For the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to live "life on life" with the Celio Redfly. For the uninitiated, the Redfly is much like the defunct Palm Foleo. It is a mobile companion that simply seeks to enhance the users Smartphone experience by adding a few luxuries. In the case of the Redfly, those would be a nice 8 inch screen that doesn't just zoom in or blow the devices screen up to an ugly pixilated blur, it actually changes the resolution! So those spreadsheets or word documents become easier to edit and create on the run, but it does have its limits, but more on that later. It also adds a larger keyboard, a VGA-Out port for monitors or projectors, and 2 USB ports which are very useful! All while touting a hefty 8 hour battery rating. While I haven’t had time to thoroughly test that theory, I can say that whatever the battery life actually is, it’s pretty satisfactory!
The hardware itself doesn't do any of the processing work. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing it runs on its own is the video processing. So apart from using this with a windows device (which at the time of writing this was the only device supported), this thing is utterly useless unless you like to stare at the nicely portrayed "Redfly" logo. Which is not a bad thing! Say you're at your local Starbucks and someone decides to swipe it... the thief actually makes off with an expensive paperweight, because all of the data and processing power comes from the Smartphone. So to make it perfectly clear, the device itself does absolutely nothing, but when used in conjunction with a Windows Mobile Smartphone, it makes that Smartphone look pretty nice.
Eye Candy - The Hardware
The hardware itself, I have to say is very attractive. From the decorative raised curves on the top, the prominently displayed "Redfly" logo, the sharp looking reflective burgundy coloring and matching track pad, to the lovely screen, this thing doesn't LOOK like a simple cell phone add on. In fact, anytime I've been seen in public with this thing I get quite a few comments/questions/curious looks. The most common responses I get are "that's cute" and "it's a WHAT-'fly?". Let me tell you... trying to explain what it is and what it does to the "less than tech savvy" is a task. For most, the curiosity tapers and thins when I tell them that it isn't actually a laptop. That says a lot about who is buying this thing.
For the average consumer, a netbook or a laptop would probably be best. Even when shopping for a case in a computer store, I was stopped when comparing the carrying options to the device. "What is that?" the store rep asked (two of them). I tried explaining what it was and they pressed me for more information. "Is it a Windows machine? No... That must be Linux..." the other rep added. I pulled out my AT&T Tilt and said "nope... it's neither, it's my cell phone". At that, they both quickly lost interest. So cosmetically at least, this thing has been a big success with others, myself included!
The two features I was the most curious about before ordering, were the VGA and the USB ports. My mind raced with USB possibilities. The first thing I did once I got it back to my office was plug my 60GB USB drive up to see if it would work. It was a no-go. However, every USB Flash drive I tried has worked flawlessly. The day I bought my case I also picked up a 4GB flash drive. It worked perfectly! The next day I took the flash drive back to exchange for a 4GB micro SD to replace the 2GB micro SD I currently used. I got home, swapped the cards, put the 2GB card into a USB flashcard reader and plugged it in. The Tilt picked up both cards perfectly. I even transferred some of the data from the 2GB card over to the 4GB card with Resco Explorer. It took a little while but it did the job! I tried out a wireless keyboard and mouse I have laying around the house, and they both worked flawlessly. I also attached my computer monitor which worked as expected. When displaying on a monitor or projector, the image displays at a 800x480 resolution and shows an odd grey block that covers the remaining bottom portion of the display. I don’t know why they couldn’t just have it black or just not display at all, but it’s a small issue and doesn’t detract from the usability of the function.
Aside from looks, this thing is actually quite hefty. Not hefty as in “cumbersome” mind you, but hefty as in “this device doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy”. Heavy enough, however, for one to be quite wary about damaging the device if dropped. Here’s one area where it seems that Celio was one step ahead. A large majority of the outer portion of the device is completely rubberized. Both the top and bottom portions of the shell, in fact, every portion of the outer shell colored in the attractive burgundy tone mentioned earlier is in fact rubberized, giving the carrier a measure of confidence in grip and hold. Even the rubber feet on the bottom have a decent grip on most desktop surfaces, so you don’t have to worry about it sliding off the table and smashing on the floor.
One complaint I’ve heard others give concerning netbooks and sometimes laptops in general is that the keyboards have a little give and bend slightly under pressure. No such thing can be said about the keyboard on the Redfly. While it does have some give, it’s not enough to be readily noticeable unless you’re looking for it. It’s certainly not enough to be felt while typing. The Keyboard is also a bit smaller than regular keyboards, but I was able to become quite used to it in a small amount of time. The shortcut keys are easy to identify because they’re all located on the top row of keys (the function keys) and do what you’d expect them to. The Bluetooth connection is quick and responsive, and the track pad works just the way you’d think it would. So all in all, the hardware itself does exactly what it’s supposed to.
Software and Performance
There isn’t any software on the Redfly itself to speak of, so what I want to address here, is how the software on the smartphone takes advantage of the hardware. Things like resolution, video playback, keyboard response times, sound emulation, and the like are all issues that books can be written on. Some things work perfectly, and others, way less than stellar.
First I’ll talk about video playback. At the present time, there isn't any. In my limited experience with this, it seems that once the Smartphone is attached to the Redfly, all video processing is done via the onboard processor, which no developer has written anything for. This unfortunately isn’t limited to just videos. Most of the games I play (Warfare Inc. for example) will not render on the device, or even boot up for that matter. All video players that I’ve tried will boot and render sound, which by the way only renders via your smartphone’s speakers as the Redfly doesn’t have any built in, but the players don’t render any video. To its credit, most of the other applications take full advantage of the increased resolution. All of the Microsoft Pocket Office applications, Palringo IM, EReader, Pocket e-Sword, Olive Tree Bible Reader, the picture applications, and the file explorer for example, all worked without problems.
Internet browsing does leave something to be desired, unfortunately. While Pocket Internet Explorer does take advantage of the full screen, it doesn’t improve the page rendering very well at all, and because of the video processing issue already mentioned, currently, alternative browsers like Opera 9.5beta and Skyfire also do not work. This is very unfortunate as most of what users will be doing will involve internet browsing. The current version of the Opera browser (8.65) does, however, work very well. Web pages were snappy and rendered nicely as if this were a full fledged desktop browser. I love the Opera browser and hope issues with the 9.5beta version are resolved quickly as this is the version being included with a lot of the newer HTC devices like the HTC Diamond and Diamond Touch Pro.
I also tried the device with remote desktop services like LogMeIn, and it performed above and beyond what I thought my cell phone was capable of. I was even able to set the color and screen resolutions up so that it was optimal and fit pretty snugly on the screen with great readability. Now there’s a great use for that 3G connection! The web page rendering speed really doesn’t have much to do with the Redfly itself because it’s all done on the phone, so tests on how fast web pages load won’t be much different than if you were using the phone on it’s own.
Speed, however, is a factor in typing. Even using the Bluetooth connection, there is no noticeable lag behind keystrokes and letters on the screen, unless you’re typing a text message. I have used the Redfly every Sunday to take notes in both the new members’ classes and sermon notes for the last 3 weeks. I’ve used applications like MS OneNote Mobile, Pocket E-Sword, and Pocket Word with much success and satisfaction. However, the one thing I dread using it for is typing text messages. Emails type fine however, but text messages are another story. At first I thought it may be a problem with the threading (I use Windows Mobile 6.1), so I deactivated threading and tested again to no avail. It’s quite an annoying issue. I type at about 60-70 wpm (I’m sooo sloooow), and the rate the words appear on screen is utterly ridiculous. Imagine typing a message, let’s say around 100 characters long, completing your thought, and ready to send… but you have to wait to see if you made any typing errors for up to a full 10-13 seconds after you finished typing (I actually counted… and it was only 82 characters.). As I said, this can be quite annoying.
As I mentioned, the reading tools I use (Pocket E-Sword, Olive Tree Bible Reader, and EReader ) all work wonderfully. For consuming electronic reading material, the Redfly really does a great job with its larger screen. And with a rated 8 hour battery life, that’s a lot of reading for me! I have yet to have this thing die on me when I really need it. I don’t use it for long periods of time most of the time (except if I’m in a bind and really need to get some web browsing done), so I always have plenty of juice to get done what I need. On average, I’d say I end up charging this device maybe two or three times a week. And mostly to top it off if I know I’m going to be using it the next day. I love to be able to listen to a sermon while tabbing between programs like pocket word and E-Sword while reading and keeping notes.
This device has taken typing to a whole new level. I didn’t use Pocket word much until I got the Redfly. OneNote was another useless application to me until the Redfly showed me how useful the app could be, especially when paired with OneNote syncing. I’ll save my doting over OneNote for another time and just say that I love that program, both on the Tilt and the PC. Yet, even with all of these great uses, if you’re ever side by side with someone on an Asus (as I was on a recent trip to a conference with a friend who uses an Asus 1000H ), you’ll find that your experience in comparison with theirs… is less. While I was able to keep pace and hold my own while we were taking notes, during breaks, the Asus was the clear winner when it came time to fire up the wifi and browse some of our favorite websites. He was able to visit a message board, start a thread and post it all before I was even past the hotel registration page. I never did make it to the actually internet before I gave up trying after he ran circles around me. I’ll add that we were literally sitting right next to each other, so he was able to watch in quiet satisfaction while I labored to keep a smile and pretend that everything was working exactly as it should. While I am happy that the Redfly does in fact make using a smartphone better, it does not make it better or equivalent to the experience of using a full fledged computing platform.
While not an exhaustive list of issues I have with the Redfly, it’s definitely a list of my big concerns. Given that they’re promoting this device (at least on their site) to IT groups as a replacement for work laptops, I would definitely throw a fit if I was handed one of these by my local IT guy and told that this was the device I had to work from. For spreadsheets and word documents, it’s excellent, but not for much beyond that.
Life Application – Recovery after the purchase
So the big question is… “Brian, are you happy that you shelled out the cash for this device?” My answer is of course… yes! I can see you scratching your head already so I’ll go ahead and preemptively address your questions and confusion (because I’m a prophet and can read thoughts. Duh). I purchased this device for $200, which is way less than the current asking price of about $400. I could never see paying above $200 for this device given the options in other netbooks of the same size that compete for the same market essentially. At $400 you get a lot less bang for your buck when you can spend another $50 to $60 bucks for an Asus 1000H and get a ton of usability and features. I think for what I paid, I’m getting a good amount of usability for my money. I work with spreadsheets all day long, in an emergency I have a perfect way to email edits to word and excel documents while out and about. While the browsing is less than satisfactory, at least it’s there, and if you sign up for LogMeIn (which is free) you can take advantage of a full computing experience, including browsing, whenever you need one with some obvious rendering speed drawbacks, but they’re not significant with the right settings.
The real benefit to me is the larger screen and keyboard with portability. This IS available with netbooks, but I don’t want a 3rd computer to have to sync my data with. I want to take my notes, bring them home and have OneNote import them without me thinking about it. I want to be able to have all the files on all my computers synchronized without any extra steps. A third computer would likely draw me to abandon using one of them eventually because of this. Also, a netbook is $400 vs. the $200 I paid. Extra features like USB and VGA-Out ports are very nice, but not likely to see much use from me save for the occasional emergency file transfer or mouse usage. For me, the idea was to get something that would allow me to type faster and more accurately, rendering apps and data on a larger screen making them easier to use, while not creating an additional place to store data. For those of us who are tech savvy, one thing we will always be if we keep multiple devices, is tech redundant (i.e. Always having more than one device that can play mp3s, videos, store files, type documents, browse the web, or clean your shoes…. Ok... I’m wishing with the last one).
What I needed, was a cheap way to do my emails, blogging, note taking, and reading. While leaving some things to aspire to, the Redfly fit the bill… quite literally and without breaking my pockets.
The Celio Redfly can still be purchased at the $200 price point until November 17. Act quickly! Head over to the Celio Corp store website and pick your vendor of choice!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment