The Motorola V710: a brief user's take
Written: Jun 03 '05 (Updated Jun 05 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
|
Pros: comfortable to use, many well-developed features
Cons: short battery life, quirky ObeyMoto voice recognition
The Bottom Line: Comfortable to use and with great features, this phone has been a great means for me to stay connected.
|
|
|
| webguy's Full Review: Motorola V710 Cellular Phone |
There are already so many good reviews on the 710, so I'll simply share my personal experience sofar with the phone. I won't run through all the techy details here, but if you'd like that straight from Motorola, go here: http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/web_producthome.asp?Country=USA&language=ENS&productid=29314
That aside, I'll focus on aspects most important to me: sound quality, ease of dialing, and other special features that make cell phone enjoyable to use.
Sound quality and comfort. My last phone was an LG VX 10, a small flip model from two years past that's surpassed by nearly all the current models. My principal issue with this phone has been sound quality and battery life; callers often complained of a distant, staticy connection, and I never enjoyed speaking for long. In this regard, I've found the 710 a significant improvement in clarity and consistency. Additionally, the speakerphone option is quite audible, allowing me to carry on a conversation holding the phone a few feet away.
Although larger than my previous phone, the 710 is nicely contoured and fits more comfortably in my hand. The case shape and stainless trim give it a tangible heft that I prefer over smaller, lighter models. While the battery life is satisfactory, a long call quickly drains any reserve. This could be an issue if you conduct a lot of business via cell.
Ease of dialing. Dialing with smaller phones, such as my LG, has been a difficult contortion for my large hands. That's why I appreciate the larger keypad of the 710; my hand no longer needs to twist awkwardly to dial single-handed. The backlit keys and the screen brightness are very legible in darker settings. I never imagined I could use a cell phone to light the keyhole of my front door, but the large lcd screen illuminates better than a keychain flashlight.
Beyond simple key dialing, I really like the ObeyMoto voice-command dialing. Once I became accustomed to its workings, I found it easy to dial while driving--at a minimum of distraction. The only downside: once it "recognizes" a name, it dials immediately without user confirmation. So if you have a lot of similar names in your address book, you may get misdials using this feature. My solution has been to create distinct names for each entry.
Other cool features I enjoy: a few things the sales rep didn't tell me about:
• You can assign a special photo and ringtone to each name in your address book.
• Setting the phone to viabrate first, then ring: a great feature for public settings.
• Email messages containing text, pictures, or video (without added services). The manual doesn't tell you how to do this, but it's quite easy to email directly from the phone's message center. The only downside is the limited text length (approx. 9 message lines).
• When typing in an email address used before, it's nice how the phone will complete the address, saving me the trouble.
• The video camera is fun for capturing short clips, saving as well-compressed, quicktime-friendly attachments to emails.
• Multiple alarm settings with choice of ringtones and 8-minute snooze increments.
• The calendar has enough features and alarm settings to make it useful.
One word on price: While I estimated Verizon's retail price, with my rebates it cost about $25.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
Recommended for: Professionals On-the-Go - Internet and Email is a Must!
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
webguy
|
|
Member: Kurt S.
Location: California coast
Reviews written: 37
Trusted by: 47 members
About Me:
I'm an avid kayaker, biker and hiker.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.