Motorola MPx Videos Emerge

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mpx.ruttensoft.com/' target='_blank'>http://mpx.ruttensoft.com/</a><br /><br /></div>For those of you who were concerned about the MPx's size and usability, you might want to check out these official-looking videos of how the device is held and manipulated using both of its hinges. Personally, I'm totally blown away -- the device doesn't look that large or unwieldy in the hand <i>or</i> against the face -- and I now desperately want one. :drool:

[WindWalker]

Impressive.....not nearly the "brick" people were characterizing it as without seeing it in context....

[foldedspace]

Nah, I predict someone will still say it's 'huge'. Or too squared off and ugly.

I dig it...

[Ryan Joseph]

This looks amazing! I was thinking of going for the iPAQ 6000 when it comes out in the summer, but after seeing the MPx in action, I'm not so sure. The dual hinge thing is incredible. I can't wait to try it in person!

[jnajera]

Amazing! Now the only thing I am dabating on is screen size.

[damager]

I've been waiting patiently for a reasonably sized pocketpc phone. This fits the bill, and the full keyboard and dual hinge are icing on the cake. I WANT ONE!

[Bruno Figueiredo]

That, or the people in the videos are the big boned kind... :lol:

Now, seriously...

I think the form factor is absolutely innovative, but the implementation is a bit ugly. Don't really like Motorola designs. I'm more of a Nokia fan.

I always thought of Motorola designs as difficult and cumbersome to use. Well, in this case the OS is licensed, so it's not the case...

All in all, it's interesting. Anyone noticed the speaker nest to the camera in the lid? Does that mean you can answer the phone with the lid closed? That would be nice.

And, does anyone else thinks the screen is a bit small? What is that? 3"? 2,8"?

[EricMCarson]

I agree that the screen size looks a tad small, but I'm ready for one of these! Please, T-Mobile, pick this up!!!

[backpackerx]

and I now desperately want one. :drool:
I definitely love new tech toys of all shapes and sizes but I don't remember the last time I wanted one as badly as this :) I'm more excited about it than I was for my first PocketPC.

[Kevin Remhof]

Impressive.....not nearly the "brick" people were characterizing it as without seeing it in context....

Agreed. I thought it was a brick until I saw this. It looks like a nice form-factor when in use.

I'm a bit bummed though. I don't think it can be used as a traditional Pocket PC. It looks like it is always a clamshell device. Not like the Sony Clie which does some cool screen flipping.

[ntractv]

I'm still out on the limb on this. I don't see the battery life all that great and probably have to have a charger not far out of reach. But, I could be wrong. I'm trying to switch, but, I guess deep down inside I'm a two device person. Maybe if got a chance to play with one. I dunno.

[Jason Lee]

I don't remember seeing it any where but what frequencies does it support? 850/900/1800/1900?
All of these wonderfull ppc phones out there and none of them support 850... :(

[jeasher]

FS: h4355 with Piel Frama case and car charger, shipped in original box with all included accessories. I purchased the unit in December and it's in flawless condition. Included in the sale is a Sony Ericcson T610 with car charger. I am enjoying the combination of these devices but something else came up... 8)

[Steven Cedrone]

I would love to see this in person. My one question: does the screen orientation flip automatically based on the way the device is opened? I would certainly hope you wouldn't have to change orientation manually.

Steve

[Birdman]

I have only 2 things to say.

Wow, and where do I get one?

[lnewulf]

Congratualtions to Motorola for creating a "business" model without the integrated camera!! Otherwise, I would be left salivating over this innovative device. It's a shame other PDA and Phone manufacturers don't take the same approach.

[David Prahl]

Anyone else notice the fake "flash" ? :|
I tried to post a photo but I couldn't take a screenshot.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Anyone else notice the fake "flash" ? :|
I tried to post a photo but I couldn't take a screenshot.

Yes - pre-production unit?

Very, very impressive device though. Nice out of the box thinking. Time for a review anyone.........? :wink:

[David Prahl]

Very, very impressive device though. Nice out of the box thinking. Time for a review anyone.........? :wink:

:drool:
&lt;heart stops>

"CLEAR!"
KA-THUMP!
"Okay, he's coming to..."

I'd, umm...be willing to review it.

[anthonymoody]

For those wondering about the screen size, it's been reported as 2.8" diagonal. That's slightlysmaller than the screen on a Sony UX50...so you can go see for yourself...

Me? I want one. NOW.

TM

[mcsouth]

:( ......uh, smaller than a Sony Clie UX50? I saw one of those for the first time this weekend (okay, so I don't get out much), and immediately realized that I had no interest in one - the screen was just too darn small for the overall bulk of the unit.

It was tough enough going from 3.8" to 3.5" - considering that I use my PDA a heckuva' lot more than my cell phone, I'm not sure that I could live with that small a screen. Smartphone OS - yes, PDA - no. I admit that the form factor is probably the most innovative thing I've seen yet - as stunning as when Sony introduced their first swivel screen unit.

Something else I am curious about - once or twice in the videos, they showed the model working in landscape mode, and then closing and reopening the unit to hold it to their head as a cell phone. Granted, multitasking should mean that you won't loose wherever you were at (say, editing a spreadsheet), but still seems like it could be a bit inconvenient to have to fold and unfold the unit everytime the phone rang. I can see that despite the compact size of the unit, a Bluetooth headset would definitely be a great option if you used your unit for PDA functions a lot.

I can see this as being a great unit for anyone (like myself) that are slightly dissatisifed with the current smartphones, and want more functionality, but there may be some compromises necessary for heavy PDA users......

[gibb-a]

I, too, want this phone. However, Verizon Wireless is the carrier that works best for me here at work and home in NYC. I guess I won't hold my breath for a CDMA version of this...

[greenmozart]

It's GREAT to see some innovation from the PPC/PPCPE hardware vendors for a change. I love my i600 (SmartPhone) but could envision getting one of these if GSM coverage in my area improves significantly in the next couple years. Then I'd have my i600 for work and the MPx for my personal/home-based business needs. Geek.... factor.... rising.... rapidly... :Fade-color

[manywhere]

Time for a review anyone.........? :wink:
*runs vertically around the room like a maniac*
Heck yeah! I hope the Motorola-guys are watching this forum and are sending me one review device asap! :lol:

(:worried: Or are they? :wink:)

[kagayaki1]

Tried to do a screen capture of that terrible flash using a variety of methods, but the image seems to dance around as I'm editing it. Photoshop, Paint, didn't seem to matter. Very, very weird. It would even move after I saved it as a .jpg and opened it again, making it impossible ot get a clean shot of it.

Anyone else?

Device looks great - can't wait to see it in person.

[pocketdoc]

Anyone else having trouble downloading these videos?

[[Cruzer]]

Ok.. my credit card is ready... where do I buy.... :drool:

[Christian]

Tried to do a screen capture of that terrible flash using a variety of methods, but the image seems to dance around as I'm editing it. Photoshop, Paint, didn't seem to matter. Very, very weird. It would even move after I saved it as a .jpg and opened it again, making it impossible ot get a clean shot of it.

Anyone else?

Device looks great - can't wait to see it in person.

If you are trying to screen capture from a video player, you need to first turn off hardware acceleration. Otherwise, you will capture the rest of the screen with a unique "hole" where the video goes :lol:

As an alternative, you can capitalize on the fact that Windows can only give the hardware video acceleration to one application. Play a movie in Winamp and another in WMP, and the second will not be hardware accelerated and can be screenshot as normal.

[pdaisdead]

Nah, I predict someone will still say it's 'huge'. Or too squared off and ugly.

I dig it...

Well....if the shoe fits....I don't know if it would however as the foot's a little too big.

Seriously, great that Motorola is trying to create something out of the ordinary here. But you know, I was in line at the grocery store the other day and saw some guy talking on an XDA I. He looked completely foolish. I felt bad for him. Others were looking at him as well. It just looked bad.

As far as I can tell, this device would get the same reaction.

[Phoenix]

After seeing these videos, I want one even more. Not big at all, IMO (of course, this isn't a typical Pocket PC Phone (XDA II, etc., etc.).

It seems to me that they balanced function and form well. I think a screen size over 3" might cause a device like this to be too big as a phone, but any smaller of a screen, and it would be too difficult to use as a PDA. We'll see in time, though. It's 2.8" screen (which I believe is what this device has) is the same size as what's on my P900 currently and I could live with that.

They just better have killer battery life on this thing and swappable batteries, because a device like this is going to get some serious use. It's one thing to have several devices, each with their own batteries, but it's a-whole-nother thing to have a convergence device that does all of those things and all of the functions are sharing only one battery.

As a matter of fact, they better have a desktop charger with this device (instead of doing something lame like making you go out and buy one separately), and it better be able to charge the phone and one extra battery simultaneously - like we see with the iPAQ chargers - otherwise people are going to run into some real usability issues.

Here's to hoping that Moto is smart with this particular concept.

[Stake]

I'm pretty excited about this smartphone but like many of you, I'm with Sprint and this will never come out for this carrier.

Here's the capture of that fake camera flash for the MPx.

http://www.swingoutsister.com/genio/MotoFlash.jpg

[David Prahl]

Thanks, Stake!

And thanks, Christian, for letting me know how to screenshot videos in the future.

[dangerwit]

PDAs certainly aren't now what they were originally intended to do. Remember back in the Velo 500/Newton days? PDAs were positioned to replace carrying around those bulky, heavy laptops.

Nowadays, they're mostly positioned to integrate into phones, while laptops have gotten much more 'portable'.

So when I look at these devices now, I think, "Is this a suitable replacement for my phone and PDA? Does it get me closer to a nice, data-enabled device that is not meant to replace my laptop, but provide lightweight access to similarly-enabled PCs?"

The MPx does this for me just perfectly. The headset and PDA videos clinch it -- I read the TMobile was going to pick it up, but that is merely conjecture here. As an i700 owner, this will make me think twice.

*Phil

[David Prahl]

Well said, Phil. I hadn't noticed that we've changed the goal of a PDA, but you're right.

If I got an MPx and if T-Mobile carried it on their network, I could pay just $20 a month to get unlimited e-mail and web, right?

[Janak Parekh]

If I got an MPx and if T-Mobile carried it on their network, I could pay just $20 a month to get unlimited e-mail and web, right?
Yup. $19.95 for unlimited data with a voice plan. :mrgreen: It's $29.95 without the voice plan... but even if T-Mobile doesn't offer it, as long as it's available for a decent price unlocked I'd be sorely tempted.

--janak

[David Prahl]

:oops:
Can someone explain "unlocked" versus "locked"?

BTW, thanks Janak!

[Janak Parekh]

Can someone explain "unlocked" versus "locked"?
SIM-unlocked, to be more precise, means that assuming the phone supports the desired GSM frequencies, you can just get a SIM card from the carrier (or from another phone on that carrier's network) and plug it into the unlocked phone -- and it should work.

"SIM-locking" is done when GSM carriers sell phones, so that the subsidized price is tied to a contract and so they don't end up indirectly selling the phone at a loss.

Let me know if the above brief description is sufficient, or if you want a more detailed answer. ;)

--janak

[David Prahl]

Got it! Thanks, Janak!

[Will T Smith]

The device is about as big as a flip phone from a couple of years ago.

Perhaps they HAVE used people with large hands to make the thing look small. But I really don't think it would affect it THAT much.

They will sell MILLIONS of these things. At this point, my criticism is that the thing is TOO SMALL!!!! That is the screen looks smaller than that on my Jornada 568.

[Will T Smith]

After seeing these videos, I want one even more. Not big at all, IMO (of course, this isn't a typical Pocket PC Phone (XDA II, etc., etc.).

It seems to me that they balanced function and form well. I think a screen size over 3" might cause a device like this to be too big as a phone, but any smaller of a screen, and it would be too difficult to use as a PDA. We'll see in time, though. It's 2.8" screen (which I believe is what this device has) is the same size as what's on my P900 currently and I could live with that.

They just better have killer battery life on this thing and swappable batteries, because a device like this is going to get some serious use. It's one thing to have several devices, each with their own batteries, but it's a-whole-nother thing to have a convergence device that does all of those things and all of the functions are sharing only one battery.

As a matter of fact, they better have a desktop charger with this device (instead of doing something lame like making you go out and buy one separately), and it better be able to charge the phone and one extra battery simultaneously - like we see with the iPAQ chargers - otherwise people are going to run into some real usability issues.

Here's to hoping that Moto is smart with this particular concept.


Nahh, they'll make you buy an extra charger that does both. More profit that way!!!!!

[Will T Smith]

PDAs certainly aren't now what they were originally intended to do. Remember back in the Velo 500/Newton days? PDAs were positioned to replace carrying around those bulky, heavy laptops.

Nowadays, they're mostly positioned to integrate into phones, while laptops have gotten much more 'portable'.

So when I look at these devices now, I think, "Is this a suitable replacement for my phone and PDA? Does it get me closer to a nice, data-enabled device that is not meant to replace my laptop, but provide lightweight access to similarly-enabled PCs?"

The MPx does this for me just perfectly. The headset and PDA videos clinch it -- I read the TMobile was going to pick it up, but that is merely conjecture here. As an i700 owner, this will make me think twice.

*Phil

There are a LOT of mobile professionals who could probably ditch their laptops in favor of a PDA/Phone. It doesn't do as much as a laptop, but do most salepeople REALLY need that much power anyway?????

It's obvious that one can send/read mail, message, talk, interact with remote servers, use web forms, retrieve data, etc... with this single device.

Nope, I think that MANY companies could probably squeeze some TCO out of a device like this and DITCH the laptop. In fact, I predict that we will see "ruggedized" versions of these that will enable data aquisition from hard-hats and blue collars that are currently using Nextel phones.

[jlp]

The more I think about this one, the more I hesitate: it's small alright, but maybe too small?!

Palm-sizedPCs and most PPC2k had 3.8" screens, most PPC2k2/WM.03 have 3.5", now this 2.8"?!! That's a whopping whole inch smaller, so how much smaller (surface) is this one compared to 3.8" variants???

With more and more VGA PDAs coming out from mid-years (Asus, etc.) we'll have more capable devices.

And for me a CF slot is sine qua non for my PDAs: I really hesitate to invest $400 for a slow SD card (plus the PDA itself) to replace my hi-speed 1GB CF card; plus the fact I also have a 256 MB SC card so a 1 GB SD card would still not be enough.

BTW I heard the MPx would only have 32 MB RAM, is this crazily true?!!! :evil:

[dollardr]

Blast...another GSM device. How come all of the good stuff is GSM versus CDMA.

I seem to have much better coverage and speed with Verizon versus other carriers. How do the vendors determine which type of network to use - is it all about making deals? (wink, wink)

[Janak Parekh]

I seem to have much better coverage and speed with Verizon versus other carriers. How do the vendors determine which type of network to use - is it all about making deals? (wink, wink)
No -- it's the simple fact that GSM dominates, subscriberwise, across the world. I think the ratio is 5-1 GSM-to-CDMA or thereabouts.

--janak

[David Prahl]

Verizon just beat the pants off of everyone else in the latest Consumer Reports review. Thought I'd mention that.

[kagayaki1]

Think of cellular technologies on a global basis, friends. Janak is right. GSM dominates worldwide. In fact, GSM in Europe, Caribbean, etc. has basically the same coverage as CDMA in the States. GSM just became the victim of poor deployement in the States, while CDMA took off. Yes, I know Europe and the Caribbean are not the size of the US, but we all know size doesn't matter. :wink:

Take your Verizon phone to Europe or Asia, and we'll see how far you get.

With the Cingular - ATTWS deal, and T-Mobile still plucking along, GSM will grow considerably in the next few years.

[kagayaki1]

Tried to do a screen capture of that terrible flash using a variety of methods, but the image seems to dance around as I'm editing it. Photoshop, Paint, didn't seem to matter. Very, very weird. It would even move after I saved it as a .jpg and opened it again, making it impossible ot get a clean shot of it.

Anyone else?

Device looks great - can't wait to see it in person.

If you are trying to screen capture from a video player, you need to first turn off hardware acceleration. Otherwise, you will capture the rest of the screen with a unique "hole" where the video goes :lol:

As an alternative, you can capitalize on the fact that Windows can only give the hardware video acceleration to one application. Play a movie in Winamp and another in WMP, and the second will not be hardware accelerated and can be screenshot as normal.

I tip my hat to you, sir. Thanks for the tip!

[dollardr]

Thanks, I guess I now understand the global dominance of GSM versus CDMA. I also think the user population in other countries is far more into the mobile lifestyle versus the United States and I can understand the marketing strategies.....unfortunately, I think Verizon is still far superior in the U.S. but might consider switching to this device if it was worth it.

[Christian]

I tip my hat to you, sir. Thanks for the tip!
It took me hours to figure this one out a while ago through trial and error. Ironically, the reason the issue came up at all is that a student research group I lead at UMD is developing a PDA interface that uses animated zooming & panning for screen transitions. The implementation uses screenshots, and once we added a video player we got very strange results. :lol:

[Rob Alexander]

Thanks, I guess I now understand the global dominance of GSM versus CDMA. I also think the user population in other countries is far more into the mobile lifestyle versus the United States and I can understand the marketing strategies.....unfortunately, I think Verizon is still far superior in the U.S. but might consider switching to this device if it was worth it.

It also matters more to people from other countries that they can use their phones elsewhere because they tend to travel overseas more than most Americans do. When I lived in New Zealand, I could take my GSM phone, step off the plane in any of about 160 countries and just use the thing. That was extremely valuable to me. I always hated that the one place it didn't work was back in the good ol' USA, and now that I live here, I'm irritated that I can't use my phone anywhere else. :(

[Phoenix]

After seeing these videos, I want one even more. Not big at all, IMO (of course, this isn't a typical Pocket PC Phone (XDA II, etc., etc.).

It seems to me that they balanced function and form well. I think a screen size over 3" might cause a device like this to be too big as a phone, but any smaller of a screen, and it would be too difficult to use as a PDA. We'll see in time, though. It's 2.8" screen (which I believe is what this device has) is the same size as what's on my P900 currently and I could live with that.

They just better have killer battery life on this thing and swappable batteries, because a device like this is going to get some serious use. It's one thing to have several devices, each with their own batteries, but it's a-whole-nother thing to have a convergence device that does all of those things and all of the functions are sharing only one battery.

As a matter of fact, they better have a desktop charger with this device (instead of doing something lame like making you go out and buy one separately), and it better be able to charge the phone and one extra battery simultaneously - like we see with the iPAQ chargers - otherwise people are going to run into some real usability issues.

Here's to hoping that Moto is smart with this particular concept.


Nahh, they'll make you buy an extra charger that does both. More profit that way!!!!!

Yeah, you're probably right. I certainly hope not, though! But even if, the thing I hope for the most is that Moto gets the battery life right and designs a desktop charger to handle not only charging the device, but an extra battery simultaneously outside of the device.

[yslee]

And the option of an extended battery. I think that is a useful option, even if not all of us will need it.

Release the damn thing already, I'm all miserable now..

[Janak Parekh]

Verizon just beat the pants off of everyone else in the latest Consumer Reports review. Thought I'd mention that.
... and then realize that Verizon doesn't hold a candle to GSM coverage in Europe.

--janak

[yslee]

Or in Asia, hehe.

[Janak Parekh]

Or in Asia, hehe.
Asia's more interesting, though. There's parts of Asia where you can get amazing CDMA coverage, from what I hear. 8)

--janak

[yslee]

Yes, there is, Australia as well, but GSM is still pretty much the champ.

[tmulli]

Is it known whether this is a SmartPhone or Pocket PC Phone Edition?

[Janak Parekh]

Is it known whether this is a SmartPhone or Pocket PC Phone Edition?
Definitely not Smartphone -- I presume Pocket PC Phone Edition, but I don't know which version it'll have. The screenshots suggest WM2003PPCPE or some variant thereof.

--janak

[tmulli]

Thanks Janak. That's what I thoughtas well.

[UCCOFFEE]

Compare with the HP 6xxx, Mpx is a lot pretty.
I really want a PPC phone~~

[Ryan Joseph]

I really want a PPC phone~~

I just purchased a PPC phone last week...the AnexTek sp230: http://www.anextek.com/09IA/09IA.htm

I was a little concerned at first about having an integrated device, but after using it for over a week now, I have to admit that it's one of the best purchases I've made.

I love having the phone functions integrated into the PPC functions...like being able to dial any number in Contacts just by clicking on it...like having GPRS Internet anywhere I go...etc.

When the iPAQ 6000 and MPx come out, I'll probably upgrade to one of them because of their integrated wireless, cameras, etc. But for now, I love my sp230 and will probably always have a PPC phone.

[johnbentley187]

it is my understanding that this will be the first ppc/phone with wifi capeabilities, can someone confirm this? that will definitely seal the deal for me because my office and campus have a wifi newtork set up so i can get high speed data transmission for free instead of paying $20 for low speed.. also can anyone give me an estimate of the cost of this phone (maybe without the camera - business model?). thanks

[developerzero]

it is my understanding that this will be the first ppc/phone with wifi capeabilities, can someone confirm this?

It is tied with the HP 6xxx at being the first with WiFi, Bluetooth, and GSM.

can anyone give me an estimate of the cost of this phone

It will probably be around $600 (that is the estimate for the hp 6xxx).

[David Prahl]

My guess would be $799 with the camera and $699 without it. But I'm really just guessing.