MOTO MING- mix work with play

A supremely smart, stylish and compact Linux-based device, MOTOMING is designed to help keep work, personal and entertainment worlds balanced and looking good. With the MOTOMING's large transparent window and rich functions you will be able to see beyond the surface of the life around you, adding significance and taste to everyday communications. - Motorola

The transparent flip cover is very striking. Click the volume down key and the display lights up with all your current pertinent information. It is really a nice touch. The buttons all have a very positive feel to them. They don't rattle or squeak and are quickly recognizable by feel. The flip feels solid... and when talking on the phone it feels secure. And I really, really, really like touch screens. Have I mentioned that I like touchs creens? This on is very responsive... I could quickly dial numbers without error, although the virtual keyboard's density required use of the stylus, which I didn't mind. I got used to it. I found the voice quality to be excellent especially relative to their current offerings.

There are quite a few cool seeming apps included on the device.... like a business card reader that is supposed to use the camera to take a picture then use recognition software to capture the details into text and save it to your contacts. Trouble is that after repeated attempts to make it work I gave up. Then there's the photo editing app... which sounds cool except all you can basically do is draw random squiggles over a picture you've just taken which isn't very useful. Maybe if you wanted to write a goofy note over your dorky friend's picture and send it to all of the rest of your friends, okay... but otherwise this isn't replacing Photoshop anytime soon. And all the usual "smartphone" features are there... calendar, audio player, camera, email, but nothing earth-shattering or innovative.

The interface, although greatly improved over current Motorola offerings, is still lagging behind the industry. I found there to be too few settings and options (like control for what is displayed on the main screen with the flip cover closed) or at least so buried that they are practically unusable. Email, web and general connectivity was quite slow... surprising given how responsive the rest of the device felt. And I was bummed to wake up one morning and the stylus tip had sheared off. Good thing they included a second on in the box.

This is a solid phone with a solid interface. It still has all the quirks of a Motorola product but they are less noticeable than previous offerings.