Limited Edition White Dopod D810: Gadgenista Review

Is that sexy or is that SEXY?!

Your resident Gadgenista (yours truly) has been fortunate enough to get a hold of this sleek, white, drool-worthy, feature packed gadget - The LIMITED EDITION White DOPOD D810!

I was sooooo excited to play and fiddle with it that when I got it from our resident Cellphone9-er, the first thing I did when I got home from the Timbuk2 Blogger Bag Launch was to unbox this little baby from it’s home.

I was wondering why the box was a bit heavier than most mobile phone packaging. And when I opened it, I realized it was because of the User’s Manual! Pretty thick, and FULLY COLORED. Amazing, haha. Most User’s Manual are printed out in black and white and in thin, crappy paper.

I was also happy to see that the Dopod came with it’s own leather case! Another “plus-points” for me, since the first thing I’d want to have for a new gadget is ofcourse, a protective casing so it won’t get any scratches. Having it’s own leather case in the package saves a day of the gadget possibly getting scratched.

Now on to the phone…

What I REALLY love (ok, one of the many things I love) about this phone is it’s smooth, white finish. The casing is made of the same material of an Apple MacBook. Perfect compliment for the White MacBook but a bit ironic since the Dopod runs on Windows Mobile OS. Hehehehe.

Another big plus for me is the ease of the removal of the back panel when you remove the battery or insert a SIM card. I don’t know about other phones, but it’s a bitch to take out the back panel of my Sony Ericsson M600i! With the Dopod, just press lightly, then push upward! Yay!

Other lovable features about the White Dopod D810:
• Camera - Equipped with two (2) cameras (secondary and primary), the camera of this phone is REALLY good. Equipped with a 2.0 megapixel camera, I had fun taking vanity shots. Haahaha. It takes very clear photos, tho the photos I took don’t do any justice since I took them under a low-light environment. BUT, I’m VERY sure if I go outside in bright light and take photos, I’m pretty sure it’ll take crisp, clear photos.

Makati Skyline from our Studio. A bit cloudy!

Photo of my dog in my low-lit room.

What’s totally marvelous about the camera of the Dopod is it’s secondary camera which you use for video calls. Most secondary cameras of some mobile phones take very blurry, very pixelated photos since secondary cameras mostly have the 320 x 240 resolution.

But the Dopod D810’s secondary camera also has a resolution of 2.0 megapixels! So imagine how clear video calls can be!

Using the “frame” mode of the camera. With the secondary camera.

Portrait Mode with the Secondary Camera.

• Voice Command - I also had fun playing with the Voice Command feature of this phone. Unlike other gadgets where in you have to really articulate every single letter, the Dopod can distinguish each word you say very well. You just have to ofcourse, say it clearly and in a not-so noisy environment. I had fun saying, “Call <contact name>” over and over. Or “Open <program/software name>”
• Handwriting Recognition - Again, another amazing feature. Unlike my m600i where you write per letter using the stylus, the Dopod can transcribe FULL WORDS with it’s Transcriber feature. And it doesn’t matter whether you use script, print or a mix of both!
• WiFi - First time for me to use a wifi on a mobile phone and it’s pretty darn good. Not as fast when you’re using a computer, but it does the job pretty well if you want to surf website and email using web-based emails when you’re on-the-go.

Now even though the Dopod is an amazing gadget, I still have a few reservations about it. And here they are:

• No physical keyboard - Seriously. This is a big thing for me. Here in the Philippines where most mobile phone users are texters, I’d rather have a physical keyboard where I can just immediately type out the message I want to send. It’s a bit of hassle to get the stylus out and write, especially when I’m in hurry, or when the only message I’m going to send is, “OK.”

• The OS is a bit slow. But I’ve heard reviews that when you upgrade the firmware, it should be fine.

• The touchscreen is NOT as sensitive as I’d like it to be.
• The music sound quality is SO-SO. I guess it’s not really built to be an mp3 player but as a PDA phone, hehe. (But my m600i has amazing sound quality for a PDA phone, though!)

So my conclusion…

Side by side with my m600i…

Dopod D810 vs SE M600i.

Dopod definitely wins in tems of looks.

Dopod thickness! Almost the same as my M600i

If ONLY the Dopod D810 had a physical keyboard, I would definitely choose the Dopod D810. But since it doesn’t, my first love is still the SE m600i.

BUT, if you’re going to use a phone mainly for calls and it’s PDA and Internet funtions, then a White Dopod D810 is good choice.

Priced at PHP 45,500 or $1019.