This all-business SLVR look-alike eschews a camera for world phone capabilities, Bluetooth, address-book syncing, and Web e-mail access. How will it fare in the boardroom?
Review summary of the Motorola L2:
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 The L2 makes for a slim and light business companion for globe-trotting professionals focused on making calls and checking the odd e-mail message, and its Bluetooth support address-book syncing, and great battery life are all nice touches. However, more demanding chatters will frown at the weak display, lack of corporate or POP/IMAP e-mail access, GPRS-only data service and missing memory expansion. Release: May 2006. Price: $90.
Pros: Thin and light; stylish design; strong messaging features; quad-band world phone; syncs PIM info with Web servers; impressive battery life
Cons: No memory expansion; can’t connect to corporate/POP/IMAP e-mail; sluggish performance; mediocre display; no 3G or EDGE support
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Full review of the Motorola L2:
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The silver L2 looks almost exactly like its bigger, music-minded brother, the SVLR L7, but this slim quad-band handset is all business. Skipping a built-in camera (which wouldn't fly in a corporate office anyway), the L2 makes good first impression with its world-phone capabilities, Bluetooth and Web e-mail support, instant messaging, syncable contacts, and excellent battery life. Unfortunately, the phone hits some speed bumps on its way to the office, including sluggish performance, a cheap-looking display, lack of corporate e-mail (or POP/IMAP) access and no 3G – or even EDGE – support.
Slim profile, tricky keys
Measuring 4.4 by 1.9 by 0.4 inches and weighing 3 ounces, the phone is about the same size and weight as the L7, and it's just as easy to slip in a jeans pocket (or the inside-breast pocket of your blazer). Look a little closer, however, and you'll discover there’s no slot for a flash-memory card, and the "V"-shaped keypad has actual buttons rather than the L7's flat metal touchpad. While the raised buttons look cool, they're a little tricky to tap with your fingertips; a simpler but easier-to-press keypad would have been a better choice for a business phone like this. We were also annoyed by the single volume button on the left spine of the phone; to change the volume, you must cycle through every volume level (all the way to the top – ouch) by pressing the button repeatedly. A volume rocker (or just a second button) would have been a much better choice.
The L2's lackluster 65,000-color STN display gets the job done, but it ain't all that pretty. Colors looked washed-out, while pixel lines on the 128 x 160-resolution LCD were clearly visible. For road warriors who just want to dial numbers, check e-mail and send the occasional text message, the L2's weak display won’t be a problem, but if you're expecting the vivid colors and razor-sharp resolution of the SLVR L7's 262,000-color TFT LCD, you’re in for a disappointment.
Worldwide chatting
The quad-band L2 (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) scores with its world-phone capabilities – pretty handy for globe-trotting business travelers. Unfortunately, the handset stumbles a bit with its lack of EDGE support; sure, there's GPRS, but that makes for some poky mobile Web surfing. Back on the plus side, we like the L2's built-in Bluetooth, which supports handsfree, object-push and dial-up networking profiles; we had no trouble pairing with a Plantronics headset and wireless transferring Vcards from our PowerBook.
The L2 comes with relatively strong messaging features, including SMS/MMS messaging and AIM, ICQ and Yahoo Instant Messenger. The phone also comes with an e-mail client that connects to – and syncs with – MSN Hotmail, AOL, AIM, and Yahoo Mail accounts. It's a clever feature; unfortunately, there's no support for corporate or even POP/IMAP e-mail accounts, which would have been a key addition for business users. We also wish the application ran in the background (at least you get alerts when new messages arrive) and loaded more quickly – as it stands, it takes a full 15 seconds to launch.
Syncable contacts
Calling features on the L2 include three-way conference calling (not bad, although we would have preferred five-way calls), speed dialing, and a speakerphone. The 500-entry address book annoyed us with its habit of listing each phone number and e-mail address as a separate entry; that said, it’s capable of synching with address books hosted on a server.
Web browsing on the L2 is a mixed bag. While the WAP 2.0 browser managed to pull down mobile Web pages relatively quickly given the L2's GPRS-only data connection, we ran into sluggish performance as we tried scrolling down the various pages. Indeed, the phone as a whole felt lethargic; a little more RAM under the hood wouldn’t hurt.
The L2 comes with a basic media player that handles videos and MP3s; we were able to send tunes via Bluetooth from our Mac PowerBook and use them as ringtones, which is a nice touch. However, since you only have 10MB of memory to play with and no memory expansion, you better keep the songs short.
Call quality on the L2 was fine, including over the speakerphone and our Logitech Bluetooth headset. The phone’s battery life was exceptional; we got north of five talk-time hours (about the same amount promised by Motorola), and the handset is rated for 14 days of standby time (which seems reasonable, given that the battery meter on our review model has been locked at full power for several days).
Price and availability
The Motorola L2 will start selling for $90 ((AT&T)) in May 2006.
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