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By Juniper Foo
Dec 14, 2005

Motorola's done it again. In yet another visual treat that defies today's diet trend, including its very own blade-thin RAZR series, the PEBL embraces and celebrates the ample with rubenesque curves that crave to be touched. Drawing inspiration from volcanic pebble rubbed smooth by the ebb and flow of the sea, this handset goes beyond looks to the sensory.

Design
Having achieved a startling post-StarTac comeback with the 13.9mm-thin RAZR, Motorola is once again proving that it can push the design envelope to deliver the "whoa" products desired by CEO Ed Zander. Where the RAZR is all edgy, hard angles, the PEBL is curvy and organically Mother Earth. Wrapped in a lustrous silky smooth material, the PEBL makes you want to rub and handle it, much like zen meditation orbs.

In keeping with the road less traveled, Motorola has employed a vertical LCD screen on the outside. Unfortunately, keeping to the color theme has meant a tradeoff, with the two-line LCD in monochrome and text-only. This displays time, battery strength, reception status and ID info, and is illuminated by a UV-like purplish backlight.

Integrated into the panel design, at the bottom, is the VGA camera lens. This may be an oversight since the protective glass piece has a tendency to hold onto finger smudges. This, in turn, may obscure images taken, which may be why Motorola has provided a screen cleaning pad for good measure. At the back lies the speaker, a position we don't really fancy as the sound tends to discharge from behind rather than in front where it makes more sense.

Motorola has opted for black plastic keys to sit flushed along the sides. You'll find the volume and user-definable SMART keys on the left, plus Voice Key on the right for voice commands and recording voice notes. The chrome hinge adds, rather than subtracts, from the overall look, giving the PEBL enough of a masculine highlight to attract the male user as well. The hinge conceals the miniUSB connector for charging and syncing, which is itself hidden behind a tightly sealed rubber plug.

The US company again eschews convention when it comes to opening the handset. To get a kick out of this, watch as you ask a clueless colleague to flip it open. He'll turn red in the face trying to figure out and pry apart this bivalve. The trick lies in sliding the upper lid of the clamshell downwards, which releases the catch. This in turn springs the cover open rather responsively, one must add.

Inside is a RAZR-looking keypad. The feel is more plastic than metallic, but makes up for this by a rather unusual flat keypad marked by raised wavy etchings; again, keeping it all very tactile. What surprises is that once past the initial adjustment, the alignment of the keys feels well-placed and spacious enough for big thumbs and long fingernails. So texting should be nice and easy.

Two gripes: The five-way navigation joystick with its center select is a tad too flat and small to be accurate. The two soft keys are also a little too high up to provide a comfortable reach for shorter thumbs.

No complaints with the 262K-color screen which we reckon is brilliant enough to satisfy even fastidious Samsung handset connoisseurs. However, like most phones, it's almost impossible to make out the display under direct sunlight, not to mention that it's a fingerprint magnet.

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