The Motorola W181 is basically the W161 with a colour screen and more conventional looking keypad. Again, this is almost exactly the same as last year's Motorola W180 apart from some cosmetic details.
The impressive talktime on the W161 is carried through to the W181 despite it having a colour display. The W181 also has more internal memory for storing text messages and the like. The W181 is slated for release during the first quarter of 2008.
Handsets like these have an important place in the market, although Motorola are really just recycling last year's models. What bothers us is not the fact that Motorola are making this type of low end device, but that these three phones (along with the Z6w) are the only things that Motorola have to bring to the Mobile World Congress when rivals have much more to offer. Samsung, for example, has around 10 completely new handsets - Motorola have three warmed over devices from last year.
We were hoping for something much better from Motorola. If this is the best they can come up with, then the future is looking pretty bleak. Perhaps if they had ever gotten round to making the E1120 or A1010 handsets announced three years ago, then maybe Motorola's fortunes would be very different today.
Motorola W181 at a glance
Available:
Q1 2008
Network:
GSM 900 / 1800 or 850 / 1900
Data:
No
Screen:
128 x 128 pixels. 65k colours
Camera:
No
Size:
Lightweight monoblock
110 x 45 x 15mm / 80 grams
Bluetooth:
No
Memory card:
No
Infra-red:
No
Polyphonic:
Yes
Java:
No
GPS:
No
Battery life:
10 hours talk / 19 days standby
