Motorola C257/C261 – new standard for low-end phones

The company of Motorola started conquering the Russian market with its Motorola C350, which became extremely popular as a colour screen phone with an accessible price. And it is an open secret many other companies were positioning their products as rival phones for the C350. But nobody managed to come close to its sales rate, for even at the end of the life circle it's sold in dozens of thousands items a month. Now the company needs to repeat the success of the C350, and the most close to this is a couple Motorola C257/C261 (the only difference is the elder model has a VGA camera). To tell the truth, Motorola C139 being a copy of the С350 is not taken into account, as its price is lower than 65 USD.

What is the strength of the models mentioned? Let's view the specifications and try to make out the functionality of both solutions.

• Weight: 112 g
• Dimensions: 89x49x25.5 mm
• Volume: 85 cc
• Battery 820 mA
• Battery life: up to 3 h/up to 80 h.
• TFT-screen, 176x220, 65К
• VGA-camera (the С261 only)
• 32-tones polyphony
• 2 MB of internal memory
• 20 voice tags
• MP3 as a call melody
• WAP 2.0
• GPRS class 8 (4+1)
• E-mail -POP3/SMTP/IMAP4
• Speakerphone
• Organizer
• JAVA MIDP 2.0
• Red keypad backlighting
• Softtouch body covering
• Colours - black and red with metallic finish

The specs above are quite attractive and resemble today triplets. The difference hides in diapasons - there are only two of them ere. But the screen by Sharp is far ahead from the rivals in this class. Just remember Samsung X620, functionally, the devices are comparable, but in design, material quality and functionality Motorola's products are a level higher. I quite forgot to mention the price, the elder model will cost about 130-140 USD, and the shipments of Motorola C261 are expected in the beginning of November. The non-camera version is to appear in after the New Year holidays for the price of 100 USD (90-100 USD). The precious of both models is they are interesting in design and are thin, which distinguishes them from others.

Now quite a reasonable question appears. Where is a dirty trick? It harassed me for several months till the explanation of the low price came to life. The products will be produced by the powers of Compal. This manufacturer has taken the triplet platform as a base changed the software slightly - that's better seen on the screen fonts: they are drawn worse and sometimes do not fit the screen. Generally, no other worsening except for the fonts is observed, as the platform is tested and required no changes.

With these new models new time begins for the mobile market. And if you could buy a usual device with a customary design and cheap plastic for 100 USD, then now manufacturers start producing unique in design solutions with qualitative materials. The company of Motorola is the first to offer such products, and then other makers will have to provide similar ideas under its pressure. As for ma, Motorola C257/C261 will have successful future and long demand on the market. No alternative phones are available at the moment. For instance, try to remember how many devices in this price category are equipped with Bluetooth. I suppose, two or thee only.

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Mitina ([email protected])

Published - 19 September 2005

Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]

News:

[ 31-07 16:21 ]Sir Jony Ive: Apple Isn't In It For The Money

[ 31-07 13:34 ]Video: Nokia Designer Interviews

[ 31-07 13:10 ]RIM To Layoff 3,000 More Employees

[ 30-07 20:59 ]Video: iPhone 5 Housing Shown Off

[ 30-07 19:12 ]Android Fortunes Decline In U.S.

[ 25-07 16:18 ]Why Apple Is Suing Samsung?

[ 25-07 15:53 ]A Few Choice Quotes About Apple ... By Samsung

[ 23-07 20:25 ]Russian iOS Hacker Calls It A Day

[ 23-07 17:40 ]Video: It's Still Not Out, But Galaxy Note 10.1 Gets An Ad

[ 19-07 19:10 ]Another Loss For Nokia: $1 Billion Down In Q2

[ 19-07 17:22 ]British Judge Orders Apple To Run Ads Saying Samsung Did Not Copy Them

[ 19-07 16:57 ]iPhone 5 To Feature Nano-SIM Cards

[ 18-07 14:20 ]What The iPad Could Have Looked Like ...

[ 18-07 13:25 ]App Store Hack Is Still Going Strong Despite Apple's Best Efforts

[ 13-07 12:34 ]Infographic: The (Hypothetical) Sale Of RIM

[ 13-07 11:10 ]Video: iPhone Hacker Makes In-App Purchases Free

[ 12-07 19:50 ]iPhone 5 Images Leak Again

[ 12-07 17:51 ]Android Takes 50%+ Of U.S. And Europe

[ 11-07 16:02 ]Apple Involved In 60% Of Patent Suits

[ 11-07 13:14 ]Video: Kindle Fire Gets A Jelly Bean

Subscribe