Camera Phones Plaza

Motorola announced the Aura yesterday, an obvious, but also peculiar high-end version of its V70 cell phone, from many years ago. Seriously biting the style of the classic Motorola V70, this one boasts the same switchblade design, but you can notice that the display has been significantly upgraded from that old school phone.

This unique handset is inspired by luxury watches and handcrafted designs and breaks conventions, re-establishing artistry in the design and manufacturing of mobile devices. Fine craftsmanship and the industry’s first circular display help AURA deliver a sensory experience that is second to none for those with refined tastes.



Creating AURA is the result of mixing a sophisticated design, high performance racing engines and the quality of a photographic print. Its form reminds you of the timeless beauty of luxury watches, also introducing the world’s first circular display on a mobile device. Two very important requirements such as technical precision and mechanical excellence are accomplished through a Swiss-made main bearing and more than 200 parts that create a seamless opening for the handset. Instead of a standard square or rectangular display, the Motorola AURA gets a circular display that doubles as glowing red clock. The 1.55-inch diameter round liquid-crystal display is an industry first, being capable of displaying 16 million colors with 300 DPI resolution.

Jim Wicks, corporate vice president and director of Consumer Experience Design, Mobile Devices, Motorola, said that “AURA is Motorola’s latest endeavor into the high-tier mobile space and is the result of our continued inspiration to innovate in design, imagination and state-of-art handcraftsmanship”. In addition, “from the moment AURA owners hold their phones, they elevate their own experience in luxury and unmatched quality”.



The stainless steel housing, textures and patterns chemically etched into its surface are once again proves to the hand-sculpted richness of AURA. Imagine, for example, that the front piece of the phone takes nearly two weeks to create. In that time, the stainless steel is sculpted, electro and hand polished, chemically etched and PVD coated. The result is right in front of your eyes, a finely finished product that withstands the test of time.

When you turn the phone over, you can see a window into its mechanical heart. The Swiss-made main bearing, gears composed of Rockwell 50-55 hardened steel and 130 precision ball bearings work in tandem to drive the assisted-opening blade, an effect more like opening a luxury car door than accessing a mobile device. The custom-engineered rotating mechanism is composed of more than 200 high-precision individual parts, and the gears are protected from harsh conditions with the same coatings used in high-performance racing engines. Therefore, built as a luxury phone, the AURA is made of relatively high-grade materials that include a 62-carat sapphire lens that protects the two-megapixel camera from scratches, a stainless steel body with precision ball bearings and an aluminum keypad.



This is a quality phone, there’s no doubt about it, so the crystal clear sound uses the CrystalTalk Technology whenever making and receiving calls. This way, the sound experience is brought to the next level. Even if it’s clearly being designed and marketed as a luxury item, the AURA still has what is fair to consider as basic smartphone features: email, audio and video playback, a 2 GB of built-in memory as the only storage option, microUSB port, the Bluetooth A2DP connectivity and some sort of open source browser.

AURA is expected to be available around the globe beginning sometime in Q4 2008. For those who want to experience AURA or to find more information on technical specs, they can visit Motorola’s official website. There is no word about the price, yet, though there are some rumors that estimate the device at $2000.

(Source Motorola)