Celio Redfly

Although at first glance this model resembles a subnotebook, the Redfly works completely differently. It serves as an accessory for a smart phone, and does not act as a stand alone computer. When Celio's device is connected to a Windows Mobile phone, either by Bluetooth or USB, any application on the smart phone is shown on the Mobile Companion's 800 by 480 pixel (WVGA) display without modification or synchronization.

The user is then able to interact with that application through a large keyboard and trackpad or mouse.

Aside from a new video in port, the latest version of the Redfly is essentially identical to the original.

The Redfly can take anything on a smart phone's screen and display it on its larger and higher resolution screen except video.

Celio had originally hoped to add the ability to its accessory through software, but it proved to be too much of a challenge.

So it decided on a different solution. The Redfly C8N will include a Video In port that will let you play the video from an iPod, iPhone, Zune, digital camera, or anything with Video Out. It'd important to keep in mind that the typical Redfly functionality acting as a display and keyboard for your Windows Mobile smart phone is completely separate from the multimedia playback.

You don't even have to have a smart phone connected to the Redfly to watch movies off an iPod. Videos show up in a completely separate window from the session you're having with the smart phone. This window can take up the full screen, postage stamp size, or completely hidden. Even at full screen the video often doesn't take up the whole screen. If the video's aspect ratio is different from the Redfly's display you'll get a letterbox effect.

Video quality is decent. The Redfly's 800 by 480 pixel display isn't going to give you the kind of video quality you'll get on a larger, more expensive laptop, but it's vastly better than watching a movie on a 3 inch smartphone screen. The Redfly doesn't have any built in speakers, so you're going to need to either use the ones built into your video player or better yet use some headphones.