Motorola Charm to charm India for Rs. 13499!

Motorola has launched its sixth Android phone in the country. Motorola Charm which has a charming QWERTY keyboard design costs Rs. 13499 and is available on Flipkart.  Of the six Android phones launched so far by Motorola, four of them has a QWERTY keyboard – either slide out or full keyboard. The keys are nicely spaced out with its squarish design and probably has an extra real estate than any of the QWERTY phones out there.

Charm is Motorola’s cheapest Android after Quench XT3

OS

Charm runs Android Eclair (v2.1) which is skinned by Motorola with its custom MotoBlur software. MotoBlur UI v 1.5’s live widgets heavily geared towards social media with facebook, twitter and text messages tightly integrated to a application called Happening application. The app provides a continuous integration of various social media streams to keep you ‘on top’ of it. MOTOBLUR UI V1.5 With Live Widgets

BackTrac

The most interesting feature on Charm is its trackpad called as BackTrac at the back of the phone (see image to the right). This will provide an obstruction free browsing and scrolling on the 2.8 inch screen. Notion Ink’s Adam is supposed to be the pioneers of the trackpad at the back of the device but Charm has it going first. As per the video below, the BackTrac is not turned on by default. You have to go in to the Android settings to turn it on.

Screen

The screen glass is an extremely tough Corning Gorilla Glass which is scratch and impact proof. The 2.8 inch QVGA screen is a capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 240×320. Charm’s touch screen facilitates multi-touch gestures of flick, swipe, pinch and zoom.

Processor and Memory

Charm is powered with a powerful 600 MHz process from Cortex A8. A 512MB RAM and 512MB ROM makes Charm a powerful little package. It comes with a 2GB microSD card  and it can further be expanded to 32GB.

Camera, Video and Audio

Charm is powered with 3 megapixel camera and it shoot videos at 24 fps. Charm plays almost all audio and video formats. It also has a FM Radio player. Charm comes equipped with 3.5 mm audio jack and ear buds to go with it.

Connectivity

Motorola Charm is a perfect mobile phone. It is equipped with all modes of available connectivity. It is a 3G phone with Bluetooth. It can connect to any  WiFi network and a mini USB facilitates data transfers to and fro from other devices.

Battery

Charm has an impressive stand-by time of 15 days on both 2G and 3G networks. Its talk time isn’t that impressive. 6 hours on a 2G network and 4.5 hours on a 3G network falls in the standard smartphone category but nothing to die for.

Other features

1. Active Noise Cancellation With Dedicated Mic
2. Digital Compass and Google Maps With Street View
3. Document Viewer
4. Social Networking Integration With Live Updates
5. Accelerometer Sensor For UI Auto-Rotate
6. Proximity Sensor For Auto Turn-Off

Video

Motorola Charm is a phone aimed for heavy texters and social media fanatics who wouldn’t mind a weird but cool and functional shape.

Pros : Touch screen and QWERTY, BackTrack for browsing and its square shape which gives some extra real estate for typing.

Cons : Motorola’s skinned out Android OS and Poor battery life (4.5 hours of talk time)

Verdict : A practical shape which brings best of both worlds (touch screen and keypad) with an evolving Android operating system. Price of Rs. 13.5 K is just about perfect for this phone.