Motorola’s Droid RAZR was an undoubted return to form, inspired by the firm’s iconic clam shell noughties handset. Many looked to Motorola, saw their takeover by Google and wondered what would they come up with next. The wait is over. The Motorola Motoluxe is not only affordable but has some impressive specifications as well. Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a UK release date along with a price has been revealed.
It doesn’t challenge the high end models like Droid Razr but anyone in the market for a 4 inch FWGA 480×854 screen and an 8MP camera with auto focus to the rear along with a 0.3 megapixel one to the front, they need look no further. The device comes with Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread has a single-core Qualcomm 800Mhz processor. Whether it will receive an update to Ice Cream sandwich remains to be seen but the manufacturer is owned by Google – it would be strange if it didn’t receive an upgrade to Android’s new flagship. It has Bluetooth 3.0, 1GB of built in storage and a microSD slot should you want to expand that. It also weighs 124g so it light to carry around and a good size to fit in the market measuring 117.7 x 60.5 x 9.9mm. Standby time comes in at 450 hours with up to 6.5 hours of talk time.
Motorola is shouting out the Motoluxe’s 4 inch screen, that is an “edge-to-edge display”. You might also read this as another way of stating the phone has a relatively small bezel, and you can definitely see it on the sides. But one shouldn’t moan because really the Motoluxe feels considerably more compact than many other 4in smartphones thanks to the narrower bezel that really is a plus in anyone’s eyes.
The screen’s resolution of 480 x 854 was sharp enough for text but suffer from normal LCD display problems and the colours appeared slightly bleached; contrast shift issues alongside unhelpful viewing angles also contribute to the problems. Under the screen sit are four capacitive Android buttons for Menu, Home, Back and Search. But below these are features which set the Motoluxe ahead of other Android handsets: a horizontal blue notification light and a groove for attaching a lanyard take their place here; one might wonder why, but someone might feel the need.
A funky addition is the notification light emitting different colours (blue, green and purple) depending on whether you have a new email, text message or voice mail. It’s a neat little feature and while the spec comes it alongside many of its competitors launching around the same time, any little headline grabbing gadget can make a smartphone stand out.