Following our initial impressions in Part I, we now present some more findings on the moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone from AnexTEK.
This Smartphone, which soon will be available worldwide, has all the specifications you may be looking for in today's generation of PocketPCPhones.
But will it stand up to the rigours of daily life in your pocket?
Have a look at our findings and conclusions.

First up, you might want to have a quick read again of our First Impressions of the AnexTEK moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone.
Initial reviews tend to be a little bit more positive than in-depth write-ups, as in this subsequent review we look at the nitty-gritty of the device.
Even though we've tested this second phone from the “House of AnexTEK” (the first one being the SP230 Smartphone), for a full two months, our findings are – fortunately -- essentially the same as in our first impressions.
So let's flesh out our observations.

It might be good to have a quick look at the results of the Second Annual Spb Pocket PC Survey, showing that Phone Editions are in vogue.
It was found that users have three times more phone editions than a year ago and that using the Pocket PC as a phone grew from 14% to 36%.

Also, to quote:“ 85% use PocketPCs to connect to the Internet. It's a more important thing than games now. In fact, phone functionality is considered to be much more important than a year ago. When choosing a Pocket PC device, 16% of respondents said they pay attention to the phone functionality (only 6% last year), which makes this the second most important characteristic.”

This means that the AnexTEK moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone is catering to an increasingly growing market segment. It seems that every week another device in this market is announced. There is a lot of choice but not all these Smartphones are available in the Western world. The AnexTEK is.

We’ve done some extensive testing initially with different scenario’s. We then followed it up by using Spb benchmarks.
You have to remember that you can’t really compare battery life with that of a normal phone. The PDA functions and particularly having the screen brightness turned up fully (which is my preference), plus having the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios on, will sap the juice out of the moboDA at a prodigious rate. I got two hours out of the unit in that configuration. And I had not made any phone calls yet!
Obviously, that is an extreme situation. If you don’t use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the time more than doubles to 4 hrs 15 minutes.
Have the screen on half bright and you’ll get 12 hrs out of it.
Normally, you’d have the screen turned off most of the time which makes it dramatically better. On the other hand, when you figure in calls made and received, it balances to just a normal work day, which is the best we can expect.
The manual gives the following figures:
Talk time: up to 3 hrs
Standby time: up to 100 hrs
Typical PDA use only: up to 12 hrs.
Data time: up to 5 hrs (I presume they mean GPRS or WiFi use here …)

Total endurance with Spb test and screen full bright: 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Here are my findings for the way I have been using the 3360 over a number of weeks:
Configuration: the phone is on all time and the screen brightness up all the way.
Using the device intermittently and switching off at the power button when done for the moment, I can easily get a full day's working out of it.

Closely related to these endurance figures is the question of how easy it recharges.
As I mentioned before: charging via a power point is a convoluted affair. If this is going to be your workhorse it will pay to leave home with an extra battery! A car charger will also be an essential option if you’re on the road all the time. Fortunately, the USB cable (which also incorporates the jack for the mains charger) is a sync/charge cable, so generally, that’s the one to take with you on the road. And there are also 12V plug in chargers that can accommodate the USB cable.
Note: the backup battery, which is embedded in the device to keep your data intact when changing batteries, will only do so for 30 mins.

GPS ??
One of the features I noticed in the Windows Mobile OS is a GPS symbol on the Settings/System screen which is for configuring any Bluetooth or SD receiver. The manual does say: “Built-in GPS receiver” but no matter how hard I looked there is no built-in GPS. I also checked this with the manufacturer and they have now updated their manual. It would have been nice…

Backlit Keys
Didn’t mention it last time but the symbols and numbers on the 3360 light up nicely when you press the buttons.
Compared to the earlier model, the SP230, the moboDA has an abundance of hardware buttons to launch programs. It even has two soft key buttons to respond to the context-sensitive choices on the bottom of the screen.
It looks like the moboDA 3360 started life as the much anticipated SP300 as I found a few references to that model on the unit…

Back Up facility
Strangely enough, there's no backup facility in the OS. I've been caught out more than one-time when the battery had completely drained and I had to start all over again. Despite the presence of persistent storage in the new operating system, I would not want to be without a good backup system. Fortunately, there are plenty of good backup software programs out there.

Locking the unit
One of the ways to prevent the units from draining power is to be able to switch it off completely. The AnexTEK moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone can be locked by a simple tap on the screen. Unlocking it is a two tap process. It would have been handier to have had a physical button that you can slide to perform the Lock function. I have noticed that, when you put the phone back in its pouch, you can't help but press one or several buttons that reactivate the screen, even though it is locked. Battery life will be longer if you can physically force the phone into lock mode.

ROM change
I also went through a ROM change without any problems even though the changes were minor.

Again using the Spb benchmarking program, which has featured many times in our assessment of mobile devices, here is a graphic that shows some disappointing figures for which an explanation is needed.

The overall performance index is very low compared to the standard against which is measured: the very first iPAQ that was ever made.
The iPAQ 3600 (also known as the 3650) could never have been accused of being fast, certainly not in the graphics department. It was however fast in reading and writing files and creating directory lists. The AnexTEK moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone is very fast in rendering graphics but slow in reading and writing files. The moboDA 3360 is primarily a graphics machine. That's what it is designed for and with the media capabilities that it has and is performing very well indeed.

To see how well it performs in the real world I have also compared with the iPAQ 4700, which is our main test platform.

The new ActiveSync 4.1 made the whole process very easy (the previous 3.8 had some issues recognizing the device properly). Highly recommended that you download this version.
We also have an official benchmark figure of the ActiveSync process.

There’s a lot to like in the AnexTEK moboDA 3360 PocketPCPhone.
It’s a state-of-the-art converged device that looks like a phone, not like a PDA.
That means the ergonomics of holding the unit are better. The integrated keypad makes it easy to use it for its primary function as a phone. Similarly, the on-screen dialing keypad is also very easy to work without a stylus.
The main areas for room for improvement revolve around easier recharging and a much sturdier build. The phone, particularly the black version which I also reviewed, smudges very easily and looks rather plasticky. Like I mentioned before, this is a phone that should be treated like a PDA rather than being chucked into your pocket to fight it out with your keys. If treated properly it will have a long life.

The moboDA 3360 is highly recommended if you like the form factor and all the features it has to offer.
Just be aware that with the additional features battery life can be quite a bit shorter compared to a normal phone. The PDA features are all there but on a smaller screen.
The two main areas of concern that I mentioned above can easily be rectified in a subsequent model. I don't think we will have to wait that long before AnexTEK will bring out the new models. In the meantime of the moboDA 3360 provides excellent capabilities in an all-in-one solution.