Why You Can Trust CNET Motorola L6 review: Motorola L6
The new Motorola L6 is a cleanly designed and sturdy handset with a useful but somewhat limited range of features. It's a handy phone at a low price, and would be a fine choice for any moderate user.
Design
The L6 is one of the thinner phones in the market, measuring just 113 by 49 by 10.9mm and weighing just 91 grams. It has a solid silver metallic casing and look, with a form-factor that easily allows it to fit in a pocket or handbag. The only drawback to this design is that it is longer than many phones. The keys are inlayed flat on the keypad, and while generally not a problem, they occasionally seemed difficult to use, especially during one-handed operation. The menu is accessed via a four-way rocker switch with a central selection key plus four additional buttons for quick-access and two buttons for other access on the edges of the unit. The VGA camera with 4x digital zoom is on the back of the unit near the top.
Motorola L6
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Features
With a design definitely aimed at clued-in but not too technical consumers, the L6 has a range of features that appeal to the basic and more advanced markets. The L6 is a tri-band phone with up to 315 minutes talk time and 345 hours standby time.
Connectivity options are excellent, with a mini-USB port that is used for both power recharging and PC connectivity. An impressive feature for a phone this cheap is the Bluetooth connectivity that allows the phone to interface with a variety of devices and to transfer files or data to your PC.
The phone's VGA camera is not as high resolution as many current phones, but it is not surprising for this price point, and produces adequate photos for casual use. The video camera is of similar quality, but the biggest problem in this area is a lack of memory card slot. With only 10MB of internal memory, there is quite a limit on the amount of pictures or video that can be taken with the camera, and there is no way to expand that capacity. However, the phone does come with a full suite of extras, including a USB adaptor to connect the phone to your PC, appropriate software that makes this interaction a painless and useful process, a power adaptor for recharging and the usual headset connection for hands free operation.
The application set on the phone is definitely aimed at the mid-level consumer, with MP3 ringtones and downloadable sounds, images and animations among the more popular and fun features. More practical tools include picture caller ID, a 500-entry phonebook, inbuilt speaker phone for easy hands free, group SMS, calculator and currency converter, alarm clock and date book with reminder alarm, and WAP 2.0 with Web access.
Performance
A generally useful and easy to use phone, the L6 would be a great choice for anyone who wants a reasonable amount of features in their phone, but isn't too concerned about having the most up to date and advanced innovations. Most importantly, they also won't have to spend too much on the phone, which makes it a good choice for pre-paid users. There are downsides to the L6, including its lack of memory card slot, its easy smudging screen and its sometimes ambiguous screen display when on silent, but these should not be too much of a concern for most users.