The E680i is a pretty good phone with glaring problems, writes OS News editor Eugenia Loli-Queru in a detailed, information-rich review. Poor battery life and power-level indicator, lack of native applications, and poor camera/video playback are balanced by quick startup… and stability, she says.

The E680i arrived this spring, as a follow-up to the E680 released a year before. The “i” model is mostly a software revision, Loli-Queru notes, and the earlier E680 can be upgraded to run “i” version firmware.

Poor battery life is the E680's worst problem, according to the OS News review. The device requires daily charging when using multimedia features, or every two days when making 5-6 calls per day. The problem is worsened by a sensitive touchscreen capable of awakening the device; Loli-Queru would prefer the option of waking only on hardware button presses, as can be found on PocketPC devices, she says.

Loli-Queru praises the device for:

• Supports MIDP-2 Java with .jar sizes up to 700KB
• Good speakers and “very very” good headphone sound quality
• High-quality QVGA LCD with 50 brightness levels
• Easy-to-use Real Player and FM Radio
• Supports SD cards up to 2GB
• Stable, crash-free OS and applications
• Easy-to-use GPRS/Bluetooth

Loli-Queru's criticisms include:

• Video performance poor compared to similarly spec'ed Windows PDA
• Real Player doesn't support Internet streams
• UI “not stellar” in responsiveness
  • Awkward to switch between applications
  • “Clunky” scrolling and menu navigation
• Landscape-mode gaming buttons, which few Java games support
• No native applications to speak of, unlike Symbian, Palm, or Windows Mobile phones
• Volume buttons don't work with Java apps
• Using phone as usb modem with Linux requires usbnet driver rebuild
• VGA-only camera
• Problems recording video for more than 6-7 seconds

The complete review can be found here.

 
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