Dopod 838 Photoreview

I had the chance to try out the new Dopod 838 today, courtesy of YeapCH and I brought along my camera. So I thought I'd share some hands on pics and brief first hand thoughts about this new Windows Mobile 5 PPC Phone. Click on the images for a bigger picture.

Firstly the box is quite plain with the Dopod 838 printed on it.

Inside you get the Phone, USB cable (no cradle), headset wire, charger and CD.

The first thing I noticed is that the unit is quite light, at 140g. I always thought the 838 looks a big plain and squarish. The build quality is good, hoevever it does not feel as solid as the Mini. Although it has a metalic finish, it feels a bit plasticky compared to the dentable Mini.


I had my trusty Motorola MPX with me so I took some comparison shots.

The Dopod's keyboard slides out firmly with a click and reveals a nice QWERTY keyboard. The Keyboard has a nice tactile feel, just like the Dopod 900 and is easy to press. It is a bit narrower than the MPX.

With the keyboard inside, the Dopod is a nice size.

Here is a shot with the MPX in portrait mode. Incidentally the initial startup of the Dopod takes about 3-4 minutes.

OK the Mini is the standard we compare the Dopod 838 to. It is about the same length and weight. Incidentally the Mini is a dummy set so disregard the screen.


Side by side with the mini

I tried to catch the difference in thickness. The Dopod is about 1cm thicker than the mini to accomodate the slide out keypad.

Here is the back vies of the MPX, Dopod and Mini

Front line up.


Side by side with the MPX, the mpx is about the same thickness.

My MPX is actually smaller!

This is the pouch that comes with the Dopod

It's made of vinyl materiel.

This is a shot of the battery and SIM compartment
Top view of the Dopod showing the MiniSD card slot and power button. I've invested a lot in SD cards and can't see why they had to use the mini SD. There is lots of space there for a SD slot.


The bottom view has the mini usb clot, microphone and audio jack. Notice the stylus is on the bottom right corner.

The left side has a volume slider button and a wireless shortcut button. Notice also the speakers on the side. There are 2 speakers.

This is the wireless application that is activated by the wireless button on the left side.

The 1.3 MP camera is much better than the original mini camera but still won't take better pictures than a cheap digicam. There is a small flash LED.


Now the snazzy thing about WM5 are the shortcut keys that correspond to the 2 commands on screen. In landscape mode there are 2 dedicated keys on the keyboard. Unfortunately they are a bit hard to press as it is quite narrow.

With the keypad closed there are another 2 dedicated softkeys. The response is quite fast. Much faster than the mini or MPX is calling up the calender or contacts.



These 2 pictures show the stereo speakers on the side. They are easily the loudest speakers I have heard on a PPC phone. The speakers are very good with little distortion even at max volume which is almost 2x the volume of my mini. They are lacking in bass, but have a crisp bright sound.


This is the new Mini SD card that will force me to spend more $$. The mini SD goes up to 1 gig and sells for about RM$300+ for 1 gig.

This shot is for the styus which is extendable, but is still a bit short and light.

The sliding mechanism seems quite solid, but I wouldn't want to drop it in this mode.

Back view of the sliding mechanism

Here is a group shot of the Mini, Benq P50, MPX and Dopod.

Benq p50 vs Dopod 838. They are about the same thickness. The p50 is slightly heavier.
Dopod and MPX again

With the keyboard closed.
After the long startup time, the WM was quite snappy. Although the processor is only 200mhz, but it seemed faster than the Mini and handled songs and video without a problem.I was impressed with the stereo sound which was crisp and clear. The other thing I liked was the screen which was evenly bright and clear. The keyboard had good tactile feedback and there was no lag in converting from portrait to landscape mode. For RM$3088, I think it's a better buy than the Dopod 900. Is it worth it? At the moment I think it's the best WM5 PPC Phone device you can buy in Malaysia. Do check it out for yourself first and make sure the software you want to use is WM5 compatible. OK hope you found it useful. Bye!