We’ve been hearing a lot of good things about the Celio Redfly this week.  Now there’s an easy way to have a good look at it for yourself. James Kendrick at jkOnTheRun has done an excellent video mini-review of it.

If you haven’t yet heard of the Redfly, it is a soon-to-be-released  ‘companion device’ for Windows Mobile smartphones; somewhat like the aborted Palm Foleo in concept, but with some key differences and maybe a better focus – and James’ video has some good thoughts on how it can best be used.

The Redfly has no processor or memory or storage of its own.  So it uses purely the resources of a connected Windows Mobile device to function.  Your WinMO device connects to it via USB (it has two USB 2 ports) or Bluteooth.  James was demo-ing a prototype model, with an AT&T Tilt as his companion smartphone.  He also reported good results with using it with his HTC Advantage.

Here are some of the things that I was impressed by during James’ run-through:

• Startup time – powering on the Redfly and hitting a keyboard button to connect via Bluetooth to the Tilt – was very quick, seemed like around 15-20 seconds and up popped the Tilt’s Today screen.
• Resolution of 800X240 and screen size are good.  When James opened an Excel spreadsheet you could see an awful lot of cells at once, a Powerpoint Mobile presentation looked sharp, and web pages looked great as well.
• Overall size of the Redfly seems quite good – James says it is just about the same size as an Eeee PC.
• Speed of operations seemed more than acceptable – even when using the Bluetooth connection
• If you connect via USB it will charge the phone as well

James emphasized several times during the video that the Redfly is aimed fimly at the enterprise, not the individual – and his review shows it should be a very capable companion for corporate road warrior types.  Apparently the Redfly is due to go on sale on May, and the only pricing information I could find (from an Engadget post at the beginning of the year) says it will go for around $499.

The Redfly looks impressive.  Even as an individual this might be an appealing device, especially if that price tag was a bit lower.  Have a look at James video and let us know what you think:

jkOnTheRun Redlfy Video Review

Tags: Celio, Redfly, mobile companion, Windows Mobile