Motorola charm-part 1

Design

When it comes to design and aesthetics, the Motorola Charm is like the Peek email handheld (which never really took off), save that the former does more than just messaging. With squared-off sides, an oblong footprint and a wide face, the Charm stands out amid other candybar phones despite its short frame. The plastic backlit keyboard has an ever so slight bounce and the distinctively domed keys make typing a breeze. The build quality is also admirable since there are no moving joints. But prying open the battery cover never fails to make our heart skip for fear that we'd break the backing.
because of its compact footprint, almost everything is reduced in size. The landscape touchscreen on the Charm measures just 2.8 inches diagonally and packs a 240 x 320-pixel resolution. This is standard fare for an entry-level smartphone and nothing to shout about. It'd suffice for messaging and emails, but Web browsing would have to take a backseat. The display, according to Motorola, is a Gorilla Glass panel, which is resistant to impact and scratches. We didn't subject the LCD to any grueling tests, but we did leave it in our pockets and bags with a bunch of other stuff and the screen came away unscathed. That said, the limited pixel estate means a lot of scrolling is involved.

Aside from a capacitive touchscreen and four-way cursors on the keyboard, the Charm is also the second Motorola phone that features Backtrack, which is a touch-sensitive area about half the size of our thumb and found on the back of the device. In theory, this makes use of your two index fingers to navigate the screen without obscuring it. The feature works as advertised, but never really caught on with us as the less-than-precise scrolling often made us doubt its reliability. Backtrack's good for one-hand usage for short periods of time (you can double-tap to bring up the selector for clicking on items), but we doubt it'll grow to become a primary mode of navigating menus. If you're not used to it, or refuse to learn it, you can switch Backtrack off altogether in the settings.
Below the display are the touch-enabled Menu, Home and Back keys, which double as LED notification lights whenever you have incoming calls, text messages or emails. There's quite a bit of empty space between them, but we figured keeping these keys apart may be a good thing to prevent accidental touches. We like the predefined shortcuts on the keyboard for Messaging, Camera and Search, but there're more in the settings. We can also assign application launchers with a combination of keys. For example, Search + B could activate the browser, or could double-tap Home to get to the voice command interface. Once you've configured these, it's pretty convenient to have most of the applications a click or two away.

Around the back are a 3-megapixel camera and an onboard speaker strip with a yellow grille. Rounding off the sides, you'll find a 3.5mm audio jack and power/keylock at the top, as well as volume controls and a micro-USB port along the left edge. When plugged into a power source or computer, the micro-USB port lights up in lime green, which is a pleasing touch to an otherwise entry-level handset.