Motorola A1000 Review

Overall Rating

Stylish
more compact than conventional PDA's
ease of use for most functions
bluetooth compatability
Synchroncity with Outlook
Plays MP3 files

Not as powerful as genuine PDA
No external slot for memory card

I've had the Motorola A1000 for a couple of weeks now and already I'm wondering how I managed without it. It's a terrific little product, not as compact as the Nokia mobile I replaced, but it fits comfortably in a shirt pocket.

For ease of function it is just like running any Windows compatible program. Use the supplied stylus to open the required program or one of the shortcut icons across the top of the screen. Accessing the Outlook while talking to the phone is easy, press the switch to bring on the speaker phone (which doubles up quite nicely as the in-car phone too), keep talking while you bring up the calendar, calculator, spreadsheet or whatever is required. The Bluetooth headset that comes supplied means not having to use the speaker of course, but haven't progressed that far yet.

From a general useability perspective, sms is slower as you use either a handwriting format (that is not bullet proof in its analysis of even printed letters) or a QWERTY style mini keyboard. To the benefit of the Road Toll, texting and driving simultaneously are NOT options. :-))
But ... all round I am impressed. The phone camera and video functions are pretty much on par with other offerings in the market place, and the email function seems to work quite well, but I would suggest, not for large file transfers as the data rate would be too slow and very expensive.

Ultimately, I purchased the phone to be able to have real connectivity on the road, plus be able to upload Outlook from my laptop at the office without doubling up data entry. From that perspective its fantastic. It is most definitely not as powerful as a Palm and I don't see myself downloading books to read as the screen is very good but not quite the size or resolution of the current PDA's.
The connectivity to the Net via 3's network seems ok, even on the two country trips I've made so far where, according to reputation, 3 should be dropping off the scale. (Am based in Melbourne, Australia where 3's coverage is still being developed) ... but I cannot criticise the network nor the product itself to this point. No doubt, when my two years is up, the A1000 will be old hat, but at this moment I am most satisfied with its performance.

Biggest grumble would be that to load extra memory via a card is a pain. you have to remove the battery and re-boot, so its certainly not a case of pulling a flash card out of your camera, for instance, and slipping it into an external port on the phone to review your latest digital offerings off the Fuji. But ... that's not what I bought it for.

Motorola seemed to have dealt with the appallingly short battery life on the A925 and I followed normal procedure and flattened the life out of for the first few days, and now its fine and I get a full 24 hours of genuine use (not just idle time) out of the phone.

If you're hanging out for full PDA capability then I think you'd be disappointed, but if a user is more pragmatic and wants this degree of connectivity in a phone, then go for it.

Members' Comments onMike Hendry's Review

• iblitzallyour on 7th Apr 2005

  I agree, this phone is briliant my friend has it and I am getting it in a few days from the review I guess it's excellent.