Motorola Gleam mobile phone

The Motorola Gleam is a flashback to yesteryear when thin flip phones were all the rage

Motorola Gleam
  • Motorola Gleam
  • Motorola Gleam
  • Motorola Gleam
  • Expert Rating

    3.50 / 5

Pros

  • Competitive price
  • Easy to use
  • Stylish design

Cons

  • No microSD card included
  • Short notification time of front screen
  • Fingerprint magnet

Bottom Line

The Motorola Gleam is a stylish feature phone with a flip design and an easy to use proprietary operating system. If you're looking for a phone that just does the basics, you should definitely check it out.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 99.00 (AUD)

Easy to use

Flipped open, the Motorola Gleam reveals a standard number pad along with a 5-way navigational key, two selection buttons and answer/end call keys. The buttons are large and well spaced which makes typing phone numbers and messages relatively hassle-free, though the keys don't have much travel and are fairly flat. The soft white backlight and glossy silver finish of the keypad adds further style.

Using the Motorola Gleam is a fairly straightforward process. The 2.4in LCD screen has a resolution of 240x320 pixels and is bright and clear. Text is easily readable, though the low resolution means there is visible aberrations and there is no way to adjust the font size.

The main menu consists of a 4x3 grid of icons, with a description appearing at the top of the screen. A basic numbered list format is the order of the day for most sub menus. Being a dumb phone, the Motorola Gleam doesn't offer too many extra features. There's a basic 2-megapixel camera, music and video players, a WAP browser and an FM radio, while Bluetooth connectivity is included.

You'll need a micro SD card (not included) if you are to make use of the music player, as the phone only comes with 5MB of internal memory. Thankfully, a 3.5mm headphone jacks means you can use a wide variety of headphones. We'd advise to avoid the bundled headphones if you want to enjoy decent sound quality.

Perhaps the best feature of the Motorola Gleam is its battery life. We managed to go up to two days without needing a recharge. With no 3G connectivity, a small screen and only a basic WAP browser, the Gleam's 700mAh battery is enough to keep it ticking over well over a day and a half, even with excessive use.

The Motorola Gleam is available through Crazy Johns for $99 outright or on a $10 per month plan.

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