Motorola V60i

The Motorola V60i is a fantastic looking phone although the technology is a bit out of date.

The Motorola V60i is an excellent mobile phone.

In my time, have owned Nokia phones (8210, 5110) and Motorola phones (V3688, V60i, E365). Other members of my immediate family have also owned phones from Ericsson, Seimens, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia. Out of all of these different phones I have used, I prefer the V60 over all of them (including the newer E365).

Ill start from the beginning. I've owned this phone for more then 1 and a half years (my 2 year contract expires in 4 months). My first phone i had gave me problems. Nothing would come in, and when i tried to call out nothign would happen. I used to muck around with the arial (screwing it in and out) and i think this caused it, because after getting a replacement, I have not had a problem.

Negatives:-

1) A motorola phone trait, sms-ing can get laggy. After typing a couple of lines, u start to get gradually increasing delays between key-stroke and response. As a result, messging can be a pain at times.

2) No data cable, no bluetooth, no infrared, means connectivity is more or les non existent.

3) Motorolas are generally hard to find accessories for. This includes items such as hands free kits, as well as style items like the changable covers. Also includes downloadable ringtones and the like.

Thats about all.

Positives:-

1) Packaging. The phone is very small (barely bigger then an 8210, smaller if not counting the external arial). However, being a flip phone, it essentially has double the usable space of an 8210. This means that you get the advantage of large, well placed, easy to read/press buttons, and a well sized screen, yet the phone is still small enough to fit comfortably in any pocket. Smart. Despite its small size, and flip nature, the phone feels extremely sturdy and well built (even nearly 2 years down the track) and the metal faceplates give a further impression of quality and sturdiness. Also a very sexy looking phone.

2) Practicality. The external screen is another ingenious idea. As are the externally placed quick-access buttons. On idle, the screen displays the date and time - very handy. When theres an incoming call, the screen acts as a callerID, meaning you dont even have to open the phone if you dont want to answer. Useful during times like driving (illegal to use a phone whlie driving here in aus) as you can quickly take out the phone, check the screen, then put it back away and call back later. Using the side button, you can instantly silence the call. As a further convienience, the screen also alerts you when you recieve a message, which you can also scroll through and read using the external buttons. Very convienient. Flip design means that you dont have to always lock the keypad, and you cant accidentally call someone while the phone is in your pocket. Also avoids the screen from getting damages while in your pocket with other items.

3) Battery. The battery is TINY. It's also very strong. When the battery saver opions are enabled (which mostly disable unimporant things anyway, e.g. multicolour external flashing light) the phone consistantly lasts me a week (7 days !) on a charge. This is despite the fact I always left it on while i slept (so it was on always) and that I used to talk at least an hour a day as well.

4)User interface. People say motorola phones are hard to use.. i think that maybe some of these people are just too used to Nokia phones. My old 3688 was complicated, but i figured it out completely in a matter of days. This one was very easy to learn. Within about 2 hours i had no trouble navigating the menus. The funtion of the 3 main buttons is displayed above the buttons on screen at all times. The screen is not colour or fancy, but the text is large and extremely clear, and in the dark the screen glows an attractive blue-green. The menus are modifiable (so you can arrange items in the main menu in any order) and as are many of the function keys. By default one of the buttons takes you to messages, the other to recent/missed calls. A third button on the side takes you into the phonebook. Thats my three most used functions one key-press away.

5) Speaker. Both the voice speaker and ringer speaker are great. Ring tones can be made extremely loud (almost impossible to not hear in the loudest places) and voice speaker is the easiest to hear that i know of. You can be in a night club and still hear the other person without major problems.

I now have an E365, and my mum has the V60i (she needed a phone with easy to read numbers and screen). She has no trouble navigating the menus (and shes not good with technical things) and loves the phone. My new phone has more fancy features (colour screen, camera, polyphonic ring tones, etc) but in terms of practicality and function, it cant come close to matching the V60.

I guess that more or less sums it up. If you want fancy games, cameras and pretty ringtones, then buy something else. If you want somethign that performs the usual phone functions (calls, messaging, wap, etc) then this is quite possibly the closest you can get to the perfect phone in my opinion. If frills arent important to you, buy a V60i.

I think you wont be dissaponted.

This Motorola V60i is a very average mobile phone. I have been using mine for three months having used my older Nokia 5210 before it. I've gone back to the Nokia today. Here's why:

The Motorola's are a nighmare to use due to their inpenetrable menu system, which is not at all intuitive to use and is hugely over-complicated. Nokia's are bliss in comparison, and all functions can be quickly learned and 'short-cutted' to. I have had Motorola's before and have never got on with their hopeless interface and this will be the last time I ever have one. You will certainly know what I mean if you have ever used both brands.

The V60i looks pretty cool, and is well equipped (if you don't want the contemporary obligatory silly camera or colour screen video nonsense that is). But that metal case is not as practical as the Nokia's. (Read my 5210 review). It dents, is slippery when in a top pocket (nasty!), and is cold to touch in the winter. Give me quality plastics any day. I have not got on with the flip style as it is fiddly to open with one hand, if not impossible, especially if your hands are cold or not-so-nimble as a child's. Give me a one-piece design--much more practical. I reckon flip phones are a gimmick. I doubt this phone could survive the slightly less-than-perfect environments I use my phones in at work for instance. I am sure it would break sooner or later.

Fot texting it is terrible--there is no reply function when you receive a text, so you have to clear down the message, press the soft key SIX times to get to the phone book, scroll down to the entry, press ADD, then OK, then you have to use Motorola's version of predictive text which is way inferior to the version on Nokia's... And even with animation turned off you have to do this very slowly as the phone won't keep up otherwise. And the keypad buttons are almost flat and awkward to press. Need I go on? It's a pain, and you don't get quick at it. On a Nokia I can bang out a text in no time.

Oh, and there is no option to set the phone to receive a delivery report for your texts which I like to do. You can't even make up a blank template with RCT at the start (or whatever) and keep it empty as the phone will change it and store the new message when you send the text... Don't get me going about the 'Inbox / Outbox' storage for texts--they make no sense at all in the conventional meaning of the terms.

What's good? Well the audio quality through the earpiece is excellent, way better than on any Nokia's I have had. The phone features a large Earpiece which is capable of a good volume.

But that's pretty much all that's good! Sensitivity isn't too bad but doesn't seem too great, not quite as good as a 3310, and texts get put into the 'Outbox' (or whatever it's called) and sent later on if you are not in a good signal area when you send a text--most odd as Nokia's don't do this. It has caught me out a few times as I've just assumed the message had been sent.

Another poor feature is that to mute the ringer or set the phone to vibrate, you have to open the phone and hold down the volume key. This makes a series of loud tones which cannot be silenced, and attracts attention at just the time you don't want it to. i.e. when you are entering a quiet place! Quite a design fault there I say.

No, Nokia are king I reckon.

The Motorola V60i's text is great I have to rely on the text since my phone calls don't go threw. it's easy to read and Easy to respond. The only thing good about this phone.

I bought my phone brand new when they first came out and paid $185 for it. And 2 months later, it broke! It started showing "No Service" and has not worked since. Because it was still under warranty, I was able to send it off for repairs at no cost-but I had to wait 1.5 months to get it back from the Motorola Repair Center. It worked the first day that I got it back but hasn't worked since. I take very good care of my phone and am very displeased with the way Motorola and my cellular service provider have treated me through this ordeal!

Although I enjoyed using the Motorola V60i Mobile phone for the 7 months it lasted, the antenna broke off twice, the second time breaking the phone at the point of attachment, rendering it irrepairable. The signal dropped from poor to no signal at all, whereas my previous motorola phones never had a problem with reception. I would not reccomend buying this phone, as it will not hold up to normal use. Also, the screen and the casing were easily scratched.

The Motorola V60i is small and the text is easy to read. It is not as simple to operate as my Nokia phones and requires you to read the manual a few times to learn some of the features. I missed quite a few call due to low ring level even though I set the phone to its highest level of 7. Setting it to vibrate/ring only makes it worst. It doesn't vibrate and ring at the same time, but vibrate weakly a few times before ringing. The protruding antennae can easily break off, it is held there with a rather thin needle size post. Salesman confirm that he replaced quite a few antennae, due to people just leaning over their belt clip.

I have had this phone for roughly a year now and it has been good all around. Sometimes, it is difficult to determine whether it's reception is lousy or a lousy provider, so dropped calls are an anomoly. Battery life is very good and reception is clear. My biggest peeve is that it does NOT support distinctive ringing as every other mobile on the market does (???) It would be nice to program a phone to ring one way when the boss calls and another when its mum!

This phone is all style and very little function. I was eagerly awaiting this phone and eventually when it arrived at my door step i was a little disapointed. I wanted a phone that could be used efficiently for business use and also be fun to use and cool to be seen using.

Lets start with the cool factor, it does look the biz compared to some nokia models. It has a nice active flip which displays the callers name on the front.

The fun aspect is a let down, the games are not great but the phone does let you download java games but everytime i tried this it failed to install.

The phone does have great WAP facilities making it easy to store bookmarks on the phone.

The phone does lack any connectivity options such as IR port or bluetooth.

The phone is heavy and does not sit easily in ones pocket due to a large arieal that sticks out. Eventually the arial fell off and the phone was unsuable.

Having been an early adopter of wireless technology I have owned them all - from the early analog briefcase sized "cellular phones" to my current sleek and sophisticated Motorola V60i. I depend on this baby! I use my V60i extensively everyday, my monthly usage exceeds 4000 minutes, month in month out. With this as the background let me tell you - Motorola V60i is by far the best high performance wireless phone I have owned to date. Does it have shortcomings? Yes! However, it is still the best choice for the high end user who demands a high caliber productivity tool as opposed to toy a flashy colorful techno-gadget.

Hardware and the software are designed intelligently and ergonomically for optimal performance. The scrollbar and buttons are placed well - placed where one would intuitively reach for the given function. It has excellent sound quality, the headphone speaker has good clarity - crisp and clean while the microphone has outstanding noise canceling ability without sacrificing clarity or tonal quality. It captures signal very well, even in marginal signal areas such as deep inside the concrete walls of an office complex or my basement home office, unlike V60i's younger and colorful sibling T-720 and the other current colorful and tricked out offerings from LG, Samsung and Kyocera; all of which I have tried and settled for the for the V60i. To my way of thinking, I need a first-class phone first, a PDA, a web browser, a gamer's toy, MP3 player etc. all become secondary to its primary function as a wireless phone.

Motorola V60i's battery performance is superb - rated at 245 minutes talk-time, (although in real life usage 245 minutes is hopelessly optimistic at best). It is easy and inexpensive to almost double the talk time - just replace the standard battery with aftermarket higher capacity battery. Extended life batteries are bulkier, so unless you are a heavy user the small sacrifice in bulk might not be worth it.

Before I forget - Motorola V60i is a vast improvement over V60c. The earlier V60c's were plagued with software and quality control problems. I had to exchange my old V60c four times before I got one that worked just right. Unlike the V60c my new V60i - right out of the box has proven to be a reliable workhorse so far.

The voice reorganization feature including the ability to create voice command shortcuts and voice dial up to 20 names is a wonderful feature especially useful while driving. However, 20 voice dial names are not adequate - given that you may have multiple entries for each individual, e.g. John's home, John's Office, John's mobile etc. After speaking the voice command, there is a delay of a second or two before it dials. This can be a source of irritation to any type A personality. However, to Motorola's credit it does recognize the voice command 99 out of 100 times on the first go around - even in noisy environments such as airports or in a convertible top down on the highway. The 500 entry phonebook is not as large as I would like, and it could be better designed. Each individual name stored can occupy three or four entries between home, office and mobile numbers etc. De facto, you have a phone book of only about 100 names assuming multiple entries for each name. The interface to scroll to the desired entry is tedious and ergonomically not well designed; requiring hand eye coordination. Not good while driving especially since the font size on the LCD is rather small. Speaking of the LCD - the monochrome LCD is viewable from any angle and is viewable even in bright sunlight flying down the highway in my convertible, unlike its more colorful competitors.

Increasing the size of both the phonebook, the voice-dial entries/commands and improving the design of the software interface are sorely needed. In addition, in the perfect world, this wireless phone would be Bluetooth enabled and come bundled with a Bluetooth headphone. Perhaps a built-in cradle on the body of the handset for a detachable Bluetooth headset; where when the headset is placed in the cradle it would recharge itself, ready for the next use.

I have just described only a few of the basic things, things important to me in the way I use my wireless phone. Let me hurriedly add that V60i has a gaggle of features like the date-books, WAP and appointment calendar et. al. - a substantial list of features to keep any gadget freak amused.

If you desire a colorful shiny toy and are willing to sacrifice the quality of the phone -for those additional features do not look to the V60i to satisfy you. All things considered, Motorola V60i is a well-designed tool for the high-end user who truly appreciates often-underappreciated phrase "form follows function". It is a superbly designed package of the finest wireless technology, like a Mercedes Benz, it is understated, it is elegant, is functional, it is ergonomic, it is dependable and true to its primary mission Motorola V60i delivers what it promises to be - it is truly a superb wireless phone.