Regular SPV user Anthony Newman takes the newest member of the family for a whirl: the SPV E100 from Orange. Read on to see if he's smitten.
The recently-announced SPV E100 from Orange is a close brother to the original SPV. The older sibling was released some nine months ago on the Orange
network in Europe, and with this hardware update the family is making inroads world-wide. The basic Tanager reference design is to be found behind a range of handsets, of which the E100 is one.
Although identical in chassis to the original SPV, the E100 boasts a considerably redesigned exterior. Having been regular SPV users for some time, we have
come to quite like the design despite certain flaws. The silver-and-grey exterior was quite classy, and the buttons, although small, provided precision for quick
texting. The D-pad, with its separate action button, was a particular favourite of ours too.
The new design is rather more bulbous than its predecessor, especially in the now rounded side-buttons, which are a great improvement, but also in the
speaker shape and the overall curves of the unit. Personally, we find it by no means unattractive. The silver-and-grey has been replaced by an odd
silver-and-navy scheme; the navy plastic feels more durable than the grey, at least, and with its curves the E100 fits very nicely in the hand. The cosmetic
changes have another purpose, of course: the large cross-bar of the original has been shrunk to allow space for a newly generous keypad, while the main
navigation and call buttons have been separated and changed in proportion. No complaints here in this regard. The biggest cosmetic change for general use is
the replacement of the D-pad and separate action button with a 5-way joystick. This offers great responsiveness and good feedback, but we found our
thumbs tended to slip a little, and so to some extend miss that little D-pad.
Turning the unit on reveals the most major change in this incarnation of the
SmartPhone: the display. The SPV had a rather nice display - decently bright and with good colours, if a little milky and frustratingly prone to dust through the
speaker grille. Although we cannot pass a verdict on the dust issue for the E100, its new transflective display is absolutely top quality: colours are bright and
intense, with a wide viewing angle and an all-round better experience than the earlier reflective unit. The only area in which the transflective display is
arguably worse is in outdoor performance, and we were pleasantly surprised by its readability in direct sunlight. All in all then, a great improvement.
Aside from the main display, indication of signal strength and other notifications is by a single green flashing LED in the top-left of the front fascia, as with the
SPV. Some might find the signal flash annoying, but with the screen off to save power it becomes quite useful indeed.
Equipped with a 2.5mm headphone jack and a mono speaker, the SPV E100 is adequate for music playback, but not stellar: the speaker does a good job, while
the jack produces good volume and quality, especially considering it is a phone. The biggest problem is actually Windows Media Player, which due to the limited
processing power available really chokes on high-quality VBR mp3s. In telephony the audio situation is better, with good sound at both ends in normal use and
on the supplied headset. Speakerphone made us sound rather far away, according to our conversation partners, but at our end the speaker did a good job.
Incidentally, the supplied headset offers a volume control along with its slightly ill-fitting earbuds, and a button which serves to answer calls. As the SPV does
not boast voice dialling, one cannot make calls without using the handset itself.
Like the original SPV, the E100 is triband: 900, 1800 and 1900MHz are available to allow usage in Europe and America. Reception was generally good, but we
seemed to experience occasional problems when moving between cells, where the phone would report reception when none was actually present. This
required a reboot. GPRS is of course also present in its Class B variety, and the E100 comes pre-configured for Orange's own services through Internet
Explorer and for MMS through the add-on camera.
Although there are strong rumours pointing towards an updated SPV later this year including a camera and Bluetooth, the E100 does not support any PAN
connectivity. Given the rival Smartphones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson sport Bluetooth, the omission is annoying. Thankfully, the SD slot mounted on the side
of the E100 supports SDIO for such connectivity in the future, although no such devices were available to test at this time. Other expansion features in the
form of a standard IR port mounted on the top of the unit and a serial-capable port on the bottom, utilized both by the camera and the cradle.
The cradle itself is like the SPV's, being a small black dome, suitable for pass-through charging and one-handed removal, and stable enough for use while
cradled. Due to the different shapes of the units' bottoms, the cradles are not interchangeable, however. The cradle only offers USB functionality, although a
serial cradle is available separately.
The serial port is also used by the fold-away soft keyboard bundled with the SPV E100. Although we have reviewed this separately, it is worth mentioning that
it is fairly functional and provides a lot of extra value when included with the phone at purchase. This keyboard is found alongside a case, world power
adaptors, stereo headset and camera attachment in the box - quite a range of accessories.
Under the hood we find the same engine as that which powers the original SPV: a TI OMAP processor running at 132MHz, backed by 32MB of ROM and 16MB
of RAM. The screen remains at 176x220 pixels, which is plenty for a Smartphone, while the battery is 1000mAh. We still don't think this is quite enough for a
phone, as although the specifications claim 100 hours of standby and 3 hours of talk time, with actual use this drops rapidly towards the one-day recharge
mark so dangerous for phones. We wouldn't even consider going away for the weekend without taking a charger, something that we would have confidently
attempted with any normal phone for the past two years.
All this hardware runs the Smartphone 2002 operating system from Microsoft, which after extended use we find to be, briefly, OK. Sure, it is very slow at
times, and does a number of things very clumsily - resending failed text messages is impossible, for example. However, the intelligent dialler is really very
impressive, and the XML today screen is quite well implemented. Shockingly for a first attempt at a phone operating system, it is good enough to use as one's
main phone without too much frustration. As the specifications are the same between the SPV and the E100, there are unfortunately no performance boosts
to be gained from the upgrade.
Orange have certainly put their mark on the OS, just as the little orange square brands the exterior. Colour schemes, backgrounds, home screen layouts and settings continually remind the user of the network, but two programs also make their presence felt. Orange Update uses the Action Engine technology to deliver content and OS upgrades over the air to Orange customers, courtesy of a GPRS connection. Several interesting high-quality ringtones (drum rolls, birdsongs and the like) and backgrounds (swans and
beaches) are already there to choose from. The other program is Orange Backup, which again uses the Action Engine to backup one’s data to the Orange network. Backups can be scheduled at intervals, and a range of options allow PIM information, SIM data and even documents to be backed up. To use the backup service, an account must be created, which can be done speedily on the phone. Unfortunately, we had a number of errors in use despite having good reception – we blame these on the service nature of our review handheld rather than any technical fault. We would have also liked to see an included utility for backing up to the SD card, but one can’t have everything.
On the desktop, Orange provide ActiveSync 3.6 and Outlook 2000 for synchronization. We had no problems synchronizing the E100, even alongside another
SPV and a Pocket PC. Also provided on the CD is CNetX's excellent Pocket Slideshow, although this is the only piece of software provided. As an interesting
addition, Orange provide an MMC card valued at 30 UKP containing a European City Guide from Time Out, which autoruns on the phone. This is a fairly
comprehensive offering and rather emphasises the international appeal of the phone, given its triband ability.
Availability
The SPV E100 is available from July 2003 in the UK, with further European availability to be announced. It is expected to cost in the region of 200 UKP plus
contract.
Conclusion
Although the E100 is largely identical to the original SPV, its great new screen, improved ergonomics and beefed-up accessories make it an attractive
proposition for those in the market for a Smartphone. The hardware and OS are both very powerful, despite the occasional glitch and design flaw, and with a
bit of patience the E100 gives a rewarding user experience.
What's positive: great new screen and buttons; large number of added accessories
What's negative: software is still a bit flaky; missing Bluetooth; weak battery
| Design: | 8/10 |
| Connectivity: | 7/10 |
| Specifications: | 7/10 |
| Software: | 7/10 |
| Value: | 8/10 |
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iSW Score:
7.4/10
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