Although Motorola's fortunes have been turned around latelythanks to the company's allegiance to Google's Android operating system, the industryveteran hasn't totally abandoned the so-called 'dumb phone' arena. Budget phonesare still wildly popular in emerging territories such as India and Africa, andthere's a burgeoning low-price market here in the UK that positively laps upbargain-basement blowers -- hence the launch of the Motorola Moto WX295, a mobile that offerscore functionality for less than fifty notes.
Motorola Moto WX295
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
In terms of design, it's clear that Motorola is miningits illustrious past when it comes to inspiration for the WX295. The clamshellform factor, one-piece key mat and circular direction pad call to mind thenear-legendary Razr, a device that has gone on to become an iconic product inMotorola's back catalogue.
Plastic fantastic
Although it's manufactured predominantly from plastic,the WX295 doesn't have the same creaky casing as other budget-range rivals,such as the Nokia 1616. In fact, it's quite an elegant-looking handset, and theone-line OLED display on the outer casing -- which only reveals itself when youget a call or text message -- adds a touch of class.
The WX295's key mat is fashioned from one single piece ofplastic, with buttons concealed underneath. This prevents dust from gettinginside the phone, but it can make distinguishing between individual keysdifficult. Thankfully, the highly responsive direction pad suffers from no such issues,and is both accurate and comfortable to use. The only other physical interfaceon the phone is the camera button, which resides on the side of the device andgrants fast access to the WX295's VGA snapper.
The ability to take images is a welcome extra, especiallywhen you consider that many rival devices in this class lack suchfunctionality. With a resolution of only 640x480 pixels, photos are predictably poor, andare only really suitable for sharing with other mobile users. Thankfully, theWX295 features both Bluetooth support and MMS messaging, so distributing yourlow-res creations is a breeze.
Memory malarkey
Despite the inclusion of microSD card support (up to 2GB),no card is included with the phone. Equally disappointing -- given the device'smusic-playback aspirations -- is the lack of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.The WX295 uses a proprietary connection for both the bundled hands-freeheadphones and charger, which is unfortunate when you take into account theindustry's current move towards standardised micro-USB ports.
Moving away from the hardware side of things, it's clearthat the WX295 is an incredibly basic phone in terms of pure functionality. Themenu system looks and feels old, but it does at least put all core elements atyour fingertips, with the bare minimum of button presses required to accessimportant options.
The lack of 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity means you'llhave to make do with GPRS for your data-related amusement, and the rathercrippled Web-browsing software makes hard work of rendering even the most basicpage.
Don't fake it
As if to atone for this humble arrangement, Motorola hasincluded the much-loved 'fake call' facility -- previously seen doing the roundson Samsung's range of low-cost handsets. Simply put, this option allows you toorchestrate a bogus phone call in order to remove yourself from an unwelcomeconversation or meeting.
The ability to use MP3 files as ringtones is a neattouch, but you'll need to purchase a microSD card as the phone's tiny 1.9MB ofinternal storage is unlikely to hold even a single song. Elsewhere, theinclusion of an FM radio is hardly groundbreaking stuff, but it does at leastboost the WX295's status among other similarly priced handsets.
As with many budget phones, the WX295 sacrificesconnectivity for stamina. The lack of 3G may cause headaches for those who simply have to be online 24/7, but it does wonders for the staying power ofthe phone. You can expect to get several days of standby time out of a singlecharge, making the WX295 the ideal device for people who are away from home forprolonged periods.
Conclusion
When judged against competing budget phones, the WX295certainly comes across as an impressive achievement. Devices such as Samsung'sE1360 and Nokia 1661 can be found in the same price bracket, but lack many ofthe WX295's key features. Granted, the VGA camera produces lacklustre shots andMotorola, rather stingily, hasn't included a microSD card in the box. But whenyou're dealing with such cheap phones, you have to be grateful for smallmercies. For the price, the WX295 is excellent value for money and the perfectphone for younger or less demanding mobile users.
Edited by Emma Bayly