Motorola PEBL U6
Average Ratings
Crap-tastic
Motorola PEBL and OS X
I've been fooling around with an orange PEBL I got for my girlfriend while I'm waiting for my new SE phone to show up. I love the over all design and rubbery feel of the case when closed. The actual orange color, much cooler than it looked in photos, it's almost a rusty metallic. The power connection is a mini USB and is well hidden in the design of the phone. The spring loaded flip mechanism takes mere seconds to master and is highly addictive (and slightly reminiscent of the original star trek communicator). The shell itself is clean, smooth and eye catching. Sadly, those are it's most appealing features.
Set up was really a breeze with Apples Preferences, iSync and Address Book under OS 10.4.6. Once paired with a computer via bluetooth, wireless sync and file browsing work pretty well. The bluetooth module also is flakey at best when used with my PowerBook. It seems to only allow one connection at a time. I never did manage to get it to sync up email addresses from my Address Book before it was time to give the phone up to its rightful owner. 5MB of memory just isn't enough if you want to use MP3 ringers. It can be functional if you don't mind editing and loading it full of quick snippets of your favorite songs. Moto clearly invests more into the exterior than they do in the phones clunky interface. Its my personal opinion that this is yet another over hyped and over rated phone from motorola.
Pros- Clean design and overall solid rubbery feel when closed
The spring loaded flip mechanism is highly addictive
The outer disply and ability to switch ring modes when closed is nice
Works well with Mac OS X. (If you can keep your bluetooth working)
Cons-5MB of memory for ringers and photos is a pittance these days
Bluetooth indicator only shows up if a device is connected
Motorola interface and phonebook, poorly laid out menus
A bit heavy for its size
Flakey bluetooth
Grossly overpriced and poorly executed
I was quite excited when my fully unlocked, unbranded PEBL U6 landed on my doorstep, and I was initially quite impressed with it. However, I soon realized that Motorola concentrated far too much on the PEBL's aesthetics and threw function in afterwards. For a $300+ phone with only very basic features, I was *minimally* expecting it to be able to perform its basic functions really well, but even *that* was asking a bit too much.
First, the pros. The design is definitely eye-catching and unique. I love the one-handed sliding action to open the flip -- slick & convenient. The inside TFT LCD and outside B&W display are well suited to this phone and are very legible. The keypad, despite its flatness, is actually quite easy to use. Calls, though not as loud as I'd like, are very clear, and I have yet to drop one, though I will say that the free Nokia flip that I received when I activated T-Mobile service worked in slightly more locations. The camera, though low-res, works well. And a Motorola rarity -- the software has never frozen or randomly restarted on me.
Now, the cons. My biggest gripe with this phone, especially with a price so high, is that Motorola clearly cheaped out on its chipset, making all menu functions and text input *excruciatingly* painful! They might as well have put a CPU from a $3 calculator inside. SMS MANIACS BEWARE, you *will* tire of this phone quickly! Even such basic functions as ending a call or scrolling through the phonebook exhibit long delays, sometimes of 1-3 seconds, between key presses and resulting actions. This is totally inexcusable in a phone this pricey. Also, since the entire inner keypad and both screens are high-gloss, the PEBL picks up a *disgusting* amount of oily fingerprints, and in contrast, the rubbery outside soaks up lots of oil and sweat. The volume rocker and stealthy side buttons are hard to press (and identify), the rubber USB cover feels flimsy, and the backlight could be better.
Good idea, flawed execution.
I like it
Pros:
>The rubbery feel
>It doesn't get scratched up
>The size of the phone, it's nice and small
>The screen size, even though the phone is small, it has a decent screen size
>The camera, pictures are tight!
>The flip mechanism
Cons:
>The battery life, but I use the camera a lot and a lot of picture messaging
>Some screens load slow
>The ringtones
>The back cover feels like its going to fall off
>Fingerprints are everywhere
