Yesterday we got our hands on the new budget phone from Motorola the Motosmart. It’s bascially a smaller and slightly lower Motoluxe. Normally the smaller versions of devices are abysmal, like the Xperia X8 or some of the smaller Galaxy devices. I’m hoping the Motosmart doesn’t follow the same pattern. Here are my initial impressions of the device, a full review of the device will follow in a week or two.
Hardware
The Motosmart is small, bearing that in mind though my daily devices are a Samsung Galaxy Note and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. So most things seem small. The screen is 3.2″ and hvga so it’s a totally different beast to what I’m used to. The camera is a very basic 3.2mp camera with no flash so I’m not expecting much. One thing I am always pleased to see is a memory card slot and a removable battery. Both give owners options.
Spec is fairly standard for a budget device:
- BATTERY TYPE 1400 mAh
- MP3 PLAYBACK Yes
- STANDBY TIME Up to approximately 550 hrs (2G); 500 hrs (3G)
- EMAIL Yes (POP3, IMAP). Corporate Sync, Google Mail, Push Email
- MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING (MMS) Yes
- TEXT MESSAGING (SMS) Yes
- INSTANT MESSAGING (IM) Yes, embedded (Google Talk)
- CAMERA 3 MP fixed focus with 4x digital zoom
- FLASH No
- FOCUS Fixed
- WEB CAM No
- SYNCHRONISATION Corporate sync, PC sync
- WI-FI 802.11 b/g/n
- BLUETOOTH® TECHNOLOGY Bluetooth™ Class 2, Version 4.0 LE + EDR; profiles, HSP, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP, OPP, SPP, GAP
- Micro USB charging and data
- DLNA (DIGITAL LIVING NETWORK ALLIANCE) Yes
- OPERATING SYSTEM Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- LIGHT-RESPONSIVE DISPLAY Yes
- MICROPHONE Yes
- PINCH TO ZOOM Yes
- MotoSwitch UI 2.0, which allows you to switch between personal and work modes; LED alerts / charge notifications
- TOUCH SCREEN Yes
- DISPLAY TYPE 320 x 480 TFT LCD (262k) / HVGA Capacitive Touchscreen Display
- WEIGHT 115 grams
- SIZE (H X W X D) 116 x 63.5 x 11.2 mm
- DISPLAY SIZE 3.5-inch
- MEMORY 165 MB user available memory (512 MB Internal ROM, 512 MB Internal RAM) expandable by up to 32 GB microSD card
- ACCELEROMETER Yes
- REMOVABLE MEMORY Up to 32 GB microSD
- SENSORS Gravity sensor, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor
- CPU Qualcomm MSM7225A 800MHz
Design
Here are a few shots of the device, as you can see it is like a smaller Motoluxe. The back and sides of the device are that sort of soft touch, sort of non slip rubbery stuff. The front of the phone is dominated by the large bezel. Beneath the screen of the sits a row of capacative buttons and beneath that sits an odd angled bit of plastic. The back of the Motosmart has a metal backplate again covered in that rubbery stuff.
Software
I guess at some point I should mention Android 2.3.6 and some people will have just lost interest. But for the target market it works.
Somehow Motorola have made the Motosmart have made this quite speedy feeling. I guess only having a hvga screen helps.
Initial Conclusion
When I first opened the box I was a little wary. After using it to setup my various accounts and explore the included software I was pleasantly surprised. Yes having it run Gingerbread is a little annoying, but for someone who wants a sub £100 phone what will they be expecting?
Over the next few weeks I’m going to be testing the Motosmart to see how it handles media consumption, Web browsing, social media, day to day stuff and games. All normal tasks for most users. My main concern is the internal storage, which was already struggling after updating the stock apps.
If you want me to cover something specific let me know in the comments below.