Motorola Aura

Editor's Review of the Aura

Sporting a sleek circular display screen, coupled with a sleek swivel-opening mechanism, the Motorola AURA is a solid handset weighing weighs 141 grams inclusive of its fitted battery. Its overall dimension is 47.6 x 97 x 18.6 millimetres.

The Motorola Aura is designed with a circular TFT screen that measures 38.1 millimetres and displays picture wallpapers in over 16 million brilliant colours over a resolution of 480 pixels. Upon opening the mobile phone, an aluminum keypad is displayed with keys that are well spaced-out. The Motorola Aura offers its users a luxurious feel because of the top quality materials that make up its elegant casing. The Motorola Aura supports downloaded ringtones, allowing it to exude a distinct personality.

The Motorola Aura is a quad band mobile phone that supports GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900 networks, making it an ideal handset for worldwide roaming. It offers wide network coverage depending on its users' service provider. The Motorola Aura also comes handy for Internet users. The mobile phone has a WAP 2.0 XHTML browser for instant Internet connectivity at any time and place.

The Motorola Aura allows connectivity with compatible gadgets such as laptops, printers and personal computers. Files and data can be transferred or shared using the USB connectivity option. The handset also supports wireless Bluetooth technology which allows users to connect to devices within up to a 10-metre distance. What's more, the Motorola Aura is powered by EDGE technology, which makes downloading fast and virtually hassle-free.

The Motorola Aura supports standard messaging services of SMS or text, enhanced messaging or EMS, as well as multimedia messaging or MMS. Owing to the Internet connection that the Motorola Aura offers, the handset allows users to compose, send and receive emails right on the mobile phone. Highlighting the Motorola Aura is its Crystal Talk feature through which the handset guarantees users with superb quality of calls.

The Motorola Aura can pass for a dependable assistant with its host of organiser tools that include a phone book that keeps phone numbers and other contact details, a calendar to keep users on-track with their schedules, a calculator for those computations that just can't wait, and a clock and alarm clock to keep users in control of their time. Additionally, the Motorola Aura can be activated in flight mode, which makes it a useful gadget to its owner even during flights. A hands-free speaker also allows users to take important calls even when doing other tasks.

Users who like to take random photo shoots will enjoy the 2-Megapixel camera that is integrated in the Motorola Aura. The built-in camera comes with a digital zoom to ensure an accurate capture of photo subjects. Users can tweak their pictures using the camera settings and camera modes of the Motorola Aura. The photos can then be displayed in the picture gallery. While the Motorola Aura's camera freezes memories, it also functions as a video recorder. Moving video footages in MPEG4 and 3GP formats can be played using the handset. Because the camera feature of the Motorola Aura is equipped with user-friendly settings and controls, capturing pictures and taking moving footages is a sure breeze.

In addition, the Motorola Aura offers its users a quality audio listening experience through its integrated music player. The Motorola Aura turns into a portable music gadget plays and plays tunes in MP3, WAV, AAC+ and WMA audio formats. Users can also download their favourite music onto the Motorola Aura, and play back on the integrated music player using easy-to-manage music controls and an internal music storage facility. Adding to its line-up of entertainment features, the Motorola Aura pleases game hobbyists with its embedded games. The handset also allows users to download games and play them on the mobile phone.

The Motorola Aura comes with 2 Gigabytes of internal memory. Owners of the mobile phone can utilise their handset to make or take calls for up to seven hours. The handset can stay on standby mode for approximately 410 hours on a fully charged battery.

Observers have criticised the Motorola Aura for its lack of a more powerful camera and non-expandable memory capacity. It has, however, gained users' admiration for its sleek design, which complements its user-friendly and straightforward features.