When Phones Were Fun: Motorola AURA (2008)

A first-of-its-kind circular display. A stainless steel casing that took two weeks to etch. And a Swiss-inspired mechanism that means it opens just as smoothly in 2020 as it did twelve years ago. Motorola didn’t get much wrong with its first true luxury phone – unless you count launching it directly into the midst of a global economic recession. The year is 2008; the device is the Motorola AURA; and this is episode 2 of When Phones Were Fun!

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[ABOUT WHEN PHONES WERE FUN: MOTOROLA AURA R1 / CELESTIAL EDITION]

This is the second in a series of MrMobile episodes exploring the mobile tech world's most vibrant period in design and experimentation. In “When Phones Were Fun,” Michael Fisher re-reviews cellphones from the golden age of mobile, the decade-long span from the turn of the century to approximately 2009.

When Phones Were Fun: Episode 2 features the Motorola AURA. The review sample featured in this video is a Motorola AURA Celestial Edition on loan from Motorola, but the bulk of the coverage focuses on the “base level” R1. No company paid a fee or otherwise offered compensation in exchange for this coverage, nor did any company preview or approve this content before publication.

[PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO]

Nomad Kevlar charging cable – USB-C to Universal [Nomad]:

CKANDAY SIM adapter kit [Amazon]:

[LINKS]

When Phones Were Fun, Episode 1: The Matrix Phone (Reloaded), 2003 [MrMobile]:

Motorola Launches $2000 Luxury Phone [Wired]:

Anticipated Cellular Carriers 2G/3G Sunset Dates [MultiTech - PDF Link]:

Hands-On With The Runcible [Pocketnow]:

[SOCIALIZE]

[DISCLOSURES]

#motorolaaura #aura #motorola #throwback #retro #tech #2008

[volpe_sol]

Holy shit, even by today's standards, this looks absolutely amazing.

[CANALDEDRD]

When a 2008 cell phone looks more futuristic than the current ones.

[Crutches_Bob]

This is the most beautiful phone I've ever laid my eyes on.

[HappySlayer]

I remember when I was poor and dreaming about having this phone. Now I'm poor and dreaming of having any phone.

[p-rnd]

Remember when every phone companies had some kind of a specific gimick/designs to their phones that makes them unique?now its just a race to have a smartphone with the most cores, ram and cameras

[Josh-ojmm]

This looks like a phone that would be in a scifi movie from 20+ years ago

[LuPoj]

Honestly this is the most cool series I have seen in a while. All the phones I fancied when I was young!

[emperorfaiz]

I still remember seeing my teacher a several years ago flicked this phone out of his pocket to take a call during class. It was cool as hell back then.

[channelthefire]

I can't help thinking of James Bond when looking at this phone.

[cgvapors]

It's absolutely one of the most innovative and beautiful phone designs of its time. If that phone had a keyboard and a CPU with enough horsepower to run a modern Android OS, I'd proudly use it today. Of course, it wouldn't be touch screen, but for simple texting, I think a keypad keyboard is optimal anyway.

[michaelw]

Everyone was so caught up in copying the iPhone, innovation was lost

[shakti]

This is the phone where Zack can finally say "Scratches at level 8, with deeper groves at level 9"

[runratchetrun]

Apple: We've broken the $1k price tag on phones!

Motorola: Hold my hand-etched, Swiss-inspired flippers

[aryanraj]

That was the day when Motorola always came up with unexpected innovation.

[Joshtheweatherman]

When you realize a phone's screen from 2008 looks better than your current

[evercossa]

Ah the good old days
When every phones had their own identity ❤

[Shubham_Bahirat]

Nowadays expensive phone means just gold and diamonds
But this phone had features of 2k phone

[JoshuaDay]

This is possibly the nicest phone ever made.
I would love one with some smartwatch internals running TizenOS or something 👌

[Cyancat]

Phones aren't heirlooms"
the iPhone five that went through my parents and all my older siblings: am i a joke to you?

[katomiccomics]

Damn I kinda miss phones that had weird and special features that absolutely no one needed but it was looked cool so of course you had to buy it.