Camera Phones Plaza

If you want a classic phone, which has no camera, music player or rockets ready to be launched on the moon and any other offerings which take your attention away from the main purpose, making calls, the perfect device for you is Motorola C139. It is solely built for performing the best function of a phone, making calls. The design is simple, and the interface is user-friendly. It comes with Cingular's prepaid service, and the price is more than reasonable: $29.
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This phone's design is functional and basic, but it has some style. The basic black color scheme, the rounded corners, both give Motorola C139 an aerodynamic look. It is compact and portable (its dimensions are: 4''x1.8''x0.9'') and it weighs only 3 ounces. The rubberized side parts are very good for a strong grip and the external antenna is missing, which is a pretty cool design aspect.

This phone has a display which measure 1.25'' diagonally, and it is bright and colorful and it even supports 65,000 hues. The backlight intensity can be changed, and the contrast also, but the menu's font is kinda small. The dialing font, on the other hand is rather large, and speaking of menu designs, you should know that this phone's menu is very well organized and it is quite useful. Beyon simple animation, don't expect to see on its screen flash graphics or various menu styles. The order of the menu icons can be changed, and this is one of the cool "features" concerning the menu organization.

The navigation array was designed somehow strange, because the middle part of the toggle opens the menu, but you have to shift the finger up to the left key which selects the items. It would have been infinite easier if the menu button doubled the OK key. The toggle key is rubberized and it is a little raised above the plain surface of the phone.  The soft keys can be set as shortcuts, and the up and down directions of the toggle button open the phone book.



The back button doesn't exist, but you can use the right soft key for that purpose, only when in a menu. The keypad buttons are easy to use, and they are cool because they are covered in a rubbery material. They are raised above the surface of the phone and you can make the difference when you slide from one key to another.

The only cool exterior features are the headset jack, which is located on the left side, and the charger port, on the bottom. There is no volume slider on the exterior, so you will have to modify the volume via the toggle navigator.

This phone has a small phone book, for only 100 contacts and this may be enough for some prepaid users. If you are a popular person, or you intend to use it for business purposes (I doubt of that, but maybe there are people who need something simple for work), it is very small, and it allows you to hold in the memory only one phone number for each contact. The SIM can store 250 additional contacts, but I think it would have been better if you could keep all of them in the phone's memory. You can't create caller groups, and there is no possibility to associate ringtones with contacts. Some features are minimal, but they bring the essentials into attention: vibration, speed dialing, SMS, calculator, calendar, currency converter, alarm clock.

Motorola C139 can be customized with wallpapers and screensavers, but from a small selection. There is no chance of a Web browser or wireless Internet connection on this phone, so if you want some entertainment you can compose your ring tones, and there are also three games, which can be pretty funny when you are bored. Spring Ball, Soccer and Maze are nice games, but the small display will torment your eyes when you will play them. The screen can be used as a light for the moments when you got out in the dark.

Call quality is decent, and even if there is small interference, we can say that the main purpose of this phone is accomplished, so it is ok in this matter. There are no troubles in getting a signal, and the voice sometimes sounds echoed, but the calls were excellent maintained in various environments. The battery lige is quire long: 11 hours of talk time, and on standby the phone can be awake up to 18 days.



Motorola C139 is a phone for people who just need to take it out of the pocket or bag, lookup for a contact or dial the number and call. It has the minimal features, so you can calculate something or you can se it up to wake you up in the morning, but there are no 3G, touchscreen, mobile e-mai or instant messaging. I really like this phone concept, because it focuses on the main utility of a phone: making calls. Its simple design and the solid call quality are some good pro aspects for this phone, but the small address book storage capacity and the confusing navigation keys might be some disadvantages. All in all, it is a good phone, but don't expect too many things from it, like features or extras.

Motorola RAZR series includes all clamshell mobile camera phones created by Motorola. They were developed in 2003, and they were released on the market in 2004. The sales actually started in the following year. In the beginning the products belonging to this series were sold on the market as fashion phones. Withing  year, the price lowered and the company sold over 50 million units until July 2006. It is the most popular clamshell phone series, and they are on the second place in the handeld devices' market, after Nokia.
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RAZR series was on the market until 2007, July, when RAZR2 was released. The new series integrates sleeker and more stable designs, and the products also have more features and improved audio quality. The display is brand new touchscreen, and it attracted a lot of people's eyes. New models in this series were V8, V9 and V9m. The company relied too much on these series, and they lost somehow on other niches, like 3G products or smartphones. RAZR products started their decline when LG released their LG Chocolate and the huge incumbent Apple released iPhone. Motorola's strategy has changed over time, and now they are focusing on low prices and they cut a lot the margins, and this resulted in heavy losses in the cellular division.

The original RAZR V3 GPRS phone was offered in the USA with AT&T voice plans, but there were some complaints about dust accumulation between the plastic screen and the LCD glass, and this disadvantage added to the peeling of the plastic cover. It was a good phone at that time, and after this version, a black version was released too, and also a pink one. The pink version is involved into a breast cancer program, and this means that $25 of sales go to Rethink Breast Cancer foundation. It is available in USA by AT&T, and also in Canada. This model has a tatoo-inspired design, which was created by Ami James, from the TLC reality TV show, Miami Ink.

The successor, V3i model, has some improvements, a better camera (1.23 Mp, and 8x zoom), an external and internal display, and also an microSD card slot (up to 1 GB). V3i is similar to V365, and it comes in two versions: the one with iTunes, and the other one with Motorola Digital Audio Player. In 2006, Motorola and D&G released a limited edition of gold phones, and this included too a D&G cell phone holder, a signature leather pouch, headphones (via Bluetooth) and earphones. It was available at all major Motorola reatilers, and of course in D&G boutiques. It is available in a large color palette, for example: Dark Blue, Maroon, Violet, Red, Platinum, Chrome Green and Purple, Celery or Lime Green, and many many others.

V3r and V3t are sold by T-Mobile, AT&T and the Canadian Rogers Wireless. They are virtually identical to the previous versions, and the only difference would be that they use Motorola DAP for music playback. V3r offers a Voice Notes feature, and you can forward the audio recordings to the voice mail or to the phone memory. V3t has a 10 Mb memory, including the system files. It is divided in two partitions, A: and C: and on A: partition, the .avr structure can be found, for the Voice Records feature. C: is larger with 5.5 Mb and it can store user data, images, sounds, text, notes and calendar entries, and also phone book contacts.

RARZ V3re is a model which had EDGE and Crystal Talk Technology improvements. It is similar to the original V3, and it has no memory card support and it has only a VGA 4x camera. This phone has a black matter logo on the battery cover instead the silver logo on V3, and the software version is R3442A.

V3c is a phone is which supports CDMA 2000 1xRTT and 1xEV-DO technologies. The internal memory is 41.2 Mb, and only 36 Mb are available for the user. V3c doesn't have a card slot, and there are two color versions: charcoal gray and light pink. The upgrade version is V3m and it features, finally, a card slot, for up to 2 Gb expansion, it has a longer battery life and 40 Mb of internal memory. The newest CDMA model is VE20, and its clamshell is as this as the V3m's. It has a QVGA display, an outer display with touch keys, a cool 2 Mp camera and a microSD slot for up tp 8 GB expansion. Moreover, it supports stereo Bluetooth.

V3x RAZR was formerly known as V1150, and it apears to be a larger V3, but with more enhancements. It has a 2 Mp camera, a different microprocessor, a chipset, Nvidia GeForce 4500 GPU and ICs for radio.

There were several versions after this V3x, with much more improvements, but the most important aspectis that this series become an iconic phone. It has been used in several movies and television shows, and the most well known occasion was the finale of the third season of Lost, when a character used a RAZR mobile phone. Contestants in the Treasure Hunters reality show were given RAZR for communication with the control tower. Oprah launched the Red edition of RAZR series.

Krave ZN4 has a slim and compact shape, an interesting touch screen and a cover made of transparent plastic which give it a futuristic look. Its dimensions 4.13''x2''x0.75'' make it easy to slip into a pocket, and the weight of only 4.59 is a good weight for this type of mobile phone. It has a cover for the front, and some might ask why this device would need it, but the company justified it presence with the protection of the touch display and with the flip phone look this devices has. It is usable, and the design and protection purposes are reached, but some of the phone's features can be used even when the cover is closed.
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This phone offers music player, V Cast Mobile TV, photo folder and VZ Navigator as novelties in this mobile phones line. Making calls is available without opening the cover which is a huge advantage for the user. For this you have to press the control on the right side and then speak the name or the phone number of the person you want to call, and in few seconds the phone call is dialed. You can also phone the voice mail or the most recently dialed number without opening the cover.

This phone's display measures 2.8'' and it can support up to 65,000 colors, at a 240x400 pixels resolution. This display is bright, and it offers sharp graphics and photos, and the colors are clear and bright too. The text is readable and the contrast is good for reading and typing too. The backlight time, the clock format and the dialing font size can be modified, and the brightness of the display too. If you look at the phone in the standby mode, you will notice a shortcut bar with icons for main features: messaging, dialpad, main menu and contacts. This display has low visibility in direct light, but this is not an unusual thing for mobile phones. Krave doesn't use a 3rd party OS, so it cannot really be included in the smartphones category.

The touch interface is accurate and it responds without lag time. The tactile feedback is great because it shows where you are pressing on the screen. This phone doesn't come with a stylus, but there are no problems with using the fingers to navigate through menus. Like many other touch screen devices, you can browse through lists by dragging with the fingers up and down on the screen. This motion is visibly fluid, and it doesn't have lags or problems. On the keyboard you can notice that the touch keys are large, but the alphanumeric pad has quite small letters. It has three special punctuation buttons, the "@" button is also present, the space bar is well placed, there are also clear and return buttons and surprisingly it has a shift button too.

Krave has a 1,000 positions address book, with room for five phone numbers and two e-mail addresses for each contact. The other essentials are the vibrate mode, which works great, text and multimedia messaging, alarm clock, calendar, world clock, notepad and calculator. This phone has also stereo Bluetooth, and if offers access to Verizon's Visual Voicemail feature. This phone has access to Windows Live, Yahoo!, AOL, AIM and Verizon POP3 mail accounts.

The 2 camera megapixel is the biggest disappointments in this phone. All Motorola fans were expecting at least a 3.2 megapixels camera, but the disappointment is even bigger, because you cannot edit the image at all. The only option is the digital zoom, and don't think of changing the color tones, the brightness, white balance or other effects. After you take the pictures, you can transfer them to the computer, via Bluetooth or USB cable, you can also send them in a MMS or just store them in phone's memory or in an online album.

Call quality is excellent, and this might be the best point of this phone. Conversations are clear, without interference or face-outs. There are no connection lags. Not even dropped calls. The quality of calling feature is outstanding, and the only minus, a little one, would be that when the volume is at its highest levels, the voices are distorted.

Motorola Krave ZN4 catches the eye with an unique, interesting and special design, with an innovative touch interface and it also offers a lot of features which make it favorite for a lot of people. Some problems would be around the browser, the keyboard and the camera features. It also lacks WiFi and the full exchange support feature is not available yet. All in all, this phone is unique, you can use it easily and it has quite good performances in the main purpose: voice communication.

After reading some topics in various forums, and seeing that more and more people would like to get the Skype Mobile application on their Motorola Q phone, I compiled some solutions, and here it is the best way to use it on your mobile phone:
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Skype doesn't list Motorola as an option on the brand list of compatible mobile devices, and it is pretty hard to find the .cab file where these compatibilities are stored. For getting this .cab  file on your phone, there are two solutions.

For downloading this .cab file directly to your phone, you should navigate to this page , and accept a 3.86 Mb file download, called "SkypeForSmartphone_Beta.CAB". After you accept, it will be downloaded, some typical installation prompts will appear, and a Skype icon will be added to the Start menu. If the installation process fails, try it again: go to the page, and download the .cab and then go through the installation steps.

Another possibility is to download the EXE and install it from the PC, or download the .cab for later installation. For this, you will have to browse to the file's location with the File Manager. Installing Skype Mobile will change your Home Screen to the Skype's home screen, which is pretty large and ugly, with the specific color scheme. Changing it back can be done from Settings-> Home Screen. If you want to add the Skype Mobile plugin into your Home Screen XML file, there are instructions at the end of this article.

If you launch Skype, it will tell you “Please note that a WiFi connection could not be found". Ignore this message, because it is true, Motorola Q doesn't have any WiFi connection, and this means that Skype will use the EVDO connection to communicate. When you launch it for the first time, it will require the login information.

Skype for mobile phones is pretty cool, because all the contacts, phone numbers and history are automatically loaded from the servers and they can be used from your mobile phone. When you will re-login, it won't be necessary to configure it again, like you sometimes have to do on the PC. There can be run multiple copies of Skype without problems, and you can easily use the PC and mobile version. All the things you typed on the Skype PC version will appear on the mobile one, and the other way around, and it is pretty cool,because you can keep track of your conversations, even if they had been typed on the PC or on the mobile device.

Text messaging works great on mobile devices, but the voice quality is very choppy, and you actually can't use the phone calling feature, even if Skype offers the possibility of dialing out and in. I think it is better to use the phone part for voice communication, and you could use the Skype voice feature for reading the voicemail, but it is quite sketchy. In time, both Motorola and Skype will improve their features, and in short time, the call quality will improve with technology's progess.

Here is the XML sequence you should insert in the XML page of Home Screen, in order to make the Skype plugin to appear. You should add this to the bottom of the code, or wherever you want Skype Mobile to be placed.

Motorola V180 costs $119, but you can find it in various places at lower prices, with service agreements. These silver cell phones are dominating the market and I think everybody likes the stylish design brought by Motorola V180. It is colored in black, and it has a silver trim. It looks pretty good, the measurements ( 3.5'' x 1.7'' x 0.9'' ) and the weight (2.8 ounces) give the phone a real portability and comfort in usage. The rectangular external screen shows time, the battery life and the ID caller, when available. The screen in monochrome, and the only control on the exterior is the volume button. Speakerphone is located on the rear face, but the phone actually doesn't have a sturdy design. It looks pretty fragile, and you can feel it while holding it in your hand.
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The display is quite small, it is only 1.5 inches diagonal, and has very low visibility in sunlight. It supports 65,000 colors, and you can't say it renders vibrant colors, because the general aspect has an washed-out effect (only the contrast can be adjusted). The display and the frame are vulnerable to smudges, and a real disadvantage is that the text size cannot be changed (this is a problem for users with visual problems).

The menus are quite easy to navigate, and the navigation controls have a cheap plastic look. The toggle has five directions, and takes you to the phone book, the call log, the message center and to the section where you can set up the ring styles. There are two buttons for T-zone applications, which can also operate in the instant messaging application also, and they can activate the speakerphone while in a call. While most of the Motorola phones have the Talk button on the right and the End on the left, this model has the keys in the traditional places.

The keypad buttons are set flush with the phone's surface, and it's quite hard to dial by feel. The set of features is at an average level. The address book can store up to 500 contacts which can have six fields for phone numbers and an e-mail address field. If you have more than 500 contacts, you should think of the storage space on the SIM card too, which is up to 250 contacts. Contacts can be categorized in groups and they can get associated to any of the 28 monophonic or 20 polyphonic ringtones. The contacts can get also a picture, but it won't be shown on the external display. This phone doesn't have a camera, so you have to upload the pictures yourself, or ask those people to send them to you their pictures.

All in all, Motorola V180 has good call quality, the speakerphone is good, it also has USB capability and instant messaging, the battery life is satisfying but the slippery keypad and cramped controls are pretty important minuses in the final report. It also has a flimsy plastic construction and even if the design is not so impressing, this Motorola V180 is a quality, basic cell phone.