Motorola W230 - A cool mobile set you can trust. Review on Motorola W230

I have been wanting to own a motorola for quite some time, but was stuck with various models of Nokia, LG etc. till now. Recently I purchased a Moto Yuva W230.  I should admit that I did not purchase this after much survey, evaluation and comparison - kind of stuff. I wanted a phone that did NOT have a camera, but had reasonably loaded phone & messaging functionalities plus mp3 storage for long duration listening & FM radio. To my surprise I was suggested W230 by my local mobile store(Mangal&Mangal Electronics)

1. Sound Quality/ call reception: Highlight in any Motorola phone, I have heard Geeks say is the signal reception & voice clarity. May be the oft-hyped CrustalTalk technology or otherwise, I should mention that the sound quality while receiving a call amidst city's( say in a crowded town bus ride) din is truly amazing. The microphone is also just great. Especially, you tend to notice & realize it the moment you finish the call & hang up. I got suspicious whether I really conveyed what I thought I did and whether the caller really heard me alright; It is THAT CLEAR.(points: 8/10)

2. MP3:This is a great feature in this segment of mobile sets(around Rs.3K+) W230 comes with a default 256 Mb SD micro datacard;expandable up to 2Gb. With this storage space large number of .jpg images(each restricted to less than 80kb) and about 500-700 mp3 songs could be loaded to your phone. The sound quality through Motorola Stereo earphones is excellent, despite the fact that the earphones look fragile and may not last long.(comes with a pair of replacement ear phone sponge cover) There is a buil-in speaker option too.  With headphones inserted FM radio option is also available. Ideal for killing your time when you wait for your bus/train/flight or during travel thru bus/train.(points 9/10)

3. Address book / Messaging / Hinglish Predictive text:Address book entries support long names upto 24 characters; supports optional storage either in SIM or phone; phone-stored-numbers support categorization, allow customized ring tone while SIM-numbers take the default tone only.

Message composing though would scare a'Nokia user', actually turned out to be very versatile. Hinglish predictive text is real cool, giving all possible options; even typical indian names like "venkatachalam" could be easily entered. this would require a'spell' task in Nokia, where one has to type in all the letters separately. whereas this could be done on the fly in W230. Not having provision for storing multiple phone numbers per entry is a let-off(most other sets score in this aspect) You also cannot send'business card' or'send phone number' option is missing.(points 6/10)

4. Ring tones / Settings / Extras:Some prozaic polyphonic/mp3 comes pre-loaded for ring tones; but the possibility of assigning any-song-any- length-mp3 stream(from the additional sotrage microSD disk) as ring tone is a cool feature. But to upload you have to use the USB access / data card reader may be with a Laptop. Downloading sounds from web or getting it thru SMS appears not supported. Not having a facility to record directly onto the microSD is a minus(Points 6/10)

5. USB data portability / connectivity: This feature is a good addition in this segment, but I understand Motorola does not give W230 buyers a CD(Motorola mobile tools) which is presumably given for its other upmarket models. But without this CD which has the important driver files, it was just impossible to connect to any PC/laptop. there is a very useful post on this aspect elsewherein MS. Please insist on getting a CD from your store or atleast ask for / take a copy of it if you are desirous of making use of USB data connectivity. Downloading this from Motorol asite has not been effective; I mean it did not work. Once I used the CD supplied by Motorola, it worked.(points 5/10)

6. Synchronization of address book, managing contacts between SIM/Phone thru PC does not work for this model(being a low end one?)(points 3/10)

7. The manualis a disappointment - not custom-written to W230.(points 3/10)

8. Extras & web Access:Calculator with currency converter, alarm clock, stop watch and a host of other features are bundled. which I am yet to try out. But Calendar function to store categorized reminders is a good plus. Web access using GRPS has been a non-starter but that I guess has nothing to do with Motorola but to do with the service provider(BSNL in my case) so more on that later on. Has Tetris & Sudoku for games.(points 3/10)

9. Batteryholds for about a day & a half.(approx. 50 calls, 60 minutes of talk-time). Travelling persons, better to carry the charger. For the same'daily usage my earlier Nokia is to last for three days. However, Motorola W230 charges thru UPS cable too from any PC.(points 4/10)

10. Other aspects:This has some trouble(or may be the set that I bought suffers) on updating the'network- tower locale ID'  - does not dynamically change as you move from one place to another. Has three categories of spcial dials - Speed dial, quick dial and emergency dial. Frankly I could not get to know the diff between speed dial(500 nos) & quick dials(3 nos only) . There is no possibility of creating/ maintaining diff profiles(unlike Nokia)(Points 3/10)

Overall: On the whole, this set packs much more than you would anticipate and more than one expects from the hitherto-motorola clones. There is a lot of functionality that is not brought out in the documentation or product catalogue, but you have to explore to realize it.(Overall simple average= 50%; may be if you assign some weights this set can score between 6/10 & 7/10))

Definitly not a bad buy. Keeps you busier as you explore one additional feature feature after another that you didn't think this set could possibly have. If you have some patience and are of sudoku cracking type this one is likely to enchant you.