Upgraded fashion: Motorola's V80

Motorola V80

Motorola has just unveiled their new fashion phone, the V80. The V80 features a design with a rotating cover that opens at the touch of a button. The V80 is the spiritual successor to the V70, which features a similar opening mechanism. It’s also surprisingly well spec'd – with a 65K TFT screen, Bluetooth, VGA camera, and excellent messaging support.

The V80’s unique opening design is highly practical too. When it is closed, the V80 shows the external TFT display, so the phone can be used for making and receiving calls and photo caller id. When the opening button is pressed, the cover automatically rotates to unveil a full-size mobile phone, ideal for text messaging and voice calls. Finally, if you wish to take a picture, all you need to do is rotate the cover by 90 degrees and the V80 will automatically go into photo mode. This will allow you to take VGA landscape photos.

Being a fashion phone, the V80 has a few extra style features such as contextual lighting for showing calls, messages, charging, etc. It also sports an internal antenna, which helps keep the phones rounded lines unspoiled. In addition to all that, there are a few interesting new features on the spec sheet such as Instant Messaging support and “peer to peer 2-way gaming.” Motorola hasn't mentioned exactly how these will work, but we look forward to reviewing them.

Motorola expects to release the V80 in Q2 2004. There's no word yet on pricing.

You can download a short (3MB) video showing off some of the V80's features such as the rotate mechanism and contextual lighting here. The video is in Windows Media format, and you'll need to right-click on the link and select "Save As".

Specifications for the Motorola V80
Band	Triband GSM (900/1800/1900Mhz)
Data	GPRS
Size	99mm x 45mm x 19.2mm
Weight	90g
Battery Life	130 hours standby time
	3.5 hours talk time
Main Display	65k color TFT, 176x220 resolution
Sub-Display	None
Camera	VGA camera
	No video recording
Text Messaging	MMS/EMS/SMS, Instant messaging
Email	Yes (POP/SMTP)
Browser	WAP 2.0
Bluetooth	Yes
Infrared	No
Java	Yes (MIDP v2.0)
Polyphonics	Yes (24 voice)
Radio	No
Memory	?
Other	Contextual lighting 2-way peer to peer gaming Image manipulation for photos Rotating flip design

You can find additional high-res photos on the following pages.

 

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