Big review of AnexTEK SP-230

AnexTEK is a not very well known Pocket PC manufacturer. I learned about it incidentally just recently when I noticed a device called AnexTEK SP230 on a foreign website. I liked the device and started seeking ways to get hold of one to review it. I could not find a distributor in the Czech Republic, so I cheekily wrote to the manufacturer. Surprise, surprise - a positive reply arrived in just a few hours! That's what I call good media relations:) After a few days, a courier brought a parcel and I could start working on this review.

I not only subjected the device to various tests but also used it for more than a month and eventually got on with it quite well.

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What is in the box?

Unlike Axim X5 that I reviewed recently, this device is intended for selling off the shelf. That is why the package is designed to be attractive. When you remove the colourful envelope and open the box, you will see the following items:

• AnexTEK SP-230
• two replaceable bottom parts of the device
• spare stylus
• USB cradle
• stereo headset with microphone
• AC adapter with different types of plugs
• case
• user manual
• CD-ROM
• some leaflets and documents

A unique feature is a replaceable bottom part of the device. The package contains two different ones. One of them is a flip with numeric keyboard that makes the device resemble a mobile phone, something quite unusual in the Pocket PC family. However, if you don't like it, you can replace it with the other part to create a "traditional" Pocket PC.

Like most other Pocket PCs, the AnexTEK, too, ships with a synchronisation cradle. It offers only USB connection (with permanently attached cable) and a slot for charging a spare battery. The cradle is made of plastic and feels a little too light. The only metal part, which provides support, does not increase the weight very much but at least adds aesthetic value. The data connector has two little metal hooks that hold the device in the cradle. It takes some skill to remove the device but it's easy once you learn the trick.

Another useful item in the box is a case. It does not look very luxurious and is made of several types of plastic material, yet it can serve its purpose well. The device inserts horizontally and is protected against falling out by a flip with magnetic latch. The sides are made of a flexible material to adapt to the device both with and without the keyboard flip (although it is quite tight with the flip as it adds a few extra millimetres). The case is possible to wear on the belt - not using a clip but a leather strap fastened by two rivets.

Next is the AC adapter. The cable is permanently attached to the body, only the mains plug is replaceable. The cable is long enough, with a proprietary plug that connects directly into the device without any adapters.

That's not everything, though. There is also a pair of earplug-type headphones with a one-button remote control, and a spare plastic stylus. The remote control button is multifunctional. You can use it to redial the last dialled number, end current call or activate voice recorder by a long press. There is also a CD-ROM with applications, a brief user manual and a few leaflets.

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Design

If I were asked to use one word to describe SP-230, I would probably call it "unusual". In comparison with other Pocket PCs, it offers some highly unusual features. But more on them later. The device is relatively small, only the battery makes it quite thick. The exact dimensions are 2.7 x 4.29 x 0.85 / 68.5 x 109 x 21.6 millimetres (without antenna, the antenna increases the length to 130 millimetres). The antenna undoubtedly improves sensitivity to signal yet the device would look much more elegant without it. The weight goes hand in hand with the small size - 5.58 oz / 158 grams is very little for a Pocket PC with integrated GSM module. This is mainly due to the main material the shell is made of - light grey plastic.

Most of the front panel is occupied by a display. In relative terms, it takes up more space than in other Pocket PCs because the left and bottom edges are extremely narrow. And it is the bottom edge that carries two surprises. The first is that except for two buttons for managing calls and a microphone pinhole, there is no other control element there - no soft buttons, no joypad, nothing. That implies that the device is nothing for passionate gamers but for lovers of card and strategic games who could do without other controls. The other surprise is that you can replace the bottom part with a different one, which carries the same two buttons and microphone as well as a numeric keyboard flip. If you prefer entering numbers using a keypad, your wish will come true in a matter of seconds. The flip protects the display against damage but as far as functionality is concerned, there are some minor drawbacks. First of all, it is not active and you have to accept calls by pressing a button, not just opening the flip. Likewise, you cannot end a call by closing the flip but have to press a button again. Also, forget about typing SMS messages on the keypad - it enters only numerals and the # and * symbols.

But back to the front panel. Above the display in the middle, there are tree holes that lead to a loudspeaker, so that the sound is not be muted by the device's shell. To the left, there is a silver main switch with a green LED in the centre, which indicates charging. Above this button, there are two more LEDs. The one on the left is green-orange and indicates status, the other is just green and indicates GSM/GPRS activity.

The back is dominated by a large, bulging battery. Underneath, there is a SIM card slot. There is nothing but a tiny software rest button on the back of the device.

As usual, the sides are very different from each other. While there is absolutely nothing on the right side, the left side hosts three controls. The top one is a usual three-way (up, down, press to confirm) jog-dial or scrolling wheel. It is indispensable in this device because of the absence of a joypad. It is highly sensitive but perhaps too diminutive for my thick fingers. Below, there are two volume control buttons - during call, they adjust the loudspeaker or headphones volume, in other situations they regulate external noise level. Further down, there is a switch that locks the device - the display switches off, keys stop responding, only the mobile phone part works.

While there is only a data connector on the bottom side, the top hosts more elements. Besides the antenna, there is an SD/MMC slot in the middle, which is good news because it is fully SDIO compatible. Next to it is an infrared eye and a proprietary headphones connector. That's all.

Pocket PC	Dimensions (in. / mm)	Weight (oz / g)
Acer n30	2.8 x 4.67 x 0.53 71 x 118 x 13	4.6 130
AnexTEK SP230	2.7 x 4.29 x 0.85 71 x 118 x 13	5.58 130
Asus MyPal A716	3.07 x 5.31 x 0.69 78 x 135 x 17.6	6.95 197
Dell Axim X3i	3.04 x 4.82 x 0.59 77.2 x 117 x 14.9	4.94 142
FSC Pocket LOOX 420	2.81 x 5.12 x 0.56 70.6 x 113.1 x 14.1	4.41 125
HP iPAQ h2210	3.01 x 4.54 x 0.61 76.4 x 115.4 x 15.4	5.09 144
HP iPAQ h4150	2.78 x 4.47 x 0.53 70.6 x 113.6 x 13.5	4.66 132
HP iPAQ h5550	3.31 x 5.43 x 0.63 84 x 138 x 15.9	7.3 206.8
MiTAC Mio558	2.83 x 4.88 x 0.6 72 x 124 x 15.3	6 170
Toshiba e400	3 x 4.9 x 0.4 76.2 x 124.4 x 10.1	4.59 130
Toshiba e800	3 x 5.3 x 0.6 80 x 125 x 15.2	6 179
T-Mobile MDA II	2.75 x 5.12 x 0.71 70 x 130 x 19	6.53 185

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Parameters

AnexTEK's parameters will hardly surprise anyone. The CPU is a common Intel PXA255 processor called Xscale, running at 400 MHz. A simple Settings applet makes it possible to reduce the processor clock to 50 percent or activate automatic adjustment to current workload. This will reduce power consumption and prolong battery life. The change being absolutely transparent, it is not necessary to restart the device, not even interrupt your work.

We will discuss the real-life effect of the frequency reduction at the end of the review. Let me just note here that reducing the clock speed by 50 percent does not mean reducing the performance by the same percentage, as benchmarks suggest.

	AnexTEK @ 200MHz	AnexTEK @ 400MHz
CPU index	1012	1730
File system index	644	1050
Graphics index	2267	3633

The device offers standard, nowadays perhaps slightly below-average, 64 MB of RAM, 63 MB of which is available to the user. For comparison, some devices offer 10 MB less free memory. 32 out of the total of 64 MB of Flash-ROM serve as a safe storage and will provide the services of a memory card to a certain extent.

The display is very good. Its parameters are the same as in most other PocketPC devices: transflexive TFT technology, 65 thousand colours, resolution of 240x320 pixels, 3.5in / 88.9-milimetre diagonal. I like the fact that it has no yellow tint but white colour is really white. On the other hand, the contrast could be greater and colours richer - it is all somewhat dull. Backlight intensity can be adjusted separately for battery and mains operation at five levels. There is no automatic backlight adjustment feature. You can also choose if you would like the backlight to come up automatically upon a press of a button or tap of the stylus. The display is well readable even in bad light conditions. The ClearType technology works in all parts of the system but its de-/activation requires restarting the computer (some changes take place immediately, some after the restart). The touch-sensitive layer is evenly responsive all over the display. The top layer is quite tough and scratch-resistant even without a protective foil. The width of black borders around the display is acceptable. All in all, I was satisfied with the display.

Audio features are not of such a high importance in a normal Pocket PC. Some people don't listen to MP3 music or play games, so the quality of playback of a simple .WAV file as an appointment notification is not decisive for them. However, it is different in a device that is supposed to serve as a communication tool. Let's begin with the loudspeaker. Its quality is good, volume sufficient and undistorted even at the maximum volume setting. When you are making a phone call, the sound is loud and clear. MP3 playback over the loudspeaker is also fine, although it is not an experience for audiophiles, of course. The microphone is also of high quality. It has absolutely no problems with either direct recording or a conference. It can deal even with recording a phone call. If you start recording during a call, the result is a recording of the complete dialogue. The good quality is surprising also because there are no sound adjustment controls but for the volume. This becomes inconvenient when you listen to music using the headphones. Apart from the fact that most users will have to use the supplied low-quality earplugs because of the non-standard connector (a 2.5-mm jack with a ring), it is impossible to adjust either bass or treble. The sound from the headphones output is clear, with no noise, yet the overall impression of the device as an MP3 player is nothing to write home about. Besides, the maximum volume may be insufficient in a noisy environment.

Like most devices with Phone Edition, the AnexTEK can vibrate, which you will surely find useful as a notification of an incoming call or SMS.

Besides an integrated GSM/GPRS module that I am going to deal with later, the AnexTEK offers only the two basic communication channels - USB and infrared. When you spot a Bluetooth icon in the Settings, stay calm. Your enthusiasm to try it would be short-lived, ending instantly with an error message reading, "There is no Bluetooth module installed in this device".

When the battery runs flat in a PDA, it is unpleasant but tolerable. If you are left without a mobile phone, it is usually a bigger problem. That is why battery life is very important in a combined device. The AnexTEK performs very well in this respect. The main battery is a 1480-mAh Lithium-Ion replaceable accumulator. For the event of replacing the accumulator, the device is equipped with a backup battery that will take care of powering the memory during the operation. I tested the battery life with a standard test (common usage, a Pocket Word document opens and closes every few tens of seconds) but unlike in other tested PDAs, I activated GPRS because the GSM module is likely to stay always on. The result - 5 hours and 11 minutes with full backlight is very good. When I set a reasonable intensity of backlight and did not load the device with excessively heavy tasks, I could stay away from the mains for up to 48 hours.

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AnexTEK SP-230 as a mobile phone

Although it is possible to use the device just as a data terminal, most users will probably use voice services, too. The phone is a tri-band, offering the 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands, which means it will work in the vast majority of GSM networks in the world. GPRS is Class B / Class 10, which means you can use up to 4 + 1 timeslots. However, unlike MDA II, SP-230 does not make it possible to choose between 4+1 and 3+2 timeslots, so that you have to use the default setting. A note on the B class - I believe a standard Class B phone should be able to accept call while transmitting data over GPRS. In reality, it is different with the AnexTEK, and when a GPRS transmission is in progress, no one will be able to reach you. Otherwise the device offers all the features of Windows Mobile 2003 Phone Edition, from counting characters in an SMS message to linking Contacts with the phone application.

There are just a few extras on top of the standard features. One of them is the possibility to use not only WAV files as a ring tone but also sound in the Windows Media and MIDI formats. However, support for MIDI files is not perfect. The device can play complex compositions but when you select one as a ring tone, the device will just beep softly. If you use the flip, you can choose a sound to play when you close it. You can also choose whether you want to accept a call by pressing any button, if the device should automatically answer a call after a certain number of rings, as well as headset mode - whether the ring tone should sound from the loudspeaker only or both from the loudspeaker and the headset.

Unlike competing devices, the AnexTEK does not offer software for sending MMS messages, support for the SIM Toolkit or any other feature to enhance the capabilities of a combined PDA - you need to get third-party utilities.

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Expandability

Adding some extra functionality to the device is possible using an SD/MMC slot which will accommodate not only memory cards but also I/O cards. AnexTEK itself offers a digital camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards.

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Software

As I have mentioned above, the ROM contains the complete Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition, i.e. the complete software package for Pocket PC from Microsoft. Besides standard applications, such as Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, MSN Messenger and a few specific applets, there was room also for two bonus applications in the FlashROM.

One of them is a simple utility called SIM Manager. As you can guess, it is a tool for managing SIM card contents - you can easily copy phone numbers between the card and the contacts database in both directions.

The other utility is called WiBackup and is intended for those who care for their data. It is a much more sophisticated tool than it may seem at first sight. It offers not only plain backup and restore functionality but also planned backups and automatic backups when battery power decreases under a certain level, encryption of the backup data file, checking consistency of the data file, and more. That is not everything though - WiBackup can backup single databases, such as Calendar and Contacts, or individual files and folders. Restoring your data is a matter of seconds.

There is also a CD-ROM but it does not offer anything special but for the basic applications form Microsoft that are supplied with every Pocket PC.

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Pricing

The possibility to obtain the device here in the Czech Republic is fairly limited because none of the three operators has shown interest in it. You can buy it on-line e.g. in the British Expansys on-line shop. The question is if you are willing to pay 489.45 British pounds - a price not very competitive in comparison with subsidised devices offered by the mobile phone operators.

[POLL]

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Benchmarks & Tests

I subjected the device to all kinds of intensive tests, as usual. I have compiled a 128-MB test SD card with various games (Anthelion, Snails and Z-Raid [affiliate]), videos (a trailer for Shrek 2 in MPEG format with 650 kbps bitrate, and the same short video in Windows Media format with 250, 500 and 1000 kbps bitrates), MP3 music of various genres, several documents and images. I chose the 1-Mbps limit for videos because with this bitrate, a 150-seconds clip has more than 21 MB, which means that a two-hour feature film would take up over 1 GB. Even though memory cards are available in ever-larger capacities, I think there is no point in bothering with a better quality, especially if we consider the fact that on such a small display, there is virtually no difference between this clip and a clip with half the bitrate. In fact, the subjective quality of a clip with the lowest bitrate is more than sufficient. One more note - while in the previous parts of the review I tried to give priority to the facts over my impressions and feelings, it will be the other way round in the text below:)

The device is an average performer in benchmark tests, so is in real life. Although new devices boast a few hundred megahertz faster processors, if you need a PDA for calendar, contacts, e-mail and other common tasks including games and watching films, you don't need to worry about the 400 MHz being insufficient. Specifically, a Windows Media video with 250 kbps bitrate played absolutely smoothly, a clip with twice as high bitrate was slightly jerky in some places, and the highest bitrate was too much for AnexTEK (like for all other Pocket PC devices). It helped to copy the file to the main memory but this solution is not generally usable for practical reasons.

As far as a gaming test is concerned, it was affected by the number of user-definable keys (only one - long-press of the headset button). In Z-Raid, AnexTEK achieved an above-average result of 59 FPS, even though scrolling seemed a little jerky. Anthelion was absolutely seamless - the device has no problems with 3D games. The only playable game of the three I used for testing was Snails. You have to control it with the stylus because of the absence of a joypad, but that does not pose any problem. I found no issues or drawbacks when performing other tasks. The automatic processor speed adjustment works fine, although I did not use this functionality very much.

I was quite satisfied with the AnexTEK as a mobile phone. The life on battery is excellent as compared with MDA II, for instance. With reasonable backlight level and normal usage, SP-230 lasted for up to two days. Sensitivity to signal was very good, both voice and data (GPRS) transmission worked well even in places with poor coverage. Most of the time, I used the AnexTEK with the flip and regretted that it is not active. The sound is clear both from the loudspeaker and headset. There were some problems with third-party applications, like in all PDAs with a mobile phone. For instance, at one stage, all SMS messages were sent twice. After I performed a hardware reset and deleted some applications, the problem disappeared. The size of the device is "just fine", I could carry the AnexTEK in the pocket most of the time.

And finally, some figures. I use Spb Benchmark for a complete performance test. If you are interested in detailed results, the complete .XML file is available for download here :: AnexTEK SP-230 (2003, 400MHz) [1KB]. If you copy the contents of the file to the form on this page (click on Add device), you can compare the results with other devices. Please note that the test results are not generally applicable. Virtually every ROM upgrade will change the performance (usually to the better), which means that if you perform the same tests on a device you buy half a year later, some of the results may differ significantly.

ROM version of the tested device :: 1120 USA

I wanted to test the graphical performance also using the GXmark utility. Unfortunately, the test starts after a press of a button, something the AnexTEK does not provide for - the headphones remote control button does not work.

Article rating - (115 votes)