Staff Review: Motorola A1200

[Alpha43]

Hello To All!
My review is finally out.. Sorry for the very long delay but business is always busy. Anyway I wrote this review since i see that alot of people want to know things about the phone. In the last couple of weeks i have noticed that the A1200's popularity has gone up alot. Anyway on to the detailed review. I hope this helps alot of people! Enjoy!

Alpha's Scale from 1-5 (1 being the least and 5 being the best)


Design - 4
To me the phones is beautifuly constructed. It is very stylish, sexy, and elegant. Especially in black.. The combination of the chrome buttons and black works very nicely. I love the fact that it has a clear flip. Looks very cool when you try to check the time with the flip closed. Trust me alot of people will be amazed on how good the phone looks and feels in the phones.
Now the only reason why i did not give it a perfect 5 is because of the fact that the chrome hinge and clear clip is very fagile. the chrome hinge will get small scratches.. And the clear flip also.. be prepared to buy additional parts.







Functionality/ Ease of use - 5
This phone is very easy to use. Yes at first look and touch you may be a little bit confused but within a few minutes you will be a pro! The speed of the menu is fast and responsive. The main menu is well sort out and its great that you can customize the order and stuff. Making phone calls are also very simple. I use my finger to type the number. The numbers are well spaced out enough so that you dont need the stylus Everything feels like its in the right place. I find it perfect.




Apps/ Utilities/ Multi-media - 4
Alot of people have good things and bad thing to say about this subject. Heres my opinion... For utilities, the phone include the basics... Alarm, Calculator, World time, Notes, Tasks, Calendar, And web browser. Some of the extra utilities you get is a Nice Photo-editor, Voice recorder with no limit on length, And a Business Card Reader ( Very cool, and it works!)
For Multi-Media we get Real player, and a Fm Radio. I like and dont like Real Player. I like Real player as a mp3 player. It plays smooth no skips. It plays fast and its very stable. But i dont like Real player as a Video viewer. Real player has a cap with video quality. It does support 320x240 video but only plays smooth using either 12-15 frames. But there is a solution for this! You can read about that in the Extra's section of my review.
As for apps. Yes some games will play on the A1200 and some wont.. Really you have to find some that will.. Though is a couple of nice ones posted in Motrolafans.com. So check that out! The Messaging app is well done as well. Yes the phone is missing a keyboard but trust me... you will end up typing just as fast with the stylus! I also included pictures of messaging with the keyboard and handwriting since alot of people wanted to see what it looked like. I also managed to install other little apps to my phone, Including a bible ( if anyone is interested in that app pm me) , And other apps which i will explain in my Extra's section!





Display Screen - 5
The screen is superb! Resolution is amazing. Colors are the best i have seen on a Motorola. And everything just looks amazing. When you high quality videos on your phone it looks like your looking at your computer screen.. Trust me! The picture i took doesnt give it any justice since my wallpaper has no color. You want proof take a picture with this phone. Look how nice it looks! To me its the best screen Motorola has made! hands down!


Camera - 4
Camera Quality is good. Especially for a motorola. Alot of people would say that motorola is the worst when it comes to the photo department. I would agree but i also think and have proof that the A1200 takes better pictures with its 2mp camera better then most 2mp camera phones out. The camera of course works best outside. When inside as long you dont have cheap lighting in your house you should be fine. But i would say that in the night it does take grainy pictures.. but then again all camera phones do even the mighty n93! You be the judge! Here are the picture.. All taken from the A1200. First picture is of my baby! And some other are macro mode shots! ** Be aware that generic firmware takes better images then China-mobile firmware**




[img]
[IMG:d0a7ee381a]http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i6/alpha43/0728_132852.jpg[/img]



Macro Shots


Inside my sisters car.. Bored..



Video - 3
I have to admit i am not fully happy with the video from the A1200. It records at a very weak 177x144 resolution. I know the phone has the ability to record video at 320x240. Since it plays videos without any problems...I guess motorola was just lazy. But anyway some good things is the fact that you can record up to two hours of video. Which is nice.. But again if only that video quality was better... hopefully some firmware does something to that!

Call quality and Reception - 5
It rules in this department... This gets better signal then any razr and treo phones... Its great! nothing else to say here. PerfecT!

Conclusion -
My best phone to date! Its a very impressive phone. It packs alot of punch for such a small phone. Best motorola to date! If you looking for the ultimate flip phone.. Look no further!

Small cons -
Volume is low on mp3's.... Now im not that mad about it since it seems that we are very close to a nice seem edit to raise the volume. So its something can be fixed.
No speaker phone with the flip closed! Motorola whats with that??

Pros -
Nice camera
Beautiful design
Excellent build quality
Can customize
Also one of the very few phones to support 2gb card!

**Extra's**
Well to begin the phone offers a STK app so if you are using dual sim card its ready for you!
Piscal viewer is a nice app that allows you to view documents, and pdf's. Only thing is you cant edit them..
I have installed MPKG which allows us to install unsigned PKG files. For example ( which is also another great app! ) Zmplayer... Although its still in Dev. It is a nice multimedia player which allows us to take advantage of this phones true potential! It plays Avi's and allows us to enjoy our videos at high quality. My current settings are 320x240 200 bit rate and 25 frames... Its plays very smooth.. i have yet to skip a frame! Although the program has its errors and bugs.. Im sure they will be addressed later on..



Final words -
This phone is a beast!
Any questions or need help... Im only a pm away! God bless!

~Alpha~

[Alpha43]

Also two little secrets/tips for new users...
1 - superbright mode... Press and hold the green calling button for a couple of seconds... the screen should be brighter now! And yes it glows brighter even if backlight is at 100%
2. half macro mode - i was able to play around with the camera and found something interesting... As you already know when you move the switch to macro mode it focuses on a close object. But the only thing is that it has a small range. Now i see that if you have mid range shots of something place the switch about half way... You will see what im talking about... Heres a picture to show you what i mean. So if you look at the cross it actually not that close to me... And far objects are blurry.. Its like a mid-macro effect.

~Alpha~

[V.Razr.X]

Excellent review Alpha43!

[Alpha43]

Thanks it took a little while to do but the last two nights i have finally had time to do it. i hope it helps people with there choice to buy the phone.
~Alpha~

[samkatta]

Nice one Alpha. Thanx for your efforts.

[linelock]

Nice review, the pictures look great.

[weeeza]

nice review, mine is coming in the mail tomorrow, I can't wait you got me a lot more excited after this review

please tell me where you got your backgrount picture, I love it

thanks

sam

[Alpha43]

Thank you all for your comments! I did this review for people like Weeeza who are either about to get the phone or are thinking of buying the phone. Im glad it helps! And by the way weeeza.. you like my dragon huh? haha pm and ill send you it. It does look great with the phone. You will see once you get the phone.
~Alpha~

[pablo1968]

Congratulation excellent review a-m-i-g-o !!!!

[Shigeru]

Good good Alpha , now I have received my A1200 ( I love it ) I can understand your pictures and all you re talking about .

I have just three questions ^^:

Have you got also a delay time between when you press the button to take a photo and the real result of the photo ??

It disturbs me sometimes because it blur the photo , do you have a solution ?

My photos , ok it's inside but they are less beautiful than yours , are you sure I have the last firmware ?

Is there a way to lock the load function when connected in USB ?