Motorola Motoluxe review

Motorola says that it's OK to go ahead and stare. No, really. When it comes to the Motorola Motoluxe, it positively embraces bad manners, because, according to Motorola, this handset is going to blow you aesthetics lovers away.

This Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone is lean and sharp edged - just like all you wannabe fashionistas - and has not one but two cameras with which to take pictures of yourself.

But, let's get down to the stats. The Motorola Motoluxe is decently trim, yes, at 9.85mm, but not slim enough to make it a hook of a feature, given that the Motorola Razr reboot was only 7.1mm.

Nonetheless, the phone feels quite nice in the hand. It's light, at 123g, but there's just enough weight there, plus a rubberised chassis, which means it sits well in the palm without feeling that it might slip out of your hand at any second.

Amusingly, Motorola sees the lanyard notification light as something to shout about. Interesting. It's not a new concept for Android phones (look at the HTC Rhyme, to name one) but on this phone it's bigger and more annoying, especially if you have your email set to auto-sync.

It's not all doom and scathing gloom though, since the Motorola Motoluxe carries a lovely screen: a 4-inch edge-to-edge, FWVGA display.

The graphics are decently sharp for such a low-to-mid range phone, despite only packing a single core 800MHz processor. It's still difficult to see the screen in direct sunlight, though.

Additionally, the Motorola Motoluxe carries an 8MP camera with LED flash, front-facing VGA and four capacitive touchscreen navigation keys.

Soft keys include a volume rocker and camera button on the right-hand side. This sadly doesn't work from the lock screen, which would have been a nice touch.

There's also a micro USB port, and the 3.5mm headphone jack sits next to the power button at the top of the chassis.

Once you've successfully figured out how to remove the metal battery cover, inside you have a removable battery, microSD card slot and SIM. The phone carries only 1GB of internal memory, but you can add up to 32GB with a microSD card.

Overall it's plain, black and slim enough to be uninterestingly inoffensive, but the design is just a little too... square... to really be marketed at fashion-loving folk, or anyone with a true love of design.

Priced at around £15 to £20/month on a two-year contract or £200 ($335) SIM-free, it was never going to be the Mulberry tote of the handset world.