Clearly the performance of the Redfly is not going to emulate a netbook or laptop. We tested ours with a TyTn I we had in the office, so in effect what we had may have looked a bit like a laptop but it was still being powered by a 400MHz chip with 64MB of RAM. So to start banging on about it being no match for an EeePC is pretty pointless.
Notwithstanding that, for handling basic Windows Mobile applications such as Word, Excel and the e-mail client there is no doubt the Redfly does make life easier. This review was written on the Redfly/TyTn I combo, not something we would have essayed on the TyTn alone no matter how much we like its slide out keypad.
The performance is not going to emulate a netbook or laptop
Of course web browsing is a whole different bag of grapefruit. Opera Mobile 8 pages showed up a treat on the Redfly's screen, but scrolling up and down was an undertaking best measured in geological time - my God it was slow - the same proving true for Google Maps. The new Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, while working just fine on the TyTn itself, simply would not fire up on the Redfly screen so we couldn't tell if that would improve matters.
The rather more primitive Windows Mobile browser did a simpler and so more rapid job. Of course looking at web pages at 800 x 400 is a considerable improvement over looking at them on a 2in screen, not matter what the browser layout or the scrolling speed.
Media playback, or rather the lack thereof, is another clue to the Redfly's overtly business orientated intentions. To start with there are no speakers nor is there a headphones jack. Open up a video or music file and Windows Media Player Mobile fires up in a 2in square box at top left of the Redfly screen while the sound plays back via the your phone's speaker or headphones output.
COMMENTS
Missing the point
Now, I'm no fan of this piece of crap (see above comments) but it does seem the "you should buy an Eee PC" brigade are missing the point some what.
The reason (Redfly thinks) companies are going to by fleets of these is because of the lack of risk. By keeping all the data and processing on the mobile phone, tucked safely away in Mr Big's very expensive suite pocket, it doesn't matter if they leave the laptop on the train, drop it on the airport concourse or have it stolen from their car whislst on holiday in Edinburgh They have lost nothing* because all the valuable stuff is still in their pocket and the Windows Mobile device offers remote wipe!
Yes, it would be cheaper to buy an Eee PC but it also increases the risk that the morons who use these things will go and give away all the company secrets.
Now, you (and I) may think that's an utterly moronic point and why not just implement over-the-air backup and decent security etc but, moronic or not, that is how they are trying to market these things so the Eee PC argument doesn't fly.
* where nothing = £330
This looks like bombing (in more ways than one)
Not only does it seem useless but US customs is likely to give you a "through" examination when you tell them that you laptop which "suspiciously looks like a laptop" contains no data and isn't a laptop.
Utterly pointless
Not only are you going to get laughed at for buying a crock of a WM phone to start with, but doubly so when someone discovers its not actually a net-book you are using, but its just something which blows up all the inadequacies of Windows Mobile on to an 8" screen. When they find out you've paid almost twice as much as what an EEE PC 701 now goes for, they'll probably give themselves a hernia from laughing so hard.
As Cobblers says, get an EEE or any one of the hoard of similar net-books, and use any phone you like as a modem. You'll have a fast, reliable system (if you go with the Linux versions), running Firefox and all the plug-ins which is a universe away from the hopeless WM browsing experience. Open Office is also vastly more compatible than using the crippled little WM Office apps.
