Motorola WILDER Review

Introduction:

Following in the footsteps of phones that can take a few beatings or water drops, the Motorola Wilder looks at those challenges from a different angle. It is not to be dunked in liquids, like the Motorola  Defy+, nor does it have its smartphone operating system, but it takes you by surprise by being an extremely affordable featurephone, which can withstand the nature wrath that others couldn't.

The handset is dust- and splash-resistant, meaning that it will suit kids, teens or the active types, and at $80-$110 sans contract at Carphone Warehouse, you wouldn't cry too much even if it falls apart. Granted, you shouldn't expect much for that kind of money, but even in that regard the durable Motorola Wilder manages to surprise with an extra OLED ticker screen underneath the main one for notification purposes. Will that be enough to fight the cheapest smart phones out there? Read on to find out...

Design:

Built handsomely in “licorice”, with your choice of “saffron” or “classic gray” band around the sides, the Motorola Wilder hints that it's purposed for the active lifestyle. It is styled very similar to the Motorola Defy on the back, with tapered edges and the Motorola logo in the middle, but specswise it is way weaker than the tougher sibling – the back hosts a 2MP camera, for example.



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

The Motorola Wilder sports a 2.8” resistive touchscreen with 240x320 pixels of resolution. Before you turn away in disgust, we have to say that the display is quite responsive, and the small size makes this paltry resolution bearable. The viewing angles are decent, but the brightness outside is about average, meaning that a bright sunny day will wash away the image quite a bit.

Below the screen we find a nice design differentiation – a second monochromatic OLED display, which serves to show you date/time/signal strength, or display missed calls and message notifications. In addition, it serves as a ticker for the name of the song or video currently played when the screen is off, for example. The smallish 0.7” screen lacks enough brightness for clear view outside; it is not constantly on, in order to be gentle on the 910mAh battery, but lights up for a few seconds when you press the home key. Unlocking the main display calls for a separate lock/power button press at the top, plus a thumb-in-ring swiping gesture very similar to the new HTC Sense UI.

The home button is very well placed in the bottom left of the front, and big enough to conveniently press with large fingers, plus it adds to the cool frontal design with its shape. Overall, we dig the design of the Motorola Wilder very much – it is thin enough, very light, and comfortable to cup in your hand, but warms your heart knowing that it has this extra durability added to it.


The only downside of this extra defense is that the protective rubber lid over the headphone jack and the microUSB port on the left is pretty hard to pry open. That's the price to pay for a dust- and splash-resistant phone, though. Splash-resistance says the phone can bear a few water drops and keep on ticking. You shouldn't swim with it though.

Interface and Functionality:

When it comes to the software inside the Motorola Wilder - no, it's not wild. There is no smartphone operating system in there, just Brew MP, like in the HTC Smart. There is a Java client supplied, so you can install a bunch of additional applications, although all of the basics like a file browser, calendar, games or social networking apps are covered out of the box.

The lock screen shows the time and date, plus it allows you direct access to the messaging or phone apps. Rectangular icon grid marks the three main menu pages with default apps, and the additional ones are tucked neatly in the Apps folder. The menus are clearly structured, making it easy to find  what you are looking for in the decent set of functionalities.

The overall performance is slow, especially when you run Java apps - the handset's basic Qualcomm processor and 64MB of RAM/128MB ROM get overwhelmed. There is a microSD card slot in the battery compartment for storage.

The Motorola Wilder's phonebook allows you to enter additional contact details but a name and phone number, like email or address, for instance. There are also other ways to key in additional info, such as a separate “make a note” function in the calendar, which calls for a preset list of possible reminder categories, including birthdays. There is also a separate simpler Notes application, as well as a To-do list app, and a voice recorder, so your information management needs are mostly taken care of.



The biggest gripe we have is that messaging is a pain, not because of the app, since it covers the necessary functions, but for issues with the virtual keyboard. Not that we were expecting automatic rotation from portrait to landscape, but even in the latter mode the keys feel too crammed, and it is hard to hit the right one – we've seen more comfortable keyboards on 2.8” displays.

Good that the screen is resistive, so you can use the tip of your nails or a pen for pinpointing that pesky full stop - not really the ideal solution, though, and definitely not a handset for a bunch of typing.

There are also no automatic settings for popular email services like Gmail, for instance, so we had to enter the send/receive servers and port numbers for it to work. The emails appear as plain text, but if there is HTML portion, the app allows you to open in the browser for richer view.

Browser, Connectivity and Software:

Surfing the Internet is a pretty basic affair with the default NetFront browser, no Flash bells and whistles, no panning or zooming, but the pages get resized for the small screen automatically. Scrolling is very slow and stuttering, but we liked how the browser shows a data counter for each session, so you don't go over the top in usage.


Opera Mini is supplied as an alternative browser, since it goes gently on data usage, compressing most of the pages on its own servers, before pushing them to your handset. Opera Mini works much better, but its portrait keyboard feels way too crammed on the 2.8” screen for easy website address entering.


You won't find a Wi-Fi radio on the Motorola WILDER, but EDGE 2G connectivity, Bluetooth and FM radio are onboard.

The other preinstalled software worth mentioning is SoundHound for song recognition, and the Active Mode, which calls a grid of six big fat icons with the apps you are most likely to use when on the move, like the stopwatch or the music player, and they come up with big fat navigational icons of their own.



Camera:

Surprisingly for a rugged handset, we have a dedicated camera button on the right, plus the camera interface even sports a few effects and white balance adjustments.The 2MP shooter on the back of the Motorola Wilder, however, takes very unremarkable photos. The QCIF video capture is with 15fps, and only good for watching in the size of a postage stamp.


Motorola WILDER Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Music playback through the speaker is strong enough to distinguish in the outside noise, but the sound comes out distorted at the highest volume. The  music player offers a lot of the basic functions, like artist, album and even genre categories, as well as 16 equalizer presets in its settings to choose from. As mentioned before, the OLED ticker display shows the name of the file you are currently playing, be it music or video. Video playback should work for MPEG-4 files up to the screen's resolution, at least in theory, but in reality only the sound from our test files was played, while the screen stayed dark.

Performance:

The Motorola Wilder fares average in call quality, the volume is strong enough, and the voices are clear in the earpiece. On the other side of the conversation, though, they said we sound a bit muffled and unclear, plus a lot of the background street noise was filtering in.

The handset's 910mAh battery is rated for the excellent 9 hours and 40 minutes of talk time, and it goes for many day on standby – battery life is definitely one of the huge advantages of featurephones over their smarter brethren.

Conclusion:

The Motorola Wilder isn't worried that you will toss it around on a sand beach, or use it to talk in the rain, which might be the main reason for obtaining it in the first place.

Also, for around $80 on prepaid plans at Carphone Warehouse, the phone couldn't get much cheaper for what it offers. Even though it is priced as a disposable handset there, it has its virtues like the splash-resistant shell, and an extra OLED notification screen for bragging rights. Getting it SIM-free at Carphone costs about $110, though, and on other places like Amazon UK it can go up to $140, erasing the price advantage before the cheapest Android phones.

Still, the low-ball Carphone offer makes it priced at least $50 less than the cheapest decent Android handsets like the Huawei IDEOS, for example. If you prefer to save the cash, and don't care about the thousands of applications Android Market offers, the Motorola Wilder comes to the rescue as a rather affordable rugged handset, making it ideal for giving to your kids, or using as a spare phone without hesitation.

At its lowest price you can hardly find a match for the Motorola Wilder in the name brand value-for-money realm, but spending those extra $50 could net you the HTC Smart featurephone also with Brew MP, but more upscale design, or, if you are looking to smarten up, you can grab the Samsung Galaxy Mini, or the LG Optimus Me P350 with Android and capacitive touchscreens.

Software version of the reviewed handset: Brew MP AVON_03.00.00.70R

Motorola WILDER Video Review: