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Orange SPV
Price: £170

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 02/01/2003
Featured in magazine:
Issue 46, page 36
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Orange
Tel: 0500 802080
Web Address: www.orange.co.uk


No doubt your mobile phone can perform a lot of clever functions – make calls, send messages and connect to networks all over the world. You might even have a phone that can take and send pictures, or download games from the internet. However, it's unlikely, unless you've got your hands on an Orange SPV, that it can do all these things and more. Lots and lots more.

This is the phone that has everything. It can handle multimedia messaging, browse the web, send and receive email, organise your diary, play MP3s and videos – the list isn't endless but it's significantly longer than any other phone can offer at the moment.

It still looks like a phone, but the colour screen is huge (about twice as tall as normal phone screens) and the standard buttons have been squashed onto the bottom along with a joypad for navigation. The screen may be a bit bigger, but the device itself isn't much bulkier. A few physical features have been left off as a result but frankly we can forgive it the odd short-fall when faced with such an overwhelming number of functions.

The promise of the phone is phenomenal. The browser is well configured to show websites on the comparatively small screen – if any graphics are too large for it, they're shrunk accordingly. You can send and receive email from any POP3 email address and view them as you would a text message. All this is integrated with the standard text and multimedia messaging services (a camera is included in the box) so you've got one point of access for all your communications.

Nothing's perfect though, and all these features and functions make for a slightly cumbersome phone. There's clearly been a lot of time and effort put into this and there are a few masterstrokes of convenience – just start typing a number, for example, and the assumption will be made that you're going to make a call. It's accessing the myriad other functions that's the biggest problem. The front screen gives a good selection of options, but poke beneath the surface and it soon collapses into a far less friendly list of applications.

Having run through the list of features, we were expecting a heavy premium on the price. And we were pleasantly surprised. You get a lot of phone for your money and it hasn't fallen into the 'early adopting gadget freak' category by starting out at £300. There are a bunch of extras to think about on top of its £170 price tag, however. You have to add a minimum of £6 per month for data usage, which may get more expensive if you use it a lot, plus the price of the standard Orange contract, though you're free to choose this yourself. But shop around, as this price is sure to be discounted by resellers.

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