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3/Motorola A1000
Price: £49-£249 inc VAT depending on monthly contract

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 11/01/2005
Featured in magazine:
Issue 99
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: 3/Motorola A1000
Web Address: www.motorola.com/uk


As time goes by, more and more of the gadgets we carry around with us are integrated into mobile phones. Motorola's A1000 enables you to ditch your PDA, digital camera and video camera, while also getting voice and video calls, email and heaps of trendy video content from 3.

Features
The camera features are among the best we've seen on a phone, with a small camera on the front for making video calls while you look at the screen, and a superior 1.2-megapixel camera on the back for taking photos. It also has a fantastic speaker for playing music and video downloads, though it isn't the ideal media player, as it requires the battery to be removed before memory cards can be switched.

Performance
We tested this phone on 3's network, designed to allow super-fast access to its range of services. The most disappointing thing about 3 is that it doesn't provide wider access to the internet, as the company believes the user experience isn't good enough. Frankly, we'd rather be given the option, especially because 3 has plenty of Premiership goals and music videos, but is short on things like detailed news. Find this phone on another provider and you might be able to use it outside the company's own services, but with 3 you're stuck inside its specially configured content.

Ease of use
The phone uses the Symbian operating system, which still doesn't feel as easy to use as Microsoft's rival Windows Mobile. Motorola has done a bit of work to make it simpler than its predecessors, and the stylus and touch-screen combo certainly help. But the joystick is about as fiddly as they get, while the deep-set screen can often mean the phone's plastic housing gets in the way of the stylus, especially around the edges where the scroll bars are.

Value for money
The benefit of being on 3 is that there's a clear pricing structure in place-you pay for your downloads as you go, leaving no question of running up a large download bill without realising. On a cheap £15 per month contract you'll have to pay the full £250 for the phone, though it does offer a lot of functions in one convenient package. To see a £49 price tag you'll have to commit to 3's whopping £100 per month contract, though heavy users will find this has almost everything thrown in.

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