Almost Perfect
Written: Jun 16 '04 (Updated Aug 20 '04)
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Pros: Good Quad band world phone. Bluetooth, Camera, great connectivity. Must have for a Geek/Gadget Freak.
Cons: Lack of external memory. Cannot record video.
The Bottom Line: Good world phone(except Japan). It is a must have for the Gadget Freaks/Geeks. Until the V1000 or the MPX220 comes out this is the Motorola phone to have.
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| eddiey18's Full Review: Motorola V600 |
The V600 is a Quad 850/900/1800/1900 band GSM/GPRS phone. That means it can be used anywhere in the world except Japan. To avoid very expensive roaming charges overseas, it is best to get a local prepaid SIM and use it when you are traveling. However, some wireless companies SIM locked the phone so another phone company's SIM would not work in their SIM locked phone. Some Phone company will unlock the SIM lock when the customers request it to be done. Some would not but there are ways to unlock the SIM lock for a small fee (more on that later). There is an advantage of using 850/900 bands because of the lower frequency can penetrate walls better than the 1800/1900 bands. Lack of 900 spectrum in the States is the reason that FCC opened up this 850 band. I live in an area that has marginal receptions but since switching to this phone, my signal strength is much better (I am using AT & T Wireless).
The sound quality on this V600 is good, I can hear it loud and clear, the speaker phone works. The color screen is beautiful. The key are large with good feel. The 5 way key pad is easy to use. The size is about average for a flip phone. It is slightly larger than my old Motorola 60g. While the V60 feels like an egg in my hand, the V600 feels like a bar of soap. The case is metal of matt silver color (by the way it looks very nice). The face plate in the center is transparent plastic which can be scratched easily. A second displace is on the outside that shows signal strength, time, battery and missed calls etc. It duplicate the first line (Icons) on the inside screen. It is visible under sunlight. Connectivity on this phone is good; it has blue tooth and an USB cable connection on the bottom. There is no Infrared connection though. There is a 2.5 mm ear phone plug on the top for those who do not use Bluetooth head phones. This phone plays MP3 files.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is what sets this phone apart from other phones. It enables the phone to connect to a Pocket PC/PDA or Laptop (wirelessly) and acts as a modem for connection to the internet. However, the net speed is about the same as dial up. Verizon are running 1x on their CDMA system which is about twice the speed of what this phone can do. Verizon is activating their 1DO network gradually and that will run about 300kbps in real life. When AT & T activates its 3G network then the net speed would improve but then this V600 is not a 3G phone. It would not be running any faster.
I am able to connect to my laptop, desktop and Toshiba e755 PPC using the Bluetooth connection. Pictures, MP3's and video can be transferred to the phone with no problem. I have a USB cable that can do the same thing and more. I'll explain the "more" part later. I do not have a Bluetooth headset yet, so I cannot test the Bluetooth connection. From all the reports and reviews that I've read that this Bluetooth headset connection is easy and without problem.
Event Lights
The V600 has a light on the flip cover which is called the event light. It is similar to the signal/service light on the top of some Samsung phones. This light can be set to light in different colors when the phone rings. When this event light is set on, it would flash every few seconds or so. I find the flashing light to be distracting and draw unnecessary attention. I turned it off. I set an audio alert when my phone gets disconnected or reconnected (when signal drops). This prevents me from chatting away without knowing that I was disconnected.
Contacts and Calendar
While this is not a smart phone, it has quite a lot of useful functions. With either a USB cable of Bluetooth, adding a Motorola Phone Tools (MPT) Software, both contacts and Calendar can be synchronized with your computer (much like a Pocket PC). Some people do not like the way Motorola's phone contact is set up as it does not allow multiple phone number under one name. However, this is not a bad thing if you use Voice dial. You can voice dial every contact on your contact list. It does not matter if it is a cell or work or home numbers as each of them is a separate entry. I do not sync my contact with my computer just the Calendar. As the contacts in my computer might not have a phone number.
Data Backup (Important)
If you do have this MPT, make sure you back up your contacts on your computer. I store all my phone numbers in the SIM not on the phone. The reason is that I switch phones from time to time. By putting all the numbers in the SIM card enables me to have all my phone numbers with me in any phone that I use. There is risk of doing this which I found out. I unlocked my phone and was testing the phone with different SIM cards from different phone companies. I asked my sons for his SIM card, he has a V300 from T-mobile. I dropped his SIM card into my V600 and everything works fine. While I was doing this, he dropped my SIM card into his phone. I had a SIM card password on my SIM card and told him not to play around with it. As usual he did not listen, he proceeded to unlock my SIM card not knowing that I had reset it, the Master Password no longer works. Before I knew what happened, he burned my SIM card. I had to go AT & T to get a new SIM card. Fortunately, I backed up my contacts on the laptop 3 days before. I was able to restore all the numbers back on to the new SIM card.
Camera
The V600 has a VGA camera that can capture JPG picture at 640x480. The camera is more of a gadget than a real camera. It is fixed focus and the image is not sharp, there is no flash also. That does not mean that it is not usable. It does take picture if the condition is right. It is not different than any fixed focus camera with no flash. It does take picture in dim light situation better than most camera that uses a film. There are 6 settings to adjust the "aperture". I find that most of the picture files are not big. It seems that the files are bigger when the picture is taken in bright sun light. The files are much smaller when the picture is taken in dim light. None of the file exceeds 50KB with about 40KB on the average. With 5MB of memory, I guess if could probably take about 100 pictures if you have nothing else (games/MP3's etc.) on the camera.
Video
The V600 can play Video but cannot record. This I do not understand as why would one want to watch a Video on a phone screen. Watching a Video on a Pocket PC is as small as I want to watch. Even if the V600 could record, the 5 MB internal shared memory would have enough room to store only one video clip. To made room for another video clip, the Java games and the camera would not have any storage left.
Games
Yes, this phone can play JAVA games. It comes with 2 games installed, Stuntman and Bejeweled. Bejeweled is a demo version which for a fee can be purchased via M-mode on AT & T network. I uninstalled the demo version and installed the full version using my laptop to upload the game. No, I did not have to pay for it. There are some many games out there and some many of them are located on the net, you can forever test and play them. Remember new ones are being added all the time. It does take some computer know-how and trail and error to do this but it sure is fun after you master the technique. I don't really like to play games that much but that is a challenge to be able to load the games. It took me about a week to figure how to do this. I also loaded Blackjack and Pac Man on my phone. One problem is that I was not able to selectively delete each game. If I delete, all JAVA Apps (games) would get deleted. Since I already know how to load games, I just have to reload the games that I want to keep.
Corrections (08/20/04) The JAVA games can be individually deleted.
Messaging
This V600 support SMS and MMS. Depends on your phone service, it is possible to have AIM and other forms of Instant Message system on this phone. You do have to Flex and Flash the phone to add these features. This is not a easy process and I do not recommend this unless you are willing to spend hours and hours of your time to do the research and modify the phone's software. The point is that this phone can be tailored to suit your needs. The V600 uses iTap program to input words and I find it does help to make inputting words faster.
AT & T Wireless Service / Email / Web connection
I wanted a Motorola MPX220 but I read that AT & T will not be carrying that phone. I want to use AT & T because of their cheap international call service. Like most people that I have grown used to my cell phone and seldom use my land line. Using cell phone to dial overseas is very expensive. AT & T has an international call service that cost US$3.99 per month and the rates are very cheap. Calling Hong Kong is only $0.09 per minute, China is $0.13 per minute and Australia is $0.07 per minute. This is the best rate that I have found so far using a cell phone to call overseas in USA. After reading so much about the Motorola V600, I took the plunge and got one from AT & T.
I know that AT & T locks their phones but I got one from AT & T for US$125.00 plus tax(50% off and a $25.00 Promotion got it down to $125.00). I get discount from AT & T because i worked for a company that has a contract with AT & T, I also got a discount (17% off)on monthly service. Using M-Mode on AT & T's data service is expensive compare to Tmobile's T-zone and unlimited data. However there is an Office Online service at AT & T that only cost US$9.99 per month (flat fee) that allows me to access email and Web. All I need is to have a computer on line acting as a server. I can probably use my company's server and I can always leave my desk top at home on and make it acts as my server. This seems to be a cheaper way than using the M-Mode. Since I just got my V600 2 weeks or so ago, I have not explored this yet.
http://www.attwireless.com/personal/features/officeonline/index.jhtml
I got information from reading HowardForum on how to unlock the Motorola V600. It only cost US$25.00 and it was not difficult to do.
http://www.gsmphonesource.com/products/customer/home.php?cat=38
So, I now have an unlocked V600 that cost me about US 180.00 (including sale tax). I obtain a Motorola USB data cable and software to connect to my laptop. Everything seems to be fine. I am able to send and receive photo, MP3's and files. I was able to learn how to customize my ring tone using MP3 song.
My V600 can read English, French and Spanish only. I need to enable it to read Chinese. The reason that I am interested is my friends in HK sometimes send me email in Chinese, and when I am in HK or China, people would send me SMS that are in Chinese. Motorola V600 is one of the phones that can be modified by changing the Software using a USB cable connected to the phone. The software is called Flash and Flex. This phone can be customized if you know how to. There are lots of free games and themes that can be loaded via USB or Bluetooth connections.
As a phone, this Motorola V600 is solid. It is one of the better looking Flip phones around. Some people might not like the antenna; I have no problem with it. The metal case and battery cover can be replaced with different color OEM parts from Motorola. There are lots of after market covers and parts that one can used on this phone. Aston Martin (the car company) released 1000 limited edition of this phone and the going price of one of these is about US$1500.00. Aston Martin parts (not free) and software (free) are available on the net. Rating this V600 as a phone I would have rate it a 8.5. The reason is that it is not a 3G phone and the GSM/GPRS connecting speed is not as good as the CDMA system. Realistically speaking even if the phone is capable of running at a higher speed, there is no system running at a higher speed yet (where I live). It might be obsolete when (it might be still awhile) the higher speed net work is in place.
As a gadget, this Motorola V600 would rate a 9.5. This phone can be customized both exteriorly (looks) and internally (software). I had spent hours working to get my Bluetooth USB connection set up (this includes laptop, desktop and Pocket PC). Normal folks would not have needed to spend so much time. I am trying to change software and customizing the phone. Hacking the software would free up about 2 MB of memory and bumped the internal memory to 7MB from 5MB. There are quite a few stuff that were installed in this phone, that cannot be deleted without going into the software.
Last tips when you are buying this phone.
Look directly at the camera lens and you want the red color ones not the white ones. The red ones are coated. Check the screen when the phone powers up. Just before the back light turns on, the screen should appear green for a brief moment. You want the green screen. Earlier screens were not as good quality as the later "green" ones. These green ones are made by Sharp. To save you all some time just look for the red lens and the green screen when you are buying one from the store. I have spent hours in researching and reading the Motorola boards on HowardForums. http://www.howardforums.com
Get a screen protector just like the ones that are used on Pocket PC's. I got a precut one from eBay and it fitted the screen perfectly. It cost about US$4.50 delivered. The screen protector severs two functions. First it protects the screen from scratches, the second reason is actually more important. It reduces the glare under bright sunlight. This makes the screen more readable under the sun.
Update on Bluetooth (07/20/04)
I finally got a Bluetooth headset. It is not a Motorola headset but a Sony Ericsson HBH-65. I opted for a Sony Ericsson headset for the looks and lighter weight. I was a little apprehensive about this as I was not sure if this Sony Ericsson headset would work with the Motorola V600. I am happy to report that both of these devices work together as if they were made for each other. No problem what so ever. Once it was paired, turn on the headset, then the Bluetooth on the V600, select Handsfree on the V600 and the devices are connected.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180.00
Recommended for: World Travelers - Works Anywhere and Everywhere!
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Epinions.com ID:
eddiey18
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Member: Edward Yee
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 1 member
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