Pocket Picks :: The coolest things for the coolest phones

Say we’re behind the times and we’ll say just keep reading. But in the case of PocketSurfer2, the handy web-based device from wireless services/printer company Datawind and we might admit to some tardiness.

Launched before Christmas in the UK at the recommended retail price of £180, PocketSurfer2 is a mobile web device that lets you surf for free via GPRS for 20 hours per month. Traffic over this amount is charged at around £5 per month.

Perhaps the closeness comparison is the wi-fi-only Nokia N810 Web Tablet, which with a touchscreen and QWERTY keypad, retails for £280 (although PocketPicks recently picked up the earlier touchscreen-only N770 on eBay for £80 plus P&P).

As for PocketSurfer2, it’s a closed device that uses Internet Explorer as the browser on a Linux-based OS with some proprietary special compression sauce from Datawind combining to offer a “full internet experience” - at least as much as you can have on a 640 x 240 VGA backlit colour screen (i.e. it involves some side-to-side scrolling on most web pages).

Actually though from our hands-on at the 2008 Mobile World Congress, the system seems to work relatively well. It’s not a PC but the device is thin (15mm by 75mm by 152mm, so handbag-sized) and can handle secure websites such as eBay and banking and as well as general Googling and Gmail etc. The image quality is perhaps an issue - the special sauce that gets pages loading in 640/240 blocks in around five seconds does create artifacts, especially in terms of image resolution. The Razr-style cut-metal keyboard also raised some reservations, although the lack of touchscreen or an analogue pointing device is more problematic in these days of ultra PCs/mobile devices.

Nevertheless PocketSurfer2 is very portable and weighs less than 200 grams. Battery life is also claimed to be four hours so it would certainly seem to make a good backup device for the odd online check while around town.

Which will also be good news for any interested Germans as the device is about to be launched there using inbuilt Vodafone sim cards. The RRP is €249. You can find more details from the PocketSurfer2 website.