The handset supports quad-band GSM, Bluetooth and it has a 176x220 bright TFT screen. It also sports a VGA camera, push to talk, a standard mini-usb jack, 4 MBs free memory and a microSD slot. The handset feels very good in the hand and it's easy to type fast on its keypad despite the unusual design. It is a light and thin phone at just 96 grams. On the left side you will find the volume keys, the PTT and music player key, while on the right side you will find the mini-USB jack (for charging, headset and file transfer), the web browser key and the microSD hot-swap slot.
The L7 uses the previous version of the Motorola user interface (the new version supports AA fonts for example and an updated MiB web browser among other things), but existing RAZR users will probably feel at home with it. The Motorola fonts and icons are pretty ugly, and the interface has a lot of reduntant or badly placed options, but overall it's functional and yes, it is fast. The Contacts application for example is very nice when you are trying to find a contact, but when you are creating a new contact it feels irky. Having to change from iTap to Tap text input manually for each and every application on the phone is a major hassle too, while the GPRS connection screen is a real mess. Needless to say, I am not a fan of the Motorola UI.
Because the SLVR L7 was supposed to be a cheaper version of the RAZR line, some software have been removed. For example IM and VoiceRecording are not present. Nevertheless, some standard applications are included like the calculator, alarms, calendars, todo etc. I found the Email application to work very well with my POP3 account too. There are also profiles that allow quite some configuration although there is no support for flight mode. Another annoyance is that there is no keypad auto-lock (only a chinese firmware version of the phone supports that).
I wish the bad things ended here, but unfortunately they continue: the web browser in that phone is the worst piece of software I have ever experienced. MiB 2.2.1 is just buggy and runs out of memory even if you feed it a 10 KB page (including images). It works ok as a WML browser, but it's completely hopeless as a basic HTML browser (most of the competitive phones use better browsers). This is why I decided to install Opera Mini on the L7, only to find out that Java is running slower than on other handsets! Opera Mini takes forever to boot up for example and I can see lag when I open its menus. Bluetooth and GPRS were equally under-performing. I never got more than 20 KB/sec with Bluetooth (which is rather low), while I never got more than 1 KB/sec with GPRS (it's supposed to max out at around 3-4 KB/sec)! Finally, Motorola's Bluetooth stack is locked in a way that only accepts file exchange with a few filetypes only. This proved extremely annoying and given the fact that this package comes without a USB cable or a microSD card, it became even more annoying early in my testing.
There are some good points found in the phone though. First of all, it has an admirably good reception! I would get full bars no matter where I am! The L7 has one of the best receptions I have ever seen on a phone. Additionally, it has a great battery life! It went on and on for hours with music playing back through its super loud and clear stereo speaker! For a cheap phone, it pretty much lasts 'forever'.
Finally, I loved the camera. Yes, it is just VGA, but it is extremely good on low-light conditions (even when night mode is OFF). It is way better in low light than some other expensive 2MP cellphone cameras! It can also capture 3GP video in 176x144 and 128x96 resolutions (unfortunately at just 5 FPS, video sample), but it can also playback MP4. There are two media players in the phone, one native and one Java-based. The java-based is more fancy visually and it has more features about playlists and sorting. The phone can playback MP3 and AAC music, and given its good battery life and microSD slot, it makes it a decent music phone (if you manage to find and buy the right headset that is).
In conclusion, between the two devices, the LG U8500 is a better phone. However, it's slightly more expensive and if you are living in USA and you are a Cingular subscriber, you need a quad-band phone. Therefore, I would suggest the LG device to our European readers and the Motorola L7 to our American ones. Both great bangs for the buck though!
Pros:
Super affordable for its features
Camera can see well in the dark
Super loud and clear speaker
Amazing reception
MicroSD cardslot
Great battery life
Quad-band GSM
Cons:
Limited alarms functionality; IM, VoiceRec removed
Only accepts to receive few filetypes via bluetooth
Usability, UI and fonts are so '90s
Terribly bad web browser
Limited internal memory
No automatic keylock
No flight mode
No EDGE
Rating: 7.5/10
- "LG U8500 review"
- "MOT-L7 SLVR review"
