Orange SPV 

One of the first true “smart phones” available the SPV (Sound, Picture, Video) certainly delivers the basics in providing a decent phone with calendar, contacts, mail, SMS and Instant Messaging, MMS pictures and audio, games and other miscellany. One area of absolute disaster would be the built-in camera which is, unless you’re photographing a rock, rather useless since the actual image it takes is several seconds from when you click to take it.

Although the SPV delivers the basics reasonably a particular aspect of its engineering truly sets it apart in that you really can operate the phone with one hand.

Why is this so important? Very much what I questioned when I saw it used as an advertising element. To put some perspective on it, try carrying a briefcase and using something like the P800 for e-mails, instant messaging, etc. The great 3-D dial that Sony adds to the mix of the P800 really helps, but all to often you’re reaching for the stylus. With the SPV you can easily navigate the entire device using one hand; unless you’re playing games there’s little reason or value in using two as well.

As for the basic features it’s the typical assortment of tools really and like any Windows system it comes with solitaire to keep you busy in the dull moments. Using ActiveSync (which ships with the phone) you can synchronise your Outlook calendar, contacts, tasks and inbox to the device immediately with no headache. As these are more often than not the key reasons for having a smart phone the SPV holds up well here. One thing I’ve done is rather than set my phone to synchronise to my inbox I’ve set it up with its own e-mail account and set my desktop to forward relevant information to the phone when I’m away. This works well for getting important e-mail messages out of the office and is far less cumbersome than most solutions (also requires less headache for system administrators!).

Another area where the SPV could have done better is with support for Microsoft’s own file formats and viewing them on the device; 3rd party applications are available to support this however it would seem sensible to have included this from the start. To circumvent this headache you can simply output your documents for review to HTML format and read them on the SPV – this is great for reading on the tube too!

The third area of complaint has to be Orange’s implementation of the SPV. Rather than shipping the phone “unlocked” so that you could develop applications internally for the phone, download those you see on the web or even write your own, Orange ship the phone “locked” for your own protection. Not a showstopper but certainly something that Orange will hopefully have rethought for the upcoming release of the 200…