Motorola calls this cell phone the SLVR or L6. A very quick impression is that it’s a flat version of their very successful flip phone the V3 RAZR. In fact, the user interface is practically the same, right down to the missing keypad lock functions.
Pros
The phone is well built, despite the fragile looking case made of aluminium.
The keypad works very well - just the right pressure.
Voice quality is extremely good. The builtin speaker phone function is ideal for long calls or use in the car if required. Remember that talking on the phone is not safe nor legal in most places.
The USB connection makes it easy to connect this phone to your PC for data sync and backup. It also lets you charge the phone off the PC, provided you have the right kind of cable. This is really great when you’re travelling abroad and either forgot to carry the power adapter or want to avoid that little extra weight.
Bluetooth functionality. This is not as well implemented as in other brands. Some options are downright bizarre. For example, to send a phone contact using Bluetooth, you need to ’’share’’ it. Other phones have this as a very obvious ’’send via BT’’ option.
Update: I just discovered that to send a file (video or otherwise) out of this phone using Bluetooth, you need to ’’Copy’’ it out. When you do so, it sends the file to a connected device (laptop/another phone etc). However, you can’t pull the file out from the phone if you initiate the transfer from the laptop.
Clearly the menu options were written by different teams/people.
Cons
Battery life is just adequate. This phone needs to be charged practically everyday.
The user interface is copied off the RAZR. This means that auto keypad lock doesn’t work! You need to lock the phone yourself, or risk an expensive redial by mistake.
No data sync software included in the original release. I’ve heard that it’s now provided free. I had to recycle my older Motorola phone software, which worked, luckily.
No infrared. That’s bad news if you have a PDA without Bluetooth.
Camera: (added on request). I don’t normally use the camera functions built into cell phones as they are usually poor in quality.
The L6 camera therefore doesn’t disappoint. It’s as good as (or as bad as) any other phone with a vga quality sensor.
The L6 captures both still pictures and movies. The latter are in 3gpp format, so you will need the appropriate codec on a PC in order to view them. The codecs I used did not play back the audio. Picture quality is, to put it mildly, pathetic. I can’t imagine why anyone would use this to capture anything of value. If I had designed this phone, I would have dumped the camera function in favour of infrared support.