Great phone--for some people
Written: Sep 21 '02
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Pros: QWERTY keyboard, easy access to SMS, email, WAP (internet), speaker phone is fantastic
Cons: must use speakerphone or handsfree device, battery life short, menus hard
The Bottom Line: Be the right person for the phone (and not the other way around), and you'll love it. Otherwise, skip it and pretend to be cool enough to carry one around.
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| netwerk23's Full Review: Motorola Personal Communicator V200 Cell Phone |
When my StarTAC died, I needed a new phone. I realized that I spend most of my time SMS'ing and using WAP and the standard using-numbers-for-their-letters thing was getting very old. Looked around for a new device, and found the v200 from Motorola. Would I buy it? Would it fulfill my needs??! Tune in next paragraph for the answers to these and...blah blah
Yes, I bought it. With activation, 2 year service plan and phone, came to just over 210 USD. Here is the shortform:
Pros
Awesome QWERTY keyboard navigation and typing. Nice and big (but could definitely be bigger) screen. Speakerphone totally rocks! Solid design. Lots of "oh wow! that's a cellphone??" comments from other people. The ability to easily send and receive SMS and WAP messages is awesome if you use them a lot.
Cons
Get used to talking on a hands-free device if you value battery talk-time. Menus can be difficult to navigate and don't always make sense (as in, why is the "Lock Phone" option burried away 4 menus deep? I use it all the time!--not the "Lock Keypad" function). Battery life is deplorable, I can get about 2 hours talk time and it's dead.* No way to maintain a certain network**. The carrying belt thing is pesky and doesn't hold real tight. No simple COM port***
Resolution:
If you're someone who values SMS and using the internet over simple talking, this device is for you. Me, I'm usually in an office, so it's great. If i spent a lot of time in noisy environments, this phone could be a problem. As per the silly stuff, it's ok with lots of ringtones (vibrate too), but no games and no calculator. Overall, I would recommend this phone to a very select few, and that's probably why no one's buying them.
*Spare batteries at Verizon dot com were 50USD+10 to ship, at Motorola's site they were 29USD with free shipping. hmmm..
**my StarTAC let you set home-network only, analog only or mixed. Nice feature to avoid excessive charges
***programming in 250 new contacts names, phone numbers and addresses would've been infinately easier if Motorola had included an IR port to send and receive IR data from my Palm.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 210
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netwerk23
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