default ones: we have Office, Internet Explorer and Outlook, Terminal Services Client, and that’s about all.
Data transfer, battery, summary
We can make no phone calls since there is no GSM module, but thanks to the 802.11b/g WiFi module we can use the web – there will probably be no problems with finding networks, thanks to the software. There is Bluetooth too, version number 2.0 and it supports the stereo profile too. Unfortunately I can’t write anything about the multimedia features, there is no camera on the handset; I had no headset with it, but after installing some third party apps the PDA becomes capable of listening to music and playing back videos too.
The battery’s capacity is 1200 mAh, which isn’t too much for such a handset. We can buy a 2600 mAh one optionally, which increases uptime a lot. I couldn’t find any official information about the uptime and I didn’t use the handset for a long time so I can’t tell you much about this.
Summary: The price of Socket Mobile SoMo 650 at the moment of writing this review is about €795 WUE, so it costs as much as a Symbol MC50, and it’s more special than that only because of its antibacterial coating. The average user will probably be no fan of it, but it might be perfect for industrial use, although it’s not cheap at all with the barcode reader. If it would have GPS then geocaching fans might also like it, but this way we just have another industrial handset that is no good for average users. I liked it anyway.
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| Socket Mobile SoMo 650 |
Bocha
Translated by Szaszati
The handset has been provided by www.speedshop.hu. Thanks! Please click here to access the shop.
Specifications
| Socket Mobile SoMo 650 | ||
 | Technology | No GSM module |
| Operating system | Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack | |
| Size | 127 x 74.6 x 20.6 mm | |
| Weight | 178.6 grams | |
| CPU | 624 MHz Intel XScale PXA270 | |
| ROM/RAM | 256 / 128 MB (180 / 100 MB free) | |
| Display | 3.5” diagonal, 240 x 320 pixels resolution, 16 bit color depth touchscreen | |
| Expandability | SDIO/CF | |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g | |
| Infra / Bluetooth | none / 2.0 (A2DP too) | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Audio | 2.5 mm jack output, microphone, mono speaker | |
| Camera | none | |
| battery | 1200 mAh changeable Li-Ion | |
| Other | Shock-resistant, antibacterial coating, Socket software | |
