The phone design was in a way attractive, original, the product stood out against the background of the numerous shelf filler models due to the creative design and new casing materials, the PEBL advertising campaign was large-scale and rather expensive, but nothing could change the established customer attitude. That's way the design concept was put aside for a long time, and the RAZR series was expanded with a large number of heritage models owing much of their design features to their predecessor, but now found in all segments, available in various color solutions. Those kept in a stable demand, yet maybe not as high as the original RAZR enjoyed.

In about one and a half or two dozen months the fashion switched from thin and stylish yet limitedly functional to dedicated multimedia gadgets - music phones, photo phones and so one - since that day the market share of Motorola company began rapidly decreasing, the vendor's product range wasn't up to the customers' expectations - unable to compete with the more functional and up-to-date solutions by Nokia and SonyEricsson. The poorly attended ROKR music phone series fell into decay due to regional distribution problems and failure to meet release dates, the subbrand never attained a popularity comparable to those of Walkman series by SonyEricsson or XpressMuic by Nokia - despite of all the original solutions implemented in such remarkable models as E2, E6 and Z6.

The company is now surviving a crysis, and it really looks like it will take a good deal of time to get through. A number of very intriguing and attractive solutions were delayed and cancelled, only a number of them have ever seen the daylight. The new general manager of the company does his best at overcoming obstacles so there are good chances for the company to reach a level comparable to its heyday. A significant number of models complying with the latest expectations of customers and mobile operators are currently in development. A significant gap in technology will be covered over a short time - according to most estimations, by the end of the next year. The newly formed multimedia division will be responsible for development of the respective production, so by the mid-2008 Motorola will no longer be an outsider in the sphere of photo- and music-oriented solutions and so on. Meanwhile, the new MOTOROKR E8 and U9 are about to hit the shelf - actually, these two have been developed quite a while ago, but it wasn't until now that Motorola prepared them to enter the market.

Moto U9 general specifications

Communications:	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE class 12
Memory:	25 Mb of user memory, microSD memory card expansion slot (up to 4 Gb)
Screen:	2.0", 240x320, 262K colors; 1,45", 128x160, 65K colors
Data transfer protocols:	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (A2DP supports)
Camera:	2 Mpix (up to 1600x1200)
Battery:	capacity - 900 mAh up to 7 hours of talktime up to 370 hours of standby
Dimensions:	90x48.6x16.4 mm
Weight:	87,5 g
Estimated price:	€260

The U9 model, also known by the codename Pico, loosely follows the design of U6 save for the rounded casing, though for the rest the style is in close keeping. How successful is this solution is going to be? The current situation is a bit like the one about V3 and U6, the only major difference being the new flagship of the RAZR series V8 which now occupies the high seat. Though now the top model is noticeably more superior in terms of functionality, storage size and screen. How much demand will the musical U9 enjoy will become clear with time. So far it possesses a number of unique features: an advanced music player, tempting design, overall dimensions suprisingly uncharacteristic of a stereotypical Motorola product and standing out from the rest of mobile solutions by that manufacturer. No comparable music-oriented products by competitive brands utilizing the same form factor are known to exist. Given an acceptable price, Moto U9 can become one of the most successful solutions in this class.

Design and Ergonomics

As we have already mentioned, the phone utilizes the folder form factor, yet the design is in close keeping with the predecessor model U6 - the same rounded shapes can be observed, so the phone gives the hand a very comfortable feel. The overall dimensions are rather small, yet at the expense of a thickness somewhat above than usual. However this increased thickness causes virtually no discomfort, the size and form are more natural in comparison with the RAZR V8 model, for instance.

The phone is made of high quality plastic, glossy on the front and matte, soft-touch on the back. No metal pieces are used, so V8 will probably have a more winning look from this point of view, yet on the other hand the lack of metal tells on the weight beneficially - some 87 g. The front panel is prone to greasing, that's a problem common to all devices utilizing this type of materials. The panel is of a dark grey color with a mirroring coating, that gives it a smart and attractive look - thanks to the stylish contrast between it and the matte back panel. Two symmetrically positioned modules, - the integrated camera and the company logotype, - are located at the top and the bottom respectively. The camera doesn't stick out even a bit, the lens is exposed to scrathing and greasing. It's better to clean it every time prior to any serious shooting sessions.

The exterior screen is very large for such a miniature sized model, the diagonal counts some 1,45 inches; it's powered by the OLED technology and is capable of displaying up to 65K colors simultaneously. During standby, the screen is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the phone - similar looks are common for a number of products by competitive brands like Nokia 7280, SonyEricsson Z610i and so on. During active mode, though, it becomes bright and vivid due to the original interface themes and animated splash screen. Due to the peculiar looks of the charge and signal level indicators shaped as semicircular arches, the screen itself achieves an arch-like look because the borders are hardly perceptible against the dark surface of the casing. If a screensaver is running, you optionally see a bright blooming flower or a flashing ball of flame. Quite a picture to behold, really.

It will be discussed a bit later how the exterior screen works, and now let's note that the front panel also features colored indicators of Bluetooth status and batter level.

The upper edge of the casing hosts the oarlock for fastening the wrist band, the bottom of the phone is remarkable for the microUSB slot, protected with a gag. This type of interface slot has come to be a unified standard for Motorola and Nokia phones, and a great variety of compatible accessories are expected to appear in the nearest future. The bad thing is that the gag can't be removed entirely, that means there will develop a play between it and the slot over the course of time.

The controls include the two-positioned volume button which also lets select the profile, hosted on the left edge, and the keypad block button as well having the secondary function of launching teh web browset. All the controls are rather comfortable.

The back surface of the phone, just like the sides, are covered with a soft touch plastic coating - it doesn't collect fingerprints and looks rather practical. The polyphonic speaker is located around the bottom - it's an only one yet it yields a good sound quality and a maximum volume suitable for most environments. The sound, unfortunately, may get muffled due to its awkward location if you put the device on the top of a desk or carry it in your pocket. The batter cover, unlike the same element in RAZR2 V8, is made of plastic, not metal, though this leads to no trouble - there's no play between it and the casing, the build quality is next to ideal. The MicroSD memory expansion slot is hidden beneath the batter which means no hot swapping, which is a huge minus for a music-oriented product. The card is fixed by a miniature rubber holder.

The casing can easily be unfolded single-handedly, though the opening mechanism used in Motorola PEBL U6 is missing here. It's hard to say whether it's a minus or not, but a but of the U9 charm is missing. Once unfolded, the two parts are tightly fixed, the angle between them is optimal for comfortable operation.

Battery

The back panel hides a 900 mAh battery beneath. The battery capacity is sufficient to keep the device running for about two days of moderate duty cycle (about 40 minutes of talk time, two hours of listening to MP3, an hour of menu and gallery browsing). That's a sufficient result, yet not fantastic.

Модель	Moto U9	Nokia 6267
Moderate duty	2 days	2,5 days
Multimedia cycle, video (3GP)	3:16	3:55
Multimedia cycle, audio (MP3)	10:20	11:50

Display

The main screen sports a 2'' screen (30x40 mm), the screen matrix is powered by the TFT technology and is capable of displaying up to 262K colors The resolution is standard - 240x320. Up to 12 lines of text fall into the field of view simultaneously. The screen is supported with a mirror backing, which lets the information be distinctly legible in the direct sunglight. The display quality is remarkably high, it's one of the best pieces found on the market today. The color palette is extremely vivid and natural, the brightness is perfect. The only possible reproach would be the screen's being somewhat undersized, but after all it's quite proportional to the overall dimensions of the device. The screen brightness is controlled by the luminance sensor situated above the controls. Display settings include the Brightness option (ranging from 1 to 6) and the backlighting time.

Comparing the displays of Motorola U9 и V8 we'd like to note that the quality is practically on the same level, the only real difference being the size. The view angles are maximal, both screens leave a very positive impression. Traditionally the Sharp matrix stands for unmatched quality. We weren't able to guess anything that would match the quality of the U9 screen among various other phones present on the market, probably the latest models by Nokia and Samsung are something closely approaching the high quality standard established by the latest Motorola solutions.

The secondary screen utilizes a LED matrix and a color depth of 65K colors. The screen resolution is 128x160, the information remains legible in the direct sunlight, we were unable to find any problems here. The functionality of this element will be discussed a bit further, and now we'd like to point out the almost unbelievable view angles of the exterior screen - no matter from what point you're looking at it, it's still clearly visible, hardly anything on the market can match it or even come close.

Communications

Motorola U9 is a four-band phone operating at GSM 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies, the Class 12 EDGE is supported, the WCDMA support is missing - that's a standard limitation applicable to all devices that make use of the Linux Java platform. Wireless data transfer protocols are represented by Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. It works just the way it should, - without any problems, - and the options include the on/off status, the list of currently accessible Bluetooth devices, the storage folder customization setting (selectable from the following options: phone memory or memory card), the network name of the device and a number of miscellanous settings. If the Bluetooth mode is active, a correspoding indicator shows up just below the camera lens.

The detection interval is locked on a three minutes' period, that can't be changed. The standby mode features an option granting quick access to the Bluetooth menu and the Bluetooth device detection feature.

While searching for Bluetooth devices, you can specify the exact type of device to look for:

If the All setting is activated, then each detected device will be market with an icon corresponding to the type of that device.

The following profiles are supported:

The wire communication protocol utilized by the phone is the usual USB 2.0, the actual data transfer speed is rather high - on the same level with the V8 model. The microUSB data cable is included in the sales package, however none have been spotted sold separately. The following data exhange modes are suppored:

The Ask Upon Connection setting is missing so you'd better select the desired mode beforehand, you won't be able to set that beforehand. If you're connecting in the Mass Storage mode, only the memory card storage is available.

Exterior Screen; Controls while folded

As it was mentioned, the phone features a rather large exterior screen of a fair quality, which, besides just looking good, enriches the devices' looks with a kaleidoscope of colorful splashscreens and animations - but the real advantage is that it also lets you control the mp3 player without any need to open the phone.

The fuctionality of the screen is virtually the same as with RAZR V8, the lower part of it hosts three softkeys working as mp3 player controls, however there comes no signal on pressing any of them. The V8 model featured vibro feedback every time you pressed a softkey, the technology was similar to VibeTonz, though, the leack thereof with U9 is only due to its pre-sale status and the commercial version will actually feature it.

During the mp3 player cycle, the exterior screen is very informative, displaying lots of useful info like the song title, performer name and the title of the album. The time bar looks like a circle at the top of the screen framed by the semi-circular battery and signal indicators, so the whole things looks like a beautiful arch. The three control buttons are play/pause, rewind and song select button. Rewinding can also be done by keeping one of the buttons pressed, though it's not progressive - the pace is fixed. The player design is always the same regardless of the currently activated theme.

The side buttons act as the volume controls (from 1 to 7), the keypad block button is located on the left edge of the phone.

Besides providing control over the player, the excterior screen supports a number of simple functions when you're calling someone or working with the menus. The softkeys aren't accesible in this case though, only the side buttons response to the touch. They can be used for selecting the active profile (the Profiles menu can be called and browsed through with the sound volume controls). The buttons can also be used to open an incoming message or choose a template to send a response. Of course you'd have to open the phone if you wanted to type a custom response. The exterior screen and its associated controls also grant limited control over the alarm clock and reminders.

A number of animated splashscreens can be used with the exerior screen - those don't have to be the same with the ones used for the main screen. It's worth mentioning that such a variety of customization isn't found with the V8 model. The exterior screen can also act as the camera viewfinder, though the only accessible options are Zoom and Shoot. As a result, we've got in our hands one of the best solutions in terms of the 'closed-state-ergonomics', the most likely devices that can be seen as comparable in this aspect are a number of Nokia smartphones like 6290, N85, N76 and Series 40 phones like 7390 and 6267. The latter offer a very similar functionality, though there are more options - the aforementioned N75 for instance allows to choose the equalizer preset with the help of the exterior screen and its associated controls, and also allows browsing calendar events.

Voice control & audio quality

Let's check out how well voice control works. Similar to numerous Motorola models supporting this feature, the device has a zero learning curve to adjust itself to the user's voice. Recognitions errors are rather rare, it proved that the phone easily adjusts to all kinds of voices.

To give the user quick access this feature, a dedicated button was provided for, placed at the right edge of the casing. Once you press it, the voice control application launches and asks to speak aloud a voice command or a contactee's name from tthe phonebook. The list of supported commands is rather long, comprising most of the phone's functions. When you are asked for the telephon number to dial or add into the phonebook and the recoginition fails or yields an error, you can say the number once again since the action will only be carried out if the user speaks the acknowledgement command.

In addition to the standard set of functions accessible with the voice control, a special setting dubbed Talking Phone comes with the phone as well. Here you can utilize the full power of the speech synthezation engine, for example make it so the phone will pronounce the digits of the number you're looking up in the phonebook - along with the contactee's name once the record is found. The menu and submenu titles can also be pronounced, the SMS and E-mail messages can be read aloud by the phone itself. The implementation is rather nice, the Talking Phone function is by no means another kitschy addition but rather a useful feature. It enjoys a certain degree of customization that, for instance, allows you to limit it to speaking the phone number only and mute the rest of hints. However some of the aspects of this funtionality are disputable. There are no options customizing the characteristics of the synthesized speech - language selection, speed and so on - everything is fixed. Because of this the feature looks cheaper than the same fucntionality found with some of the Nokia phones like 5500 Sport.

Let's also mention the brand CrystalTalk techology in this chapter; it's implemented in a vast number of the manufacturer's solutions. In fact this stands for a high quality voice rendering and lets you be heard better even in noisy environments. In the beginning the feature was exclusive to the more expensive Motorola products like V8, but now it's used in the budget solutions like W175, W180, W206, W213 and similar ons alike. We were glad to learn that Motorola are going further in the field of user friendly product design - you see, a budget phone whose only main function is to transmit voice over distances is something that would need a feature like that badly and finally it gets it.

The U9 model isn't an exception either, we noticed the enhanced voice signal quality at once and everything was heard well enough not to ask twice even when one was walking along the noisy streets. The CrystalTalk signal processing algorithm adjusts itself to the current environmental noise level; the noisier it is out there, the harder the signal is filtered to extract the wanted signal. The voice signal quality of the U9 and U8 model easily beats competing solutions by other brands, and that's a small victory of Motorola in this particular technical domain.

User interface

Moto U9 is based off Linux Java (LJ) 6.3 platform, that's the latest revision, the V8 is built on LJ 6.1. The interface differences are negligible, generally comprising a few menu item arrangement changes and minor touches on the design - actually very few people would ever notice or mind that.

The interface is based of Linux Java - it's actually one of the best solutions in this sphere available on the market today, lacking many limitations found with casual phones. Until recently, the manufacturer was offering a variety of Linux-based solutions in different markets, including E2, E6 and A1200 models, though the operating system was in a number of ways different from what we see with U9. The OS functionality was severely ripped, only Java applications were supported and the installation and usage of Linux-based software was utterly out of the question. However even given these limitations, those models were remarkable for their highly efficient user interface.

The state of things in the smartphone market was clear enough to allow for no ambiguity: the S60-based devices occupied the most part of the market, mainly issued by Nokia yet also found in the portfolios of the Samsun and LG companies. WM-based PDA phones only took a small part of the market due to the small size of their target audience, mostly being businessmen and corporate workers. No mass market, multimedia-oriented WM handsets are known to exist so far. UIQ was acquired by the SonyEricsson company, but it's evident that a single company can't support its full-scaled development on their own, so a few months later SE started offering UIQ share holdings to third parties, Motorola included. For the time being, Motorola are licensees of the UIQ technology, just like the Samsung company - each sold device brings a fixed percentage of the revenue to Nokia and Symbian corporations. Trying to evade the royalties, Motorola took to developing Linux-based phones with a comparable functionality - in the case of the U9 model that's quite justified, the Linux platform has an integrated support for high-frequency Freescale CPUs. Considering the fact that these CPUs are known for significantly lower power consumption rates, the model achieves a serious advantage over the rest of comparable smartphone solutions.

On August, 7, 2007 the Motorola company officially announced MOTOMAGX, the next-gen mobile platform based of the Linux OS. Unlike the previous Linux-based platforms (for instance, EZx) this one will offer a qualitative new level of support for third party applications, which is a huge step forward indeed. This platform is used in all of the new phones by the company, including V8, Z6, U9, E8 and the rest (officially still not announced). Asof today, the platformonly support Java ME applications, but by the first quarter of 2008 widget support will be included along with the Linux application support, which will minimize the gap between the actual offerings and the most ambitious of the customers' expectations. The MOTODEV Studio software development kit now only allows for creating Java applications, Linux and WebUI development plugins will be available by the end of 2007.

The first revision of the MOTOMAGX platform includes such functions as ARM 11 chipset support which stands for a lower energy consumption rate and a higher performance, hi-def screen support, an advanced Contact Book, the easiest media files phone-to-PC synchronization seen so far, support for the PictBridge standard and so one. The biggest attention is paid to personalization and the overal user friendliness of the interface. Of course such an abundance of features imposes certain limitations. So, no 3G support is expected for the Motorola LJ platfrom (at least in the foreseeable future), that's why the product line lacks V8 for LJ and V8 for P2K.

Let's get back to U9 then. During standby the screen is informative enough, the top bar showing indicators for Bluetooth status, currently selected audio profile, missed calls and unread messages, battery charge and signal level. The two dedicated buttons are used to access the functional menus (analoguous to the Active menu found in Nokia phones). The quick menu of U9 comprises the following items:

The current revision of the firmware won't allow changing the order of menu items.

The user interface can be customized with a number of themes, three of which are preinstalled, yet the user is free to customize them further. Also there's an option to build your own theme from scratch by playing with all sorts of settings: pick a wallpaper (any image, camera photos as well), set a template (mosaics, fullscreen), select a splashscreen for the interior and exterior screens, the power on / power off splashscreens and the font and menu template - colors, style of elements, font size and type, etc. Then you're prompted to specify a title for the newly created theme as well as finalize it by selecting an appropriate set of ringtones, message alert signals, E-mail, voice mail and calendar event sounds.

Sounds can be further customized in the call profile settings - the ones specified upon creating a theme are just default ones. The profile settings offer you a possibility to create an unlimited number of user profiles - though the system won't allow deleting the three preset ones. Four tabs with a few fields in each need filling when you're about to create a create or modify a profile - there you are asked to set the title, ringtone, message alert type (including Melody, Vibro, Combined, Vibro followed by Melody, and Silent), the sound volume (from 1 to 7) and also set the signals for each type of calendar events and reminders.

If you modify a preset theme, you can always switch it back to default; part of the settings of an existing theme can be copied into a newly created theme's template. The theme creation interface is very comfortable. Only the latest Samsung products may slightly overcome Motorolas in terms of theme customization.

Aside from the aforementioned settings, there are options setting the screen backlighting interval, splashscreen duration, brightness (from 1 to 6), switching the clock style (analog / digital) and the quick launch key icons. A similar system is utilized in Nokia phones based of Series 40 3rd eidition, four application icons are displayed on the screen during stadby, each of them corresponding to a direction of the navigation button. The icons can be turned off, and the functions associated with them can be selected from a long list of available applications. Two or more shortcuts to the same application can be bound to different button directions, no limit is observed here.

While running the mp3 player in standby, part of the player window is displayed on the screen, where icons of control elements are shown along with the song title, the name of the performer and the play time. Pressing the navigation button upwards will force the window to its regular size at once, so it's always to easy to control the player and switch songs.

Another handy feature is the automatical phonebook search by the initial digits of a number in the standby mode. This function is to a certain extent similar to the same feature observed with Samsung phones, yet the model in question doesn't look through phone numbers which aren't saved as contacts. If you remember some of the digits of the person's phone number, you can easily look their contact up simply by typing them on the keypad right away - then their contact info will be brought up.

There's no support for multitasking, save for a negligible monority of allowed combinations like web browser + messaging service. The mp3 player can be run in the background as well, but such a feature is common with most modern cell phones today.

Main menu

There are two traditional view modes available for the main menu - icons or list, a toal of 9 icons or list items fall in the field of view simultaneously. The third viewing option, an enhanced Spinner menu is an endless looping row of icons with the active one in the center, indicated by its larger size. The icons are neatly drawn and come with decent animation. Quick navigation with the help of numeric keys is possible, the submenu of each menuy item can be viewed as a list only. Aside from Motorola V8 and numerous other Motorolas, this model won'e let you create new folder in the menu - we're still guessing if this is just a limiation only found with the presale sample. But we were able to rearrange the order of icons in the menu in any imaginable fashion to fit our liking. The customization possibilities offered are something that left us deeply pleased - the mobile devices are becoming increasingly more personal.

The main menu comprises the following items, please mind it's customizable so the description is only applicable to what you get out of the sakes box:

Call Service

The contact book can be viewed in two modes: list and list with icons. Contacts stored on the SIM card and those from the phone memory can be viewed either separately or on a combined list. In the latter case each contact comes with an icon indicating if it's stored on the SIM or not. To the right from the contactee's name there's also a symbol indicating the phone type (work, home, mobile, etc.). If more than one number are associated with a contact, the default one is shown. You can browse through a person's phone numbers by selecting the corresponding record in the phonebook and consequently pressing the navigation button sideways.

Filtering can be done by:

You can also add custom categories to the list to do filtering by. When you engage the Frequently Dialed filter, the more frequently called people will reside at the beginning of the least and the less attended ones will show at the bottom. The settings include an option to select a number of phonebook records at a time, copy or send them to the SIM card and vice versa, send a message and so on. Sorting by name or surname is possible. The frequently called contact lists can also be reset here (for calls, e-mails and SMS messages)

The speed dial has nothing very special about it, keys from 2 to 9 can be used as shortucts to user-defined phonebook records, the 1 key traditionally serves to access the voice mail server. The contact list supports quick search by the first nine letters of the name or surname.

Upon creating a new contact, the user is prompted to select the storage location - SIM card or the phoen memory. A newly created or edited contact can be given a name and a surname (50 symbol limit for each field), up to four phone numbers (selectable from Mobile, Home, Work, Fax and Misc), an e-mail address, a short text note, a unique ringtone, image or video. Any photo, image or preset icon can be used for the personal contact image. The preset phone number categories can't be renamed, there's no option to increase the maximum number of simultaneously stored numbers per person either, which is a technical limitation. Two e-mail addresses can be stored in a contact record, selectable from the Work, Home and Misc types. The call picture is rather large, occupying about two thirds of the screen. A contact can be associated with any preset or custom user group.

Extra infromation that can be attached to a contact record includes two addresses selectable from the three types, a personal ringtone that will play every time the person associated with it calls, a short text note (or a voice message), personal data sheet, the Zodiac sign. If the Talking Phone feature is active, the device speaks the contactees' names aloud as you browse through the list.

Likewise Samsung and SonyEricsson phones, the birth date is automatically transmitted from the contact record to the calendar, and the user is prompted to specify the preliminary reminder period - one day before, two days, a week in advance and so one. Once you mark an Anniversary type event in your calendar, the same option becomes available. That's really very useful if you're forgetful about presents.

Up to 1000 contacts can be stored in the phonebook, which is frankly speaking is more than enough for the majority of users. You can create custom groups to place the contact records in, each group can be set to have a unique ringtone and call picture. The maximum number of groups is limited to ten, up to 20 persons per group. Contacts and business cards can be sent over SMS, MMS, E-mail and Bluetooth.

The call log stores all the call records comprising dialed, received, missed and frequently performed calls (up to 20 records per category). The summary list comprises all the types of calls, the individual call type is indicated by a small icon for each call. Switching between the logs is done by pressing the navigation button sideways, that reminds of Nokia and SonyEricsson phones. Any number can be extracted from a call record and associated with an existing contact record from the phonebook, or saved in a new contact record.

Each call record stores useful information regarding the date and time of call, the duration, etc. There are the stats timers showing the overall incoming and outgoing call time, data traffic counters and so on.

On the whole, the phonebook and the call service are just as good as they should be - at least no worse than with the popular Nokia and Samsugn solutions, we're sure really very few people are going to ever get disappointed with what Motorola has to offer with the U9 model.

Messaging service

Following the established tradition, the device utilizes a combined messaging system and defines the type of the message judging by its contents. An SMS to which a picture is added automatically converts to the MMS type. Message templates are available, you can customize the existing ones or create a nymber of your own - that's very useful regarding the ability of the phone to send such template response while the casing is closed, with the help of the exterior screen. So you can always send a 'I'm busy, darling' mesage right in the middle of a gunfight because you don't even have to open the phone. Besides the text templates, there are a number of MMS templates that can also include images and autio files.

The maximum number of messages is solely limited by the amount of free memory, just like with the rest of Symbian-based smartphones. A separate messaging log is available, looking much like the call log. You can always choose a recently contacted person and send another message to them suing this list. If your SMS messaging is locked on a close circle of people, you can always use that to look your contactees up instead of using the phonebook. A message can be sent either to a single person, a few persons or a bunch of carbon copies can be dispatched to a whole contact group. If you're sending a message over to a number of people, their exact number is to be specified alongside the small icon to the left from the adressee field.

The list allows for custom folder to be added by the user, or move and arrange the items in a custom fashion. The message list also displays info about the delivery dates, the name and the number of the contactee, and a short piece of the message text. Messages can be sorted by one of the four criteria: date, sender, size and storage location (SIM / phone memory)

Upon creation of a new text message, the text input mode can be selected from a number of options - you can switch between using the context menu or the # button. Options include automatical word input based on the initial letters of the words that you type manually, - the phone can learn and extend its vocabulary, which is a normal feature for a present-day mobile device; the traditional text input with no automation features; special symbols and digits; switching between the available input languages is done by pressing the * button. Getting back to the vocabulary, it's worth mentioning that it sports a number of alternative functioning modes. So, you can set it to guess the word endings all the time or wait and memorize what you're typing and only help completing known letter combinations later.

The message attachment types include photo, video, contact book record, audio, hyperlink - once something like that is attached to the message, it's automatically converted to the MMS type. You can either select a photo or a video from the gallery or transmit it to the message editor right from the camera application. There's no clear message size limit yet an artificial one can be enforced by checking the corresponding option. Possible variants include stirct limitation (which forces the enclosed image to be resized once the message becomes too large), message size alert (you're warned that the size is too big yet no action is taken automatically, leaving that to the user), or the unlimited mode. Once you attach something its actual byte size is indicated, and you can always preview a composed message prior to sending.

The MMS options also include the delivery and read notices, the message expiration date, the number of pages and page timing switch if a message consists of more than one page. Delayed MMS delivery at a customizable interval is something really new and interesting, for example you can have your New Year greetings arranged to be delivered on time a few hours beforehand.

The E-mail service enjoys a sound implementation, the maximum length of an e-mail message isn't technically limited yet you can always turn the optional limitation on. A number of delivery settings are available alongside. For instance, you can set periodical mail checks at a certain specified interval unless you prefer to do that manually; delayed delivery is supported; the mail download options are Headers Only, Message Only or Fixed Fragment (some initial lines from the message, actually a number customizable by the user)/

There's an optional limit for listing older messages, the ones deleted from the phone can still be kept at the mail server if the user wishes so. The additional settings include the possiblity of choosing the mode of response (with auto quoting the original post or not), the default address, the signature and so on. The messaging system of the device looks worthy - even if it's not the best implementation of such features on the present-day market, it doesn't yield to the majority of comparable products in this aspect, either. The well-designed interface also contributes to the overall positive impression.

MP3 player

Motorola U9 is seen as a music-oriented solution as seen by its creators; let's take a field survey and try to understand to what extent these expectations approach the truth (as percepted by the mass market buyer). First of all, the device comes with an appealing and efficient player controls system that provides for easy operation even while the phone casing is folded; a touchstripe, a small touchscreen-like element, is utilized for that purpose - that have been thoroughly examined above. In fact, you are able to perform almost the same number of actions as if you had the phone opened: browsing through the playlist and song selection, play and pause, volume control. All that stuff comes along with a nice visualisation FX. Of course there are a few limits in this mode: for instance you can't browse through the song database or choose the equalizer settings and switch the playback mode, but that can hardly be reproached from the point of common sense.

Now let's have a look at the player interface in the open mode. Besides the fact that the Motorola RAZR2 V8 isn't positioned as a music phone, the player interface is almost the same save for the lack of a few minor options. The interface produces a positive impression and is easy to handle. In the course of playback the screen displays the general info like the song title, the name of performer, the album cover (Album Arts feature), the playbar (with progressive rewinding support), status and equalizer indicators.

Playlists support sorting by performer, song title, genre, recency and frequency of use and so on. The search function is especially remarkable: in addition to the usual searching by title, you can use the performer name, album title and other categories as search criteria which will surely be appreciated by people sporting an extensive music library.

Any of the songs can be instantly sent via MMS, E-mail or Bluetooth. The Flight Mode is in its place, you might want to check it out if you are badly needing to extend the battery life while listening to the music. The playlist management is extremely simple, a name and a storage location are specified upon creating a playlist, then you just add some of your songs to the list and press play.

The device supports the following multimedia file formats:

MP3	+
WMA	+
Polyphonic	+, 64 voices
XMF	+
AMR (Voice Tag)	+
AAC	+
AAC+	+
e-AAC+	+
i-Melody	-
SMAF	-
Midi (SMF)	+
SP-Midi	+
RA	+

Player can run in the background, part of its window stays in sight even while the application is minimized during stadby, once you press the navigation button up the window maximizes back. You can launch any other application with the player running in the background.

The settings include:

Here lies one of the main differences between U9 and V8 - the presence of the equalizer presets which can affect the way the music sounds to a remarkable extent. The Bass Boost feature allows to boost the lower frequencies (optionally scaled from 1 to 7), and the revolutionary Spatial Audio technology allows to produce a very pure and refined sound.

It's not much of a secret that every music phone manufacturer does everything to outreach the competitors in the quality of audio. For instance, the Samsung company makes use of the brand audio amplifier by Bang & Olufsen in their products. The ICEpower mobile audio chip boosts the sound volume free of side effects on the quality. Thus Samsung phones are evidently the loudest on the market which is a clear advantage on the mass market. If we compare the audio quality of the U9 model with some of the competitive products, it's quite on the level. Both Motorola and Nokia companies tend to put more emphasis in the idea that the quality should prevail over volume. The utilization of dedicated DSPs in Nokia products of the latest generations offers an almost unmatched quality of sound since a digital signal processor puts into action its sophisticated algorithms to improve the signal while ICEpower Mobile only makes the phone sound louder. The sound processor separates the wanted signal from the noise, and only then it's passed to the amplifier.

The Spatial Audio technology has nothing to do with the circuit engineering of the audio processor, yet the combination of a high quality sound processing chip with a number of miscellaneous hardware and software enhancements stands for a level of audio quality never experienced before. It stands to the truth that the latest Motorola music solution easily beats even the best Nokia and Samsng audio solutions, yet the latter manage to beat Motorola in terms of the flexibility of audio customization and sound volume which is also a big concern.

Judging by our subjective experience, Motorola U9 sounds extremely well even with the stock headset included into the sales package, that will be enough for the majority of customers. The lack of a standard 3,5 mm jack is compensated by the 3,5 mm jack adapter which is bundled along with the rest accessories in the sales package. A bad thing is also that the music device surprisingly features no FM tuner and is only able to last about ten hours of continuous multimedia cycle before the battery runs out of charge. A 1 Gb memory card ships with the phone, which is cerainly a necessary accessory of a music-oriented device; the capacity is quite sufficient of the majority of customers.

PIM

This feature is titled Office Tools including such applictions as Calendar, World Clock, Calculator, Tasklist and Download Manager.

The calendar application is quite typical of a latest generation product by Motorola, it's indeed very functional. Three viewing modes are supported - by day, by week or by month. If viewed by day, each day is graphically represented as a schedule by the hour, two, three or a half - the interval is defined by the user. The calendar settings include and option to reset the viewing mode parameters back to default, set the number of weekdays, the starting day of the week, the beginning and the ending time of a day.

There 12 event types available, including Meeting, Presentation, Call, Lunch, Anniversary and so on; each event's properties include four tabs: the first one allows to specify event type, subject, location, date, start and end times, reminder interval (how early before the event the alert signal should be played - 5, 10, 30 minutes, an hour, two hours beforehand and so on) and the alert signal (any type of audio and video files, voice records included). The second tab stores a short description of the event; the third holds the list of participants - each of those can be sent a reminder e-mail message provided that you enter the e-mail addresses; if a person has their e-mail address specified in your phonebook, it's automatically inserted in the appropriate field in this tab. The repeat interval for the event is specified in the last tab (daily, monthly, yearly). The interval can also be customized to uneven values like a fortnight, three weeks, etc. Also you have to specify an expiraton date for each event.

The days which have an event associated are marked in the calendar with a special symbol or color, which makes it easier to spot things. Automatical purging of expired events is possible, you have to specify the time interval for that.

Like we said earlier about the contact book, the Date of Birth field is automatically synchronized with calendar and is marked on its proper date, you're prompted then to leave a reminder and specify the date and time of operation. So there's no way to miss your beloved grandma's birthday and you'll be warned beforehand.

The tasklist is rather simple, each task record features the following fields: subject, deadline, priority and a text note. Tasks can be sorted by priority or by deadline date, a shared access can be specified for the list. The viewng mode is also customizable - all the tasks or expired, complete and pending as separate lists.

MOTOSYNC is a menu item bringing you some phone-to-PC synchronization settings where you have to specify your synchronization profile:

The Notes are just notes, acting much like the Notepad applications found in various Windows PC operating systems, but its mobile counterpart imposes a 256 symbol limiation on each note.

The downloads manager is rather simple in the terms of functionality, but that's just a phone would need. It has a log displaying your downloads history, the pause and cancel functions are also accesible from here, each file on the downloads list comes with an icon indicating whether it's stored in the phone memory or on the memory card. Besides the web downloads log, a similar log is available for the Bluetooth dowloads - should a Bluetooth file transfer fail, the phone will display a warning and the file will be marked with a 'broken' icon in the log. So you can always keep an eye on the status of your downloads.

There are three alarm clocks which can operate independently or all activated at the same moment. The settings for each alarm clock include the operating time, the signal (selectable from mp3 songs, voice records and other audio files) and the repetition interval:

The days on which alarm clocks are set receive a red-color highlight (maybe to look more intimidating). Then you have to specify the interval between the continuously occuring alarm signals and the volume. The alarm clock is easily configurable, the three alarm clocks are quite capable of waking up everybody.

Preinstalled software package

Moto U9 has a standard set of applications on board. Let's begin with games, there are two of them preinstalled - soccer and sudoky. Games sport good graphics and the gameplay itself isn't bad, so it's a fair chance to kill some time during a boring trip. To install a new application, you only have to copy the Jar file to the phone and launch it, then you are prompted to specify the installation folder. There's no support for Java multitasking, you can't run a number of applications at a time.

The world clock function has nothing very special about it, it's just a graphical representation of some three adjacent time zones with corresponding cities indicated on the map.

The voice recorder is notable for a comfortable and easy to use interface, but has a rather limited functionality. There's an option to limit the record length to 60 or 150 seconds or keep it unlimited. Memory cards are supported to serve as storage location to which the records are saved, and, quite expectedly, the integrated phone memory can be used likewise. The default filename is also specified in this menu. The voice recorder can record phone talks, too, the sound quality turns out to be at a level above average. The record can be instantly sent via MMS, Bluetooth or E-mail, or set as a ringtone.

The integrated calculator software works all right, having all the necessary functions from the most basic maths to square roots and such like stuff. The navigation button lets the user choose the function with a small screen prompt showing for what function each of the four directions of the button stands. The calculator is combined with a measures converter which is a traditional tool that serves for conversion of such values as currencies, measures of length, weight, volume, area and temperature.

Browser

The phone is supplied with a Symphony 1.1.0 browser, it's not bad at all, coming with a variety of options:

The bookmark service enjoys a very practical implementation, you can classify your bookmarks and place them in custom folders, sorting by name and date is present, there are three viewmodes: list, list with details, thumbnails.

Working with the browser, you can do messaging at the same time, such a function is included. The option to select a piece of web content from a page and save it to the memory card or the phone memory comes in very hand. The selected content, e.g. images, can be also set as a wallpaper or screensaver or instantly attached to an MMS message right from the browser.

Opera Mini is still preferred though. It's interesting to note that the rest of LJ devices by Motorola (e.g. V8, Z6) use Opera 8.50 for a browser, so probably the commercial version of Motorola U9 will come will be shipped with that application instead.

Performance

Motorola U9 displays high performance results, keeping with the rest of the latest Motorola products (for instance, the V8 model). Evidenly, the new solutions by Motorola have a certain advantage in performance over the majority of competitive products, they are roughly comparable with SonyEricsson phones and are a few times faster than most Samsung handsets. The powerful hardware used in the latest Motorolas (e.g. a 500 Mhz CPU) is combined with a high level of code optimization, resulting in groundbreaking performance increase.

Model	Motorola U9	Samsung E950	Motorola V8
Jbenchmark 1.0.1 Score	6388	1568	8837
Text	1519	499	2243
2D Shapes	1605	383	2289
3D Shapes	1034	199	1395
Fill Rate	746	88	1024
Animation	1484	399	2110
Jbenchmark 2.0.1 Score	593	86	641
Image Manipulations	548	70	579
Text	992	94	922
Sprites	547	99	612
3D Transform	916	94	928
User Interface	267	76	365
Jbenchmark 3D HQ	350	75	408
Jbenchmark 3D LQ	361	84	420
Triangles ps	34102	9186	35391
KTexels ps	3377	948	3592
Jbenchmark HD Gaming Score	258 (8.6 fps)	50 (1,7 fps)	311 (7.2 fps)
Smooth triangles	81630	18953	104695
Textured triangles	62107	13455	71425
Fill rate, KTexels	1327	307	1340

The heap size counts 2.0 Mb, the maximum Jar size is unlimited. Moto U9 displays a very high performance for an image phone, the slight advantage of RAZR2 V8 over U9 is most likely due to the unfinalized pre-sale version of the firmware, theoretically both should have equal performance.

Camera

Moto U9 comes with an integrated 2 Mpix camera, typical of most Motorola phones of the curent generation. The camera module is rather inexpensive, only allowing for a mediocre image acquisition quality, there's no support for auto-focusing or a flashlight. All in all, U9 isn't much of a cameraphone, to put it mildly. The camera interface utilizies the portrait orientation, all the usual indicators are shown during the viewfinder mode - the storage space left, storage folder, current camera mode.

The shooting can be done in delayed mode with a timer set to 5 or 10 seonds, also the multishot function is available - up to 4, 6 or 8 shots in a series. The digital zoom comes with a maximum ratio of 8x, a number of FX image filters and lighting presets (auto-adjust, nighttime, manual) are present here as well.

The following photo resolutions are available:

The photo quality is average, they look well enough on the phone screen mainly due to the high quality thereof, if you try viewing them on your PC you're sure to get a bit disappointed. If we look at other offers in the image phone market segment we'll see however that the quality of the camera module isn't on the priority list for that class of products, it's generally regarded as a secondary feature and little than that, so the mediocre photo quality consequentially can't be considered a drawback either - it's up to the standards of the market segment to which the product belongs.

Imaging

A simple editor is found among the applications, intended to provide a limited imaging functionality which includes the following options:

The editor has a very modest functionality and offers no outstanding options - though this doesn't matter a lot as long as the phone comes with a camera like that.

Only two resolutions are available for shooting video clips: 176x144 and 128x96. The framerate is 15 fps, the maximum length of one record can be optionally limited to the maximum length of an MMS attachment. The video quality is rather poor, the clips don't look good even on the small phone screen.

File manager

Sorting by name, size, extension and date is in, applicable both to files and folders. You can select any number of objects at a time to apply a user action further. Print method is configurable for images and photos. The file manager isn't bad at all and it also got an interface rather pleasant to look at.

Impressions, marketing perspectives

The device offers a high quality of communications, keeping up with the rest of modern solutions available on the market today. The volume of the polyphonic speaker may prove not too high in some of the situations due to its awkward location, though this seemed never to raise any real problems

Motorola U9 sports a winning design and easily catches the customers' eyes. Lightweight, small and graceful - these are the most becoming epithets for the U9. The handset boasts no top-level specifications, yet everything becomes clear when you look and its price and realize that it actually belongs to the mid-end sector of the market and has no direct competitors there. For a product of that class, U9 stands out from the rest of solutions due to the variety of features it comes with, the higly efficient hardware and software platform standing for high performance. The product is original enough both in terms of design and the materials, the build quality is at a high level likewise. The quality of the main screen matrix and of the sound output should be especially pointed out. Keeping on a same level with E2 and Z6 is quite an achievement. Such key factors as the audio quality and the usability of player controls are becoming of an increasing importance nowadays, and the model in question has no flaws on this front. Only a few minor drawbacks can be observed, - like the small screen diagonal, short-lasting battery life and the easily soiled casing.

As we have already noted for a number of times, Motorola U9 seems to have no direct competitors right at the time. The number of indirect competitors might include Nokia 6267 and the upcoming Nokia 6555, which belong to the same price segment, share a similar functionality though aren't positioned as music phones. The 6267 handset is notably bigger, which only further dissolves possible parallels while Nokia 6555 is much closer to Motorola's new solution. The former is positioned as an inexpensive image phone for the mass market, the features of both are roughly comparable save for the difference in supported telecom standards (6555 is a WCDMA device) and the camera (the Nokia product only has a 1,3 module) so it's mainly the design aspect that will define the customer's choice. Considering the price policy of Motorola, U9 seems to us to be the most likely leader in this competition.

	Moto U9	Nokia 6267	Nokia 6555
Dimensions:	90 x 48.6 x 16.4 mm	93.9 x 46.9 x 21.5 mm	99.6 x 44.3 x 19.6 mm
Frequencies:	EGSM 850/900/1800/1900	EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/2100	EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/2100
Screen:	2,0" QVGA 262K colors	2,2" QVGA 16M colors	2,0" QVGA 16M colors
Exterior screen, dedicated player controls	1,45" 128x160, 65K colors, no	1,36" 128x160, 262K colors, no	1,36" 128x160, 262K colors, no
Camera:	2MP (до 1600x1200)	2MP (до 1600x1200)	1,3MP (до 1280x960)
Video:	QCIF (176x144), 15 fps	VGA (640x480), 15 fps	QCIF (176x144), 15 fps
Flashlight:	-	LED	-
Release date:	November 2007	September 2007	October 2007
Estimated price:	€260	€240	€200

It's also worth recalling the key model of the year among all made by Motorola, namely RAZR2 V8 - it also sports a comparable level of feature implementation and a close functionality. However the exterior difference is so striking that it's hardly probably that the two will compete for success in the same target audience. This is mainly due to the difference in size - the broader and longer V8 produces the impression of a somewhat bulky folder (especially when opened) while U9 sports very neat miniature looks, the impression is also emphasized by the rounded outline. The pricing is going to be accordingly different: U9 pretends to be both a music and image solution at the same time.

Thus MotoU9 is an intriguing offering and it's entirely up to the company to ensure its market success - the key factor here is the ability of Motorola to meet the planned release date and their price policy. For the time being Motorola U9 is a perfect addition to the current product range. Should it receive a bit stronger advertising impulse pushing it into the masses it will make a bestseller (provided also that the price doesn't exceed the reasonable limits).

SMAPE's opinion

Motorola U9 is a very usable, highly functional device for a product of its class, spiced with an applealing design and almost ideal build and material quality - we'd be happy for you if you picked one to be your stylish music folder, and many a lady will be happy to get one for a Christmas present, U9 is more than just a great offering.

+ Small overall dimensions and weight
+ Impressive looks and original design
+ High quality of materials
+ Powerful hardware and software platform
+ High sound quality
+ Music player is easily controllable even in the closed state of the phone
+ Superb screen quality
- Dramatically short battery life
- No hot swapping for memory cards
- They keypad could use a bit more comfortability

Author: Ilya Solovyov, editor@smape.com

SMAPE.COM

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