This phone is available in a unique transparent flip. It is simple and elegant style conscious people will to sport this mobile phone. This is one phone that combines functions with form. The unique flip functionality lets you sport your cool look. There is a full screen camera view finder that helps you view all your photographs and videos at ease. There is an option of enhanced viewing of all the incoming messages and track information while playing music.

the design was well thought out in my opinion. it follows their tradition of their other linux phones with the front cover covering the touchscreen display. i am not entirely sure why motorola has committed to this design. the unit feels solid and not too heavy, definitely something that you could carry around with you without feeling bogged down. anyway, the material covering the screen is a hard plastic. it is slightly tinted. there is a small little motorola emblem that doubles as a speaker for when you are taking calls and have the unit flipped open. i purchased the black matte unit and i am pleased by the look. it reminds me very much of the black razr/pebl material. it seems durable. the unit is surprisingly small. smaller than i first anticipated. one thing that gets me is that the darn cover is a bit difficult to open at times. i don’t have huge hands, nor does my girlfriend, and it is was difficult for us to open the screen cover. this could pose a problem if i were driving and had to open my phone with one hand. it does not go up easily. the battery used is one of the more common motorola batteries so finding a replacement should not be a problem. the stylus fits snugly into a slot in the back of the phone. the stylus itself is retractable… great for anyone over the age of ten.

Its clamshell design and see-through cover make it an instant attention getter and that’s before you get to its brilliant 2.4" LCD screen. This display produces sharp text, whilst its colours are bright and well contrasted. Thanks to this last factor, using the A1200 in even very bright environments is no trouble.

The 2.0 megapixel camera of the MING can capture photos in three different resolutions 1200x1600, 768x1024, and 480x640. Users are given options to tweak the photo quality, switch to night mode, and give their photos effects like black and white, sepia, solarize, and negative. The auto white balance system in the MING was accurate most of the time, but photos appeared out of focus in most shots. This is not surprising as the MING is not equipped with an auto-focus system. The macro mode, however, works really well. The dedicated camera key comes in handy when you take photos with the flip closed.

The MING is also capable of recording videos at resolutions of 176x44 and 128x96. The recording length is limited only by the amount of free memory you have. Heavy users of the camera might want to invest in a high capacity microSD card to fit in as many pictures and video clips as possible.

The included RealPlayer allows users to listen to MP3s with either headphones (you will need an adaptor since the audio jack is not the standard 3.5mm) or via the loudspeaker. Music sounded beautiful with no distortions or crackling through the speaker. Video files can also be played using RealPlayer. You can use MP3s or MIDI files as ringtones. Just like the pictures that you snap with the integrated camera, you can store your MP3s or MIDI files on a microSD card.

In the battery life department, the Motorola Ming had decent performance. We found that we could last a little over two days before needing to recharge when using the Motorola Ming regularly to make calls and send/receive text messages. Users who barely use the cell phone to make/receive calls and send/receive messages can wait about four days before needing to recharge, while heavier cell phone users will likely need to charge the Motorola Ming every other day. You can use the included mini-USB-to-USB cable to charge the cell phone when it’s connected to a computer. Nice!

There are a couple of ways to listen to music on the Motorola Ming. First, there’s a radio application that you can use to hear local FM stations. While you will need to plug in the headset to use this feature, you can still select the radio to be played over the cell phone’s speakers. The other option for playing back music is in the RealPlayer application, entitled Media on the main menu. Once in this application, you can create playlists and play music, but there isn’t much you can do to adjust audio quality. The good news is that you probably won’t have to since playback of songs is pretty impressive. You can play AAC (Apple’s music file format), WMA (Window’s music file format), and MP3 files. If you plan on storing more than two or three songs on the cell phone, you’ll want to purchase an optional MicroSD card, since the Ming has only 8MB of internal memory, which is simply not enough for more than a few songs.

You can get music onto the phone using the USB-to-mini-USB cable, then drag and drop songs from your computer onto the cell phone. You can also store tunes from your PC on a MicroSD card, then slip it into the MicroSD slot located beneath the battery cover on the back of the Motorola cell phone.

Our only real niggle with the Ming is its rather basic 8Mbytes of on-board memory. This can be filled quite quickly with just a few photos and files and though this can be expanded using a Micro-SD card, considering its price we expected more.

this phone came in a small purple box. included was the motorola a1200, two batteries, two styluses, 512 mb transflash memory card with sd adapter, stereo headphones, and an english manual, though there were advertisement inserts and other promotional material in chinese.