Review: Smart and Thin Dopod S300 (HTC Star Trek/Cingular 3125)

Dopod S300

Dopod S300

Dopod S300

[Note that the Dopod S300 is also sold, with minor variations, as the Cingular 3125 and the Qtek 8500. Most everything written in this review will apply to those two models as well. -editor]

The Dopod S300, based on the HTC Star Trek reference design, almost looks too "smart" to be a smartphone. In fact, it is the thinnest Windows Mobile clamshell smartphone to date. According to Dr Florian Seiche, the European VP of HTC, "[HTC's] mission has always been to drive mass adoption of smartphone technology and we needed something special to do that." Referring to the S300, Seiche states, "it's not only packed with power and functionality, but it looks great and that's what will drive the market."

It is impossible to pick out every detail from a smartphone, so we will try to use a mass-market point of view to look at the Dopod S300.

Physical Aspects

Dr Seiche was right; the Star Trek, and as such, the S300, looks different from all other smartphones on the market today, but we cannot help but compare it with the Motorola RAZR. The S300 measures 98.5mm x 51.4mm x 15.8mm (3.88" x 2.02" x 0.62"), which is still slightly wider yet thinner than most other flip phones. Overall, the device feels quite metallic; the upper part is textured with ridges, whereas the lower part is made of anti-slip plastic. Inevitably, you will leave fingerprints over the smooth surface of the external display, but it is still quite scratch resistant.

Opening the phone will reveal a mirror-framed 2.2" screen and a one-piece keypad. It is good to see that HTC has found its own touch for the keypad, retaining the futuristic look from the RAZR, whilst making it cleaner and more business looking. The pale green backlight is very even and attractive, and it is automatically turned on according to an ambient light sensor. Key spacing is acceptable, but tactile feeling isn't the best - I will say it is on par with the RAZR.

The most worrying issue concerning the design is dust. Over a week of testing, I found that dust was indeed caught in the rims and junctions between different materials; between the mirror frame of the screen and the body, around the keypad, and the circular external panel. The situation is not as bad as with the Nokia 6131, but you will need to keep the S300 extremely clean to avoid it.

There are three music shortcut keys on the front of the flip, a camera shortcut key on the right side, and volume keys and the voice activation key on the left side. Notice that the side keys are located on the screen side of the flip, so you will need to move your fingers up to near your ears when you are trying to adjust the volume during a call - not the best design.

There is only one external connector, which is not a standard USB port but a much flatter looking one. This might be a setback for regular smartphone users that expect to use the same cable across different devices, but for new smartphone users, this might not be a problem, as they are used to having different cables for different phones.

The hinge feels like an LG handset, as it is very solid and smooth, but always appears to close too forcefully. I am worried that the engravings of the keypad might scratch the screen. The handset has a wide opening angle, which might take some time to get used to for Samsung clamshell users.

Apart from the dust issues, I am very happy with the overall design of the handset.

 

Featured products from the MobileBurn store