Trying to start the year on a good note, Motorola has announced a trio of new handsets set to roll out in the early part of 2009. Well, not all of them are exactly new as the Tundra VA76r is already available via Rogers in Canada (known as the Extreme), but the next two are definitely new to the market.
The Renew W233 is the world’s first phone made from recycled water bottles and likewise comes with a carbon neutral footprint for those who want to minimize carbon consumption. The best part is that the Motorola Renew costs 20% less to manufacture which will hopefully translate to a very affordable price tag. The Renew is a testament to Motorola’s commitment to renewable energy programs. As far as its features are concerned, it comes with dual-band 850/1900 GSM/EDGE, CrytalTalk technology and supports microSD cards with up to 2GB capacity. It may not be heavy on the features, but this will definitely win Motorola points with Green Peace and other environmentally minded consumers.
The headliner of the trio is without a doubt the SURF A3100 which earlier reports referred to as the Attila. This is Motorola's entry into the touchscreen-based segment of the market. It boasts a 2.8-inch display, 3-megapixel camera, a secondary VGA front camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, Bluetooth, WiFi, A-GPS, runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 OS and supports microSD cards of up to a whopping 32GB in capacity. It will be released in the first quarter in select Asian markets while its North American debut is yet to be disclosed.
While none of the three bear any resemblance to the leaked 2009 line-up we featured awhile back, the SURF A3100 is nonetheless a worthy prequel to more noteworthy phone models that will debut sometime in the near future.
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