Motorola Debut i856 (Sprint-Nextel)

The Motorola Debut i856 is a nifty iDEN push-to-talk phone for Boost Mobile subscribers. As Sprint's wholly owned prepaid brand, Boost sells plenty of iDEN phones already. But the i856 is the first slider with PTT capability. Despite a few stumbles, it acquits itself fairly well. While it's not my top pick, it's still a good choice for anyone interested in Boost Mobile's awesome $50 per month unlimited calling and texting plan.

The Debut i856 isn't a stand-in for rugged devices like the Motorola Tundra VA76r on AT&T and Casio G'zOne Boulder on Verizon. That said, the i856 still feels sturdier than most handsets. It measures 4.2 by 2.0 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4 ounces. The back panel is covered in charcoal grey rubber, while the front panel features silver and grey plastic. The 2.2-inch, 176-by-220-pixel LCD screen looked dated, with blocky fonts and UI graphics, but at least it was colorful and bright. Six shortcut buttons bracket the five-way control pad, which doubles as a media player control. The vertical slider mechanism felt nice and solid; it revealed a bright red, recessed membrane keypad that looked and felt durable, and was evenly backlit. But dialing numbers on the stiff keys was slow and cramped. The keys also had differing amounts of resistance.

The Debut i856 is a proper iDEN (800 MHz) device, albeit with no 3G or Wi-Fi support. Calls sounded hollow and a bit echo-y in each direction, though no one had problems understanding me. Reception was average. iDEN subscribers like their phones loud, and the i856 doesn't disappoint. Its stereo bottom-mounted speakers delivered a powerful punch for both speakerphone calls and Push to Talk. Battery life was also solid at 5 hours and 51 minutes of talk time.

The interface looks like a lower-resolution version of the Motorola Stature i9's. The i856's home screen displays a scrolling band of shortcuts for common tasks. There's also a nine-icon main menu with submenus for each category. The i856 threads SMS and MMS messages, but with such a stiff numeric keypad, you'll want to limit communications to very short text messages anyway. It's also not much of an Internet device; the i856's Openwave 7.21 browser brought up WAP pages at a glacial pace, though I couldn't get an actual benchmark result due to its lack of JavaScript support. Motorola claims there are POP3 e-mail, IM, and GPS clients, but I couldn't find any of them.

Things improved on the multimedia side. The side-mounted, standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack was welcome. The microSD card slot supposedly only works with 8GB cards, but my 16GB SanDisk card worked fine. The slot is located underneath the battery cover (but not the battery). The music player was pretty responsive; it played my MP3 and AAC tracks, and displayed album art in a tiny thumbnail without problems. Playback was simple with the five-way control pad. Music even sounded passable through the built-in stereo speakers at the bottom of the handset, although it distorted horribly near maximum volume. Strangely, using Bluetooth devices with the i856 was a problem. Music sounded fine through Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones, although it took three tries to get it to pair and connect correctly. The i856 also wouldn't pair with my benchmark Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset, despite repeated attempts.

The 1.3-megapixel camera is on the low end of the spectrum. But it was fine for throwaway shots; test photos looked reasonably sharp and detailed as long as there was enough light. Shutter speeds were quick at under one second. Recorded 352-by-288-pixel videos at 14 frames per second looked terribly pixilated, as if I had used digital zoom on a 176-by-144-pixel video. Motorola actually sets the latter as default—apparently with good reason. There's an on-board video player that worked fine with camcorder videos, but the app refused to find any of the standalone videos on my microSD card.

If you want to save over $100, the $59 Motorola i335 is a simpler, candy bar-style phone that gets voice quality right and goes very loud. But its budget 130-by-130-pixel LCD and archaic UI look more 2004 than 2009. Buyers with extra cash on hand should check out the $299 Motorola Stature i9. While it's a more traditional flip design and lacks a standard-size headphone jack, the Stature i9 includes a nicer, higher-resolution LCD screen, a more powerful 3.1-megapixel camera, and a more comfortable numeric keypad.

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $169.99 Street
* Service Provider: Boost
* Operating System: Other
* Screen Size: 2.2 inches
* Screen Details: 176-by-220 TFT LCD screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 1.3 MP
* 802.11x: Yes
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: Yes
* Network: iDen
* Bands: 800
* High-Speed Data: 1xRTT

Motorola Droid (Verizon Wireless)

The Motorola Droid is the first truly lust-worthy smartphone from Verizon Wireless, and it puts all other Google Android phones to shame. Motorola may have stinted on a few of the basics in its quest for mind-blowing smartphone power. But the first Android 2.0 phone is definitely the most advanced and exciting device connecting to Verizon today.

The Droid is a big, industrial, even a little steampunk-looking contraption at 4.56 by 2.36 by .54 inches (HWD) and a hefty 5.96 ounces. The front is a bright, rich 3.7-inch, 854-by-480 LCD capacitive touch screen. Below the huge screen are four light-up, touch-sensitive buttons, and then a bit of a lip with the microphone on it. The back is burgundy soft-touch plastic. The whole effect feels pleasantly expensive, but also rather masculine; it's not androgynous or organic like the iPhone.

Slide the screen to the right to reveal the first real disappointment, the Droid's keyboard. The QWERTY keys are a little too small, a bit too flat, and a touch too tight to put this in the first rank of keyboards. The Droid offers two decent touch keyboards as well, with word completion and correction. But even though I didn't love the physical keyboard, I was very glad it was there—even a mediocre physical keyboard is better than a touch keyboard, in my view.

The Droid's massive screen is a game-changer, because it shows the full width of desktop Web pages. Everything looks better and more readable on this screen—e-mails, calendar items, icons, whatever. But the real pleasure is turning the phone sideways and loading up a Web page. (Just like the iPhone, the Droid's screen rotates when you turn it.) Web pages no longer need horizontal scrolling, and if you have relatively sharp eyes, you can read everything. Double-tapping zooms easily, and scrolling around pages feels fluid. The Droid supports most JavaScript and DHTML, but not Flash or a few kinds of controls; for instance, I couldn't slide the slider on our home page (but I could make the carousel of columnists turn.)

Android 2.0, Speed, and Power
The Droid runs Android 2.0, but it's also a "Google Experience" phone. That means it runs the most basic version of Android possible. Google relies on the curiosity and tech-savvy of their customers to turn the phones into what they want to make of them. Motorola and HTC have all done good work personalizing Android and making it a bit cuddlier. But you won't see Motorola's extreme social networking or HTC's full-screen widgets here.

Fortunately, Google got the memo about providing a bit more base functionality. Android 2.0 means Microsoft Exchange support, a more flexible camera app, better software keyboards, better browsing and multitouch, for instance. (You can't "pinch" things, though; for now, multitouch just makes the virtual keyboards more usable.)

The world's first Android 2.0 phone is also the fastest, by a long shot. This is the first Android phone with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, coming in the form of the TI OMAP 3430 chipset. That's an entire generation ahead of the ARM11 chips in all other Android phones. (The iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre also use Cortex-A8s.) I ran four publicly available Android benchmarks. On pure CPU measures, the Droid was about twice as fast as the Samsung Moment, which until now was the fastest Android phone available. The Droid was faster on memory and file system tests, too. Even network speed tests came out faster, because a faster processor can handle more data through the modem.

The result: really pleasing performance in both built-in and third-party apps. 3D games Hyperspace and Speed Forge played very smoothly, with responsive controls. Web pages scrolled very smoothly. Applications launched with aplomb.

The fast processor also made it more frustrating when programs would occasionally freeze or crash. The sluggish, poorly programmed camera app was the worst perpetrator by far, but I also got frustrated when network issues would hold up a Web page.

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $199.99 Direct
* Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
* Operating System: Android OS
* Screen Size: 3.7 inches
* Screen Details: 480-by-854, TFT LCD capacitive touch screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 5 MP
* 802.11x: Yes
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: Yes
* Network: CDMA
* Bands: 850, 1900
* High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EVDO Rev A
* Processor Speed: 600 MHz

Motorola Q8

Fun Features

* Integrated 1.3 megapixel camera
* Windows Media Player Mobile
* Video capture with sound and playback
* Dual stereo-quality speakers
* Supports most popular audio and video formats
* Removable optional miniSD cards (up to 2GB) for extendable storage of documents, photos, music and video
* Approximately 40MB on-board available user memory7
* Send photos, video clips, text and sound1
* Browse the web

Call Management Features

* Call contacts or open applications with advanced speech recognition
* Built in hands free speakerphone
* Time and Date Stamp
* Photo-caller ID
* Virtually unlimited contacts (dependent on available memory)

Messaging Features

* View email and edit attachments (documents, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs)
* Manage personal information with Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile (Inbox, Contacts, Calendar and Tasks)
* Supports multiple email (inboxes): POP3/IMAP4, Microsoft Exchange Server with direct push technology
* SMS
* Multimedia Messaging (MMS)
* Group SMS
* IM

Lifestyle Features

* Windows Media Player Mobile
* Photo-caller ID1
* Mega pixel camera with digital zoom
* Calculator
* Alarm Clock
* Pocket Outlook

Performance Features

* Talk Time /Standby Time: Up to approximately 5.6 hrs / 12.5 days2
* Bands: GSM4/GPRS/EDGE
* Standard Battery: 1130 mAh Lithium Ion
* Bluetooth Wireless Technology: Supports Bluetooth headset/hands-free and stereo Profiles8
* Synchronisation: ActiveSync and Airsync with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Motorola mini-USB connector

Data Features

* GPRS/EDGE Class 10
* Memory (FLASH/RAM): 128MB / 64MB7
* Optional Removable Memory: miniSD card up to 2GB

Technical Specifications

* Weight : 115g
* Volume : 85 cc
* Dimensions (H x W x D) : 117x64x11.5mm
* Display : 2.4” 240x320 65K TFT
* Colour : Soft Touch Black
* Form Factor : QWERTY
* OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6

Motorola CLIQ (T-Mobile)

The Motorola CLIQ is the company's first Android-powered smartphone. It's also a stellar device for the socially inclined. It aggregates updates from social networking sites, photo sharing sites, and Web-based e-mail. It could easily serve as the center of your connected universe. For a change, that's not hyperbole. Despite a few stumbles, the innovative and effective CLIQ easily wins our Editors' Choice award for T-Mobile smartphones.

Design and Call Quality
You'll like the phone least when it's off, because the CLIQ is a briq. It measures 4.5 by 2.3 by 0.6 inches and weighs a hefty 5.7 ounces. It's made of black plastic, glass (on the front panel), and darkened chrome accents around the curved sides. The bright 3.1-inch, 320-by-480-pixel touch screen is a little small, compared to the HTC Touch Pro2's 3.6-inch, 800-by-480-pixel panel, and the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch 3G's 3.2-inch screens. That said, touch response was stellar on the capacitive screen. There's a built-in four-way accelerometer and proximity and ambient light sensors for the display. The slider mechanism felt solid. Sliding the front panel out reveals a four-row plastic QWERTY keyboard with a five-way control pad on the left. Typing was quiet, comfortable, and totally accurate; I made few mistakes.

The CLIQ is a top-notch phone. It's a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and tri-band HSDPA 7.2 (900/1700/2100 MHz) device with Wi-Fi (but no Wi-Fi-enabled T-Mobile @Home calling). Voice calls sounded excellent in both directions, thanks in part to the powerful earpiece speaker and dual-mic setup. Reception was average, and generally matched a T-Mobile G1 I had on hand. Calls also sounded clear through a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. The speakerphone was loud and powerful. Battery life was average at 9 hours and 28 minutes in EDGE mode.

Social Networking and MotoBlur
The CLIQ integrates social networking and messaging more deeply than any other phone we've ever seen, and it's the most heavily customized Android phone ever. Motorola's MotoBlur service is something many software and hardware vendors have tried to create but haven't been able to: an integrated, cloud-based interface for all of your online communications. If you're into Facebook or its ilk, MotoBlur is a real eye-opener.

MotoBlur brings together social networking updates, contacts, and other information from various sources, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Last.fm (yep, the streaming radio site), plus the usual news, weather, and other bits of info. In addition to all this, MotoBlur backs up your contact, calendar, and other phone data online, and offers an import tool from Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and Thunderbird. You can add additional accounts easily with the Accounts icon in the Applications menu.

MotoBlur displays all of this data in a colorful array of widgets on the CLIQ's five home screen panels. The Social Status widget updates your status on any or all social networks, and displays recent status updates. The Messages widget handles text messages, e-mail, and social networking direct messaging. Happenings displays recently uploaded photos, events, and other items from your contacts. A separate Happenings icon in the Applications menu displays all photos and events (not just unread ones like the Happenings widget). MotoBlur is also plumbed into the phone's built-in PIM apps; for example, if a contact changes their phone number on their Facebook profile, the CLIQ picks it up and changes it in the phone's address book.

With few exceptions, it all works like a charm. In my tests, it picked up my Facebook e-mail inbox and let me send and receive messages; Twitter and Facebook updates showed up quickly as well, showing photos of each person. The widgets' design wasn't always ideal; seeing one update at a time on the home screen, with half of someone's Facebook photo, looked a little silly sometimes. I located my handset within a few moments using the desktop MotoBlur location tool, which finds lost CLIQs via GPS, and was treated to an on-screen map. Sadly, the tool doesn't ring the phone; forget using it to find a misplaced CLIQ behind the couch. On the plus side, if the phone really is lost, you can remotely wipe its data. I did run into the occasional bug; the "Home" app crashed several times with an error dialog, though the handset never seemed deeply affected as a result.

Those that are concerned about cloud-based MotoBlur falling victim to the same problem the T-Mobile Sidekick did during its well-publicized data-loss fiasco have no need to worry. MotoBlur doesn't have the same problem the Sidekick does, because the CLIQ stores data locally (just like all other smartphones). The Sidekick has a constant two-way sync constantly and keeps some data local and other data in the cloud, which is why some contacts and info disappeared when Danger's server died.

Messaging, Web Browsing, and Apps

The CLIQ is a capable all-purpose smartphone as well. Like the G1 and MyTouch, the CLIQ has a 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor, with 256MB RAM and 256MB of internal storage. I would have preferred a faster processor. The CLIQ felt responsive in most situations, but there was occasional UI lag.

For e-mail, the CLIQ hooks into Gmail, Yahoo, and Windows Live Hotmail, and integrates with Microsoft Exchange servers for corporate e-mail. All messages appear in the CLIQ's universal inbox. It also syncs Google and Exchange calendar and contact information, and comes with a Microsoft Office document viewer. Plus, all PIM data is backed up in your MotoBlur account. For instant messaging, the CLIQ includes one app for AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger accounts, while another app handles Google Talk separately.

Android's stock WebKit browser rendered Web pages accurately, with the exception of the usual gaping holes instead of Flash content, and the zoom controls were easy to manipulate. Download speeds in 3G mode averaged 810 to 850 kbps, which is good for a smartphone on an HSDPA 3.6 network.

Plenty of location-based services are also on board, including TeleNav-powered voice-enabled turn-by-turn directions, Google Maps with Street View, and Google Latitude for locating friends, along with the aforementioned location and remote wipe features. TeleNav had trouble understanding my voice specifying a destination, but it locked onto my location in about two minutes and delivered crisp, loud, accurate driving directions.

As with all Android phones, you can browse, buy, and download from a selection of over 7,000 apps in Android Market. Motorola may also introduce new widgets in the future as new services become popular.

But while Motorola insists the highly-customized CLIQ is compatible with all third-party programs, the CLIQ can't handle Google's standard OS updates. The CLIQ comes with Android 1.5, and can't be updated to Android 1.6 ("Donut") at the time of this review. CLIQ owners who want the integrated camcorder app and improved Android Market must wait for Motorola to issue its own package.

Media, Photos, and Conclusions

The standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack makes using your favorite earbuds a snap. MP3 and AAC tracks sounded clear and crisp over Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones. The CLIQ displayed large album art thumbnails, and you can buy new music tracks over the air from Amazon MP3. You can also discover new music through imeem or Last.fm and stream it through the handset.

Video playback is especially attractive: a 3D wall indexes all your videos, and there's a timeline you can swipe with your finger. It wouldn't downscale a 720p HD video for the CLIQ's LCD, but it played other 3GP and MP4 videos, as well as YouTube, smoothly in full screen mode.

The 5-megapixel camera includes auto-focus, but lacks an LED flash. Test photos had a slight haze over them that's typical of tiny cell phone lenses. But overall, the CLIQ's camera performed well both outdoors and indoors without excessive noise. You can send photos straight to Picassa, Photobucket, Facebook, and MySpace. Recorded 352-by-288 videos played smoothly at 22 frames per second, and were well lit. I would have liked to see a VGA recording mode to match the iPhone and HTC Touch Pro 2, though. There's a microSD card slot hidden underneath the battery cover. My 16GB SanDisk card worked fine, and Motorola throws a 2GB card in the box to get you started.

The Motorola CLIQ's MotoBlur service truly sets it apart. If you use Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter at all, there's nothing quite like the CLIQ for you. If you don't intend to use MotoBlur, what's left is a solid Android smartphone that's a little more stylish than the T-Mobile G1. Our previous Editor's Choice, the BlackBerry 8900 is still a good pick for simple, no-nonsense mobile computing and e-mail. The HTC Touch Pro2 will still appeal to Microsoft loyalists who want a huge keyboard and high-res screen. But for anyone with a social networking account, pit the MOTOBLUR-enhanced Android against the TouchFLO 3D-enhanced Windows Mobile and it's no contest: Motorola's combination just works better.

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $199.99
* Megapixels: 5 MP
* Processor Speed: 528 MHz
* Bluetooth: Yes
* 802.11x: Yes
* Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100, 1700
* Camera: Yes
* High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
* Operating System: Other
* Network: GSM, UMTS
* Service Provider: T-Mobile
* Web Browser: Yes
* Screen Details: 320-by-480, 262K-color TFT LCD capacitive touch screen
* Screen Size: 3.1 inches

Motorola Karma QA1

Phones with slide-down QWERTY keyboards are finally starting to become popular, as shown by squat but solid handsets like the Samsung Reclaim over on Sprint and the new Motorola Karma QA1 on AT&T. The Karma is just three and a half inches tall, and yet features a slide-down QWERTY keyboard that's as wide as the one on a BlackBerry Curve. Despite some miscues, the Karma is an excellent choice at just $49.99 (with a two-year contract and after rebates).

Motorola handsets are often well-made, and the Karma QA1 is no exception. It measures 3.5 by 2.5 by 0.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 5 ounces. It's a little squat and heavy, but manages to look classy. The Karma has a black rubberized case with an aluminum grey accent band around the front panel edge. The 2.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel LCD was bright and colorful, and the slider mechanism felt smooth and solid. The four-row keyboard has raised, oval plastic keys with a positive engagement. I enjoyed typing on it and made very few mistakes.

Features and Performance
The Karma is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band 3G (850/1900 MHz) device. It felt a little weird to hold up to my head because of its wide girth and slide-out keyboard. Nevertheless, voice quality was clear and punchy in both directions, with no background hiss thanks in part to Motorola's well-regarded CrystalTalk technology. Reception was excellent; I usually saw five bars and solid 3G signal, even indoors in a rural part of Massachusetts. Calls also sounded fine through a paired Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset. The speakerphone was well-balanced and just loud enough for outdoor use providing you're not at a construction site. The Karma lasted 4 hours and 23 minutes on a battery rundown test, about average for 3G AT&T phones.

The home screen features Web page links for Facebook, MySpace, and JuiceCaster, a less-used social networking app. There's also a pop-up shortcut menu for the alarm clock, Bluetooth settings, and some other commonly used features. The Karma's tiered menu structure is a little weird, with duplicate icons across numerous submenus. But getting around was quick thanks to the UI's fast response time. Unfortunately, AT&T loaded the Karma with a ton of useless branded content and other bloatware, with well over a dozen icons sprinkled throughout the menu system.

Sorting through the chaff, AT&T Mobile E-Mail offers access to Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, and common ISP accounts, but lacks Gmail support. The IM client also offers Yahoo, AIM, and Windows Live access (but not Google Talk); it also only showed my mobile AIM buddies, which was a disappointment. The GPS chipset hooks into the TeleNav-powered AT&T Navigator ($9.99/month) for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions. The GPS radio sometimes took several minutes to lock into my position, but the TeleNav app worked great once it did. The Opera 8.60 for Synergy browser displayed WAP pages quickly, though fonts were a little squished compared with other devices. Various desktop HTML pages were a tremendous mess; stick with WAP sites and you'll be fine.

Multimedia

The Karma works well as a multimedia device. The standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack was welcome. The microSD card slot was hidden beneath the battery cover, but didn't require removing the battery. My 16GB SanDisk card worked fine, and there's also 100MB of onboard storage. Music sounded OK over a paired set of Motorola S9-HD stereo Bluetooth headphones. The app displayed album art when available, and had no trouble playing MP3, AAC, and WMA files. You can buy tracks over the air from Napster and eMusic, and there's an XM Radio client ($8.99/month) on board as well. There's no standalone video player icon, but you can get around that by searching through the 'My Stuff' Application. The Karma played .3GP video files smoothly even when expanded to fill the screen, including a two-hour movie. The Karma works with AT&T's Cellular Video and MobiTV for streamed video services. Those clips played at inconsistent frame rates as usual, but at least audio stayed in sync and aspect ratios were correct. Java benchmark results were mostly poor with the exception of good graphics and video processing results, so the Karma could do as a gaming device in a pinch. The phone packs a 252 Mhz ARM9 processor, pretty decent for a midrange feature phone.

The Karma's 2-megapixel, fixed-focus camera with LED flash takes blurry, mottled, overexposed photos. About half were unusable, while the other half looked like washed-out pictures from VGA cameras of years past. Even well-lit outdoor shots featured blurry green messes where trees should have been. Recorded videos were of decent resolution (320-by-240-pixel) and played smoothly. But the poor optics contributed to a pasty appearance and a terminally dark cast indoors.

Aside from the poor camera, it's tough to fault the Karma. It gets most things right for a feature phone, and doesn't make the same mistakes that trip up competing handsets, such as using non-standard headphone jacks or burying the microSD slot underneath the battery. The LG Xenon GR500 has a roomier, more comfortable QWERTY keyboard along with a 2.8-inch touch screen; it's currently our Editors' Choice for AT&T feature phones. The $79 Nokia Surge is a messaging-focused handset like the Karma, but the Surge includes more powerful software and is a real smartphone requiring a more expensive data plan. If a hardware QWERTY keyboard isn't as important, the $99.99 Samsung Solstice SGH-a887 gives you a 3-inch touch screen with haptic feedback and plenty of media features, although it makes the headphone jack and microSD card slot mistakes I mentioned earlier.

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $49.99 - $249.99 Street
* Service Provider: AT&T
* Operating System: Other
* Screen Size: 2.5 inches
* Screen Details: 320-by-240, 262K-color TFT LCD screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 2 MP
* 802.11x: No
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: Yes
* Network: GSM, UMTS
* Bands: 800, 850, 900, 1800, 1900
* High-Speed Data: EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA

Motorola W231

General 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800

Announced 2008, 3Q

Status Available. Released 2008, November

Size Dimensions 108 x 44 x 14.9 mm

Weight 78 g

Display Type TFT, 65K colors

Size 128 x 128 pixels, 1.6 inches

Sound Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones

Speakerphone Yes

- 3.5 mm audio jack

Memory Phonebook 500 entries

Call records 10 dialed, 10 received, 10 missed calls

Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 1 GB supported, buy memory

Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

HSCSD No

EDGE No

3G No

WLAN No

Bluetooth No

Infrared port No

USB Yes, v1.1

Camera No

Features Messaging SMS(750), MMS, Email

Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML

Radio Stereo FM radio

Games Yes

Colors Red

GPS No

Java

- MP3 player

- T9

- Organizer

- Voice memo

Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion

Stand-by Up to 310 h

Talk time Up to 7 h 30 min

Motorola Evoke QA4 (Cricket Wireless)

We're not quite sure what to make of the Motorola Evoke QA4. Though it offers a touch screen, a full HTML browser, and an appealing slider design, it hardly qualifies as either a smartphone or a multimedia powerhouse like the Samsung Eternity. Also, while we appreciate its decent call quality and nifty integration with applications like YouTube and Google QuickSearch, we remain unimpressed with its sluggish performance, midrange feature set, and clumsy touch screen. The Evoke is available from both Alltel and Cricket Wireless. We tested the Cricket version, though the features will be largely the same on both models. Cricket sells it for $279 without a contract.

Design
Though it's hardly groundbreaking, the Evoke's design has its good points. We like its oval shape, silver and black color scheme, and soft-touch material that covers its back side. At 4.25 inches by 1.99 inches by 0.68 inch and 4.25 ounces, the Evoke is much smaller than most touch-screen phones, and it's easily portable and it has a sturdy feel in the hand. What's more, we welcome the proximity sensor and accelerometer, even if the latter feature only works in a few applications.

On the downside, the 2.8-inch display is too small for a touch screen and its low resolution (65,000 colors, 400x240 pixels) doesn't impress. Graphics and photos aren't exceptionally sharp, colors are muted, and the whole effect is rather dim. We also found the customization options lacking; you can change just the wallpaper of the home screen, the backlighting timeout, and the intensity of the vibrating feedback.

At the bottom of the screen are icons for the contacts menu, the messaging app, and the calls list. In a clever move, these icons actually form the top row of the main menu, which you can access by pressing the Evoke's sole physical control below the display. The interface differs from the standard Moto menu design, but it's intuitive and well-organized. The only caveat is that there's no dedicated Back button; instead you must use either an onscreen arrow or the Evoke's sole physical control below the display .

One of the Evoke's better features is its integrated support for services like Google QuickSearch, AccuView weather, MSNBC, YouTube, and MySpace. Each has an onscreen "widget" that gives you direct access to that application. It's a nice touch, since it saves you having to dig through multiple menu levels. The widgets are arranged in a convenient side-by-side format similar to the menu pages on the iPhone--just swipe your finger across the display to cycle through them.

But on that note, the touch screen performs rather erratically. It took a firm touch to move between widget pages and scroll through long lists--when we tried swiping lightly nothing would happen. Conversely, we could select items with only a light touch. Compared with other touch-screen phones, we needed some time to grow accustomed to using the Evoke, and we were disappointed not to find an option for changing the display's sensitivity.

The aforementioned physical control below the display is flush, but its large size makes it easy to use. Besides opening and closing the menus, the control also works as a Back key in some menus. The numeric keypad is also flush, but both the backlit keys and the numbers on the keys are quite large. The keypad is brightly backlit for dialing in situations where the light is dim.

The remaining exterior features are a mixed bag. A tactile volume rocker sits on the left spine and a camera shutter and a handset0locking switch rest conveniently on the right spine. The camera lens is on the phone's back side out of the way of your fingers, but vanity shots will be difficult without a self-portrait mirror. We also weren't crazy about the single microUSB charger\headset port on the phone's bottom end. Though we thank Moto for adopting a standard charger connection, we'd prefer a dedicated 3.5 millimeter headset jack. Finally, we wish that the microSD slot wasn't hidden behind the battery cover.

To type messages, you can use one of the three methods: the physical alphanumeric keypad, a virtual alphanumeric keypad, or a virtual QWERTY keyboard. Obviously, we preferred the virtual keyboard since it saves you from tapping keys multiple times. It's relatively easy to use, and we like the predictive text, but the display's small size means that the keys are crowded and that few shortcut controls are available. Also, you must click through to a second keyboard for numeric keys and two additional keyboards for symbols. To move between the different keyboards you just need to rotate the phone and the accelerometer will do the rest.

Features
The Evoke has a 1,000-contact phone book with room in each entry for six phone numbers, an e-mail address, a URL, and a postal address. You can save callers to groups and pair them with a photo and one of 10 polyphonic ringtones. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a notepad, an alarm clock, a world clock, a calendar, a calculator, and a speakerphone. You also can use Cricket's MyBackup service to store your contacts on Cricket's servers.

Motorola Rival A455 (Verizon Wireless)

Motorola Rival A455 Purple and Black

The Motorola Rival A455 for Verizon Wireless is an affordable, messaging-centric phone with style. With one-touch access to your favorite applications, a partial touchscreen and a slide-out, back lit QWERTY keyboard, it is fast and easy to send messages, IMs and emails. The 2.0 megapixel camera/ camcorder is great for snapping photos and recording videos to share with friends and family with video and picture messaging, when words aren’t enough. The Motorola Rival also has safe, hands-free options including Bluetooth, speakerphone and voice commands. The feature-packed Motorola Rival has the latest technology and hottest applications to make your friends jealous: V CAST Music with Rhapsody, V CAST Videos, mobile web, expandable memory, a music player, and more.

• A Stylish, Compact Messaging-centric Slider Phone With A Backlit Full QWERTY and Partial Touchscreen
• One-touch Access To Text Message Composition, Emoticons, Symbols, and IM or Email
• Snap and Share Memories With The 2.0 Megapixel Camera/ Camcorder and Video and Picture Messaging
• A Stylish, Compact Messaging-centric Slider Phone With A Backlit Full QWERTY and Partial Touchscreen
• One-touch Access To Text Message Composition, Emoticons, Symbols, and IM or Email
• Snap and Share Memories With The 2.0 Megapixel Camera/ Camcorder and Video and Picture Messaging
• Camera Megapixels - 2.0 Megapixels
• Capture Modes - White Balance Options, Color Effects, and Fun Frames
• Self-Timer - Yes, 3, 5, and 10 Seconds
• Dedicated Camera Key - Yes
• Video Capture / Camcorder - Yes, Record Video Clips To Share With Friends and Family
• Zoom - Yes, 7x Digital Zoom
• Bluetooth Wireless Technology - Yes, Connect Wirelessly To Other Bluetooth-enabled Devices: Headsets, Car Kits, Printers, DUN, and M
• GPS Services Support - Yes, Integrated GPS Is VZ Navigator and E911 Capable
• Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP) - Yes, Listen To Music Wirelessly With Stereo Bluetooth Headset (Not Included)
• Use This Phone As A Modem - Yes, Connect To Your Laptop For Broadband Access (Mobile Broadband Connect Feature Required)
• Listen To Millions Of Songs With V CAST Music With Rhapsody or Watch V CAST Videos
• Supports Your Favorite IM Chat Applications and Corporate and Personal Email Services
• Always Find Your Way With Turn-by-turn Directions From VZ Navigator
• Stay Safe With Hands-free Options: Bluetooth, Speakerphone, Voice Commands, and More
• Access Your Corporate Email, Calendar and Contacts With RemoSync
• Additional Items Included - Battery, Wall Charger, User Guide, Quick Reference Guide
• Mobile Web Browsing - Yes, Surf The Internet With The Mobile Web Browser (WAP)
• Email Client - Supports Corporate Email and Popular, Web-based Mobile Email Accounts Such As Yahoo! and Hotmail
• Instant Messenger - Yes, IM Chat With Your Favorite Instant Messenger Applications
• Text Messaging (SMS) - Yes, Send and Receive Text Messages With A Threaded, Chat-style View; One-touch Access
• Multimedia Messaging - Yes, Send and Receive Picture and Voice Messages
• Mobile Web Browsing - Yes, Surf The Internet With The Mobile Web Browser (WAP)
• Email Client - Supports Corporate Email and Popular, Web-based Mobile Email Accounts Such As Yahoo! and Hotmail
• Instant Messenger - Yes, IM Chat With Your Favorite Instant Messenger Applications
• Text Messaging (SMS) - Yes, Send and Receive Text Messages With A Threaded, Chat-style View; One-touch Access
• Multimedia Messaging - Yes, Send and Receive Picture and Voice Messages
• Digital Camera - Yes, Camera/ Camcorder With Multiple Modes To Capture and Share Memories
• PC Synchronization - Yes, Sync With Your PC To Download Your Music Library
• Upgradeable - Yes, Download Software Updates Over-the-air
• Expandable Memory Capacity - Store More Music With Up To A 8 GB microSD Memory Card (Not Included)
• Compatible Carrier - Verizon Wireless
• Multiple Numbers Per Name - Yes
• Phonebook Capacity - Store Up To 1,000 Entries
• Standard 3.5mm Stereo Headset Jack - Yes
• TTY Compatible - Yes
• Hearing Aid Compatible - Yes, M3/ T3
• Network Compatibility - CDMA 800, 1900
• Data Download Speed - 1x/EVDO
• Dimensions - 2″ x 3.8″ x 0.7″
• Weight - 4.4 oz
• Micro-USB Port - Yes
• Ringtone Types Supported - MIDI, MP3, WAV
• Touch Screen - Yes, Partial Touchscreen For Dialing and Some Applications and Menus
• Languages Supported - English and Spanish
• Speakerphone - Yes, Speakerphone For Hands-free Conversations
• Style - Slider With External Touchscreen For Dialing
• Color Main Display - 2.2″, 176 x 220 Pixels, 65,000 Color QCIF Display
• PDA Device - No
• Device Supports Voice Plans - Yes
• Device Supports Verizon Connect Plans - Yes
• Device Supports Verizon Premium Plans - Yes
• Available For Purchase Without Service Plan - Yes
• Device Supports Add-on Line Plans - Yes
• QWERTY Keyboard - Yes, Slide-out, Backlit Full QWERTY With Emoticons and Symbols
• Voice-driven Menus - Yes, Access Some Functions With Voice Commands Including Email, IM and More
• Parental Controls - Yes, Restrict Incoming Or Outgoing Calls/ Messages
• Alarm - Yes
• Vibrate - Yes
• Calculator - Yes
• Calendar - Yes
• Color - Purple and Black

Motorola Hint QA30

The Motorola Hint QA30 ($249.99 direct) is an unusual-looking texting phone for MetroPCS, Cricket, and Alltel. (I tested the MetroPCS version.) It's got some real pluses, such as threaded text messaging and good media players, but its troublesome phone performance leads me to caution you if you want to use this for heavy calling.

The Hint is odd-looking, but not hideous. Closed, the 4.2-ounce phone is very rectangular, measuring 3.2 by 2.4 by 0.7 inches (HWD). It has a 2.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen, a big cursor pad, and several buttons on the front, including a dedicated music button. Slide the screen up to reveal a small QWERTY keypad with extremely pointy keys, like little mountains—designed to help you type in view of the keyboard's reduced size. There are dedicated messaging, speakerphone, camera, and WAP-browser buttons along the bottom.

This isn't an outstanding voice phone. Its reception isn't quite as good as that on the Samsung Finesse. The earpiece gets quite loud, and there's plenty of side tone (the sound of your own voice piped into the earpiece, which many people like). But transmissions, especially from noisy areas, sounded indistinct and occasionally staticky; the speakerphone has the same problem. One big advantage is that you can send MP3s to your phone via Bluetooth from a PC or Mac and then use them as ringtones, which saves you money. The ringer is loud enough for most situations, and the vibrating alert is both noisy and vibrant. Battery life, at 3 hours 49 minutes, is a bit short.

I tested two Hint units and experienced some serious problems connecting with Bluetooth headsets on both. Both units succeeded in making calls using the Motorola H700 mono and the Plantronics Pulsar 590A stereo headsets, but both failed through the Plantronics Voyager 520, the Plantronics Voyager Pro, the Iqua 603 SUN, and the Altec Lansing Backbeat 503 headsets. If you intend to use a headset, be sure to try it with the Hint in the store before buying it.

The Hint is the best texting phone we've yet seen on MetroPCS. The innovation here is threaded text messaging: It groups your messages into "conversations" so you can see all the chatter you've had with a specific person—this is ideal for heavy texters. The Hint also has an IM program that supports AIM and Windows Live Messenger.

For e-mail, the Hint uses MetroPCS's standard Mail@Metro application. This app is much easier to set up here than it is on the Samsung Finesse—it's designed to be used on a phone with a keyboard—but it supports a very short list of ISPs (plus generic POP/IMAP e-mail). I got it working with a Gmail account and was able to view messages in a simple, text-only format without attachments.

There's no real Web browser on the Hint, just Openwave's WAP browser, which can load a limited set of mobile-formatted Web pages. WAP pages, which load slowly, were hard to read because of a very condensed, poorly designed text font. Although the Hint is a 3G phone, MetroPCS has a 3G network in only two cities, Dallas and Detroit. (If you're getting your Hint from Cricket, by the way, it will work at 3G speeds in most Cricket cities. Cricket uses the same WAP browser and text-messaging software but has its own e-mail app, which we haven't tested.)

MetroPCS somewhat compensates for the lousy browser by including a bunch of fun Internet-based applications. Handmark Pocket Express gives you news stories, weather, stocks, and movie showtimes in a relatively efficient, easy-to-use way. Loopt helps you track your friends via GPS location. And the MetroNavigator GPS navigation software properly generated maps and driving directions.

The Hint makes a pretty good media player. You remove the back cover to pop in a microSD card up to 16GB in capacity (I had no problems with my 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra card). The Hint comes with a 256MB card preloaded with three Wyclef Jean songs. The phone doesn't play AAC files—so, nothing from iTunes—but MP3 and WMA files played fine. You can navigate by artist, title, and the usual criteria, but you can't easily transfer playlist data from your PC. Video playback was especially good: MPEG-4 videos at 320-by-240 resolution looked fine, and the phone plays 3GP and WMV videos, too. The 3.5mm headphone jack lets you use any standard pair of wired headphones.

The phone's 2-megapixel camera takes rather soft photos, with some blurring in low light and hypersaturated colors in daylight—it's not the best we've seen. The video mode records somewhat jerky 320-by-240-pixel videos at 12 frames per second. You can store your photos on a memory card or in the phone's 154MB of free RAM.

The Motorola Hint QA30 is just the ticket for messaging fiends who want to take advantage of MetroPCS's unlimited plans, and the strong MP3 and video playback features are nice bonuses. But since the Hint isn't a great voice phone, it's more for folks who text more than they talk. If you're looking for an all-around MetroPCS phone with a keyboard, there is the Samsung Messager SCH-R450, which has much better voice performance but lack the Hint's threaded SMS application and video player

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $249.99 List
* Service Provider: Alltel, US Cellular, MetroPCS, Cricket
* Operating System: Other
* Screen Size: 2.5 inches
* Screen Details: 320x240, 262k-color TFT LCD display
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 2 MP
* 802.11x: No
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: No
* Network: CDMA
* Bands: 850, 1900, 1700
* High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EVDO Rev 0

Motorola W755 (Verizon)

If you're in the market for a cell phone with the latest bells and whistles that might even replace your MP3 player, then you have to strongly consider the Motorola W755. Today we'll take a good look at it to tell you why.

Introduction

The Motorola W755 has a sleek and high-end style and feel to it. However, you’ll have to get it through Verizon Wireless. If you’re into cell phones, you’ll likely find that the Motorola W755 is similar to the Motorola Razr, which AT&T carries.

The Motorola W755 supports the CMDA 800/1900 network. It’s an EV-DO dual-band and dual-mode cell phone that supports Verizon Wireless’ 3G services. The Motorola W755 is packed with a lot of features. If you’re a business professional, there are features that will benefit you. For example, it allows you to synchronize your data.

On the other hand, if you’re simply a "consumer," you will also find a lot of features that you will love. If you’re a big fan of music, you’ll love being able to access millions of songs and playing them on your phone. The Motorola W755 has something for everybody. So you must read on and learn what this phone has to offer.

The Motorola W755 features a slim design that boasts a 1-inch screen, with a tiny camera lens located above it. The screen displays 96 x 80 pixels and 65,000 colors. As a result, the Motorola W755’s graphics and text are fabulous. You can adjust the brightness, display font size, and the backlighting time.

The cell phone’s dimensions are at 3.9 inches x 1.9 inches x .68 inches. The Motorola W755 is solid, although it has soft-touch material on both the front and back sides. You’ll love the phone’s shiny silver spines and hinge, which is also sturdy as well. You can get the Motorola W755 in two colors―purple or dark slate, which is black.

On the right spine of the Motorola W755, you can use the voice dialing button and a volume rocker. Meanwhile, the Moto smart key is located on the left spine. The Moto smart key serves two purposes. First, it locks the outer controls when the phone is closed. Second, when the phone is open, the Moto smart key initiates the speaker phone. The mini USB port is also located on the left spine, while the 2.5 mm headset jack is located on the right spine. As a form of protection, plastic flaps cover these ports.

If your vision isn’t that great, you’ll find the Motorola W755’s navigation feature very useful. It has large letters and numbers. In addition, a nice backlight illuminates these keys.

Not only is the navigation feature spacious, but it’s designed to be simple to use. It consists of a four-way toggle, with the OK button in the center of it. You can also set up and use the toggle as a shortcut to the four user-defined functions. It also comes with two soft keys, along with the Talk and End/Power control button. In addition, the Motorola W755 features a Clear key, along with camera/camcorder shortcut buttons. Even though these last two buttons are raised above the phone’s surface, you’ll find these controls are still easy to use.

The Motorola W755’s battery power lasts up to 220 minutes. Its standby time lasts up to approximately 390 hours, or about 16 days – not bad!

The Motorola W755 includes a 1.3 mega pixel camera that has a 4x digital zoom. It allows you to take photos in four resolution settings. You can use this zoom to perform some useful functions, including capturing video, self-portrait, and still shots. You can then view both the recorded images and videos on the camera’s 1.9-inch internal display. The camera has other features you’ll find on other cameras, including white balance settings, brightness, self-timer, three-color effects, and others. The camera comes with nine frames and four shutter sounds. However, it doesn’t contain a flash.

There are other features of the Motorola W755 you can take advantage of, such as text, video, and picture messaging. You can also use the VCAST Video feature, which enables you to either stream or download video from your favorite genres, including entertainment, news, sports, and others. The Motorola W755 also comes with the Mobile Web-capable feature that allows you to customize and listen to the current sports, news, weather, and others. If you’re in the mood for games, you can also use this feature to download them. You can also put different wallpapers on your screen, and change display themes and banners, as well as clock formats. The Motorola also comes with a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser from Verizon so you can download more options and ring tones.

If you’re in the mood for chatting with your friends or family, you can take advantage of the Motorola W755’s IM and chat features. Use the optional VZ Navigator-capable feature to help you find your destination. You can get audible maps and turn-by-turn directions. You can use the phone’s Chaperone child locater service, but you’ll have to purchase it.

If you need to use a calculator, use the one that comes with the Motorola W755. It also comes with a world clock, a notepad, and a voice recorder. Not only can you send and receive email or instant messages, you can also synchronize your data with your laptop.

The Motorola W755 comes with a microSD card memory slot, which supports up to 4 GB, using an optional memory card. You can find the memory port behind the battery. You don’t have to worry about running out of space when it comes to putting in the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of your contacts. The Motorola W755 allows you store up to 1,000 contacts. The cell phone enables you to organize your contacts into caller groups. You can also use one of the 20 polyphonic ring tones.

Do you want to see a picture of your friend or family member? Take advantage of the phone’s photo caller ID feature. Every time your friend or family member calls, a picture of that person will pop up on your screen. The cell phone also has the traditional features, including showing the battery life, time, date, signal strength, and, of course, the caller ID.

As previously stated, if you’re into music, you’ll love the Motorola W755. Verizon Wireless lets you access the VCAST Music service. This service offers over three million songs from various recording artists, including popular and not-so-well-known entertainers. VCAST Music streams music over the air and directs it to your wireless phone.

Other music features that the Motorola W755 offers are different formats for the music player, including WMA V9, MIDI, MP3, AAC, and AMR NB. The cell phone allows you to use Windows Media Player 11 to set up and manage your own playlists. It also comes equipped with stereo Bluetooth wireless technology, and the 2.5 mm headset jack. You can use the controls, which are located on the front of the cell phone, to search for music by track, title, genre, or album. You can also use the external controls to turn on your Bluetooth and also change either your mute calls or ring volume, all without opening up your phone. The touch controls offer vibrating feedback. If you want, you can lock them to prevent their accidental activation.

If you’re looking for accessories for the Motorola W755, you’ll find plenty of them. You can find various Bluetooth headsets that will work with the Motorola W755, such as the H680 Bluetooth Headset, Bluetooth Headset H550 in Black-89100N, and many others. Depending on what your preference is when it comes to headsets, Motorola has the right one for you.

In addition to Bluetooth headsets, Motorola also sells other accessories. If you’re on the go, you should definitely have a car charger. Other car accessories you might want to consider to go with your Motorola W755 are the Bluetooth Hands-free system T605 and the MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone with Digital FM Transmitter. The Bluetooth Hands-free system T605 enables you to stream your music wirelessly. The MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone with Digital FM Transmitter, on the other hand, plays music and calls over your car’s speakers.

Other accessories that you must have include flash cards. Motorola sells two types of flash cards, which are the 2 GB TransFlash Card – SYN1407A and the 1 GB TransFlash Card – SYN1406A. Get the 1 GB TransFlash Card – SYN1406A so that you can add more memory to your phone.

Visit a local Verizon branch and see the Motorola W755 for yourself. You can also go to Motorola’s website and learn more about what this cell phone has to offer you. If you have purchased the cell phone, visit Motorola’s website anyway. You can download a copy of the User’s Manual, or visit the Frequently Asked Questions section about the product. You can also go to the Owner Support section to learn how you can get help from Motorola in the event you need it.

The Motorola W755 is affordable. It sells between $69.99 and $99.99. You’ll want to go to a Verizon Wireless branch to find out the actual price, since cell phones’ prices change frequently. Unfortunately, you’ll need to sign up for a two-year contract with Verizon Wireless.

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $119.99 List
* Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
* Screen Size: 1.9 inches
* Screen Details: 176x220, 65K
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 1.3 MP
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: Yes
* Network: CDMA
* Bands: 800, 1900
* High-Speed Data: EVDO
* Special Features: Music

Motorola Stature i9

The Motorola Stature i9 (for Boost Mobile, $299.99 direct) is the nation's fanciest prepaid phone, looking like neither your typical Nextel handset nor the sort of low-end model most people associate with prepaid accounts. It brings high-end features and a touch of class to the $50 per month unlimited calling plan on Boost. While the i9 isn't perfect, it's clearly the prestige handset choice if you use that carrier.

In case you're not familiar with Boost Mobile, it's Sprint's prepaid system. Boost runs on the old Nextel network (now owned by Sprint), which is nationwide but focuses on major cities and Interstate highway corridors rather than rural areas. However, the network uses the iDen technology, making it incompatible with non-Nextel phones. iDen allows for easy walkie-talkie connections—that famous Nextel "chirp"—but suffers from very slow Internet data speeds compared with those of modern 3G networks. (According to Sprint, the i9 will also soon be available on standard Sprint Nextel plans.)

A gigantic slab of a flip phone, the 4.7-ounce i9 measures a broad 2.1 by 4.1 by 6 inches (HWD) when closed and more than 7 inches long after you crack it open. Much of that real estate is consumed by screens: The 2-inch, 320-by-240-pixel color screen on the outside is surrounded with "mode-shifting" action buttons that appear or disappear depending on what you're doing, while the inside screen is a bit bigger, at 2.2 inches. The i9 also has a huge keypad, although I found the large keys flatter than I'd prefer.

When we reviewed the flip Motorola RAZR² V9, we lamented that the major carriers didn't take advantage of its external screen. That's not a problem here—you can do a lot without opening the phone. Kick the i9 into camera mode and the front screen becomes a viewfinder. The mode-shifting command buttons let you turn on the flash, switch to video mode, or open your image gallery. You can also fully operate the music and video players with the handset closed. But because the phone can do so much while it's folded closed, there are a plethora of buttons—more than the usual number—on the sides of the phone. You'll find controls for the speakerphone, volume, walkie-talkie, and the camera, as well as a hold switch and a user-configurable Smart button.

Given the i9's price of $300, buying it simply for its voice performance would be overkill, but it does well in this regard, making both voice calls and Nextel push-to-talk (PTT) "chirp" calls, with PTT calls connecting instantly and sounding quite loud. There's no noticeable background hiss in the earpiece, unlike on the less-expensive Motorola i335, and voices sound quieter but more well rounded. Transmissions over the microphone sound fine, although the phone fuzzes out voices a bit while blanking out background noise. Although it sounds loud and rich, the speakerphone shows some distortion at top volume, with transmissions sounding a bit hollow. Ringtones are insanely loud, which I've come to expect from a Nextel phone. Voice dialing uses the primitive recorded-tag method rather than the superior speaker-independent system. Talk time, at around 5 hours, is solid.

The i9 is Boost Mobile's finest music and videophone, though admittedly, that's not saying much. It's the carrier's only phone that supports microSD memory cards (our 8GB SanDisk card worked fine) and the only one with a proper music player. You can drag and drop AAC, MP3, or WMA music files onto a memory card or sync them over from Windows Media Player using a USB cable (which is not included). They'll play back loud and clear through the speakerphone or through stereo or mono Bluetooth headsets. Playlist data doesn't sync, but you can create your own playlists on the phone. There isn't a standard headphone jack, so you'll have to track down a micro USB–to–headset adapter if you want to use wired headphones. The i9 uses the same adapter as the RAZR² V9, which is available for around $15 online.

The 3.1-megapixel autofocus camera isn't the best out there, but it has the highest resolution you'll find on one of the carrier's handsets. It takes somewhat fuzzy, hypersaturated photos with an odd color cast. The video mode records smooth if noticeably dark 320-by-240-pixel videos at 15 frames per second (fps). The LED flash isn't especially bright, but it'll light up a face in a club. For video, the i9 plays 320-by-240-pixel MPEG-4 or WMV video in full-screen mode and syncs with Windows Media Player 11. Contrary to the spec sheet, our test phone couldn't handle H.264 files. And it won't play iPod-formatted videos—they're too big.

But it's when you get to the Web that the i9 becomes markedly less appealing. This is to a great extent the fault of Boost Mobile: Its data network is now the slowest in the nation, offering only half the speed of dial-up, and its basically unusable WAP browser takes poor advantage of the i9's large screen. You can send SMS, picture, and video messages, but that's about it. Boost has various Internet-enabled applications on many of its other phones, but they weren't available when I tested the i9: no Loopt, Hookt, e-mail, IM, or GPS navigation. There weren't even any games I could download. Some of that software is on the way, but at Boost's glacial data speeds, it won't likely be a smooth experience.

At $300, the Motorola Stature i9 is $200 more expensive than any other Boost Mobile phone. But you're getting the only Boost phone with removable memory, a capable MP3 player, and a 3MP camera—and you're also getting the best-looking handset of the lot. It's hard to justify the huge difference in price between the i9 and the rest of Boost's product line, but it's also hard to deny that you're getting a lot of exclusive features.

Spec Data

* Price as Tested: $299.99 List
* Service Provider: Sprint, Boost
* Operating System: Other
* Screen Size: 2.2 inches
* Screen Details: 320x240 TFT LCD external color screen; 2.2" 320x240 TFT LCD main screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 3.1 MP
* 802.11x: No
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: No
* Network: iDen
* Bands: 800

Motorola VE538

Life is Mobile, Stay Connected
Motorola MOTO VE538 helps users stay connected to what’s most important - life - anywhere, anytime. Create pictures and videos with the 2-megapixel camera and then upload them quickly to favorite social networking sites via the 3G network¹.

Social Networking and Blogging Made Mobile
Connecting to social networking Web sites no longer requires a PC. A dedicated key gives one-click access to ShoZu², the gateway to social networking sites, and enables you to update your profile, comment on friends’ pictures, capture and upload pictures and videos—which can be posted to your online communities— and blog all while on-the-go.¹

Discover, Create and Share at 3G speed
MOTO VE538 uses 3G technology for lightening-fast Internet access and connectivity so users are never out of touch¹. Loaded with a full MP3 player and the ability to drag and drop tracks^31,4 that uses a second VGA camera. And there’s no need to worry about storage space, with up to 4GB of optional removable memory⁸, store all your messages, music, pictures and video clips after capturing, downloading¹ or synching with your library⁵. with USB 2.0 Full Speed, MOTO VE538 enables users to play VMV and WMA tracks. Capture and share priceless moments with 3G Video Calling

MOTO VE538
Talk and Standby Time	Talk Time: Up to approximately 350 minutes; Standby Time: Up to approximately 310 hours6
Bands/Modes	UMTS 2100, GSM 900/1800/1900; GPRS Class 10
Weight	83 g
Size	65 cc
Dimensions	46.00(x) 107.00(y) 16.00(z)
Battery	Up to 910.00 mAh
Connectivity	Version 1.2 Bluetooth® wireless technology, (A2DP and AVRCP)7, USB 2.0 FS
Display	2.0” 320 x 240 (QVGA) 262k TFT
Messaging	SMS, MMS, WAP 2.01
Audio	AMR, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3 ,WMA, WAV, XMF, SP-MIDI, MIDI
Video	MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, Windows Media®, .3GP playback MPEG-4, H.263 recording (.3gp file format)
Camera	2 Mega pixel with 2nd VGA camera
Memory	10MB user available memory8; optional removable 4GB9 microSD
Chipset	Qualcom 6245
Software	Qisda
Form Factor	Candybar

MOTO VE538 is expected to be available beginning Q4 2008. For more information regarding pricing and product availability in your region, please contact your local Motorola representative.

Certain mobile phone features are dependent on the capabilities and settings of your service provider’s network. Additionally, certain features may not be activated by your service provider, and/or their network settings may limit the feature’s functionality. Always contact your service provider about feature availability and functionality. All features, functionality and other product specifications are based upon the latest available information and are believed to be accurate; however such product specifications are subject to change without notice or obligation.

¹ Network and/or subscription dependent feature, not available in all areas. Airtime, data charges and/or additional charges may apply.

² Feature not available in all regions

³ “Drag and drop tracks” refers to transferring music from PC to phone. microSD™ cable required.

⁴ Video Calling requires that the recipient have a video call capable phone as well.

⁵ The unauthorized copying of copyrighted materials is contrary to the provisions of the Copyright Laws of the United States and other countries. This device is intended solely for copying non-copyrighted materials, materials in which you own the copyright, or materials which you are authorized or legally permitted to copy. If you are uncertain about your right to copy any material, please contact your legal advisor.

⁶ All talk and standby times are quoted in Digital Mode, and are approximate. Battery performance depends on network configuration, signal strength, operating temperature, features selected, and voice, data and other application usage patterns.

⁷ This device supports Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP profiles. In order for Bluetooth devices to communicate with one another, they must utilize the same Bluetooth profile. To determine the profiles supported by other Motorola devices, visit www. motorola.com/bluetooth. For other devices, contact their respective manufacturer.

Certain Bluetooth features including those listed may not be supported by all compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices, and/or the functionality of such features may be limited in certain devices, or by certain wireless carriers. Contact your wireless carrier about feature availability and functionality.

⁸ Available user memory varies due to the configuration of the phone, which varies by service provider.

⁹ 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual usable memory after formatting is less

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. Windows Media is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.