Motorola W156, W160, W175, W180, W206, W213
31st July 2007
Somewhat overshadowed by the endless RAZR handsets,
Motorola also makes some pretty inexpensive monoblock
devices, including the excellent MOTOFONE.
These W-Series phones are aimed at the value end of
the market, and they promise to combine good value for
money with a attractive looks.
We don't know much about these low-end Motorola W-Series
phones at present other than what we can tell from the
pictures.. in fact we can't even say for certain if
they're all GSM phones as Motorola also has some CDMA
versions. So, while we wait for the full technical specifications..
here are the pictures.
Motorola W156
/ Motorola W160
The
Motorola W156 (left) and W160 (right) are
two identical looking monochrome phones
with 128x128 pixel displays and an illuminated
keypad. The W160 comes with an FM radio,
where the W156 does not. There's a standard
jack plug connector on both, although it's
hard to see what the W156 would use it for
as you can bet it doesn't have MP3 playback!
There's a USB connector too.
The display does look rather like the
digital paper unit found on the FONE
F3, but we can't say exactly what it
is.
One characteristic of these very low
end Motorolas tends to be light weight and
very long battery life. If Motorola stick
to their past form, then the W156 and W160
will probably make very dependable low-end
handsets.
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Motorola W175
/ Motorola W180
Add
a colour screen to the W156 and W160 and
you get the W175 (left) and the W180 (right).
The W180 is the variant with the FM radio,
and both handsets have the same illuminated
keypad and connectos as the other ones.
As we said, we don't know much about
the technical characteristics of these devices
but we'd expect them to weight around 80
grams and have 5-7 hours talktime.
Neither of these handsets has a digital
camera, and we don't expect them to have
Bluetooth either.
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Motorola W206
/ Motorola W213
A
return to the styling that Motorola was
using a couple of years ago, the W206 (left)
and W213 (right) are both quite low
end handsets. Again, the W213 has an FM
radio, the W206 doesn't appear to have one.
Surprisingly, neither handset has a digital
camera. It's a little hard to see what differentiates
the W175/W180 from the W206/W213 as they
both have similar features.
Despite the basic features, in our view
the W213 looks to be a very attractive and
well-proportioned handset. With the
built-in FM radio it should be a welcome
Christmas present for many consumers.
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At the moment price and availability of these handsets
are not known. We hope to look at these phones again
at a later date when we have the full technical specifications.
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