Since joining Microsoft I have been using an Orange SPV Smartphone as my primary means of mobile communications and I thought I’d let you know my initial thoughts. The Ups Having a phone that at long last has PDA functionality allowing me to deal with my mail, calendar and tasks is great. It works well, really well. For me this is the sweetspot. GPRS – works well too, even in the US. I can download music to it and not get bored on the train. Sound is top notch. SD card support for music, pictures and games. Battery is life better than an iPaq. You can customise it to death. I must upload my Kylie Minogue backdrop! The Downs It’s not that pretty. Mobile devices must look sexy. The keyboard is a bit fiddly. No Bluetooth support. Screen could be better. Can be slow at times. On balance if you can get past the rather teutonic styling it’s a useful device despite some of the…er…idiosyncrasies. The SPV E100 is out about now and having played with one it answers many of the origianl SPV’s shortcomings. The screen is much brighter, the keyboard is a vast improvement and most important of all it looks much, much better. All I have to do now is persuade my boss to let me have one.