Happy Thursday everyone!

A quick hello from me with an exclusive deal for MoDaCo members... together with eXpansys we are offering the UBiQUiO 503G for a very cheap £109.99 (including using our MoDaCo £10 discount voucher). This is a price drop of £120 on the regular price, and is only available between 11am today and 4pm tomorrow (UK time)!

You can read the full details on this page, but the 503G's specs include:


Granted, it's not the latest or greatest, but at the price i'm pretty sure you'd be hard pushed to find anything better specced!

I've actually been playing with one of these the past few days in tandem with the oft-maligned but (to me at least) now reasonably priced Celio Redfly, which comes in at £126 after a voucher. The aspect i've been considering is how a 503G / Redfly combo compares with a base spec netbook, which will be priced at around the same £250 total. If it's a full Windows netbook then likely the netbook would win on flexibilty and experience, but would likely not have 3G connectivity. When you factor in that many of the cheaper netbooks run a cut-down Linux distro and also take into account the Redfly's 8 hour battery life (and it leaves you with a fully charged phone!), I think the solutions become a lot harder to choose between...

Thoughts?

P

Tempting should I get this and forget saving up for the xbox? decisions decisions

Hmmm that would have been a better investment that my BenQ E72. But nevermind, its small and a great little phone!

I found the 503g very frustrating to use. Not only was it that little bit too big, the radio was poor and it was incredibly slow despite the 520MHz CPU, and sometimes would take 2 or 3 keypresses just to wake the thing up. The performance was very reminiscent of my old HP 6915 but without the saving grace of GPS.

It's not much of a bargain either. The fact they keep cropping up on "specials" proves Expansys can't get rid of them. Don't be tempted to think you'll make a profit on eBay - nobody wants Ubiquio/MWg because they haven't heard of the make, and if they have, they know their reputation. Going rate for the 503g is only around £85 BNIB so Expansys' £229 RRP is just meaningless. CeX are offering a £94 cash / £156 trade-in, though I expect that will drop soon to match eBay.

On the other hand, I'm getting good use out of a Redfly. Main reason is that I only have to maintain one set of applications and data, which are still with me when I'm travelling light with just my phone. The security of not having duplicate files lying around on another device is a big factor too. It's also a bonus to have the big battery available for the phone. So to that end, it fills a niche. However if you need ANY more flexibilty or functionality than that, a netbook is a much better bet.

But just like the Expansys' "special" pricing, I'm suspicious of the reasons for the Redfly's $199 "seed" program, given that most people can't see the value or raison d'etre now netbooks are so cheap. Just hope they sell enough to keep up development and get the VGA/Diamond drivers finished!

Regardless of how they price it, I gotta say I think it IS a bargain, not least because there's little else comparable out there.

If you have around 100 quid to drop on a handset, can't afford the latest and greatest but want features such as 3G, it's a decent deal. Sure, selling it on you won't get a lot, but that's not really a valid reason for it not to be considered a bargain?

Re: Redfly, totally agree - niche - it's not a netbook competitor per se, but for some users, it IS a more useful solution.

P

Paul, how are you finding the combination of the Redfly and the 503g, I'm finding that my 503g runs incredibly slowly when attached to the Redfly. Are you experiencing something similar? I'm using the default drivers off of the CD. I may try the beta drivers from the Celio site.

Jim

I'm using the new drivers and the new firmware and the performance is in line with other devices...

http://www.celiocorp.com/install/

P

Thanks Paul, thought that might be the case. I've updated the Redfly's firmware but I haven't changed the drivers on the 503g yet.

Does it really have 2 processors?
520MHz Intel XScale 270 + Qualcomm 6280
What use does 2 different processors serve?

I was sorely tempted by the Ubiquio last time they had this pricing but I resisted as I also get the feeling that this repeated bargain pricing smacks of "box shifting".

I paid twice as much and bought the Asus M530W as my first Win Mo device after years on Symbian S60 and I'm happy.

But when I was wavering over making the jump, my other serious contender was the Samsung i620 even cheaper than the Ubiquio.

Surely that's a better bet - admittedly WM5 and less well specced than the 503G but reading all the reviews, it seems like a better phone than the Ubiquio.

Hi Paul, I've updated the drivers. How are you finding the screen draws when connecting the 503g to the Redfly, I'm seeing some issues in that the today screen isn't totally drawn out.

Cheers,

Jim

I seriously considered one of these and decided against it. You can not find a spare battery anywhere shy of buying a second unit and there are no cradles so even if you found a second battery no way to charge it. I always like to carry a spare battery just in case, especially when I travel.

So based on the complaints about battery life I read endlessly I decided against it. My two pennies, can I get some change

Damnnnnnnnn missed out on this!

Don't worry. They have tons left, so chances are they'll pop up again at a special price.
If not, console yourself at the 'joys' you've missed by reading through the Expansys support forum archive

Old and discontinued. Closing..

Cheers

Phill