Orange SPV E200

The Orange SPV E200 is a good phone to have if you like to do more than talk'n'text. It's got a whole host of features that would have been unimaginable on a phone a few years ago and it has a user interface which makes them all easy to utilise.

I chose this phone primarily because I had long wanted a PDA but was never prepared to carry one around as well as a phone. The E200 runs Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition with cut-down versions of Outlook and Windows Media Player. The main benefit of this is that you can connect the phone to a Windows PC and with the help of MS Active Sync software, synchronise data between the two and treat the Smartphone as portable storage. All the contacts I had laboriously set-up in MS Outlook on my home and work PCs were copied over automatically and every time I change a detail on my PC copy of Outlook it automatically updates the phone. This is so much easier than entering numbers, names, addresses, e-mail addresses using the phone that this feature alone makes me never want to go back to a non-Windows phone again! Secondary benefits include the fact that you have all your contact details with you, all of the time and have a back-up if your PC hard disk goes down, as mine did last year. Also, whilst you are connected to the PC's USB port the phone is charging which means having to plug it into the dedicated charger less often.

Another nice Windows feature is the Media Player which plays WMA files, as well as MP3. WMA is better at low bit rates than MP3 so you can cram more songs onto the E200's SD memory card, and since I have backed-up most of my CD collection in WMA it saved me a lot of re-ripping to get my songs onto my phone. Later Smartphones, I'm told, support WMA files with DRM and I would like to have this on the E200 but this is quite a minor niggle as there are ways around that problem.

As a personal music player it's OK, but no IPod rival. The user interface on the player is quite basic and you can't plug normal headphones into the jack. Battery life is quite short anyway so using it as a media player for more than a couple of hours is also out of the question.

Another feature that I had not seen on any other phone is the 'flight mode' which allows you to switch off the transmit and receive capabilities of the phone whilst still using it as a media player, games device, personal organiser etc. This is a good feature now, and in couple of years, when flight attendants have become familiar with it, it will be a great feature. I tried using my E200 as a media player last year on a long haul flight but actually spent more time explaining 'flight mode' to each of the 10 flight attendants (in succession) than I did listening to music so I gave up! Technology ahead of its time

The camera on the phone is easy to operate with a dedicated button on side of the phone, but most outdoor shots tend to be over-exposed and sometimes come out completely white. Video capture is better outdoors but completely useless indoors or in low light.

Sharing photos via MMS is very easy but unfortunately the screen is too small to make viewing easy. Being able to copy JPGs onto the phone with active Sync however can be very useful. On more than one occasion, before travelling I've copied over downloaded location maps of my hotel to show to non-English speaking taxi drivers and it's worked a treat!

The major gripe I have about the E200 and the reason that I'm now looking to change mine is the keypad. From day one it's annoyed me because its hard to lock and has lead to me making hundreds of spurious phone calls from my trouser pocket but more recently its become a nightmare to use because one key has become very un-responsive. On most phones this wouldn't be a problem but on this one there is a soft key next to the screen which is used by every application and is also the one which locks and unlocks the keypad. And being the most frequently used key, it is of course the most prone to wear induced failure!

The joystick too has worn out and now doesn't respond to 'up' commands. This is a shame because it makes the screen impossible to navigate so I have now stopped using many of the features and applications that make the E200 special.

Other criticisms include the time it takes to boot-up and the frequency with which the phone crashes and needs a full reset. But hey, that's Windows for you!

In summary I would say that this is a very good phone which could have been a great one if it had been better built or more thoughtfully designed. I'm absolutely sold on the smartphone concept however and I am now looking to replace it with something like the SPV M500 which has a bigger, touch-sensitive screen instead of buttons and a joystick. But the E200 will still be a tough act to follow!

I sooooo wanted to love this phone!! I mean it's got windows for crying out loud!!! But reality bites and the windows mobile 2003 is nothing like real windows! The bluetooth is poor for bluejacking and sucks the battery (which is bad anyway) of its life rapidly! I fixed the battery life by upgrading the rom from the Orange to the i-mate rom (easy to do) and got mobiluck for better bluejacking potential (still kills the battery!!). The joystick is another fault and mine didn't like going to the right all the time!! So I have gone back to my trusty Nokia 6600 and look forward to getting my 6630 very soon!!!

Let's start; I cannot fault the feature set of this phone.

But be aware; this phone has Microsoft software on it, and it's about as high-quality as Windows 95. Looks fresh, clever things and new stuff, but a lot of it is badly thought-out, clumsy, and buggy.

Many of the deficiencies of this phone would be overcome if Microsoft/Orange had put in more effort. As a engineer I get personally very frustrated because I know that things could be a lot better.

- A classic example is that even if the keypad is locked, and anykey answer is set to 'no', pressing the joystick answers incoming calls. If you use Orange's own belt holster, because the joystick sticks out from the front, the joystick is 'pre-pressed' by the holster's fabric. Ergo you cannot remove the phone from the holster without answering the call. They could have avoided this by better software design.

Also there are bugs, some of them VERY obvious (superloud beeps when in 'meeting/quiet' mode) which have never been corrected. And presumably never will be. Oh, and this phone can lock-up solid, forcing you to remove the battery to reboot. Happens to me once a month or so. Since this is a MS powered phone, they should have fitted Ctrl-Alt-Del keys.

The Hardware has soooo much nice stuff, and the display is a work of beauty. But it's unreliable, First the camera failed on me, then bluetooth packed up. Each time it is exchanged I have to spend hours re-configuring it to my personal settings, even after using Oranges backup/restore utility. Battery life is poor so I charge daily, speaker volume is too low, I struggle to hear people in a noisy (Amsterdam street) environment.

MP3 playback was my decider for getting this phone, but the supplied windoze media player is lousy, it works, but is painful to use and drains the battery by turning the backlight on every time it changes track (another software bug?) so I had to pay for decent MP3 player software.

- Do not forget that MS want to create a 'market' in add-on software for their smartphones, therefore expect the supplied software to be limited, they want to 'persuade' you to spend money on downloads (MS gets income from licencing and 'signing' these).

The bottom line is.. the bottom line. This is a phone built to deliver big features on a budget, everything about it feels 'Marginal', cut down, limited, almost but not quite right. I hoped for more.

I love the Orange SPV E200, can't explain why as the battery life is poor (1 day max) and the joystick has stopped working so checking messages, searching for contacts etc is a slow & painful process. Can't wait to upgrade, can't make my mind up between SPV C500 or go for the SPV M2000 that I can use on my Wi-Fi at home??

Since buying an Orange SPV E200 handset back in January it's been back to the manufacturer 5 times now for repair - once because it stopped charging and 4 times because the Bluetooth kept failing. HTC have replaced this handset twice now so I'm on my 3rd unit in just over 7 months. I can't recommend this handset at all.

The Orange SPV E200 has rubbish predictive text - and sometimes if you delete one letter it deletes all - very frustrating when you attempt to send the same message 3 or 4 times. I normally end up calling them.

For its low price, the Orange SPV E200 mobile phone has amazing functionality but requires constant integration with your PC to get the best out of it. If you organise your business or personal life using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, then this phone will cater for all your needs when out & about. If not, then you may find that it's slightly larger size, its poorer battery life and it's somewhat confusing menu structure ultimately make for a frustrating experience.

I have used this phone for a month now and it has, so far, proved a great asset. Voice calls have all been clear with no distortion or fading.

The package comes with the latest version of Microsoft Active Sync and Outlook 2002 (well worth installing) and the phone synchronises with that software flawlessly. Although Orange provides an on-air back-up service, I was disappointed that it does not appear possible to back-up via Active Sync and it is also a bit of a hassle searching folders to transfer your pictures and video to PC. The Camera and Video quality along with the phone display is, I think, excellent. Pressing the Homepage 'start' key displays a list of all the phone's functions, seemingly arranged in no particular order. You quickly learn to work this list, but adding extra functionality increases its length which can be a pain. I think the Nokia GUI approach is a better solution.

Setting-up e-mail accounts is relatively straight forward. The included CD provides a wizard to do this, but it failed to communicate with my phone. Web surfing is reasonably quick and the large display makes for comfortable viewing.

Each contact retains the same text information as stored on Outlook, which can be amazingly comprehensive. It's a shame you can't associate a photo with each contact, as you could with the Nokia 7650, for example. But never mind, using the 'caller id' function allows a photo of a contact to be displayed on an incoming call - fantastic. Both the Calendar and Tasks functions are very useful, again containing all the information that's stored on Outlook. Programming reoccurring events, such as birthdays, displays the reoccurrence number - which is great for indicating someone's age, for example. It's a pity there's no direct link to Tasks from the Homepage, as there is with Calendar.

Best of all is the inclusion of an MMC/SD card slot. Orange now provides a 32mB SD card in the package, full of sample videos. But to use one of the phones best features, the Windows media player, a 256mB SD card should be first thing on the upgrade list. A word of warning though! This phone is particular about its SD card and refuses to recognise some makes, as I found to my cost. Buy from a retailer who specifies that the card works with the E200. Cost around £45. The media player is basic but does its job well. It is economical on battery power and the sound quality through the supplied ear phones is quite acceptable. If you don't use the ear phones, the media player uses the phone's speaker which is surprisingly loud. Video (avi) files are clear and steady and I particularly like the way it recognised these files and kept the display backlit until completion of the track - great attention to detail.

You can use all this functionality with the phone's radio switched off, just press the on/off switch momentarily and select 'flight mode' from the menu. With so much personal information able to be stored in this phone, it's good to know security, through a customisable look-code, is up to scratch.

This phone has its faults - disappointing battery life, a bit brick-like, slippery joy-stick, poor alarm clock and an initially confusing menu system. But, for the money (mine was £80 on a £15pm contract), this is a great device with its PDA features and plenty of built-in memory (32mB).

I've had this Orange SPV E200 mobile phone for a little while now and as a business user I have found it excellent it seemlessly transfers my contacts from outlook and back again to me this in itself is invaluable.

Also the fact that i can use active sync to make any sound file from my desk top a ringtone (so long as I convert it to wma is great)

On the downside until you download the update from orange's website battery life is pants.

Ideal phone for the business user non business users would probably be happier with the Nokia 6600 which has very similar features but is a bit more fashionable.

The Orange SPV E200 mobile phone has an inbuilt disign fault. If you lock the keypad in the usual way even though you have the any key answer option unticked the phone will answer a call just by touching the joystick. This is a pain if the phone is in your pocket and you don't hear it ringing straight away.

The Orange SPV E200 is my partners work mobile phone that his boss bought him for work to make calls and recieve text messages from his boss. i've had a lot of fun with it capturing 6 minute videos and pictures , ideal for him to take photos of jobs for his boss too ,my partner hates computers but has slowly worked out what the phone can do. He finds something new on it everyday although sometimes loses things he puts on it as he cant remember where he put it on the phone .briefly describing it its like a small pda not bad but could improve alot on ease of use.