Motorola Rambler – Full QWERTY in a small format. Maybe too small.
Built for messaging fanatics (ergo the very apt name of Rambler), the Rambler houses a QWERTY keypad within its clamshell form factor and although the phone isn’t the best idea in a purely ergonomic sense, it is still a pleasing phone aesthetically and packs in decent features to boot.
The rule is that messaging phones are sliders are boxier than this, so to hear of one that was designed as a clamshell was puzzling and interesting. These phones are oddities and rarities but the Rambler tries to make the most of this by being rectangular and stretching things out as much as it can. Head-on, it looks reasonably compact but its when you lay it on its side that you realize its girth. This makes holding it within your hand an odd affair since it ends up feeling distinctly out of place thanks to its size and QWERTY keyboard.
Like many clamshells, it has a 1.6 inch external display which is colorful and shows the usual indicators such as battery and signal strength plus the date and time. This also acts as a means to see Caller ID easily and if you look just above this little display you’ll notice the camera lens sitting quietly. If you’re particularly narcissistic, you can use the external display as a viewfinder to take your own photographs. Located on the left are the volume rockers, external speakers and MiniUSB charger jack, while to the right you will find the voice command key and 2.5mm headset jack.
The hinge on the Rambler is sturdy, maybe too sturdy. It makes one handed operation a bit impossible unless you’re the Hulk but it does click into place nicely which is a sign of quality craftsmanship. The larger 2.2 inch display is located on the inside of the phone but the display itself lets it down with a 65k color display offering an underwhelming 176×220-pixel resolution. With so many new mobile interfaces out in the wild, this iteration of Motorola’s interface seems Jurassic with chunky text and dated graphics greeting your every move. It’s a stark reminder of how different this phone is from the more intelligent of Motorola’s breed. Navigation is done by the usual soft key plus a four way directional keypad with an oversized central key. If you so wish, you can the directional keypad to four shortcuts of your choice.
The keypad is well stocked with options, but it’s all laid together so tight as to make it seem akin to Sardines in a tin can, which brings us to the QWERTY keypad. The keys are nicely raised but the overwhelming feeling is that the keyboard is just a bit low on space due to the slim body of the phone and this carries on to the keys itself, too narrow for almost anyone with human fingers unless you slow down typing considerably. There’s no issues with dialing, but text entry is impaired and given the fact this is a messaging phone, that comes as a disappointment.
The 1.3 Megapixel camera too shows its age, and it may have settings such as a self-timer, picture frames, brightness and white balance presets, but it is of no use when picture quality is sub-par. Colors were faded and tired and video didn’t perform much better, with size limited to four lengths: 2 minutes, 5 minutes, fitting it to memory, or fitting it to an MMS. There’s no card slot available, so you’re limited to the phone’s 256MB memory limit. All in all, the Rambler offers up some good features but is let down by poor ergonomics and a disappointing camera.
