Review: Motorola Aura

Motorola Aura Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: The Motorola Aura is the most expensive phone that we've ever reviewed. We can't say that it's value for money though. Feature-poor, albeit with a nicely-crafted metal case, it doesn't come anywhere near justifying the price, even if you can afford it.

Review: April 2009.

Rarely has a mobile phone manufacturer made such an error of timing. Releasing a £1,300 phone in the middle of a global recession - duh. Motorola have been trumpeting the Aura for months, but when we learned the price we nearly fell off our chair. We freely admit that we haven't seen the Aura in the flesh, so this "review" is just informed speculation, but to be honest we don't expect anyone to actually buy this thing anyway.

Featurewise, there's nothing special about the Aura. It has a very basic camera, an MP3 player and basic connectivity (Bluetooth & USB). With a small circular display, you can't do much with this phone other than make calls and pose.

The big thing about the Aura is that it's made from metal (solid lead, judging by the weight) and it rotates open when you flip the cover. Anyone who remembers the rotating Motorola V80 will know that it had the same design (without the price tag) and was a contender for the world's most unreliable phone of all time. For the sake of the few people who do buy the Aura, let's hope that this one lasts a bit longer.

Features of the Motorola Aura include:

• 2 megapixel camera
• Video camera
• Display: circular, 480 pixel diameter
• Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ formats)
• MP3 ringtones
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
• Internet: GPRS, EDGE
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0
• Memory: 2GB
• Quadband
• Size: 98x 48 x 19 mm
• Weight: 141g
• Talktime: up to 7.3 hours
• Battery standby: up to 400 hours

Motorola Aura Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 27 reviews:

Reviewed by tony from england on 14th Dec 2009
why the two stars and not 1? the phone is poor by specs
Rating:

Reviewed by Clear Cut Chap from UK on 10th Oct 2009
It is unbelievable how a huge company like Motorola could have produced such a ridiculous product, so ill-timed in the market too! What will bring them back into the Mobile market after this?!..a miracle was what the Aura was supposed to be, now what?! If there were negative stars/rating possible it would be appropriate to award it so, but for lack it, here's one star for their efforts.
Rating:

Reviewed by Maxim from UK on 2nd Oct 2009
Motorola does not fit the picture of the luxurious mobile phone maker. Every recent attempt to bring up something technologically sophisticated comes in a form of functional but ugly to boot phone. Once in a while they try to reanimate 6-years old design using better materials and pushing the price to the level of insanity. Very stupid move made by the professionals and offered to a public. Overall Aura nothing but expensive example of a chain of failures of Motorola in both design, innovation, marketing fields.
Rating:

Reviewed by Daniel Terci from Romania on 30th Sep 2009
I liked and still like very much the handset. It has an unique design and exquisite choice of materials with one disappointing flaw - see the photos. After 8 months of usage it looks like this http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2513/p9281143.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/347/p9281144.jpg http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4845/p9281145.jpg http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8397/p9281147.jpg I will buy it again at the same sky rocketing price just to know that it doesn't behave as the one I already have. The Motorola Customer Service's answer regarding the problem I had was that the warranty doesn't cover it - even if it behaved as a 20$ handset.
Rating:

Reviewed by Derek from Canada on 19th Sep 2009
I own an Aura.. and it is awesome. .every time I pull out the phone everyone stares at it. . the quality is simply awesome. It is sort of like buying a Rolex watch.
Rating:

Reviewed by Eddie from UK on 30th Aug 2009
Truly the worst phone I have ever owned. Look at all the advertisements for the phone and none of them will mention that a good portion of this phone is made from plastic the bottom third of the phone looks like metal but its plastic the keyboard surround is also plastic. The phone supposedly has over 200 parts to open the lid if this is true why put a window in just to display 3 of them. The software is really bad, its typical Motorola buggy slow and awful. The keyboard is all but unusable I had to take it off predictive text just to keep my sanity and go back to stabbing in the texts one letter at a time The final straw came when I took my kid to a play centre, I tried to make a call but no signal but the guy next to me was talking away on of all things a Nokia 3310 after he finished I asked him what network he was on and it was Vodafone same as me. So a phone which is now a museum piece had far better reception than this piece of rubbish The camera is only 2MP but it is really good, and the screen is gorgeous but the rest of it is very poor
Rating:

Reviewed by beakersonlessness1 from far away on 18th Aug 2009
A 20 pound phone is better than this!
Rating:

Reviewed by zak from uk on 18th Aug 2009
Dont own one, and at that price never will
Rating:

Reviewed by clatters from england on 14th Aug 2009
if you walked through any town with this phone you get stabbed and would be one very expensive phone down.pointless.
Rating:

Reviewed by Bob from England on 9th Aug 2009
No one would buy it and its hidious
Rating:

Reviewed by Fred from England on 28th Jul 2009
WASTE OF TIME, SPACE, MONEY AND MAKES REPUTATION OF MOTOROLA EVEN WORSER!!!!!
Rating:

Reviewed by liam from england on 4th Jul 2009
What the heck!!!! it looks horrid and at that price I would no buy it if it was the last phone on the face of the earth.
Rating:

Reviewed by Ravi from India on 1st Jul 2009
Very stylish but a heavy price tag and no extra ordinary feature worthless to buy.
Rating:

Reviewed by Georgia from Wales on 21st Jun 2009
this phone is extremely expensive, though you could get the same features from a cheaper phone. its very unique, but i wouldn't reccomend it.
Rating:

Reviewed by no one from ay ay ay on 8th Jun 2009
ugly exspensive bad camera man this is bad
Rating:

Reviewed by Tom NCAFC from Wales, UK on 5th Jun 2009
A distinctly average phone with a hefty price tag. The only difference being its stylish and fairly original look and feel. However you would be much better off getting a V635 for alot cheaper! It looks good, feels good and has great features and costs very little whilst the Aura is a fine example of the decline of quality coming from Motorola.
Rating:

Reviewed by Vikram from India on 5th Jun 2009
I cant beleive that some reviewers gave this phone 5 stars. They must be brand ambassadors of motorola. Disgusting phone. You can buy tomato instead.
Rating:

Reviewed by Henry from UK on 16th May 2009
ITS A RUBBISH PHONE WHAT WAS MOTOROLA THINKING!
Rating:

Reviewed by Jack from UK on 11th May 2009
This phone looks very cool, however its very impractical, with a small screen, 2mp camera, etc. The phones design is good and stylish, but for the phone, I heard it cost $20,000; which for this phone, it a very bad price tag, even if its stainless steel.
Rating:

Reviewed by Katie from Uk on 8th May 2009
Really people? "It's the coolest phone ever" or "it's well good and stylish" - listen to yourselves please! The reviewer is completely right about this handset, it's over priced and under spec'd. A mobile phone may need to look good but it also needs to be value for money, reliable and have up to date technology in it! If Moto hade released this 3 years ago it prolly would of done ok but it's out dated, over priced and it was a very bad decsion of theirs to release such a handset within a massive global recession. Though, I suspect by the time it go to production standard, they were so far into hock from creating it that they had to go to production or loose all their investment costs. I think this is a very sad reflection of how far Moto have fallen and how they have totally lost their way over the past 4 years. Poor old Moto, I fear things will not work out well for you as far as the Aura is concerned. :-(
Rating:

Reviewed by cool from uk on 4th May 2009
a very cool mobile phone
Rating:

Reviewed by kev from good old england on 1st May 2009
a very cool phone that will stand out, also very good looks i could go on and on THIS IS SUCH A GOOD PHONE
Rating:

Reviewed by steve from uk on 30th Apr 2009
Motorola have made some drastic improvements to there phones over the years and I think that this is there best yet, it’s a small, but good looking phone that will hit the mobile markets big time. It has a very good specification and a cool feel to it (yet again outstanding looks) I would be very happy to buy this phone EVEN AT THE HIGH PRICE costing round £250 at the moment.
Rating:

Reviewed by greg from uk on 28th Apr 2009
a outstanding phone that looks WOW!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:

Reviewed by razza from somewhere on 28th Apr 2009
now motorola id say have the most sexy and most spyish looking phones ever! ither beutyful cool or just sympal. peopal all over the world by motorolas because there so good looking. it has great features and amazing graphics untill... the phone itself. now these may be styalish but they break easaly. people say there slow and a bit of a waste of time. but i wouldnt always agree. this make of phone is probaly the mst expensive of all makes but i think its worth it. i have a couple they seem to be great so trust wot u think and remember that all phones are good in there own speicial way.
Rating:

Reviewed by jay from uk on 4th Mar 2009
hi these phones are the best phone ever made for style you cant compare them to an ordinary phone its like comparing a casio watch to a gucci etc best buy i have made in a long time
Rating:

Reviewed by Caria from UK on 18th Nov 2008
good design
Rating:

Motorola Aura Links