Last night we attended an event announcing the already announced new device from Motorola. The Motoluxe. It can be bought in various outlets already for about £250 pounds and also rather cheaply on contracts as well. According to the Motorola PR people present at the event the Motoluxe will be stocked by T-Mobile today. There is a separate post here about this.
So we got to a nice little nightclub just off Regent Street in London. At first not many people were around so I got to actually touch one of the five devices floating around. Within a few hours the venue was nice and busy and the Motorola phone explanation type people were quite busy. Explaining how the phone worked and showing them how the new Motorola launcher worked. I should say that the lighting in the room did not really lend itself to taking photos. The tables were very reflective and the ceiling was covered in red light bulbs. So I apologise for any offence caused by the photos. Oh and one other thing. The nail varnish is not mine.
The actual device is pretty cool. It looks like Motorola have targeted a certain sort of customer. That sort of customer is one who wants an Android device to do everything they have heard about and yet only pay about £20 per month on a contract. The Motoluxe has a sort of non slip coating feel to it, it’s nice to touch. It’s nice and light and doesn’t feel large for a 4″ device. The screen pretty much goes from one side to another, not much bezel action going on here. There is also the cool notification light at the bottom of the device which lights up different colours depending on what sort of notification has appeared. The device has a nice solid metal back panel and it also has a micro sdhc slot. Which is good as the internal memory remaining for apps is about 300mb. So you are going to be able to install a good chunk of apps before you have start worrying about moving them around. The Motoluxe also has an 8mp camera as well. Which is good on a device in this price range.
Motoblur is gone and in it’s place is Motoswitch, it is the new Motorola launcher. It looks like a cross between Touchwiz and the new Sense. The Motoluxe has a new lock screen which has six app shortcuts around a circle. Very similar to the Sense lock screen. The launcher doesn’t offer much different apart from some nice widgets for frequently used contacts and frequently used apps. A nice touch really.
Some things about the Motoluxe stick out like a sore thumb though. You can probably guess the first one. Ice Cream Sandwich, with the latest generation of HTC devices soon about to land you would have thought Motorola would perhaps at least have addressed whether or not the Motoluxe would be getting ICS or not. Well no. No one I spoke to had any idea whether it would or not. I guess the target market couldn’t care less. The next problem is bootloaders. The Motoluxe will come with a locked bootloader. So the hacker uptake of the device may be a little slow. Whilst discussing the Motorola stance on bootloaders the phone explanation type person kept mentioning the developer version of the Droid Razr. I was like “but if this device at this price was unlocked you would sell millions of them” he shrugged his shoulders. Oh well. Lastly and probably the most worrying was the fact that the new Motorola launcher Motoswitch was quite laggy. Apparently this is because the device was running a pre release version of the rom. Hmmmm. We shall see. We shall hopefully be getting a review unit soon.
So once gain sorry for the pics and sorry for the nail varnish. Here are the hands on pictures
Here is the specification as we all love a few stats.
Display – 4″ FWVGA 480 x 854 (244ppi), 16M colours
Colours – Licorice, Glacier white
Weight – 122 grams
Size -117.7 x 60.5 x 9.8 mm
Memory – 1GB ROM / 512 RAM / microSD slot up to 32GB
CPU – 800 Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227A-0
Removable memory – Up to 32GB microSD
DESIGN: ATTRACT ATTENTION
Go ahead and stare. It’s OK. MOTOLUXE™ is a beautifully designed Android™ smartphone that demands your attention. A lean 110 g body that’s an alluring 9.8 mm thin, this elegant phone has sharp edges and a brushed metal trim — striking, yet affordable features you’ll be proud to show off.
DISPLAY: DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
You’re popular, and MOTOLUXE™ lets you know it, with a uniquely designed lanyard groove that glows electric blue, red or green when friends want to see what’s up. Paired with the 4-inch, edge-to-edge hi-res display, this is a smartphone that’s sure to get you noticed.
CAMERAS: SEE AND SHARE YOUR STORIES
MOTOLUXE™ carries two cameras, so you share what you see or show your beautiful self. Use the 8 MP camera with autofocus, digital zoom and built-in flash to take the perfect shot. Then switch to the front-facing webcam to tell your tale. Sharing your exploits has never been so easy, or fun.
More Info – Motorola