The K1's feature set is an upgrade from that found on the RAZR line, placing it comfortably amongst today's mid-range handsets. Motorola's user interface is solid if unremarkable, but the clean layout and easy to read fonts get the job done.
The address book offers slots for multiple phone numbers and email addresses as well as URL, IM, postal address, and birthday for each entry, and contacts can be organized into groups for easy search and usage. Caller ID and ringtone ID are supported, and along with a host of pre-installed 72-chord polyphonic ringtones (many of which actually sound quite good), AAC and mp3 ringtones are supported.
An alarm clock, calendar with alarm reminders, notepad, and world clock round out the standard set of organizer applications, and the K1 also supports voice dialing, voice commands, and voice memo recording. Syncing is supported over USB and Bluetooth, and J2ME applications may be downloaded directly or installed from a computer.
Motorola has also built support for its Screen3 "zero-click access to your favorite news, sports, and other premium content" into the KRZR K1, though this feature was not supported by T-Mobile during my testing. The Verizon-branded K1m supports their VCast broadband media service with access to text, graphic, and streaming audiovisual programming as well as downloadable content.
The K1 I tested included a single pre-installed game, Platinum Sudoku. Motorola's take on the popular number puzzle was well-done, so far as I could tell (I couldn't find an English language option). The phone was built in Hong Kong and featured support for multiple languages.
Motorola built the GSM K1 with a 2.0 megapixel camera. Curiously, the Alltel and Verizon-branded CDMA K1m models only have a 1.3 MP camera. The camera sensors on both versions are mounted at the top-center of the front panel, and lack the logos or "camera housings" found on most cameraphones. Instead, an unmarked dot of red light is the only indication of the optics beneath the surface.
The camera on the GSM K1 performed very well under optimal lighting conditions. However, the lack of a flash or any sort of flash-assist light made for sub-par photography in anything less than great light. Photos shot in everyday conditions, particularly those taken at night or in dimly lit indoor spaces, tended to suffer from a lack of detail, sharpness, and color clarity - common complaints with cellphone pics. These problems weren't always so readily apparent when pictures were viewed on the K1's screens, but transferring full 2MP photos to a PC for viewing or printing revealed the flaws. Comprehensive exposure control and image editing features built into the KRZR's sofware helped somewhat, whereas overuse of the 8x digital zoom tended to make matters worse.
The K1 can also record MPEG4 video with sound at up to 15 frames/second using resolutions as high as CIF (352 x 288). Video quality was pretty good; again, the less digital zooming is used, the consistently better the overall results. While videos intended for MMS messages are capped at 14 seconds in duration, the length of other video recordings is limited only by the amount of available memory space in the phone or on an installed microSD card
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4.7
