Review: Motorola Jewel / MOTO Jewel

Motorola Jewel Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: What girl could resist a cute clamshell phone that looks like an enormous jewel? The Motorola Jewel has a bevelled shiny surface with an invisible mirror display and animated screensavers that appear to move over the phone's surface. Inside you'll find a 2 megapixel camera, a music player, MP3 ringtones, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, a memory card slot and good battery life.
Best buy: £97.82 on Pay as you Go from the Carphone Warehouse.

The Motorola Jewel is a phone that looks like a jewel, and a whopping-sized jewel at that! What girl wouldn't want to carry this in her handbag?

The Jewel is not expensive, but looks a million dollars! It's a cute clamshell, petite in size, with a shiny metallic reflective finish. The external display uses a mirror effect that blends the display into the shiny surface of the phone so that's its invisible when turned off. When in use, specially designed animated screensavers move over the phone's surface, appearing to float in and out of view. The display also shows information such as caller ID or music track / artist, and when music is playing, touch-sensitive controls appear. It's definitely a very sensual phone.

The Jewel is actually a remodelled version of the popular Motorola U9, and is technically identical, so read our U9 review for more info. The main features of the phone, apart from its looks, are the 2 megapixel camera and music player. The camera lacks a flash, but will take good snaps and video clips in day lighting. The music player plays all common file formats and the supplied software lets you transfer music from a PC to the phone using a USB cable. The internal memory of the phone (25 Mbytes) is only enough for 5-6 songs, so you'll probably want to buy a memory card. The U9 can take microSD cards up to 4 Gbytes, which is enough to store around 1,000 songs in MP3 format, or more if compressed.

The battery life of the Jewel is good, with enough power to last several days between charges. Connectivity is good, with both USB and Bluetooth available. It's a quadband phone too, so you can use it anywhere in the world.

The only issue that we have with the Jewel is that it may have a problem with occasional freezing, as the U9 had this problem and we assume that it may still be present in the Jewel. Apart from this, it could be a girl's best friend.

Features of the Motorola Jewel include:

• 2 megapixel camera
• Video camera (15 frames/second, 176 x 144 pixels) with 4x digital zoom, MPEG4 format
• Main display: TFT, 262,000 colours, 320 x 240 pixels
• External display: OLED, 65,000 colours, 128 x 160 pixels
• Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, enhanced AAC+, AMR, WMA formats)
• MP3 ringtones
• Handsfree speakerphone
• Voice dialling
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email
• Screensavers & animated wallpaper
• Picture Caller ID
• Internet: GPRS, EDGE
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB 2.0
• Memory: 25 Mbytes user memory plus microSD memory card (up to 4 Gbytes)
• Quadband
• Size: 90 x 48 x 16 mm
• Weight: 95g
• Talktime: up to 6 hours
• Battery standby: up to 388 hours

Motorola Jewel Consumer Reviews

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Average rating from 10 reviews:

Reviewed by beth from uk on 1st Jan 2009
i got this phone for xmas and i love it. its really cute with the diamond shape and if u like it u should get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by Martine from Scotland on 28th Dec 2008
You'll either love this phone or hate it but personally, I love it! It looks lovely and has more than adequate features to keep all but the most ardent technophiles happy. Camera is great and any pics I've taken have been firs class. Same goes with video. Some other phones have better but, quite frankly, if you want to take all singing and all dancing pic, buy a camera. I think this is a fab wee camera for the price which looks just that bit different from anything else on the market.
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Reviewed by Amy from England on 18th Dec 2008
amazing stylish phone. camera is great for being 2mp. amazing screen on front. can even read ur texts on the "invisible" screen. deffo reccomend. Great sounding mp3's!! all around amazing
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Reviewed by jodie from america on 10th Dec 2008
this phone looks great but it is rubbish camra is bad always reastarting on it own don't buy this phone! i am on my third one and all of them have been the same
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Reviewed by sophie cullen from uk on 9th Dec 2008
great phone im getting it for x mas my friend has it and i love it
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Reviewed by katie thompson from England on 7th Dec 2008
The best phone ever! I'm getting it for Christmas, I can't wait!
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Reviewed by ben 10 from america on 4th Dec 2008
this is a stylish phone to impress your mates with, its reliable and easy to use.
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Reviewed by Lara from England on 27th Nov 2008
i luv it
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Reviewed by Anna from UK on 27th Nov 2008
So nice. You will love the phone.
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Reviewed by mark from america on 26th Nov 2008
this phone is the best phone ever i love it!!! its like totally amazing it is like a diamond. by this phone dont get eny other phone. first review woo!!!!!!!!!!!!
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