Review of ETEN Glofiish DX900

december 31, 2008 by Toni
Filed under: Recension 

The ETEN Glofiish DX900 is the first Windows Mobile with Dual-SIM capabilites. There are quite a few products out there that can handle 2 SIM cards, however, the DX900 is unique in the way that both SIM cards are active at the same time!

Features:

-2 SIM card slots - both working at the same time
-VGA screen (640×480 pixels)
-GPS
-Processor: Samsung S3C 6400, 533 MHz
-microSDHC
-G-sensor
-Camera: 3 megapixel with autofocus
-3G, HSDPA

When booting up, you get a menu with the option to select which additional software from ETEN you want to install on the device, so you’re not obligated to have all applications on the phone, a user friendly function for sure.

Dual SIM
Ok, lets get to the exiting part about this phone, because its all about the active Dual SIM for the Glofiish DX900, so, both SIMs are active at the same time, you dont have to reboot the phone and choose which SIM to be active, this is truly the part that defines innovation!

I put in both my cards in the SIM card slots, one Tele2 card, and one Telenor SIM.
When starting the device you are asked to put in the pincode for first SIM 1, and then for the second SIM card. After that, youre off to start using the Glofiish DX900!

The phone comes with SPB Mobile Shell as an overlay GUI to Windows Mobile, which is very neat for non qwerty phones, and this is the site that greats you after putting in your pin code.

The one thing Im most eager to try is of course to dial via both SIM cards. When entering the dial screen I see ”Talk 1” and ”Talk 2”. SIM card 1 is always the default card, meaning that if you just want to dial a contact, hit the green phone button, and it will dial out from SIM card 1. If however, you want to use SIM card 2 to dial from, just hit ”Talk2”, its as simple as that!!

Now, if you are in a call with SIM 1, and someone calls you up on SIM 2, it will show on the display, its just like when someone calls you up on any other phone, except that on this phone, its on two different numbers.

Ok, that was easy! So, how about other functions related to SIM cars, such as sending SMS? Well, it didnt take long until I typed a SMS and when hitting ”SEND” here’s the screen that came up. So, you only choose which SIM to send from, after you have typed the message itself, a natural solution, feels like ETEN has thought this through.

Besides the Dual SIM function, it comes with GPS, VGA screen, Wifi, and all the other goodies that we are used to from ETEN.

In conclusion, after testing the phone, I must say that it is pretty great! If you are in need of a phone that can handle two SIM cards at the same time, and dont want to reboot the phone in order to change SIM, this is the one for you. I would say that it starget market is business people that have a service with their company, but also a private contract. Or, it might just be as suitable for the cheating husband, one SIM card for the wife, and the other SIM card for the mistress

Anyway, this is a well-built phone, with lot of goodies in it, both hardware and software, with the unique function of active Dual SIM, that also comes with other demanded functions like GPS and a bright VGA screen. winMobile.se recommends!

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Comments

47 Comments on Review of ETEN Glofiish DX900

  1. Denis on tor, 1st Jan 2009 06:28

    2. Thanks for the review.
    Nevertheless, eTen is hardly the first dual-SIM WinMo available.
    Hong-Kong based HKC (!) launched a Windows Mobile 6.0 touchscreen device on June 2008.
    I tested the WinMo phone, and from what you say it works exactly as the DX900.
    From what I read recently, the HKC is now on sale in Germany under a different name.

    HKC’ is agreat device that I like a lot, but it is not an upscale device as eTen DX900 seems to be.
    For use I’ll try the eTen as soon as it becomes available!

  2. Toni on tor, 1st Jan 2009 09:43

    3. Denis,

    In a way, you are correct. The phone your are mentioning just got on sale in Germany, the first stop in Europe as far as I know. So, when I was writing this review, there were no other phone out on the European market with these capabilities.

    However, there are several phones with dual sim slots, but that is not the same as dual sim Active, meaning that both are active at the same time.

    Sincerely

    Toni

  3. Brian on tor, 1st Jan 2009 22:31

    4. Toni

    Can you receive SMS from the two SIMs at the same time? Also, are you able to test how well does the UMTS/HSDPA data connection on the 850mhz work? How about the camera quality?

  4. Toni on fre, 2nd Jan 2009 07:25

    5. Brian,

    Yes you can receive SMS to both SIM cards.

    You have to correct me if Im wrong, but the 850Mhz is the U.S net right? If so, then no, I wont be able to test the speed, sorry.

    Regarding the camera quality, I would say it does its job, I mean, it is a 3MP camera, but its never about the MP anyways.

    The one thing I do like about the camera is the built in application, it contains some nice views and macros that are very useful!

    If you have any further questions, dont hesitate to let me know!!

  5. Brian on fre, 2nd Jan 2009 08:33

    6. Thanks Toni

    I forgot to ask about the battery life. How many days is it lasting for you on what activities/tasks?

    The 850Mhz is also used here is Australia. I know the specs says it supports it but because the market for this device is mainly in Europe, I was hoping to know how well it works, if it works at all.

    Regards
    Brian

  6. Toni on fre, 2nd Jan 2009 19:56

    7. Brian,

    The battery life is quite good actually, However, bear in mind that having 2 radio modules does take some extra battery.

    If you use it for daily tasks, I would say maybe it would last for 2 days or so, but if you have push mail on all the time, it wont last a day. But that goes for most Windows Mobile devices I had in the past.

    If you have any more questions, dont hesitate to ask! Just use the RSS comments function on the site :)

  7. ETEN Glofiish DX900 - dual-SIM Windows Mobile « telemovel.tv on fre, 2nd Jan 2009 20:17

    8. [...] Podem ler uma excelente review aqui. [...]

  8. Review dell’ ETEN Glofiish DX900 dual sim » HDblogMobile.it on sön, 4th Jan 2009 06:04

    9. [...] a parte forse il design. Il prezzo al cambio attuale è di circa 550 euro. Se siete interessati, Winmobile.se ha effettuato una review [...]

  9. Denis on mån, 5th Jan 2009 04:26

    10. You’re right Toni:
    HKC is having a hard time to find distributors outside China.
    They’re just starting to be distributed in Germany, unfortunately for them not in a big way, but 6 months too late:
    Their device is outdated by WinMo phones such as the DX900 (i.e. WinMo 6.0, no GPS, no WiFi,…).

    By the way, the HKC works exactly as the DX900: both SIMs are active at the same time, same way to select which SIM to use to make a call or send a SMS, etc.
    As HKC developed their Dual-SIM WinMo before eTen, I wonder if DX900 developers were not “inspired” by their Chinese competitor! lol

    Do you know where to find the DX900?
    I can’t find it anywhere and even Expansys is not able to provide a price and a delivery date!
    Was yours a demo sample, or was it a high-street device?

  10. Toni on mån, 5th Jan 2009 07:31

    11. Denis:

    Ok, thanks for sharing the info! Too bad it comes without GPS and Wifi though.

    The DX900 will hit the market soon!! At least thats what my sources tells me. I think its hitting the Russian market as we speak, but the rest, well, that depends on where you live, the DX900s delivery schedule depends on which market your¨re at. Mening, the delivery dates varies from all markets.

  11. encore on tis, 6th Jan 2009 04:03

    12. can u make performance and benchmark test ? ( quite necessary )

  12. Denis on tis, 6th Jan 2009 13:44

    13. Toni,

    I read somewhere that the DX900 was available in Russia for sometimes now (actually I would be interested to know why more and more manufacturers start with Russia to distribute their devices).

    But I don’t have a way to have it shipped from there!

    On the other hand, I could get it from anywhere in Europe or the Middle East.
    But no distributors (high-street or Internet-based such as Expansys) seem to know when it will be available and at what price.

    Do you have first-hand information by any chance? :-)

  13. Toni on tis, 6th Jan 2009 14:13

    14. Denis,

    Well, Russia is first in many gadgets these days, and I would say because its one of the quickest growing markets out there!

    The DX900 release date varies from each region/country, so its has to do with your general agent in your specific country.

    Regarding the first hand info…well, can I pass on that Q? ;)

  14. Denis on ons, 7th Jan 2009 13:46

    15. Sure, Toni, please pass on that question!

    Too bad your site isn’t entirely (or in great part) in English as - for instance - Mobile-review is:
    Based on the excellent DX900 review, I would bookmark WinMobile.se with pleasure!

    Keep up the good work!

  15. Toni on ons, 7th Jan 2009 14:10

    16. Denis,

    :) Sorry, personally I dont mind having the site in english, its just that having a WinMo site in swedish is what makes us unique, otherwise, I dont care whether it ought to be in english or not. Convince my readers and I’ll change language ;)

  16. Toni on ons, 7th Jan 2009 14:20

    17. By the way, did you mean that my review turned up on mobile-review.com? Could you paste the link? thanks’

  17. Denis on tor, 8th Jan 2009 09:33

    18. No! Your review was not in Mobile-review.com: they’re very professional and I don’t think they would ever do such a thing!

    What I meant is:
    Mobile-review.com is a Russian site. They created a mirror site with their main articles translated into English.
    At beginning translation was very… approximative, but as time passed by they improved their translation quality and their English-translated articles are now perfect!

    That’s what I meant:
    Why not mirror your Swedish site into an English one so you can attract a broader audience… as Mobile-review.com did?

    That’s a bit what you started to do when you published your DX900 review in English!!

    I would have been happy to help you out on that but my Swedish is (very) rusty - don’t speak a word actually ;-) !

  18. MN K on tor, 8th Jan 2009 10:21

    19. Thanks for the nice review.

    I read some where on the net that among the disadvantages of this phone is that it has no radio & that it does not support java applications. Is that true?
    Thank you in advance.

  19. MN K on tor, 8th Jan 2009 10:30

    20. I forgot to mention that it has no mp3 player. Thank you

  20. MN K on tor, 8th Jan 2009 10:58

    21. Hello there, thank u all
    is it true that this phone has no java support, no mp3 player & no fm radio? thanks alot

  21. Toni on tor, 8th Jan 2009 13:30

    22. MN K:

    -Yes it has mp3 player! Windows Media Player ;)
    -No radio
    -yes it supports Java!

    Denis:

    Quite agree, and I have thought about it before. Its just that I dont have the time to translate it all to english. Its not a problem regarding translating, but its just a matter of time….unless there are any good software for it??

  22. monjangs on lör, 10th Jan 2009 18:02

    23. Thanks for your review. I like and need it very much.

    What price did you buy this dx900?

    Do it usually hang? (Do you must restart usually?)

    and How about signal? Is it stable?

    Thank you very much

  23. \hotricky on sön, 11th Jan 2009 06:15

    24. In all of it’s limited availability where exactly are they being distributed?
    any local storefront you can give?

  24. Knight on mån, 12th Jan 2009 08:18

    25. Good Morning from Germany..
    I will get the eten dx900 today. Rom is german ;-)

    The price is 559€ . Have a look at PDAMAX.de.
    This the first shop on idealo.de which prupose that mobile.
    At first i thought that is a trick to get customers , but no , they have realy the eten dx900.
    My parcel was send last friday. I see it on package track and trace.

    have a nice day.

    Knight

  25. hodka on lör, 17th Jan 2009 14:44

    26. Hi, nice review!

    I was wondering whether one can switch off the DX900??

    I remember having a Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone where I could not switch it off but only set it to flight mode. The reason was that all data were lost once there was no voltage to maintain it. This was very annoying! I am very interested whether Windows mobile phones (especially the DX900) still have this problem.

    Thanks in advance!

  26. Niwre on mån, 19th Jan 2009 15:35

    27. Hi Tony,

    Would you know if there’s a limit on the SMS that DX900 can store? I own a Samsung D880 but it’s limited to 200 SMS only (both phone and SIM).

    Also, would there be a limit on the external memory card that this phone supports?

    Thanks,
    Niwre

  27. Toni on mån, 19th Jan 2009 16:41

    28. No there is no limit on the Windows mobile phones when it comes to SMS. I currently have approx 2200 sms.

    Storage cards, well, I got a 8GB card in it.

  28. Niwre on mån, 19th Jan 2009 18:18

    29. Thanks Toni, I am starting to love this phone then.

    - Does the phone hang that often?
    - Does it have an option to change SMS and Call alert tones to MP3 ring tones?
    - What’s the pre-installed in email client?

    Thanks,
    Niwre

  29. Toni on mån, 19th Jan 2009 21:28

    30. -no it doesn’t hang often
    -sure, you can change mp3 tone on all winmobile devices
    -outlook! the intergration with outlook on your pc is wonderful!

  30. Niwre on tis, 20th Jan 2009 11:22

    31. Apologies for having so many questions, I just wanted to make sure that I am having the right decision in buying a new phone.

    - Does it have an indicator telling you if the SMS was sent on SIM1 or SIM2? How about if the call is for SIM1 or SIM2?
    - Can you share the list of applications on your phone that you like a lot?

    I may still have some questions, please don’t get mad at me if I am asking too much. Thanks.

  31. Roib on ons, 21st Jan 2009 11:11

    32. Ist it possible to dail with a dailprifix for sim1 or sim2, so that i dail from outlook contacts, wen i use the silver button it dails from sim1… yes i now there is a second button for sim2, but this wont work fron the speeddail in mobileshell.

  32. Rob on ons, 21st Jan 2009 11:13

    33. Is there a posibility to use DATA gprs on the second sim? i use a german and a dutch card?

  33. Anonym on tor, 22nd Jan 2009 15:21

    34. Are BOTH SIM slots 3G-capable, or only one of the is 3G while the other is 2G?

  34. rob on tor, 22nd Jan 2009 18:43

    35. sim 1 = GSM/UMTS 3g HSDPA sim 2 (i cant find any GRPS)

  35. Anonym on ons, 4th Feb 2009 09:41

    36. Same question about GPRS on sim #2. Or is data tranfer limited to sim #1 (the 3G one)?

  36. Paul King on tis, 10th Feb 2009 13:10

    37. Hi Chaps..
    I take it that this phone has MicroSD capability above 4Gb and is not just transflash. In other words is this an SDHC compatible device.

    Cheers

  37. Montelatici on fre, 13th Feb 2009 20:04

    38. The HTC dual sim, mentioned in another comment, was a rebranded Tech Faith Cynthia 850:

    http://pocketpcdubai.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=120&Itemid=1

    The Glofiish DX900 is the first Quad-Band GSM and 3G (UMTS and HSPDA) Dual SIM phone.

    The key to both phones is that they are solid phones (not like the no-brand ones sold on Ebay made in China) that have dual SIMs plus Quad band GSM. I bought one of those Chinese clones (the I9) and frankly it was a terribly bad phone. I threw it in drawer and forgot about it because I don’t intend to sell on Ebay and then receive bad feedback. The clones on Ebay can be had for less than 100USD. No big loss.

    The Cynthia 850 has been sold under other brand names such as Qigi and Sitronics. I have one of these phones and it was a very good dual SIM quad band GSM 2G phone. It runs WinMob 6.0. I broke the touch screen on it (my fault) and when the Gloffish DX900 became available on Expansys I snapped one up to replace my Cynthis 850 and have been using it for the past three days.

    It is a better phone than the Tech Faith (HTC, Qigi, Sitronics) Cynthia 850, in my opinion for the following reasons.

    1. It is 3.5G UMTS/HSPDA with frequencies that allow it to work in North America and Europe in 3G. Cynthia is only 2G/GPRS/Edge.
    2. It has WIFI. Cynthia does not.
    3. It has built-in GPS. Cynthia does not
    4. It has a 3 MB camera with flash, the Cynthia 850 has a 2MB w/o flash.
    5. It has WinMob 6.1 Pro. The Cynthia has WinMob 6.
    6. The DX900 is about 2 cm. shorter. The Cynthia 850 was a little too long.
    7. The DX900 uses a mini usb for charging and data while the Cynthia 850 has a proprietary interface
    8. The DX900 can use the high capacity MicroSD cards 16/32GB while the Cynthia was limited to 2GB.

    Still, the Cynthia 850 is a great phone. Had I been able to find someone to replace the screen, I probably would not have bought the Glofiish at this time.

  38. inverse121 on tis, 17th Feb 2009 02:57

    39. Does anyone know if you can MMS with SIM2 on the DX900?

  39. inverse121 on ons, 18th Feb 2009 14:27

    40. Got it yesterday, does not MMS on SIM2

  40. Ian on ons, 25th Feb 2009 03:54

    41. SIM 2 is not 3G capable, so no video-calling.
    ??

  41. Toni on ons, 25th Feb 2009 07:25

    42. SIM 2 = No 3G due to battery capacity. Imagine having 2pcs of 3G running, that would drain the battery substaintialy.

    By the way, I have a DX900 for sale for a very good price if anyone is interested!

  42. farshad on ons, 18th Mar 2009 06:42

    43. how much?

  43. Toni on ons, 18th Mar 2009 07:01

    44. Sorry, sold.

  44. vekian on tis, 21st Apr 2009 14:52

    45. I’ve read that this phone is available in Malaysia at a shop in Kuala Lumpur for about 2500 Malaysian Ringit. I will be there in a couple of weeks. I’ve never had to enter a pin code for any of my phones. How do I find out the pin code of my sims?

  45. Toni on tis, 21st Apr 2009 14:58

    46. vekian:

    Its usually provided when you get the SIM card.

    If not, please contact your operator and they will provide the PUK code. The PUK code is like a secondary PIN code,they’ll guide you through it.

    But, if you dont have a PIN code on your SIM today, you dont need to enter anything on your new ACER DX900 anyway ;)

  46. Veryney on fre, 24th Apr 2009 14:10

    47. Everyone & Toni

    Plz Toni Where is the Eten Glofiish DX900 I meant the Country it was made.

    :)

  47. Toni on fre, 24th Apr 2009 14:12

    48. Its now rebranded to ACER DX900, made in Taiwan like most WinMo phones ;)

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