Motorola Entice W766 Review

Introduction:

As the Motorola V9m was the last in the RAZR series and was launched in 2007, there have been less iconic flip-phones released by the manufacture since then. Two devices that were meant to fill the void last year were the Motorola W755 and the Rapture VU30. The W755 was more of an entry level phone with basic features, where the Rapture VU30 was a mid-level device with a more attractive design. Now enters the Motorola Entice W766, as the replacement to the W755, which sports a new look and larger displays, but as competition grows from other competitors, such as the LG VX8360 and Samsung Alias 2, does the Entice have what it takes?
Included in the retail package are the Motorola Entice W766 phone, 940mAh battery, wall charger and user manual.

Design:

The overall appearance of the Entice W766 is that it is more streamlined than its predecessor. The front flip is now black with silver accents, while the internal keyboard remains all black and the battery cover continues to use the soft-touch coating. The rounded edges on the Entice give it a more pleasing shape, but also make it feel less “square” in your hand and not as noticeable when in your pocket.



You can compare the Motorola Entice W766 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The larger 1.4-inch external display on the Entice is a noticeable improvement over the 1-inch display on the W755, as it is easier to view the date & time, alerts, and song titles when playing back music. Below it are 5 touch-sensitive buttons to turn Bluetooth on and off, set the phone to vibrate, and access the music player with play/pause, rewind and fast-forward. We are glad to see this carry over from the W755, as it is nice to have access to these features without having to open up the phone. Located on the left side are the volume rocker, smart key (which has a few functions), and microUSB port, with the VoiceCommand key and 2.5mm headset jack on the right. The 2MP camera in on the front and the microSDHC memory card slot with 8GB support is on the back under the battery. We are unsure as to why Motorola continues to place the memory card slot there, as you have to power the phone off and remove the battery to be able to access it.



When opening and closing the flip, the hinge operates quite smoothly and there are no creaking sounds. The internal display has also received an increase in size, up from 1.9-inches to 2.2-inches, but the resolutions remains the same at 176x220 pixels and with only 65K color support. Despite its larger size, we noticed that the display on the Entice almost look “blurry” or “out-of-focus”, and when moving side-to-side we could see changes to the brightness and contrast on the screen. We checked with our W755 and it did not suffer from these issues. After a few hours of using the Entice, the display began to give us a headache, and we had to put the phone down. We even had a few other people look at it next to the W755 and all of them agreed that the internal display on the Entice was not as clear as the W755 and did give some eye strain. We consider this to be a serious issue with the Entice, as users will no doubt be using the display day after day.

Located on the bottom flip is the large circular d-pad and numeric keypad, all of which have a bright white backlight. The d-pad is simple to use for accessing different parts of the phone’s software and the keypad has large buttons with good feedback, but they produce less of a “clicking” sound when pressed than the W755.

Software and Features:

There has been little change to the main menu and it continues to be categorized by media center, messaging, contacts, recent calls, and settings & tools. The Entice W766 only includes 3 themes (Urban, White, and Entice) instead of 5 themes that come on the W755. All three of them have slight animations, but aren’t interactive like the FlashUI themes we’ve seen on some Samsung phones. You can have the theme layout displayed in tab, list and grid view, and can even change the icon locations on the grid. Regardless of which theme or layout you choose, the response times are fast and there is no noticeable lag when navigating between menus.




Both the Entice W766 and older W755 have the same phonebook layout, which allow up to 1000 entries to be stored, each with their name, 5 phone numbers, 2 email addresses, group, PictureID and RingtoneID. After a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 99 speed-dial locations.



The 2MP camera used by the Entice is an improvement over the 1.3MP camera found on the W755, but it is still not without its faults. When we tested the W755 last year, the images it produced while outside were dark, dull, and underexposed. The Entice has corrected these issues, as outside images are significantly brighter and have slightly better detail, but at the same time the automatic white balance is problematic, causing a “purple hue” to be seen in some images. When moving indoors, most images taken by the Entice are brighter than when using the W755, but both suffer from a lot of grain being shown. The camera also lacks a flash, so low-light images are impossible to take. The Entice can also record videos up to 320x240 resolution, where the W755 was limited to 176x144, but the quality is still lacking and isn’t anything more than a novelty.




Since the Entice is not a music-centric device, it should come as no surprise that it has the same “red” music player that is used by the W755. Music playback quality was generally good and the volume was plenty loud that some vocal distortion could be heard at times. When the flip is closed, the front music control icons are illuminated white and allow you to rewind/skip-back, play/pause, and fast-forward/skip-ahead. You can also listen to music by connecting wired 2.5mm earbuds or through a Bluetooth headset.



Other software features include two game demos (PAC-MAN and Tetris Pop), Mobile Web 2.0, Mobile IM, VCast Music download with Rhapsody, VCast Video streaming, and VZ Navigator for GPS guided directions.  You can also download a wide variety of other games and applications using the Media Center.



One area of disappointment is that the Entice only comes with 67MB of internal memory, of which 31MB is available out of the box, where as the W755 has 83MB of internal memory and 66MB available to the consumer. We’re not sure why the Entice has less internal memory, but you can use microSDHC memory cards up to 8GB.

Performance:

Both the Motorola W755 and Motorola Entice W766 are identical in terms of reception and call quality as we were able to place and receive calls around south Florida without any of them being dropped. The earpiece volume had to be set to medium, since raising it to high would cause some distortion to be heard, which was also true while using the speakerphone. But with it set to medium the voice quality was good and natural sounding, and people that we called also said our voice sounded clear and natural.

Even though the Motorola Entice and W755 come with the same 940mAh battery (model BT51), the Entice is rated to get 5.5 hours of talk time while the W755 is rated to get 3.6 hours of talk time…almost 2 hours difference. We were curious about this and tested both devices, and in fact the Entice did get 5.5 hours of continuous talk time on a full charge, while the W755 was near 3.5 hours. This is a noticeable difference and we’re glad to see that the Entice does get more talk time on a charge than its predecessor.

Conclusion:

The Motorola Entice W766 is a slight improvement from the W755, as it offers a sleeker design, 2MP camera, larger displays, and 2 hours more talk time. Are these enough changes to warrant a person to upgrade from a W755 or V9m? Probably not, but it does make for some nice improvements for someone who wants to upgrade from an older V3m, however the Rapture VU30, LG VX8360, and Samsung Alias 2 provide some tough competition. In the end, our only main concern with the Entice is the issue we had with the internal display, so we suggest that you try it out first.

Motorola Entice W766 Video Review: