Okay, so let’s talk progress. In a world seemingly saturated with smartphones that do everything bar make coffee, who would have thought that ‘progress’ would bring us something like the Motorola Gleam Plus?

Motorola Gleam Plus

The Motorola Gleam Plus is, well, a beauty. Forget the fact that the soon to be released iPhone 5 is expected to be sleek and wonderful, take a look at the Gleam + and note how this thing is sleeker than pretty much anything else out there on the phone market. It’s shiny and new, and it looks a little like a phone that was released ten years ago. And somehow, when it comes to looks, it just works.

However, this thing is nowhere near perfect, and while it has been created to be almost an anti-smartphone it currently comes in at £10 per month on contract it still has plenty of disadvantages on board for anyone who wants something that does more than make or take calls.

Motorola Gleam Plus Camera

Let’s talk cameras. The average smartphone these days carries a camera that offers 5 Mega-pixels. That’s the unavoidable truth, and that’s progress. This one? Try a 2 Megapixel camera. That’s really not anything to get excited about, and when we tried it we started to experience flashbacks to the very first digital cameras that came out, well, ten years ago. Quality is poor, and this is certainly no phone for anyone who likes taking photos.

Motorola Gleam Plus Web Experience

And then we come to the Web experience. Okay, on a phone like this one and at that price, you may not expect to be able to browse the Web. But you can, and that is a good thing, initially. Whatever you do, don’t expect to get a good browsing experience, because with the Gleam + we are talking about wading through sludge, a situation where you may even start reminiscing for good old dial-up.

Official Motorola Gleam Plus Video Presentation

Okay, maybe it isn’t as bad as dial-up, but it is certainly nowhere near as good as anything you can get on even the basic smartphone models out there. Convinced it has any kind of attraction when it comes to Web browsing? Try no 3G, and (shock horror) no WIFI. That’s right. They’ve put HTML browsing here even though hardly anyone would choose to use it for that purpose, simply because they can’t.

Enough bashing. It’s attractive; we’ll give it that. It also allows you to read your emails and the text messaging function comes in at a decent speed and overall ease of use. You also get an MP3 player and a radio, so it’s a fun phone to use when it comes to entertainment.

Motorola Why?

To be honest, we aren’t all that impressed. If anything, this flip phone is a perfect reminder that looks really are not everything in life. They certainly aren’t in the phone market, and Motorola should know this!

Call us stupid, but we feel that smartphones are the new standard, and there really isn’t any reason for anyone to want to own anything like the Gleam +, unless you are a total Luddite.

Maybe you are. If you are, you’ll be pleased to know that the Gleam + does indeed make and take calls. None of this fancy smartphone stuff to bother you with.

So this phone may be for you. If it is, go, enjoy.