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Does anyone still have one, and is it still working and actually a viable alternative to a normal notebook, as the price does look inviting, especially if just about to buy one anyway.
I don't have one and having looked at their website I don't think I personally would consider buying one.
Whether it would give you what you want would really depend on for what you want to use it. Basic web browsing and e-mails would probably be ok, but I suspect anything else would be "painful" if you are used to using a normal Windows or Linux PC, laptop or netbook, any Apple Mac, or even most tablets.
Several things give me cause for concern, in no particular order:
1. The processer and available memory mean it will be painfully slow for most operations other than loading web pages that are routed by their "acceleration servers"
2. The screen resolution is low and will seem "blocky" compared to most netbooks, tablets and PCs
3. You won't be able to load any standard Windows programs (they probably would not run anyway given the machine's specifications) as it is running Windows CE, so you are limited to what is installed by Datawind
4. The non-3g version offers 30 hours per month which means it will be using a GPRS connection at best. this is slow compared to 3g or broadband - data access is via the kilobyte (Kb) or megabyte (Mb) on faster connections
5. The 3g version only includes access via their "acceleration servers", "open" access is £9.99 per gigabyte (Gb) but they don't specify when you would need open access - makes me wonder just how much you would be able to access through their servers
6. You have no better connection possibilities than with any other PC, laptop, netbook, etc. with a dongle - this is dependent on network coverage and availability, or WiFi availability (in fact other machines are likely to perform faster and more consistently on both 3g and WiFi)
7. I suspect that it may have problems, or be unable, to support many web sites that rely on FLash - their is no mention of it being supported on the Ubisurfers.
Seems to me the concept is fine, although limited with recent developments on the tablet front, but it is flawed by being built down to a price.
In its favour, it is cheap but personally I would go for (and indeed have) a netbook or small laptop, and a pay as you go 3g dongle - better quality and performance and not necessarily that much more expensive.
Mind you I am a control freak and like to be in charge of everything, what goes onto my laptop, TV remote control, etc.
Hope this helps.
Just in case you are wondering, I have worked in IT for almost 30 years, although I am the first to admit there is a helluva lot of stuff I don't know!
You should also know that, like the Pocket Surfer (also from datawind) the international roaming is a rip-off. You have to pay in advance and then find that the 5p per minute rate advertised only materialises if the machine happens to find the 'partner network' first. In my case it never did and I kept being told that if I proceeded it would cost me 20p or 25p per minute (can't remember which now). I got my money back. Since I got my Kindle I hardly ever use the PS, even when it's 'free'.
Hi - that would be my advice too. Not familiar with the latest model, but I had a PocketSurfer and subsequently succumbed to buying one of the first UbiSurfers as well. To be honest neither of them were very successful. In my opinion they didn't measure up to the marketing hype, especially the supposed speed indicated.
Both were fiddly to use and when my annual roaming fee for the UbiSurfer expired in August 2010 I didn't bother to renew the £36pa fee, or whatever it was.
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