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Orange SPV cell phone beats Nokia 7650 and Sony Ericsson P800! March 09, 2003 [MS Smartphone] | By anonymous 1. Three recent smart phones show you what is supposed to be the way forward: Nokia’s 7650, Sony Ericsson’s P800 and the Orange-only SPV, the first mobile phone to have a Microsoft operating system inside. [...] For my money, Orange wins this race. Days of glory of such backward companies like Nokia are counted... and it is just the beginning! Full text of the article from Sunday Times follows. March 09, 2003 Sounding off: David Hewson: Too many gimmicks spoil the smart phone What do you really want from a mobile phone? An all-singing, all- communicating voice, video and data monster in your pocket? Or something that makes reli- able calls? Every phone company on the planet is on tenterhooks about that question. They have bet the bank that we are craving something more than voice. Three recent smart phones show you what is supposed to be the way forward: Nokia’s 7650, Sony Ericsson’s P800 and the Orange-only SPV, the first mobile phone to have a Microsoft operating system inside. All of them can handle voice calls, data, picture messaging, calendars and games, and talk to PCs. Unfortunately for Nokia and Sony Ericsson, only one fits comfortably in a jacket pocket. Both the 7650 and the P800 have built-in cameras that make them bulky and, frankly, ugly. The SPV’s camera is a remov-able add-on to a phone-shaped handset of normal size, but with a much larger screen. For my money, Orange wins this race. The software inside the Orange is a flavour of Microsoft’s Pocket PC. It synchronises well with Outlook, and can run a growing number of inexpensive third-party applications, although all of them have to be approved by Orange first. You can see the portfolio by visiting mobile.handango.com/orange. Visual IT’s interactive Underground map system, Tube, runs beautifully, guiding you around the networks in London and other cities. Interstellar Flames, a 3-D arcade game from Xengames, is amazing on the big colour screen. There is also a version of Iliumsoft’s ListPro, a long-established program for Windows, Pocket PCs and Palm handhelds, which is great for shopping lists and storing ideas. Straight out of the box, you can play hi-fi-quality audio stored on a memory card, pick up e-mail on an automatic schedule, visit Orange’s excellent news service and dial directly into MSN Messenger. There are already some informative user forums, including www.modaco.com/smartphone. The battery life needs to be watched, with three hours of talk-time and only two hours of constant data transfer (such as e-mail and web browsing). There are some bugs, too, but nothing horrendous. For a first stab, it is quite an achievement, although I have no doubt that Nokia and Sony Ericsson are digesting the aesthetic criticism that their efforts have received and planning something similarly slim for the future. The big question, though, is: how badly do you need it? The initial cost may be anything from £200 down to nothing, according to the contract. But no smart phone makes sense unless you sign up for both voice and data, which, with Orange, costs at least £21 per month, and more if you want to download regularly. I played with the SPV for several weeks and loved the thing. It was simple to pick up my mail and read headlines. I could also imagine putting music on the memory card and using it as an audio player, though the drain on the battery could be substantial. But picture messaging leaves me cold, and trying to write anything other than a short e-mail is impossible. As for general internet surfing, forget it — too much hassle. This is great geek technology. The rest of us will, I suspect, just keep on making voice calls, which puts the phone com- panies in a dilemma. The real point of smart phones is to tempt us to spend more on airtime. And we will do that only if they make it cheaper. The one-time fat cats of the telecom business are, in short, hoist with their own petard. All together now: aaahhh. E-mail topics for discussion to: david.hewson@sunday-times.co.uk  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later)
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