Motorola C975 mobile phone

Motorola C975 is a dual mode cameraphone capable of working on either the 3G or the GSM tri-band networks, which makes it a suitable model for global roaming. This is a neat silver cased candy bar design, and another of the budget 3G phones aimed to tempt new users into the 3G market. It is a slightly heavier and larger handset than non-3G models, although not so significantly more chunky that it would deter potential buyers.

Motorola C975This mobile phone has plenty of the technical features you would expect in a 3G model, but its budget price means that Bluetooth™ and infrared connectivity have been omitted. However, there are still many other useful features included to attract buyers to this model. The C975 offers integrated GPRS and WAP technology, two-way video telephony, video capture download and playback, MPEG4 and MP3 players, video and audio streaming, TransFlash™ memory card slot, voice memo recorder, speakerphone for hands-free conversations, MMS multimedia messaging, voice control, Java™ enabled, and an e-mail client.

Motorola C975 has an active matrix TFT display, which provides a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and reproduction of up to 65,536 different colours. The screen is of an acceptable size for a 3G phone, although not as large as on some other phones, but it does offer a clear and adequate display for viewing videos, pictures, menus, as well as for playing games.

In common with most 3G video calling mobile phones, this model has two cameras. The lesser of the two cameras is a dedicated device for taking pictures of the user when they are engaged in a two-way video call, and this user-facing camera has a CIF resolution specification (352 x 288 pixels). The main camera is a standard VGA resolution device (640 x 480 pixels), which again indicates the budget nature of this phone, as many other 3G phones are being equipped with megapixel cameras. Useful camera features include a 4x digital zoom and a LED flashlight to assist with taking photos in poor lighting conditions. If you need a little photographic versatility, then it is possible to quickly switch between cameras, to display a picture of what you are looking at or to show a self-portrait.

A major feature of the C975 is its video capability, being able to capture or download video clips at up to QCIF resolution (176 x 144 pixels) and 15 fps. When you need to keep in touch with news, entertainment and other action, then the phone supports live streaming of audio and video over-the-air, which means you have the opportunity to hear and see the information that interests you while you are out and about. The phone’s MMS capability is a fairly essential feature these days, and enables you to exchange a message containing a combination of picture/photo, plus text, plus sound with any compatible phone. There is also an onboard MP3 player, which provides you with the option to carry your favourite music around with you.

One point that might cause a few worries is Motorola C975’s relatively small 2 MB of internal memory, which is not much for a phone with multimedia facilities. Features such as the MP3 player and video recorder are quite memory-hungry, and they will soon eat up all the available storage capacity. The TransFlash™ memory card slot comes in handy here, and it will enable users to greatly expand the available memory, with the chance to save your games, videos, MP3 tracks, and pictures on the card. This means you will probably have to buy a memory card if you need to regularly use all the phone’s functions. No TransFlash card is supplied with the phone, but they are now relatively cheap and cards of up to 256 MB may be used in the phone. However, one of the drawbacks of the design soon becomes obvious, which is that the battery has to be removed in order to swap cards. This is a feature shared with several other models, and it may inconvenience some users, because it does mean you cannot “hot swap” memory cards.

Many users like to personalise their phones, and the C975 has the usual feature of being able to customise the wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones to your own tastes, and if you need more choice then extra content may be downloaded over-the-air. It is also possible to use the photos taken with the camera as screensavers or wallpapers. To assist with caller ID, you can assign a photo taken with the camera to a phonebook entry, and set unique ringtones for contacts as well.

The software capability of new mobile phones has become one of their more significant features, and as the C975 is Java™ enabled it can offer users the opportunity to run a wide range of Java games and applications. If you want to play some games or to use new applications, then it is easy to download more software when required.

Being a 3G phone, the download data rate will be at broadband speeds, and considerably faster than is available from the GSM bands. However, when you are outside the range of a 3G network you can still use the normal GPRS technology, although video calling will not then be possible. The advantage of the 3G and GPRS services is not only that they give you fast data speeds, but they also provide you with an “always on” connection to the network. For users who want to make use of the services available via the mobile Internet, you can use this phone to browse the Web for finding news and entertainment, and other online services. An e-mail client is also provided with the phone, and this offers you the tool to access your normal e-mail correspondence, using the standard POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols.

The only available connectivity option for linking up to a computer, or other compatible device, is by using the phone’s USB connector. After making your link by cable it is then possible to exchange files between the phone and other device. A popular facility, often required by users, is the ability to synchronise a phonebook, calendar and other personal information between their phone and computer, and this model offers such synchronisation. For those who prefer to synchronise remotely, over-the-air, SyncML is included in this phone.

The C975 has several organiser facilities, including a calendar, clock, alarms, calculator, and currency converter. The phone also has Motorola’s own iTAP™ predictive text entry and a vibration alert.

Motorola C975 Cameraphone specification

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Last updated 10th September 2009, 08:33 BST