CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
SMARTPHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
REVIEWS
» Cell phones
» Cameras
» Camcorders
» Archive » Product Guide
» Compare » Expert guides
» RSS & Alerts » Ask The Editors
Home / Review Center / /
Review: AnexTEK SP230By Anthony Newman, Wednesday 19 January 2005
GALLERY
Enlarge
 
 
Anthony Newman tests the little-known AnexTEK SP230, and finds that the past is alive and well in this Pocket PC Phone Edition design.

The AnexTEK SP230 can best be described as "squat" - and pug-ugly. Notably shorter than most handhelds or communicators at 109 x 68 x 22 mm, the SP230 is also chubby thanks to the protruding battery. At 159 grams (or 170 with its keypad, discussed below), it is also somewhat hefty, yet still at the light-side as communicators go.

AnexTEK's SP230 is behind the curve on features, but earns points for its small size
Not exactly a looker

The SP230 is very simplistic in its design. The screen consists of a typical QVGA 240 x 320 16-bit color TFT, standard for most Windows Mobile devices. Colors, however, look faded and washed out, and the near complete lack of buttons is surprising. The SP230 has a power button above the screen and Call and Hangup buttons below, and aside from a jog wheel, volume rocker, and physical hold switch on the left side, that's it.

AnexTEK have provisioned for more buttons with a fiddly clip-on numeric keypad, akin to Sony Ericsson's P800 and P900 series, although it doesn't rely on pressing the touchscreen like the P800. This add-on is not only goddamn ugly, but feels cheap, offers little tactile feedback, is poorly integrated with the operating system and doesn't support text input or application loading - only number dialling. Might as well leave it off, really.

The top of the device includes an SDIO-capable Secure Digital slot, covered headphone jack and IR port, as well as the 2 cm long external antenna. The antenna is rather wide, although not ungainly, with the cheap plastic stylus of the unit sliding into the side of the antenna. In all, the SP230 feels about on-par for a heavy handheld, but is not narrow enough for comfortable phone use. And did we mention it's really ugly?

The tri-band GSM 850/1800/1900 MHz SP230 supports world-roaming GSM and data over GPRS class 10, but lacks Bluetooth support for headsets or other connectivity. That leaves users with either against-the-face usage, which works but quickly becomes uncomfortable; speakerphone, which has privacy issues; or using either of the included mono or stereo wired headsets. There is also no Wi-Fi support, which we're coming to expect from Communicators, especially Windows Mobile ones. And there's no MMS, but no camera either.

Chugging along

On the inside, the SP230 looks better. It offers a 400 MHz Intel XScale processor with auto-throttling, causing no issues with responsiveness during our testing, although the SP230 is not as fast as other, older, 400 MHz devices. 64 MB of ROM are present for the OS, alongside 64 MB of user-accessible RAM, placing it about mid-range for Windows Mobile-based communicators.

The battery is a rather large 1480 mAh Lithium Ion pack, with backup, and it's responsible for most of the weight of the SP230. In testing, it was able to play music for just about 7 hours before shutting down in self-defense with the GSM radio on but not in use; a perfectly respectable score, although a bit low for such a large battery. Audio quality and volume were both good.

The SP230 runs Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition, but alas not the Second Edition of this platform, and as such the SP230 lacks a number of minor improvements, most notable of which - with regard to the SP230's feature set - is improved formatting in Pocket Internet Explorer.

The one real gesture towards phone usage is that by flipping closed the hardware keypad, the phone application will automatically load. This in fact becomes somewhat irritating, since the keypad has to be closed whenever the user wants to put the device away, not just dial a number by hand. Curiously, MMS support is absent, and limited jog wheel integration (for which Windows Mobile is as much as anything else to blame) makes two-handed operation a must given the lacking directional pad.

Lastly, third party software is also nearly entirely absent from the SP230, which makes for a very basic software package

Availability

The AnexTEK SP230 is at the time of writing available in the U.S. for $599 USD without subscription
Best Phones
Name Score Price Carrier
C
Nokia N95 8GB NAM 83% $450Unlocked
Apple iPhone 3GS 83% $200AT&T
Nokia N86 82% $500Unlocked
Sprint Hero 81% $180Sprint
Motorola Droid 81% $200Verizon Wireless
HTC Droid Eris 81% $100Verizon Wireless
Samsung Moment 78% $180Sprint
Apple iPhone 3G 77% $100AT&T
RIM BlackBerry Tour 77% $200Verizon Wireless
HTC Touch Pro2 77% $350T-Mobile
Click here to see full and advanced chart »
 
 
 
HOTTEST
Smartphones
 
Cell Phones
 
Upcoming Smartphones
TOP STORIES
Best 8-megapixel camera phones
 
10 Hottest Verizon Wireless Phones
 
5 Best All-Touch Smartphones
Hottest Nokia Phones
 
5 Best Smartphones for Calling
 
Android Smartphone Comparison
10 Hottest Touchscreen Phones
 
Hottest Smartphones Set for November Release
 
Upcoming T-Mobile Phones
NEW CELL PHONE RELEASES
HTC HD2
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530
Samsung Behold II
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700
Nokia N900
Motorola Droid
HTC Droid Eris
LG Chocolate Touch
Samsung Moment
CELL PHONE RESOURCE CENTER
Expert Guides
 
Advanced Search
 
Side-by-Side
IN-DEPTH REVIEWS
Cell Phones & Smartphones
 
Digital Cameras
 
Camcorders
NOW IN PHONES
HTC HD2 review
 
Best 8-megapixel camera phones
 
Gameloft Cuts Back Android Investment
 
Smartphone Leaks of the Week
 
10 Hottest Verizon Wireless Phones
Motorola Droid Is No Challenge Says Palm
Nokia Nseries Roadmap Explained
gPhone Is Likely Not Real
Next 25 stories
MUST READ
CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
SMARTPHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
LAPTOPS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
INTERNET TABLETS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
GPS NAVIGATORS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
HDTVs
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
CAMCORDERS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
About us | Site map | How to advertise | Feedback | RSS Feeds | | Archive
Copyright 1999-2009 © infoSync World