Electronics & Computers Deals here!
-
CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 1.0 stars out of 23 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
The good: Motorola Active W450 has a durable design and decent call quality.
The bad: The Motorola Active W450's keypad is poorly designed and the photo quality is disappointing. Also, there's no stereo-Bluetooth profile.
The bottom line: The Motorola Active W450 finally brings a rugged phone to T-Mobile, but not without compromising its usability.
Specifications: Band / mode: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) ; Talk time: Up to 450 min ; Combined with: With digital camera / digital player ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 10/23/2008
- Released on: 10/01/2008
Unlike Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile has virtually ignored the rugged phone. Yet, with its new Motorola Active W450, the carrier is making a push in that direction. The flip phone sports a thick sturdy shell made for those with (dare we say) active lifestyles. The result is, indeed, durable, but not without some compromises to the phone's controls and displays. Call quality was acceptable and functional. The feature set includes a 1.3-megapixel camera and a music player. The Bluetooth function, however, lacks a stereo profile. The W450 is $159.99 if you pay full price, but you can get it for $29.99 with service.
Design
The Active W450 doesn't have the rubber sidings that you'd find on a Nextel phone, but the textured skin feels remarkably strong and sturdy, even though it is plastic. We enjoyed the solid feel in the hand and the large and well-constructed hinge. On the outside, you'll find a standard white-and-black color scheme, but on the inside, the phone features a rubberized keypad in either yellow or orange. We tried the yellow versions, and the features are the same on both models. The W450 measures 4.18 inches tall by 1.80 inches wide by 0.74 inch deep and weighs 3.5 ounces.
The external display is smaller than we'd prefer, being no bigger than a postage stamp. Resolution is just a four-color grayscale (96x80 pixels), so don't count on any fancy graphics. It shows the date, time, battery life, signal strength, and numeric caller ID, but it won't support photo caller ID or work as a viewfinder for the camera.
Completing the exterior are the camera lens, just above the display (there's no flash), and a loop on the bottom of the phone that holds the antenna. The volume rocker on the left spine is easily accessible when you're on a call and it is colored in the same hue as the keypad (orange or yellow). The sides of the hinges are also clad in the keypad color. Below the rocker is the mini-USB port, which also accommodates the charger. On the right spine, you'll find the microSD-card slot and the 2.mm headset jack. Though we love that the memory-card slot isn't stashed behind the battery, we'd prefer a 3.5mm headset jack.
The internal display measures 1.75 inches and supports 65,000 colors (160x128 pixels). The resolution is average when compared with other phones in the W450's class. Graphics and photos looked rather flat and colors were muted. You can change the backlighting time, but font size isn't adjustable. The menu interface is intuitive in both the grid and list styles and we like how Moto has slimmed down the options somewhat in the Settings menu. What's more, you can activate a new option in standby mode that places four-user-defined feature icons directly on the screen for easy access.
With the W450's keypad and navigation controls we understand what Motorola was going for, but we don't think the company succeeded. Though the rubberized material that covers the keys gives them a nice feel beneath our fingers, the individual buttons are stiff, with little tactile definition to separate them from each other. Indeed, dialing by feel was difficult and the keys didn't have a lot of "give." The dim backlighting won't help in low-light situations either. The four-way toggle is coated in silver, so it's easily discernible to the eye; you can set it as a shortcut to four user-defined functions. Two soft keys, a T-zones shortcut, a Clear/Back key, and the Talk and End/Power buttons complete the navigation array.
Features
The W450's phone book has room in each entry for six phone numbers, three e-mail addresses, a URL, a birthday, a nickname, and notes. You can save callers to groups and pair them with a photo and one of 32 polyphonic ringtones. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a speakerphone, a calculator, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, and a stopwatch. You'll also find USB mass storage, instant messaging, a voice recorder, and a generic Moto music player. The W450 also offers Bluetooth, but it lacks a stereo profile.
The 1.3-megapixel camera takes pictures in four resolutions, from 1,280x960 down to 160x120. Editing options include three quality settings, a self-timer, nine color tones, an 8x digital zoom, an adjustable exposure setting, an adjustable white balance, and five shutter sounds, plus a silent option. Photo quality was poor, unfortunately. Colors were washed out and the images had a pinkish hue.
The camcorder takes clips in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96), with sound and a selection of editing options. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at 30 seconds, but you can shoot longer in normal mode. The Active W450's internal memory is limited to just over 4MB, but you can get additional storage with a memory card.
You can personalize the Active W450 with a variety of wallpaper, color skins, screensavers, clock styles, and alert tones. You can download more options and additional ringtones with the WAP wireless Web browser. The handset offers a demo versions of one game--Millionaire Music--and a trial app of Mayo Clinic In Touch. You can get additional applications and games from T-Mobile's T-zones service.
Performance
We tested the Motorola Active W450 in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was good, on the whole, with acceptable signal and voice clarity. The volume level was just a tad on the low side, but it wasn't a big deal. We also noticed that the phone had some "GSM buzz," but that wasn't too much of a problem either.
On their end, callers said we sounded fine. They could tell we were using a cell phone, but few of our friends reported problems outside of some background noise. Automated calling systems could understand us most of the time. Speakerphone quality was average. The sound was loud enough, but it was a bit muffled.
The Active W450 has a rated battery life of 7.5 hours talk time and 10.4 days standby time. It has a talk time of 8 hours and 11 minutes. According to the FCC, the W450 has a digital SAR rating of 1.23 watts per kilogram.
- See more CNET content tagged:
- keypad,
- Motorola Inc.,
- caller ID,
- key,
- T-Mobile
User reviews
- Average user rating: 1.0 stars out of 23 reviews
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
-
Showing 3 of 23 user reviewsSee all 23 user reviews
-
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
-
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
-
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
- See all 23 user reviews Write review
%20Cell%20Phone%20reviews%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/motorola-active-w450-yellow/4505-6454_7-33311827.html){kind=small}