Product Description

PocketSurfer 2 is an ultra-thin portable device that easily fits into a pocket or bag and delivers the real web, just like at home or at work. Weighing in at just 174 grams the PocketSurfer 2 allows you to browse the web in its original layout on a 640x240 full colour widescreen display using a mouse cursor and a full backlit QWERTY keyboard making it the most usable hand-held web device around. It doesn¹t hang about either, with page-load times of under seven seconds over GPRS thanks to Datawind¹s compression technology you¹ll be flying around the web just as you would at your desk. The PocketSurfer 2 has its own in-built GPRS antenna and SIM card which means it can connect itself straight to the mobile network to get you online immediately, you don¹t need any other bits and pieces at all, just get it out of the box and go! The PocketSurfer 2 doesn¹t need you to take out a contract, you can use it out-of-the-box for 12 months without paying a penny and to use it for the next year will cost as little as £40! Browse the web just as you would on your desktop PC. Like no other handheld web-browsing experience, the PocketSurfer 2 keeps all your pages displaying just as they were designed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16943 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Datawind
• Model: PS04UK
• Released on: 2007-09-24
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Manufacturer's Description

No wires, No contract, No compromise - the internet anywhere!

Pocketsurfer2 is a handheld device that delivers the full power and original graphic intensity of the internet rapidly and wirelessly to the palm of your hand, for free*. No contracts, no Bluetooth connection with a mobile phone needed. Access to the full web for free wherever you are and you are not dependent on WIFI access either.

The PocketSurfer2 allows you to browse the web in its original HTML layout, with full graphics, Java support and other complex web functionality on a 640 x 240 colour widescreen display. An integrated mouse pointer and a full format, backlit QWERTY keyboard makes it the most usable hand-held web device around. PocketSurfer2 fits easily into a pocket or bag and delivers the real web, just like you’re used to at home or at work. The rich user experience of the PocketSurfer2 offers a real alternative to consumers tired of the limited functionality, unfamiliar content and small screens on mobile phones or Smartphone’s.

It doesn’t hang about either, with page-load times of under seven seconds over GPRS thanks to acceleration technology, you’ll be flying around the web just as you would at your desk. Comparative devices regularly take up to two minutes to download similar web pages.

DataWind’s free-usage model eliminates the complexity of purchasing mobile web devices by eliminating lengthy contractual payments, activation fees and credit checks. With the PocketSurfer2, you pay for the device not the usage. The PocketSurfer2 can be activated by the user right out of the box and is ready to use shortly thereafter. Best of all, for the average user, there are no monthly fees. Free usage for the PocketSurfer2 is available everywhere your mobile phone works, not restricting you to WiFi hotspots.

* Each user is given 20 hours per month at no charge, for the first year. After the first year, the maximum charge for the full second year for the average-user will be £40. Heavy users can upgrade their free-usage plans to unlimited-usage for only £5.99 a month.

The Pocketsurfer has 5 hours battery life for active usage, and 5 days standby, so you can actively manage your time surfing the net while you are on the road. It has a built in-high performance antenna, so it will pick up signal strength whilst you are an receiveable areas.

It also has a transreflective backlit display, which you allow you to use the Pocketsurfer later on at night, whether you are using whilst travelling home on the train at night or just at home in the evening.

With a 7 second page-load, you can be rest assured that it will give you a speedy response, when you are refreshing or loading the pages who are wishing to view and this will appear in the orginial web layout.

So if you want to keep yourself up to date with all the latest news, emails and social networking sites then try it out for yourself, it will keep yourself occupied on the way home from your daily commute or if you are out and about and you can't bear to be away from it at all, the Pocketsurfer opens the door to the World Wide Web for you!

Customer Reviews

It does exactly what is says it does!
I've had mine for about 3 weeks now. At first the GPS thought I was in London but not now as it all works fine in built up areas but not where I live which is a bit in the sticks. The device itself as a web browser works everywhere I have tried it and downloads the pages as quick as it says. Remote PC acces works well but I can't seem to work out a way to right click if you want to email something from the remote PC which would be handy. You do have to have a homepage designed by Datawind but I guess the inclusion of these links helps keep the cost down. Battery Life is very good, Keyboard does seem a little flimsy but I guess I'm not used to the RAZR style keyboard. Little niggle if the flap for the charger when it's plugged in makes the screen on the device stick up a bit.

Oh and don't expect to watch video on it as the refresh rate is not quick enough.

Overall a cost effective way to access the whole of the web and emails etc.

Positives and Negatives
When my desktop PC started having problems and became unreliable, not having the finances to fork out for a laptop, I started looking for a cheaper alternative for basic Internet and email and was thrilled to come across the Pocketsurfer2. I happen to live in a strong Orange signal area and I've not had any problems with connecting and staying connected and the online registration was easy and worked first time. However, if you don't live in a strong Orange signal area, I can see why many people have had connection problems and even pages not displaying properly.

Connection problems aside, the Pocketsurfer2 does what it says it does, but there is room for improvement. At first I thought I had a faulty device, as the screen dimmed after around ten seconds and the keyboard lights went out after less than five seconds. But thanks to another reviewer I was able to alter the settings - they don't tell you this in the user manual and I have no idea why! But if you hold down the SHIFT key and press ESC you are able to alter power and light settings and also stop the screen from flickering/shivering, from where it says *No keypad action for a certain time, let power be: and change from LOWER to FULL.

Of course, changing these settings will reduce the battery life, so the battery will need charging more often, but it makes for a better experience. My main disappointment, however, with the Pocketsurfer2 is in having to scroll most, if not all, web pages, not just up and down, which in itself can be infuriatingly slow, but also from side-to-side, and if you are trying to view a web page that you are not familiar with, it can be very difficult to navigate around the screen.

Dropdown menus are a pain as well, as there is no ability - not that I know of, anyway - to drag and drop the scrollbar, so forms can be a problem, and with "United Kingdom" usually being near the bottom of a dropdown menu of countries, it can take a very long time! Also, I was tempted to switch from the default T: Batch-Text-Entry-Mode to C: Direct-Text-Entry-Mode, thinking this would be quicker, but fast discovered that the more fiddly "T" mode was actually the only reliable and strangely quickest option.

All-in-all though, web pages do load in under seven seconds, pictures are grainy but not essential for my needs, and it is a handy little device to just pick up and take out and use anywhere around the house, and for emergency use if you have an unreliable main computer. Hotmail, unfortunately, is not supported. It's possible to send email to a Hotmail account but not to send email from one. The device build, however, is flimsy and needs to be treated with care, especially when opening and closing, as the hinges, as another reviewer said, "worry" me also.

So to cap this up; no subscription for a year when keeping to just twenty hours per month, which is ample for my own needs, I think makes this a good deal. A little overpriced in the first place maybe, and it would be nice to have a more detailed user manual and one that is not on a disc. Still, I'm one of Datawind/Linsar's "reasonably" happy customers - I just hope that my Pocketsurfer2 lasts the year and doesn't fall apart!

Good idea but very frustrating to use
I've been using this for a while now and I'm getting increasingly frustrated with it. Its good points are:

1) Loads web pages quite fast (if network isn't busy)
2) Free surfing.

Its bad points:

1) Constant 'network busy' messages often leading to disconnection.
2) Pages not loading properly (sometimes only half load)
3) Poor quality display (colour is terrible)
4) Poor battery life
5) Slow scrolling
6) Overall poor build quality

It's a good idea but needs some serious work to make it usable in the real world.