Motorola C650 review (T-Mobile)

Motorola has been on a roll lately with entry-level cell phones that still pack in plenty of features. In this respect, the small, light C650 for T-Mobile is no different. The candy bar-style handset boasts a decent camera, a speakerphone, and some cool multimedia features. That said, we were disappointed with its subpar display, its iffy joystick, and its tough-to-open back cover. The C650 does have promise, but casual cell phone users hoping to stay with T-Mobile could do better with other entry-level models, such as the Motorola V300. Still, for $150, the price is right, and you may be able to find it for even less with a service agreement. With its shiny, metallic finish and its smooth curves, the candy bar-style Motorola C650 makes a great first impression. Measuring just 4 by 1.7 by 0.8 inches and weighing a mere 3.2 ounces, the phone fit comfortably in our palm and disappeared easily into a jeans pocket. We weren't that impressed, however, with the 65,000-color, 1.5-inch-diagonal display. Despite the screen's relatively high resolution, colors looked pale and washed out, and images were lacking in detail. We've seen plenty of other 65,000-color screens that were much sharper and more vivid.

The C650's silver, beveled keys look great and are easy to press, but we had some trouble with the five-way joystick; whenever we tried to press down to select a menu item, we almost always nudged it by accident. We were also disappointed by the lack of dedicated volume and camera buttons. In fact, there aren't any dedicated function buttons on the sides of the phone at all. To adjust the volume when on a call, you must remove the phone from your ear and use the joystick. Shortcut options were also slim; two soft keys activate the camera and T-Mobile's T-zones service, while nudging the joystick up or down open the phone book. On the plus side, the keypad buttons have blue backlighting, and the joystick is surrounded by an illuminated ring.

The back cover of the C650 looks snazzy--we like the circular Motorola emblem around the camera lens--but once you snap the cover onto the phone, it's almost impossible to take off. We resorted to using our house key to push down on the stiff latch, then pried off the cover with our fingernails, leaving some ugly scratches in the process.

The Motorola C650 packs in a solid set of features for an entry-level phone, including a 1,000-entry address book (each of the five phone numbers and the e-mail address--even those for the same contact--counts as an entry) with space for an additional 250 names on the SIM card. Contacts also can be assigned to caller groups or paired with a picture or any of 3 polyphonic (24-chord) ring tones. You also get a vibrate mode, a speakerphone (which you can activate only when starting a call), a WAP 2.0 Web browser, text and multimedia messaging, voice dialing, a calendar with monthly and weekly views, AOL Instant Messenger, an alarm clock, a calculator, and 16 polyphonic and 3 MP3 ring tones (more are available from T-Mobile's T-zones service).