The funny thing is that for a phone that is entirely black in colour, the manufacturers have seen fit to name it the SLVR.
The only silver found on the phone would be the Motorola logos, the navigation pad and the hotkey buttons on the side of the
phone.
CD (Motorola Phone Tools & Windows Media Player)
Exterior
The L72 has a nice chrome finish on the front of the device, and a suitably rubbery finish to the battery cover on the back.
The glass protecting the camera lens bulges out so there is some potential for scratching, while the protective lamination on
the keys appear to be coming out at the corners.
The device is slightly too wide for a comfortable grip, but the thickness was suitable for holding on with the fingertips,
although just barely. The lanyard hook is at the top right of the phone, just beside the unprotected USB port for charging
and connecting to a computer.
Buttons/Screen
The keypad lights up in a rather pleasant electric blue and the numbers below are etched into the black surface below the
laminated surface. The size and closeness of the keys caused frequent accidents with the input on the keypad, but the tactile
response was quite satisfactory.
The screen is a 262K TFT screen about 1.9 inches large, but it seemed a little bit subdued. That is, until we dialled up the
brightness to its full setting.
Software/Messaging
A 3 x 3 grid of icons comprises the main menu. The messaging and email applications are found in the same messaging submenu,
and just like generations of Motorola devices before it, uses the iTAP predictive text entry.
The operating system software is the usual Motorola proprietary one. A shortcut to Google is the second icon on the menu. The
icons in the grid appear to have been moved around from where they used to be, so it might take some getting used to the new
layout.
Applications
The PIM section contains the calculator, calendar and clock. There is a World Clock application but no office type software
other than this.
Camera/Video
The L72 has a 2 megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels. The digital zoom is capable of 8x
magnification but there were no effects that could be applied to the pictures prior or post capture.
The pictures shot with the camera were quite clear on the screen. However, there is no Flash LED for this phone. You will
also want to reprogram the shortcut key on the side of the phone form inside the Home Screen and then the Home Keys submenu,
to point to the camera, or else scrabbling about inside the menu for the camera application is likely to annoy you.
Multimedia/Voice
One of the key features for the L72 is support for music. The sound is rather loud and comes out of the speaker at the lower
bottom of the phone. The spec sheets say that this product supports MP3 playback and MPEG4 or H263 videos.
Connectivity
This phone has Bluetooth 2.0 although there is no infrared. The USB charger port doubles as a connector for connection to a
computer to transfer files.
There is no 3G, but the GPRS support goes all the way to Class 10 speeds. This phone also supports EDGE connections.
Games
There are two games in the phone, Lumines and Sudoku. Lumines is a falling block game similar to Tetris while Sudoku is the
self-explanatory puzzle game that requires the player to place numbers into a grid in a mathematical manner.
| Editor's Opinion |
The L72 leaves a lot to be desired for its current asking price of around RM 800. The menus are cumbersome to navigate around
because they are limited to four lines at maximum, and the navigation pad is rather small and the user tends to press
something other than what is intended.
The peeling keypad lamination was a key factor in reducing our evaluation of this device. Nobody wants a phone with a bad
paintjob, or lamination in this case.
The games are rather limited and there are no office applications in the device by default. I can¡¦t see that many people
buying this product for RM 800. Perhaps at a slightly lower price, but not right now.
Conclusion: Flogging the RAZR design repeatedly is starting to wear thin.
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