One of the most interesting mobile phones in history celebrates its 15th anniversary today. Luxurious Motorola Aura with an atypical dial design was introduced on October 22, 2008. From today’s point of view, it is almost unbelievable that the Aura was even a year younger than the first iPhone at the time of its launch and a contemporary of the then new iPhone 3G. Few two phones could document such a different approach to design and functionality.
The main reason for a certain “obsolescence” already at the time of launch was the fact that Motorola got carried away by the success of its legendary Razra V3 in 2004 and released various clones of it in the following few years. At the same time, it already “knew” the dial design since 2002, when it used a similar patent for the first time on the Motorola V70 model.
In addition, the Aura was not intended to be a mass-market smartphone for ordinary users. It was a luxury phone for 2,000 dollars, which had the task of competing mainly with the Nokia 8000 series, or the phones of the then luxury Nokia Vertu division. The body was made entirely of stainless steel, the display was covered by a circular sapphire glass.
Practicality aside, the Motorola Aura was unique in its time. Even the display was circular this time
At the time, the phone did not impress with its technical specifications, it did not even support the much-promoted 3G networks at the time. The 2 Mpx camera had to manage without automatic focus and there really wasn’t much to see on the small circular display with a diameter of 1.55 inches. In addition, the environment of Motorola phones was not to everyone’s taste. Perhaps the only thing interesting in this regard was the capacity of the internal storage – an unprecedented 2 GB by the standards of “stupid” phones.
The dial mechanism on the gears could be watched in action in front of the rear transparent window
Aura was mainly about emotions and premium materials, a unique feeling when holding the phone. The etched aluminum keyboard was revealed by turning it to the side. It wasn’t the most practical design, but it definitely caught the eye and set Motorola apart from all the competition. But at this time, slowly but surely, the mobile world began to approach the age of the smartphone, and a major development was expected mainly from touch screens. The Motorola Aura with its circular “dial” has thus been perceived as a bit of a dinosaur since its inception, although very rare and admirable.
Technical parameters of Motorola Aura:
size and weight: 97 × 48 × 19 mm, 141 g
networks and data transmissions: GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), GPRS/EDGE
display: active TFT, circular, 1.55 inch diameter, 300 dpi resolution, 16 million colors
camera: 2 MPx resolution (without autofocus), digital zoom, video recording
connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP stereo profile support), PC connection via USB 2.0
memory: internal memory 2 GB, slot for microSD memory cards
music features: music (AAC, AAC+, AAC+ Enhanced, MIDI, MP3, WAV, WMA v10, WMA v9) and video (H.263, H.264, MPEG4) player
battery and endurance: Li-Ion 810 mAh, battery life 400 hours, 7.3 hours of talk time
price and availability: December 2008, approx. 40,000 CZK
2023-10-22 05:57:39
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