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Earlier this year, rumors spread about a sequel to Motorola's MPx200, one of the first Microsoft-based smartphones to be available in the United States (see our review). This week all the rumors were confirmed, as the mobile phone giant officially announced the MPx220.

The MPx220 is, at 3.5 x 1.9 x 1.1 inches, a little larger than the MPx200. It weighs the same 4 ounces however. Like its predecessor, the MPx220 is a clamshell handset. It has two displays, one on the top half of the clamshell that offers date, time and other phone info at 12-bit color depth. It can even display pictures as photo IDs. These pictures can be taken with the smartphone's 1.2 megapixel camera that also features a 3x digital zoom. There is even a Flash.

The MPx220's main display supports 65,537 colors and has a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. Like the earlier model, it will have D-Pad for navigation along with the keypad on the bottom half of the clamshell. Platform-wise, the MPx 220 runs the more recent Windows Mobile 2003 for SmartPhone operating system, a step up from Microsoft’s 2002 Smartphone OS found in the MPx200.

In terms of memory, the MPx 220 doubles the amount of RAM in the MPx200 to 64MB. It'll also come with a mini SD card slot for memory expansion. Unlike SDIO-enabled SD slots, mini SD only supports memory and not peripheral expansion at this time.

As a Bluetooth device, users will be able to use wireless headsets as well as other peripherals, such as printers and keyboards, that are Bluetooth-enabled. Should a user also own a Bluetooth-enabled PDA, he should be able to use the MPx220 as a means to access the Internet and download email. Of course, as a smartphone, the MPx220 will already be able to do these functions itself.

The Quad band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS MPx220 should hit the market in the next few months. Carriers and pricing haven't been announced yet.

Motorola has several other smartphones due later this year, including two Microsoft-based products, the revolutionary Pocket PC Phone, the MPx, and the MPx100.