Preview: Motorola MPx - infoSync World

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	Preview: Motorola MPx	By Jørgen Sundgot, Wednesday 8 December 2004

Editor-in-Chief Jørgen Sundgot sneaks a peek of the final version of Motorola's new, Windows Mobile-based MPx communicator - purportedly to hit shelves in early 2005.

It's been quite a while since Motorola first unveiled its MPx communicator to the world, and still there hasn't been as much as a glimpse of the ever-elusive unit in store shelves. The most recent musings from Motorola claims it's slated for an introduction in the first quarter of 2005, and infoSync World has gotten to spend a brief amount of playtime with the device.

With the advent of an improved thumbboard as compared to the motion sickness-inducing edition found in initial prototypes displayed by Motorola, the final MPx has at the very least corrected one past sin. Keys are now in predictable places and offer good tactile and audible feedback, comfortably tapering up towards the center for improved usability - although users are certain to feel a tad cramped. A blue backlight is a nice touch, yet poorly implemented as light scatter lowers usability.

Motorola MPx

As vigilant readers will have noticed, the MPx has as its unique selling point that it opens not only to one position, but rather two. Its thumbboard is optimized for text input in landscape mode, and in portrait mode automatically switches a set of keys to function as a numeric keypad - a handy touch. Dedicated buttons for activating the Start menu, opening a context drop-down menu, initiating the camera, 'Ok' and activating speech recognition mode represent frosting on the thumbboard cake.

The hinge solution which allows users to open the device in two modes appears quite sturdy and reliable, as does the remainder of the device - although it has a slightly cheap feel to it induced by its all-plastic and less-than-sexy casing. A respectably sized stylus is fortunately included for screen interaction - which brings us to one of the most interesting aspects of the MPx.

Harbouring both internal and external displays, Motorola has made something of an odd choice for a device running Windows Mobile 2003 SE for Pocket PC Phone Edition (phew). Its internal display is a mere 2.8" in size, and although the screen is quite readable despite less-than-ideal contrast and small fonts, tapping ones way around the interface quickly becomes tiring - and especially so when on the go, as it requires an unprecedented level of precision.

The external screen, as with the general exterior of the device, gives off a cheap feel, but proved quite usable in handily providing access to functionality without opening the device. This includes the ability to alternate between profiles as well as checking messaging status with a slight amount of personalization added for good measure.

Other highlights of the MPx worth mentioning include the so-so 1.3 MP integrated digital camera, IR port located on top of the device and its SDIO compatible SD/MMC Card expansion slot. In fact, the latter will quickly prove direly needed for any MPx owner, as the device only offers a woefully limited 32 MB of RAM. Given the device being powered by Windows Mobile, this is in fact so restricted that any owner is likely to face immediate issues provided users do not reconfigure e-mail attachment caching, install all applications to a memory card and frequently empty their Pocket Internet Explorer cache.

Summa summarum, the Motorola MPx appears to be an excellent concept in need of an Extreme Makeover - better looks, a larger screen and more RAM would make it a lustworthy device, but as is we'll settle for a gentle eyebrow twitch.