After the huge success that is the Motorola RAZR, it’s only natural to use the same aesthetics for another Motorola flip phone, the PEBL. This phone has a rubber cover so it is more rugged than some phones, like the RAZR. It has the same electroluminescent keypad that Motorola has made famous on the popular RAZR and SLVR cell phones.
This phone has all of the usual features for a phone these days: Bluetooth 1.2, a camera with video features, MP3-supported ringtones, instant messaging, and a great, bright screen. The PEBL is perfect because it isn’t too much “phone”. It seems to have all of these nice features but still at the root is a good phone, which can be rare these days. Bluetooth was great syncing with my Macintosh computer and transferring ringtones to the phone. Also, I had no problems at all syncing a Bluetooth headset to the PEBL. For those without Bluetooth, the PEBL also has a mini-USB plug on the top for charging similar to other Motorola phones. I also found the instant messaging application to work surprisingly well for a cell phone.

The camera is pretty standard for a camera phone. The PEBL has a VGA (640 x 480) resolution camera with a 4x zoom, with a video capability at 15 FPS. But, you aren’t going to be blowing up and printing out these pictures to even a 4×6 without major distortion and blurriness.

For the phone part of the PEBL, it is great. Sound quality is on the higher end of any cell phones I have used by far. I can hear the other end well and people I talk to sound great and they always say that I don’t sound like I am using a cell phone. The PEBL is very reliable and I didn’t have any dropped calls while using it, partially accredited to the good T-Mobile network. I never once had the phone freeze like I have seen on other phones.

One thing I really found nice on the PEBL, besides the great styling, is the nice use of the front display. Instead of most phones, that it as a secondary screen that can display a picture, the PEBL uses it stylishly as a clock, which you can set to an analog or a digital clock. You can also customize the PEBL like every other phone in the world with various backgrounds, screen savers, and the like.

Another thing I like about the PEBL is that the screen is magnetically latched closed. It takes a while to get used to, but you pull down the screen and the magnets break the connection and it pops loose. One bad thing about this can be the fact that I have found when you drop it, the screen pops open. I don’t know if this is just coincidence or how heavy it is but whenever I dropped it, the PEBL landed on its back and when it sprung open, was unharmed.

The PEBL also comes in multiple colors: black, green, pink, orange, and a light blue. As of now, the PEBL is only available from T-Mobile with a MSRP of $299, but being offered with a 2 year contract for an attractive price of $150. Overall, I like this phone for what it should be at its core, a phone. I would recommend this to people that don’t have to be on the cutting edge of everything and would like a reliable, stable cell phone.

Pros

• Great, bright screen.
• Excellent sound quality.
• Available in various colors for different lifestyles.

Cons

• More expensive than most phones in its class

Final Verdict

4 out of 5 sparks.