Motorola V.70

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If there's a mobile phone version to the iMac, the Motorola V.70 has to be the one. Not surprisingly, it was designed by ex-Apple employee Tim Parsey who was recruited to inject some wow back into Motorola.

The result: a mobile phone that swivels open 360 degrees, in a brushed metal finish and translucent white plastic interior as eye-catching as the radical reverse LCD screen with its white-text-on-black background. But as stylishly-appealing as that may be, the V.70 fails to impress with its quirky user interface and limited features.

Unique Swivel Concept
Undeniably the most revolutionary design in mobile phones in the last two years, the V.70's rotating front panel is surprisingly easy to maneuver, even when operated using only one hand. Turning the cover 180 degrees reveals the phone keypad. There's no need to worry about whether you are left-handed or right-handed since the front panel can be rotated more than 360 degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise.

The key advantage of the rotating front panel is how it opens up the phone to provide a better ear-to-mouth positioning during operation, while maintaining a sleek 93 x 45 x 16mm footprint. Unlike clamshell phones, the main LCD display stays visible even when the phone is closed.

Throughout the test of the V.70 review unit, we found the clarity of the calls sufficiently clear, even in noisy environments. However, its signal reception was not as good, failing to connect on several occasions when used in poor reception areas such as an underground train and shopping mall.

Tiny, Too
One of the coolest features of the V.70 is its blue backlit keypad and reverse LCD screen. When the front cover is swiveled open, three rows of blue LEDs light up the keys while the LCD brightens up with a cool-blue backlight. Unfortunately, Motorola has opted for a two-line text display which is barely enough real estate for comfortable reading, let alone heavy SMS text messaging.

The flattened buttons on the V.70 may be adequately spaced apart but the tiny and not-so-responsive keys make efficient usage rather difficult, particularly for large hands.

It should also be noted that when the rotating flap is closed, the three buttons below the LCD display have no specific functions attached to it and mainly serve as illuminator switches for the clock and date display.

Back To Basics
Oddly, for a mobile phone that comes equipped with GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), the V.70 lacks infrared connectivity. In its place, Motorola has chosen to provide an optional USB cable for linking to other devices which really makes the phone less convenient for connecting to the Web.

Also, the V.70 is a dualband, which means professionals who travel often may want to opt for triband handsets like the Motorola V.66 and Ericsson T68. Other noteworthy features that are sorely missed in a phone are polyphonic ringtones, Bluetooth connectivity, voice dial and command, and a color LCD screen.

Poor User Interface
Bearing in mind the axiom to never judge a book by its cover, beyond its pretty looks, we found the V.70 a difficult phone to use. It took a while to become familiar with the various phone functions such as changing the alert mode and accessing the text display mode, some of which were hidden deep within the multiple layers of menu options.

Even with personalized options in place, we could only move the main menu options around; there was no direct access to the menus in the sub-directories. For example, to write an SMS message, you would have to access the menu, choose the "message" option, then scroll down to the "write message" before you could begin. The quirky iTap predictive text input, small screen and tiny buttons didn't help matters.

Other Features
Where ringtones are concerned, the V.70 does not allow downloading of ringtones but comes with an integrated composer where you can customize up to 32 personal tones. The phone has a 500-entry phonebook and comes with three games (Paddle Ball, Mind Blaster and Black Jack). A speakerphone extension for the phone is bundled with the package, while the plastic bezel surrounding the LCD display is interchangeable.

Decent Battery Life
The V.70 is available in two colors, Ceramica (white keypad) which was the evaluation unit sent to us, and Midnight (black keypad). According to Motorola, it offers 130 minutes of talktime and 140 hours of standby time using the supplied Lithium-ion battery.

Conclusion
The V.70 scores with its unique and certainly very attractive design, but those less familiar with Motorola's quirky navigation as well as heavy SMS addicts will find more form than function here.