| Client: | SOTI Pocket Controller-Pro 6.0 1256 | VirtualCE 4.0.2 | MyMobiler 1.0 70821 |
| Price | $35.95 / client device license | $10, independent of how many clients you plan to use it on (at the same time) | Completely free |
| OS compliance: PPC | All | WM2003+ (didn’t test with WM2003+ compatibility hacks on PPC2k2, where it could be installed to but refused to run) | WM2003+ |
| MS Smartphone | All | WM2003+ | SP2003+ |
| Client-side CPU usage: VGA x51v at 208 MHz | 66% | 31…34% at 18 fps; 22…25% at 8 fps (first 3 minutes: 18 fps; second 2: 8 fps on the screenshot) | 45% |
| VGA x51v at 624 MHz | 41% | 17% at 18 fps ; 9…11% at 8 fps | 40% |
| QVGA WM2003 HP iPAQ h2210 | 28% | 12% at 8 fps; 20% at 18 fps | 47% |
| 176*220 MS Smartphone HTC Oxygen / s310 | 21% | 3% at 18 fps | 11% |
| Screen capture: static screenshots | PNG, JPG (quality settable), GIF, TIFF, BMP16/24/32 | BMP, BMP24, JPG (quality NOT settable), GIF – that is, no PNG. HOWEVER, it's the only app that allows for one-click screenshots with auto-numbered filenames. | PNG, JPG (quality settable), GIF, TIFF, BMP |
| Video capture | + | - | - |
| Misc: Goodies | Excellent registry editor (!); system meter tools; device info (appr. the same info as with VirtualCE); macros (!); DOS prompt (!); built-in file synchronization (!) / transfer (!) (excellent with TCP/IP connections – no need for, say, an FTP server running on the mobile!); resetting and wiping (!) remote device | Process info; device info; soft resetting and suspending; ability to remote control more than one devices at the same time (excellent and unique!) | - |
| TCP/IP | + | +; even LAN multicast discovery! | + (as opposed to previous builds; for example, 70626) |
| Scaling | 1, 2, 3, 4; dithering can be enabled | 1, 2, 3, 4; no dithering | 0.5, 1, 2, 3; no dithering with 2 and 3, only with 0.5 |
| Can the connection be established without displaying any message on the client? | - (this makes it impossible to start the connection in several for example games or apps; in them, the upper taskbar stays visible all the time) | + | + |
| Manual(!) screen rotation – for GAPI Landscape games, Thunderhawk etc. | + | + | - (!) |
| Copy / paste between clipboard and mobile | + (Ctrl-C / V works OK) | Only copy to device works and not vice versa; pasting must be initiated from menu | + (Ctrl-C / V works OK) |
| Starting / stopping | Always-resident on device, no client needs to be manually started | VirtualCE must be manually started on client – non-resident. You can, of course, keep it in-memoy all the time, listening to incoming connections. This, however, isn't supported by default; you'll need to manually create a link in \Windows\ Startup to \Program Files\ BitBank\ VCE\ v_remote. exe ad, then, after each reset (reboot), just minimize the app's window. However, it'll stay in memory as a high-level program, as can also be seen in HERE, prone to be shut down by the operating system when, for example, it's running out of free RAM memory. | no client needs to be manually started – it’s resident |
| Remote connections (if any) can be password protected? | - (?) | + | n/a |
| Hide icon (if any) displayed on... the Pocket PC Today screen? | + (can be configured to be hidden) | n/a (no icon displayed) | - (Exit in the context menu exits the connection – there’s no way of hiding the icon) |
| ...the Smartphone taskbar? | n/a (isn't displayed any more, as opposed to pre-6 versions; with them, to hide the icon in ALL non-full screen apps on MS Smartphones running SOTI's pre-6 version, see my related tweak) | n/a (no icon displayed) | - (as with the PPC version, no way to hide the icon - it'll be shown in ALL non-fullscreen apps!) |
| Sample speed demo videos to demonstrate the speed: my counter benchmark tool; VGA x51v | 208 MHz; 624 MHz | 208 MHz; 8 fps; 208 MHz 18 fps; 624 MHz 18 fps | 208 MHz; 624 MHz |
| my counter tool; QVGA h2210 | HERE | HERE | HERE |
| Nanobotz full screen animation, VGA x51v 624 MHz | HERE (fastest) | HERE (still acceptable) | HERE (slowest) |
| Nanobotz full screen animation, QVGA iPAQ 2210 | HERE | HERE (slightly (not much!) slower than SOTI's | HERE (slowest, but still pretty much usable) |
| Nanobotz small-area animation, VGA x51v 624 MHz | HERE | HERE | HERE |
| MS Smartphone-specific: clickable widgets / items on screen | Softkeys: +; list selection: +; submenu selection: +; Action in list: -; top taskbar: -; anything on Home screen: - | Softkeys: +; list selection: +; submenu selection: -; Action in list: -; top taskbar: -; anything on Home screen: -. All this ONLY on the s310, not on the s710! | Softkeys: +; list selection: +; submenu selection: +; Action in list: -; top taskbar: +; anything on Home screen: - |
| Textual input: s310 | + | +; Home PC keyboard button is overridden to take to the Home screen – as with Pocket PC’s, where it invokes the Start menu | + |
| s710 | Partial: only with the keyboard out; no home/end mass selection works (unlike with PPC / s310) – fortunately, Ctrl / Shift + left/right does; impossible to enter shifted characters or numbers (unless you switch to numeric mode with Fn + Space on the slide-out keyboard) | Partial: see problems with SOTI; they are the same | Doesn’t seem to work at all any more – unlike with previous builds |
| Copy / paste (s710) | Only with the additional VITO CopyPaste | Only with the additional VITO CopyPaste | Only with the additional VITO CopyPaste |
| Verdict: Pros: | SPEED in most cases, particularly with VGA full-screen animationsWithout doubt the best as far as additional goodies are concerned – if you edit the Registry or remote (non-ActiveSync) file transfer a lot, this one should be your preferred remote controllerVideo recording | Best CPU usageParallel control featuresLAN discoveryAbility to manually rotate the display (as opposed to My Mobiler)In some (not all!!) cases, for example on VGA devices only updating a small screen area, it may be faster than SOTI’s appReally cheap | FREE! Considerably better than the first public version: now, it’s pretty much usable even for power users |
| Cons: | Price (particularly if you have more than one device you’d like to control)CPU usage: VirtualCE is considerably better and, in some cases (VGA devices), even the free My MobilerImpossible to configure it NOT to show the bootup message box | No additional goodies, not even file transferring (which would be especially useful over TCP/IP connections)Handset-based server must be started by hand (as opposed to the two alternatives); when auto-started, it's executed as a program, prone to be shut down by the operating systemNo PNG screenshot support | Comparatively high CPU usage, particularly on QVGA devices, where it’s way worse than even SOTI’s app (on VGA, it’s acceptable)No manual screen rotationThe slowest of all (albeit still way faster than any other, free controller) HTC Vox / s710 keyboard input no longer worksNo way to hide the icon of the app; a pain in the back particularly on MS Smartphones, where it's ALWAYS displayed on the taskbar at the top |
