Motorola's phones usually land up in the lower part of the price table, and so is the case of the W230, a device cheaper than its rivals, in most networks.

Music capabilities and a camera are the only needs for a phone to succeed in the entry-level category. The W230 excels in music features, that is, for its price range, but does not have a camera, which most of us might find disappointing. It does however have GPRS connectivity and a microSD memory card slot, but another disappointment is the lack of Bluetooth, now very much needed in the mobile world.

If we compare the W230 to its competitors, which are the Nokia 5000, LG KM501, Samsung J700, Sony Ericsson T303 and Samsung M620, all these, but the W230, have a camera. The 5000 and the T303 do not have a memory card slot, being limited at 12MB and 8MB respectively. The W230 is the only phone between the competition which does not have Bluetooth, but it's the phone with the largest battery, which allows it nine hours of talk time.

Nokia 5000

LG KM501

Samsung J700

Sony Ericsson T303

Samsung M620

Software-wise, the W230 and Samsung M620 do not support Java, a great let-down for most consumers. This, more than anything else, will be the reason users will choose the competition than the W230 or the M620.

An important factor of the W230 is the music playback, and for this, it has a memory card slot. For users who do not use the camera or third-party applications and games, this should be enough, especially if the price is better than the other phones.

Features only do not dictate whether a phone will be successful or not, in this review we will examine how the phone handles the components, what's missing, and what's excelling.

Motorola W230's technical specifications:

MOTOROLA W230

Connectivity

GSM 900/1800 and GSM 850/1900

Talk Time

Up to approximately 550 minutes, approximately 9 hours¹

Standby Time

Up to approximately 450 hours¹

Battery

BQ50/940 mAh

Weight

80g

Dimensions

45 x 110.97 x 14.7 mm

Display

1.6” 128 x 128 65k CSTN

Audio

iMelody, MIDI, MP3, AMR

Features

• Motorola’s CrystalTalk technology

• Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, SMS Chat²

• Supports 7 African languages and Hinglish, Bengali, Tamil, Telegu, plus Catalan, Basque, Galician

• WAP 2.0 Dual Stack browser/GPRS Class 10

• USB 1.1

• Pre-loaded MP3 player and dedicated music key

• FM radio with RDS and stereo support, record FM radio for the phone’s alarm, share favorite stations with friends through text messaging

• Up to 2GB external memory with optional removable microSD card

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