Motorola's new Accompli 008 is the reincarnation of the Accompli A6188 - but this time around, Motorola actually seems to have got the concept of a smartphone right.
The Motorola Accompli A6188 was Motorola's first attempt of creating a smartphone, and the Accompli 008's predecessor. We tested the A6188 a while ago, but found the software to be buggy, the interface to be difficult to navigate and the features too few to be of any real use. With the Accompli 008, Motorola has added GPRS and J2ME support to the existing dual-band GSM support, completely re-built the interface and done a number of minor and more major tweaks - and I'm left quite impressed.
 | The Accompli 008 gives you bang for the buck in a small, compact package
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The hardware
Box-wise, the Accompli 008 comes with a fair number of parts, including a serial synchronization cradle, an AC adaptor, a manual and lastly the CD with the TrueSync software which handles synchronization between the 008 and a Windows PC. Of course, the sleek and silvery Accompli 008 is in there too, and although a bit dated; it looks are still good.
The 008 has a flip-lid design, with an external antenna and few external buttons. On the left side is a jog wheel, and on the right side a button that activates the recording of a voice note can be found. What's left except for that is four buttons on the front of the device below the flip-lid, including the power on/off button, two buttons for scrolling up and down through choices on the menus and a Motorola smart button that either brings up the main menu interface or controls the display backlight.
Sturdiness is something we have heard a lot of complaints about from Motorola users, and it seems like the company has improved the 008 slightly when compared with the A6188. Except from the battery compartment lid which still feels a bit thin, the hinges and general design seems improved - however I'd like for Motorola to get rid of that external antenna, which for being an external antenna is quite robust, but internal antennas are from a user perspective always better.
Although the Accompli 008 didn't come with a handsfree set bundled, there's a handsfree jack on the top of the phone next to the IR port, which is also where the indicator LED showing incoming calls is placed. Speaking of incoming calls, the 008 also has a vibrating alert, and the phone can be set to answer calls upon opening the lid.
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