Motorola U9 announced

Today Motorola announced an intriguing new device. The spotlight is on the music-oriented MOTO U9.

Endorsed by pop idol Fergie, the Motorola U9 looks all set to attract attention

We already gave you the first info leaked on this phone but, as it turns out, MOTO U9 will formally belong to neither the ROKR nor the PEBL series. Avoiding family conflicts is a clever decision.

The stylish clamshell measures only 90mm x 48.6mm x 16.4mm with a volume of 57.8 cc, and weighs the mere 87.5 g. It has an internal 2" QVGA 262k display and an external 1.45" 65K-color OLED one with a resolution of 128 x 160. The latter does look borderless, as the manufacturer claims, and touch sensitive keys appear at its bottom when the music player is activated. It goes without saying that it supports Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP profile for listening to music on a stereo bluetooth headset, and a USB 2.0 port for fast data transfers. The camera of MOTO U9 is a 2 megapixel one, sporting video recording. The internal memory of the quad-band device is 25MB but that can be expanded through the microSD card slot, which supports cards with capacity of up to 4GB. Another added gain of the new MOTO is the CrystalTalk technology, which Motorola claims should ensure better talk clarity even in noisy environment.

Motorola U9 official photos

Judging by the official photos, the unique feature of the PEBL U6 - the dual-hinge mechanism used for opening and closing has been abandoned, and is now replaced by a more traditional solution.

At this stage there is no information regarding the handset availability or pricing, but the release date is sure to be pretty near.