Camera

The Motorola V557's mediocre 0.3-megapixel camera is activated with the press of the Camera Key near the directional keypad. Converting the internal LCD into the viewfinder, left and right key presses manage brightness levels, while up and down movements on the navigational keypad controls the 4X digital zoom. Not providing "true" zoom, as optical, the V557's digital zoom crops the image rather than actually moving closer, so photos will not gain in resolution.

Able to capture images in JPG format at up to 640 x 480 px, other resolution sizes include QVGA (320 x 240 px) and QQVGA (160 x 120 px). 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.

Activating the Camcorder function, video clips are recorded using the H.263 codec. Captured in QCIF (176 x 144 px) or Sub-QCIF (128 x 96 px) resolutions, clips are more of a novelty than practicality. As with all camera phones, photograph quality far surpasses that of video, and consumers shouldn't expect more than low resolution grainy videos.

Generally VGA cameras are a thing of the past as new devices are being equipped with 1-megapixel devices and above. With imaging progressing past merely taking a Photo ID, to actually taking printable photos, the V557's 0.3-megapixel camera is rather disappointing.

Basic Features

Released for Cingular Wireless, the Motorola V557 has GSM quad-band (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) technology for communication around the globe, provided it is unlocked. Built on Motorola's standard user interface, a basic menu structure provides a no frills fundamental navigation structure.

Motorola rated the V557's 820 mAh Li-Ion battery at an average 3.75 and 225 hours (9.4 days) of talk and standby times respectively. However, those are under optimal conditions. Handset manufacturers and carriers often list talk-time and standby-time ratings with disclaimers about variable performance and often refer to the times they publish as maximum times.

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