[ Sajith M ]

I decided to get myself a New Year gift and picked up a new Moto Ming (Motorola A1200). The listed Maximum retail price is Rs. 18370, while I picked it up for Rs 16,500 (INR). So here is my first attempt at a phone review.

In the Box
The box includes the phone, three styluses, travel charger, USB data cable, 512MB Transflash (T-Flash, micro-SD) card with a mini-SD adapter, stereo headset and the manual.

Design and Construction
If you have used A780 (as I have), you should not have any trouble getting used to the A1200. The unit feels solid, well built but not too heavy or bulky (A780 qualifies as a bit bulky). I liked the black matte look, kind of looks cool and has a feel similar to the PEBL. The front cover is hard translucent plastic, but allows clear screen display (better than expected). On the negative side, the flip is a bit tough to open (or am not yet used to it). Also the memory slot is under the battery, which means changing memory cards is a pain.

Display
Bright and clear LCD display with a resolution of 240×320. Good enough for most purposes. The text is clear and sharp, perfectly readable even when you set the text size to small.

Input
Handwriting input is pretty nice, but pretty much similar to A780. It still gets confused between l (small L) and i (small I), but then maybe it’s just my handwriting… The on-screen keyboard is quite usable; you can type with the stylus but don’t try typing with your fingers. Support for HID profile is missing, so don’t think of hooking up a keyboard to your phone.

Memory
8MB internal memory is a sad joke. Free 512MB micro-SD compensates for it though.

Built in Programs
Frankly, I don’t care as you can always download the ones you like, or write your own. Anyways, the supplied programs are fine – acceptable sort of thing.

Camera
Takes decent pictures if the lighting is good. Has a macro mode so take very close, close-ups. Here are some pictures taken with the camera to give you a hang of the quality.

A phone is for making calls
Good audio quality. Signal reception is pretty good too.

Conclusion
A nice phone for a decent price tag. If you are looking for a new phone, you should consider A1200 :-)

Posted under: Technology , Gadgets
Tagged with: Moto Ming, Motorola A1200, Phone, review