Motorola MPx220 review: Perfect for business

Motorola and time

Alarm and clock are hidden deep in the menu. Alarm is repetitive but it's short of any advanced setting possibilities; for example to select days when it has to go off. And it definitely should be better accessible.

Clock settings • alarm settings

The calendar can be viewed in a day, week or month view. Here the excellent synchronization comes again - it counts with such details as a status, which the colleagues can see in their calendars when they want to schedule me a meeting.

Daily agenda • detail of an event • week and month view

Somebody can get scared that the calendar doesn't ask you of an event type during entering new event. At normal phones we can select whether we want to enter a meeting, note, birthday or other item. In Motorola MPx220, just a detailed form is enough for everything. As with the phonebook, I am not going to describe all items in detail, but you can find here everything you should need and want. And best of all, everything synchronizes.

Older items are grey • editing an event in the calendar

Considering a possibility of remote synchronization, which means that a smartphone with Windows Mobile operating system is able to connect directly to a Microsoft Exchange server, I would appreciate one more function - the scheduler. The possibility to work with meetings of other team members straight from the phone is one that also deserves attention.

To-do list is too simple compared to the calendar. Producer counts that the user will synchronize everything from the computer. Right in the phone, you will be able to enter to the to-do list nothing but a simple note. The smartphone does not have a special function for notes - only a voice recorder; I could not find if the record length is limited by something else than by free memory. Nevertheless, it is sure that it is not possible to record a call in progress.

Voice recorder can be used also as a stopwatch

No EDGE, does it make sense?

We classify data functions of Motorola MPx220 as good. Modern smartphone should not be short of EDGE and also it would be nice to have missing timeslot for upload at GPRS class 8. Moreover, the MPx220 does not have a data transfer counter; the user has to install it additionally.

The phone can be connected to a PC via cable, infrared port or Bluetooth and it was the last technology that I chose for testing the connection to the Internet. At the first time, it seemed that it does not work because in application for the modem in the phone there are only USB and infrared port selections. Finally, the connection was established as easily as in all other cases.

You can also find an integrated Internet Explorer, an internet browser that can connect you also to the WAP pages. For work outside the office, I was using the GPRS but when I was close to a PC I shared its connection via Bluetooth. Unlike quite difficult setting of data profiles, it was very simple: just enable this possibility in ActiveSync and select a given connection in the phone. Do not forget to initiate bluetooth connection between the phone and a PC.

Internet pages on the Motorola MPx220 display

We can browse through web pages in three modes. Either as on the computer, where it is necessary to scroll the page also horizontally, or it is displayed in columns or the text without special formatting. The browser is not the fastest one and many people would certainly appreciate bigger font.

Setting displaying of web pages • same page in three different modes

Other functions

I have not written much about multimedia features of Motorola MPx220. The phone plays MP3 files in Windows Media program but I do not have headphones or a reduction for miniature jack, so I cannot verify if it plays stereo. It is claimed everywhere so let's trust this. The loud speaker is mono.

Multimedia files overview • playing video • playing MP3

Motorola MPx220 supports Java and it is hellishly fast. In jBenchmark test the phone reached results 13198 (version 1) and 675 (version 2). If you will have a look into the database of all results, you will see that in this respect it is one of the fastest phones. There are two Java games and two other are native Windows Mobile applications.

Java applications and games • two games in Java • two games for Window Mobile

Now I am just browsing through the menu of the phone and looking whether there is something I haven't written about, for example an integrated file manager. It is very important application because without it you just cannot access the directory structure and work effectively with files. Calculator is too simple for a smartphone.

File manager • it's possible to send files straight from the file manager •
simple calculator • memory manager • SIM Toolkit

Change on the throne?

Motorola MPx220 is a rival to Nokia 6630 or Sony Ericsson P910 and compared to these phones it comes out very well. We cannot say that one of them is the best. Each one has its benefits and drawbacks, for the Motorola MPx220 this is the camera.

Motorola MPx220 is a business mobile phone. I do not recommend it to the people who want to play with the mobile - they would rather appreciate Symbian Series 60. MPx220 is a business phone for people who want to use its organizer functions, demanding excellent cooperation with Microsoft Outlook … and who don't want a big communicator.