Read This Review From Someone In The Industry!
Written: Jan 10 '05 (Updated Jan 10 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
 |
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Bluetooth Connectivity, High Quality Speakerphone, Tri-Mode, Large Display, ObeyMoto Feature
Cons: Camera Quality, Plastic Housing On Battery
The Bottom Line: Great choice for those who require Bluetooth connectivity in a small, compact form factor
|
|
|
| jonwes's Full Review: Motorola V710 Cellular Phone |
Preface
I'd like to begin by mentioning that I have been a Verizon Wireless corporate accounts representative for over eight years now. Needless to say, I've seen a great deal of handsets come and go during that time period. Some good, some bad, and everything in between. I've enjoyed seeing the evolution of the wireless phone over the past few years, as every new generation builds upon itself and offers more to the consumer. The Motorola v710 has now been added to the product lineup at Verizon Wireless, bringing Bluetooth capability for the first time to VZW customers. Let's take a look at my own personal experience with this phone over the last several months.
Specifications
Form Factor: Clamshell
Bands/Modes: CDMA 1X with aGPS Trimode (800/1900/Analog)
Size: 3.71 x 1.95 x 0.92 inches - size of phone with standard battery
Weight: 4.4 oz - weight of phone with standard battery
Display: 2.2" 176 x 220 upto 262K color TFT main display
4 Line 1.3" 96X64 upto 4K CSTN color sub display
Antenna: Retractable
Talk Time: up to 180 minutes, with standard battery
Standby Time: up to 165 hours, with standard battery
MSM 6100 (ARM9) chipset
WAP 2.0 Browser
Bluetooth® Headset/Carkit & DUN Profiles
BREW 2.1
Qualcomm CMX 4.0 Sound Engine
CE Bus connector for existing accessories support
1.2 M-pixel Camera
Multi-Media Messaging (MMS), SMS, EMS
Video clip capture & playback
Self Portrait Viewfinder External Display
64 Polyphonic, 18mm Office Quality Speaker Phone, Stereo Headset Support
Integrated MP3 Player, MP3 and MIDI Ringers
Picture Caller ID on External & Internal Display
Digital Camera Features: Photo Album, Slide Show Viewer, 4X Digital Zoom, Auto timer, Shutter Tones, Adjustable Resolution, Day & Night Lighting Modes, 4 Image Styles. Picture phone book.
Digital Camcorder Features: **Adjustable video length for upto 3 minutes, Recording sound on/off option, Adjustable video quality, Day & Night Lighting Modes
TransFlash Memory Expansion Slot
Speaker Independent Digit and Name Dialing Speech Recognition, enabled via phone's microphone speaker, headset and bluetooth accessory
Text to Speech enabled phonebook & keypad
5-way Navigation, Simultaneous button press for BREW Gaming
PIM functionality, PC Sync with optional Mobile Phone Tools Software, Predictive Text (iTAP), 500 Multi-fielded Phonebook Entries, Voice Memo, Currency Converter, Calculator
Appearance
The v710 is one of the better looking models to come out in recent history with a modern, metallic, grey/black appearance. The screen size is significantly larger than most of the phones on the market, providing for easy readability in almost every situation. Large, black numbers on a white background makes for easy character recognition even while driving (although not advised, you should really utilize the voice recognition feature while behind the wheel). The display is colorful and bright with a 260k color screen. The layout of the screen is well thought out and accessing the menu features is significantly improved over the older, v60 models. I should add at this point that I still prefer the intuitive interface of the LG phones better than Motorola's, but at least they are all in the same ballpark at this point. The keypad is attractive and larger than most phones on the market. As with most handsets, the "5" key is rather easy to find due to the bump on it, but the keys are not raised enough to be able to easily decipher which key you're pressing without looking at the phone. The size of the keys does make it somewhat easy to locate which column of keys you're in. On the left side of the phone you have volume up/down and the speakerphone button, while the right side has the instant camera access button along with the "ObeyMoto" key (more on this later). Car and home chargers plug into the bottom of the unit and additional memory card storage is located at the top of the unit. The 2.5 mm headset jack will be found at the top as well. Opposite the jack is the antenna that pulls up (unlike the v60 series), but has a rigid base to it that prevents the breakage problems that many people encountered with the StarTac series. One disappointment, which should be noted here, is the flimsy feeling plastic cover on the back of the phone over the battery housing. Motorola plastics have always been higher quality than most, but the metal backing on the v60 series really scored points with me and gave the phone a feeling of durability that I don't sense with the v710. The front of the phone is home to a rather large external caller id screen that provides easy access to signal strength, battery life, new voicemail messages, date, and the current time (updated automatically through the network, as with all VZW phones). The front also contains the camera lense at the twelve o'clock position and a small "flash" at the seven o'clock position. Two things here. . . some will criticize the v710 for not having some type of protective, retractable covering for the camera lense, and a clear understanding should be explained of what a cell phone flash actually consists of. Regarding the exposed lense, I personally haven't had a problem with it on the v710 nor on the LG VX-6000 I used for the year prior to this. Perhaps if you're rough on your phones, this may be a factor, but I personally wouldn't ding this model for lacking a cover of some sort. Now, regarding the flash that is advertised on many cell phones these days, what you should really expect is a relatively bright white LCD bulb that can provide additional light in dim situations. Please do not expect the type of flash that you find on commercially available digital/film cameras. Once you turn the flash on with the v710, it lights up and then becomes about twice as bright when you actually take the picture. It's a nice plus, but won't make a huge difference in most cases, making it somewhat of a novelty. Although somewhat larger and heavier than many phones on the market, I like the overall design and ergonomics of the v710 and would give it two thumbs up in this area.
Performance
This is the area of a handset that people should really be most concerned with. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people mistake problems inherent with their phone and attribute them to the network. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, which definitely applies here. The LG and Kyocera phones utilize the Qualcomm CDMA chipset, while Motorola, Samsung, and Nokia utilize their own, proprietory chipsets. I have found the v710 to perform the upper tier of the phones I've used recently. Drops are infrequent and I find that I have service even at my home that is in a weak coverage area. Signal remains intact whether the antenna is up or down. In weak areas, you always want to extend the antenna, because it can actually cause the phone to strain harder to maintain the signal, resulting in a higher rate of depletion of the battery charge.
Now on to the performance of the camera function. I must admit that I had high expectations of the camera on the v710, given that it was the first 1.2 Megapixel unit to come to market at VZW. My previous phone, the LG 6000, only had a 300K camera, so I expected a big increase in clarity and resolution. The short answer here is that my expectations fell short. I have made various comparisons in e-mailing the pictures to my home computer as well as viewing them on the screen of the phone. Either way, I saw very little, if any, difference between the pictures taken with this 1.2 Megapixel phone and my previous handset. Obviously there are many additional factors to take into consideration beyond the mere resolution of a camera, such as the quality of the lense and the way the actual picture is processed, but I would have expected a more noticeable difference. I would actually go so far here as to say that my older LG model took brighter and crisper photos than the v710. In the end, the cameras in the phones these days is more of a novelty than anything else and should be viewed as such. Given the small amount of space that manufacturer's have to work with these days, we shouldn't really expect a camera that would compete with your Nikon or Olympus units, which are one purpose units and usually about 2-3 times the size of the average phone.
I won't go into too much detail on the video feature of the v710, as many of the factors I described above that pertain to the camera also apply to the video messaging functionality. It's essentially a feature of the phone that allows you to take 15 second videos and save them in the phone and/or send them to an e-mail address or another camera phone.
I was very impressed with the performance of the speakerphone on the v710. Loud, clear, and easy to use. It can be activated with the touch of one button on the left side of the phone, whether you're in standby mode or in the middle of a call. I have tested this feature under many different calling conditions and it always performs at the top of its class. It should be noted that even at full volume, you may have difficulty hearing the other party while driving. Clipping the unit to your sun visor with the included holster might be a good idea if you'll be on the phone in the car quite a bit. It makes sense that Motorola's speakerphone excels, given that they have been including it in their Nextel line of handsets for quite some time now.
I haven't mentioned Bluetooth connectivity up until now, so here we go. For those who are unaware, Bluetooth is a wireless technology that eliminates traditional wiring between various components (i.e. car kits, headsets, wireless networking, etc.) The one BT accessory I have used thusfar is the headset, which is most likely the one that would appeal to most of the population. Setup is rather easy, although I found that I wasn't holding down the button on the headset long enough (a full 5 seconds) to initialize the synchronization between the handset and the headset. Once synchronized, the system worked very well. As soon as the headset is powered on, the phone recognizes the unit and all calls now route through the wirless headset. I found the range to be good, about 20-25 feet or so before static become overpowering. The voice activated dialing portion of the v710 can be used via the BT headset as well, just by speaking. The one unfortunate aspect of the BT phones on VZW is the fact that it has effectively been "dumbed down" in preservation of the Get It Now applications and other downloadable content that would otherwise be accessible through various methods. Fortunately, the most commonly used BT applications are fully functional.
Given that I touched on the voice activated dialing in the previous paragraph, I should expand on that. Voice dialing on a number of the newer handsets has come a long way since its inception. In the early models, you had to setup a voice recording for every phonebook entry that you wanted to access. In today's market, phones such as the v710 have "speaker independent" voice activated dialing, which allows you to dial any entry in your phonebook without setting anything up. This is much closer to "true" voice recognition. You essentially set your phonebook up or import it from your previous handset, then hit the "ObeyMoto" key on the right side of the handset, say "Name Dial", then the name of the entry (i.e. "John Smith"), and lastly whether you want to dial his "Mobile", "Home", or "Office" number (if there are multiple numbers available for that entry). I must say that the accuracy is very good and the errors I have encountered are generally my fault for not remembering if I have someone listed in my phone as "John Smith" or "Smith John". In addition to the voice dialing commands, "ObeyMoto" also allows you to access "Digit Dialing", "Camera", "Voice Mail", "Redial", and "Received Calls" using your voice. Digit Dialing is my second favorite, allowing you to dial a number simply by saying it (i.e. 5-5-5-1-2-1-2). The obvious advantage to speaker independent voice dialing is the sheer fact that multiple people can access the phonebook, unlike previous generations of voice activated dialing that limited this functionality to one user.
I should also note that the v710 is a tri-mode phone, which means it includes both analog as well as digital. To be exact, 800 Mhz Analog, 800 Mhz CDMA, and 1.9 Ghz CDMA. This is still a valuable feature for those times that you're in a very weak digital area or perhaps an area that lacks digital altogether, albeit rare for this to be the case nowadays. Many phones are going the "all digital" route today, which has its advantages too. Dropping into analog will deplete the battery by three times the rate of digital, so be aware of this. Also, analog is prone to static and cross-talk, as we all know, and it lacks privacy protection and can essentially be picked up by anyone with an 800 Mhz scanning device. For this reason, I stress the importance of NEVER giving out personal and confidential information while in analog mode (easily recognized by the "A" on the screen of the phone next to the signal strength indicator as opposed to the "1X" or "D" you'll find when in digital).
Compatibility
A big advantage (depending on how you look at it) to the v710 is the compatibility between itself and previous generation Motorola handsets. Most of the commonly owned accessories, such as car chargers, travel chargers, desktop chargers, and headsets will be able to be used with the new v710. This means that if you have a v60c/i/s, T720, T730, v120c/e, c343, or any of the other recent Motorola offerings, you won't have to go out a buy any of the before mentioned accessories for your new phone. There were quite a few critics in existence that weren't big fans of the Motorola chargers, but I personally haven't had a problem with them and have grown to prefer them over chargers from most other manufacturers. The three-pin, spring loaded connection rarely needs cleaning and almost always provides good contact. This cross compatibility is a big asset for Motorola fans.
Conclusion
The Motorola v710 brought many things to Verizon Wireless for the first time, including a 1.2 Megapixel camera and Bluetooth connectivity. Although each of these features aren't quite what I would have liked them to be in their purest form, they are still a big step in the right direction for future handsets. The important point to note in the release of the v710 is the huge improvement it makes over its predecessor, the "T" series (i.e. T720 & T730). I was afraid that Motorola was taking a permanent step back in the marketplace with the release of these phones, but the v710 restores confidence that momentum is again moving in the right direction. Kudos to the R&D folks at Moto for learning from their mistakes and taking corrective action. Overall, I am impressed with the v710 and would recommend it to those who can benefit from its advanced features. For those who don't require Bluetooth connectivity or a higher resolution camera, they may want to consider lower cost options in the marketplace or perhaps wait for the price point on the v710 to drop further. At this moment in time, this is about as good as it gets in the wireless world!
Recommended:
Yes
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jonwes
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: Los Angeles, California
Reviews written: 55
Trusted by: 20 members
About Me:
"Despite the fact that everyone has them, our opinions are what differentiate us"
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.