Motorola v180: Goodbyemoto, Once Again
Written: Mar 30 '05
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Pros: Good design; cool extra features like speakerphone, USB connectivity, & AIM
Cons: Earpiece sucks!
The Bottom Line: I wanted to like this phone, I really did. But the earpiece made a noise that I just couldn't deal with.
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| mashimaru's Full Review: Motorola V180 |
I've used cell phones with cameras for a couple of years now, and I've discovered that I don't need a camera, and no longer want one on my cell phone. (It's actually become kind of a challenge to try and find a cell phone with no camera - they seem to all have them now.) I also don't text very much. So the primary use of this phone is for talking, which means: easy access to the phone book and call history, and the phone itself should sound good.
One of my first "real" cell phones was the LG TouchPoint 1100. I've had various cell phones in the past with teeny plans on them for emergencies, so I didn't care much about how they worked. But the TouchPoint 1100 was the first phone that I used regularly. Even though that phone is really old now, it got a lot of things right design-wise. It was one of the first flip phones to have an external display (a must for flip phones), and a four-way navigation button. It also featured an intuitive way to program and access the phone book, including a way to store several numbers under one name. This is such basic stuff that it makes me wonder why all flip phones aren't made this way.
But they aren't. Remember when Motorola StarTac's were all the rage? And at about the same time I bought the TouchPoint, my mother bought a Motorola v3682, which was quite popular and much more expensive. Its strength was its tiny-ness and sleek exterior. (We nicknamed it "Zoolander.") But due to its lame interface and poor keyboard layout, it was just plain frustrating to use. For example, it took no less than eight moves to get you to your "Recent Calls," and that's only if you remembered to push all the right buttons. The "menu" (if you can even call it that) was so random that you could never figure out how you got somewhere. It basically required that you memorize the entire menu structure, or else you were just wandering through it blindly to try and get it to do basic stuff. To access the phone book, you often had to scroll through your entire list, or memorize the number it randomly assigned to a listing and could not change.
As a result of this frustrating experience, I recently bought a Motorola v180 with some apprehension. Its outside dimensions are actually quite similar to the Motorola v3682 – it's about the same size, and everything is in the same place. The keypad has been vastly improved, but otherwise, the two phones feel similar in my hand.
* Features:
Motorola essentially copied a lot of features which made the early LG and Samsung phones popular – the external display, the four-way navigation, and an intuitive phone book design. The Motorola v180 has a lot of this good stuff, but it still didn't quite get everything right. For example, although there is a way to program several numbers under one name, it just creates a separate listing for each: there will be three identical listings for "Dad" - one for "Work," "Home" and "Mobile" - but no way to tell which is which, unless you click "View" to actually look at the number. I've tried sorting the phone book both by "All Contacts" and "Primary Contacts" - but this didn't change anything. Also, you have to save your listing to your phone instead of your SIM card if you want to designate what type of phone number it is, or if you want to use Ringer or Picture ID for a particular listing.
In addition, there is no way to program the Speed Dial - the phone assigns a number based on the order you've entered it into the phone book, and you're just stuck with that. What a bummer.
Also, the call history has two categories – "Received Calls" and "Dialed Calls" but doesn't have a category for "Missed Calls." Calls you miss end up in "Received Calls," which is inconvenient.
The four-way navigation button is nice, and all the buttons, including the two soft keys are programmable - this is a useful feature. But the "Menu" button is right above it, so it's very easy to accidentally push that when all you want is to push the "Up" button.
Another nice feature is the ability to quickly adjust your ringer sound from the main screen, simply by pressing the two volume keys on the left side of the phone (which also controls speaker volume during a conversation). The ringer volume can also be programmed from the menu – which includes two categories: "Soft" and "Loud." However, I can't tell what the distinction is. The ringer sound at Soft, Volume 7 sounds exactly the same at Loud, Volume 7. Hrm ... whatever.
So, all in all, design-wise, the Motorola v180 is above-average in its design functions, making it easy to do all the things you do most with your cell phone. But it still hasn't gotten it quite right.
* Screen:
The best thing you can say about the Motorola v180's color screen is that ... it looks nicer than a black-and-white screen. But compared to just about every other color phone out there, it's cruddy-looking. It's small, and the colors look washed-out. But again, if you don't care about a fancy screen (and I don't), then it's fine. It's perfectly functional.
* Other Features:
The Motorola v180 also has a speakerphone, which is very useful and sounds as good as can be expected - perfect for checking your voice mail and such, but don't expect to have great-sounding conversations with the phone in your lap in the car. The v180 also has a USB connectivity port, although you need to buy a separate cable for that, and I don't plan to. It also has AIM, which I don't use.
* Exterior Design:
The Motorola v180 has a good, sleek look, with a fixed antenna. It's got a glossy black front panel (which you can replace for fun!), a gray plastic back, and a matte black interior. The keypad lights up blue, which is nice. The phone itself feels a bit flimsy – I don't personally mind the plastic exterior, because I'm fairly gentle with my phones. But it does feel cheap, and makes the phone feel like a toy. Aside from the flimsy exterior, I like the general look of the phone: it's slim and simple.
The phone comes with a charger, and a basic hands-free device, which doesn't have any buttons that let you answer or hang-up calls, so you have to open your phone to do those things while using your earphone/mic. But the sound is all right.
The ringers that come with the phone are also good, and includes a handful of "regular" rings. Great! One of the things that bug me about Samsung phones is that they often don't have any plain-vanilla rings. Even though I download and use fun ringtones, I like the option of a regular ring sound.
* The Dealbreaker:
The Motorola v180, design-wise, is a fine phone. It's the perfect size, the exterior design looks great, and the menu is quite user-friendly. It has some flaws and idiosyncrasies, but its basic functions all work well enough.
However, the Motorola v180, performance-wise, sucks. For a very simple reason: I've noticed that when it's quiet, I can hear a constant, high-pitched "eeeee" sound from the earpiece. It's pretty faint, and I can't hear it when it's noisy around me. But if I'm in a quiet room, this sound is distracting. No other cell phone I've ever used makes that sound. I had my friends hold my phone to their ear to see if they can hear that "eeeee" sound – and they did. It's audible enough to freak me out. I feel like the phone is giving me brain cancer. (Which it probably is, but I don't want to hear it!) I don't think it's a defect of my particular phone. I went to my local T-Mobile retailer to try another v180, and had the same problem with it.
A lesser problem is that conversations sound a bit muddy, kind of like I placed a piece of fabric over the earpiece. It's still perfectly good enough, but it's far from a glorious crystal-clear sound.
I ended up exchanging my Motorola v180 for another model (Samsung x475), mostly because of the crazy "eeeee" sound, and it made a world of difference: better sound during conversations, no more freaky "eeeee" noise even in a quiet room.
So even with all the pluses, I have to conclude that the Motorola v180 is an inferior phone, especially when there are superior models available at similar prices. If you're interested in the Motorola v180, I suggest you to give the phone a try before you buy. See how the earpiece sounds to you compared to other models - it may not bother you at all, in which case, enjoy! The phone looks good and the functions are quite accessible. But the earpiece bothered me enough to give up this phone.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 120
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy
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mashimaru
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Location: California
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"Heavy is the head that eats the crayons!"
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