Motorola A1000

Motorola A1000

Manufacturer	Motorola
Carriers	3
Compatible networks	3G: UMTS 2G: GSM (900, 1800, 1900 MHz) with GPRS
Predecessor	Motorola A920
Dimensions	117 x 59.5 x 21.5 mm
Weight	168 g
Operating system	Symbian OS 7.0 + UIQ 2.1
CPU	ARM processor at 168 MHz
Memory	32MB RAM, 32MB ROM
Storage	24MB
Battery	Talk time 2G: 280 minutes 3G: 120 minutes Stand-by time: 200 hours Video calling: 80 minutes
Data inputs	Touchscreen Handwriting recognition
Display	Transmissive reflective TFT LCD 65,536 colors, 16-bit color depth, 208x320 pixels
Rear camera	1.2 Megapixel and 640x480 video camera
Connectivity	Bluetooth 1.1 USB 2.0
Other	A-GPS Opera 7.5 web browser Document viewer etc.

The Motorola A1000 is a 3G smartphone from Motorola using the UIQ platform based upon Symbian OS. One of the most notable features is its built-in A-GPS. The A1000 is the successor to the A925 and A920.

A variant device, named the M1000, appeared in 2005 for the Japanese market, distributed by NTT DoCoMo. The M1000 has a similar spec to the A1000 but supports Wi-Fi instead of GPS/A-GPS.

A1000 History

The A1000 was released in Q4 2004, but was available only on contract through 3 Network, in just a few countries (mostly Australia, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Singapore[SingTel], Sweden and the UK). Although it was presented in two colour schemes, the 3 network offered it only in the dull matte dark-grey / light gray combination. Also, the phone firmware was locked and branded for 3 Network and presented various limitations, like the impossibility of changing internet connectivity accounts.

Fortunately, the phone raised interest of enthusiasts due to its advanced capabilities, and a few dedicated forums appeared. A generic, unbranded firmware became available in these forums, but presented multiple problems and was considered by many as being in fact a leaked beta version. Also, various software was developed to overcome limitations of branded firmware (Application Picker [1], GPRS account editor [2], installation of software on external memory [3]).

When, after a whole year, the unlocked and unbranded A1000 appeared, its new firmware version made most of these applications obsolete, as it included their facilities. The phone was also available in its glossy black finish.

As it was among the very first phones to use the TransFlash (now microSD) memory format as external storage, it was limited to the small capacity of these cards. As this card is perfectly compatible to Secure Digital, it didn't take long for a Transflash-to-SD adapter to appear [4] (free registration needed). In this way, a Transflash card of any available capacity could be used in the SD Card adapter, but the phone only supports Transflash I cards.

Presently, the latest available modded firmwares combine the stability of the first branded firmware with the facilities and speed of the generic one, and also include some pre-installed and ready-to-install third-party freeware applications.

A1000 Features

• Java
  • Java ME MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.0
  • PersonalJava
• Opera 7.5 Internet browser (735 for English version, 744 for Chinese version and 817J for Japanese version)
• Cameras:
  • Outer: CMOS camera
    • Effective resolution: 1.31 megapixels
    • Recorded resolution: 1.22 megapixels
  • Inner: CMOS camera
    • Effective resolution: 310,000 pixels
    • Recorded resolution: 300,000 pixels
• Built in Picsel Viewer to open Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF, etc. files
• Works with multiple e-mail accounts
• Bluetooth compatible for hands-free telephone calls (using wireless headset) and wireless connection to PCs
• Preinstalled with personal information management (PIM) software
• Free software development kit (only beta version available)

Major bugs

• Autoformat - Early firmware releases (e.g. 51.14.15) have a bug which cause the formatting of phone filesystem as soon as free memory falls under around 4-5 MB; user is not asked for confirmation, so any data in the phone memory is lost in this case. Further firmware releases fixed the problem (maybe starting from 51.92
• Outbox bug - If an SMS sending fails, SMS get stuck in the outbox and no more attempts are made by the System to send it again. No fixes are available for this bug.
• Memory card size limitation - Although a1000 is compatible with microsd, which should allow size up to 2 GB, no users report to be able to go over 1 GB limit
• AT commands incompatibility - most of standard mandatory AT commands are actually not supported, implemented or working (SMS access, phonebook access,...)

Hardware known issues

• Charge connector - charge connector doesn't always connect to the phone, so it doesn't charge properly.

Known limitations

• Memory card lock - Early releases of firmware do not allow installing applications to memory card, and stops memory cards from going over 1GB, but "NOPEX" 3rd party application fixes this issue.
• Missing autoconnection - Unlike other UIQ phones, a1000 is not able to auto-connect to PC when USB cable is connected: user intervention is required to tap the screen to activate connection; this makes it impossible to recover data from phone in case of screen damages/crash.

External links

• Motorola A1000 - Full phone specifications