14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola VU20 is the latest Moto phone approved by the FCC and it seems that soon it will be released in South Korea, via SK Telecom, the largest mobile operator in the country.
Engadget Mobile discovered the handset at the FCC and if they're not giving away too many details about it, we are. Although the FCC website is not at all user-friendly when you try to find more info about a phone, we managed to get most of the features included in the new VU20.
First of all, let's mention that the handset comes in a clamshell form factor and it resembles the fancy U9 model that we saw live back in February, during CeBIT 2008. Besides the "normal" images with VU20 found on FCC's website, there's also a picture showing us how to insert the SIM card into the phone. This looks like it was taken from the "Motorola Phones for Dummies" book (which doesn't exist in reality, but it would be funny if it did).
The already known features of Moto VU20 include: a QVGA (240 x 320) internal display, a smaller external screen, of unknown resolution, GPS (with some sort of maps pre-installed), both GSM and 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, a 2 Megapixel camera with video recording and digital zoom, secondary video-call camera (this has a dedicated key), Music player, microSD card support to extend the unknown internal memory with up to 4GB, photo/movie album, electronic dictionary, E-book reader, scheduler, diary, alarm, calendar and other basic features.
The battery included in the VU20 is capable of offering 200 minutes of talk-time, 130 minutes of video-call time and 200 hours stand-by time. The phone weighs 103 grams (3.63 ounces) and, when closed, it measures 100 x 49 x 18.5 millimeters (3.94 x 1.93 x 0.73 inches). Not exactly slim, but since it's a clamshell, this is not really a problem.
While the new Motorola VU20 will surely be available in South Korea (its User Manual has several references that bring SK Telecom in mind), we can't say if the phone is going to be released on other markets also. We don't know its price either, but it should be a reasonable one.
