Government Computing News (GCN) provides a slightly head-scratching (though positive) report card for the Celio Redfly terminal for Windows Mobile smartphones. The Redfly looks like a netbook but doesn't have any computing abilities of its own. It is essentially a dumb terminal that displays Windows Mobile smartphone applications on a larger screen (7 or 8 inches depending on the model) and a larger keyboard to type on.

Redfly Companion enhances your smartphone

Performance: A
Features: A-
Ease of use: A+

Pretty good report card, isn't it? So, what do you think GCN's overall grade is based on the scores above? If we were in school, the overall would be a solid 4.0 (the A+ smooths out the A-). But, here's what GCN gave it:

Value: B+

I kind of understand this based on my own less positive experience with the Redfly I bought for myself. You can read about my most recent adventure with it in a post here from last month (April 13)...

Redfly Windows Mobile Terminal Driver Update: Lots of Pain, No Gain

...where I ran into some severe compatibility issues. The Redfly driver did not work at all on a T-Mobile Dash which is listed as fully supported. It installed but was too flaky to use on an HTC Vox (not listed as supported) and ran mostly fine (with some session drops) on an HTC TyTn (also not listed as supported).

Here's my report card based on my most recent tests:

Performance: B-
Features: B
Ease of use: C-
Value: C+