This is true of the company's 7610, a megapixel phone whose swish-style keypad left-handed users can all but rule out. Having said that, if you're wanting a phone that takes clear 1MP photos without compromising on its phone qualities, this might be the gadget to grab.
The 7610 actually came to market a few months earlier than Sony-Ericsson's megapixel phone but didn't cause as much of a splash, ostensibly because it was only a single megapixel, a feat Motorola had already surpassed with their V710.
Like the S710a, the 7610 has all kinds of ways of sharing your photos, but it goes a step further into smart phone territory by incorporating a Symbian operating system. In addition to sending e-mail, you can also browse the Web and read Microsoft Office documents. A cool feature called Lifeblog lets you look at all your e-mail, text messages, and videos in chronological order, together, on your phone or PC screen.
MOTOROLA V710
(approx. NT$15,500)
Why all of these phones have 710 in the name is beyond me, but like the S710a, Motorola's V710 has a 1.3MP camera and Bluetooth capabilities. But unlike the models above, that capability doesn't translate to sharing photos easily between the phone and your computer, because Motorola has disabled the Bluetooth file transfer function (It did so first on US models so that US carriers could entice customers to pay for a Pix Messaging service). And despite their file size, the photos the camera takes aren't as fine as on the Sony-Ericsson or Nokia.
The flip-side to this flip-style phone is the phone itself. Crystal clear reception is surely one of the reasons Motorola makes the best-selling phones in Taiwan. Also, it was one of the first models to have an external screen that shows the caller's photo, provided you've taken one and assigned it to the proper contact in your rolodex. But be warned; while the photos look great on either of the phone's screens, they're not as clear when you get them to your computer screen. That is, if you bother going through the inconvenience of getting them to your computer screen.
Lastly, for a visual comparison of photos taken by these and other camera phones, take a look at PC Magazine's camera phone test image gallery at the Web site www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,2394,a=135650,00.asp. There you can enlarge the cellphone screen-sized thumbs to normal photo size and see clearly what's still unclear about megapixel phones: Even 1.3MP cameras have jagged diagonal edges in the images they take. If the quality of your photo is important it might be best to wait a generation for the 2 or 3MP models.
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