Review Date November 20, 2009

Celio Redfly C8N (for BlackBerry)

  • Pros

    Instant boot-up. Makes typing e-mail and documents on the BlackBerry somewhat easier.

  • Cons Terrible value when compared with a netbook. Ugly styling. Cramped screen and keyboard. Higher-resolution screen is wasted. Mouse cursor and trackpad only work properly in the browser. Only works with three BlackBerry models; without one connected, it's a doorstop. Highlights severe limitations of BlackBerry apps. Buggy.
  • Bottom Line

    The Celio Redfly was already a tenuous concept when paired with Windows Mobile devices, but when hooked to a BlackBerry, the experience is downright painful. Get a netbook instead; you'll be much happier.

By Jamie Lendino

The Celio Redfly C8N looks like a netbook. But it actually serves as a headless input device and display for a smartphone. It's been around for a while; we last looked at it in May 2008, when it did a passable if unsatisfying job connecting to a Windows Mobile device. Celio recently halved the outrageous $499 price and added BlackBerry support, so we decided to give the thing another whirl.

The Redfly works with other platforms, such as Windows Mobile, iPod and Zune. We gave it three stars as a Windows Mobile accessory. But we're reviewing it this time as strictly a BlackBerry companion. If you already own a BlackBerry, is the Redfly worth $249, when standalone netbooks start at roughly the same price? The short answer: not even if your life depended on it.

Concept and Design
The idea behind the Redfly is sensible. Instead of carrying a separate smartphone and laptop, make the smartphone the singular "brain" with all of your files. Then use whatever input device is convenient—the phone itself, a small laptop like the Redfly, or (conceivably) a desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse. You use one set of apps, media, and documents at all times, without data sync issues. The Redfly boots up instantly once connected, doesn't get viruses, has no hard drive or other prone-to-failure parts, and can be "pooled" among workers at a company. Devices like this Redfly—well, hopefully more attractive ones—could act as hollowed-out, comfy interfaces in a coffee shop, on a flight, or in your lap on the couch.

That's the idea, at least. So where did it all go wrong? Let's start with the basics. For this review, I tested the 8-inch Redfly C8N with a BlackBerry Tour 9630 on Sprint. The C8N features a VGA out, two USB ports, and an 8-hour lithium ion battery. For $50 less, there's a smaller Redfly called the C7 with a 7-inch display, no VGA port, and a smaller 5-hour battery. To use either Redfly, your BlackBerry needs a 512 MHz CPU, 128MB of RAM, and BlackBerry OS 4.6; so far, it only works on the Bold 9000, the Curve 8900, and the Tour 9630. A Celio spokesperson said they're working on Storm and Storm2 support but can't commit to a timeline.

The Redfly CN8 looks like an IBM PC-clone laptop circa 1990, shrunk to three-fourths scale. It measures 6 by 9 by 1 inches (HWD) and weighs two pounds. The 8-inch LCD is two inches shy of the 10-inch netbook sweet spot. The screen exhibited dull, flat color and was surrounded by wasted plastic space. The 80-key QWERTY keyboard measures 8.3 inches across. The black plastic keys aren't full size but had decent travel. Typing still felt cramped. The trackpad is an abomination; it's thin, doesn't track accurately, and doesn't even control an on-screen cursor most of the time (more on that later). The trackpad buttons were thin but reasonably quiet and responsive.

Like a BlackBerry, but Larger
To get started with the Redfly, I headed to from the BlackBerry Tour 9630's browser, downloaded and installed the Redfly driver, and let the app set permissions. Then I connected the two devices via the bundled USB cable and powered up the Redfly. On first boot-up, it walks you through some basic tips and tricks. My review unit froze about halfway through this session. All of the controls stopped responding, including the scrollbar; I couldn't even re-read the tips I had just finished. Pressing the Back key on the BlackBerry itself finally restored connectivity.

The BlackBerry's main menu appears in larger form on the Redfly's screen. The left mouse button takes the place of pressing the BlackBerry's trackball, while T-shaped cursor keys act as moving the trackball. A red Menu key duplicates pressing the BlackBerry's logo key. There's about a half-second delay between when you do something and when the result appears on screen. When the cursor gets out of sync with the trackball, pressing CTRL-R resets the connection. The USB connection also charges the BlackBerry.

Horrifying fact number one: the Redfly doesn't give you the full 800-by-480-pixel resolution when connected to a BlackBerry. Instead, it just blows up the BlackBerry's 480-by-360-pixel resolution to fill the 8-inch screen. Not only is this a waste of pixels, it also looks terrible, since the pixel count doesn't divide evenly. Horrifying fact two: FN+5 switches the trackpad between five-way navigation and controlling a pointer. But using the Redfly in pointer mode doesn't do anything unless you're in the browser. In all other apps, you can't use the on-screen cursor to select anything. Celio said the BlackBerry OS hard-coded to a native resolution (Windows Mobile isn't), and that BlackBerry OS doesn't support a cursor except in the browser.

Other Quirks and Conclusions
Once I looked past the above, typing e-mail and documents on the Redfly was fine. Texting and IM also worked. Browsing the mobile Web was OK with the trackpad and cursor. But all the Redfly does is highlight how slow the BlackBerry really is. Even exiting an app is tricky: to do so, press the red End key on the keyboard. Don't press the Menu key; that's the pop-up menu for the app, not a shortcut to the BlackBerry's main menu. (It really is the same interface as the phone.)

The Redfly doesn't stream video. It doesn't play music, since it has no speakers. You can't connect a thumb drive despite the extra USB port. Bluetooth doesn't work, so you'll have a wire draped over the table at all times. Sometimes when I connected the Tour, the Redfly didn't pick it up, nor did it indicate a problem; it just sat there. (Powering it off and on usually helped.) Celio said they're working on software and hardware fixes for video and Bluetooth, but that it "could take some time."

Years ago, people (like me) bought PDAs and separate Bluetooth or docking keyboards for longer typing sessions. It was a kludge, but it worked. This Redfly adds a larger screen to the mix, but it's more expensive. I don't like to make comparisons to vaporware, but remember the canceled Palm Foleo? I tested a preproduction unit in mid-2007. Despite its ridiculous list price for a Treo accessory ($499), at least the Foleo was nicely constructed, comfortable to type on, and expanded the Palm OS Treo's screen resolution. Since Palm designed its mobile OS for a touch screen and stylus, adapting it to a trackpad and mouse buttons was easier. The Redfly hardware isn't nearly as elegant as the Foleo, and the rigid BlackBerry OS only adds to the DOS-like experience.

Worst of all, the Redfly sits in direct competition with netbooks. Netbooks sport full-size keys, 1024-by-600-pixel screen resolution, music sync, video playback, and real desktop apps as well as cloud connectivity. To be fair, several outside factors work against Celio, though its various design missteps compound the misery. I don't bode any ill will toward Celio, which is clearly trying to produce a viable product. In the future—say, in five years, and with the right hardware—I suppose the Redfly concept could work, once cell phones could really act as primary PCs. Until that world comes to pass, you should pass on the Redfly.

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Jamie Lendino
By Jamie Lendino Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics and Mobile


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