If you have to get stuck with an analog phone, pray it's this one!
Written: Jun 26 '01
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Pros: Excelent quality, high-end analog phone, great feature set, nice styling
Cons: Iff'y speaker quality, microscopic buttons, confusing user interface
The Bottom Line: If your still using analog service, this is your dream cell phone.
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| kfj001's Full Review: Motorola StarTAC 6500 Cell Phone |
The Star Trek, err—Tac.
Motorola’s StarTac series of phones are quite stylish. The
flip-open and talk, “Capitan Kirk” communicator styling of
this cell phone have made it one of the most recently
copied styles (by Samsung, and several other companies
including Motorola themselves).
The StarTac is Motorola’s new favorite design, a welcome
change from the original “Tac” (the bulky, brick shaped
cell-phone back in the early 90’s). Motorola’s new StarTac
was to become the hot, new design for the era of ‘stylish’
communications.
Features
The StarTac is quite a stylish little phone, with the
emphasis on little. The StarTac is only a few ounces in
weight, only two or so inches across, and less than a quarter of an inch wide. This very slim, very small phone packs quite a lot of punch considering its dwarfish size (which is considered “standard” now.)
The StarTac features a 100-location phone book, flip-open
to talk mode (no buttons), clique styling, multiple ring tones, and integrated vibrator. This isn’t even a “basic” feature set, its considered high-end. Let’s get one thing straight; this is an analog phone. Analog phones don’t come with a lot of cool features, like messaging, or anything else for that matter. For an analog phone, this StarTac packs a whole mint worth of features.
The most notable feature is this phones built in vibrator. A
lot of phones don’t come with the inherent ability to vibrate instead of ring. Simply use the two-button “quick feature” combination to activate vibrating instead of ringing, and you’re off!
(NOTE: Please do not read into the previous paragraph too
heavily.)
Instead of annoying people constantly with your ringing,
you can silently vibrate to be notified when an incoming call is coming. Arguably one of the most high-end features this phone packs. But the vibrating isn’t its only feature. This phone comes with a 100 entry quick-dial (phone book)storing names and numbers just like every other phone out there. This isn’t a spectacular feature per-se, considering virtually every other phone on the market does the same thing.
There is no such thing as this thing called ‘perfection’
This phone is far from perfect. There are a lot of design
problems that Motorola has still not corrected in this stylish, and high-end phone.
Firstly the interface; using your cell phone and operating a
computer should NOT require nearly the same amount of learning and thinking. This particular model of phone
features a confusing, but workable configuration interface driven by a menu, which more like a list of configurable features that scroll out on the dinky one-line display.
You set options by selecting the “feature” from the list
(such as ‘ring type’ or ‘open to answr’) and toggle “on” or
“off”. The problem is that there is only so much “clue” you
can give in a one line display about what your doing, so
having the manual with you while your programming is
(unfortunately) a must. Motorola’s newer StarTac’s no longer use this system, but now feature a clear screen with an easy to use menu.
Aside from programming, making calls in general isn’t an easy task with this phone. The buttons on this phone (the 0-9, send and end buttons) have been scaled down dramatically to accommodate this phones lack of psychical size. The buttons each barely measure 1/16th of an inch each, and
don’t feature any “hard-press” tactile feedback when you
push them. People who dial with their index figures are
going to often hit more than just one button if they aren’t
careful enough. It’s very easy to mis-dial, so forget about
dialing in the car unless you want to hit every tree between
your starting point, and the pearly gates.
You’ll notice this particular model’s next flaw; the speaker.
The audio speaker on this phone is very grainy at higher
volumes. You’ll notice when pumping up the volume on this
phone just how quickly noise on either end are reproduced in annoying detail. However, the speaker never gets unusable, just annoying, and it only happens when the
phone is set to higher-volumes. I should also point out that this phone is (for the most part)hearing aid friendly. Some phones are not, and some hearing aids are not compatible with this phone. The best way to find out is to make a call on it.
But with all that, this phone is unquestionably the nicest ANALOG cell phone available on the market. Nothing Nokia ever made can even come close, and probably never will.
But its still analog
Getting one (a phone) isn’t really possible anymore because cell stores stopped carrying them when analog service went the way of the dodo. Only pre-paid, and really awful service providers are providing analog service, and even then, those pre-paid boxes of “cell phone” don’t sell Motorola’s analog StarTac’s.
But if you can get one, I highly suggest you do, this is a spectacular ANALOG phone.
Digital is not analog, and vice versa
You’ve noticed I’ve thrown the word “analog” around quite a
bit. There’s a reason for that. Most cell phone users are
now using digital technology service these days. This phone pre-dates such services. Digital service customers have NO use for this particular model cell phone.
But, if you’re an analog subscriber (and you know it), this is your dream phone, and your lucky to find it, or have someone who used to have one, and doesn't need it anymore.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kfj001
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Member: Kyle
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Reviews written: 138
Trusted by: 30 members
About Me:
"Testing", "Destroying", it's all just one big, gray line to me.
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