Motorola Aura

Motorola Aura is a unique piece of art crafted into a mobile phone. It`s a high priced luxury item but unfortunately is quite low on tech. The device is something we could  say it`s stylish but without any substance, but the style is of the finest quality.

The Aura is one of the most splendid looking mobile phones in the market today and few factors have contributed to this. In the first place, we have an unusual form factor of swivel design which also sports a true-circular display. The exterior parts of the device are made from stainless steel while being etched and polished to finesse, and it seems like the etched design on the front takes about two weeks to accomplish. This also includes stamping, sand-blasting, electro-polish and chemical etching.

Apart from the very appreciated exquisite design on the front, the other eye-catching feature is the circular display. Of course, circular displays have been seen before, but usually those phones had rectangular screens housed inside circular glass. Still, this time is for real.

The display produces 16 million colors with a resolution of 480×480 and a picture density of 300 dpi. Additionally, the screen is housed under a grade 1,62 carat sapphire crystal elliptical glass that is scratch proof. This elliptical glass also behaves like a lens, making the corners of the screen more distant, the overall effect being absolutely a charm to the eyes.

Another unique aspect of this cell phone is the assisted-opening blade mechanism making the phone swivel open and close. This is Swiss made and includes more than 200 moving parts including 130 bearing. Additionally, there are 700 individual parts and to ensure that the mechanism does not spoil with repeated usage, the gears are made of Rockwell 50-50 hardened steel coated with tungsten carbide and screws held together plated with nickel chrome.

To open the swing blade can be a very delicate experience which can be performed with a gentle push of the blade to either side while a single handed operation is possible here. Some portions of the mechanisms are exposed at the back through the camera window. The designof this exquisite device remind users of the classic luxury pocket watches.

The Motorola Aura features a resolution of only 2 MP while the color representation is far from accurate, and the noise levels are high. The camera application has some basic functions, such as multi-shot and self-timer and features a shutter lag easy to notice. This coupled with the weird OK button combination  that will most probably result in some shaky photographs. The video quality is also poor.

Aura also features a 2 GB internal memory, being in the same time the first circular screen generating 16 million colors at dpi. The device supports the proprietary Crystal Talk technology offering some excellent call-reception and call quality. Otherwise, if we think about the phone`s features there is not much except for the usual.