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Daniel Robinson, IT Week, Monday 7 January 2008 at 00:00:00

The SoMo 650 Windows PDA is optimised for enterprise use and includes support for scanners

Socket Mobile's SoMo 650 is a semi-rugged Windows Mobile handheld designed for mobile business applications such as inventory control and salesforce automation. As such, it is closer in spirit to a traditional PDA rather than messenger-style devices with mobile phone functionality, although it boasts both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections and can thus send and receive email. Available since September through resellers such as Expansys and Smart Devices, the SoMo 650 was created to fill the gap in the market left by more mainstream vendors withdrawing their Microsoft-based handhelds or replacing them with smartphones. It is aimed directly at enterprise customers and will be available for three to five years, unlike more consumer-oriented devices with a typical life cycle of about 12 months. We found the SoMo 650 to be well designed for its purpose. It has a clean design and a simple set of controls, yet features customisations such as a roaming Wi-Fi client and built-in drivers for Socket peripherals such as barcode scanners. It runs the slightly older Windows Mobile 5.0 version of Microsoft's platform, rather than version 6, introduced in 2007. The unit has pretty much all of the standard features of the Windows Mobile platform, including the Outlook mail client and support for push email from Exchange servers, but firms looking for a straight email and messaging device would probably be better served by a smartphone. Socket has equipped the SoMo 650 with a decent specification for mobile applications. It is based on a 624MHz Intel PXA270 processor and has 128MB RAM and 256MB of Flash memory. There are also two slots on the top of the device for expansion: an SD Card slot for Flash storage and a larger CompactFlash slot for both storage and peripherals. The two slots are shielded by a tight-fitting rubber cover to guard against damage and any dirt getting inside. The system follows the familiar PDA design of a 3.5in 240x320 pixel touch screen with a five-way navigator control and other function keys below it. In the case of the SoMo 650, these are shortcuts to the Today screen, Contacts, Email, and Calendar functions. Two programmable buttons are located on either side of the case, plus a tiny on/off button above the screen and a hold switch on the left side. Although the SoMo is semi-rugged, it is fairly light for its size at 179g, but still feels reassuringly solid. It has a slightly rubberised feel to the sides of the...

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