Motorola shows off new interface for A910

We've never been great fans of the interface Motorola sticks into their current handsets. Not only is it fairly uninspired from the outset, but it goes against the grain of most phone user interfaces, meaning twice the "fun" of learning a new phone. Well it looks like they're overhauling the design for their forthcoming A910 WiFi phone, and the first thing to go is that darn dedicated central menu button. There are also more intuitive sub-menus now, and the look seems pretty snazzy. Mobile Burn has the full scoop, which drills in further than our general griping and eyecandy impressionability.

[Jon A. @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:05AM]

Anything is better than the previous interface. Look good (from the outside).

[Shin @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:35AM]

It looks kinda like Symbian, so why don't they put Symbian? It's open source...

[TZK @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:58AM]

Since when is Symbian open source?



And.. it does look like Symbian. Funnily enough, Moto left the Symbian group last year. Copy cats! :-P

[TurioNoX2 @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:07AM]

symbian isnt open source



i like the look of the new interface, although i liked the old one, it was fantastic at what it did once youd taken about 3 minutes to learn it. i have to say so far though, that easily my favourit interfaces are SonyEricssons and Windows Smartphone



it will be interesting to see how this one goes, but its pretty safe to say i wont be buying the phone for a while so i will have to rely on other peoples review

[TurioNoX2 @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:10AM]

aaah so moto left the symbian group, so explains why they havent released the a1010 then. its a shame really, that was a great series



my biggest gripe about s60 symbian is the seperate menu key, which on every phone ive tried is miles away from a comfortable position. i much prefer just being able to tap the iddle of the joypad or press a softkey to get to the main menu

[Shin @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:12AM]

Wow... I could have sworn I've read it somewhere (and remembered it). This feels strange... =.=

[Scoobydoo @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:41AM]

I wonder if someone finally had the balls to tell Moto that their UI sucked? Everyone in every review has trashed it, yet they kept churning up new models with the same thing month after month... This is certainly an improvement, welcome to the new millenium Motorola!

[Tom Robinson @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:45AM]

Thank god. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates their interfaces. Everything is completely opposite of what I'm used to with Ericsson interfaces.



I hope there's a way I can upgrade my RAZR, I love it other than the interface.

[LordJezo @ Dec 22nd 2005 7:13AM]

Ach. Why bother?



Verizon just strips every phone of it's interface and puts it's own generic UI on every device that they support.



:(



Makes me sad I can't get anything nice or new anymore due to them standardizing their phones.

[Galley @ Dec 22nd 2005 7:20AM]

Whys is the text on Engadget and Autoblog suddenly so small?

[Camp @ Dec 22nd 2005 7:31AM]

RE: #9



They changed it.

[TurioNoX2 @ Dec 22nd 2005 7:37AM]

LordJezo: vofadone over here in the uk does that with all their vodafone live phones. its sodding annoying isnt it



when i upgrade i tend to buy a vodafone phone and get my phone shop to flash it to o2 as they dont brand their phones other than startup/shutdown. i dont know if you can do the same thing over there in the us but it certainly makes a good difference - sometimes it acticvates new features too

[Galley's Male Lover @ Dec 22nd 2005 8:20AM]

So small??????? The text is huge now! Engadget-please restore from backup the old site. It was much better!

[xbit @ Dec 22nd 2005 8:23AM]

A couple of points:



- Motorola sold their share of Symbian in 2003, but they're still making Symbian phones



- Symbian is open, but not open source. i.e., they don't hide APIs from third party developers in the way Microsoft do with their OSs, but you still have to pay a license fee to use the OS.



- It's nice to see Motorola concentrate on the UI of a phone. They're seriously behind the competition and their UI is the only reason that I haven't bought a Motorola phone in the past 5 years.

[Mike Miller @ Dec 22nd 2005 11:32AM]

Here's hopin' they fixed the address book.

[js @ Dec 22nd 2005 11:52AM]

It may look nicer, but the interface is the same as the crappy old UI.



Pretty deceiving if you ask me...

[Yale R @ Dec 22nd 2005 12:15PM]

I always thought the Moto Navigation was clunky (started with the old Nextel phones and carried on to current phones). But I have developed a serious dislike for all things Moto, and I think it might all stem from that clunky Nav. Do I have to start to like them now? I kind of enjoyed disliking them...

[Jordan @ Dec 22nd 2005 12:16PM]

hahhahaha..am i the only person who noticed it says customize ho?

[Des @ Dec 22nd 2005 1:10PM]

Oh I wish I was a NokiaSamsungSonyEricsson Mobile...oh that is what I'd truly like to be...