The sudden switch from Dopod 838Pro to U1000, is like getting a mini-laptop with phone features. The 5" VGA screen and the pre-loaded Opera will let you surf half-a-day without realizing time passed. I appreciates the effort of bundling it with Opera . T he intention is probably to improve the overall internet experience, although it's not as enjoyable as a 15.4" Windows lappie. The 5" screen and the multi-tabs in Opera mimic at least 85% of surfing experience on a 10" sub-notebook. The speed is reasonable when navigating from tab to tab without any lag, thanks to its 624MHz processor.

Do not think you can't do 5-way navigation without direction pad. The mini-joystick on the top left corner (in landscape mode) should provide a fresh experience when it comes to PocketPC gaming (which I don't have chance to try out). By default, the intelligent VueFlo motion sensor lets you perform up/down/left/right scrolling just by tilting the device. In the settings, it allows user to change the sensitivity to suit different eye-level to activate the scrolling when tilting.

Obviously, the U1000 was designed to let the user type by holding the unit on both hand (which you can't do this with lappie), or, putting it on the flat surface, and neither way will degrade the typing performance. The QWERTY automatically attaches to the unit with magnets. The location of the magnet has been taken care extremely well by the designer. A little misalignment will also get the keypad snapping nicely back to the correct location. When attaching the keypad surface-to-surface with the unit, it emulates (must be triggered by the magnet again!) a horizontal menu bar on the transparent plastic area (just like the auxiliary display found on the flip phone). This allows the user to check basic things such as when new messages arrive, time, date, etc. Not forgetting to mention that I've encountered a few times when the keyboard freezes and the only way to get it work again is to detach the keyboard and re-attached again.

I found that if you use it with the case, you're not able to view the auxiliary display (ok lets just call it auxiliary or second display temporary but it's just part of the screen). Perhaps some case manufacturer can produce a case that can let user to view the display.

To give you an idea of U1000 battery life - Within 6 hours duration from fully charged with default brightness, I used 2 hours continuous Wifi, answering a few calls and all within few minutes, with most of the time I'm writing this article and occasionally 3G surfing, the U1000 had 60% battery capacity after 6 hours.

What lacks in Dopod U1000? The unit should at least have a phone button for immediate access to dial pad, but it only can be found in the keypad. Second, there is no vibrating function that I rely most of the time to get alert in noisy environment. Third, it only serves speakerphone, but if you think the privacy is important then the wired/wireless headset is the only way.

Dopod U1000 is suitable for

• People who use a laptop with mobile data plan but are not comfortable with the size of their laptop.
• People who appreciate sub-notebook form factor but willing to go smaller size and using it as a phone.
• People who want a all-in-one device and willing to sacrifice the smaller form-factor of a normal phone and doesn't mind to use wired/wireless headset most of the time.

The phone is getting closer to behaving like a computing device (Nokia's direction), and the laptop is slowly morphing into a connected device (just like the people appreciates more on PDA Phone compare to PDA standalone device). Dopod/HTC is trying to find a sweet spot to provide UMPC-like sort of device without the cost of a real-UMPC. Although one can argue that U1000 is nothing close to UMPC's real specifications, but if the user has budget constraint and willing to get as long as it serves the needs, then why not? (Damn I like the 5" screen, I can watch CSI, NCIS, Heros, Naruto, any anime or TV series on a gorgeous screen wherever I goes with the internal 8GB Microdrive or using it as a PMP, how I wishes I don't need to return it!) U1000 is the Dopod 900 with extra juices and slight change of concept with some innovations. Perhaps it's also a test vehicle for HTC/Dopod to test the market? But you will never regret getting the U1000!

Pros

• Not only VGA but 5" of VGA display and VGA-out
• Built-in ATI graphic chipset
• 5-way navigation through mini joystick
• Vueflo
• Built-in SiRF Star III chipset
• HSDPA
• 3MP auto-focus camera

Cons

• Big size , if consider to be used as phone