About Cellulars: Motorola A1000

The A1000 is the third Symbian 3G (UMTS) smartphone from Motorola. The previous two smartphones being the A925 and the closely related A920. The main feature of the A1000 is that it is much smaller, the A925 is 148.5 x 60 x 24 mm while the A1000 is 116 x 57.5 x 20 mm, and lighter, 212g for the A925 and 160g for the A1000, with improved battery life and camera resolution. In fact the A1000 is also slimmer than the Sony Ericsson (SE) P910i, which is 115 x 58 x 26 mm in size.

The review here is of the Motorola A1000 as supplied by the UK 3 network. This device is compared at various points to the A925, SE P910i and other PDAs to assist with the explaining its features and capabilities.

1. HARDWARE OVERVIEW

Overall the fit and finish of the unit's case and buttons project the feel of a high quality device.

Switches/Buttons:

The main external button/switch functions are:

One switch for On/Off operation and Hold. This switch feels fragile on initial use. However, the Hold feature is useful as it locks the screen and the other switches/buttons and the 9 way navigation key.
9 way navigation key. This key is used in conjunction with the touch screen and stylus to operate the software applications. The navigation key itself can feel a little slippery to the touch and thus making it a little imprecise to use (for example, it is easy to input "select" when the intension was to select "scroll up").
The "Triangle" key. This is programmed to activate the browser and the catalogue of 3 services.
The phone "End" key. This is used to activate the on-screen phone key pad as well as ending a phone call.
The phone "Send" key. This is used to access the call history as well as initiating a voice/video call.
Speakerphone button. The speakers (yes plural, see below) work well.
Up/down volume buttons.
Camera button. This activates the camera on the back of the unit. This button is also used to take a picture and to start and end video recording.
Game button A. This is used for game playing but can also be used to display the menus for the built-in applications.
Game button B (the one with two circles). This does not seem to have any additional function when used with the built-in applications.
In general the buttons have good feedback/feel. Having said that I still think the Sony jog dial (as used in the SE P800 and 900/910) is a better alternative for navigation.

Sockets/Connectors:

There are three main sockets/connectors:

On the side of the device there a 2.5mm stereo audio and handsfree socket. This is covered by a rubber cover, which does not open sufficiently (in terms of clearing) to allow easy insertion of the headphone plug. On initial use it can take a few attempts to move the cover away. The SE P9xx cover for the audio socket is also difficult in this respect.
Main charger connector; this is a standard Motorola size.
Serial/USB connector used for data transfer and synchronization.

Other External Features:

The other external features are:

The stylus and stylus silo. The stylus is not cylindrical in shape and is telescopic (like the one used for the Sony Clie TH55 and UX50). It is also about 1 cm longer than the one used for the SE P9xx when fully extended. This additional length makes this stylus more comfortable in use when compared to the one supplied with the SE 910i. The stylus "head" (other end to the tip) is shaped to be part of the unit's curved case (bottom part).
Two speakers. These are very loud and produce good quality sound, when compared the single speakers used in the SE Pxx series and the Motorola A925. These speakers can be used to playback music in stereo.
There is a cut-away on the top left corner of the device (when looking at it face-on) that could be used for a wrist strap.
As for the A920/925, there are connections at the rear of the unit for an external GPS antenna and a phone antenna.
As the A1000 is intended to be used on a 3G network, there is a camera on the front of the unit for video calls. This has VGA resolution while the camera on the back of the unit has a resolution of 1.2 mega pixel (for still pictures) and a 4 level zoom (which is operated using the 9 way navigation key).
The A1000 package includes a docking station for synchronisation and battery charging. Unlike the A925 docking station, the one provided for the A1000 does not have a slot for charging a spare battery.

And finally there is the 320 x 208 resolution and 65K colour touch sensitive screen. This is a lovely screen; it is difficult to believe it has just 65K colours. The brightness can be controlled from the Control Panel application. Even with brightness at 50% the screen is easy to read under moderate sunlight. The stylus tip shape and screen sensitivity mean the on-screen application functions are all very easy to access.

Battery life:

The official life of the Lithium Ion battery is 200 hours standby or 225 minutes for voice calls or 105 minutes for video calls. A quick experiment on a A1000 with a relatively new battery showed with a full charge the battery could last 48 hours on standby plus about 20 minutes of voice calls, 6/8 applications installations, 1.5 hours of use of the browser, about an hour of Bluetooth use and downloading and viewing of about 6-8 minutes of video before the "low battery" warning is activated.

The A1000 design means that under "real life" usage patterns/conditions it can probably be used as much as 50% to 80% longer on one full battery charge than the older A920/925 for equivalent operations. This is the reason the A1000 package is shipped with one battery while the A920/A925 standard (UK) package included two batteries!

Processor and Memory:

The A1000 device feels very snappy in use. The third-party Sman application reports that the A1000 is using a 168 MHz processor with 32 MB of RAM. However, once system processes have been loaded only about 17/15 MB of RAM is available for user applications (unlike the SE P910i which can have as much as 20MB available for user applications). Also there is about 22 MB of storage memory for user data and applications (the Transflash memory card can be used to extend the storage capacity for documents and media files).

"Internal" Hardware Features:

Once the battery cover is removed, it is possible to gain access to the compartment for the SIM card and the Transflash memory card. Unlike the SE Pxxx series, the battery has to be removed to exchange/access the memory card. At the time of preparing the review memory cards of up to 128 MB were available commercially. This does not compare favourably with the SD cards used in the A925 (cards of 512 MB are reported to work) and the MS Duo Pro (cards with a capacity of 512 Mb have been tested) used by the SE P910. Once formatted on the A1000, there is about 119 MB of usable space on the Transflash memory card.

Regarding wireless connectivity, unlike the A925 and the SE Pxxx series, the A1000 does not support IR connectivity (i.e. it has no IR hardware). However, Bluetooth for file/data transfer, PIM data synchronization, handsfree headsets and for audio streaming is supported (it is possible to listen to MP3s and the sound track to videos when using a BT headset). Bluetooth pairing with an old Ericsson HBH-20 and newer Nokia HDW-2 BT headsets was successfully achieved.

The other (unique) feature of the A1000, and of the previous A920/925 models, is the integrated AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System). This allows the A1000 to make use of location based services (e.g. location of the nearest restaurant), content (e.g. map of the local area) and navigation applications such as Wayfinder (the A1000 is supported by Wayfinder for networks where access is allowed to the internet via GPRS).

At the time of preparing the review there were no other smartphones on the market with the form factor and size of the A1000 supporting built-in GPS capabilities.
2. SOFTWARE/APPLICATIONS OVERVIEW

The A1000 includes the standard Symbian OS 7.0/UIQ 2.1 applications as well as the Picsel document viewer and the Opera browser. Unlike the SE P910, the A1000 does not have a built-in document editing application like QuickOffice.

Opera:

At the time of preparing this review, in November 2004, the A1000 on the UK 3 network is configured so that it is only possible to use the Opera browser to access content provided by 3 (this is not the case with all the 3 networks, in some countries full access is allowed to the internet is available either via GPRS or UMTS). The version of Opera used is 7.5 (build 708); this version supporting full screen viewing.

Picsel Document Viewer:

The built-in Picsel viewer is easy to use and can reproduce most of the details correctly for Microsoft Office applications and PDF files. Tests with Word, Excel and PowerPoint (Office 2002) showed that the majority of details were reproduced except for fonts and bullet points. One of the benefits of Picsel is that it can display documents in landscape and portrait format and in full-screen mode. The full-screen landscape mode being especially useful when viewing PowerPoint documents. Also, when emails are received with Office/PDF document attachments, Picsel can be used to view these documents from the email application.

Messaging:

The standard messaging options of SMS, POP3 & IMAP email and MMS are supported. Unlike the SE P910i, user definable folders are not supported in the messaging applications. Also, unlike many other smartphones there is no native support for RIM's Blackberry "push" email application.

PIM Applications:

All the standard Symbian OS 7.0/UIQ 2.1 PIM applications are supported for diary, to do, contacts and notes management and synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes (versions 4.5, 4.6, 5 and 6). The specific versions of Outlook that are supported are not documented but successful synchronisation with Outlook 2003 for contacts, diary, to dos was achieved; there is no option for synchronization of notes. In addition, to reduce memory usage, the date span of the synchronization can be controlled.

Multimedia:

On the A1000 video application consists of the standard video playback (supporting MPEG4 and 3GPP), real-time video calls and video recording (but this is limited to 60 seconds). Downloaded videos from 3 network suggest the quality of playback (and sound) are very good, especially when using the full-screen option. Regarding download speeds, it is possible to download a 1 MB video in 30/35 seconds from the UK 3 network.

The A1000 also includes the standard Symbian OS audio application, which is compatible with MP3 and WMA formats. The A1000 retail package includes a stereo headset with integrated handsfree operation. Initial testing with 128 kbps encoded MP3s suggests the sound reproduction of this device is very good indeed.

Personalisation:

The A1000 supports "themes"; this facility allows wallpapers and sounds to be swapped for the Phone application. This personalisation feature is not like the "skins" based themes used on the SE P9x0 devices. Additional themes are available on the A1000's CD.

On the 3 (UK) version of the A1000, the is a "home" screen which combines shortcuts to network services, a "today" screen and a single row launcher bar for application shortcuts (limited to three shortcuts). The configuration of this screen can be changed to some extent (for example it is possible to change the shortcuts).

Unlike on the SE Pxxx series, it is not possible to change the shortcuts across the top row of the display (unless you take advantage of 3rd party solutions).

Text Input:

The A1000, like the A925 before, supports text input using a virtual keyboard and hand writing recognition. Unlike the SE Pxxx series, the hand writing recognition requires input into a specific area of the screen/application. However, unlike the SE Pxxx, the A1000 support predictive text input for both the virtual keyboard and hand writing recognition input. This predictive text input application operates in a similar fashion to the third party application EziTap. The only issue with the text input on the A1000 is that it can take 3 seconds to launch the input application, which is about 2 seconds longer than on the SE P910.

Desktop Suite:

The functions of the Motorola Desktop Suite are accessed from a set application shortcuts on a menu bar. The main shortcuts are: synchronisation, file browsing, application installation (all applications are installed on the C: drive, there are no options to install applications on the D: drive, i.e. the memory card), back-up, restore and settings.

Synchronisation, back-up and modem connections are achieved using a USB (serial) connection or a Bluetooth connection. For USB synchronisation, using version 1.0.0.610, the speed of operation was much slower when compared to a similar operation using a SE P910 with SE's PC Suite software (and thus much much slower when compared to a Palm device such as Sony Clie TH55). However, file transfer and document management on the A1000 from a PC is similar in speed to that of the SE PC Suite version 3.1.1.

Also like the SE Pxxx series, when connected via the USB cable it is possible to utilise the internet connection of the PC (e.g. a broadband connection) to browse the internet using Opera (after disconnecting from the 3 network).

Software on the A1000 CD:

Unlike the older A920, the A1000 can be used a GPRS and UMTS modem (modem drivers are installed automatically when the A1000 is linked to a PC). There is an application called Simplify provided by Motorola, on the CD accompanying the A1000, to connect the PC to the Internet while using the A1000 as a GPRS/UMTS modem. The UMTS modem has theoretical 384 kbps download and 64 kbps upload data transfer speeds. The CD also includes a VPN application (movianVPN) for connecting to corporate networks.

Conclusions:

The Motorola A1000 is a very comprehensive convergence device in a very slick and well designed package. It is difficult to truly compare this Motorola offering with offerings from other manufacturers as this device does have some unique features such as AGPS and 3G capabilities. It is, however, a significant advance over the A920/A925.

In the final analysis, if your requirements are for one device that can access 3G content (video downloads and video calling), multimedia (video and audio) and has navigation capabilities the A1000 should be at the top of your list. However, you may need to check which services are activated/locked on your device if you buy a network subsidised A1000 as opposed to a SIM free A1000. If on the other hand you are looking for a device that provides support for business functionality "out off the box" and you need lots of memory on your device you should consider other options such as the SE P910 or the Nokia 9500/9300. If your requirements are for high speed data on the move then the A1000 is a good option if your 3G network supports 3G data and has reasonable coverage but you may also wish to consider devices that support WiFi or EDGE such as the Nokia 9500 and the Nokia 9300 (again you need to consider the availability of EDGE and wireless networks in your country).

Motorola A1000

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