Motorola Gleam
The Motorola Gleam is a cheap and shiny homage to everyone’s favourite flip phone of yesteryear, the Razr. It’s a good choice for those who value simplicity.
Let’s have a look at the good and bad aspects of Motorola Gleam.
Good
• Eye-catching design
• Cool LED lights
• Thin frame
• Easy to use
Bad
• No 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity
• Poor camera
The Motorola Gleam is an homage to the company’s legendaryRazr handset. The Gleam is attractive, basic and cheap, offering thrifty buyers some bling for their cash. The Gleam is available for around £50 on a pay as you go deal. A user can also pick it up SIM-free for around £90.
The front of the Gleam has a glossy finish that attracts fingerprints like nobody’s business, and the vast expanse of shiny plastic is only broken by the 2-megapixel camera. Once a call or text message comes, though, a hidden dot-matrix screen makes its presence known. It’s a deliberately retro touch. This pocket-sized light show continues, with a set of LEDs located on the bottom of the Gleam. These pulsate when a user opens a close the clam-shell mechanism, as well as flashing when a user receives a call. Another neat touch is the throbbing effect that occurs when a user plugs the handset into a wall charger.
Clam-shell phones are something of a rarity nowadays, making the Gleam feel quite old-fashioned. The hinge that joins the two sections of the device also seems rather flimsy, and a user can notice a small amount of wobble in both the open and closed positions. The keypad is inspired by that of the original Razr, but it’s made from a single piece of flexible plastic, rather than aluminium. The physical buttons reside beneath this plastic sheet, and have a very slight degree of travel when pressed. Initially, we felt the keys were unnecessarily large, but it doesn’t take long to become accustomed to them. Indeed, texting on the Gleam is practically effortless. When compared to the huge displays on the HTC Desire HD and LG Optimus 2X, the Gleam’s 2.4-inch screen seems ridiculously small. Placed alongside other phones in the same price bracket, however, it’s practically par for the course.
The 2-megapixel camera is also rather underwhelming, offering dismal photo quality and terrible videos. The still and moving images created using this phone are acceptable for distribution via MMS, but little else. There is also an 5MB of internal storage available.
Expandable memory is certainly recommended as the Gleam comes complete with a 3.5mm headphone jack, which means a user can use his/her own cans to listen to MP3s or the built-in FM radio.
Phone style Clamshell
Height (cm) 11.5
Width (cm) 5.3
Depth (cm) 1.5
Weight (g) 105
Qwerty keyboard No
Touchscreen No
Display size (cm) 2.4
Display resolution 240×320
Internal memory (GB) 0.0050
Camera (Mp) 2.0
Autofocus No
Flash type No flash
Video recorder Yes
Music player Yes
FM radio Yes
3.5mm headphone socket Yes
Flight mode Yes
After reading the article, a user would have gained knowledge and understanding of Motorola Gleam.
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