Motorola’s Dext mobile phone still compares favourably with the others in the range. Released last year and the first Motorola to incorporate Android technology, it still stands out as an excellent touch-screen phone. One of only a few touch-screen phones to include a physical keyboard, when compared with the T-Mobile G1 it comes off better.
Motorola have really come through for the social networkers with the Motoblur system that the Dext pioneered. This allows for users to simply integrate all of their favourite network sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace into the phone’s system and receive instant updates and messages.
Security is a great part of the Dext and lost phones can be tracked and remotely wiped if they are stolen or irretrievably lost. Having a physical QWERTY keyboard does make the phone a little heavy and its poor back lighting means using it in dim light can be difficult.
The Motorola Dext comes complete with a 5-megapixel camera, a good quality all round video/audio player and 3.5 mm jack. It has a decent level of connectivity and supports USB, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Like many smart touch-screen phones that run updateable apps, the battery life is a little limited and needs to be watched when away from a socket. The Motorola claim is that it has a 6 hour talk life and up to 135 hours when left on standby.
For those who prefer a physical keyboard, the Dext is probably still the best Motorola on the market and its vast array of downloadable apps and appealing contract mobile phone offers make it a very viable choice.
The Motorola Motocubo A45 is a stylish slide phone available in a white enclosure. The device is a tidy manageable size with dimensions of 82 x 61.5 x 16.6 mm, and weighing 110 grams. The phone was released by Motorola in October 2009 and has been one of the company’s best sellers since. Users of Motorola mobile phones are impressed by its sleek and compact image.
The handset comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, although they keys are placed quite close together making typing a little bit awkward. It offers Organizer, T9 and dial functions and Voice memo; the menus are easy and quick to navigate.
The TFT display screen is vivid and sharp, measuring 2.5 inches and has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and 256K-colour support. The camera is not one of the key features of the phone, being only 2-megapixels but the pictures are of reasonable quality.
The Motocubo is powered by a Li-lon 930 mAh standard battery and will give you 8.5 hours of talk time and up to 350 hours of standby time.
You can keep in touch with your friends with emails, SMS and MMS. The Motocubo supports WAP 2.0/xHTML as well as Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, GPRS, EDGE, micro USB v2.0 and HSCSD. You can browse the web and switch applications quickly and easily.
You can store up to 1500 contacts in the phone book, and display the last 20 dialled, received and missed calls.
An FM radio and an MP3 and an MP4 player can be listened to through your own headphones thanks to the addition of a 3.5mm jack.
The Aura handset from Motorola is immediately noticeable as being very different. It has a circular display a bit like the face of an expensive Swiss watch. It is claimed to give a very special sensual experience, second to none. Its main components are Swiss made and it needs more that two hundred parts just for the mechanism that opens it.
It also has an excellent screen with a specially installed 300 dpi resolution 16 million colour liquid crystal display which is circular in shape. It’s one of those things that you either love, or hate. A circular display takes a bit of getting used to.
This is, however, a very durable phone with its scratch resistant sapphire crystal lens covering the 320 by 240 display screen. The casing in made from stainless steel which has a pattern on it and the manufacturers claim that it takes two weeks to make the keypad. The Aura comes with Motorola’s CrystalTalk which gives excellent sound when using the handset to make calls and it supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so that it can be used with a compatible headset or earphones.
It also comes with a micro SD slot and is available with or without a camera so that it can be used in secure areas.
The Motorola Aura is a luxury handset designed to be robust, serviceable and look good but the actual mobile phone has few extras, making it ideal for users who want something that looks good and will make calls and send texts. Personally I found the circular screen quite strange and never got used to it but this particular handset has had some good mobile phone reviews and there are some good deals available.
The Motorola iDen i9 looks very like the Razr with its clamshell like case. The 3.1 megapixel camera has auto-focus and a built in flash, which makes it sufficient for most non specialist users. (If you want professional looking photos you will need a much bigger resolution.)
The keyboard is smooth and flat just like the one on the Razr was, and not very good if you write a lot of emails, or texts. What is different is that the iDen i9 has two screens with one inside above the keyboard and one on the outside. GPS functions are available on this handset and it can communicate with Bluetooth accessories within a short distance.
The Motorola iDen i9 is a fairly decent mobile phone which offers a great deal if you don’t have to have the very latest in mobile phones. The feel of this is perhaps a bit girlie but the call quality is excellent and it does have a number of fairly decent features. The big problem is the poor quality of the camera if you do want to use it for anything much more that sending video texts via phone. The quality is just grainy and blurry most of the time.
All in all, if you are looking for a fairly up to date mobile phone with a number of features, this one fits the bill and there are a number of excellent deals available. If you just want a phone and you don’t want to spend too much money this one should suit you and your pocket, if you look around a bit and compare the available deals.
If you like the Motorola Milestone but want to compare phones with similar features, then check out the Apple iPhone 3GS, the HTC Legend and Google’s Nexus One.
The Nexus One is a reasonably cheap mobile phone to buy at around £320, followed by the Legend at around £380. The Milestone costs more retailing at around £450 but not as expensive as the iPhone 3GS which is selling for around £540.
T-Mobile is offering a free Motorola Milestone handset, 600 minutes and 500 texts for £30 a month. Included in this deal is unlimited access to the internet and five months half price line rental.
Another option from T-Mobile is a 24-month contract at £15 a month. The handset costs £139.99 and for this you get 300 minutes plus unlimited texts.
Vodaphone is offering a 24-month contract at £25 a month. The handset is free and you get 600 minutes and unlimited texts. There’s also four months half price rental. Another Vodaphone deal is an 18-month contract at £35 a month with 600 minutes and unlimited texts. There’s no cost for the handset and it comes with a free jawbone hands-free headset.
If you choose Orange as your provider, they are offering an 18-month deal with 600 minutes and 500 texts for £35 a month. There’s also three months half price rental and the handset is free.
The Motorola Z10 handset, another phone that flexes, looks similar to its predecessor the Rizr Z8 but it does have a few added upgrades.
The benefit of the flexi-phone is that it bends more easily around your ear and mouth during calls, which gives a better audio quality. One of the best features of this phone is the sound quality, which is excellent even in noisy environments.
The screen resolution makes it enjoyable to view content; images are sharp and bright, but being larger would have been a huge improvement as the screen is less than 2 inches, much smaller than comparable mobile phones such as the Nokia N95 or the LG Viewty.
Although the Z10’s keypad is an improvement on the Z8’s, typing is still awkward. Even with the keys more spaced out and slightly raised, they don’t have a lot of travel and the bottom row is too close to the body of the phone. It’s uncomfortable to use unless you use the end of your thumb.
The Z10 runs on UIQ, which means that the interface is more like that used on a Nokia or a Sony Ericsson phone. The general opinion is that Motorola have not quite cracked the nut when it comes to UIQ because there are a few problems with the interface.
The interface is slow when navigating parts of the menu or accessing certain functions. When running a few applications, a message will appear saying that the Z10 has run out of memory. It’s also not the easiest interface to find your way around; for example, changing the display settings is a bit fiddly.
A Motorola Milestone review reveals that this phone was released as Motorola’s new mobile phone, amid a hail of publicity and claims that it was Motorola’s come-back phone. It does have a large 3.7 inch screen that gives you an impressively high quality image, and the multi-touch facility that was left out of earlier versions.
The Android 2.0 system works really well here and allows you to customise the on-screen presentation to suit, viewing apps as, when and if you want. Perhaps they could have a few more applications on offer in their store as they are not quite up to the level iPhone users expect.
The Milestone’s design when compared to other mobile phones lets it down a bit because it is a little boxy and hard edged. Perhaps Motorola’s design is a little too clinical but touches like the brushed copper controls do add something to the look.
Milestone’s camera is nothing spectacular with only 5-megapixels and a poor quality lens, but editing and watching videos on the big screen is great and their system allows you to quickly edit and put them online for people to enjoy. There is also a slide out QWERTY keyboard, which is a little small and difficult to use. The direction pad on the side could have been done away with and the extra room created would have provided a more useable workspace.
Motorola have all in all released a decent quality phone in the Milestone. The screen would have to be the main advantage as it makes web browsing so much easier.
