Hands-on with Motorola's touchscreen MOTOSURF A3100 smartphone

Motorola MOTOSURF A3100

Motorola MOTOSURF A3100

Motorola MOTOSURF A3100

Motorola is showing off its latest Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphone here at CES in Las Vegas. The new Motorola MOTOSURF A3100 is a touch screen handset that uses the company's newly developed widget-based homescreen for a finger-friendly experience. A large and bright 2.8" color QVGA (240x320 pixel) touchscreen display make it easy to surf the web or view photos. Trackball navigation is provided for easy navigation when a finger or a stylus won't do.

The MOTOSURF A3100 sports quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100MHz), as well HSPA and WiFi for fast data connectivity. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support is also on-board for users looking for a wireless stereo listening experience. A 3 megapixel autofocus camera and camcorder are also found on the A3100 along with a microSD card slot for extra storage.

While we really like the thought of a trackball for navigation on a Windows Mobile device, the A3100's trackball seemed very slow, even at a reasonably high sensitivity setting. The finger based scrolling on the phone in apps other than the home screen was also inconsistent, but as this is a pre-production model, that is something we expect to improve greatly before the phone hits the market. The carousel type home screen menu on the A3100 was easy to use and looked decent. We were also glad to see Opera's browser and a YouTube client pre-loaded on the phone.

The Motorola MOTOSURF A3100 is expected to hit store shelves in the first quarter of this year in both Asia and China initially, with other markets to follow.

You'll find more live CES 2009 photos of the MOTOSURF A3100 on the next page.

Motorola MOTOSURF A3100

Motorola MOTOSURF A3100

Motorola MOTOSURF A3100