Dopod U1000 UMPC Cell Phone that Kicks iPhone butt

While Americans are proud of iPhone from Apple, which is only available in Asian in 2008, Chinese has a comparable or maybe even better Cell phone + UMPC + PC gadget that make them proud - The Dopod U1000.

How cool is Dopod U1000? By features and specifications, the Dopod U1000 shouldn’t be classified as a cellular phone (Dopod also doesn’t want to classify it as cell phone too.) as this built-in-china gadget comes with hardware specifications that you can only find at UMPC - Intel PXA270 624 MHz processors, 256 MB Flash ROM / 128 MB RAM, 8GB Internal Harddisk. Amazingly, the U1000 supports 1.8 Mbps HSDPA which means this Dopod gadget is a wonderful 3.5G cellular phone too (iPhone doesn’t support 3G).

The Dopod U1000 comes with 5″ (whopping 640 x 480 resolutions) LCD screen, which is the biggest size screen with highest resolutions that you can’t find on other cellular phones, not even the coming-soon iPhone (3.5″ screen with 320 by 480 resolutions only). With a full magnetic QWERTY keyboard which can be taken if you don’t need it, the Dopod U1000 is a better mobile workstation than iPhone.

Digital camera wise, Dopod U1000 has a built-in 3.0-MP digital camera which makes Apple shames on her iPhone with only 2.0-MP digital camera. But wait, iPhone has cool well-integrated Google Maps and Yahoo Maps features. But, Dopod U1000 has built-in GPS system which is even better!

As you know Dopod is a “slave for Microsoft” (Dopod only produces devices that run on Microsoft Mobile operating system), so the Dopod U1000 is powered by Windows Mobile operating system too. However, if you are too scared to use Internet Explorer to go online, you can always switch to Opera browser which is preloaded in Dopod U1000.

The Dopod U1000 is expected to be on sales in February 2007 in Asia. Selling price is estimated to be $1208 USD dollars WITHOUT any million years long contract or any device locking problem. Considering the total cost of ownership of iPhone is close to USD 2000 dollars, the Dopod U1000 is a better bargain UMPC cell phone or entertainment gadget.