Editor-in-chief Jørgen Sundgot has spent a week with the Orange SPV - the first device built on the Smartphone 2002 platform. Now, he shares his take on the first Windows phone.
Note: We haven't had the final shelf version, but the latest hardware available at this point in time. We'll revisit the review once we
have the retail version to our disposal.
When Microsoft first announced its Smartphone 2002 platform - back then
codenamed Stinger, I must admit that although I was not among the people that giggled by the mere thought of Windows on phones, visions of
crashing phones was the first thing to pop up in my head (I power-use Pocket PCs and know how often I must reset them). Thankfully, after
spending a week with the SPV from UK based carrier Orange, I've found that Microsoft
has done a good job of adapting to the world of mobile phones: not an excellent one, but a good one. | Orange's SPV is the world's first device to be based on the Smartphone 2002
platform
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To be sold exclusively by Orange, the Orange SPV is based on the HTC Canary reference
design, which is the same company that delivered the hardware reference designs for devices such as the O2 XDA, T-Mobile MDA and Siemens
SX56. This review will focus not only on the hardware, however, but also the Smartphone 2002 platform and how it's different from Pocket PCs -
or perhaps I should say the Pocket PC Phone Edition - since most readers will be familiar with the operating system on these devices by
now.
The first of its kind
The Orange SPV, in my case, unfortunately came without a manual but with a well-stuffed box in general. In
addition to a one-part charger which sported exchangeable UK and European style plugs, there was also a USB cradle which allows for
one-handed extraction (and to which the charger can be connected), a handsfree set which delivered excellent audio (to the degree the SPV
did), and a 32 MB SD Card with various add-on applications.
The device itself is a candy-bar style mobile phone, sporting fairly common
appearances. The left side contains hardware shortcut buttons for making a voice note, turning up and down the earpiece volume, and the SDIO
capable SD/MMC Card expansion slot. The bottom is where the microphone is located, along with the universal connector that allows for serial or
USB synchronizing with a PC. The last two items found on the sides of the SPV are the jack for the handsfree set, far down on its right side, and
the Infrared port on top.
On front of the phone, things start looking a bit different than common mobile phones, as the large and brilliant 16-bit
TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels takes up most of the space. Just below it are two 'soft keys', which similar to the way a Nokia
7650 operates takes on different functions depending on what's taking place in the running application. Just below these again are the
conventional green 'Send' button which initiates or accepts a call, and the red 'End' button which aborts or declines a call. These are also soft
keys, and can be assigned other functions in other applications, such as sending an SMS when written. Below these again, there are 'Home' and
'Back' buttons placed respectively to the left and right. The Home button takes a user back to the home screen of the device - equivalent to the
Today screen of a Pocket PC, but not quite, which I'll get back to later - while the Back button lets a user regress through previous screens using
a through-the-stack approach.
Then, there's the four-way navigational pad with an action button, centered between all of the buttons
mentioned in the previous paragraph. Despite its good tactile feedback - which is a trait shared by all buttons of the device - it's a bit too small
even for my fingers, and despite spending quite a bit of time getting used to it, I still found it a tad too small to play games or move around
menus at maximum speed using it. Finally, the lower part of the front is covered with a keypad with a standard layout.
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