Motorola CHARM Review

Introduction:

Without a doubt, there surely have been many people out there clamoring to see an Android smartphone that employs that typical BlackBerry look with its signature stationary portrait style QWERTY form factor. The yearnings of many have been heard by Motorola as they've addressed this much wanted design with the Motorola CHARM for T-Mobile. Since this is a company that's been experiencing a resurgence of late, thanks to a couple of recent top notch Android smartphones, the CHARM is the company's unique spin on the much wanted form factor that's been clearly non-existent with the platform. Let's find out if the undeniably charming looking Motorola CHARM MB502 has enough magic in its housing to enchant consumers to side with it.

The package contains:

• Motorola CHARM
• microUSB Cable
• Wall Charger
• Stereo Headset
• Start Guide
• 1420mAh battery
• 1130mAh battery
• 2 Rear Covers
• 2GB microSD card

Design:

Can we just say wow for a second; especially when it's reinvigorating to finally see a portrait QWERTY Android handset stateside? With a quick first glance, some would expect to think of the CHARM to be more of a feature phone, but upon closer inspection, it radiates a quality design that makes it so refreshing. Although it sports a plastic exterior, we like how the rear is coated with that all too familiar soft touch material that complements the silver colored bezel outlining the handset. Sure it's somewhat boxy looking, which of course tastefully makes it appealing, but it still feels compact enough (0.45” thick) in the hand and doesn't feel that heavy at all (3.88 oz). Although not as tough as the DROID devices, the CHARM still feels solidly constructed all around to boost your confidence about its plastic exterior.



You can compare the Motorola CHARM with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

In keeping the cost of the handset very low, Motorola opted to utilize a 2.8” TFT touchscreen that unfortunately puts out a lackluster QVGA resolution (320x240). Granted though it's capacitive technology, which is responsive to the touch, its quality is almost appalling as text is extremely fuzzy looking while colors are washed out. It also experiences some viewing angle problems and is not very viewable under bright sunlight. Yeah it would've been nice to see it get bump up to an HVGA resolution, but we suppose it's fitting due primarily to its inexpensive target.


Strangely, we actually don't mind seeing the three touch sensitive buttons dominating the area directly beneath the touchscreen and above the QWERTY – that's because we didn't find ourselves accidentally activating them. On the left edge, you've got the typical microUSB port and decently sized volume rocker that offers a decent response when pressed. While on the top side, you'll find the 3.5mm headset jack and dedicated power button. Taking a peek at its rear, we're presented with the 3-megapixel camera, cutout for the speakerphone, and the somewhat novel (at this point) track-pad which Motorola aptly calls the “BACKTRACK.” Removing the rear cover requires a lot of force since you'll have to yank it off, but once that's accomplished, you'll have access to the microSD card slot, battery, and SIM card slot.


Just when people were beginning to see RIM as the only one who can craft some stunning portrait style keyboards, Motorola does a fantastic job with the one on the CHARM. Although there is no spacing between buttons, they're raised enough and curved toward the middle to provide a good distinction between your thumbs. The soft plastic keys also offer a good tactile response when pressed, but it's the layout of the QWERTY that makes it so easy to use – it's actually similar to what you see on a regular keyboard. Additionally, there are some dedicated buttons on there that will give you access to specific functions and even 4-way directional keys to easily move around the cursor when typing a message.

Interface and Features:

Luckily we are presented with an Android 2.1 experience that utilizes some aspects seen on Motorola's latest MOTOBLUR-like skin, which the DROID X and DROID 2 showcase. Packing a 600MHz processor on the hood, it makes for a decent navigational experience when moving in between its 7 homescreens; plus it launches apps in a timely manner. However, opting to use an animated wallpaper will dramatically decrease the performance which is evident in its choppy navigating. Nonetheless, it proves to be adequate enough in getting the job done like its high-end counterparts, but of course isn't accompanied with silky smooth performance at all times. Depending on your tastes, you may find the myriad of Motorola widgets to be extremely helpful; especially when you can re-size them to your liking.

In fact, Motorola is categorizing the CHARM as a MOTOBLUR device since you'll need to login into the service when you first set up the phone. The nice thing about it of course is its tight social networking integration that will attempt to do its best in pairing up your contacts with their specific accounts. Additionally, it's rather nice to view statuses or tweets directly from the homescreen without having to navigate away to a separate app.



If you happen to yearn for an on-screen keyboard for all your text input, you won't be disappointed to see that the handset packs the Android keyboard. However, we quickly realized that text input should all be done through the physical QWERTY since it painstakingly exposes its slow CPU. Not only are we faced with some cramped confines with it, but there is just so much lag when typing that you can actually watch the phone catch up to you. With that in mind, it's no wonder why the on-screen keyboard is set to off in the settings menu from the start.


Email setup is pretty much a breeze since it will generally require an email address and password to complete the process. Generic clients like Yahoo! and Hotmail will pose no problems, but other unknown ones will need additional pieces of information like server addresses to fully set up. And if you prefer instant messaging your buddies, you'll have an app from the onset that will give you access to AIM, Windows Live Messenger, or Yahoo! Messenger.



Always growing with no end, the Android Market continues to be a haven that provides users a multitude of apps to further their experience. However, there are some notable ones preloaded on the CHARM that are worth mentioning – such as the Motorola Phone Portal. Essentially, this nifty app can come in handy for some seeing that it acts as a web server on the phone so you can browse its contents through your PC's web browser.

Camera and Multimedia:

Ouch! That pretty much sums up the experience we got out of using the CHARM's 3-megapixel camera. For starters, there are no options whatsoever to be found that will allow you to change shooting modes or the white balance. The only thing at your disposal is a digital zoom and panorama assist mode – and that's it! Outdoor images are thoroughly disappointing with their uninviting quality and inaccurate color reproduction. However, things weren't any better in low lit environments and indoors since there is a good amount of noise and pale looking colors in our shots.




After experiencing such poor results with its still photos, we weren't getting our hopes raised for its video recording performance. Fittingly, it follows in the same manner with its maximum shooting resolution of 352x288 pixels and an extremely sluggish capture rate of 10fps. Numbers can't express in words the kind of results we were presented with as our captured videos lacked any detail and were compounded even more with the slow as molasses playback. Without any hesitation, it's quite obvious that you should move on to something else if shooting videos is your forte.



Moving on, we weren't too thrilled to see yet another basic looking music player, but it managed to impress us since it's powered by tunewiki. The interface displays the album cover, track information, and on-screen controls, but it'll even load the lyrics as the song is being played – something you don't see integrated that often on other players. In addition, we like how the player is able to aggregate additional content regarding the music artist as it has the ability to search for music videos on YouTube. Finally, we are content in finding a pleasing audio output from the speaker – it manages to emit decent sounding tones without being strained.



Packing a QVGA display doesn't necessarily come to mind as being something suitable for watching videos, but thankfully the CHARM is still able to execute video playback without a hitch. We were able to play a video encoded in Xvid 480x360 pixels resolution very smoothly which should prove to be more than sufficient for most people. Of course, you'll have to make sure you're viewing it from a direct 90-degree angle for the most optimal experience – especially when moving it slightly will cause you to lose some focus.


Although it comes with 113MB of internal storage out of the box, it's supplemented with a preloaded 2GB microSD card. If that proves to be unsatisfying for you, it can accepts cards up to 32GB in capacity.

Data and Connectivity:

The constant traveler will find the Motorola CHARM sufficient for their needs since it boasts quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM and dual-band (1700/2100 MHz) UMTS connectivity – the latter of which relies on T-Mobile's AWS band for 3G speeds. Similar to its other brothers and sisters, the CHARM packs Bluetooth 2.0 to allow other wireless devices to connect to it while its Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n radio can alternatively be used for a data connection.

You can't knock the web browsing experience on the smartphone when it's running Android 2.1 – even when it has support for Flash Lite. Although our web site was able to load in a timely fashion through T-Mobile's 3G connection, the handset's unfortunate QVGA display makes for some garbled looking text that's indistinguishable from a zoomed out view. After zooming in more, it still doesn't have that definitive sharpness to it, but nevertheless still more than legible to make out. Thankfully, we are presented with a smooth scrolling experience after our site fully loaded, which is supplemented by some Flash content also being played. Overall, the experience is pretty typical of other Android 2.1 devices as it is more than equipped in handling the needs of most people.

Performance:

Voices on both ends were extremely audible thanks to clear and distinct tones, however, there is a faint static sound that can be heard on our end. Fortunately, it doesn't deter us from still being able to easily make out our conversations – plus the strong tones of the earpiece makes every word sound full bodied. Even though the speakerphone is able to produce some strong tones as well, voices were noticeably muffled sounding, but again, it didn't make the overall experience overbearing.

Generally hovering around -79 dBm in the high coverage area of the greater Philadelphia region, we didn't experience any major spikes in signal strength or dropped calls during our testing.

For something packing an 1130 mAh battery, we were content to find it more than adequate in getting by a solid one day of normal usage – plus with some juice left over to start of the next day. But Motorola decided to be nice and include a larger 1420 mAh battery for good measure with an accompanying rear cover for it. Actually, it does add a little hump to the rear cover, but we didn't find it to be a problem. Nonetheless, you'll be covered with more than enough battery life with the two batteries included with the packaging.

Conclusion:

Well it's about time that we find someone brave enough to venture with something different in terms of form factor with Android – even more when landscape QWERTY handsets are abundant. The Motorola CHARM is actually a well-rounded device that refreshes the usual set of Android phones we're typically presented with. When it's priced at $79.99 on-contract, it makes for a decent offering when you factor in its rare portrait style QWERTY, inclusion of Android 2.1, and its quality construction. When we think about it more, its pricing is definitely fitting for any feature phone we've seen Motorola produce, but it's even more exciting when it's an Android powered smartphone we're talking about. In the end, it might not be quite to the level of its high-end counterparts in performance, but it's more than acceptable and functional to get you by your daily routines.

Motorola CHARM Video Review: