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The world finally received word last week that Motorola's MPx Pocket PC phone would finally be released by the end of the year … in South East Asia. The MPx has been delayed for months because of reported problems with its thumb-keyboard and Wi-Fi integration with the Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone edition platform.

Introduced at the beginning of this year, the MPx is, perhaps, the most unique Pocket PC phone ever—with a dual-hinge design that lets the mobile handset open both vertically (see above image) and horizontally.

According to rumors, the MPx may ship in the United States and Europe by January or February of next year.

Those reports received a boost with the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) recent approval of the smartphone for release in the United States. All wireless devices released in the U.S. must gain FCC thumbs up first.


MPx Diagram from Manual Posted by FCC

The tri-band GSM/GRPS MPx is similar in design to Motorola rival Nokia's upcoming Symbian-based 9500 and 9300 Communicators.

Like other smartphones that integrate an 802.11b radio, you can use Wi-Fi to leverage wireless access points to get on the Internet and corporate intranet, as well as send and receive e-mail. It also supports Bluetooth wireless for personal area communications, such as connecting to wireless headphones or a printer.

MPx has a 2.8-inch, 16-bit (65,536) color, and 320 x 240 pixel resolution display—standard for a Pocket PC. The outside of the top half of the clamshell features a second, smaller display for time, date, and phone info as well as audio control. Unlike Windows Smartphones like Motorola's own MPx220, Pocket PC phones like the MPx can run all Pocket PC applications. Windows Smartphones are far more limited in what software they support.

Other features include a Secure Digital slot for memory expansion and a 1.3-megapixel digital camera with a flash. As a Windows Mobile device, it will include mini versions of Word, Excel and outlook as well as

At a recent presentation, a Motorola representative said the MPx would only implement 32MB of memory rather than 64MB. For a Pocket PC phone, 32MB is very low and may affect how it performs in the market—let alone in the hand.

To make matters worse, a mere 4MB of RAM is devoted to storage, while a little of 8MB is available to run applications. On the plus side, you can use 60MB of Flash ROM as an internal memory card.