Motorola MOTOJEWEL review

Motorola cater for a lot of users, both high and low-end, but the MOTOJEWEL is solely aimed at girls – or, at least, those that appreciate the more "girly" side of things, anyway.

According to Motorola, the MOTOJEWEL was inspired by this season's fashion for oversized jewels. So, the device has the bling factor in place, as well as the fashion one, but does it impress as an actual device?

We take a look to see if the MOTOJEWEL cust the mustard…

A small circle Motorola logo is the only branding on the outside of the dark handset, and that fell off nearly instantly, leaving the phone looking mysteriously anonymous.

It attracts fingerprints as much as any shiny handset, but the reflective finish does make a nice mirror for checking for eyeliner smudges. The back is basic black, but with a nicely textured rubber-feel, which seems surprisingly up-market. It's not easy to pop open the back casing to drop the SIM in though, so any women with nicely-done nails should be wary.

The mirrored front does more than just assist makeup touchups. Like the U9, the MOTOJEWEL features an 1.5-inch OLED screen embedded in the front of the phone, displaying smoothly underneath the shiny exterior shell. The screensaver, incoming calls, text messages and the music player show through, and like the U9 it's also a limited touchscreen. When the music player is running, songs can be skipped and paused by tapping on the screen.

The ringtone menu can also be accessed with the side buttons, so the Jewel can be switched to silent or if the lady prefers, vibrate without flipping it open. Not exactly groundbreaking, but a nice touch.

Closed, the MOTOJEWEL is a nice-looking fashion phone, with some slick touchscreen action. Not exactly new or groundbreaking, but it‚s good-looking enough to attract some attention from style-conscious women.

Flip the clamshell open however, and it's a lot less charming.

Rather than keep the sexy midnight grey, Motorola opted for a garish royal purple. The keys are also beveled, keeping the jewel theme going. Under poor light, such as in a club, it looks alright, but at work under fluorescent lights, it looks like a cheap toy and Barbie's First Motorola‚ isn't really all that stylish, for those past puberty, anyhow.

The specs are basically the same as the U9. The MOTOJEWEL features the standard two-megapixel camera with video capture but without flash, as well as Motorola's CrystalTalk technology, which Moto representatives claim boosts call clarity.

The 2-inch screen echoes the U9, as does the icon-based navigation system, which offers easy access to the camera and other features. The keypad, while a bit gaudy, has a handy button for fast access to the music player.

The Motojewel uses Microsoft Windows Media Player 11, and we had no trouble playing the random array of song files onto our microSD memory card, adding them to the library without any trouble. While the keypad shortcut straight to the music library and the touchscreen player access on the front suggest this is a music-friendly phone, there is no standard headphone jack, just a proprietary miniUSB-based one.

It does support Bluetooth, though, so wireless Bluetooth headphones can be used. The external speakers are no improvement on most mobile phones, with music sounding tinny and poor quality.

The phone features basic tools like a calendar and notepad, as well as two syncing methods, either through your PC or through Microsoft Exchange.  With that, push email is also available.

Connecting looked easy enough, but this particular handset seemed unable to do much. Indeed, the browser itself was incapable on two separate SIM cards to connect to a network and display a page.

The phone suggested setting up a new data connection, which required several different nuggets of information to be inputted; if it takes that much effort to connect to the internet or use email, mobile internet-loving users won't be happy.

In the end, this is just the U9 tarted up. It features all the pros and cons of that device, but has a slicker exterior. Oh, and it comes with a free clutch bag for girls to go out clubbing with. But if you buy your phones based on a freebie bag, then you probably don't care that the specs are bit dated.