Introduction

The integration of the Personal Digital Assistant with the mobile phone has been the dream of many for the last few years. It made perfect sense of course given the popularity of both mainstream devices. However, the physical form factor of either device made it rather difficult to merge the two devices into one. Many companies have attempted to deliver solutions to the burgeoning field with limited success. The most successful PDA/cell phone device would have to be PalmOne’s (formerly Handspring) Treo phone which of course uses the Palm OS. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has been developing their own Smartphone OS for many years based around the Windows CE OS. Up until recently, the only appearance of the Microsoft Smartphone has been in trade shows, and in the European sector. Last month, AT&T Wireless started offering the Motorola MPx200 which is the first cell phone to utilize the Smartphone OS design here in the United States. How does the MPx200 shape up as a mobile phone and as a PDA? Is the Microsoft Smartphone OS truly a worthy mobile OS or is it just yet another bloated piece of software? Let’s find out!

Packaging

The MPx200 packaging is shown below in the following pictures.

Everything you need for utilizing the MPx200 comes included in the packaging. It comes with an external AC adapter as well as the USB sync cable which doubles as a phone charger. There are two different headsets that let you use the phone under different conditions.. There’s also a CD full of goodies for you to install.

Here are some pictures of the items included in the packaging.

In all, you’ll find the MPx200, a battery, a travel charger, desktop charger cradle, USB data cable, stereo headset, mono headset, companion CD, AT&T Wireless SIM card, user manual, and product and service user data.