Motorola V635

Discontinued
9th January 2005

Last week we gave you a sneak preview of the new Motorola V635, details of which have now been officially confirmed by Motorola.

Inside, the V635 follows the standard layout common to all V500 and V600 series handsets. Outside, the V635 is a little similar to the other V600s expect the most obvious change is a larger external display.

The internal display is a TFT unit with 176x220 pixels in 65,000 colours. Originally, we believed that the V635 would have the same 262,000 colours display found in the V620, and quite why the display has been downgraded here is a mystery. The external display appears to be a 96x64 unit. The V635's megapixel has a stated resolution of 1.23 megapixels and appears to have a flash.

The Motorola V635 also supports MP3 and video playback, plus Java for games and other applications. The phone's internal memory is a puny 5Mb though, which when combined with the megapixel class camera will store hardly anything at all. Fortunately, the V635's memory can be expanded using the phone's TransFlash slot, although it's not clear how much TransFlash memory, if any, the V635 will ship with, although our best guess is that a 32Mb card will be included. The maximum storage capacity using TransFlash is 256Mb.

We believe this is a quad-band GSM phone, but it certainly comes with GPRS and EDGE data support. The Motorola V635 also has a WAP 2.0 browser, instant messaging, PIM functionality and email client. Like most Motorola's, the V635 supports Bluetooth.

It's a pretty good phone, but we were critical of the V635 when the first details came out, and now there's even more to be concerned about. Firstly, the 65,000 colour screen is disappointing, but second the specifications are hardly class-leading, and rivals such as Sharp with their TM200 are in danger of eating Motorola's lunch in certain markets. For example, the TM200 comes with a better camera and screen than the V635, matches it on pretty much all the other features and is currently shipping in Germany on T-Mobile, and very soon in other T-Mobile markets. Frankly, the V635 is beginning to look a little bit tired in specification terms.

Again.. this is not a bad phone, but as Motorola's flagship clamshell this is hugely disappointing. Had it been announced 12 months ago it would have been impressive, but as it is we feel that Motorola is likely to be out-competed by rivals such as Sharp and even Sagem in the megapixel camera phone market. What will be critical in terms of sales is the success of Motorola's marketing campaign, based around the "Megamoto" theme, but sadly megapixel phones like this are now becoming common and the V635 doesn't really stand out.

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