Motorola U9 (PEBL2) Preview

Announcement expected soon
19th August 2007, Updated 8th October 2007

For full details of the Motorola U9, click here

We don't know much about the Motorola U9 - except that it exists. Possibly called the PEBL2 or perhaps another addition to the ROKR line-up of phones, the U9 breaks the RAZR-style tradition somewhat.

From the outside, we believe that the Motorola U9 shares many features from the RAZR2 line, including the large exterior display. Our impression of the U9's exterior is shown on the right.

There are only two official Motorola images, which both show a an interior shot of a PEBL-style clamshell with a upgraded RAZR-type keypad.

The Motorola U9 isn't a 3G phone - according to the documentation we've seen, the U9 is a quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz device with GPRS and EDGE. It doesn't mean that there won't be a 3G version though - remember that the RAZR2 V8 and RAZR2 V9 are GSM/3G variants of the same phone, so perhaps there's a Motorola U10 somewhere with 3G support.

We're not certain when Motorola will announce the U9 / PEBL2 or whatever they will call it, but certainly they're in desperate need of a boost to their product range, and if the U9 is based on RAZR2 technology then this could be just the thing they need.

Update: 8th October 2007

We now have a better picture of the interior of the Motorola U9, confirming the RAZR2-like keypad. A close examination of the screen ratio seems to confirm that it's a 240x320 pixel display. The latest rumours about the U9 say that the exterior is much glossier than the original PEBL.

There's no word on a release date, but it does seem that Motorola have been working on the PEBL2 since the Spring, so we expect this to be announced very soon with an eye to getting it into the shops by Christmas.