Motorola HipTop Slide Mobile Phone Review
This is the first slide phone from
Motorola to hit Australian shores. Some of you might have seen certain celebrities?
using this phone on a regular basis in your gossip magazines. In the US this phone
is called the SideKick Slide, however, it has been released in Australia under a
different name, the HipTop Slide, Telstra is the only network offering it at the
moment, which is a bit of a let down.
It's an interesting phone that is
supposed to be the next big thing?for the teenage-early twenties market. However,
will Australians accept this phone as much as the American market has? Will its
celebrity endorsement make it something for the stocking for Christmas to come?
While the final decision to buy
this phone is yours, we are going to try to make your purchase decision easier by
having a closer look at this phone to see if it is up to scratch.
A great advantage is its 2.4inch
screen. It makes seeing the digits on the screen extremely easy. However when you
slide the screen and reveal your keyboard you have to manoeuvre your way around
the most difficult keyboard known to man! (You really need one of those pens that
come with a PDA) This is extremely annoying when you try and play with the cool
features this phone comes with including Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.
A great feature is that it uses
a USB connection to charge the mobile, like you would an iPod. This makes transferring
music and images to your HipTop very easy while it conveniently recharges. You need
to beware of the phones Internet capability, surfing the net takes a mere flick
of the trackball use to navigate around the phone with.
MySpace addicts will love this phone!
It will come at a cost though, $5 per month will keep you constantly in touch with
your friends online, but if you run out of credit too quickly you will know why.
I reckon it's better to use email, messenger or just the straight out SMS to stay
in contact and wait till you get home to access your space.
The camera has fast become a central
focus of the mobile these days and the HipTop has totally missed the mark with theirs.
A 1.3 Mega Pixel camera is all this comes with, which in this day and age is well
below par for a mobile. This was great two years ago, now it should be at least
2MP - a note to any budding photographers.
Making calls is not that great.
The keypad is way too small but also the quality of the in-built speaker isn’t fantastic
and many calls made on this phone sound a bit muffled, very disappointing considering
that is what a phone is for.
This isn't a shocking phone by Motorola,
however they still have some work to do. Considering this is the third in this series
(but only the first to come to Australia) they can go a long way to make it better.
This is not a phone I would recommend as a replacement for a PDA or BlackBerry.
It's a phone that's been designed for the younger user. The inbuilt Messenger, Yahoo
and Windows, myspace and web makes it much more appealing to them rather than a
typical businessman. However, for those who want to be like Paris Hilton, Britney
Spears and any other celebrity in that league?this phone is a must for you.
Review by Jono
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