Motorola MOTOROI (Motorola XT720)

[Mr.Bhat]

<img style="float:left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;" src="http://www.mobilegazette.com/handsets/motorola/motorola-motoroi/motorola-motoroi-2.jpg"/>The Korean market often gives a glimpse of future phone directions, and with the Android-based Motorola MOTOROI we have another variation of the DROID and MILESTONE.. but in a rather different format with additional features.

Motorola haven't strayed too far from the black slabby design that we've seen with their other high-end Android phones, although this time the MOTOROI doesn't come with a slide-out keyboard. This lack of a keyboard makes sense when you consider than many users will be typing both Korean and English into the phone, so an on-screen keyboard is probably better.

On the front is a familiar 3.7" 854 x 480 pixel display that we have seen on similar Motorolas, on the back is a 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash which is substantially better than the DROID or MILESTONE. Motorola also say that the MOTOROI can capture 720p HD video, which should give 1280 x 720 pixels with at least 25 frames per second capture rate.

There's a slightly odd looking "bump" on one side of the phone where there are three additional keys for media control, stills camera and video capture.

Motorola MOTOROI Another unusual feature is the built in DMB tuner, meaning that the MOTOROI can receive digital terrestrial TV broadcasts. South Korea is one market where there is widespread support for digital TV on this type of device, unlike the rest of the world where implementation is still patchy. There's also an FM radio, and the MOTOROI has a standard 3.5mm audio output and there's even an HDMI interface so that you can output videos directly from the phone to an HD TV.

The MOTOROI supports GPS with a built-in Compass, and this can integrate with Google Maps although we don't know if there are any other personal navigation options available.

Underneath this is a tri-band GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 device with WCDMA 2100 plus WiFi, strangely there's no mention of 3.5G support but as the carrier SK Telecom implemented the world's first HSDPA network then we think that it probably has it. The 1420 mAh battery theoretically gives up to 4.5 hours talktime and 12 days standby time, but our own experience with this type of feature-rich device is that the battery life will be used up much more quickly than that. Like the DROID, the MOTOROI also has an optional docking station which allows the handset to be put on a desk as a clock or digital picture frame.

The MOTOROI runs Android 2.0, and from what we can see it appears to be a fairly straightforward implementation, of course with some additions for the extra multimedia hardware. Android is readily extendable, so more applications can be downloaded from the Android Market.

Motorola say that the MOTOROI should be available during early February, exclusively through SK Telecom in Korea.. and hopefully we will see some of these features incorporated into other Motorola handsets later this year.