Product Description

PocketSurfer 2 R 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. The PocketSurfer 2 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. No Wires 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! Roaming in Europe and the USA costs only £29.99 for 600 minutes of access, a highly competitive 5p per minute. No Contracts 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! No Compromise 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. The PocketSurfer 2Rs price of £199 includes 20 hours per month of FREE web surfing in the UK for the first year of ownership, with a renewal charge of £39.99 for the second and subsequent years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60695 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Datawind
• Model: PS06UK
• Released on: 2008-10-28

Manufacturer's Description
PocketSurfer 2 Lite 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 Lite 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. The PocketSurfer 2 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!

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.

Box Contains

• Datawinde PocketSurfer 2 R
• Mains adaptor/charger
• Soft case
• User guide on CD

Customer Reviews

new & Improved Pocketsurfer
As someone who has owned a Pocketsurfer 2 and now also the Pocketsurfer 2 R I feel I am in a good position to write a review about this new offering from Datawind. The Pocketsurfer 2 was an excellent piece of kit for the price and offered internet access virtually anywhere. I have a caravan in Wales which has no 3G coverage so the new 3G Broadband dongles which you can plug into your laptop are absolutely useless. The Pocketsurfer uses GPRS technology which has been around for years and so the mobile base station infrastructure is very well established and most of the country is covered which is certainly not so for 3G network & HSPDA which is what the newer USB dongles and mini laptops use. I also have one of these and in the town its fine, but once out into the country it does not work so until the whole country is upgraded for 3G to the extent that GPRS which the Pocketsurfer uses, then there will always be an advantage to the Pocketsurfer in that it can deliver the Internet almost everywhere which 3G dongles certainly do not and I speak from experience.
The new Pocketsurfer 2 R is an upgraded version of the original PS2 and has a mini touchpad not unlike you will find on any laptop. This is a great improvement to the old up/down/left/right keys on the original keyboard. It enables you to quickly scroll from top to bottom and left to right of the 2R screen with just a swipe of the finger. Another big improvement is to how the text is entered into the Pocketsurfer. No longer are you restricted to typing into a little box at the top of the screen but you simply place the curser arrow over the area you want to enter the text and then tap the scrollpad and type away. This now performs exactly as if you were entering text on your home PC and is a great improvement over the PS2.
The PS2R still uses the rather dated active matrix LCD screen as fitted to earlier PS2 model, but the contrast and brightness settings have been tweaked to give a better screen image. Its still not as good as your laptop screen, but much better than the original and perfectly adequate for its needs. The hinge mechanism which was prone to failure on early PS2's has been modified slightly and seems much more robust. Best of all, the Pocketsurfer 2R now works on the Vodafone network which has very robust coverage in the UK and you can also use roaming when abroad for only 5p a minute. At home, providing you use the internet for 20 hours a month or less, then the Pocketsurfer is free to use and costs nothing beyond the original purchase price. Another great offer from Datawind is the one off payment which you can buy if you wish to give you unlimited internet access with no data download limits at all. In this case, unlimited means just that. For a one off payment of £60 you can have unlimited access for life which is the life of the PS2R not your life of course. It still means you will be able to access the mobile internet virtually anywhere in the UK for probably 5 years or more with no further payment!
I can honestly say that the Pocketsurfer 2R's use of GPRS rather than 3G is a blessing and not a hinderance. Because of the data compression technology which Datawind uses, the webpage you want to view appears in seconds. I reckon the average page takes between 5 and 8 seconds to load and it is displayed exactly as you would get on your home PC and not some squashed up poor relation of a webpage which you normally get on a PDA or mobile phone. The unit is not capable of displaying video or producing sound, but apart from that, normal text and photo webpages work just fine. As I said at the start of my review, I have a caravan in Wales and it is in the middle of nowhere. Nothing for as far as the eyes can see but fields, sheep and cows. The nearest village is 2 miles away and is just a handfull of houses and not even a shop or pub. You could not get anywhere more out of the way than that and the PS2R works just fine. If it will work there, it will work anywhere believe me. So when they say the internet in your pocket anywhere, they mean it which is more than can be said for my 3G effort. In conclusion, if you are looking to play games, download music or video, then forget this item, but if you just want to check your Emails, chat on IM, view webpages, do online banking etc, then this unit is an excellent low cost way to do it.

still trying to find a fully working one....
I really wanted one of these, pocket internet access and cheap useage from abroad !. So far since mid December I have had 3 of these pocket surfer 2 R models. The first one initially exceeded my expectations with pretty fast internet surfing and I didnt realize that you could set the Quality vs Speed yourself giving you quite a bit of flexibility. This is the gadget i had been waiting for. The other feature about the 2R model is the built in GPS which works in conjunction with internet google maps to show you your location etc. I went into the garden and the number of satellites started to show 1-2-3-4 but then went back to 0 on each and every attempt. I ended up in the middle of a football pitch in -3 deg with absolutely no obstructions around me to give it every chance to lock in, but it never did. The Datawind helpline was not helpful, we had difficulty trying to understand each other (language / accent), It was a very difficult conversation that did not flow and they made some ridiculous suggestion about trying to fix the satellite problem from there end. I returned the unit to Amazon very disappointed and ordered another one. When it arrived and I activated it the first thing I wanted to see was whether the GPS was locking. It was instant / superb, so good it was starting to work before I even got out of the door, just through the windows. I returned inside happy that it was all working well just to find that it did not work anywhere near as well on the internet as the first unit which had the faulty GPS ! Constant connection problems and it would not work at all in parts of the house where the other one did, maybe the receiver was less sensitive.. anyway it had to go back and I thought I would try once more, since this looked a great product - I just needed the one that would do the whole thing ! So the 3rd unit arrives from Amazon, internet working like rocket just like the first one - no problem there. I went out the garden and, you've guessed it the GPS did not work at all. So it has to go. I tried talking to the UK distributor "Widget" but they did'nt seem all that interested only offering to put me back in touch with Datawind, I have not heard from them yet. This COULD BE a great product - but you have to find one that completely works, perhaps I will try again sometime and maybe I'll get lucky ?

Disappointed
Having read the previous review I was convinced that this was the device that I needed to have when in more remote areas in my caravan. Perhaps I have just been unlucky, but after a few days it would not connect to the internet.
I rang Datawind support and spent 40 minutes in a queue with an 0844 number (5p a minute.) The person I spoke to did not seem very knowledgeable at all. She thought it had a faulty part and wanted me to post it to them to have a look at. I said that I would be returning it to Amazon.
I'm still looking for a good, cheap way to surf the Internet, including roaming charges for when I go to France. I was really looking forward to using the Pocketsurfer 2R and feel very disappointed. Maybe I just had a rogue one: I'll watch out for other reviews. I don't actually need anything until Easter, but I had some Christmas money and thought it sounded so brilliant that I wanted to get it straight away.