Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Take Another Loox - The N560 Pocket PC Reviewed
Posted by Doug Raeburn in "HARDWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Specifications and Design
Figure 1: The front view. Click on image for larger view.
The N560's design is pretty traditional as Pocket PCs go. It's on the small side, measuring 4.56" x 2.79" x .55" (116 x 71 x 14 mm) and weighing in at 5.6 oz. (160 g) with battery. That makes it slightly smaller and lighter than the Loox 720, which measures 4.80" x 2.83" x .60" (122 x 72 x 15.2 mm) and weighs 6.0 oz. (170 g). Smaller and lighter is a good thing, but a slightly smaller screen (3.5" vs. 3.6"), a lower capacity battery and the omission of a Compact Flash slot are required to achieve its trim figure.
The front panel is simple, with the power button centered on top and the traditional 4-buttons and directional pad with action button beneath the screen. The buttons have labels that are backlit in blue, adding a bit of a "cool" factor while making the buttons more visible in low-light conditions.
A light on each upper corner communicates notifications and status. The left light flashes green when WiFi is active and blue for Bluetooth. The light on the right flashes orange when charging and glows steady orange when charging is complete.
Figure 2: The view from the bottom... I feel right at home... Click on image for larger view.
The bottom end has nothing more than the reset button and the connector for the cradle or a synch cable. I appreciate the fact that, unlike the 720, the reset button can be pressed with the stylus, as opposed to requiring that you unscrew a cap to access a reset pin.
Figure 3: Movin' on up... the view from the top. Click on image for larger view.
Figure 4: The right side. Click on image for larger view.
The top end contains the SD slot, headphone jack and stylus. The note button, microphone and IRDA port are found on the left side, while the right side has no controls at all.
Figure 5: I got your back... Click on image for larger view.
The back sports the battery door and a connector for an external GPS antenna.
The primary feature included in the N560 that the 720 doesn't have is the integrated GPS. The GPS is the current state-of-the-art with a SiRF Star III Chip. In the past, I've used a Bluetooth GPS receiver with my Pocket PC, so I wasn't particularly intrigued by the built-in GPS receiver. But I was curious to see how the GPS would perform. I'll report on the results of my testing in a later section.
Please note that the listed price does NOT include navigation software. I've heard that Clove plans to offer bundles that include the N560 and one of several choices of navigation software, but I don't see anything listed on their site at this point.
Features of the 720 that the N560 doesn't have include a Compact Flash slot (both units provide an SD slot), a jog dial and the camera. Of these items, I'll miss the jog dial most, since I used it on the 720 mostly to flip pages in e-books. Compact Flash is a declining technology, as the format has become too big in devices that are getting smaller and smaller with each new generation. Meanwhile, high capacity SD cards are getting cheaper all the time. As for the camera, I already have a mediocre camera in my cell phone, and one mediocre camera is all I'll ever need.
Features that are improved with the N560 over those of the 720 include a faster processor (624 vs. 520 MHz) and faster wireless (802.11g vs. 802.11b).
