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Orange SPV E100
Price: £200 with contract

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Matt Chapman

This review updated: 10/10/2003
Featured in magazine:
Issue 60, page 34
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Orange
Tel: 0500 802080
Web Address: www.orange.co.uk


The original SPV (which stands for 'sounds, pictures, video') was the first phone on sale in the UK to use Microsoft's Smartphone software, turning a humble call-maker into something far superior. A few design tweaks have made the new SPV E100 better looking, but more importantly it's now easier to write text messages and play games on.

The main changes to the phone are cosmetic and the underlying system is much the same as the original SPV. Not that you should turn your nose up at a phone that can surf the web in colour, play video and MP3s, take photos, email, send MMS (picture and sound) messages and share your contacts and diary by connecting to your PC. A couple of new additions are the Sound Manager and Picture Manager software. The Picture Manager is the most necessary, as it allows you to snap a simple picture using the clip-on camera without the need to fiddle with picture messaging settings.

The E100 is still slow to start up compared to a normal phone, but that's the price you pay for its extended features. The biggest improvement is the screen, which is wonderfully crisp. This makes it possible to look up even picture-heavy websites such as Streetmap.co.uk and actually be able to read the map. Our only other criticism is that it may have been redesigned to look cooler, but it's also slightly larger.

The bigger keypad and built-in joystick make it much easier to use than its predecessor. To help things further, when it hits the shops it'll come with an optional QWERTY keyboard that can be rolled up and put in your pocket (our test model came without this). You'll still need to read the manual to get the best out of the E100 though, as there are some aspects that aren't obvious using trial-and-error.

With an expected retail price of £200, including contract, the handset itself is pricier than its predecessor. You need to factor in the cost of a mobile data service, which is around £3 per Mb of data you send and receive. It would have been nice if Orange had thrown in a few extra pieces of software. For a handset that's supposed to be more gamer friendly, it's disappointing to see the solitary inclusion of Solitaire – with all other games costing extra to download.

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