Motorola MOTO U9 Preview

Introduction:

We are happy to have the chance to preview the Motorola MOTO U9, the new stylish clamshell of the brand that reminds the PEBL-series, instead of the more-popular RAZR ones. Still, it must be noted that Motorola will not position it in the PEBL-series, which probably will not get any new additions. Also, although it is music friendly clamshell, the U9 is not positioned in the ROKR series as it doesn’t meet the requirements of the hard music-fan – built in 3.5mm stereo jack (the sales package will include a converter).

MOTO U9’s front side is characterized by the rounded edges and the absolutely glossy surface, which acts as a mirror. We’ve seen this in the preproduction units of the PEBL U6 (then called V6) back in 2004, but the commercially available model came with “boring” math surface. As the phone we are currently using is also a preproduction unit, we hope that the commercially available ones will have exactly the same design. Considering it is not final, the quality of both the hardware and the software might change when commercially available versions appear, and this is the reason why we, unlike other sites, will do a Preview instead of full Review and will not give any ratings. Once final units appear, we will update you with in-depth review with ratings.

Design:

Weighting 3.1 oz (88grams) the U9 is a pleasure in the pocket and for this also helps the small overall dimensions, although it is not RAZR-slim (16.4mm for MOTO U9 and 11.9mm for RAZR2 V8). In the hand it feels pleasantly thanks to the rubberized back and when closed on the front can be noticed the small lens of the 2-megapixel camera in the upper part and the Motorola logo in the lower.


Between them is the external display which thanks to the OLED technology conceals when unused and doesn’t destroy the glossy look. When the music player is active, there is a row of touch-sensitive buttons.


There are a few keys on the side and all-in-one microUSB on the bottom, so you’d have to open the phone for most of the things. Unlike the PEBL U6, the MOTO U9 doesn’t feature the unique spring-assisted mechanism for opening and so this must be done with two hands, just like any standard clamshell. The weird thing is that sometimes when getting the phone out of the pocket, you may try to open it from the top instead of from the bottom, as it is absolutely the same in form because the phone is symmetrical.


Here logically for a clamshell phone on the upper half is situated the display while on the other is the keyboard. Logically for a phone introduced in the third quarter of the 2007 it has 262k color QVGA display which has become the standard for phone-screen resolution.


The keyboard of the MOTO U9 is made of one-piece flat surface, which has protruding relief lines between separate keys, so there is haptic feedback to differ one from the other. It is illuminated in white, but a sensor located in the upper left corner will turn this off when it is light around you.

Motorola MOTO U9 is running on the Linux-Java OS we’ve seen in devices like the RAZR2 V8 and the ROKR Z6. In our view, it is both user-friendlier and more pleasant to the eye than the old one you’ll see in phones such as the KRZR (K1 and K3), RAZR2 V9 and SLVR L9. The version here is a step newer than the one of the V8 but the changes are minor. From the homescreen, the left softkey will open menu with shortcuts and additional four that can be personalized are attached to the directions of the D-pad.

The main menu now can be visualized in three ways: grid, vertical list or horizontal one. The 3x3 grid looks outdated as most new phones now come in 3x4 but as we like the option to rearrange the icons. They all correspond to the numeric keys which act as shortcuts and so is in the first level sub-menus. The horizontal list with spinning icons is one of the new things coming with the newer Linux-JAVA OS version.

In this preview we won’t go into deep details about all the features of the phone. We’ll cover just the most interesting parts of it but once final units appear, expect our updated in-depth review.

In the Multimedia menu you’ll find all multimedia content, the games, camera and voice recorder. The Media Finder is one of the main improvements over the previous version of the OS and is application that will retrieve all files from the phone and sort them so you can choose for example Music, Video or Pictures.

The MOTO U9 is music-friendly pocket clamshell and will be able to filter your tracks by Artists, Albums, Genres, and Composers or by Playlists. The Now Playing interface shows information on the track but lacks option for album art cover. When the player is minimized to play in the background, the lower part of the home screen will be shortcut to it. Close the shell, and the external display will show what’s playing and right below it three touch-sensitive buttons for the player will appear.


The camera is present just to capture some moments and is definitely not a key feature. The interface is something we’ve seen in past Moto phones and will do the job, but nothing more.