Comments

I'm curious as to why you decided to go with an MS smartphone - is having a Microsoft OS in your phone really that compelling? Becuase the Sony Ericsson T616 has all the features you mentioned as lacking (camera, bluetooth), syncs flawlessly with my computer, offers email as well as a variety of semi-useful web apps, and Amazon will even pay you to use one (amazon url: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AZVVA/kalsey-20/ref=nosim/ ) I'm seriously curious as to what it is that a smartphone offers that you can't get from another phone.

Only complain I have on my T616 is the screen become worthless under the sun. Living in FL you can easily guess that is a problem. Everything else is just great. About the UI, come on! If you use computers you should find the interface just dandy. Still, I prefer the Samsung S307...

Adam, I have also been looking into this phone after experiencing bad service with my Motorola T720i and T-Mobile. Would you recommend buying the new phone? The problems you had about the calender and IMAP mail do not effect me because I only use one calender and POP3. So would you recommend it?

I'm very pleased with my T610 (same as 616)--my main complaint is the lack of memory upgradability, and the fact that you only have about 1.5Meg of available memory to start with! (2.0 meg, but it comes with nearly half a meg of themes and images, although you can remove them). it works flawlessly with my jabra bluetooth headset as well, which is the KILLER, IMO. i ended up using about 600 more minutes than i should have the first month i had my jabra headset! plus the phone just *looks* classy. :) Jim Ray, you just upset me with that amazon link, granted i paid (total) $50 for my phone, and $70 for the jabra headset. if only i'd waited--i'd have number portability *and* $120 in my pocket! j.

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Adam Kalsey of the Kalsey Consulting Group wrote a good review of the Motorola MPx200 Smartphone that provides more details about how it integrates with a typical PC. He likes the MPx200's ability to sync contact information with Microsoft Outlook....

To sync folders other than Inbox, just open up Active Sync, select "Options", select Inbox, and click the "Settings" button. There it will let you select which mail folders to sync, as well as how many days back should the email folder go. Under your phone. When looking at your Inbox, select "Menu" and pick "Show Folders" that will let you navigate to the other custom mail folders you have.

I just purchased the Motorola MPX200. I've read mixed reviews...and myself am a little mixed as to whether or not I'm going to keep it. Maybe I just took forgranted windows on my computer vs. a phone...I was disapointed to find out that AOL AIM could not be used. As well I do alot of text messaging to other coworkers. Since text pagers use an "email" format...its a pain to send/reply/hold any kind of short "conversation" thru SMS to an "email". I dont want to feel like I made a bad investment...I like all of the other features..but the two I use the most...I can't use. Any suggestions????

I've had an MPx200 for a little over a month now. Despite the troubles I had porting my number from SprintPCS to AT&T (I'm not sure why, but I was told AT&T was backlogged), I'm fairly satisfied. The main advantage of this phone over the Sony/Ericssons is the fact that it's running Windows Mobile 2002 Smartphone (albeit, 2003 would have been nice). Mostly deployed in Europe through Orange, much has been tweaked and hacked and you can actually gain a lot of control and programs for this phone. Unfortunately, Motorola and AT&T were under pressure to release the phone (somewhat) on schedule and so a lot of weird things weren't fixed. The biggest mishap is the callerID lag. If you have more than 200 or so contacts, the caller's info sometimes doesn't show up before the calls sent to vmail. Annoying, but supposedly AT&T will be coming out with something to re-flash and fix this. Or so we hope. Anyhow, again, the main advantage is that there is SO MUCH out there to download and install for this phone, and more coming. I "only" have a 256MB card for the phone and I still have plenty of space (I store some 30 or so mp3's although I rarely use it as a music player). As a note, there are better movie/music players than the preinstalled Windows Media Player. Just do some searches online and you'll find a lot of stuff for this phone, it might take a little work though, but seems worth it. It'll at least last until the next (better) version comes out.

Oh yeah, the whole reason why I found this site was because I was searching for a working MPx200 (Smartphone 2002) version of VNC. Anyone know of one? "SmartVNC" from Tritontools/Centacto is only in Alpha 0.2 version and doesn't seem to be able to do much. And it's been almost a year since they released this version. I'm afraid they may not be finishing this project. Frustrating. Thanx...

Michele, A program called Agile Messenger is available that will allow you to use AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ all at once. I haven't tried it personally but I have read several reports that it works fine on the MPx200. Take a look at http://www.agilemobile.com/am.html# and check it out.

I just picked up the mpx200 over the weekend. I really like look and feel. Like any of them, navigation is an issue until you get used to it. My immediate concern is that NJ is about to mandate handsfree when in the car. Any idea of plans to have speaker-phone capability in the car. Phone's speakerphone is obviously insufficient.

I was looking for a MPx200 review and I ended up here. I've ordered the phone from AT&T and payed $300 with a one year contract. After seeing the mixed reviews and you only paying $80 dollars, I'm some what disapointed. I guess I'll get onto the telephone and demand a price match vs. the cheaper pricing. Guess I should have just done my homework. The other thing I dislike is no bluetooth and also no camera. From transfering to my first Motorola phone and coming from a large line of Nokia's, I'm not sure what to think (nokia 3650 previously.) So I guess I'll just standby and see what the phone looks like tomorrow afternoon when Fedex arives. Wonder if AT&T will match the price difference if I pitch enough of a bitch? -Blake.

I've had the mpx200 for about a week. It's extremely cool, and a huge step up from my old startac. However, this phone has also fallen short in virtually every respect. It gets poorer reception that other GSM phones and the GSM network is barely ready for prime time anyway. The stereo sound quality is sub par. The CPU performance running media software is woefully inadequate. The phone opens too wide and the mic doesn't pick up my voice that well. Then there's all the problems with smartphone 2002, in particular having to kill processes/tasks manually, or you may end up with a mystery problem of why a new program won't run. It is cool. But it doesn't inspire my confidence.

I am interested in buying the MPx200. I cant get ATT or Suncom to give me a honest answer on wheather I can transfer my service from NJ to NC without paying penalties. I see all these + and - people say about the software. Does anyone have the 2003 addition yet and did it help with the kinks in the MPx200.

Blake, AT&T has a policy that gives you 30 days to return it if you don't like it. I'd take advantage of it if I were you. I am ordering one of these phones for a VP at the company I work for and I'm curious now, after reading all these comments, what his reaction will be to the phone. Lisa

hello all, i just picked up the mpx200 yesterday, and so far, i like it.. i do have a question though, and i was hoping someone here would be able to answer it, as i haven't had much luck elsewhere... i want to sync it with outlook 2003, running on my desktop, for my contacts, calendar, and tasks. however, it seems to only be syncing up with tasks. it looks like it's getting tasks from the PC, but wants to connect to a Mobile Information Server to get my calendar and contacts. i'm not running a MIS, and simply want to sync up with my Outlook calendar and contacts.. can anyone tell me where i can change the setting from MIS to PC?? thanks in advance! dave

I use ACT for contact management. Does anyone know if this phone will sync with ACT? Could someone send a quick E-mail to me at kanedale@msu.edu if they know the answer?

I've had my MPx200 for about a week now, and I've got to say it's by far the best phone I've owned. The T9 contacts list is a work of genius, the unit feels very solidly built, I've had no reception problems (even in areas where my previous phone had difficulties), and once you get used to the interface it becomes second nature. If you also factor in all the third party applications available (Doom, Quake (yes, Quake!), PocketTV, etc.) it just gets better. The lack of a camera is not a major loss -- in my experience phone cameras aren't exactly high-quality, and if I really want to look at pictures on my phone I can just take the SD card out of my camera... If I were to have to complain about anything it would be a lack of external controls for Media Player -- having to open the phone to change tracks is a pain -- and the fact that the mini-USB plug on the cradle doesn't line up with the hole on the phone very well, neccessitating a bit of wiggling to get it plugged in. (Oh, and the highly polished black case shows up fingerprints like crazy. :) In short, this phone is the r0xx0r!

The lack of camera was what drove me to this phone! In the UK it was pretty much either this phone or the Nokia 6100. The reason being, is that I wanted a brand new phone with all the nice new things (good colour pic, hands free etc) but without a camera. Why? Because I work on a secure site, and we are not allowed camera phones for security reasons. Not having a camera (remember the mpx has a clip on camera) to a growing number of people is a necessity!!

Please,please and finally please can anyone tell me how to fix this,"memory full". I have removed everything from memory including contacts, my service provider has sent software updates but arrive via sms, they've also logged me on and off the network and a factory reset has been performed. The MPX200 did everything I needed it to although I appreciate with active sync it has its limits.

I was wondering because i'm interested in purchasing this phone soon and coming from the Nokia 3630 or whatever it is, it's a piece of junk. I was wondering does it charge you for sending a text message when you use Windows Messenger for every message you send?

For Ben Yu (and anyone else looking for mobile VNC) our VNC clients are available from Handango - PT_VNC2 (and soon PTvncGPRS) for the PPC's and PTvncS for the Window's Smartphones.

For those of you (like me) that have not jumped on the MPx200, you can receive the phone for free on http://www.letstalk.com (with a 2 year contract of course). As for me, I am still debating between the MPx200 and the NEC 525 (also free from LetsTalk.com). I love the ability to keep track of my life with Outlook, but I can't justify a fancy for Outlook when the MPx200 has the bad reception I have been hearing about. Also, the NEC 525 is a quad band phone, has picture caller id, and simply is a better phone sans MS Smartphone 2002 and memory expansion capabilities. I am really stuck. Which one should I pick? Any suggestions? Please help!

True, but the MPx200 only suppports the 1800/1900 bands, while the NEC 525 supports the 850/900/1800/1900 bands, and AT&T Wireless is upgrading the 850 band, and when the AT&T Wireless network is fully merged with the Cingular network, the 850 band will be king.

Is there a way to have the MPx200 upgraded to gain the 850/900 bands? My reception outside major metro areas is really poor. In most areas I might as well not have a phone.

Really appreciate these comments. I just ordered the MPX 200 with letstalk.com and with the 2 year contract it was free (although you have to wait 2 months to get back the final $190). It also comes with a bunch of accessories. I haven't received it yet, and my buyers anxiety has me learning as much about it so my 7 day trial period is used to the max. Question: Will it be possible to upgrade the Mobile OS ever? If so, it makes this phone even more attractive! I'm not too stressed about not having a camera. I've had a Nokia 3650 for awhile (I'm giving it to my fiance who lost hers) and find that I don't use the camera all that much. I have a nice Canon digital for when I really want to take pictures (3 years old and still working great). Outlook was a big plus for me, since I use it for my entire life. I hope that it syncs flawlessly. I've read a review though that if you have more than 200 contacts the Caller ID function doesn't always work. That SUX. I have over 1000 contacts. The whole "end task" conversation is interesting, because I'm sure it slows down the phone use. Also the fact that when you close the phone you don't hang up the call - you have to do that manually. I haven't held one before, but I figure it will fit in my pocket the same as the Nokia 3650 and not be so bulky. I am sad it doesn't have blue tooth, and I think that I read somewhere that the SD slot doesn't support a bluetooth or wireless adapter? Thanks

Hi guys Can anyone here help me with the below? I'm from New Zealand (next to Australia). I've just purchased the mpx200 from Florida as I can't buy it here. Finally, after working my way through the tedious unblock/unlock process, I got the phone working on the Vodafone NZ GSM network. Amazed, I found the reception absolutely pathetic. I mean unbelievable! I can't go more than 10km (6 miles) away from a cell site without the phone reporting 'no service'. I've never experienced this with any other phone. Is there someway I can boost the signal or tell the stupid, dumb 'smart-phone' to figure it out. I have an old crap Nokia that has full reception in the areas where the smart-phone has no service. Any ideas? Thanks heaps!

I am getting my MPX200 tommorrow. I have Windows 2000 on my PC and was wondering if this was compatible with the phone as i have heard you need XP loaded onto your PC to syncronise the phone and PC. I am also not very sure if I have made the right decision. Please give me some assurance about the phone and the good qualities about it that i wont regret my purchase. Please help Thanks, B

I bought the MPX200 for its outlook synch capabilitles. But I am having huge problems with ActiveSyc. Currently, I have turned off synchornization because during the sync process, ActiveSync treats each name on the phone as a new name, and I end up with duplicate names in my ourlook on the computer. I have to maually go and delete the duplicates. This is not easy since I have more than 3000 entries. There seems to be no option to say: download only from the computer, do not upload from the phone. Any ideas?

I bought Motorola Smarthphone Mpx200 about a week ago but while installing some program from the internet, by mistake I remove file manager without having the possibility to stop this operation. From that moment on, the telephone cannot load any new program, including the original file manager. How is that possible, is windows CE corrupted than?

I am very happy with my mpx200 because it is small, easy to use and very convenient. But after going through the "comments", I have to say that even after flashing it with the latest firmware available, I still suffer appalling reception! My wife has her Nokia 6610 on the same service and always seems to have superior reception! This defeats the purpose of a cell phone, always having to use a public phone in malls!! Very true about the finish....it gets so grubby I spend more time cleaning than calling!! Also does anyone know of a 2003 OS upgrade for the phone as there was a mpx200 on ebay with 2003!! thanks

There is a version of sp 03 available on msmobiles.com

I have had the phone since late last year, I got one of the first ones because I wanted to have a single unit instead of both my HP palmtop and flip phone. I liked the phone for the first week or so because it seemed to do everything I wanted. From a physical perspective, the phone feels great and is the right size and weight. The black case gets smudged but I don't care about that, its just a phone. However, after the novelty of a single unit disappeared, I hate this phone. It is extremely slow when turning on, you have to manually delete tasks or your memory is toast, caller id doesn't show up consistently (I noticed this in other reviews), reception is very bad in many cases (I always lose calls), and more. I got my phone unlocked and even have problems with other providers when my colleagues don't so I think it is related to the phone. The display is quite nice most of the time but seeing the clock is difficult. I espcially have difficulty seeing the time when I first wake up; I try to use this as my travel clock since I don't wear a watch. I also just found out I can't get support anymore from AT&T. My recommendation, run away from this phone. I paid over $300 6 months ago (plus $75 more to unlock the SIM) but I need something better. I typically buy a new phone every couple of years and I'm very unhappy about having to buy another one after only 6 months (especially at the price I paid).

I've had this phone since it came out, and after a firmware upgrade from Orange, had no problems with signal (before, they were immense for this phone). ActiveSync works fine (use 3.7.1 from the microsoft site). No camera is a boon to me - the memory full problem is often with *sent items*, if you empty this you should be fine. I just acquired a second revision of this phone (seemingly), volume and signal are much better still. as long as you empty your sent items folder, it's a peach!

I posted here back in January when I had had the phone for about 2-3 months by then. Now it's Sept. and I still have the phone. If it's help to anyone, I've gotten use to or found fixes for some of the problems I mentioned. Namely, the callerID lag is still an issue but there's a semi-workaround. Apparently, the lag occurs when you have more than 250 contacts or so I've read elsewhere (I started with more than that so I dunno the threshold myself). BUT, whatever phone numbers you copy to the SIM card phonebook WILL appear as good as any other callerID when they call. Strange. I'm with AT&T (the only provider of this phone that I know of) and my SIM card can hold 250 (interesting eh?). Anyhow, I've put the most used numbers in my SIM card so it's now only when someone not on my SIM card calls that their name doesn't show. Keep in mind, the number always appears, the problem is when there's a matching name in the contacts, the name often takes too long to show up on the screen. Signal strength has gotten better for some reason. I'm not sure what AT&T has done, but it's definitely better. I get reception and less dropped calls in areas where it was horrible up until about April. I thought they weren't bothering with improving 1800/1900 Mhz bands (what the MPx200 can use) since the aquisition by Cingular, but it has gotten better. Yay. Anyhow, all in all the phone is livable and works decently well. I miss some things I had on my old Samsung I-300 Palm OS phone, but the size/weight savings is a huge plus for this phone. Hopefully the upcoming MPx will improve on a lot of this one's mishaps.