Review of Orange E200 / Qtek 8080 / HTC Voyager / O2 XPhone
Chris Edwards <chris@pocketmatrix.com>
PocketMatrix.com
February 8th, 2004
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Contents:
Background
First Impressions
Bluetooth
Gaming
Phone Features
Operating System
Device Updates
Looking to Buy?
Resources
Conclusion
Photo Gallery


Background

Since this is our first review of a Smartphone device, let me give you a quick overview of the current (European) Smartphone market:

When the original SPV was released I wanted it simply to see what the Smartphone was all about. I've had a Pocket PC ever since I got my iPAQ 3650 ages ago, and have since been intrigued by Microsoft's mobile devices. A good friend of mine in the UK had received an extra SPV phone, so I pleaded with him to send me one of them. He did, and for the past year the SPV has been my primary mobile phone. The E100 was shortly released, and I liked the looks of it, but wasn't about to pay $800CDN to get a developer device shipped here to Canada. The E100 was exactly the same as the SPV except for a few cosmetic changes and a better screen. What I was looking for was a phone with Bluetooth, SD card slot, and something that would sync well with Outlook--preferably a MS Smartphone device. Rumours of the E200 had surfaced, so I decided to wait for its release and give it a try. Courtesy of Orange, I was able to finally get my hands on this long-awaited device.

Here is a small chart outlining the current GSM Microsoft Smartphone market (as of January 2004).
There are other devices in the market (Samsung i600, etc., but they are not GSM phones and thus can only be used on their respective networks)

* Upgrade is rumoured to become available
** Camera is included, but is an attachment
*** Camera not included, but may be purchased for use in SD/IO slot
+ Also available in North America from AT&T

The Original SPV has been my primary mobile phone for the past year. While this review will involve some comparison between the SPV and SPV E200, I will focus much more heavily on the features and my experience with just the E200 over the past few weeks. Any comparison to other devices such as the Motorola MPX200 is based purely on information that I have collected from various sources.

First Impressions

The day that the phone arrived, one of my friends called me to tell me he'd signed for the package and that it was waiting at home-- it was a quick journey home. The Orange people sure know how to make a first impression; everything in the box was neatly laid out --except-- wait a tick... where's the phone? In its place were two packs of soup crackers. Thinking this was some kind of mistake, I made my way over the computer with intentions of contacting Orange to see if perhaps they'd made a mistake. I was just about ready to send off an email when the friend of mine who signed for the phone walks in with the phone in hand... Needless to say, Orange did not send me the crackers :).

The SPV E200 comes standard with a handsfree headset, a power adapter with EU/UK plugs, a USB cradle, users manual, 8mb bonus SD card with trial software, adapter to charge without cradling, and a companion CD with Outlook 2002, and ActiveSync ( and sometimes crackers :) )

Complete Specs:

Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP710 132Mhz
GSM 900/1800/1900Mhz
Bluetooth 1.1
2.2" 176x220 LCD
32MB RAM
64MB ROM
1000mAh Battery
Internal Camera (640x480)
Handsfree audio jack
SD/IO for expansion
Microsoft Smartphone 2003

Build Quality

The paint on this phone looks and feels a lot more durable than that of the original SPV. I haven't noticed any paint chipping off yet (more than I can say for the original SPV). In the hand the E200 feels lighter, and more comfortable than the SPV did. The SPV is a bit shorter than the E200, but the E200 definitely feels thinner and less "brick-like".

Turning the phone on no longer requires the "ninja-death-grip" as I once heard it called. The power button is easy to press, and I have not yet had the phone turn off by accident.

The screen seems much more clear and brighter than that of the original SPV. Thus far, it hasn't been as prone to scratching as well--though this may be a result of me being overly concerned about which pocket I put my keys in, and which pocket I put the phone in.

Bluetooth:

There are three different configurations in which I've tried using the Bluetooth feature on the phone:

•  Sony Ericsson HBH-65 Bluetooth Headset
•  ActiveSync via Bluetooth using USB dongle with WIDCOMM software
•  HP iPAQ 1945 Bluetooth using GPRS connection of e200

I picked this up from fido.ca (my GSM provider) for around $200CDN.

Voice quality could be better, but this could be the fault of the headset. The connection seemed to hold OK with the phone in my pocket with the headset on, but the connection quickly diminishes after going any further than a few feet.

I can answer and end calls via the headset, but I have not yet found a way to initiate calls via the headset. With Fonix VoiceDial software one can use voice dialling, but not via a Bluetooth headset. I found this quite annoying; there were many times where I would've liked to keep my hands warm in their gloves, and initiate a call without having to take the phone out of my pocket to do so. Along similar lines, I would like to be able to use the Bluetooth headset like any other headphones—to listen to music on the phone, etc.

I have not yet found a way to initiate a Bluetooth connection between the phone and the headset short of making a call, and even then it sometimes has difficulties prompting the Bluetooth headset to “kick in” on time when placing or receiving a call.

My USB dongle is Class 1 and has a claimed range of 100m – similar to some wireless access points. I had a bit of trouble at first with my WIDCOMM drivers on the PC recognizing the Pocket PC, but after upgrading them to BTW 1.4.1.4 I was able to use the ActiveSync via Bluetooth feature just fine. The E200's range is quite a bit less than that of my USB dongle, however I noticed that if I aquire an ActiveSync connection within the range of the E200, that I would be able to roam around and continue to utilize the ActiveSync connection to the range of the USB dongle plugged into my laptop.

With the ActiveSync connection established I was able to use the pass-through connection to surf the web, chat on MSN, and keep my Inbox synchronized without plugging into the computer or using up my GPRS quota.

•  HP iPAQ 1945 Bluetooth using GPRS connection of e200

No luck here. After a bit of searching, I found that I wasn't the only one having troubles: http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=96927

It seems that the there is some sort of incompatibility between the Bluetooth profiles of the PPC and Smartphone. It is rumoured that Orange will be switching to the Bluetooth drivers from WIDCOMM which may help with this problem.

Gaming:

My favourite game on the device right now is Super Mario Brothers 3 using smartnes. I can get full speed with sound off, and after playing around with the key mappings I found a configuration that is actually fairly comfortable. With the sound on, it is a bit slower, but still playable.

The E200's buttons are flat instead of the rounded ones on the SPV. I find these new buttons way more comfortable than the old ones. This is definitely a plus for playing games as my finger tips don't feel like they're going to fall off after 20 minutes of playing like they did on the SPV.

The directional pad is only 4-way instead of the 8-way pad found on the SPV. While for most current games this shouldn't be an issue, there are a few that rely on the 8-way pad for diagonal movement. I tried a few of these games out to see how handicapped the games were without this functionality.

Motocross Stunt Racer (purchase)
The 4-way directional pad is fairly noticeable in this game. While at first it seemed a bit difficult to play, I found that if I kept the turning to a minimum, and only turned when it was completely necessary that I could still play the game.

spvQuake (download)
With the recent release of spvQuake (based on Dan East's PocketQuake), we have an extremely intensive game that we can use to push the phone to its limits. spvQuake is far from playable on any phones at this moment, but it's nice to be able to tell people that you have Quake on your phone (as long as they don't ask to see it ;)). Running timedemo with demo1 when running spvQuake 0.17.003.beta does 3.6FPS. The current top speed for a Pocket PC device is 18FPS with the Asus MyPal A620 with its 400MHz PXA255 XScale processor.

Phone Features:

So the phone can play quake--cool--but how well does it work as a phone?

General:
Placing and receiving calls on the E200 is a snap. Some people get confused if they need to borrow my phone to make a call -- the theme is fairly complex and they don't know what to do. After playing around with the phone for a bit, I'm sure that they would have no problem using the basic features of the phone.

Dialing from the address book is quick and easy. Start spelling the contacts name and select their name to dial. During a call it's simple to adjust the volume with the volume controls on the side of the phone.

Holding down the "Home" key lets one disconnect the GPRS connection, which stays connected by default to speed up browsing.

Holding down the "End" key activates the key lock--something that's essential if you plan on keeping the phone in your pocket. Hitting the "Send" key twice will redial the last number you called, so it's fairly easy for the phone to do that on its own if you don't have the key lock on.

Battery life on the E200 is no better than its predecessor. While it'll get thru a full day of normal usage, you'll need to bring along the charger for anything longer than a day. One interesting discovery found by "b0x" on MoDaCo forums is that running the phone with an SD card, or even the dummy card in place seems to cut the battery life in half. I experienced similar results with my particular E200 device.

Voice Quality:
Some people have reported that there is a distinct "buzzing" sound during calls with their E200's. My phone does not seem to have this problem. When calling a land line from the E200 the person receiving the call did not notice deterioration in voice quality. Receiving calls on the E200, the voice quality is not up to par with a landline, but it is still very good.

Using a Bluetooth headset the voice quality is deteriorated a fair amount. When calling a landline via the E200 with a Bluetooth headset I asked the receiving party how the quality was. They said "it sounds like you're calling long distance from a Bluetooth headset on a cell phone". To be a bit more specific, there is a hint of static noise in the background, and the voices just don't seem as clear as they would when using the regular handset. This is mostly the fault of the Bluetooth headset. I used the headset to listen to music from my laptops Bluetooth connection and noticed the same deterioration in the music. I've not had any experience with other Bluetooth headsets, so I'm not sure if it's the fault of this particular one, or Bluetooth headsets in general. I would suspect that the limited bandwidth of Bluetooth may be one factor.

Camera:
I don't consider the camera an essential feature of the phone. I've used it once in a while to take pictures of friends, or to assign a face to a number using IA Style's Caller ID that's included with the phone. To the right is a picture taken with the phone's camera (click on the picture for full-size). This was taken in doors, and is a picture of the E200's User Guide. The camera has troubles when taking pictures with a light in the background. Outdoor pictures can be greatly improved by using a simple Auto-Levels filter in Photoshop.

Operating System:

The E200 comes with a brand new OS -- Microsoft Smartphone 2003. One of the major improvements in Smartphone 2003 is Internet Explorer. It's not perfect, but it sure does make browsing on the phone a lot easier.

Default	One Column	Desktop
Resizes the images and tables to try and fit as much on the screen without wrapping tables like the one column mode.	Resizes images, and wraps tables so that you never need to scroll horizontally.	Shows the page as it would look on a desktop. You'll need to scroll a lot.

Shown above are the different ways that you can view pages. Also new in this version of IE is support for CSS, JavaScript and IPv6.

Unfortunately, I was unable to download files from any websites and save them to the phone. I wanted to download some MP3's from my Desktop at home.

Some other changes in the OS include:

•  Microsoft .NET Compact Framework is included in Smartphone 2003. This makes it possible for developer to use .NET when developing for Smartphone 2003 devices.

•  Multiple POP3/IMAP accounts are now supported. In previous versions you could only download from one account, and you had to choose between an ActiveSync Inbox and a POP3/IMAP account.

•  The OS is much more responsive then Smartphone 2002.

•  All menus in the OS now are numbered 0-9 for easy access.

Device Updates:

If you've owned an SPV device, you'd know that the 1.6 ROM update brought new life to it. Orange has stated that there is a new ROM release on the horizon for the E200. Paul O'Brien of MoDaCo has taken a look at the other ROMs in other versions of the Voyager device to pull together what the new ROM might look like. He found the following fixes:

• Improvements with T9 (remembers words)
• You can switch between T9/abc/123 input methods more easily via a menu mapped to the * key
• When you use a word it becomes the first choice for that combination in the future (T9)
• Battery life improvements
• Timed GPRS disconnect works

You can view the full posting at this MoDaCo thread.

While Orange is usually quite slow to release patches, it's comforting to know that they do. One of their representatives said Q1 2004 for the E200 update, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Looking to Buy?

If you're in the UK , simply drop by your local Orange shop. They'll gladly take care of you.

If you're in another country in which Orange operates, visit their website to see if they offer the E200 device.

If you're in North America you have several options:

PPCW.Net Shop - Arne Heß and PPCW.Net brought us the original SPV, XDA II, and they expect stock in the E200 device shortly. They brand the device as the “i-Mate Smartphone2”.

ORA Developer Device – While it's a tad expensive, it'll get you a SIM unlocked E200 device.

Ebay.com – Make sure it's SIM unlocked or you won't be able to use it on your local network. There is currently no way for the user to SIM unlock an E200 device, so don't buy

Tek 'n Toys - Based out of my hometown - Calgary, Alberta, Canada, they sell the I-Mate Smartphone 2.

Resources:

MoDaCo - If you've bought an e200, or any other MS Smartphone for that matter, be sure to check out MoDaCo.com. They offer superb forums for these devices that should help you solve any problems that you might encounter.

Monolythix – Freeware! If you don't want to open your wallet for software then this is the place to go!

CoolSmartphone - Everything! Mostly news and howto guides, etc. great site!

Handango – If you're willing to fork out a few bucks for your software then check out our very own PocketMatrix/PocketGamer Handango Smartphone store.

Smartphone.net – If you can't find it in our Handango store be sure to check out Smartphone.net.

SmartGamer.org - Looking for news on the latest games for the Smartphone device? Be sure to check out SmartGamer.org.

SmartPhoneStuff - More free downloads (sorted into categories), smartphone news, and discussion boards.

Smartphone Thoughts - It's like Pocket PC Thoughts except for Smartphone users. Lots of news.

SmartPhone Blast! - A frequently updated news site for Smartphone users. They also have a pdaBlast site with general PDA news.

Company Websites:
Qtek - 7070 - 8080
Mitac - Mio 8380
Orange UK - E200
Motorola - MPx200

Other Info:
I'm running the Futurama 1.2 homescreen on my device. It requires that you app-unlock your phone.
The Futurama homescreen is available at this MoDaCo thread. You must be registered and logged in at MoDaCo to download it.

Conclusion:

While the phone still has a few problems with Bluetooth, I've found the phone to be a big step up from the SPV. I don't go anywhere without my E200; it's tight integration with Outlook lets me read my new email, and look up contacts on the go. Ever since I got my SPV last year I've caught myself leaving my Pocket PC at home. I've found this even more with the E200. Where the SPV was cumbersome (speed, buttons), the E200 is not. Many of the problems with the E200 seem to be software-related and will most likely be fixed in the a future ROM update. That said, the only show-stopping issue that I've had with the phone is the erratic Bluetooth. It's rendered my headset almost useless, as it will often not recognize the headset, and there's no way that I know of to switch between the phone and the headset without ending the call.

* Update (Feb 14, 2003): I figured out a way to transfer the call from the headset to the phone (hold down the home key during a call and select transfer call to handset). There doesn't appear to be a way to reverse this, and transfer it back to the headset, but I'll add another update if I find out anything.

If you're looking into buying an E200 check out the links above. I've taken quite a few pictures of the phone/headset/etc. that I've included below.

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