It's all in the pixels: the Orange SPV C550 is an upgraded version of the SPV C500 boasting a hi-res screen and camera. Jørgen Sundgot can't say he minds the mini-makeover.
Review summary of the Orange SPV C550:
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Full review of the Orange SPV C550:
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What do you do when you have a product that works reasonably well? Either go safe, or go wild. As good as Orange's SPV C500 smartphone was, it certainly had its drawbacks - and we're very pleased to see that its successor, the SPV C550, corrects several of them. The fact that it adds some curious niggles of its own, though, is another matter entirely. Luckily, though, none of them are showstoppers - but enough with the teasing already. Let's take a look, shall we?
Looking sharp
At 108 x 46 x 18 mm and 107 g, the Orange SPV C550 is nearly an exact match for its predecessor, the C500, with regard to size. A splash of silver paint and more symmetrical shape makes a world of difference. - but when it comes to attractiveness, first place goes to the 65K colour QVGA display of the handset. A first for Windows Mobile devices, it is a pleasure to behold in all of its crisp, 240 x 320 pixel glory, yet not the brightest and most high-res we've seen - an honour currently bestowed upon the Nokia N90 - but it'll give most any smartphone a run for its money.
The remainder of the front of the phone is also a pretty affair, although it could possibly have been laid out better. For the audibly inclined, the introduction of four large music keys is a killer feature - but for everyone else, this design choice will seem more than odd as it comes at the sacrifice of shrinking the two soft keys, home and back buttons to an uncomfortably small size. This niggle aside, spacious bevelled keys with spot-on tactile and audible feedback renders interfacing with the C550 a highly pleasant affair, and we also favour the neatly integrated LEDs cupping the speaker above the screen.
Particularly worthy of note is the removal of the navigational rocker as found in the C500 in favour of a more traditional joystick, which allows for precise navigation sans accidental thumb circumcisions. Dedicated volume up/down keys on the left side are, as always, welcome, which also goes for the adjacent voice recorder button which now opens Pocket Internet Explorer; a choice we somewhat hesitantly approve of. Also, a button on the right side handily provides access to the integrated 1.3 MP camera.
Now at 1.3 Megapixels as opposed to 0.3 MP in its predecessor, the C550's camera offers improved colour representation and higher resolution despite results being entirely mediocre as compared to the competition - but at least late is better than never. There's still no ridge to protect the plastic lens on the back, though, which is a bit silly.
Connecting the dots
Connectivity remains unchanged in the C550, which isn't necessarily a bad thing although the setup is decidely starting to look dated. With tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz and GPRS Class 10 as sole WAN proponents, the lack of EDGE or 3G is notable as Nokia races ahead with a barrage of speedy competitors. Infrared and Bluetooth 1.1 are adequate, but nothing more - which can also be said about the inclusion of USB 1.1 as opposed to 2.0. Still, we do get a bit warm and fuzzy over the inclusion of USB charging and a 2.5 mm earphone jack.
Speaking of earphones, the C550 comes with a slightly reworked handsfree kit which is of better design than its predecessor. Audio quality is quite good, but we recommend. On a more general note, signal reception and voice quality in the C550 are more than adequate, which also goes for the loudspeaker mode - with the handset easily allowing for a bit of tune sharing with friends.
Overall performance also seems to have been improved in the C550, which now chalks up a win as the first Windows Mobile smartphone which can actually keep up with rapid-fire, multi-tap text input without losing presses along the way. Despite this and the improved screen, however, battery life is nearly as good as its predecessor on average and ranges in the three to four day range.
Also worthy of note is the miniSD card expansion slot of the C550, which graciously allows for music collections up to 1 GB in size with an appropriate storage card - and if that wasn't enough, Orange also saw fit to bundle a 128 MB card in the box, which is quite a generous gesture as far as we're concerned.
Adding up odds and ends
An improvement here, an improvement there - even though the SPV C550 doesn't run on Windows Mobile 5.0, its QVGA display combined with a number of minor upgrades renders it a better proposition than competing Windows Mobile smartphones. The inclusion of Pocket Windows Media Player (WMP) 10 is one, allowing for greatly improved synchronization with Windows Media Player 10 on the desktop courtesy of smart playlists and the likes.
On the note of music, Orange has also included its Music Player application which allows for over-the-air downloads of a broad range of music. As ingenious as this concept is, however, tunes are priced at £1.5 GBP or €2.2 EUR, which combined with additional bandwidth costs incurred - as GPRS is the sole option for downloads - comes to exactly £Are You Hopping Mad. Adding insult to injury, purchased tunes cannot be played back with Pocket WMP or transferred to a PC due to DRM - and the playback options in Orange Music Player are, diplomatically put, limited.
Then there's the Orange home screen, which has been reworked to provide quick access to frequently used applications and services without having to resort to the Start menu. Although handy, this comes at the expense of information-at-a-glance, but fortunately power users can rapidly retreat to more traditional views.
Speaking of views, the QVGA display of the C550 also does a good job of taking the hassle out of viewing content. Particularly noticeable when using Pocket Internet Explorer or the bundled suite of ClearVue Office viewers, more information fits on the screen and the viewing experience is better courtesy of smoother - yet slightly chunky - fonts. It should also be mentioned that some applications exhibit compatibility issues due to the increased resolution, but teething pains like these have typically been quickly resolved in the past and are likely to be in this case as well.
Availability
The Orange SPV C550 is at the time of press available to customers of mobile network operator Orange in the UK, Switzerland and France, selling in the €150 GBP, or €220 EUR, range as a Pay As You Go phone locked to the operator's network.
Price and availability
The Orange SPV C550 will start selling for TBA ((Orange)) in December 1969.
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