Motorola Tundra VA76r – CrystalTalk Plus feature
Thumbs Up:
Fantastic call quality; nice display; simple controls; sturdy design
Thumbs Down:
Poor streaming video quality and mediocre captured picture quality
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Folder Type
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Melody Composer, Push-To-Talk mode, TTY compatible
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Motorola Tundra VA76r has 100MB internal memory and micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 8GB.
The small external display sits on the phone lid. The 2.2 inches internal LCD display has 320×240 pixels resolution that supports 18-bit (262,000) colors. The 2-megapixel camera features geo-tagging, night mode, 4x digital zoom, and video-recording.
The 1130mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 300 minutes talk time and 336 hours of idle standby time. Accessories supplied inside the package are power adapter, battery, wired headset, and user manual.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Motorola Tundra VA76r is 3.9 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide, and 0.9 inch deep and weighs 4.9 ounces. It is more bulky than normal flip phones. The rear and front faces are made up of plastic, while the controls and edges are covered with rubber. It gives comfortable and sturdy feel while holding in hands.
Inside Dope:
The Motorola Tundra VA76r is a rugged phone for AT&T. It features support for push-to-talk (PTT) services, good call quality, 3G support, and multimedia highlights. It looks like a Nextel phone. The Tundra costs $199 with service agreement and you can also get its unlocked version for $399. It is certified with military specifications to withstand vibration, shock, rain, and so forth. The Tundra VA76r has an external antenna that is not extendable. It is one of the Motorola phones that have CrystalTalk Plus with a speakerphone on rear side for improving call quality. This technology also cancels the background noise that makes to hear even in noisy environment. The external controls and edges are covered with rubber. On the contrary, the VA76r phone also suffers some issues including poor video streaming and mediocre captured picture quality. It is noteworthy that the Tundra cell phone is compatible with T3 and M3 hearing aids.
The small external color display shows signal strength, battery life, photo caller ID, and date/time. You can also use it as viewfinder for the camera. The camera lens is located above the external display.
2.2-inch LCD display has 320×240 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. It exhibits the sharp graphics, bright colors, and simple menu interface. You can adjust the backlight time, and brightness; while the font size cannot be changed.
The speakerphone key and ringer selection button are located next to antenna. You will find the PTT button and volume rocker on the left spine, while the camera shutter is on the right side. These controls are spacious and covered with tactile rubber surface. The combined micro-USB port for charger and USB cable is located on the bottom. The micro-SD slot is located behind the battery cover, which is usual for a rugged phone.
The navigation array is located underneath the display and consists of two soft keys, round toggle with middle OK button, Talk button, Web browser shortcut, Cellular Video shortcut, Back button, and End/Power key. The alphanumeric keypad and array are spacious and has tactile keys that require firm press. You can customize the four-directions of the toggle with shortcuts. The keypad has well-designed and large keys with bright backlight and sizeable text. You can text and dial without any problem.
The Motorola Tundra VA76r can store the contacts in its phonebook as per available memory and SIM card can hold additional 250 contacts. Each entry can save five phone numbers, one email address, a job title with company name, spouse and children names, a Web address, a manager’s name, an assistant’s name, a birthday, and three mailing addresses. You can organize the contacts into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.
The basic feature of the Motorola Tundra VA76r set includes text and multimedia messages, a task list, a notepad, a voice recorder, a calculator, a world clock, an alarm clock, file and download managers, a calendar and a vibrate mode. The additional highlights are A-GPS, Web based POP3 email, instant messengers, A-GPS with AT&T Navigator, support for AT&T PTT network, USB mass storage, PC synchronization, 3G (HSPDA/UMTS) support, and stereo Bluetooth.
AT&T has also included its services such as AT&T Mobile Music for downloading wireless songs via partners, AT&T Cellular Video for streaming video content, and AT&T Navigator for GPS.
The inbuilt music player is similar to other AT&T phones. It features airplane mode, play-lists, album art, repeat and shuffle modes. The other music highlights are community section with access to fan downloads and sites, music videos, a Billboard Mobile channel, a Music ID application, and XM Radio Mobile.
The 2-megapixel camera of the Motorola Tundra VA76r features 4x digital zoom, multi-shot, self-timer, night mode, tagging, and video-recording. The still capture options are six shutter sounds with a silent choice, four lighting conditions, adjustable exposure, three quality settings, and four resolutions. The video recording options are three quality settings, two resolutions, others similar to that of still capture. You can record the video clips up to 24 seconds for MMS and longer in normal mode. The overall picture quality was good. The pictures appeared overexposed with auto-lighting and normal with manual.
The Motorola Tundra VA76r can be personalized with available alert tones, themes, clock formats, and wallpapers. It comes with five demo games: Midnight Pool 3D, Jewel Quest 2, Brain Challenge, Pac Man/Ms. Pac Man, and Tetris. You can download more options, games, and buy their full version from AT&T Media Net service via browser. The preinstalled trial applications are MyCast 5 Weather, MobiTV, Mobile Banking, and Yellow Pages.
We made few calls through quad-band based the Motorola Tundra VA76r via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was fantastic and quite impressive. We were able to carry out the conversation even in loud environments. We received loud and clear sound without any interference or static. The callers also received loud and clear sound at their end.
The HSDPS connection strength was strong for Web browsing and downloading. We loaded a video through AT&T Cellular Video in 10 second. The streaming video playback quality was better than other AT&T phones, but it was distorted and pixelated. The sound was synchronized with video. The video paused in between to buffer and after that, there was a delay between video and audio.
The battery life of the Tundra VA76r is 5 hours of talk time and 14 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR rating is 1.36 watts per kg in accordance with the FCC radiation tests.
Nitty Gritty:
The Motorola Tundra VA76r is a good 3G phone to purchase if you need a rugged phone with excellent quality and can overcome mediocre picture quality.
