Motorola WX395 review: Motorola WX395

A reasonably slim and basic handset, the WX395 is Motorola's answer for those who need a mobile phone but don't want to pay big bucks.

5.5

Motorola WX395

The Good

Price. Simple design.

The Bad

No external volume controller. Sluggish menu. Low image quality. No 3.5mm jack.

The Bottom Line

For AU$79, the WX395 is a simple phone suited to those who want a handset without the bells and whistles. It's a good thing too as it won't be easy to turn down the volume to those bells and whistles.

Design and features

For AU$79, the WX395 has all the basics you'd need for a mobile phone. Well, almost all. Let's start with the obvious shall we? Numerical keypad? Check. Five-way navigation keys? Check. Answer and end call keys? Check and check. Colour 1.8-inch TFT screen? Check. Flip the phone over and is there a 1.3MP, 4x zoom camera? Check. External volume controls? Che... wait, what? No volume control? Impossible!

This wouldn't have been an issue if there was volume control in the "Settings" menu, but alas there is no such thing. When you make a call, you can lower or raise the volume mid-conversation using the navigation key. To adjust volume for the ringer, you have to enter the menu, select Profiles, highlight General and then, using the left select key, hit Options > Edit > Volume. So much work just to adjust the volume!

Besides price, there is nothing about this phone that really makes it stand out from other budget phones currently on the market. The WX395 is made out of a black brushed plastic, measures 105x44.9x11.75mm and weighs 70g. It's a nice, average size for a mobile phone and it fits easily into a pocket. We enjoyed using the keypad, which has raised buttons that give a satisfying click when pressed.

A mini USB port, which is the only port to be found on this phone (no 3.5mm headphone jack), is used for the supplied headset, which can also be used for hands-free calls.

Under the back cover, is a slot for a microSD card so you can add to the phone's 2.5MB internal memory.

The WX395 only runs on 2G networks at GSM 900/1800, so it's not ideal for surfing the web.

Performance

Call quality is average, with battery life lasting approximately seven days with minimal use and three days when sending the occasional message, playing games and making calls.

The phone's small screen can't be viewed at varying angles, it must be held directly in front of you. When entering the menu there is no noticeable delay, but once you traverse further into the menu tree, such as when viewing photos and reading SMS messages, the operating system becomes sluggish.

Taking photos, the WX395 took a painful five seconds to capture an image. The photos weren't of great quality either, with whites showing up as grey and the overall image was too dark to be of any real use.

Conclusion

For AU$79, the WX395 is a simple phone suited to those who want a handset without all the bells and whistles. It's a good thing too as it won't be easy to turn down the volume to those bells and whistles.