Review: MOTO SLVR - Eye popping!

Rating: **** 1/2

Am I glad I got this phone! Its thin as a blade, as sleek as a phone can get. The new Moto SLVR, released recently bringing 3 bigwigs into one device - Motorola (the maker), Apple (iTunes software) & Cingular (service provider). After the debacle of the Moto ROKR and a moderate Moto Razr, this phone silences critics.

Read over 1000 reviews (few as inane as this, "the screen gets oily when I talk sticking it to my ear." duh!! use a cover, bluetooth, dont use oil!), convinced Nokia fanatics, and finally chose the SLVR. It is a difficult choice in this day of fierce competition with one nudging the other with an inch of better technology. I am writing this blog in an attempt to help those who are in a quandary in selecting the right mobile phone that combines quality, style and function (the love triangle for any gadget).

In this family of Mp3 phones the 3 phones that I narrowed down to were the Moto SLVR, Nokia 6682 & Sony Ericsson 700i.

Moto SLVR
*Vital Statistics*
1. Top notch design

• Style: Candy bar
  
• Dimensions: 4.5 x 1.9 x 0.45 inches
• Weight: 3.5 ounces (~100 grams)
• Talk time: upto 300 minutes
  
• Quad Band GSM phone

2. Features

• iTunes music player: Apple's award winning software - play, shuffle, sort, shop and manage music
• VGA camera: 4x zoom, video playback (average.)
  
• Bluetooth capability
• Download: games, music, ringtones, pictures and screensavers
• Display: TFT colour display with 256 colours (extremely sharp.)
• Memory: Choice of switching storage between phone & memory.
  
• Phone - 6 Mb
• Card - 512 Mb Micro Sd card (limitation of 100 songs even with more space.Why? don't know, live with it. Its great even with that!)
  
• Music automatically pauses for incoming calls. (you can also hide the iTunes player)
• Mobile email, browser & messaging capability
• Battery life is reasonably good considering the amount of functions it provides.
  

3. Pros

• Seamless integration of all functions
• iTunes player! (it was a major deciding factor for me) - great speakers for the music (at the back though.)
  
• Great quality & signal strength
• Ultra slim (you have to see it to believe it!)

4. Cons

• While on the speaker-phone I dont find the volume too high.
• The ringtones are not too loud (you could download louder ones)
• Just one connection slot for headphones, USB transfer & charging (maybe a problem if you want to charge & use the headphones.
• On a few occasions when you unplpug the headphones and you don't hear a small beep, then you are in trouble. The SLVR just didnt recognize that you unplugged the headset. You try talking on the phone you can't hear a thing. To correct it, plug the headphones back and unplug it slowly till you hear the beep. A major technical snag!

To sum up the Pros clearly outweigh the cons, giving the Moto SLVR a high rating. When compared with the Nokia, I like the Moto better merely because of size. As of the Sony, it was a tough choice, but I chose Moto because of the iTunes & its sleek design. Maybe I just prefer iTunes over other jukeboxes!

Hope this review helps. The SLVR is with Cingular priced at $199 with service & 2 yr contract. Mobileplaza.com is good site for cheap phones. I got mine there for $49.99. But again you need to wait for the damned mail-in rebates.

Chintu.

I will soon put up Adsense on the blog, it might pull up Ads with useful links about the SLVR.