This is the second Smartphone we've reviewed (O2's Xphone, [I]March 2004, page 55[/I]) but, unlike the Xphone, the Motorola MPx200 features a clamshell design. Smallish, black and sleek, the MPx200 is a Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 phone with GPRS which enables email, SMS, MMS and WAP capabilities.
Closed, the MPx200 has a small LCD panel on the lid which displays time, caller ID, signal and battery strength meters. Opened, the phone has generously spaced keypad buttons (albeit sometimes keen to register two presses when one is needed), plus a bright and colourful 176 x 200 pixel LCD screen.
Like the Xphone, the MPx200 runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone OS, although the Motorola has the 2002 version, not 2003. Motorola spokespeople informed us this was because of the close work between the company and Microsoft to develop the OS.
This Windows OS enables the MPx200 to bridge the phone/PDA divide, with pared down applications such as tasks, calendaring and appointments with Pocket Outlook, plus WAP web-browsing with Pocket Internet Explorer. You can also synchronise the phone with your PC via ActiveSync, which also allows you to manage contacts and calendars via Outlook Express and Outlook.
As well as synchronising calendars and contacts via the PC, you can also use ActiveSync to upload applications, files and data. Furthermore, the Windows Mobile Smartphone OS comes with a pared down version of Windows Media Player which lets you play videos and listen to music. While there's very little room in terms of memory (only a mere 10MB available), the phone does come with an SD/MMC slot which can expand this up to 1GB.
An exclusion which may seem odd considering the current proliferation is that the MPx200 does not have an inbuilt camera. While the Windows Mobile Smartphone OS has provisions for one, you'd need to buy an external SD camera adaptor to use it.
The Motorola MPx200 costs a little more than the Xphone and, while it has much better styling and build quality, it lacks the Xphone's camera, inbuilt storage capacity and Bluetooth.