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TechXNY 2003

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Sep 20, 2003, 7:00 PM   by Rich Brome   @richbrome

Live report from MobileFocus at TechXNY 2003, which took place in September in New York City. Info and photos of the Sony Ercisson Z200 and Z600, plus the Motorola MPx200, V600, and V810, and much more.

Intro 

TechXNY is an annual technology event in New York City. It encompasses several trade shows, including PC Expo. Not much at the show usually relates to mobile phones, which is why I skipped the main show floor entirely (and didn't miss much, from what I've heard.)

But there was a press event the night before the show, called MobileFocus, and I was there to check out some hot new phones being displayed publicly in the U.S. for the first time.

Thanks to Amtrak, I was a bit late, and so I didn't get as much quality time with the phones as I would have liked. But I did get plenty of photos.

Sony Ericsson was displaying their recently-announced Z600 and Z200. Motorola was showing its new Microsoft phone - the MPx200, which had just been announced the night before. Motorola was also displaying working models of their upcoming V600 and V810 - two highly-anticipated, high-end clamshells. And finally, Siemens was showing off the latest revision of their SX1 smartphone, and RIM was showing off their new color-display Blackberry.

Read on for my photos and thoughts on all of these phones and more!

Sony Ericsson 

The Z600 is Sony Ericsson's new flagship mobile phone. With the Z-series, Sony Ericsson is bringing the clamshell form factor to its GSM lineup for the first time. As rumored, the Z600 is basically a T610 at heart, trapped in a clamshell body. One key difference, however, is the display, which is upgraded to superior TFD technology. It does look noticeably better than the T610. The close-up photo here doesn't do it justice - the display is actually quite nice.

Z600  

The T226 is a very compact little phone. The sides of the phone taper so that the back is narrower than the front, making the phone even more compact than it appears from the front. It's quite a nice little phone.

T226  

The Z200 is a nicely-designed phone. It's not terribly small, but the rounded corners help it not feel too bulky. It feels extremely sturdy and solid. The display is quite good for a passive LCD. The outer display is pretty nifty, and displays attractive analog and digital readouts, selectable using the side keys when the phone is closed. The backlight on the outer display is fairly dim, however, making it hard to see in medium light.

Z200  

Also shown were the new Bluetooth car and the attachable camera flash. The car plugs into the bottom of the phone to charge. The final version of the flash is a tad larger and has more LEDs than the prototype versions shown earlier in the year.

 

Motorola 

The Motorola MPx200 is the company's first phone for the Microsoft Smartphone platform. Key features include an external display and an internal antenna. Most of the phone's other features are standard to Microsoft's platform.

MPx200  

I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the phone. For some reason, the photos I had seen make it look rather large, but it's actually reasonably small. Not tiny, to be sure, but I would say on par with most average clamshells these days. It feels about the same size in hand and pocket as the Sanyo 8100.

One disappointment about the MPx200 is the display. It is spec'd as a TFT LCD, supporting 65,000 colors, but it did not look as good as most TFT 65,000-color LCDs I have seen. It wasn't terrible - it didn't look like an STN display - but it was a bit on the dim side and slightly slow. I was expecting better.

The Motorola E380 is the new "eye candy" in Motorola's lineup. I was pleasantly surprised by the bright display and small size.

E380  

The T725 - Motorola's first EDGE model - also made an appearance. It's basically the same design as the T20, with a new "high-tech" outer shell styling, and a slightly different 4-way navigation pad.

T725  

But the most impressive model was definitely the V600. The high-resolution display is simply amazing - very bright, and one of the sharpest I've ever seen. The photos here don't begin to do it justice - it looks fantastic.

V600  

Beyond the display, the V600 isn't as small as I expected, but it's certainly not large, and it's very thin. In fact, it may be the thinnest clamshell camera phones to date. It's definitely pocket-size.

The outer display is inverse LCD, not OLED as once reported. As the photos illustrate, it doesn't blend seamlessly into the black cover the way an OLED might. But it is bright, and, unlike an OLED, it can be seen clearly even when not illuminated. As shown in the last picture, the indicator lights surround the "M" logo, and have a slick pulsing effect.

The V810 is Motorola's new CDMA camera phone. This baby is super-small, and very sleek. The camera is VGA, and the flash is cleverly integrated into the "M" logo.

V810  

The outer display is OLED, and has the same scrolling effect as the LG VX-6000. The font on the outer display is very small and narrow, though, making it a bit hard to read. The main display is 262,000 colors. It looks very nice. It's not the brightest display, but it's bright enough, and the colors are very rich and saturated.

Siemens & RIM 

The Siemens SX1 was on display, and I had a chance to spend some time with it. I really love the size - it's much smaller than most other smartphones currently on the market. I had a chance to hold the Nokia 6600 the other day, and the SX1 feels smaller to me. The display is very nice. It didn't photograph very well, but the "Sitris" game opening screen looks really amazing on the SX1's display.

SX1  

Compared to the last time I played with one, the software has been updated significantly. Siemens has made considerable improvements and additions over the standard Series 60 interface. One key innovation is the use of the side keys as soft keys. This clever trick is employed in several places, such as the MP3 Player, FM Radio, and even the home screen, as shown below.

The OS has been tweaked in other areas, including the camera application, which has a full-screen mode for framing shots, as shown below. All in all, Siemens's tweaks are impressive, and it's shaping up to be a slick little smartphone. The tweaks come at a price, though - the phone has been delayed and now isn't slated for release until early 2004.

 

Finally, I wanted to add in a photo of RIM's Blackberry 7230. The display, in particular, is amazing. It's reflective, so you can use it without a backlight and in direct sunlight. There are other reflective LCDs out there, but this is hands-down the best reflective color display I've ever seen. Even in low light, you don't need a backlight. That's good thing, because the backlight is very dim, but it doesn't really matter. It's hard to desrcibe, except to say that looks like paper - electronic paper - it doesn't look like a normal LCD display at all. Luckily, it photographs very well - the photo below is pretty accurate - that's a real photo of a real display, and that's really what it looks like.

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About the author, Rich Brome:

Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.

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