Hardware News

Nuggets: Motorola mobile good but not best

Richard Barry ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 11 Jul 2000 14:49 BST

Having a mobile that does the job, and does it in a way that is easy to work with, is essential, isn't it? So having a mobile phone that doubles up as a radio and a Web browser may be a bit distracting... right? Actually, yes.

Motorola, a fine brand of gadgets for sure, seems to have gotten a tad confused with the V.2288 which, by the company's own admission, is a "fun phone". It may well be fun, but if you're trying to do basic stuff like sending a mail for example, make sure you write the number down first, coz this little baby has a very short attention span.

Routine tasks you'd expect modern phones to tackle, like sending messages, should be a doddle. Taking incoming calls while on other calls should also be a doddle... but they ain't.

That's not to say the very handsome V.2288 isn't a good buy -- at around £100 it's a capable piece of kit, but lacks the refinements you see as standard on slightly more expensive models. Navigation around the phone's menus for example, is far from obvious and to be honest, the screen is just too darn small for decent Net surfing.

So what have you got? Well, for youngsters or for people who just want a cool looking machine that plays Chris Tarrant in the mornings... this is the job. If you're prepared to do a bit of research though, before handing over your hard earned cash, check out Alcatel's consumer range which do have a slight edge on ease of use.

What you get: