More than a month PC World magazine reviewed PepperPad, and wasn’t quite happy with what they had to offer, now PC Magazine runs a gadget review, where PepperPad receives 1.5 stars out of 5 possible.
“We weren’t impressed by the features either. The rubbery little keys are difficult to type on with any speed or precision, hobbling e-mail. In addition, the touch-screen user interface feels generally balky—often we tapped on buttons (especially in the Web browser) four or five times because we couldn’t tell we had pressed them, only to have all our button-presses take effect several seconds later. The photo application is fine and Web pages looked great, but the browser’s performance left a lot to be desired—it kept us hanging for several seconds at a time—and plug-in support was uneven. For instance, the Pad supports Flash 6 but not yet Flash 7, and streaming movie trailers from Apple’s QuickTime site came through without sound.”
Would the PC Magazine guys give the same treatment to Nokia 770?
Let’s do a point by point walk-through to see what their main complaints are:
Price point. At $850 a pop PepperPad has a lot to offer, but this kind of price range seems to be outside of what most teenagers and gadget lovers budget for their electronics spending. Released at $350, Nokia might suffer from competing PDAs, but it’s at the point where it’s still acceptable. However, the price for a 20 GB Creative Zen with 3.8″ screen just went down to $180, so expect heated competition in the field. That’s 20 gigs, folks, support for all Microsoft DRM formats, but no wireless.
Which brings us to the next point. Support for Microsoft DRM. Be it Yahoo! Music or MovieLink, the DRM is here to stay, and while one can complain, when it becomes too restrictive, it’s unlikely just to go away. More of the media we consume daily is using Apple or Microsoft DRM and neither PepperPad nor Nokia 770 have anything to offer. They’re going to lose points in PC Magazine reviews.
Large video files. You’ve got a nice large crisp screen, you want to watch the last episode of Simpsons or your favorite Matrix movie. Sony gets it, but I don’t think Nokia does, as reduced storage capabilities are surely going to kill the enthusiasm of the fans trying to upload something worthwhile to their devices.
Battery life. PepperPad got points ducked on that one, and Nokia 770 is going to lose some as well. You and I know why.
Overall, the chances are not too good, but there’s always a chance that sales will pick up, so none of that would matter.