Modu Mobile is World’s Lightest 3G phone and the toy is probably the most unique mobile we ever played with.
First of all, quick specification of Micromax Modu Phone
- OS: BREW
- 5 MP Camera
- 2.2” LCD Touch Display, (320*240 pixels) QVGA
- 2 GB Internal memory [expandable upto 32GB]
What’s unique about Modu?
Well, the phone functionality changes with the jackets. The phone could be inserted into ‘jackets’ – right from camerafy-ing your phone to sportifying your life. Modu essentially challenges the core concept of mobile design and does take mobile design to a different level, a more modu-lar level (am guessing modular is the core concept behind the name. modu).
Review: Micromax Modu
Modu Form Factor
Modu has a bar styled form and to share certain perspective, Modu is the sleekest and slimmest phone I have ever held. The mobile stripped off the jackets fits into your pocket like a cig lighter. A challenge one would often encounter is typing on the phone, given its size.
Gadgethon Rating: 3/5.
Modu Functionality
The phone has an inbuilt keypad, a small screen and only 9 buttons to play with. This results in a bit of messed-up feeling while typing. There certainly is a need for Swype sort of service. Owing to the screen size, there is no QWERTY keypad and you will feel the heat when writing/replying to emails.
Rating: 2.5/5
Modu Navigation
Majority of navigation is controlled by two buttons (one on the top right sidebar and second below the screen) and I personally found navigation to be a bit clumsy.
In order to call a contact, you need to go thru’ 4 clicks [Home screen/Contacts/Search/ Name/Call). Given the screen size, this may not be the most optimal experience for those who are used to bigger and better screens from Nokia, Apple and Samsung(s) of the world.
Having said that, it’s a matter of getting used to and once you start using the mobile, you won’t feel so much of a pain.
Rating : 2.5/5
Battery Life
The battery life turns out to be an average here – i.e. around 2 days max of ‘normal usage’.
Rating: 2.5/5
Experience
This isn’t one of those mobile phones that will get noticed on its own ( iPhone). You need to tell your friends that you have world’s lightest 3G phone and that has a lot to do with the brand awareness.
Especially in India, when there are ‘cheap’ smaller phones – you need to really ensure that your Modu stands out from the crowd.
Modu Jackets is a great experience, if you really ask me. The camera is activated only when you insert the phone in ‘Camerafy’ jacket and so on (with Sportify jacket etc)
User Experience Rating: 4/5
Media
Modu is capable of reading MP3, AMR, MIDI and .WAV files. Overall, the audio and video quality is quite good. The phone has built-in FM radio. As far as video formats are concerned, Modu supports 3GP and MPEG4.
Rating: 3/5
Overall?
The mobile essentially brings the concept of minimalistic-yet-powerful design and it takes a lot of guts to launch a phone like this, in the days where mobile phones are stuffed with apps. Infact, the more I use Modu, the more I feel the need for a much simpler interface and a phone that gives just the basic functionality and most importantly, scales up powerfully (jackets!).
Modu Challenges
What Modu lacks is a brand appeal. Had it been an Apple product, it would have been a different story.
For Modu to flourish, the company needs ‘jacket developers’ (that fit in the ports located at the bottom)
