26 Oct 09 Motorola Karma Reviewed
AT&T hasn’t actually seen a QWERTY device ever since the windows mobile powered Q9h was launched in 2007. After which Motorola became really busy with its RAZR series and its now lately again that Motorola has re-entered the market of QWERTY style with its new launch “Karma”. The main focus of Karma was social networking and to give an extra freedom to all message lovers. The reason for the phone to get this name is still a myth, which motorola hasn’t yet revealed.
As far as the design part goes Karma has been built on two different materials. The front portion uses an aluminum finish and the back is made of a soft black matte. The phone is ofcousre a little wide and also thicker, but its round edges give a real good grip to the user and makes one feel more comfortable to handle it. The phone is sure to perform well on all normal wear and tear conditions except for the unusual fall, but this can also be well handled by the matte finish.
The screen is 2.5’’ LCD supporting up to 262K colors and brilliantly illuminating screen. The screen really looks like it has more space and can be expected to handle reading long messages also without much difficulty. The only problem with the display could be that its reflecting, which can be marked as a minor drawback, but this can also be overcome by placing maximum brightness.
You’ll find the standard set of buttons on the front; send and end, directional pad, left and right soft keys, back/clear, and a dedicated one for messaging. Besides the send and end buttons, which are raised, everything else is flush with the surface. But another drawback over this place is that the keys are little hard to push and generally need a second push to initiate the action. The volume rockers are really small and compact buttons that have been well placed on the sides and 3.5mm jack headphone placed at the top. 2 mpx camera has been pushed to the back. On removing the battery cover reveals the battery, SIM card slot and MicroSD slot.
QWERTY keypad is well designed and structured. The keys have been placed in a little raised manner from the surface and hence the users can easily make the difference over the touch and feel of the keys. Additionally, they have a plastic feel with some tight spacing between each key, but those with larger hands will find it considerably difficult to type. There is a dedicated browser key. The small tint of blue color over the numeric keypad looks good.
The display interface is not all that flashy and looks really much like the usual motorola defined levels for all its other models. Indeed the interface is really very simple and not all that complicated, easy to use. The home screen is pretty bare with only a clock displayed and other noticeable issue is that as we start navigating through the menus, we find that the application slows down. There is a special dedicated key for SMS, and we can also start instant messaging from the menu options.
As stated before motorola has focused Karma, to support social newtworking and hence has incorporated a dedicated icon in the main menu that launches web browser to the mobile home page of Facebook, MySpace, and a dedicated app for Juicecaster. Though it is a nice touch it isn’t actually any special, since the same can simply be accomplished even by launching the browser and typing the web site. Other common AT&T applications can be found like XM Radio, MusicID, Yellowpages mobile, WikiMobile, Mobile Banking, Where, MobiTV, Zuma and AT&T Navigator.
The camera as already mentioned is a decent 2 mpx camera and the user can take pictures in four different resolutions. The camera interface is also no big different and follows the same simple and cluttered look. Music player isn’t that very interesting but at the same time we cant blame motorola for that, since it has never launched Karma as “Music Player” phone. The speaker phones are good, does an exceptional job of producing audible tunes in a very decent manner. The video player is also pretty good and provides acceptable quality output.
As far as the performance of the phone was concerned the call connect and hearing are all really good, callers were able to understand the talk from the other side and the speakers also have performed well. On the whole this great challenge the motorola has taken with karma is definitely appreciated and is welcomed. Hope motorola understands the current trend in the market and also looks at launching what people are exactly expecting.
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Tags: Karma, Karma QA1, Motorola Karma, Motorola Karma QA1
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