Motorola Charm alias Motocharm alias MB502 as its technical name. This android based smartphone from Motorola is absolutely one of a kind, why? That is something you will come to know in later part of this post.
This smartphone is a 2.1 i.e. Android Eclair OS based, has got an awesome screen which has been found to be scratchless yes scratchless even after rough usage/handling of around 1 year. The screen rather the display area of this beauty is covered with Gorilla glass making sure even a gorilla will not be able to scratch it under his claws.
Form factor - Uniquely Candy Bar. Competes with most of the non-sliding Blackberry smartphones due to its form factor. As per my own opinion Motocharm even beats a blackberry due to its ease of typing and softness of keys while typing. I was more of a caller but after using the QWERTY keyboard of this beautiful phone, I now text more and talk less. This saves me some bullshitting with friends and keeps me free at times when I am not in a mood to talk more.Android market is available in its full force on Motocharm and a user can even save and install apps on SD card of phone through rooting it once(using root apps like OneClickRoot or UltraRoot or Z4root) and installing App2SD app from market. This is one requirement that will be a must for this phone's users since being a 2.1 Eclair based, the internal 512 MB of phone memory can not be utilized to its full capacity. Normally it will allow you to install around 20 apps of around 100-500 KB each before starting to give you warnings of low memory which I have ignored till date and carried on working heavily on it by just closing one of the large app running in background for ex. Facebook for Android which consumes most of the internal memory if you are logged in Facebook.
Camera - 3.1 MP without a flash is just a normal looking one while capturing photos but surprisingly shows you good quality pics on computer or even in phone's gallery once they get saved there. A Flash could have been just a wonderful add-on on the camera however this is unfortunately missing.Another wonderful feature of this phone is threaded messaging (SMS and on MMS as well). This means the conversation from one of your contacts will always be stored under one name and there will not be multiple SMSs from single contact. As for my case I currently have over 25000 SMSs saved in my inbox (physical location on SD card) and this huge number just gives me a lag of 1-2 seconds while navigating between messages. This small time lag is quiet ignorable looking at the gigantic size of message inbox.
Has got 3G also available and when checked on a volume based 3G plan for verification purposes, internet worked seamlessly but did give warnings of low memory which again was ignored after I quitted Facebook for Android touchclient.
Pros:
* Scratch Resistant Gorilla Glass for maintaining the Display as clean as it is its day 1.
* Qwerty keyboard is like blackberry and beats blackberry in swiftness, comfort and usage by fingers.
* Color Resolution is life like and just a little lower than your AMOLED displays.
* 512 MB Phone Memory; around 350 MB is left for app usage and rest 162 MB is used by OS.
* Unlimited Message logs.
* Literally Unlimited Call Logs. As old as 2 months call logs will remain in there at maximum.
Cons:
* Poor Battery - Be prepared for using battery managing app from Android Market.
* High brightness of display - Will eat more battery
* Always on GPRS / 3G - Will force you to recharge phone battery just after 5-6 hrs.
* Facebook for Android - Strictly No No if you want to enjoy other apps. Use an alternative client like Tweetdeck.
* UN-UPGRADEABLE OS - 2.1 Eclair can not be upgraded to 2.2 Froyo or anything above. Tried with HOOKS and CROOKS. There is simply no way to upgrade this phone to Froyo or above Till The Time This Post Got Written.
Conclusion:
+ Buy it just for its sheer beauty on screen and in messaging and a lower than normal usage of apps.
+ Buy if you want to have a beautiful and wonderful second phone with Android on it.
- If you are a 3G junky, avoid this phone straightaway.
- If you are always on GPRS, be ready to recharge battery after every 6-8 hrs. Infact keep a spare charger always with you. If you cant do that, dont buy.
- Dont buy if you wish to upgrade it to Froyo or Gingerbread. Upgrade is simply IMPOSSIBLE. Motorola Support Sucks.
