Why You Can Trust CNET Motorola MOTOSURF A3100 review: Motorola MOTOSURF A3100
The MOTOSURF A3100 is a valiant attempt at a Windows Mobile handset, but its various problems affect important aspects of the phone and spoil the overall experience of using it.
Design
The last time Motorola tried its hand at a Windows Mobile smartphone it came up with the Motorola Q 9h, a very conservatively designed handset in the vein of Samsung's BlackJack. The MOTOSURF lives up to its name in regards to design; its plumpness and strongly rounded corners throw caution to the wind in a market full of samey design and iPhones. Though the aesthetic direction keeps with the reckless charm of a professional surfer, the handset itself is admittedly a little daggy — it's probably the only handset we've reviewed in 2009 that wouldn't look out of place on the set of a vintage Shatner/Nimoy Star Trek episode.
Motorola MOTOSURF A3100
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The MOTOSURF is a full touchscreen, meaning no physical keys save for the start and end call buttons and a jogball for menu navigation, similar to that of a BlackBerry. To work in Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system Moto has employed a resistive touchscreen, which lacks the responsiveness of capacitive screens on the iPhone and Samsung F480. Be prepared to whip out the attached stylus before composing any message on the phone. The display is also of a remarkably low quality, it lacks the punch of colour and contrast we expect in screens these days, plus the viewing angle is atrocious — the screen is difficult to view on any angle other than directly straight-on.
This is disappointing because the experience of the MOTOSURF is seen entirely through this dismal display, including Motorola's mostly excellent interface shell. Most developers working with Windows Mobile, HTC and Samsung, for example, skin the Windows interface to provide an attractive home screen with one-touch access to common tasks. Motorola has done a fine job covering the ugly mug of Windows Mobile with a series of menus and shortcuts, which you change by swiping sideways on the menu panel. The Moto home screen allows you to check messages and your calendar, the weather, RSS feeds and execute your favourite programs without using the dreaded Microsoft Start button.
On the top of the handset is a 3.5mm headphone socket and on the back you find a 3-megapixel camera lens and LED photolight. You can expand the MOTOSURF's 256MB of storage with a microSD card, but you'll have to take out the battery to access the slot. Luckily, Moto has bundled a 1GB card with the phone, which should be sufficient for most people's needs.
Features
Telstra has snapped up the MOTOSURF in Australia in an exclusive arrangement at launch, so you can expect the phone to feature a range of Telstra services. To make links to these services easier to find, Telstra has created what it calls "TelstraOne". Activating this will replace the Motorola UI described earlier with quite a smart looking home screen complete with shortcuts to Foxtel TV News, Sport and Music, plus it also displays your personal notifications, like new emails and missed calls, clearly as well.
This also means that the MOTOSURF runs on Telstra's super-fast Next G network and when you add the fact that Opera Mobile comes pre-installed you have a first-rate browsing experience. While we might like to fantasise that the reason this phone is called MOTOSURF has some romantic connection to the rebellious surfer Bodie in Point Break, the real reason is that it is, with the aforementioned combination of browser and network, one of best web browsers we've come across — in line with the iPhone and HTC Touch HD. Pages load fast and Opera is so easy to use — not only does it pan and scan without any stuttering or jagged movements, but it is the only web browser we know that is capable of displaying the Flash-based carousel on CNET Australia's homepage.
The MOTOSURF also features nifty new approaches to age-old mobile phone problems, like how to fit all the letters, numbers and punctuation of a keyboard on a tiny phone screen. Motorola achieves this by letting you change from letters to numbers by swiping your finger or stylus across the keyboard. Also, do you find it annoying when your phone's accelerometer changes from portrait to landscape when you don't want it to? The MOTOSURF uses a button press to change orientation so you're in complete control. These are small touches, but they go a long way to improving unnecessarily difficult usability.
Performance
During our testing we've had the privilege of reviewing not one, but two MOTOSURF A3100s. Of course, if you read between the lines you'll realise that this circumstance arose not because we were greedy, but because our first review model died during testing — a first for this mobile phone reviewer. We were unable to accurately diagnose the problem, but it had something to do with the phone not wanting to turn itself on after a hard reset. Our contacts at Motorola have assured us that it was a problem they could fix, but it's still worth noting.
While we're happy to call that experience a one-in-a-million and a bit of bad luck, the MOTOSURF had been struggling with simple tasks before it unceremoniously carked it and we saw this poor performance replicated in its replacement. Both Motorola and Telstra's custom interfaces are quite slick and work well, but overall the phone tends to be sluggish. We saw many instances of our workflow being interrupted by extended pauses, especially when opening applications. This lag made the screen unusable while the spinning rainbow-colour loading wheel turns and turns and turns. Most phones struggle to run Microsoft's lag-a-riffic mobile platform, but compared to the latest handsets from HTC, the MOTOSURF is the tortoise and not the hare.
As we said earlier, the web browsing is superb and the MOTOSURF is capable of the same level of media playback available to all Windows Mobile handsets, but both experiences are severely hampered by the crummy screen. Battery life is OK, we saw about two days between charges, while Motorola estimates the battery should last for about 6.5 hours of talking on the Next G network.
Overall
We love a good underdog story and we wanted to love the MOTOSURF — the first Motorola phone we've seen in nearly 12 months. We wanted to be part of the cheering as Motorola strode confidently back into the smartphone market, but we just don't see that happening based on this release. Its design is interesting, but it certainly won't be to everyone's taste, and if the lacklustre display doesn't drive you away, its sluggish performance should. Perhaps next time we can celebrate Motorola's return when we see its take on Google's Android OS, but until then we suggest you steer clear of the MOTOSURF.