Motorola Photon
Encyclopedia
The Motorola Photon 4G is a high end Android-based mobile smartphone
that is distributed exclusively by Sprint Nextel
. A very similar model based on the same hardware is available as the Motorola Electrify from U.S. Cellular
.
) with several additions. Motorola provides custom widgets to toggle settings for airplane mode, bluetooth, wireless 4G access (WiMAX
2.5 GHz), and WiFi
access as well as resizable widgets for functions such as the calendar, social networking, a world clock and more. The Photon's customized interface has seven home screens and four main onscreen buttons at the bottom of the screen. Of the bottom buttons the left three buttons may be customized to run a program of the user's choosing, while the right-most button opens the app drawer.
Capacitive touch buttons at the bottom of the screen are Menu, Home, Back and Search. Pressing and holding on the Home button brings up a "Recent Apps" view, while double tapping the Home button will either show a thumbnailed view of all seven home screens (default) or, at the user's preference, quick launch a specific function.
, it accepts a GSM SIM card with quadband GSM and triband UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA+ capabilties. The phone also, like most Android phones, features WiFi access, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, and a micro-USB port for charging and data sync with a PC. An HDMI port allows for access to HDMI-mirroring and separate functions.
mail servers, including the support of several Exchange ActiveSync
profiles. Second, full encryption of the internal and external storage is supported. This last feature requires the creation of a password that is required when booting the phone.
Motorola provides several additional software packages for PCs and Mac, such as Motorola Media Link (to manage photos, music and video) and the Motorola Phone Portal (manage phone and contents from a web browser over a network link).
, it has the integrated Ubuntu-based 'Webtop' application from Motorola. The Webtop application is launched when the phone is connnected to the external display through Laptop dock or HD multimedia dock. In Webtop mode, offering similar user interface of typical Ubuntu desktop, the phone can run several applications on external display such as Firefox web browser, SNS clients and 'mobile view' application enabling total access of the Photon and its screen. In September 2009, Motorola released the source code of Webtop application at SourceForge
.
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
that is distributed exclusively by Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
. A very similar model based on the same hardware is available as the Motorola Electrify from U.S. Cellular
U.S. Cellular
United States Cellular Corporation, d.b.a. U.S. Cellular , owns and operates the sixth largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, behind Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and Metro PCS. , they serve about 6.1 million customers in 126 markets in...
.
User Interface
The Photon runs a customized interface similar to the standard Android interface (different from MotoblurMotoblur
Motoblur is an Android UI replacement and push-based service focused on social networking developed by Motorola. It aims at functional similarity to Palm's Synergy, including such features as Remote Wipe...
) with several additions. Motorola provides custom widgets to toggle settings for airplane mode, bluetooth, wireless 4G access (WiMAX
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
2.5 GHz), and WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
access as well as resizable widgets for functions such as the calendar, social networking, a world clock and more. The Photon's customized interface has seven home screens and four main onscreen buttons at the bottom of the screen. Of the bottom buttons the left three buttons may be customized to run a program of the user's choosing, while the right-most button opens the app drawer.
Capacitive touch buttons at the bottom of the screen are Menu, Home, Back and Search. Pressing and holding on the Home button brings up a "Recent Apps" view, while double tapping the Home button will either show a thumbnailed view of all seven home screens (default) or, at the user's preference, quick launch a specific function.
Connectivity
The Photon is an international capable phone ("world phone"), meaning that besides using Sprint's CDMA/EV-DO network and other CDMA networks accessible internationally and through domestic roamingRoaming
In wireless telecommunications, roaming is a general term referring to the extension of connectivity service in a location that is different from the home location where the service was registered. Roaming ensures that the wireless device is kept connected to the network, without losing the...
, it accepts a GSM SIM card with quadband GSM and triband UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA+ capabilties. The phone also, like most Android phones, features WiFi access, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, and a micro-USB port for charging and data sync with a PC. An HDMI port allows for access to HDMI-mirroring and separate functions.
Business and Enterprise Features
The Photon supports several important business features. It supports access to Microsoft Exchange ServerMicrosoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
mail servers, including the support of several Exchange ActiveSync
Exchange ActiveSync
Exchange ActiveSync is an XML-based protocol that communicates over HTTP designed for the synchronization of email, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes from a messaging server to a mobile device...
profiles. Second, full encryption of the internal and external storage is supported. This last feature requires the creation of a password that is required when booting the phone.
Motorola provides several additional software packages for PCs and Mac, such as Motorola Media Link (to manage photos, music and video) and the Motorola Phone Portal (manage phone and contents from a web browser over a network link).
Webtop
Similarly to the Motorola Atrix 4GMotorola Atrix 4G
The Motorola Atrix 4G is a high-end Android-based smartphone by Motorola, introduced in CES 2011 on January 5, 2011. It was made available in the first quarter of 2011. It was introduced along with three other products, Motorola Xoom, Motorola Droid Bionic, and Motorola Cliq 2. It uses an NVIDIA...
, it has the integrated Ubuntu-based 'Webtop' application from Motorola. The Webtop application is launched when the phone is connnected to the external display through Laptop dock or HD multimedia dock. In Webtop mode, offering similar user interface of typical Ubuntu desktop, the phone can run several applications on external display such as Firefox web browser, SNS clients and 'mobile view' application enabling total access of the Photon and its screen. In September 2009, Motorola released the source code of Webtop application at SourceForge
SourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
.
Detailed Specifications
- Also known as Motorola MB855
- NVIDIA Tegra 2 (dual-core 1 GHz Cortex A9 + GeForce ULP)
- Android 2.3 "Gingerbread"
- 1 GB LP DDR2 RAM
- 16 GB Internal memory, expandable by microSD 32 GB, total of 48 GB
- 4.3-inch PenTile qHD display (540×960) with Gorilla GlassGorilla GlassGorilla Glass, manufactured by Corning, is an alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass engineered specifically to be thin, light and damage-resistant. Its primary application is portable electronic devices with screens, such as mobile phones, portable media players, and laptop displays...
- 8.0 MP with dual LED flash, 4x digital zoom and autofocus, 720p video capture at 30 frame/s
- VGA front-facing camera for video calls
- TriColor LED notification light
- 1650 mAh user-changeable battery
- Built-in kickstand
- Motorola Webtop interface
- HDMI mirroring
See also
- Motorola Atrix 4GMotorola Atrix 4GThe Motorola Atrix 4G is a high-end Android-based smartphone by Motorola, introduced in CES 2011 on January 5, 2011. It was made available in the first quarter of 2011. It was introduced along with three other products, Motorola Xoom, Motorola Droid Bionic, and Motorola Cliq 2. It uses an NVIDIA...
- Motorola XoomMotorola XoomThe Motorola Xoom is an Android-based tablet computer by Motorola, introduced at CES 2011 on January 5, 2011. It was the first tablet to be sold with Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The Verizon branded Xoom was the first tablet to run Android 3.1 Honeycomb, however the 3.1 update has not yet been provided...
- Motorola Droid BionicMotorola Droid BionicThe Motorola Droid Bionic is an Android-based, 4G LTE-capable smartphone designed by Motorola. It was originally scheduled for release in Q2 2011 but was delayed until September 2011...
- Motorola Cliq 2
- List of Android devices
- Comparison of smartphonesComparison of smartphones-Hardware and OS:-Networks and connectivity:...
- Comparison of Android devices