Hands-on with the Motosurf A3100

Motorola's press release calls it a "touch tablet," but we call the MOTOSURF A3100 a fair competitor to the HTC Touch -- you know, the phone that came out last year and has been replaced by the Touch Diamond, Viva, and 3G. 

Nevertheless, Moto is pressing on with their little guy, which sports:

  • 2.8" 320x240 screen
  • GSM and HSDPA (but not necessarily US bands)
  • aGPS
  • WiFi
  • 3 megapixel camera and a front-facing camera for video conferencing
  • A trackball
  • MicroSD expansion
  • 3.5mm headset jack
  • Opera Mobile 9.5
  • A mysterious Facebook app they couldn't get launched due to lack of internet connectivity

So kudos to Moto for the trackball, 3.5mm headset jack, and heck, we'll even give them credit for taking a ho-hum QVGA screen and stretching it out to a capacious 2.8 inches.  Moto even developed their own custom home screen with all the fixings plust some bonus RSS action. Despite all that, though, we gotta ask: who's buying this over a Diamond? 

Not us and that's not just because it's aimed at Asia and Latin America first, with US possibilities "sometime in the future, depending."  Photos after the break

Dieter Bohn