SpecEagle
SpecEagle review · Motorola

Motorola Photon 4G MB855 review: 2011 Sprint WiMAX flagship.

SpecEagle Editorial·Aug 2011·$200
Overall
70/100
Class rank
#5 of 31
Tier
Mid-Range
Buy?
At the right price
The verdict, up front

Photon 4G MB855.

Motorola's 2011 Sprint Photon 4G WiMAX flagship — world phone with Webtop Lapdock.

01Display

76/100

76/100 puts it above the 72-point average for mid-range phones of 2011.

TypeqHD TFT
Size4.3"
Resolution540 x 960

02Performance

72/100

At 72/100 this is one of the strongest performance showings among mid-range phones of 2011 — 7 points above the cohort average.

ChipsetNvidia Tegra 2
CPU1 GHz dual Cortex-A9
RAM1 GB

03Camera

70/100

70/100 puts it above the 66-point average for mid-range phones of 2011.

Main8 MP AF + dual LED
FrontVGA

04Battery

72/100

72/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2011.

Capacity1,700 mAh (removable)

05Software

68/100

68/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2011.

What works
  • Sprint 4G WiMAX.
  • World phone GSM/CDMA.
  • Webtop Lapdock.
  • Tegra 2 dual.
What doesn't
  • WiMAX dead-end network.
  • Gingerbread at launch.
  • 158 g heavy.
  • 1 GHz dated.
Cross-shop it against
HTC Desire S
$450 · score 72/100

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 31-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .