Motorola MotoSmart review

Do nice things ever come in very small and very cheap packages?

Hands on with the Motorola MotoSmart
Is it smart enough to thrive at a low, low price?

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The Motorola MotoSmart contains a pretty modest 1,400mAh battery, which copes well enough with its smaller screen size. Motorola claims a 3G continuous talktime of up to approximately six hours.

Motorola MotoSmart review

We were able to get a full day of use out of it, although part of the reason for that is down to it being so clunky to use that we didn't fiddle with it as much as we tend to do with the more glamorous Android phones.

Motorola MotoSmart review

But still, in real use terms, if you're careful with the Motorola MotoSmart, it should get you through a full working day without fuss.

So that's at least one feather in its cap when compared to some of the monster Android handsets that cost five times as much money.

In terms of connectivity, the Motorola MotoSmart supports Bluetooth, plus the usual Wi-Fi options.

It also supports Android's built-in ability to function as a wireless hotspot, enabling you to tether a laptop or any other Wi-Fi device and use the Motorola MotoSmart as a little wireless modem.

The biggest weak point in the Motorola MotoSmart is the phone's shameful lack of onboard memory.

Motorola MotoSmart review

The phone comes with 150MB of usable memory for app installation, which means it will be packed to bursting pretty quickly.

With many of today's big-name Android apps coming in at around the 30MB mark, you'll soon run out of space for apps and will be cursing the "insufficient memory" warning that pops up every time something tries to update itself.

Yes, many apps enable you to move them to an SD card to save space, but sadly quite a few of the more feature-packed ones won't, due to restrictions with the way Android works.

This means the Motorola MotoSmart is rendered pretty useless for anyone who wants more than a handful of decent apps on it. 150MB simply isn't enough, and completely hobbles the phone.