It has a name that suggests it will eat the competition for breakfast, but despite a sprinkling of positives Motorola's new Devour smart phone left me hungry for something more.
With the user-friendly Android operating software, the Devour lets you surf the Web, check e-mail and update your Facebook status with relative ease over Verizon Wireless' network. The phone ($100, after a rebate, with a two-year contract) is available through Best Buy and will start selling from Verizon some time this month.
Unfortunately, the phone's features are less aggressive than its name. A seemingly cramped touch screen, unimpressive camera and weird keyboard layout made me prefer its more full-featured, pricier cousin, the Motorola Droid ($200, after a rebate, with a two-year contract), which is available from the same wireless carrier.
At first glance, the Devour's solid-feeling, brushed aluminum body and slide-out keyboard radiate user-friendly vibes. The phone's face has just one mechanical button - a nifty touch-sensitive square used for scrolling down lists and Web pages and selecting things.
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In addition to running the Android software, the Devour comes with Motorola's super-social Motoblur software, which displays content such as e-mails, Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and news in little on-screen "widgets."
Like the Droid, the Devour is a husky hunk of a handset - it weighs 5.9 ounces, making Apple's 4.8-ounce iPhone look like a flyweight.
It has a smaller screen than both, though - 3.1 inches diagonally compared with 3.7 inches on the Droid and 3.5 inches on the iPhone. This seems irritatingly small by comparison.
Once I tired of trying to tap out messages using the on-screen keyboard, I slid open the physical keyboard and found it nicely spaced, with easy-to-press raised keys.
However, its layout made it hard to type e-mails and insert common characters such as commas and the "at" symbol.
I was also unimpressed with the Devour's 3-megapixel camera. Many photos looked washed-out. And though it has a number of simple photo-editing options, such as the ability to adjust the color of your images, I was miffed to see it doesn't include a flash or zoom. At least there is a good amount of space to store your photos and other media, because the handset comes with an 8-gigabyte microSD memory card.
The Devour can make phone calls, too - but sadly I felt like I was channeling Verizon's "Can you hear me now?" commercials. Calls often sounded kind of muffled and choppy to me; my conversation partners told me the connection didn't sound good to them, either.
I was surprised by the Devour's external speaker, which was quite clear for listening to music or watching videos aloud. I wasn't as thrilled with the dedicated volume buttons on the side of the phone, though: They're right next to a button that activates voice commands, and I kept hitting that when I tried to lower the volume.
If you're hankering for a slab of smart phone that is more advanced, chances are you'll find the Droid more satisfying.