Datawind PocketSurfer 2
Datawind Pocketsurfer 2
The PocketSurfer 2 is the answer to the dreams for those motorhome / caravan owners who want a simply and easy to use solution to browsing the net / sending emails whilst out and about, without the need for any other expensive equipment.
No activation fees & no service charges, the Pocketsurfer Work right out of the box !
The Pocketsurfer can be used throughout Great Britain as well as abroad.
Price includes 20 hours per month of web access. If you require unlimited access this is priced at £5.99 per month.
Note the PocketSurfer is not a phone and cannot be used as one or connected to one.
The Pocketsurfer 2 uses a compression technique similar to how the popular OnSpeed system operates to provide hyper quick page loads.
Payment for upgrading your pocket surfer usage is done by phone using a credit or debit card.
PocketSurfer 2 is an ultra-thin portable device that easily fits into a pocket or bag and delivers the real web, just like at home or at work.
Weighing in at just 174 grams the PocketSurfer 2 allows you to browse the web in its original layout on a 640x240 full colour widescreen display using a mouse cursor and a full backlit QWERTY keyboard making it the most usable hand-held web device around. The PocketSurfer 2 doesn't hang about either, with page-load times of under seven seconds over GPRS thanks to Datawinds compression technology you'll be flying around the web just as you would at your desk.
No Wires
The PocketSurfer 2 has its own in-built GPRS antenna and SIM card which means it can connect itself straight to the mobile network to get you online immediately, you don't need any other bits and pieces at all, just get it out of the box and go!
No Contracts
The PocketSurfer 2 doesn¹t need you to take out a contract, you can use it out-of-the-box for 12 months without paying a penny and to use it for the next year will cost as little as £40!
No Compromise
Browse the web just as you would on your desktop PC. Like no other handheld web-browsing experience, the PocketSurfer 2 keeps all your pages displaying just as they were designed.
How does the PocketSurfer 2 compare with other web browsing options on the market?
PocketSurfer 2 comes out on top in a head-to-head comparison
PocketSurfer2 |
PDA's |
|
The Full Web : Real HTML pages, graphics, java scripts & apps, e-mail & IM including attachments.... Full content, layout and format as no your PC.. no compromises! |
Limited web functionality : Reformatted, scrunched-up web pages, unable to deliver Java scripts and many modern web languages and functionality |
|
Blazingly fast : 5 to 7 seconds per page |
Painfully slow : 1 to 3 minutes per page |
|
The Power of a monster server in the palm of your hand |
Insufficient memory or processing power |
|
Very thin : 1/2 inches |
Thick & bulky |
|
Full VGA Width - 640 Pixels |
As little as 120 pixels, insufficient for the web. |
|
Full QWERTY keyboard |
Tiny incomplete keyboards |
|
Affordable |
Expensive |
Technical Specifications of the PocketSurfer 2:
- Lithium Polymer Battery
- 4 Hours Battery Life
- Built-In High Performance Antenna
- Transreflective Backlit Display
- 640 x 240 VGA Colour
- Mini USB Charger
- Mouse Pointer
- Backlit QWERTY Keyboard
- Sub 7 Second Page-Load
- Web Browsing in Original Layout
- 174 grams
- 152 x 75 x 15 mm
Reviews:
ABC News.com: "...PocketSurfer took only seven seconds to download the main web page of a popular news site. The page appeared on the PocketSurfer in exactly the same format and layout as if viewed on a conventional laptop or computer. Other wireless data devices couldn't reproduce the page at all because of the large number of graphics and images involved. Other handhelds took several minutes to produce pages with a skewed layout or reduced functionality because the devices couldn't handle certain aspects of the web page"
T3.co.uk:"We've been getting excited about the PocketSurfer 2 here at T3.co.uk for quite a while. And now it seems it's only a matter of time before we get the chance to paw our very own model of the killer web toy. You see, PocketSurfer 2 doesn't go straight to websites to request pages. Instead, it goes through its own server, which shrinks down pages in super fast time and sends them straight to the handheld. You can have the site you want in but five seconds."
Reg Hardware.co.uk: "The PocketSurfer 2 doesn't do voice, so it's not going to replace your phone entirely - indeed, Datawind isn't trying to do so - but for a lot of folk it may well be very tempting as a way of keeping up with Facebook and MySpace on the move"
FAQs about the pocketsurfer 2
Read the Datawind Pocketsurfer 2 FAQ Document (64Kb)
Q. How much per hour are the roaming charges if I use the pocketsurfer abroad ?
A. at present this is £14.99 but this is hopefully being reduced in the future.
Q. How much will it cost me to use in the second year of ownership ?
A. It is anticipated that their will be reduced costs in the second year, but at present the standard charge set is £39.95 for the entire year with the same 20 hours per calendar month limitation.
Datawind PocketSurfer 2 Reviews
Below are a selection of reviews of Datawind PocketSurfer 2's from our past customers with the most recent review of the Datawind PocketSurfer 2 at the top, we hope you find them useful
Herman Hesse: Wednesday 23 July, 2008
PocketSurfer 2 - lightning fast web surfing device that fits in a pocket
from Mobile Technology
“If your PDA or Smartphone downloads web-pages faster than the PocketSurfer, you get a free PocketSurfer.” It's a brave challenge but one that the distributors of PocketSurfer 2 were happy to stand behind at the world’s largest consumer electronics trade showhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_fair , Germany’s IFA 2007. We’re not aware of anyone who’s taken a prize home yet – please let us know if you saw any device beat this one for speed. The PocketSurfer 2 is tiny, fits in a shirt pocket and for the price (EUR 230 - US$310), you can overlook a few of the device's less than premium features such as the screen.
The PocketSurfer 2 is a dedicated handheld web surfing device with a 640 x 240 colour widescreen display and a QWERTY keyboard. It sells in the UK for around £180, which includes a year’s worth of limited wireless web access over a GPRS connection that offers excellent coverage and, in combination with Datawind’s acceleration technology, actually delivers data significantly faster than the majority of 3G devices – hence the download speed challenge. We’re talking megabytes in seconds – that sort of fast. Apparently the bulk of the speed is achieved by pre-compressing the Web content at the Datawind servers before it’s sent – either way, it’s very, very quick.
In a world of portable device convergence, you need a very good argument to justify the purchase of a dedicated device like this. The PocketSurfer’s proposition is simple – phones and PDAs currently deliver a quasi-internet experience that’s of little use or interest to many users because it’s so slow and pages are packed into such tiny screens that they’re ugly and hard to use. And although few pages these days are designed to be narrow enough to be fully sideways rendered on the PocketSurfer’s 640px-wide screen, it certainly delivers a more familiar and accessible Web experience than the phones.
The thumb-operated backlit QWERTY keyboard might take some getting used to, and you can really only expect so much out of the directional mouse-pointer pad, but such are the compromises when you’re dealing with portable devices.
The first PocketSurfer device left many cold – it was simply a Bluetooth device that used a mobile phone’s Web connection to download and display data. The latest version is an all-in-one web surfing package with a built-in antenna and access contract: 20 hours of surfing a month for 40 quid a year, the first year of which is built into the contract.
Spec-wise, the company is being coy – we know it has a 5-hour usage life (or 5 days standby) from its Li-Polymer battery, that it has an inbuilt GPS unit, POP/IMAP/Web mail support (including attachments), Instant Messaging and a Web browser that supports HTML and Java – but what browser? What sort of processor? Memory?
All applications on the PocketSurfer are Web-based – which means there’s no synching of calendars or emails to be done, as they’re all directly hosted online anyway. A supplied application lets you access your PC from the road once it’s set up. The browser handles secure transactions just fine, so banking and online purchases should be fine. It won’t play YouTube videos or other Flash-based content, and it has no sound, so it’s more an information tool than an entertainment device… At least, this time around.
In the wash, the PocketSurfer 2 looks like a decent compromise between the portability of a PDA/phone and the actual Web useability of a small laptop. The pricing makes it fairly accessible, and the Web-anywhere GPRS access contract makes it a pretty handy tool and is perhaps one of the first true "web in your pocket" experiences. Is it worth adding another portable device to your PDA, phone, camera and iPod ? What do you think?
The PocketSurfer distributors are seeking worldwide distributors and resellers.
I also saw a great site for all reviews: www.mydataworld.co.uk
