AT&T Motorola Tundra VA76r Review

In an effort to bring more durable phones into its lineup, AT&T has released the Motorola Tundra VA76r. The military-spec Tundra was announced to be coming out on AT&T’s network around a month ago, and adds some extra variety by joining forces with the Samsung Rugby.

As a military-spec phone, Motorola has designed the Tundra to withstand a lot of harsh conditions and crazy situations. In order to live up to military specifications, the Tundra had to be rigorously tested to handle the extremes such as temperature, shock, vibration, dripping rain, dust, and humidity.

We have to admit, we didn’t have the opportunity to kick the living snot out of the Tundra, so our review will be more about the phone’s other outlying features. However, there is a video showing the military-spec Rugby holding up under every type of harsh condition possible. Check it out here.

Design of the AT&T Tundra

The Tundra essentially looks like a cross between an updated V365 and a Motorola iDEN phone, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise; after all, this phone is built for durability as well as functionality, but it’s not designed to be stylish. Just from casual observation, the outside of the Tundra feels like it’s made of Kevlar.

Motorola opted for an external antenna with the Tundra. This wasn’t something I was glad to see, considering the rest of AT&T’s lineup has begun using internal antennae for several months now. At least it was a very short one.

In my hands the Tundra felt great. It’s not a very thin phone compared to the RAZR or others like it, but it’s thicker because it’s made to last. On the right side of the phone you will find the camera shortcut; the traditional Mini-USB port is on the bottom.

On the left side there are two buttons: volume, and an unusually large Push-to-Talk button. I understand these phones are designed with the Push-to-Talk customer in mind, but let’s be honest — if you’re not using that feature, it’s incredibly annoying to have a huge button on the side that can’t be used for any other purpose. Dedicated PTT buttons are getting a bit old, AT&T.

There isn’t much to the back side, but it definitely has a classy look.

The buttons inside are also typical AT&T style — in addition to the obligatory green/red call buttons and numerical keys, AT&T has also thrown in its Media Net and Cellular Video shortcuts. All of the buttons are easy to press, however, because each one is raised slightly.

Overall, I found the design of the Tundra to be typical of a military-spec phone; it felt very similar to a Motorola phone found on Nextel, but with the usual features of AT&T’s newest lineup. This, I feel, can be very beneficial. The Tundra is easy enough to handle, while convincing the user that it truly can go through anything you throw at it.

Features of the AT&T Tundra

As mentioned earlier, the Tundra offers many of the same features as AT&T’s latest phones; GPS with AT&T Navigator, 2.0 MP camera, 3G support, and Bluetooth. It also throws in Push-to-Talk and a louder speakerphone.

One unique feature Motorola brings to the table in the Tundra is its new CrystalTalk 2 Technology. Many of Motorola’s phones, such as the V8/V9 series, offers CrystalTalk to help improve overall sound quality when making calls. CrystalTalk 2 adds a second microphone that works to filter out the background noise, thus giving the customer a hassle-free conversation without even needing a Bluetooth to get it.

The Tundra also sports a MicroSD card port, but will only support cards with up to 4 GB of total memory. Sure it can be used as a music player, but realistically, don’t expect to be using this phone as your next MP3 player replacement. And the 100 MB internal memory is good, just not enough for music.

All other features in the phone are standard for any phone made after 2007, so they won’t be mentioned. But I do enjoy the screen on the Tundra; the menus are reminiscent of the V8/V9 series in terms of a crisp look and large font size.

Performance of the AT&T Tundra

The AT&T Tundra weighs in at 4.94 ounces (140g) and has a rated battery life of 4 hrs talk time on 3G and 6 hrs on GSM; talk time is 20 days and 14 days, respectfully. The phone’s dimensions are at 2.1 x 3.85 x .96.

Overall I have been satisfied with the Tundra. I didn’t hear a huge difference in sound quality with CrystalTalk 2, but that may have been due to placing calls in a quieter environment. If any readers have used the new CrystalTalk on any of Motorola’s newest phones, please let us know your experiences in the comments!

AT&T’s rugged Motorola Tundra now on sale

In case you were waiting for the release date of the Motorola Tundra VA76r from AT&T, now’s the time because it’s already officially available. It’s about the best any rugged phone can get. Or at least, it’s one of the most well-rounded out there.

Aside from having military grade toughness, the Motorola Tundra features a 2 megapixel camera, QVGA display, AGPS, microSD card support, and 3G data.

And as mentioned in out earlier report, the price will be $199 after a $50 mail-in rebate and the signing of a 2-year contract with AT&T.

AT&T via Engadget Mobile

Motorola PEBL Rose Bloom launched just in time for Valentine’s

Did you really think you could get away with buying a new phone for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day without considering something from the mother-of-the-RAZR’s stable? Well, you thought wrong if you did.

Just launched is what Motorola calls the Motorola PEBL Rose Bloom, a cutesy little almost egg-shaped clamshell phone that’s adorned with a rose drawing up front and center.

It doesn’t have much going for specs, since its main selling point is its fashion-centric design, but it does have a touch-sensitive panel on its outer lid, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth connectivity and up to 7.2Mbps HSDPA data transfer rates.

The Motorola PEBL Rose Bloom will be available in Korea from SK Telecom and various retailers and resellers for an unspecified price. It shouldn’t be too high as to burn anyone’s wallet, though, ’cause this one hardly screams out luxury.

Official pics of Motorola EM326g and the MOTOROKR S7-HD Bluetooth headset emerge

Totally unrelated to the unnamed CDMA Motorola clamshell that was just approved by the FCC, we’ve got word about two other unannounced Moto products: Motorola EM326g and MOTOROKR S7-HD.

Motorola EM326g is a slider phone that looks almost similar to the EM25, a handset which was announced back in the summer of 2008.

There are only few details about the features of EM326g (we can see a 1.3MP camera), but it’s highly probable that they’re like the ones of EM25: stereo Bluetooth, dedicated music keys, a 3.5mm headset jack, microSD card support and so on.

MOTOROKR S7-HD is not a phone, but a Bluetooth headset, and that’s all we know about it.

Motorola might announce the two products at the same time (since they’re both music-oriented), but we can’t say when exactly this will happen.

Via Mobile-review

New, unnamed Motorola CDMA clamshell leaked by the FCC

The Federal Communications Commission has recently approved a new Motorola phone, a clamshell that appears with the FCC ID IHDP56JM2.

Unfortunately, the handset’s official name is not known for the moment, and neither are details about its release.

What we do know is that the new clamshell seems to be a mid-end device. It has external music dedicated keys, Bluetooth, a photo camera (probably of at least 2MP) and a flat alphanumeric keyboard.

Here’s what the phone looks like:

Apparently, there will be two versions of the phone available: one with 800 / 1900 MHz CDMA connectivity, and one with support for MetroPCS and Cricket’s 1700 MHz AWS frequencies.

Motorola will probably announce the clamshell in the near future and we’ll be here to let you know when this happens.

Via Cell Phone Signal

Exclusive Pics of Moto Surf A3100

World, Moto Surf A3100. Moto Surf A3100, world. Glad I could help introduce you. This is Motorola’s entry to the iPhone Killer department, and not a bad Windows phone to boot.

Overall from my first impressions I felt it was very similar to the TouchFLO interface found in most HTC WinMo devices, such as the Touch Pro. The Today screen was actually easier to see, larger fonts and icons spaced out further to allow ease in touching them.

I didn’t get too much of an opportunity to play around with the features. I noticed the grid-style menu allowed for customization, with the ability to move icons around as someone would do on the iPhone.

Reps are telling me the Moto Surf will be available this quarter starting in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia before spreading out to other parts of the world. So for now, enjoy some pictures and I will have a video of it ready for you later.

Motorola Q11 White and Black Pics at CES

The Motorola Q11 phone has already seen limited release in various parts of the world, but is still a fresh phone that deserves mention.

At Unwired View we have dished the scoop on the specs, and have seen a few live pics of the new phone. Fortunately, however, I had the opportunity to check out the Q11 in person at CES, and took a few pics of it in 2 different colors — both black and white.

On the white phone, the darker part on the right is just my shadow.