NEC Pocketgear

A nice bit of gear for the pocket.

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Price: £449

Manufacturer: NEC

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NEC says the Pocketgear will sell to business through NEC, with the emphasis on connectivity options, and to consumers through Packard Bell, with the emphasis on multimedia. Ideally, the emphasis should be on refining the design of the next Pocketgear offering

Terence Green, Personal Computer World 31 Jan 2002

NEC's Pocketgear enters a market in which the main problem is how to stand out from the crowd while conforming to Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 specification.

On the software side it runs the Pocket PC 2002 platform and applications, which include Outlook, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, Windows Media Player, MSN Messenger, Terminal Services Client and Transcriber. It also provides Activesync 3.5 and Outlook 2002 for synchronising handheld data with a Windows PC.

It has a USB cradle for PC connection (Casio's offers USB input, NEC's has a serial port) and lightweight AC adaptors for use with or without the cradle.

There are a navigational joystick and four program buttons on the front, a jog dial/action button, record and power buttons on the left, ports (infra-red and stereo headphone), and a mono microphone and speaker. Core hardware is a 206MHz Strongarm SA-1110 processor and 32Mb of Flash Ram.

Although other manufacturers offer Pocket PCs with 32Mb or 64Mb of internal SDRam, NEC only provides a 32Mb model which leaves little storage free for data. It's a cost-shaving measure but expansion storage isn't free and the absent 32Mb would accommodate an audio CD in MP3 format.

On the plus side, the Pocketgear has Secure Digital/Multimedia Card and Compact Flash Type II slots, allowing for simultaneous use of additional storage and communication peripherals, and an optional expansion adaptor for PC Cards.

The 3.8in, TFT LCD, which boasts 65,536 colours and 240 x 320 pixels, is slightly larger than other Pocket PCs. As all Pocket PC 2002 models have identical reflective screen technology, the 7.5 per cent larger screen area offers marginal practical benefit.

To protect the screen NEC provides a 20g detachable cover that takes the weight a shade over 200g, making this the heaviest Pocket PC 2002 yet. Without the screen cover, which extends the height by a few millimetres, the NEC measures 126 x 78 x 18.5mm (h x w x d). It's all powered by a lithium-ion battery with an optimistic claimed life of 12 hours.

The Pocketgear is NEC's first foray into Pocket PCs and it shows. NEC's Mymenu, the only NEC software addition, is over elaborate for what it does; the joystick feels awkward; and the seven-colour notification LED that allows different colours to be assigned to functions such as battery alarm, USB sync and recording, is only slightly less gimmicky than the blue back light that illuminates the program buttons when pressed.

Contact: NEC 0870 010 6322 www.nec-online.co.uk

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