| The
Motorola MPx200 is the first GSM/GPRS smartphone based on
the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2002 platform available
in the United States. Generally speaking, the dual-mode (1800/1900)
phone is available SIM-locked for service from AT&T Wireless
(although you can probably purchase it SIM-unlocked from various
retailers). Its list price is $299. However, its price can
drop to zero ($0) with rebates and new service activation.
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Hardware Information & End-User Features
The first question that many people ask when
looking at a Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Linux-based
smartphone is: "Can it replace my Personal Digital Assistant
(Linux, Palm, or Pocket PC)?" I believe that you can
answer this for yourself by asking a set of questions that
are nearly the same questions you would ask when considering
migrating from a notebook PC to a Personal Digital Assistant
(PDA):
* Are the applications you use on your PDA
available for your smartphone?
* Do you perform a lot of input tasks like entering contacts,
calendar events, notes, and database entries? If so, does
the smartphone have an external or thumb keyboard accessory
available (or an integrated folding keyboard, like the Nokia
6800)? If not, do you find the smartphone's predictive input
technology (such as T9) acceptable as your primary means of
input?
* Is the smartphone's screen size and font size large enough
for sustained viewing work?
* Does the smartphone provide enough storage for the work
and personal files you need to have with you?
For some people, the answer may be indeterminate,
and the solution is to adopt a two-device, best-of-breed solution.
You can read my review of the Sony Ericsson T610 Camera Phone
for one example of this compromise solution.
When you think of mobile phones, Microsoft
is probably not yet among the first companies you think of.
However, Motorola is probably on that list. Motorola has a
long history of designing and building mobile phones, and
the MPx200 reflects this history.
Motorola took Microsoft's already phone-centric
Smartphone reference design and created a truly “mobile-phone-first”
product. The MPx200 is a wireless phone designed for one-handed
operation that also has other advanced information management
features.
This contrasts with Microsoft's earlier Pocket
PC Phone Edition, which is primarily an information manager
with wireless phone features that requires two hands (and
a stylus) to operate.
The first thing you notice when you open
the phone is the large, bright TFT screen. The screen is reasonably
easy to see and read, even in bright sunlight. The only readability
problem you might find is when reading small fonts on web
pages in bright sunlight.
The next thing that draws your attention is
the bright blue button at the center of the MPx200's navigation
pad. This Action button can be used to select options after
maneuvering the four-way navigation rose through horizontal
and vertical menus. The left and right Soft buttons are assigned
the functions displayed on the bottom of the window.
A Phone That Does Windows
The big difference between the MPx200 and
other smartphones available in the United States is that it
is based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2002 platform.
The mobile phone, of course, is very different
from a desktop PC or PDA. It is, in a way, a throwback to
the early days of user interface design. You can select an
application by scrolling up and down the screen using the
navigation keypad and then pressing the Action key.
However, it is far faster to just press the
keypad digit associated with each program on the menu to launch
an application.
The real Microsoft Windows and phone synergy lies in the integration
of Microsoft Outlook Contacts with the dialer. Conventional
mobile phones often only store a maximum of several hundred
phone numbers; Pocket Outlook Contacts does not have this
limit.
I synchronized my entire desktop Microsoft
Outlook 2003 Contacts list of about 600 contacts to the MPx200.
Moreover, many contacts had several numbers, street addresses,
email addresses, and notes associated with them. All of this
information was available on the MPx200 after synchronization.
Note that Microsoft ActiveSync does not synchronize custom
fields in a Contact record to the Pocket PC or Smartphone.
You can see the power of the integration of
Pocket Outlook Contacts with the phone dialer when you start
dialing a number. The integrated software begins pattern matching
against known telephone numbers, first names, and last names.
For example, if the first three digits pressed are 764, both
phone numbers beginning with 764, as well as names like Smith
and Sohn (that happen to be in my Contacts list), are displayed
on the screen.
In addition to integrated phone features,
the MPx200 also delivers all of the other Microsoft Smartphone
2002 features. The availability of Internet Explorer means
that you are not limited to WAP sites. You can view nearly
any web site.
However, because of the small screen size
and the analog-modem-like GPRS data throughput, I recommend
you try to keep most of browsing activities focused on sites
formatted for PDAs. Figure 5 shows Media Player playing a
video file originally created for use on a Pocket PC.
Issues and Missing Features
The MPx200 is a fine wireless phone; however, nothing is perfect.
Here are a few issues and what I consider to be missing features
I noted in the time I had it on loan.
* No integrated camera. In the past year
or two, we consumers have become conditioned to expect an
integrated camera in high-end phones. There is a SD Camera
card listed on the Motorola MPx200 United Kingdom accessories
page (but not for the United States). However, I have found
that add-on cameras are never as convenient as a camera built
into the phone itself.
* No Bluetooth. However, the phone can communicate with other
devices using a USB cable or infrared (IrDA).
* No Microsoft Pocket Word or Pocket Excel. You can, however,
add Westtek ClearVue viewers for the Smartphone 2002 to view
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files on an MPx200.
* Pocket Inbox can only work with one POP3 or IMAP4 email
service. This limit increases to eight services with Microsoft
Smartphone 2003.
* No thumb keyboard or folding full keyboard. This, in my
opinion, greatly reduces the practicality of entering information.
* Short battery life. The MPx200 is rated by the manufacturer
for 70 hours standby and 3.4 hours of talk time. However,
my unscientific informal test had the battery fail after 22
hours and 30 minutes with minimal use. I made about four or
five short (one minute or less) phone calls and a brief web
browsing session (perhaps five minutes) during that period.
This, fortunately, has an easy workaround: purchase a spare
battery.
* A calendar event alarm only has a dismiss and five-minute
snooze options. There are times when you may want other snooze
periods (10 minutes, one hour, etc.).
What
is a Smartphone ? | Emergence
of the Smartphone | What
Can a Smartphone Do? |
Access
Web 2.0 | Developing
Smartphone Applications | Microsoft
Smartphone Tips and Tricks |
Motorola
MPx200 Smartphone 2002 | Samsung
SGH-i750 | What
Makes A GPS Cell Phone |
Nokia
N73: Inspirational Technology | PDA
& Handheld Computers buying guide
|
