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source: hardwarezone.com
Motorola Introduces New Game (MING)
By Seow Tein Hee
And the new game of the day from Motorola is its latest touchscreen device: the Motorola MOTOMING A1600. The US based company, though keeping a low profile in recent months, is still actively pursuing and wooing the consumers, albeit with a collection that faces tough competition from its rivals.
Singing the Key Flat
Rounded edges are the order for the day and this makes the MOTOMING easy on the hands. The thickness of the phone is another story though and it's a mystery as to why we are faced with a such thick device when manufacturers have gone on to miniaturize their creations.
But the real mystery is its clamshell design, with the top portion acting more like a protective cover for its touch screen than of any other use. Data connectivity is done via the microUSB slot at the right profile, which lies just below the volume buttons. Herein lies another problem: flat buttons. This extends to its camera button on the right profile, and unfortunately, the all-important Call and End buttons.
Mingling into New Game
For the thumbing folks, the MOTOMING will probably not be your cup of tea. Handling the text messaging aspect of the device requires extensive use of the stylus, especially so since you'll be able to type only on the small virtual QWERTY keyboard, or write with the handwriting recognition feature. In truth, the MOTOMING is looking to target a niche Chinese audience. This is evident in the fact that Motorola placed a strong emphasis on its handwriting recognition of Chinese characters for the MOTOMING. On top of this, there's also the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature which utilizes its 3.2-megapixel camera to scan and identify English words and give the equivalent Chinese translation.
For connectivity options, the MOTOMING has the bare basics covered. This includes Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 for data connectivity between your PC and the MOTOMING. Wireless connection to the web is lacking on this Motorola product though, as you'll only have EDGE GPRS available for online connectivity. However, this won't be a cause for concern since it's only a minimal amount of data transfer required if one were to utilize its A-GPS function on its MOTONAV GPS software.
While our review unit didn't have the pre-requisite map loaded for our testing purposes, we've received information that retail units will be equipped with the Singapore map. Moving back to basics, we've ran the MING through a few hours of music playback that includes calls and SMS, and in a day's worth of usage, we plugged the USB cable in once more to recharge the dry battery.
Taking Leave
From what we've seen over the months, the mobile phone segment has been dominated by Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson with their strong and competitive lineups. Motorola is not having an easy time competing and the company needs to quickly catch up in the tech race and offer something besides its latest 5-megapixel camera phone, the Motorola ZN5. For this, the Motorola MOTOMING A1600 will appeal to the more budget conscious consumers with its S$558 price tag, but unfortunately not the power and feature demanding user.
Product Specifications
* Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
* Operating system: Linux
* Display: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4-inch TFT touchscreen, 256K colors
* Camera: 3.2-megapixel with auto-focus and LED flash
* Memory: microSD expandability up to 4GB
* Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0 (microUSB), GPS with A-GPS
* Battery: 930mAh
* Standby time: Up to 180 hours
* Talk time: Up to 6 hours
* Dimensions: 98.9 x 53.5 x 19.6mm
* Weight: 128g
* Price: S$558
source: hardwarezone.com
Motorola Introduces New Game (MING)
By Seow Tein Hee
And the new game of the day from Motorola is its latest touchscreen device: the Motorola MOTOMING A1600. The US based company, though keeping a low profile in recent months, is still actively pursuing and wooing the consumers, albeit with a collection that faces tough competition from its rivals.
Singing the Key Flat
Rounded edges are the order for the day and this makes the MOTOMING easy on the hands. The thickness of the phone is another story though and it's a mystery as to why we are faced with a such thick device when manufacturers have gone on to miniaturize their creations.
But the real mystery is its clamshell design, with the top portion acting more like a protective cover for its touch screen than of any other use. Data connectivity is done via the microUSB slot at the right profile, which lies just below the volume buttons. Herein lies another problem: flat buttons. This extends to its camera button on the right profile, and unfortunately, the all-important Call and End buttons.
Mingling into New Game
For the thumbing folks, the MOTOMING will probably not be your cup of tea. Handling the text messaging aspect of the device requires extensive use of the stylus, especially so since you'll be able to type only on the small virtual QWERTY keyboard, or write with the handwriting recognition feature. In truth, the MOTOMING is looking to target a niche Chinese audience. This is evident in the fact that Motorola placed a strong emphasis on its handwriting recognition of Chinese characters for the MOTOMING. On top of this, there's also the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature which utilizes its 3.2-megapixel camera to scan and identify English words and give the equivalent Chinese translation.
For connectivity options, the MOTOMING has the bare basics covered. This includes Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 for data connectivity between your PC and the MOTOMING. Wireless connection to the web is lacking on this Motorola product though, as you'll only have EDGE GPRS available for online connectivity. However, this won't be a cause for concern since it's only a minimal amount of data transfer required if one were to utilize its A-GPS function on its MOTONAV GPS software.
While our review unit didn't have the pre-requisite map loaded for our testing purposes, we've received information that retail units will be equipped with the Singapore map. Moving back to basics, we've ran the MING through a few hours of music playback that includes calls and SMS, and in a day's worth of usage, we plugged the USB cable in once more to recharge the dry battery.
Taking Leave
From what we've seen over the months, the mobile phone segment has been dominated by Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson with their strong and competitive lineups. Motorola is not having an easy time competing and the company needs to quickly catch up in the tech race and offer something besides its latest 5-megapixel camera phone, the Motorola ZN5. For this, the Motorola MOTOMING A1600 will appeal to the more budget conscious consumers with its S$558 price tag, but unfortunately not the power and feature demanding user.
Product Specifications
* Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
* Operating system: Linux
* Display: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4-inch TFT touchscreen, 256K colors
* Camera: 3.2-megapixel with auto-focus and LED flash
* Memory: microSD expandability up to 4GB
* Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0 (microUSB), GPS with A-GPS
* Battery: 930mAh
* Standby time: Up to 180 hours
* Talk time: Up to 6 hours
* Dimensions: 98.9 x 53.5 x 19.6mm
* Weight: 128g
* Price: S$558