Motorola PRO

If the name doesn’t give it away already, surely the QWERTY keyboard on the Motorola PRO must have given away the fact that this phone is aimed at those individuals looking for a phone that helps them get some of their business related work on the go. This phone has been around for a while, so it doesn’t sport the latest dual-core processor but rather promises to be the ideal phone for business professionals. So let’s find out if it has got what it takes to make an impact in the crowded smartphone industry.

Design
The Motorola PRO is not going to win any fans for being one of the lightest phones for the simple reason that it is not. This phone is rather heavy but at the same time really solid. Measuring 4.69 x 2.36 x 0.46 inches means that it is not that huge and at the same time not too wide meaning you can hold it comfortably in your hands and also reach the furthest part of your display easily too. The Motorola PRO is surrounded by a metal rim that’s made of chrome which gives it a real business and classy look. As for button positions, the volume rocker and microUSB port are on the left meanwhile the dedicated camera button is on the right. The power key and the standard audio jack on the top complete all the buttons you find on this phone. All these buttons can be easily distinguished from the body of the phone which proves that Motorola has given a lot of attention to detail. Sadly though, the four capacitive Android buttons that you find between the screen and the keyboard is a real downer as it is not very responsive to your touch. The full QWERTY keyboard would definitely remind you of RIM’s BlackBerry phones but sadly this keyboard is not as good as the famous RIM keyboards. The keys on Motorola PRO’s keyboard are too close apart making them feel cramped making your typing experience less enjoyable. The phone sports a 3.1 inch screen that we will talk about in length later.

Features
As we had stated previously, the phone does not sport the latest in technology and the same can be said about the single core 1GHz processor that powers this phone. However as we have come to realize when we review the phones, numbers don’t tell you much until you actually try out the phone for yourself. The Motorola PRO still does a good job with the CPU as navigation on the phone is smooth.

It might come as a disappointment to many that it still runs only on the Android v2.2. Froyo and might turn many away from this phone given the Android v2.3 Gingerbread phones that have already populated the market. Adding on to that, the UI on Motorola PRO is quite bland and simple lacking any eye candy. You get seven home screens and each of them can be customized to your liking and there are also a long list of widgets you can choose use too. This phone also offers the option of resizing widgets which is good. The Motorola PRO also offers the option of saving three interface presets with your preferred wallpaper, widgets and shortcuts. This makes the phone perfect for business use as you can have easy access to your work related widgets while at work on one interface and then quickly move into the more fun stuff on another interface when you are out of work. This smartphone albeit being aimed at business users doesn’t come with too much software pre-installed. This means you would have to get your favorite business apps on the internet. Nevertheless, there still are some worth mentioning like the QuickOffice for quick editing of Office files on the go. There is also a 3G Wi-Fi hotspot wizard to help you sort that feature out. The Motorola PRO also has an app that allows you to connect to a few social networking sites at once besides also offering a few apps to help with file transfer between your phone and your computer.

The Motorola PRO has a 3.1 inch display that has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and that is a good pixel ratio given the screen size. Nevertheless, the screen produces some extra yellowish colors that make it a bit unpleasant. We also like the fact that the touch screen is responsive. Furthermore, you can still make out the screen even under direct sunlight.

On the back of the phone, you see a 5MP camera that also comes with dual LED flash. It also sports autofocus is also brilliant if you are not looking for a perfect camera. The camera does produce slightly oversaturated colors in the photos. Also when you zoom in to take a photo it turned out quite grainy. Video recording can be done at a resolution of 720 x 480 pixels and we are happy to announce that the recordings taken in the Motorola PRO turned out good.

Internet browsing done on the Motorola PRO was good but then there were some issues. For instance the browser had some trouble loading complex web pages. Navigating through the web page was also a little harder like the pinch to zoom feature turned out quite choppy. However that can be solved by using the double-tap to zoom feature. It’s also great that the browser supports Flash. There was also another issue and that is when you load videos the browser becomes less responsive.

The Motorola PRO also did great in the sound quality department as we could make out the caller’s voice clearly although there was some distortion to be heard. The noise suppression feature on the Motorola PRO does a great job in removing background noise but that sometimes causes our voice to sound quite unnatural. We also loved the battery life as it provided as with 8 hours of continuous talk time which is something business professionals will be glad to hear.

Pros and Cons
Latest HTC Sense UI on the HTC Rhyme means extra goodness. It also has a compact design, perfect for the ladies. Camera performed well and the phone comes with a lot of goodies like ear phones for instance.

Color might not be to everyone’s liking and we can’t get over the weird part where the battery can’t be removed on our own.

Conclusion
HTC Rhyme’s plum color might not be everyone’s first choice, but get over that and you have in your hands a really good phone.