Sturdy little phone.
Written: Oct 22 '02
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Pros: Small, Smart, Tough-Skinned and a long-lasting battery.
Cons: Hard to add ringtones, bulbous antenna. Not much of a PDA.
The Bottom Line: A small, stylish, easy to use, sturdy and reliable telephone. Not a pda, not a digital camcorder, not a gameboy. A good business-like piece of communications gear.
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| fritz_t_coyote's Full Review: Motorola V60t |
Recently I managed to kill yet another mobile phone, most recently a Motorola v2397 (read my review of that phone for details); so once again I had to find a new phone.
This time I had the luxury of some warning; so I was able to shop around for another phone compatible with my existing service.
This little Motorola has a wealth of features (check out the excellent Motorola website for a full list); Most useful is the voice dial.
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Using it:
With the phone closed the first thing you notice is the big bump of an antenna sticking out of the case. Yes, it looks vulnerable. But it is a simple screw-in and should be easy to replace if it snaps off.
The second thing you notice is the metal case. It should last longer than the plastics used on other phones. Also there is a one line multi-function display, and several soft control buttons that allow you to adjust and use the phone even while it is closed.
Flipping the phone open (with practice you should be able to open it one handed, too bad it doesn't make a 'chirp-chirp-chirp' sound like the Star Trek (TOS) communicators) you notice that the keyboard is well labeled, important keys have special shapes and are clearly marked.
The top 3 function keys are smart, the perform different functions depending on what you are doing; the display screen indicates what functions are active, making it simple and non-surprising as you negotiate the many menus and options. And there are a lot of menus, because there are a lot of features. But don’t worry, most are rarely used, and you can easily set up custom shortcut keys to the features you use the most.
There is a good selection of built-in ring tones, and provision to add your own (sadly, I have only been able to add them by keying them in, downloading of ring tones is something that I have not tried to tackle yet. I'll let you know how it goes). You can set it to different volume levels, silence, vibrate and a handy vibrate and ring combination both on the ring control menu, and with a pair of external buttons while the case is closed. When the recharger cord is connected to the phone, it automatically switches from vibrate to ring. Rather clever of it to know that if you have the phone plugged into the wall, you are probably not wearing it.
The Phone Book
The V60’s phonebook has the brains to know that many people have multiple phone numbers, like home, work, mobile, fax or pager. So you can associate as many phone numbers as you need with a person, and identify them with clever little icons. The phone book also lets you enter email addresses, in case you are ever desperate enough to want to key in an email using the iTap predictive text entry system.
The call memory system lets you easily add to the phone book any call you have already dialed, or been called by (except if the caller ID has been blocked). And if someone in your phone book calls, their name shows up on the caller id display. Which is duplicated on a one-line data window on the outside of the case. Normally it shows the date and time, or the important news of 'no service';
Voice Dialing:
There is voice dialing, a very useful tool. You set it up by recording a voice associated with a number in the phone book. It may take a couple of tries to get the recording right, but once you have it set up it works fine. Using it is especially cool since you can use it with the phone closed if you have a headset plugged in, making this the most hands-free phone I have ever used. Speaking of headset, it plugs into a simple, reliable standard 2.5mm 3 conductor socket. There is a separate 'multiplug' at the bottom of the phone for more sophisticated connections, including an optional USB interface cable to allow you to synch your phone with your PC phone book. I'll let you know if I ever get one.
It also has a voice memo system, which is great for ‘remember to pick up milk on the way home’ messages, and sends and receives short text messages, the latter assisted by the quirky-but-worth-trying iTap ‘predictive text entry’ system.
Date book
Short text messages can also be entered into a little date book. If you have modest needs you can use this dinky little display to enter your appointments. If your needs are more elaborate, or if you have enough calendar entries to even consider synchronizing them with a pc, you’ll probably be happier with a real PDA.
We Got Game. After a fashion.
Another thing that it is not: It is not a Gameboy. It does come with 3 lame little games, which might someday be useful to kill a few minutes while waiting in line at the DMV.
BATTERY LIFE:
I get 3-4 days of my average My Real World use on a single charge of the Lithium-Ion battery. I use my phone for 20-60 minutes a day; I recharge the battery before it becomes too flat to supply 60 minutes of talk time. This is not comparable to the typical published battery ratings, which are analogous to EPA MPG figures (“your mileage may vary”). What use is an ֲ day battery’ that only has 5 minutes of talk time after 7 days of standby?
The ‘travel charger’ has a nifty fold-flat prongs for easy travel; It is the first travel charger I have seen that actually lives up to the name. It connects firmly to the multi-plug base of the phone, the phone remains usable while charging.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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Epinions.com ID:
fritz_t_coyote
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Member: Fritz Coyote
Location: New York, NY, USA
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Computer tech. Gearhead. SF 'fan'.
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