The Motorola Motosmart is the
cheapest in our test. Is it the ultimate value phone? We go hands on to find
out
Speaker grill
Flip the phone over and at the back, just
beneath the battery cover, you will find a fairly large speaker grill which
manages to produce some decent sound when partnered with the supplied music app
Limited "memory
The internal memory was quite low and we
were getting ‘out of memory’ warnings after downloading a handful of apps. For
games or apps in general that don’t support the move to memory card feature,
the phone will struggle
Performance woes
Without running any benchmarks we could
tell the phone was struggling to perform. However, some of the benchmarks we
did run revealed results that were below the HTC. A possible cause is the
limited internal memory and the CPU architecture used (ARM6)
Screen issues
The 3.5-inch screen shares the same
resolution of the HTC and Sony, yet the display still seems more washed out and
a little grainy in places. Not helped by the default wallpaper which showcased
this a touch more
The Motorola Motosmart is the first device
in the group to truly feel like an entry-level phone. The handset is well built
and weighty when held in the hand, but its design feels dated compared to the
other products, while removing the micro SD card - under the back cover - was
also fiddly.
You have a large speaker grill at the back
of the handset which did partner well with the supplied music app. In fact, for
music purposes it was possibly the phone's main saving grace as audio was loud
and punchy. However, booting up the device seems to take an age and then you're
greeted with a display that despite being the same resolution as the Sony
appears lifeless and washed out.
The Ul is using Motorola’s latest
incarnation, running over the top of Android 2.3, so you can create custom
folders for your apps and access your recent apps from the notification bar,
but the scrolling speed when swiping the app list seemed sluggish at times. In
fact, web browsing was a similar experience.
Similarly, at early phases of testing we
were getting buffering issues in HQ mode in YouTube and llp sync issues were
prominent in our test video. Benchmarks backed up our findings and it was remarkable
that the phone was behind the HTC in every test despite having a faster
processor!
The feeble internal storage was probably
the cause of some of the issues as after a reset the streaming and video issues
seemed to settle down.
As a result we had to constantly keep an
eye on the memory and use the supplied task manger to close down running apps.
However, even with a micro SD card you are still going to struggle to install
apps that don’t support the move to SD card feature.
The three-megapixel camera was another
simple point-and-click shooter and in terms of quality most shots lacked detail
and focus; however, its video recording function was better than the HTC. The
only other ray of light was the battery life, which was reasonable from a video
playback point of view.
Head to head
Design
The Motorola feels weighty and solidly
built In the palm of your hand but it still emanates a retro design. The large
speaker grill at the back paves the way for the slide-out cover and micro SD
card slot which Is rather fiddly to remove.
Availability
Limited to T-Mobile via Carphone Warehouse,
but for your $16-a-month, you can choose from a number of different plans, such
as 100 minutes or unlimited texts to UK numbers. You can pay an extra $8 per-month
to get a 500MB data bundle.
Features
Its large speaker and music app combined
well to provide a decent sound experience, but otherwise the Android 2.3 OS
(with little chance of an upgrade) Is partnered with sluggish performance (due
to the lack of internal storage) and a poor display.
Battery life
From a video playback point of view the
phone was not bad, and it managed to hold back 64 per cent from a full charge
during our two hour video test, which was better than the more expensive HTC.
Verdict
Its sluggish performance and poor screen
paled against its rivals and mean we can’t recommend this handset.
Information
Price: $143.95
More information: www.motorola.com
Technical specs
·
Operating system: Android 2.3.6
·
Processor: MediaTek MT6573, single-core, 800
MHz CPU, PowerVR SGX531 GPU
·
Memory: 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM (micro SD card
expansion up to 32GB)
·
Dimensions: 116 x 63.5 x 11.2 mm
·
Weight: 115g
·
Display: 3.5” (165 ppi pixel density), 320 x
480 pixels
·
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth
2.0, GPS, HSDPA, HSUPA
·
Camera: 3-MP rear (LED flash), no front
option, VGA video recording
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