Recently I have had chance to have “extreme possession” of the MS800 device from Gigabyte (labelled under the “G-Smart” brand). Below are some brief highlights, pointer to the specs, and the G-Smart website itself:
Initial impressions were that the G-Smart devices come in a professionally put-together set of packaging. Included are in-car charger, USB cable, spare pointer, instructions, wired stereo headset, and multi-country component mains charger - a nice set of accessories. A case wouldn’t have got amiss, but it’s not a showstopper
The device itself is well-made - nice construction, and plenty of time and effort obviously spent avoiding the serious “creak” problems that many plastic-bodied devices have:
The O/S is WinMo 6 Pro - on top of this G-Smart have layered their “Smart Touch UI”, which is another attempt to make a finger-based input possible, rather than using a Stylus:
This isn’t entirely a success - whilst it is quite well-integrated with the traditional Win Homescreen, when you are utilising the carousel, it doesn’t react as accurately as you might expect. Compared to a certain “i” device, it’s not in the same league.
On the upside however, it’s fitted with a SiRF Star III GPS system, has HSDPA, a 2.8″ screen, 2MP camera, and also Mini-USB, Bluetooth 2.0, and WLAN b+g. Oh, and a Micro SD slot!
So overall then, I would see this as a nice business device - it’s understated, has a good suite of functions, and is well-built. Unfortunately it is not currently carried by any of the Operators in the UK, which means you’ll need to buy it outright. Speaking of which, you can find the list of stores carrying the MS800 here.
