Motorola pioneered the creation of world’s first handset built around the idea of rotating joint – back in 2002, the V70 model saw daylight, followed by the V80 in 2004. Ironically, the new form factor saw little use since those days. A few rival products were issued by Sony Ericsson, but on a larger scale the concept drew no significant attention.

Now one of the Pentagon’s suppliers is going back to the roots and is about to present their brand new AURA rotating handset. This time the fancy shaped cell phone is being positioned as a premium article, priced two thousand dollars and looking like a cross between a hand watch and a mobile handset. Let’s see if it has enough kick to challenge the famed Nokia 8800 on the premium products market.

Appearance is the new product’s biggest trump. The phone does look gorgeous. You are about to see a lot of metal parts. The screen is protected with a sapphire glass. Tungsten gears are visible through a circle-shaped window at the top of the back panel. This out-of-mainstream appearance is what constitutes much of this phone’s competitiveness. The rotating joint form factor might look too uncommon or even alien to the target audience or the mass market, but this trick works really well for the premium class segment. Should they keep the price on a prestigious level without any future reductions, the thing is likely to become a popular collector’s item among the wealthier audiences. The sidelight-shaped screen is something you wouldn’t expect to see in any other model. Motorola’s engineers managed to combine a high quality of screen image with a really rare and exquisite appearance.

The ergonomics isn’t the highest around, but that’s about what you get with most premium-labeled products. It takes a good while to learn the proper trick for opening the phone with one hand. The lack of control buttons is something way more annoying. The OK button is very awkwardly placed, making it hard to respond to reminders. The merry-go-round menu takes too long to scroll through a lot of items until you reach the wanted shortcut. In other words, there’s no way to instantly access a specific menu item.

The quality of assembly is obviously better than the practical usability. Both size and weight are well-balanced. The spring-action hinge is smooth and tight, virtually problem-free. It’s a real pleasure to feel it rotate in your hand.

The technical functionality isn’t very impressive. Still you do get some good stuff. The handset is equipped with 2 Gigabytes of memory. It carries a 2 Mp cam, Bluetooth and similar features. There’s no memory expansion slot available, radio is missing as well. But that’s pretty forgivable for a premium class item. It’s the design that’s the biggest matter in this market segment, tech power coming in second place.

So let’s make a short summary. AURA is doubtlessly a very elegant looking, luxurious gadget. You have to sacrifice a certain bit of usability to embrace the exotic feel of AURA, but it’s worth the price. If MOTOROLA is wise enough to keep the price at the current level, it has enough push to become one of the most successful premium-class handsets ever. If you feel that Nokia 8800 Arte is too square for your sophisticated nature, you might consider picking this toy. It does look better in many ways, though giving less practical comfort.