Motorola MOTOLUXE was first introduced to the world earlier this year at CES 2012. It was clear that the phone sits in the mid-range region but nevertheless from the first impressions we got, it seemed like a good phone. Since Motorola has also decided to market it as a fashionable smartphone, it looks pretty good as well. Just for a preview, this phone sports a 4 inch screen with an 8MP camera and runs under the Android platform. Now, we have the smartphone in our possession, and we are going to dig deep to find out if this phone will match its rivals on other platforms.

Design
As mentioned earlier on, Motorola has aimed to make this as much of a fashion accessory as it is a smartphone. So for the price it is going at, it definitely is a looker and might get you interested of you are out for a smartphone that actually doesn’t look bland.  At 4.63 x 2.38 x 0.39 inches it one hell of a thin phone. Motorola RAZR line of phones is known for their slim bodies, and the Motorola MOTLUXE comes really close to achieving a body like that too. The soft touch finish that this phone is given makes it look very classy. Add on the metallic elements sparkled into the design and you get a smartphone that really pulls of a pretty look. Thanks to the well thought out dimensions, it is easy to use with one hand only and it also sits in your hand as a solid device.

On the front of the smartphone, we are happy to announce that this mid-range device actually offers a 4 inch screen that sports a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. Of course, if you didn’t guess this already, under the screen sit the trademark Anrdoid capacitive buttons. These buttons are well placed as you do not have problems with accidental presses or the like. On the top of the phone is where the lock key is while on the right side of the phone is where the volume rocker is, and they are both very accessible with one hand thanks to the phone’s brilliant size. There is a groove on the phone for your lanyard, but what’s interesting is the notification light inside this groove. It lights up to bring your attention to a new message or a miss call. On the back of the Motorola MOTOLUXE is an 8MP auto-focus camera.

Performance
Motorola MOTOLUXE is powered by an 800MHz single core processor. That’s definitely not the best by today’s standards and that shows with the phone’s performance.  Navigating through the phone resulted in a lot of choppiness and lag. Using live wallpaper is definitely out of the picture.

Features
The Motorola MOTOLUXE is running on the Android v2.3.7 Gingerbread and the graphic user interface is the MotoSwitch UI. The MotoSwitch UI was a real downer, but that could be down to the fact that the processor was just not good enough. That would definitely hurt the smartphone’s marketability because once the user experience is a letdown; the interest towards the phone fizzles out. Nevertheless, we must say that the GUI does provide some decent good looks. Much like the other smartphones these days, you can access one of six applications right away from the lock screen.  You will find the Activity Graph widget likeable as it automatically creates shortcuts for the most frequently used applications. Now picture the same thing, only this time with your contacts. The Social Graph widget does this for you. The onscreen keyboard is decent once you get used to it.

Having a 4 inch screen on the Motorola MOTOLUXE is just great seeing how it is only a mid-range phone. So how does the screen perform? For starters, its resolution is 480 x 854 pixels. We did the math to save you some time and our calculations say that this means we get a pixel resolution of 245 ppi. Now what that means is some good details and sharp looking text. We were a little disappointed that the display was just a normal LCD screen but it still manages to give some good colors when you are looking at it from the front. Tilt the screen and you lose that instantly.

This smartphone comes with an 8MP auto-focus camera onboard. However, we have to say, the Motorola MOTOLUXE certainly proves our point that numbers don’t always tell the true story. The camera when taking photos outdoors produced results that were unimpressive to say the least. The colors on the photos were very dull and the details were also lacking even though it’s an 8MP camera. Also when taking photos indoors, the camera fails to get the right white balance more often than not. Moving from taking one photo to the next was also a long wait in our opinion. Speaking of video, there was nothing better to talk about there either. Videos can only be recorded in VGA, so you connect the dots on the quality of the video.

It was sad to note that the GUI’s poor performance was visible again with the web browser. If you try to load a page that is considered complex, then you can expect a really slow and choppy performance from the browser. Navigating through websites was also tough as the phone sometimes fails to respond to our input. However, if you want to get the most out of the browser, then we suggest you turn off the Adobe Flash plug-in. In terms of connectivity options, it has the usual suspects like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and aGPS. Adding on to that, it also has DLNA suppor.

We usually demand the best calling quality from mid-range phones, and the Motorola MOTOLUXE really met our demands. There were no problems whatsoever listening to what our friend on the other end was trying to tell us as it was super clear. Our friends were also very happy with what they heard on their end.  The loudspeaker was also loud and clear. This smartphone gets its juice from a 1400mAh battery. This battery would last you close to a day if you go easy with it.

Pros and Cons
If looks is what you are looking for with a smartphone, then the Motorola MOTOLUXE has got so much of it. It has also been built to last and the notification light is pretty cool.

The phone was pretty slow and that affected many things. The camera was also extremely disappointing.

Conclusion
At $380 off contract, the Motorola MOTOLUXE might just be a tad too expensive. Of course with its amazing looks you might think it’s worth the money, but go deeper and the specs don’t match the looks.

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