Motorola Electrify (U.S. Cellular)

Hi everyone, I'm Bonnie Cha, senior editor at CNET.com and I'm here with your first look at the Motorola Electrify. This is U.S. Cellular's latest Android Smartphone and it if looks a bit familiar to you, that's because it's pretty much a rebranded version of the Motorola Photon 4G. The Electrify is designed as almost identical so it's larger device, but it has a solid construction, has a nice soft-touch finish on back and they also like the silver accents, which I think makes the phone a little less boring-looking. On front, there is a 4.3-inch qHD touchscreen that's clear and bright, but due to the way the subpixels are arranged, it's not as sharp as it could be. Still viewing web pages, images, and text is easy enough and there's even a built-in kickstand on the back. The phone is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, but I thought picture quality was kind of disappointing. Pictures came out looking pretty hazy and colors were washed out. Under the hood, the Electrify runs Android Gingerbread along with Motorola's custom user interface. It also has Moto's web-top app, which you can use with the optional Lapdock accessory. This allows you to dock the phone into a laptop show with the full keyboard and bigger screen and also includes a Firefox browser. The Electrify makes a good choice for people who travel a lot because it is a dual mode world phone. During my testing, the call quality was good and because it has Nvidia's dual-core processor, performance was also very fast. There was really very little that I didn't like about the device and I think it makes an awesome addition to U.S. Cellular's lineup. It's the carrier's most powerful Android phone to date and particularly great for world travelers. It's available now for $199.99 with a 2-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. I'm Bonnie Cha, this has been your first look at the Motorola Electrify for U.S. Cellular.