Cheap can still be Good
Written: Mar 10 '02 (Updated Mar 15 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Nice array of features, long lasting battery, no big problems
Cons: No big frills, not completely user friendly
The Bottom Line: It's a nice little phone that will serve it's purpose for and give you a pretty good bang for your buck, but don't expect any perks.
|
|
|
| angelet's Full Review: Motorola V2260 Cell Phone |
HISTORY
I am on my dad's Verizon Wireless family plan and at the end of last year the 2 year contract on my first phone ended. We went in to look at what my next phone would be. One of my biggest concerns was getting something with a longer lasting battery as my last phone would die rather quickly. Of course money was a factor and the Motorola V2260 was one of their "free" phone deals. Free meaning it was $30 up front and came with a $30 rebate, of course that meant we were stuck with the tax on it, so it wasn't completely free, but they never talk about that part, now do they? There was another "free" phone available which I don't remember too well, but it might have had slightly better options, but honestly I kinda liked how this one looked better. The other was boxy and as my last phone hadn't been to jazzy I wanted something with a little more style and the possibility to change faceplates. So we got it of course and I've been pretty happy with it so far. I'll use the Manual layout as a guide here to help me keep on track.
EASE OF USE
At first some of the buttons confused me because it works differently from my last phone and I think I liked some of the last phone's options better, but after having used it a few months I have no problem navigating around my phone. My only complaint is that the way it works is there's a single button on one side that works like an "enter" key and two buttons on the opposite side that work as "scroll" keys and it's set up to work for a right handed person with your thumb on the "enter" key and your fingers on the "scroll" keys. Wouldn't you know it? I'm left handed, so it isn't as easy to manipulate, but I make do.
THE MANUAL
Honestly this is probably the second time I've looked at the manual. I needed it at first to help me figure a few things out, but otherwise it's sat in it's box for the last few months.
SECURITY
I don't worry about people getting into my phone so I don't use any of the "safety" measures…(should I be telling you this?) but it does indeed have them. You can lock your phone to only be usable with your code that you make up. It's fairly standard, but when I tried to activate it when bored I couldn't figure it out so you might want to have a look at the manual for this.
THE BATTERY
I've been very happy with how much longer this battery lasts. Recently I didn't plug it in for a couple of days it still registered about two thirds full. I also like the battery on this better than on my last phone. When I dropped my last phone (yeah I'm a klutz) the battery often came off. Every time I drop this one (shut up) the battery stays right where it belongs. I also like the charger better. It's just a simple little plug in that you stick into the side of the phone and one of those boxy plugs to go into the wall socket. My last phone required a cradle for the phone to sit in and didn't travel as well. The indicator on the phone is rather typical with a picture of a battery and it gets more empty as the battery wears down, but I do like that you can use the menu to find a more specific indicator. The main one on the face of the phone shows 3 stages, while the one you can find through the menu shows 5 stages.
USING THE PHONE
The on and off button is simple and I've never accidentally hit it. You had to really press down on the button on my last phone, but on this one it's pretty straight forward. To make a call you dial in the number and hit send to start and end to stop (duh) or you can use the phone book for stored calls, again, typical. To receive a call you just hit send. My last phone had a flip cover so I swear I missed more calls trying to flip it open so I like that this not covered and easy to activate. The only down fall here is that there's nothing preventing a button from getting pressed in your pocket or purse and my boyfriend has had many messages on his cell phone from when my phone mysteriously called his all of its own volition. If you happen to miss a call the face of the phone will boldly display 1 Call Unanswered (or 2 or however many.) You can then press the "mailbox" button to see who called (if the number wasn't caller ID blocked) and when they called. This will also tell you if they left a message in your mailbox (supposing you have a messaging service on your phone.) If the person left a message it'll beep at you every few minutes if the sound is on.
THE FACE
The face of the phone displays your greeting (see below under "other features"), the date, the time, how strong the signal is, how full the battery is (see above under "battery"), and whether or not the phone is in "digital" mode. I'd like to remind you that in digital mode the phone eats up the battery much faster than normal when it's NOT in digital mode, so remember to turn your phone off when it's not in digital to save the battery. Mine always dies quickly at my boyfriend's house, not to mention I never get a signal out there, so keep that in mind. The face also will display a picture of an envelope in the corner if you have messages, very convenient.
THE MENU
You can access the menu a couple of different ways. First off there's the "enter" key on the side of the phone that will take you directly to a list of possible menu items and you can scroll through it there, or you can hit "function" and "1" and go directly to the "main menu." Both menus allow you to access the Phone Book, but the "enter" menu specifically lets you access "messaging," the web "browser" if you have web access on your phone (it's at least capable of it), you can see the "last 10 dialed" (you can also access this through the "mailbox" feature), system modes, and the "main menu." The "main menu" that you can select here or through "function-1" lets you access the "phone book," "Timers" options, "Tone Control," "Lock Secure," and "Phone Options." This all can get a bit confusing, but they are at least trying to make things as accessible as possible.
THE PHONE BOOK
The Phone Book holds up to 99 phone numbers. This is plenty for me, but you might need more. The other phone I looked at that I chose this phone over had 200 slots available. I don't even have 50 programmed right now. The phone book might require a look at the manual, but once you figure it out is not TOO hard. You type in the number and hit "store" and then it gives you the option to select an "icon" to go with the phone. This is cute so you can indicate if this is a cell phone, a home number, a pager, a work number and so on. I go ahead and use it, but I still type in "Dad's Pager" anyways. If this feature didn't exist my life would not be any less fulfilling. The next step in the process is rather confusing as you want to type the person's name in, but it asks you to enter another number. This is rather stupid to me and you have to hit "clear" to be able to type in the number, but once you discover this (had to look in the manual) you probably will remember it for it's idiocy if nothing else. The process for typing a name in is similar to all other phones I've seen and pretty easy. Now you have a number stored in your phone and it gets a reference number assigned to it (starts at 1 of course). I'd suggest selecting the first 9 very carefully as these will be attached to the numbers on the key pad for easy calling use. Thus my phone likes to call my boyfriend's phone as his phone is "1" in my list. It never calls the other numbers for some weird reason. All you do is hold down the specific number and it calls the corresponding person. You can use this feature with any number in the phone book, but if it's above "9" you have to type in the location and hit send instead of just holding it down. Overall it works fine. You can also find numbers in your book several ways. I like that you can go directly to a number based on the fist letter of the person's name. Makes it easier than scrolling through all of them which you can also do, either alphabetically or by numbered location.
TIMERS
You can use the phone to keep track of how long your calls are by setting the individual timer to show you how long your current call has been in hours, minutes, and seconds. You can also keep track of how much time you've used over a certain period of time, like the odometer in your car that you can use to keep track of trips. Then there's another timer that keeps track of how much time has been put on your phone overall like the permanent odometer in your car that you go to prison for resetting. Sure you probably wouldn't go to prison for resetting this one, but you'd have to really know how to program the thing to do it (hackers of course).
TONE CONTROL
Through this feature you can set an alarm on your phone, something I'm always grateful for if I end up sleeping somewhere without an alarm when I need one. Here you can also set the phone for "silent mode" where it won't make any noise when you press buttons or sound any ring, it'll just blink the face light on and off. (Oh, yeah, it has a face light.) I use this feature all the time as I'm a student and often need to turn the sound off for class, but don't want to turn the phone off. Most phones have this feature (my last one did anyways), but it's worth noting. You can also turn the ringer on or off. I'm not sure what happens if you turn it off, presumable it doesn't make any noise, nor would it even blink, maybe it'll even send everything straight to voice mail, but I've never tried it so this is all speculation. You can also set the ringer style. This is a down fall of the phone. It has a few selections for ringers, but they all sound like phones and nothing helps to make it stick out in a crowd of people armed with cells. It has no catchy tunes and isn't as loud as I would like, but as I like the rest of the phone, I make do. You can also set whether or not you want different things to make noise and how loud, like the key pad, or whether you want it to beep at you when you have messages and stuff like that.
OTHER NOTEABLE FEATURES
I like the fact that you can put a greeting on the face of your phone. You get about 12 spaces to say whatever you want. I find this more interesting than a blank face, so use it as you like. The phone also has the ability to change faceplates, but even though this was something I wanted for my phone, I haven't done anything about it yet. The phone does come with 2 different colored rubber "protectors" that will cover part of the phone in bright neon yellow, pink, orange, or blue, but I didn't use that either because it didn't work with my phone pocket in my purse. I would also like to point out that the face isn't scratch resistant and I have a permanent annoying scratch on the face because of dropping it on the cement at Disneyland. (I already told you I'm clumsy.) I also would like to point out that it's not the most compact phone, but it's not so big as to not fit into my coat pocket or my purse well, but it's longer than my last phone. Overall this is a nice little phone and if you want a cheap one that doesn't have to do more than the basics, you'll probably be happy here.
I hope this has helped, and please feel free to leave comments (good or bad) and email me with any questions if you would prefer to do that. I'm sorry it ended up being such a long review, but I like to give you ALL the info so you know what you're getting.
Happy reading!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 30
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
angelet
|
|
Member: Aubri Webb
Location: Simi Valley, CA
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I'm an actress and a movie buff, as well a big sci-fi/fantasy fan.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.