Introduction

There will always be a need for QWERTY keyboards. And the constant need to decrease cell phone size seems to contradict this notion. However, with the release of the 6800, Nokia showed the masses that a fold-out keypad doesn't have to compromise size. And not long after, the Danger Sidekick adapted the concept to include a twist-out while including a large screen colorful screen underneath.

With the release of Motorola's new A630, keyboards seem to be popular again. At first glance the exterior appears to be a small candy bar phone, but it's what's inside that counts. Flipped open, the A630 reveals a full QWERTY keyboard and large color landscape screen for easier-than-ever messaging.

The innovative design coupled with the latest multimedia functionality promises to deliver a mobile experience unlike any other - providing easy on-the-go messaging, email management, and photo capabilities. And not to be outdone, Motorola packed in hands-free Bluetooth wireless technology and tri-band capabilities, allowing users to connect with other compatible devices while traveling the world.

Design

The exterior of the A630 is rather unassuming. The front features a grayscale external display similar to many models on the market today. Its layout is stereotypical of most phone designs, with standard placement of the 5-way navigation and numeric keypads, and a lens that peeks out from the top right corner, able to capture photos at up to 640 x 480 px.

Flipped open, the dull exterior makes a complete 180, exposing a brilliant 65K 176 x 220 px TFT screen, able to display 8 lines of text and two service lines. The full keyboard underneath has a 5-way keypad embedded in the center for convenient navigation. Additionally, directional keys (W, A, D, X, L, N, ALT, and .) are dedicated for playing games. Depending on the game, Q, E, Z, and C keys can be utilized as well.

The left side of the A630 contains buttons for quick and convenient access to camera and volume functions, while the right side includes a headset jack for handsfree access. Outlets for charger and connector ports to attach additional accessories lie on the bottom.

Camera

The front lens is the window to the A630's 330K pixel CMOS camera. Photos captured are 24-bit color depth at 16 million colors in resolution sizes of either Small - QQVGA (160 x 120 px), Medium - QVGA (320 x 240 px), or Large - VGA (640 x 480 px).

When camera mode is activated, the A630's internal screen becomes the viewfinder, with the upper part displaying what the lens sees, while the lower half shows useful information such as available memory. For self-portraits, the external screen can be used as a viewfinder as well. While not very clear, it shows users what the lens is pointing at.

To get closer to the action, up and down navigation on the directional keypad acts as the controls for the 4X digital zoom. Unfortunately zooming in won't increase resolution since digital zoom crops the image to make it larger rather than actually zooming in. So picture quality decreases.

Additionally, extra camera tools allow users to fine tune and adjust their photos. Some features integrated include Contrast Adjustment, and Image Style (Color, Black and White, Antique, or Negative).

Approximate image file sizes are 50 KB for VGA, 16K for QVGA, and 3 KB for QQVGA. Pictures stored on the internal memory would be dynamically allocated along with other applications and multimedia.

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