Motorola Rival A455: Full Keyboard to Out-Thumb Friends

While winning the title of “Thumb-Fu Master” with the Motorola Rival A455 for Verizon Wireless is gimmicky, what’s real is that this is a full-keyboard phone for quick text messaging in a chat-like, iPhone-like format.

With a contract, the Rival is also an exceptionally affordable GPS cell phone with a quality battery and a backlit QWERTY keyboard. The phone comes in either purple or silver.

Price

With a two-year Verizon Wireless service contract, the Motorola Rival A455 is priced affordably at $79.99.

With a $50 online discount, the Rival comes down very much to the budget level of $29.99, which is generous for such a full-featured phone.

Features

1. Pocket-friendly slider with QWERTY keyboard
2. Text, picture, video and voice messaging with threaded messaging feature
3. External touch dial pad
4. 2-megapixel camera and camcorder
5. Video capture and playback
6. Visual voicemail
7. Mobile broadband capable
8. Full-keyboard backlighting
9. Bilingual interface (English and Spanish)
10. GPS and E911 enabled
11. Mobile Web, mobile email and mobile instant messaging
12. Music player (with playlists and the ability to sync music from your PC to phone)
13. Up to 8 gigabytes of microSD optional removable memory
14. Bluetooth short-range wireless (i.e. for a wireless headset)
15. Resolution adjustment (1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480 and 320x240)
16. Dedicated camera and video key
17. Self-timer (off and 3, 5 and 10 seconds)
18. White balance (auto, sunny, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent and darkness)
19. Color effects (normal, antique, black and white and negative)
20. Fun frames
21. Download games, ringtones and more
22. One-touch access to text message composition, emoticons, symbols and IM or email
23. Speakerphone
24. Airplane mode
25. Voice commands
26. Embedded ringtones, vibrating alert and silent mode
27. Stores up to 1,000 phonebook contacts
28. Stores up to 500 text messages
29. 3.5-millimeter headset jack
30. TTY (for the deaf and hard of hearing) and OTA (over-the-air programming for software upgrades) capable
31. M3/T3 hearing aid compatibility
32. 2.2-inch display at 176x220 resolution with 65,000 colors
33. SAR radiation rating: 1.59 W/kg (head) and 1.49 W/kg (body)

Battery

The standard battery on the Motorola Rival A455 impresses with up to 5.33 hours of rated talk time and up to a very long 21.25 days of standby time when not in use at all.

While 5.33 hours is close to making the About.com list of our best cell phone batteries, it doesn’t quite make the cut.

Size, Weight

The Motorola Rival A455 measures in at 3.8 inches high by 2 inches wide by 0.71 of an inch thick. This does not make the About.com list of our best slim cell phones.

The Rival weighs in at a relatively heavy 4.4 ounces, which does not make the About.com list of our best lightweight cell phones.

Differentiation in the Marketplace

While the iPhone and Palm Pre, for example, feature threaded text messaging in a chat-like format, many other quick messaging cell phones do not.

The Motorola Rival A455 differentiates itself with this threaded messaging feature at a very affordable price for a full-featured cell phone.