Digital Trends

Motorola PEBL March 7th, 2006 | by Nick Tesler

Performance

Thankfully, the PEBL performs where it counts -- as a cell phone. The quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz world phone enabled calls that were loud and clear, nearly wire-like at both ends of the line, with plenty of volume left over in case you need more to compensate for noisy environments. That volume also produces loud ringers in case your PEBL is stored in a purse or pocket.

Instead of definitive numbers, Motorola lists battery life ranges -- 204 to 400 minutes of talk and 156 to 250 hours of standby -- curious since the only other battery burner is web access. But even the low end of the range will prove adequate for most users.

Speaking of Web access, T-Mobile's GPRS network delivered Web pages at near-EDGE speeds, less than 10 seconds. GPRS network flaws showed up when sending or downloading content. Picture messages took around a minute to upload and videos around two minutes. Downloading hi-fi ring tones took a little less than a minute on average to stream from T-Mobile's online store.

VGA pictures are -- shocking -- worthless unless snapped in direct sunlight, and videos look more like hand-cranked silent movies, albeit in color, at least on the PEBL's LCD screen. Oddly, emailed videos wouldn't play back on PCs or Macs.

Conclusion

The PEBL is a great example of not judging a book by its cover, or beauty being “world phone” skin deep. Despite PEBL's must-have good looks, you can find better equipped phones for much less money from T-Mobile, such as Motorola's own V360, a $99 phone that's EDGE capable, includes a TransFlash memory card slot, has a full external screen and can play back MP3s, all missing on the twice-the-price PEBL.

Pros:

• Stylish
• Small and light
• Bright LCD screen

Cons:

• Expensive/low value
• VGA camera
• GPRS network compatible only
• No color external screen