Motorola V1050 hands-on summary
Although nothing out of the ordinary, Motorola's V1050 is a solid choice for a 3G phone even though it's getting to be a bit long in the tooth. An ergonomically friendly numerical keypad and good-looking display are among its best traits, while its camera and multimedia features are showing signs of their age. Similarly, the form factor of the V1050 - which we'll generously describe as... well, generous - hints to the fact that this handset belongs to the first generation of 3G handsets.
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Who said Motorola couldn't make proper 3G phones? It's been a bumpy road, but as with most of the maker's other product lines it finally appears it's time for an extreme makeover in this as well. Boasting a spacious display, enough audio and video formats to make ones head spin and even memory expansion, the Vodafone exclusive is due out shortly and destined to garner some attention.
With its rounded design, the V1050 reminds me somewhat of Motorola's PEBL V6 - except for the external antenna, that is; very 90s. It's still something of a looker, though, and the clamshell handset opens to reveal a gloriously large, bright and crisp 2.2" TFT display with a QVGA resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.
Sporting dual cameras, one of which is a 1.3 MP with a LED photo light and 8x digital zoom, the other of which is a front-mounted 0.3 MP, the V1050 also offers video calling and the abillity to capture and play back video in a range of formats. On the list of supported formats we find MPEG4, H.263 and RealVideo - and to my great surprise, even Windows Media Video (WMV).
Also boasting an audio player, the list of supported formats for this particular aspect of functionality is no less impressive. AMR, MIDI, AAC, MP3, WMA, RealAudio and XMFI make for an absolutely gob-smacking impression, and to round out the abbreviation soup I'll also mention that the handset supports J2ME MIDP 2.0. Want more? Alright, it's also got SMS, MMS and an e-mail client which supports POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP.
Still not content? Well then, how does WAP 2.0 and GPRS in addition to the 3G capabilities, coupled with support for up to 256 MB of microSD memory sound? Pretty damn impressive, if you ask me - and the best part of it all is that from my quick play with the handset, all of the features appeared to be well implemented despite some slight response issues in the video department.
With a bit of luck, these will be addressed by the time the V1050 hits shelves, which will be as soon as in the second quarter of this year; no word on pricing, though, I'm afraid.
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