Another sexy looker from Motorola with a glossy facia built out of a single piece of transparent fibre. In fact with the screen and keypad lighting switched off the ROKR E8 looks like something that just walked off a Milan catwalk. The rear is not so exotic and is metal with a rubberised surface coating. The number keys have a very tiny raised dimple to indicate that your finger is indeed on top of a key and this is the only way to discern between keys. The key layout is spaced and well done, but key feedback is not at all positive and key travel is minimal — something Motorola does a lot on their phones. The black shiny surface has a chrome slash in the form of the joypad and even this fits flush in the phone such that the entire top is on one plane. The menu buttons are well laid out as are the call buttons. Backlighting is slightly excessive, although it tends to get dim in daylight. The phone itself is wide but not thick. Needless to say build quality is really good thanks to the metal rear. We’d like the screen to have been larger, but two inches is all we got.
Although the ROKR E8 has mediocre in-call quality, it’s a good music player. The bundled earphones are also good and the 3.5-mm jack is a plus. The measly support for audio and video formats is a minus though.
At Rs. 13,999 the ROKR E8 is a super swanky looking phone that offers a fair amount of features. It’s a really neat looking phone that Motorola fans will really appreciate and others will admire. But for the features and performance we feel it’s overpriced. The Abhishek Bachan advertisement for the ROKR series not withstanding, we recommend that you to wait for price drops or look elsewhere for your groove.
Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Motorola Motoming A1600
Another Linux-based Motorola phone, the A1600 has a rounded profile and comes with a transparent flip which allows one to peek at the screen it protects. The A1600 is touch-based and has a really well built exterior. The call buttons are small but well laid out with good tactile feedback and the joypad is also easy to use. The volume buttons are on the side and comfortable to use with good tactility intuitiveness. The menu structure is easy to understand and simple. The A1600 has a large display (2.4-inches) that is quite crisp, although the fonts used could be better. The lack of a hardware keypad is also felt, although not as badly as on the ROKR E6 because this phone is wider, giving the onscreen keyboard a larger area as well. One of the most noticeable features is the addition of a talking dictionary that can translate any word into another language and pronounce the word as it would sound — very useful if you are travelling abroad. We tried it for some common words and the results were pretty good.
Other than that the 3.2-megapixel camera is useful and features autofocus and a slightly weak flash unit. Its antenna is strictly OK and call quality could have been better. The A1600 is a decent music player with good handsfree quality and decent volume on the loudspeaker. If Motorola had thrown in a QWERTY package, this would be a feature-loaded device at a price of Rs. 15,847. As it stands, it’s not a bad phone but has the odd quirk that keeps us from recommending it sans reservation.
Other than that the 3.2-megapixel camera is useful and features autofocus and a slightly weak flash unit. Its antenna is strictly OK and call quality could have been better. The A1600 is a decent music player with good handsfree quality and decent volume on the loudspeaker. If Motorola had thrown in a QWERTY package, this would be a feature-loaded device at a price of Rs. 15,847. As it stands, it’s not a bad phone but has the odd quirk that keeps us from recommending it sans reservation.
Moto Razr V8
A really appealing phone that will have an equal fan following from both sexes. The RAZR V8 comes in a cool package with a nice soft pouch as an added accessory. Everything is packed neatly and the packing is of good quality. The phone itself has a sleek, sharp look about it and the outer screen is immediately eye catching — it’s clear and super crisp. The dark blue-grey colour tone also sets off the sharp silhouette of the phone. The body is solid metal and of superb quality and the back cover fits beautifully. We were a little disappointed to find a 950 mAh battery, although anything larger and the phone would get bulkier. Since the inner screen is larger and has the same number of pixels, it isn’t as sharp as the outer display and the fonts also seem (peculiarly) optimised for the outer screen as they appear a little large with slight, jaggedness around their edges. The menu system is rather simple and well laid out, very newbie friendly. The keypad is typical Motorola — although its flat key feedback and spacing is great so usability isn’t an issue. Some might find the keys a little hard though. Call clarity is good and the phone has a decent loudspeaker that also works well for music. The handsfree unit is decent but you do not get a 3.5-mm jack. The camera is a bit of a letdown at two megapixels and doesn’t do much.
Priced at Rs. 11,759 the Motorola RAZR V8 is a little feature shy but it makes up for its shortcomings by being a stunner. If our hearts ruled and we could go back to college with one handset to flick open and flaunt with the hope of attracting every passing lady’s attention, this would be the one we’d choose.
Priced at Rs. 11,759 the Motorola RAZR V8 is a little feature shy but it makes up for its shortcomings by being a stunner. If our hearts ruled and we could go back to college with one handset to flick open and flaunt with the hope of attracting every passing lady’s attention, this would be the one we’d choose.
Motorola Motoyuva A810
The A810 is the most affordable of the cellphones in this test but it’s not apparent at first glance. A sturdily built device with an all metal body and a smooth finish, the A810 has black and dark gray tones.The front is very clean with a minimal layout consisting of a large call button and a 5-way navigation button that acts like a joystick. The call buttons offer minimal feedback and feel a little tacky. The joystick feels smooth to use and glides through the menus easily. The volume button on the left side is a long two-way affair and it quite hard to use owing to almost no button travel and poor feedback. Even the camera button located on the other side is hard.Below this, there is a hold switch which is functional. The touch interface is decent and the phone cannot be called a slouch, although the multimedia menu functions aren’t the quickest around. Thankfully a 3.5-mm jack is provided so your headphones can be used. The font used for its inteface, along with its menus are basic but very readable and the display is good; although not ideal for video playback. One of the first major gripes we had was with the on-screen keyboard was that it’s not good enough for typing fast, or with much accuracy. The alphabets are small and the keypad is a little too congested. We’d have loved a slide-out hardware keypad but that seems too much to ask at this price point.
Motorola provides a camera but its little more than a cosmetic addition and not usable. Performance in the signal tests was strictly so-so and this phone has a good headset. The fact that you can use other earphones for music is also a plus and it makes the device a decent music phone; not ideal though going by its multimedia menu and output quality. It was the only phone that didn’t have support for Bluetooth 2.0, although it does support A2DP. On the whole this Motorola is a solidly built device with no other quirks than what one might expect given the phone’s price point. If Motorola designed a better on-screen keyboard and offered a good 3.2-megapixel camera with this phone we’d heartily recommend it at Rs. 8,399.
Motorola provides a camera but its little more than a cosmetic addition and not usable. Performance in the signal tests was strictly so-so and this phone has a good headset. The fact that you can use other earphones for music is also a plus and it makes the device a decent music phone; not ideal though going by its multimedia menu and output quality. It was the only phone that didn’t have support for Bluetooth 2.0, although it does support A2DP. On the whole this Motorola is a solidly built device with no other quirks than what one might expect given the phone’s price point. If Motorola designed a better on-screen keyboard and offered a good 3.2-megapixel camera with this phone we’d heartily recommend it at Rs. 8,399.
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