I'm sure many people have come across the situation where you wish you hadn't installed some program because it just won't-uninstall-itself, at least not without great difficulty, changing the registry, or something like that. If this sounds like why you are reading this review, congratulations, you've found the right piece of software.

Right now, the Sprite backup utility 1.0 for Smartphone does not have all the jazz that the brother application - Sprite backup for PPC offers, but it definitely has a lot of potential in becoming a useful tool. It retails for USD$29.95.

Sprite backup for Smartphone can only be used on Smartphones that can run unsigned applications. It is not specified whether it will work correctly on both WM2002 and 2003. I tested with an Xphone (which is Windows Mobile 2003 based) and besides a few glitches, it seems to run perfectly.

You simply execute the installer and everything will be installed. There is a PC side configuration daemon and a client side program. When you start the program, a backup options summary screen will be shown. You've got the option to choose where you want to store the backup file. Performing the backup is as simple as pressing the left soft key. A backup can be done whether you are on a guest connection or on a dedicated connection - this is a selectable option on the daemon running on the host pc.

The Backup Options items that are selectable in the Menu allows you to select what you want to include in the backup. There are 2 types of data to include in the backup: 1)Personal data such as contacts, SMS, themes, ringtones, etc.2) System data such as applications.

Of course, there are also simple configuration options - filename, compression and encryption. File path is managed in the host daemon. In the advance options, you can select how to manage the backup files - such as - only writing maximum Xmb files or keep the latest N number of files. You can also select the host's port to use for connections.

The size of the full backups that I got were about 10 Mb, but bear in mind that I've only used 1/2 of my internal storage.

Restoring is simple, providing you haven't performed a hard reset on your phone. You need to initiate the restore within the utility; therefore, if you've just performed a hard reset, you must reinstall the client prior to performing a backup. It would be really nice if there were a simple copy-and-paste hook client program.

[EDIT: Mauricio from Geekzone kindly let us know that there's a cab file placed into the \Program Files\Sprite Backup folder which you can copy to an SD card and reinstall from there. Naturally you'd make it Read Only to ensure it doesn't get deleted after the install. Thanks for that Mauricio!]

After selecting the location of the backup file, a list of available files will appear for selection. You can also choose to restore only your personal data or only system data. Whatever you restore onto the phone will overwrite conflicting data. The clear phone option will clear the phone of all system data prior to a restore. On a personal note, I would not recommend this option (at least if you are using a Windows Mobile 2003 phone - I hope that's the problem) because the results seem unstable, errors were resulted on several occasions; like...
"System Heap is not a valid application" ?!
"Restart synchronisation failure"?!
After getting these errors, the only function I had left was hard resetting my phone.

You'll be asked to switch your phone to flight mode prior to restoring. You don't have to do that, but you must disconnect from ActiveSync prior to restoring from the storage card.

After restoring, the phone will automatically reboot and the whole process is completed. However, on several occasions, the restore process seems to be stalled at... 99% (?). Everything was restored correctly after a simple restart. So, this is perhaps another WM2003 glitch. As far as I can see, everything is saved to a binary file - the back up is a saved image of my phone in a particular time.

As I've mentioned at the start - if you are wanting to "ghost" your phone, this is definitely the right tool. Also, restoring gave me a few bonuses - a couple of my expired trial games actually reset its usage counters - I have NO idea why - perhaps - not the whole application structure was backed up.

However, call me simple minded - but what I want in a backup utility is flexibility - where I can choose which group of personal data or applications, I want to back up and restore. Sprite is obiviously looking into that because its brother, Sprite PPC version, does offer this functionality - so, hopefully in future releases.

Also, due to the influence of conventional mobile phone back up programs, I would also like to have personal data saved in a fashion that is readable as text or (at least) a provided UI. At the moment, Sprite doesn't offer this.

I also wonder why the host daemon doesn't offer more options. And if a scheduled or incremental back up time is possible to achieve on a smartphone.

Time for a hard reset...

For more information, visit Sprite Software's website

Sprite Backup 1.0 for Smartphone Overall Score

Good: Intuitive interface Completely backup your phone

Bad: May not be fully compatible with Windows Mobile 2003 Not enough customisation Only basic functions available

Verdict: I would use Sprite to do my monthly complete backups - However, to back up my contacts and SMSes, etc, I'll be looking for another software.. Jackie's Score : 6.5 / 10