Motorola Charm
Phone Scoop Review
Sep 9, 2010 by Philip Berne
The Motorola Charm packs a strong Android punch into a mini QWERTY slab shell. Will its charms sway you from noticing the low res screen? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Good for the market
I had a chance to play with the phone. I used a cliq and a cliq XT and the phone is like a watered down version of them.The keyboard is cool it has a different feel to it, the touch screen is a nice add on but the back track semis a little too much. Too many places to navigate from. Its over kill. its a good idea but I would say keep it a little more simple. I think its market is the younger crowed. still love moto blur and the add ons the it has to offer.
Great Messaging Phone
Pros:
-one of the better keyboards i have used in a while. They are very curved and raised, as well as wide due to the form factor of the phone. Makes typing anything speedy and pleasurable.
-Cheap and reasonably priced, purchased mine slightly used on ebay for $160, i think it's $50 with contract.
-Android 2.1!
-Great standard features like bluetooth, 3g, gps, wifi.
-Wifi calling/txting which uses your minutes.
-pretty fast and responsive for a budget phone, but there is a definite and noticeable lag.
-Flash notification when you have a message.
-Makes a decent mp3 player.
-Includes standard and extended battery as well as back cover for both.
-Decent web browsing
-decent battery life on extended battery
Cons:
-Slightly buggy
-Terrible screen, colors washed out, and viewing angle is small
-camera lacks flash and autofocus
-haptic feedback is extremely low and hardly noticeable. There is also no way to set the haptic feed back level.
-TERRIBLE SCREEN.
For what its worth, and what its meant to be- a budget minded messaging android phone, it's great. If people expect this phone to perform miracles, i think they've set their expectations too high. I also don't understand why people complain about having too many options to navigate from. Just don't use the backtrack if you're so upset about it. I am hoping that a phone in this form factor with the specs of the Droid Pro will come to Tmobile. An improved screen and processor, as well as a bigger battery, will make this an absolutely brilliant phone.
NOT VERY CHARMING
The phone is great phone for browsing the and the memory is awesome but it kept freezing up on me and would not do what i wanted it to do like if i want to go to messages it would go to the menu.
Nice Phone
I switched from the blackberry curve to the motorola charm, and I have definitely found a huge improvement between the two. The screen resolution is excellent, and the keyboard works really well. However, I've had several problems with touch screen aspect of the phone as well. A lot of the times I won't be able to answer the phone because the touch screen is acting up, and a lot of the time I will end up calling someone while I'm on the phone with someone else.
Over all this phone does live up to it's name - it's quite charming, but like all smart phones, it definitely has it's problems.
Great Android phone!
Prior to this phone, I've always been only a Nokia owner for many years. I wanted an Android phone for a faster operating system (Symbian is just way too slow), and wanted a user friendly qwerty keyboard, not touch screen. Also, I wanted a smaller Android phone, not a big one that could barely fit in a pants pocket. I've owned this phone for 1 month.
PROS:
* awesome user-friendly qwerty keyboard
* great call quality
* small size
* after disabling most of the widgets, I can get about 1.5 days out of the battery without recharging.
* responsive touch screen
* I love the chat-style of the text messaging where you can see a continuous stream of prior texts
* the contacts interface is great
* I love how it automatically syncs with all of your google accounts (gmail, maps, calendar, etc.)
* GPS is very easy to set-up and use
CONS:
* screen resolution
* camera photos are not good in low light
* no camera flash
* when loading songs into the music player, the song genres are not recognized
* music player doesn't recognize all types of music files
* can't delete manufacturer applications from phone (e.g., Amazon mp3, Happenings, etc.)
SUMMARY:
Very good 'entry' level Android phone. I think the screen resolution and camera are the only shortcomings that keep it from a Five rating. I highly recommend this phone on the T-Mobile network for anyone who wants a small Android phone with A+ capabilities.
A little disappointed
I was a blackberry user for a few years after ousting my G-1. I decided to go back to the Android O/S but wanted the feel or size of a blackberry. I am very disappointed at the performance of the Charm. I am on my 2nd phone in 3 weeks (replacement) and yet it continues to freeze/stall at the Text Messaging screen. Inputting special characters (e.g. $, %, &) will default to the space directly after your last word character which causes you to have to backspace, then space again to place the special character where u want it, if it's not attached to your previous word (Ex: I have $20 will turn into I have$20 once you input the $ sign). While it was an upgrade to a new phone, it was down grade on the quality level I've had with other phones. Unfortunately, I am stuck with this phone for 2 years since I extended my contract. I plan on calling Tmobile today to find out if there are other options for other phones because this clearly doesn't do it for me. My 10 year old son might enjoy it, but it's definitely not the most savvy phone to run my business on.
Charming Phone
I've had this phone for about a month and it by far it my favorite phone. I had an Iphone 3g and this little phone kicks the Iphone's butt. All the programs I used before are available for the Android.
The touch screen is very responsive, call quality is great, nice little keyboard. I don't use the backtrack so no opinion on that.
Motorola Charm
Incredible phone! I was with verizon for over 10 years and owned a lot of phones including many versions of Droid. I have decided to give T-Mobile a try and couldnt be more happier. The service is incredible and this phone is hands down the best phone I have owned. It has everything I could ever want in a phone.
suprisingly a charm
I haven't been a big motorola fan, so it's weird that i really like this phone. i've been using it for a few days now and have found it to be very responsive. it works just how you'd think a touch screen with a physical keyboard would work. the keys are great to use. it comes with 2 batteries, 2 back covers, a usb cord, wall adapter, a 2gb mini sd card, and a headset.
PROS:
-speaker works great
-android market
-pictures look great after you transfer them to your computer.
-the backtrack is a nice plus, works great when browsing websites.
-it comes w/ an extra battery and an extra back cover. (one battery is a little higher than the other so you can use the extra back cover which is extended)
-touch screen is responsive and works great along with the physical keyboard.
-google maps with navigation (like having a gps)
CONS:
-no flash
-phone display isn't as nice as newer phones out there.
-some screen pages (homepages of facebook and twitter) are rotated like this automatically: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ugIcm6QOl-7I-4r-pkle4eY-VVokFoELGF59QUhlrYg?feat=directlink
-sometimes i wish i had a bigger screen to work with but only when i'm viewing pictures.
overall i'm very pleased with this phone and will definitely be using it for awhile.
i'm coming from a nokia e73 and the user experience with that phone wasn't all that great.
