Foreword, exterior
It’s not an easy thing to write a review of a low-end handset. Not just because due to the low amount of features there’s not much to write about, but also because it’s hard to objectively judge a basic, low-quality handset when there are lots and lots of top models too. Sure, there are phones in this segment too that make us smile, since the manufacturers have started to realize that cheap stuff don’t necessarily have to be disastrous. Motorola’s low-end handsets are not yet part of this category.
Here’s the low-end phone called W388 and I feel myself as if I’d have a time machine – no, not in the positive meaning. We have already been angry about Motorola not being able to make the tiniest bits of development in some segments (see W510 review), and this is even more true for the subject of our current review. I have shown the phone to many of my acquaintances – experts and non-professionals as well – and most of them just couldn’t believe that this is a new, unreleased handset and a couple of them were asking humorously if I had bought it at a bazaar and if there is candy inside it. I think the phone is far from being that bad, but these opinions are a hint for something.
Still, the small W388 is quite well assembled, it barely cracks and pops, its size is 110 x 45 x 14.2 mm and weighs 92 grams. The materials used are not that good, the back is made of a plastic that’s thin as paper, while the front is of a bit shiny plastic that’s cold to the touch. On top of this part we can see the usual design elements from the manufacturer, there is a fake speaker (lots of small holes), shiny Motologo (what a play on words). Below them there is the small display, its diagonal is 1.8”, and the resolution is 128 x 160 pixels. It is a TFT screen, its brightness is quite high, so I didn’t really have problems with readability in sunlight. The keypad is on the bottom, when pressing the numeric keys I’ve been a bit afraid that I will break them, but when writing this review I can happily state that all of them are okay. The navigation keys are above them; this means two softkeys, the call handling keys and the 5-way control dial. This latter one is a surprisingly high-quality one, it’s great to get around in the menu with it.
The back has a hexagon pattern, as a matter of fact it looks quite cool. The VGA resolution camera is on top, while on the bottom there is a W388 label with a large blue something under it – this is the handsfree speaker. Such things are on the top too, but those don’t emit sound. The bottom part is completely empty, as the microphone is under the hash mark key, and it’s made up of nine small holes – design.
There are no big surprises on the sides either, there are Motorola labels on the right and left too and one of them has a miniUSB connector, while the other is accompanied by a 2.5 mm jack output, both of them being covered by a high quality lid. The problem with the first one is that the handset doesn’t support Mass Storage mode and it cannot be charged from a computer, although it should. The problem with the jack connector is that it’s 1 mm smaller than it should be, I really can’t understand why don’t the manufacturers use 3.5 mm connectors, when that’s the most wide-spread.
Hirdetés
Menu, software
After turning the phone on there is a sweet little panda looking back at us, or at least this has been the default wallpaper on the model I’ve been testing – well, how should I say it, it doesn’t really suggest the HelloMoto feeling, but by the end of the testing period we became really good friends with the panda. When pressing the central button we continue the time travel, as we get to the grid menu, which has nine icons and based on their design they could have been drawn by fourth-graders, but I think that they were made by professional people. So, they look quite childish and it’s really strange that the Alarm clock in the top left corner and the Office tools near it have the same red clock as an icon, but the latter one has a pen near it. The reason for this is that the alarm can be accessed from the Office tools too, but I can’t understand why. Even the name is strange, as there’s nothing special here – or at least nothing that I would call an office tool – just a calculator, a stopwatch, chat, custom menu, calendar, Phone Inspector and a link to call setup.
We have a funny situation with games, there is Sudoku and Tetris, just to let us be smart and clever. Both are EA products, but they are lame in such a way that is a real shame, I just wouldn’t give my name for these – I only say that such a thing like this Tetris is enough for a shallow pass mark in the third semester of a normal programmer’s university, but only if the professor is in a good mood. Sudoku is of a similar quality, but I’d rather call it a second semester program, as it doesn’t really have graphics. It’s terrible.
There is a thing called Web access in the main menu, which should be an HTML browser. I didn’t want to ruin my mood, so I didn’t check it out, no one should browse the web at 128 x 160 pixels. An e-mail client might have been a better idea, but there is no such thing at Messaging, only SMS and MMS – this can really be a great experience, but anyway, I don’t want to be displeased, at least there is such a function.
Phone calls, data transfer
Unfortunately making phone calls wasn’t such okay as I’ve been expecting – although I thought that at least this will be all right, but no. Sound quality and volume are both very weak in my opinion; I had no chance of understanding the other party when on a bus, no matter how high a volume I’ve set. Oh, I mean I would have liked to set, if they were dedicated volume control keys, but there aren’t, so one has to tamper with the d-pad to do such things – this is the usual method in this segment, but I would still be happy about two bonus keys on the phone.
The data communication protocols are quite weak too. The GSM module is tri-band (900/1800/1900 MHz), we can use Class 10 GPRS for data transfer, but this is not such a big defect at such a display, as we will receive a couple of MMS messages at most. There is no Bluetooth, which isn’t such a rare thing in this segment – this or USB Mass Storage mode would have been a minimum to be able to put music files comfortably on the phone, this way we can use a card reader, which is not the best thing, since the microSD slot is under the battery. And it’s not even SDHC-compatible, so we can expand W388 with a 2 GB card at most.
Received/dialed calls can be displayed only separately in the call log, there is no common view and I didn’t see missed calls at all. The size of the internal memory is 7.5 MB and we can store 1000 names in the phonebook, there are no extra fields besides phone number and e-mail address.
Music and camera
W388 is a musical model, at least in theory. Since the handset I had wasn’t a final version, I didn’t get any accessories with it, so I can’t say anything about one of the most important things – the headset. Still I can write about sound quality via the handsfree speaker: quite good and loud, or at least for this category. The music player application, however, is a very basic one. There’s no equalizer, no bass boost, album covers are not displayed (although to think it through I don’t really miss this on 50 x 50 pixels), but at least it can run in the background and can filter tracks by ID3 tags. There is an FM radio with RDS support and it works perfectly.
The camera has VGA resolution and fixed focus. The highest available resolution for pictures is 640 x 480 pixels, while movies cannot be recorded. There are quite a lot of settings, we can tamper with white balance, JPEG compression and we can even set exposure correction (+/- 2 EV in 1 steps) and “brightness” too in 6 steps – I don’t know what’s the difference between these two.
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The quality of the images is quite good for a VGA camera. The colors are not too bright, but W388 can still be good for capturing memorable moments.
Other, summary
The capacity of the battery is 910 mAh, the manufacturer specifies incredible times, like 9 hours of talk and 400 hours of standby. I don’t know why did then my handset go offline in three days when I didn’t even use it for playing music… strange, isn’t it?
Summary: Motorola W388 is a low-end handset, I’m clear with that. I also know that this means serious limitations, so don’t misunderstand me, I didn’t expect anything of this phone that wouldn’t be okay for this category. Since Sony Ericsson T280 we know that a cheap phone doesn’t necessarily have to be low-quality and shoddy, but W388 still looks like a better toy phone. It’s far from being perfect for music; it’s like the pendrive-MP3 players that cost around €40 EUR: they can play music, but they are not the real deal. It’s still a fact that there are a lot of such MP3 players sold, because not everyone can afford a more serious player. Anyway, I have no idea who will buy W388, as its SIM-free price is around €60 EUR. Sony Ericsson K600, with a 176 x 220 pixels large display, Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera (although with a non-expandable memory) costs €5 EUR more, but if we spend like €15-$20 EUR more we can buy a Walkman too (W200). Anyway, there are lots of usable phone in the under-€85 price range, so I will be saying goodbye with the sentence I’ve been using lots of times: maybe next time…
Bocha
Translated by Szaszati
Motorola W388 has been provided by the manufacturer’s national representative. Thanks!
Specifications
| Motorola W388 | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 110 x 45 x 14.2 mm | |
| Weight | 92 grams | |
| Available colors | Black | |
| Display | ||
| Internal display diagonal | 1.8” | |
| Display resolution | 128 x 160 pixels | |
| Display type | TFT | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | dynamic | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | na / 300 KB | |
| Internal memory | 7.5 MB | |
| Memory expandability | microSD (not SDHC-compatible) | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 10 (4+1/3+2) / none | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | none / none | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | none / none | |
| WiFi | none | |
| USB | 2.0 (miniUSB) | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | none / none | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | present | |
| Vibra function | present | |
| Built-in handsfree | present | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | none / none | |
| Sound recorder | none | |
| Alarm clock | present, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | iTAP | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Motorola proprietary (closed) | |
| WAP / HTML browser | 2.0 / xHTML | |
| E-mail client | none | |
| Java | present, MIDP 2.0 | |
| Games | Tetris, Sudoku | |
| Currency converter | none | |
| Extra software | - | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | VGA resolution, fix focus | |
| Secondary camera | none | |
| Video recording | none | |
| Music player | present, can run in background | |
| Equalizer | none | |
| FM radio | present (RDS) | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 910 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | 400 hours | |
| Talk time | 9 hours | |
| Other | ||
| - | ||
