"Beam Me Up Scotty", with my Star TAC ST7868W
Written: Oct 28 '01
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Pros: Small, lightweight, has internet capability, many useful functions
Cons: Small, can easily get lost
The Bottom Line: A serious minded digital, diminutive cell phone with gigantic capabilities. Has caller Id, voice mail, text messaging, a mini-browser and data connectivity capability.
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| gp4evr's Full Review: Motorola StarTAC ST7868W Cell Phone |
For my birthday this year my husband purchased a Star TAC ST7868W cell phone for me.
He has a Nokia 5160 provided to him by his company. There had been a number of times I was out shopping or running errands and he wanted to get in touch with me and couldn't, and I would sweetly tell him that if I had a cell phone we could always be in touch with each other.
I had been wanting a cell phone for some time. Not only to be able to contact each other, but also for saftey and convenience while traveling.
My brother has had a Star TAC phone for a couple of years, and he is very happy with it. I liked his phone better than the Nokia.
My daughter likes her dads Nokia because she can play 3 different games on it (snake, memory & logic ) and she likes to change his 30 different ringing tones which range from jingle bells to Fur Elise.
I wanted a serious cell phone. I figured if my phone had games and fun things on it my daughter would probably be playing with it a lot and that was not my purpose in having it.
My Star TAC weighs only 4oz. and it is a clam style phone. When closed it is only 2" wide by 3 3/4" tall.
It came with a battery, belt clip, a home charger and a fat little user's guide. I signed up with Verizon for my service provider.
This diminutive phone really has gigantic capabilities.
Here is a quick overview of the phone:
PWR Turns the phone on and off.
Icon of an envelope Opens messaging menus
FCN Acts as a "shift" key to access the secondary functions of other keys.
RCL recalls phone numbers from memory and acts as the left soft key for mini-browser navigation.
STO Stores phone numbers into memory and acts as the right soft key for mini-browser navigation.
CLR clears characters from the screen.
END ends phone calls and exits the menu.
SEND places or answers calls.
* can be used to scroll through memory entries,
# and menu features.
Alphanumeric Display displays your input from the keypad, information from memory, and other messages.
Microphone positioned for convenient conversation.
Retractable Antenna Extend for best performance.
Earpiece Ultra-compact phone speaker
Headset Jack Connects an optional headset.
Accessory Connector Provides the connection for an external power supply.
Volume Keys Located left of the display and represented by up & down icons, these keys adjust the volume and scroll up and down through memory locations and main features.
Smart Button in between the up & down volume keys, this handy button puts a variety of functions at your fingertips by opening the
Quick Menu,
Opening your phone book,
Entering the menu system,
Selecting items in the menu,
Turning features on and off
and placing and ending calls.
There is a service light on the top of the phone which flashes green when your phone is on, red & green alternating with an incoming call or message. This is a nice feature since normally you could not tell if your phone is on or off when it is closed. This flashing light alerts you that the phone is on with just a glance.
It takes just a quick glance in my purse to check if I have my phone on. I can easily see the little red flashing light in the dark recesses of my purse. The smallness of this phone is somewhat of a problem in that it likes to get lost down in my purse, but I usually can spot the flashing light. I am considering getting a purse with an outside pocket to eliminate feeling around for it.
Every time you turn on the phone it performs a system self check and then connects to your service. It then displays signal strength, the time & date, battery strength and whether you are in digital or analog mode.
IU appears when a call is in progress,
RM when your phone accesses a wireless service outside of your home system,
NS appears when calls cannot be placed or received from your location,
an envelope icon appears when you have received a alphanumeric message or a mini-browser alert,
an envelope icon with a speaker symbol appears to indicate that you have voice mail.
There is a special symbol that appears if you have your phone set for vibrate only, a symbol which indicates if your phones tones are set to be silenced and another symbol which indicates if you have set both the ringer and vibra call alert to be on.
You can dial numbers up to 32 digits, but only the last 24 digits will display.
When the wireless system is too busy to handle a call you can use auto redial and this phone will repeat the call attempt for four minutes.
Or, you can just press redial when ever you are ready to try connecting again.
The Star TAC keeps track of the last ten numbers you have dialed.
If you have subscribed to caller ID you can see who is calling before you answer otherwise, the display will show your callers name if it is in your phone book and if not it will show the callers number. The caller IDs for the last 16 callers are saved.
If your phone is on but you are unable to answer for some reason, this phone keeps track of unanswered calls.
If you subscribe to call waiting, you will hear a tone while on a call, indicating that you are receiving a second call.
The earpiece, keypad and ringer volumes are all adjustable.
You can store up to 99 numbers. Each memory location allows you to store up to 4 numbers. For example in one location you could store the home, mobile, fax and work number of a single individual. You have the option to recall by name or location.
If you are on the phone and someone gives you a telephone number to call you can use the "scratchpad" to make a quick note of it. You just enter the number on the keypad and press STO. Then after you end your call, just press send and it will call this number, or you can press STO again and then proceed to store the number in your phone book.
Additional features include pause dialing, memory linking, and storing calling card numbers.
Call timers are a handy item included on this phone. There are three visual and three audible call timers. This allows you to monitor or record the length of individual calls, set a timer to track monthly usage, or have the phone alert you at intervals that you specify.
In Tone controls you can choose from nine different ringer styles, activate and deactivate the vibra call alert, silence the keypad, silence all the phone's tones and set the message reminder.
This phone transmits tones to communicate with automated calling systems like voicemail or bank by phone. These tones are set by default but you can choose to transmit the tones for a longer period.
There is a secure options submenu Which allows you to choose a pin to lock your phone and also lets you program the phone so only numbers you have chosen may be dialed for the purpose of loaning your phone to your child or a friend.
There are a whole slew of custom options you can program your phone for such as language, message banner display and customizing the backlight.
You can choose to have your phone automatically answer when opened and automatically end the call when closed.
(I like my Star TAC to end the call when I close the phone but I chose not to have it answer when I open it because I want to see who is calling first.)
Auto hyphen will automatically put a hyphen between area codes, call prefixes and other numbers.
Choose a 24 or 12 hour clock, decide if you want your service light on or off or Customize your mini browser.
Accessory Options
If you purchase the optional Motorola Data Connectivity kit you can transform the Star TAC into a portable fax modem.
You can also exchange select information to your compatable desktop, laptop or handheld computer and vice versa.
Hands Free Vehicle Kit
Easy Install Hands-Free Car Kit
Star TAC Clip-On Hands Free Speaker
Star TAC Clip-on-Organizer
I have had this cell phone for about a month now and I have to admit although it is pretty easy to send and receive calls it takes a bit of time studying and practicing to use all these features and set up all the custom options to my liking.
I don't use the text messaging. I have no real need to. My daughter thought it was cool and sent me a text message just to see it work. But if I want to get in touch with someone I want to talk to them. After all that is the whole point in having the phone to begin with.
This text messaging just happened to be an additional feature which might be important to some people, but not to me.
The two features I really like the most are the address book and the voice mail.
There is plenty of room to store phone numbers and I like how I can store my husbands (and others) mobile, work, fax or home numbers under one name with icons representing the different numbers ( house for home etc.).
If I can't answer the phone for some reason, I can check the voice mail and get the message. The phone puts out a beep every 2 minutes to alert you to a voice mail message. If you don't like to hear this alert, you can turn it off.
The sound quality is excellent. I can hear quite clearly and my friends always think I am calling them from my home phone the connections are so crisp and clear.
As I mentioned before this phone being quite small could be easily lost, so care must be taken. Mine is usually lost in my purse lol, but at least it is lost in a contained area.
The standby battery life is 185 hours and the talk time battery life is 225 minutes. I purchased a car charger so I could charge up the phone while I was away or on the road if I needed to.
I also purchased a headset so I could talk hands free while in the car. This was the least expensive route to go.
The hands free vehicle kit with installation would have been $200. That was a mite too pricey for me. I asked how much the kit would be if my husband installed it, but they would not sell it that way.
The luminescent backlit display is very easy to see and read in bright light or in the dark. It holds 4 lines of text and 2 lines of icons and one time.
It fits nicely in my hand and is so light weight takes no effort at all to hold up to my ear and talk.
The antenna slides easily out and back in again.
This phone reminds me of the communicators they used on the old Star Trek movies. I vividly remember them flipping them open and saying, "Beam me up Scotty".
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $99
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Epinions.com ID:
gp4evr
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Member: Sue Kiddy
Location: Florida
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 23 members
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