Fancing standing out from the crowd? Get your hands on the swivel-style Motorola V80, says Anthony Newman - it's a real head-turner.
Wouldn't it be boring if all phones were normal? Clearly Motorola think so, and lo! the V80 is born. Successor to the V70, it keeps the crazy mechanism, but is a whole new phone, packed with modern features. Let's see whether it's as revolutionary as it claims to be.
 | Motorola's V80 is sure to make you stand out in a crowd
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Exterior
The V80 is an incredible looking handset, totally unique and, in our spot poll, a real object of lust for both sexes of all ages. Weighing in at 108g and measuring 45 x 99 x 23 mm, it's compact, while not featherweight. It's shorter and narrower than one would expect, and thicker, too, thanks to the unique design.
Rather than adopting a standard design, Motorola have blessed the V80 with a rotating mechanism only previously seen on the V70. Simply put, a screen layer rotates around the central joystick to reveal the numeric keypad layer underneath. When closed, therefore, the top face holds simply the navigation joystick, speaker and the huge screen, which offers an impressive view at an excellent resolution of 176 x 220, complete with 16-bit colour.
The green joystick and chrome function keys look great, and although we didn't like them initially, we did warm to them over the course of our testing. Aside from these features, the rest of the face is gloss black and chrome. It's one of the best-looking phones we've seen, although its gloss rapidly appears grubby.
On the back of the phone we find an embedded VGA digital camera and a port for the loudspeaker, while the bottom holds the serial and charging port. On the left side are the volume keys, and on the opposite side a headset jack and voice-dial key. To open the phone, a gentle push on the bottom-right corner of the front face will activate the spring-loaded mechanism and rotate the screen until it locks reassuringly.
Absolutely everything on the V80 is backlit, too. A service light glows green beside the joystick in its white alcove, but that's not the most exciting part: the silver ring around the face acts as a one-way mirror, concealing an array of coloured LEDs, dubbed 'rhythm lights' by Motorola. These flash when events, such as incoming calls, occur. However, they can also be set to respond to ambient noise: clap or laugh and the phone will flash bright lights in time. It looks absolutely superb, although largely pointless.
Ergonomics
The phone must be opened to answer a call, unless using a headset. However, text messages can be read and other functions quickly handled without opening the swivel mechanism, because the joystick and soft-keys are available in all modes. In fact, using the phone when it's closed is quite enjoyable, with the joystick above the screen.
The numeric keypad unfortunately doesn't have the visual impact of the rest of the phone. They're small, flush with the face (necessarily, with this mechanism) and unobtrusively grey. However, they're perfectly acceptable in use, and pleasantly backlit in white.
Features
The V80 is tri-band GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz, with GPRS. Reception proved solid, even with no external aerial. Bluetooth is the sole short-range technology, in the absence of infrared. It's easy to activate, although we've seen setups that offer more control.
Motorola includes the HS820 Bluetooth headset with every V80, which is a good visual match for the phone and also works very smoothly, even for voice dialling. What's more, both phone and headset use the same charging port, and can be topped up at the same time from a single charger using the included Y-cable.
The handset supports concatenated and chat SMS as well as MMS, with pictures courtesy of the included VGA camera. The camera offers 4x digital zoom, exposure control and fairly responsive viewfinder. However, its results left a little to be desired, and with a distinctly mid-range amount of storage space - 5 MB - we suspect power users could find themselves in a bit of a squeeze.
As well as support for Java programs, Motorola have included a comprehensive message centre, decent phonebook and excellent personalisation abilities, as one would expect from such a fashionable phone. The home screen allows quick, customised access to frequent functions and gives plenty of information.
The included camera application is accessible at any time by rotating the screen back 90-degrees towards the closed position. It will lock in its landscape orientation for easier photo-taking. The camera cannot record movies, but does have a timer and other common options. Ergonomically, the lens is very poorly positioned.
Other features of note include a 2000-name phone book, POP and IMAP email client, PC synchronisation, SyncML, Wireless Village Instant Messaging, voice dialling, WAP 2.0 browser, calendar and other utilities. Although the V80 is very much a pretty face, it's also a competent premium phone to boot.
Performance
The V80's OS proved robust and speedy during changeovers, and when using Java programs or the camera, delays were only minimal. Text entry using the T9-rival iTAP was quick and intuitive, with the exception of some bizarre priority decisions for punctuation.
Audio volume is impressive, for both ringtones and voice. Average 24-tone polyphonics are included, along with support for MP3 ringtones and multiple vibrate settings. Voice call quality was satisfactory, on the phone itself, with loudspeaker mode activated, or when using the included Bluetooth headset.
The Lithium Ion battery of the V80 is rated at 750 mAh, from which Motorola claim 10 days of standby. In our tests we didn't reach anything like 10 days - more like 3, including moderate use of the phone's full range of features.
Availability
The Motorola V80 is available now in a range of markets for a suggested price of $500 USD. Pricing will vary by location and according to included contract.
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