Motorola Renew W233 – green gadget with more battery life
Thumbs Up:
Eco-friendly design; good call quality; better battery life
Thumbs Down:
Lacks dedicated volume rocker; low-resolution display
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: GSM
Band: Dual-band of GSM 850/900
Phone Design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Numeric Caller ID
Other Features: CrystalTalk Technology, built from recycled plastic material
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Motorola Renew W233 has micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 2GB cards. It is made up from post-consumer recycled plastic.
1.6 inches LCD display has 128×128 pixels resolution that supports 16-bit (65,000) colors. The connector set includes 1×mini-USB type-B and 1×2.5mm headset jack – sub-mini-phone.
The standard lithium ion battery has a life of 540 minutes talk time. Accessories supplied inside the box are headset, user manual, and battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Motorola Renew W233 is 4.4 inches tall, 0.6 inch thick and 1.8 inches wide and weighs 2.9 ounces. The green trim line on three sides contrasts attractively with black rear cover and cream keypad. There is green highlight around the navigation array.
Inside Dope:
The Motorola Renew W233 is made up completely with recycled plastics from water bottles and its packaging is 100% built using recycled material. The packaging box is 22% smaller than usual cell phone box and does not have any fancy graphics. The Renew W233 is much better than Nokia 3110 that is made up from 50% recycled plastic. The Motorola is also promising nine hours talk time and less energy consumption. It costs $9.99 with T-Mobile service contract and offers decent call quality using CrystalTalk feature. However, it has few features and low-resolution display. The Renew W233 also lacks dedicated volume rocker and does not offer photo caller ID. The plastic casing gives solid feeling while taking in hand. However, the W233 is not a cell phone for danger-prone. Its color scheme looks perfect for its Earth-friendly image.
1.44 inches display has 128×128 pixels resolution that supports 65,000 colors. It is not enough sharp and exhibits muted hues due to its low-resolution; but shows bright text and images. You can change the menu layout (between icons and list) and backlight time. We do not like that it does not allow adjusting font size and brightness.
The navigation array of the Motorola Renew W233 is made up of plastic and located beneath the display. It includes two soft keys, four-way toggle with middle OK button, Talk key, and Power/End button. However, there is no dedicated speakerphone and clear button. The left soft key also works as music player shortcut and toggle can be customized to provide one-touch access up to four features. The array is well-arranged and raised above the surface. We will prefer to have dedicated speakerphone and clear key in the navigation array.
The alphanumeric keypad is flush inside the surface, but all the buttons are separated with each other and has bright backlighting. You can easily text and dial by feel after some practice.
The mini-USB/charger port and 2.5mm headset jack are located on the opposite sides. We are disappointed that the Motorola Renew W233 does not have a dedicated volume rocker. It means that you have to use the toggle to adjust the volume during call. The micro-SD card slot is located behind the battery.
The Motorola Renew W233 can store 500 contacts in its phonebook and the SIM card can hold additional 250 entries. You can organize the contacts into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone. The basic feature set includes T-Mobile My Faves service, a stopwatch, USB synchronization, an alarm clock, 35 polyphonic ring-tones, a calculator, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messages, and a vibrate mode.
The Renew W233 has a basic music player, but does not have Bluetooth. The music player has zero features, mediocre performance, and minimalist interface. You can transfer the music via micro-SD card slot.
The Motorola Renew W233 can be personalized with available greeting option, colors, wallpapers, and screen saver. It comes with two games: Sudoku and Tetris; but the game play is a tedious task due to slow processor. You can download more options and games through T-Mobile t-zones.
We made few calls through the Motorola W233 Renew via T-Mobile service for testing. The overall call quality was better with CrystalTalk feature. We received natural, loud and clear sound with strong signal strength at our end. The callers received clear and loud sound at their end. Both of us were able to hear even in the noisy environment. The speakerphone call quality was good with some echo.
The battery life of the Motorola W233 Renew is 9 hours talk time, which is high than others. The idle standby time is 18 days. The digital SAR is 1.26watt per kg in accordance with the FCC radiation tests.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need a cheap basic phone and can work without advanced features like dedicated volume rocker, then we will recommend – the Motorola Renew W233.
