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 The Motorola U9 is approaching Rokr2 what should have been all this time - a sequel familiar and refreshing. Better late than never, the cheap phone is quite good despite the flaws that mostraremos.S. the mobile phone manufacturer is still relevant on the global stage of consumer electronics.
First, the familiar
The U9 is wider but thinner than Motorola's previous models of the type. Closed quiet, large opening to position the mic for best sound-quality. Strongly resembles the Motorola phone without Linux, PEBL, but thinner and with a OLED external display.
The "control surface" cheaper, the buttons large, well lit, and easy to adjust. The mix of hardware buttons seem fine, too.
    
Motorola U9 Gallery
(Click any image to enlarge)
Typical Motorola quality of the voice signal is good, even in remote and rural areas.
The interface based on Linux and Trolltech QT is acceptable, and if you do not feel comfortable in it, you can customize it, absolutely every detail. However, some of the menus are rare half - is not a true smartphone, but a basic phone feature which happens to have some high end features. These include a decent 2MP camera, video recording and playback, a voice recorder, voice dialing, some cool games, and of course the help of Java.
   
The U9 takes decent photos
(Click to enlarge)
It also supports some features of the data network, such as the multimedia messaging, email, a web browser, and readers for office documents. I think most customers will be interested in U9 device as a phone, rather than as data device. It is really too small to be a good reader or web browser email.
The "refreshing" and other news
 The U9 has a bright external display. Invisible when off, may be used for MP3 playback when the cover is closed, as well as camera or the caller ID. The organic LED screen is very good, organic is captivating, and fun to show off. A film that shows the display can be found here.
Like all Motorola phones (I mean, the newest), the U9 uses a single micro-USB port for all of the burden to establish a network or data synchronization and even audio input / output. So, enjoy your music, you will need Bluetooth 2.0 or wired headphones (which sound better) with a microUSB connector. The speakerphone is good and loud, though good, is not a stereo.
To test the playback of music, I copied some music files to the device over Bluetooth, a Nokia N810 tablet. This worked very well, using the file browser of the N810.
Then I inserted a 2GB card microUSB about $ 150 pesos. I gave previously formatted with the FAT32 file system, and had been using (with SD adapter) on a N800 tablet. The U9 and found poerfectamente worked well with MP3 - ogg files but were not recognized.
By connecting the device with a microUSB cable and try to transfer files from my PC with Linux, the phone began to charge its battery, but a few moments later and was stopped as a Mass Storage Device. On my Kubuntu Linux (Hardy) using the device, tried to launch the management system of pictures, but I said no and started to copy music. I had some problems to copy files, send me errors after a while. However a quick internet search showed me how to configure my Linux to not fail. Actually this little detail has been the only thing wrong with this device.
Linux - what does that mean, exactly?
The U9 is based on Linux, an operating system open source. That does not mean that anyone can fix the software, though - only official firmware loaded into the device. Thus, the only responsibility for interference fixation software rests with Motorola.
Motorola is getting more open, but, in part due to his involvement with the LiMo Foundation, an industry group that works together to improve Linux for use in mobile phones. The companies each member of the LiMo are free to contribute fixes and features to the shared parts of LiMO stack.
Also, in a historical movement, Motorola recently launched MOTODEV Studio for Linux 0.3, the first release of the linux native tools for Motorola phones. That puts the pieces in place for a world in which you could write your own, for example, the tuner for the phone, if you did not like what came with. Or maybe some day, even your own driver USB storage device.
Now that would be solved.
The conclusion
Phones are more complete and bigger. There are smaller and cheaper phone U9 gives the balance between the two, with all the features that Linux provides packaged in a friendly form factor, refreshing and familiar. Ignoring small problems is a great phone to have.
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