Customer Reviews

Motorola Ming A1200 Unlocked Phone with 2 MP Camera, MP3/Video Player, and MicroSD Slot--International Version with No Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought this phone in China early March 2006. It was just on market for a week or so. I intended to buy a Microsoft Smartphone kind of device, but came upon this phone. The things that attracted me was the near perfect finish (black version only, feel like the early IBM Thinkpad T23 skin-like touch), the fast response, large screen, transparent screen cover and a unique feature: Business Card Reader(BCR).

The BCR take a snapshot of a business card, automatically recognize the information and input into contact list. The character recognition is not 100% if the business card design is too fancy. If the card is standard, with regular characters, the recognition result will be very accurate. It saves lots of time when you finish the job in a long day and rest in hotel room. Remember, you have to set the lens switch to Macro position, otherwise the card photo it takes will be blury and recognition is impossible. The switch is above the lens, very easy to miss.

Other features include the radio, recorder, bluetooth, Real Player, voice command, notes, 2.0 MP camera and camcorder.

Writing recognition is also very accurate. I write in Chinese and English. Both are very easy to use. Overall, the software are great.

It comes with other features such as getting online but I don't use them. You can add Transflash card inside. As of May 2006, the largest card size is 512MB for $70.

I don't think I digged all the goodies out, still in the fun process learning how to use it more wisely. Overall, it is a great phone, better than any other phone I ever used.

Before I bought this phone, I had the V3 that I got from Cingular. I was really unpleased with it, it wasn't what Motorola made it out to be. Then I got the V3x, which I wouldn't have done if I knew that it didn't support the 850 GSM Band. It was a lot better than the V3, had an MP3 player, but it didn't support 320kbps MP3's. I had problems getting a signal with it, cause of the 850 GSM band Cingular uses. Then I saw the Motorola MING (A1200). I've had this phone for a month, and I haven't had any problems with it yet. It plays all my MP3's and it even comes with Real Player, so if you wanna play Video's, you can, but you have to convert them first. It sucks, but the phone does come with some converstion software. I've also tested the phone with some software that I found off GetJar. I only had a problem with one of the programs, it was an Internet radio. But the Messengers worked fine. The Hong Kong site says that the phone comes with MSN Messenger, but I haven't found it. It supports 1GB MicroSD and can record videos up to 2 hours. The only downfall of the phone is the fact that it doesn't have any 3G capabilities. I, myself, don't use 3G since it my provider doesn't have Video Calling yet and I'm sure that when it becomes available, it'll be expensive and no one that I talk with will get it for years to come. The phone uses Linux as it's OS. That kind of scared me at first cause I don't know how to use Linux that well....heh, but it's pretty easy to use. The OS is also Open Source, you can get it from the Motorola Open Source site (https://opensource.motorola.com). The phone has a virtual keyboard on the screen that you use to type. There is also a virtual keypad that is used when dialing a number or when entering info that requires only numbers.

Here is the short version...if you want a great phone that doesn't support 3G technology, that supports J2ME applications/games, and you can see small letters close up, then get this phone. If you have to have 3G, then get something else.

Hope this helped ^_^.

I've had this cell phone for two months now, and I can say that this is a great phone, with a couple significant flaws. I've been looking for a cheap smart phone for some time, and I have to say this phone meets my basic needs.

Pros:
- Good looking design, as expected from Motorola
- Great versatility. It's many functions add value to the phone. It has everything I was looking for (except full email sync with your computer email client). 2 MP still/video camera, media player (RealPlayer), FM Radio, calendar, bluetooth, web browser, document reader, ... the works.
- Linux OS, with Java enabled, which opens a world of possibilities. There are a lot of great Java apps designed for this phone on the internet. Is just a matter of looking for them. My first downloads were the Gmail app (gmail on my phone!) and the Opera Web browser, which is great.
- Micro SD slot.
- The Real Player is great, it plays most media file formats. And I bought a 2 GB memory card, so it's like having a music player as well.
- Quad band, so you can roam almost anywhere.

Now, the Cons:
- Big con #1: Miserable battery life. I use the phone a lot (for calling, web browsing and it's other functions), and I have to recharge the phone every other day. Thankfully, it comes with the USB cable to connect with a PC, and after loading Motorola Phone Tools, you can charge it via the USB ports of your PC. It's been a life saver at work. This is a major flaw by Motorola. If you are gonna cram so many functions on a phone, you might as well bundle it with a larger capacity battery.
- Big con #2: Not so great processing speed. After I read a couple of the reviews here, I though the phone would be blazing fast because of the processor and all, but let me say that I am quite disappointed at it. For example, after placing a call, the phone takes like 2 to 4 seconds to end the call and return to the normal screen. Or after quiting the internet browser, it freezes for 2 to 4 second when it's closing the GPRS connection. Also, the Real Player takes some seconds when it loads a file. It may seem that I'm being a little whiny, but after some time it really gets annoying, specially if you are in a hurry.
- The camera, being 2 MP and all, is not so good. You need to have a steady hand, or else you are gonna get a lot of blurry pictures (and the worst part is, if you download the images to your Windows PC, you cannot modify them, because they are transferred as Read-Only, and you cannot just change this on the file's properties. I'm guessing it's something of Linux permissions. I'm still going to look into that). And the video quality is not great as well. I got better videos with my old SE Z520a, which BTW, look great on the A1200's screen.
- No full email sync support.
- Finally, the screen is a dirt magnet. I have to clean the phone's screen every now and then, partially because I have a very oily face.

Although I'm giving 3 stars, I have to say I'm happy with the A1200. Besides those 2 major flaws, the phone is cheap in comparison with other smart phones and has a lot of functions that make it a great every day tool for communication, organizing and entertainment.

It's actually a Linux (yes, it's Linux!!!!) based smart phone. With the help of a 312MHz Intel XScale processor, all software is running pretty fast. Even 3D applications work smoothly because of the Mobile 3D Graphics API provided by this phone. A1200 supports doc, xls, ppt, HTML and pdf files, as well as various picture formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF and WBMP). The realplayer in this phone could play MP3, WMA, RealAudio, MIDI, WAV, AAC and AMR in the background and RMVB, MPEG4, 3GP in full screen mode. And I heard that there even exists a GPS software you can download online for A1200. To sum up, you shouldn't miss Motorola A1200. It's definitely a good choice.

This phone is an exceptional phone. I must admit I was skeptical about buying since it was not really supported in the US. But this international phone is excellent. It's really a good phone, behaves almost like a computer. I like the character recognition where you can write on the touch screen and the characters appear on the line. (available in English and Chinese only). I was also with the real player and music and file storage capabilities. Good phone to buy if you have the cash to get it. The only thing is that I haven't figured out how to connect to the internet but I don't use it anyway.

'Got my Ming in April 2006 as my birthday gift from my husband (a Linux geek). I simply wanted a "smart phone" that I can write notes and access my email while I'm on the road, a calendar to remind me of my appointments and yes - it must be a quad band as I travel to many countries all the time. Not a lot to ask for right? Honestly I was looking at a Sony Ericsson quad band at that time. But this Linux based Motorolla won my husband over (I'm not really a Moto fan :( - had a bad experience with Moto before - Motos are not 'dummy' friendly). The extra stuff .. camera, radio, blutooth,real player are just added bonus for me; don't really use them much. Oh, I use the Alarm clock daily - I love the snooze function.

I've been using it here in the States since last summer and opened a line with Cingular (since its a GSM). The folks at Cingular helped me access the internet so now I can read my gmail and google anytime, anywhere - just don't stay online too long - Cingular's internet rates can leave a hole in your wallet.

The pros ? .. yeah just what the other reviewers said. "Ditto"
The cons .. lately I found that there are times when I receive a call, only a dead sound would come from it. At first, I thought it was the network's problem but when I switched it off and turn it back on, it was "normal" again. A small mechanical defect. Alas, its not perfect after all. I find the battery life short - compared to a Nokia, but my husband solved that problem - he also got me a spare battery.
Another suggestion : REMEMBER to put a protector sheet on the screen - as it will take a lot of beating!!

I'm still not a Motorolla fan (thus the 4 star), but this phone has met my requirements. And its sleek looks really does impress - even the Cingular folks.....

In response to an earlier comment why its not marketed in N Am.
This beauty was created for the Asian (China/HK) market in particular. Thus the name : Ming. Statistically - Asians are the highest users of mobile/cell phones - which they usually upgrade often as new models come out quarterly.

I'm kinda sad that its here in the States now...my Ming won't be unique anymore.
Enjoy your Ming. Let the Dynasty begin. :)

Let me start out by saying that I got this phone just under a week ago, so I'm a new user and I haven't tried everything out yet. But overall this is the best cell phone I've ever seen. I've owned a few dozen phones over the years, got my first when I was 16 in 1996 and have upgraded over and over again. This is the third time that I bought a phone over the internet from a place other than the cell phone companies page and the first good experience. The other two were on eBay, and I know you can get it cheaper there but the first one turned out to be a refurb and the second had problems and neither lasted 6 months. Amazon is a good place to buy because they will take it back and issue a refund if there is a problem, they pay the shipping on broken returns so you don't have to worry about paying anything if you get a dud.

I have Cingular, and yes this phone did work immediately without any problems. I do not have the data service (I don't use text messages, e-mail or web) because my work phone gives me that for free, so I can't comment on those features or on how you set the phone up to work with them.

First impression: The phone looks great! Not as great as the picture though for one reason: The speaker, which I was assuming was charged by a EMF and worked without wires, is wired through the clear part. However, the wires look like a frame drawn on the clear part so it doesn't look bad. The phone functions great, and comes with everything I need except games (I'm looking for some good card and skill games for it now). It came with an international charger, which I don't trust so I tossed it in a box and kept using my old phone charger (which was the same). It also came with a sync cable, which is a growing trend in Motorola phones that have any PDA functions and one which I am pleased to see.

The software functions very intuitively. When I open the screen it brings up a dialpad with a redial button. If I clear that, it brings up my last call. If I clear that, it takes me to my various call lists (missed, dialed, received). If I clear that I get to a home screen. I can also just hit end and it goes to the home screen. The home screen is nice, but it has 4 hotkeys that you can program and it would be nice if it could have more or less depending on your needs. It also has a grayed out background which, if tapped, overrides the screen for you to see it, then goes back when tapped again. Cleaning the screen is a problem because I keep hitting keys, a key lock button would have been nice to relieve this.

The settings menu is well laid out, except it took me forever to figure out how to set the clock (it didn't download the time from Cingular, perhaps because of the lack of internet settings). Look through all the menus, you'll find it. I forget where I did, but I was standing in a line for 10 minutes and in that time I set everything up including the elusive clock...

I haven't tried music or videos yet, I'll update my review when I get around to that, and when I get some games on it.

I took the phone to Disney (my old phone broke 2 days before we were going, thanks Amazon Prime overnight shipping for $3.99!) The battery said 100% for two days including at least 3 hours of talk and 2 hours of playing around with the menus. Then it suddenly dropped to 50% (I guess it isn't such a great meter) and stayed there until the night when I decided to charge it, so I can't say how long it lasted but I think that is pretty good for a phone (my last needed a daily charge to make it). I'll charge it daily anyway, since I'm used to it.

Overall, I would reccomend this phone to everyone out there, but I like being the "only person on my block" to own it, so I'll tell you not to buy it instead :-)

More details to come in a month or so when I have really tested everything out!

This phone is simply awesome. Its like having a phone, a MP3 player and a PDA all in one. The resolution is sharp and clear. What I like most about it is the business card capture feature. Its so amazing because the phone captures the information from a business card 99% of the time and allows you to store it in the address book. Another great feature is the ability to listen to my local radio stations. Best of all is I can download my own MP3 files and listen to music whenever I want without need to carry a separate MP3 player. Its easy to use and understand. I definitely recommend this phone.

Although I am not a Motorola fun I must admit that his is an excellent phone. It is easy to use and you do not even need toread te instructions book to learn it.

It is different to most other phones as it has a touch screen that you have to use your fingers or the (included) stylus to dial a number or use he menu. The software is quite user friendly and there is an option to always have the dial numbers on the screen, a function that is quite useful.

The pros
-long lasting battery
-blutooth actually works very well
-easy menu and easy to use
-top quality screen

the cons
-some of the menu requires the use of the stylus or very precise fingers
-camera is not as quick in capturing images
-only two languages, english and chinese (both mandarin and cantonese)

Overall the cons have little significance if you compare them with th positives of the phone.

Lastly the design is stunning and if you like flip phones then this could the right one for you

I have had Startacs and Razors. The Ming A1200 is a pleasure to use. It is compact, sleek, ergonomic. As a regular phone, it is easy to use, the sound quality is the best Motorola I have used so far. The outlook-like address book is far better than the miserable 1 entry per phone number that the Razor has. There may be better MP3 players, FM radios, cameras, or gaming devices available, but this is one unit where all perform very well in one integrated unit.

I can recommend the Ming for those looking for a well-designed, sophisticated phone, even if you may never use all the features (but they are nice to have)! Only caution is very limited US support. Motorola advises that this phone is intended for the International Market (I bought mine in Dubai). I find it hard to believe that Motorola would not market one of their best products ever in their home country.