Full Review and Specification for the E-TEN Glofiish V900 Review

If you’ve ever fancied having a TV in your pocket then this is your big chance. E-TEN’s Glofiish V900 crams a DVB-T antenna into its small frame, so you can watch free-to-air digital channels as well as the channels you’d usually get on an analogue TV. You can also listen to digital radio stations too.

That’s not all E-TEN has dropped into the V900 by any means, as there is a host of hardware and software.

E-TEN Glofiish V900 - Solid and unprepossessing

Looks wise, the V900 seems a bit lacklustre. Although it feels fine in the hand, it is on the chunky side, and while the device’s mostly-black shell is not unpleasant, it is predictable.

We also found that the joystick sitting below the screen was difficult to get use to, and was uncomfortable to use. We would much prefer a D-pad.

E-TEN Glofiish V900 - TV

The E-TEN Glofiish V900 has some positives and negatives when it comes to the TV. The 640x480 pixel screen works a treat, and the TV pictures, like everything else that is displayed on this device, is sharp and clear. The TV software is easy to use; it automatically scans for channels and you can set it up for different countries so it should work on your international travels.

There's enough volume from the loudspeaker for you to listen in reasonable comfort without distortion. However, if you want to use headphones you must either use the ones provided by E-TEN or use a 2.5mm to 3.5mm headset adapter.

We encountered some problems with the TV reception, as on occasions reception was lost and we had to wait for it to come back again. The wait was only ever a few seconds, but it meant we missed parts of the programme we were watching.

However, the battery life is good, as it offers three hours of TV watching from a single charge, which is enough for an evening's viewing if you can bear those little outages.

E-TEN Glofiish V900 - Other features

Even without the TV antenna there is a lot packed into this device, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, HSDPA, a front-facing camera for two-way video calling, a three-megapixel camera, and a sensor that knows when you turn the V900 round in your hand and obligingly flips the screen. There's also an FM radio, a TV-out feature, which you can use along with the provided cable to send whatever the screen shows to your own TV, and Spb Mobile Shell provides an HTC TouchFLO-like way of navigating around the device.

E-TEN Glofiish V900 - The verdict

You have to admire E-TEN for including TV capability into a Windows Mobile device, and when it works it is really very good, but the breaks in reception are annoying. Still, the definition of the Windows Mobile device ‘with everything’ just went up a notch.