Motorola V3 : 11/01/04
By: Carlos E.
Purchased From: UStronics.com
Design-
The design of the V3 is a major accomplishment for Motorola. Although their
triplet line has more aesthetic appeal than some of their older handsets,
they have never really released a sexy phone that became a classic in their
manufacturing history. The Startac and the V60 both had initial interest,
but with age, they lost their initial popularity. Nokia, for example, achieved
sexy and classic phone status with the 8890 when it was released. To this
day, a Nokia 8890 still fetches a pretty penny.
Cost alone isn't what drives a phone to become a fashionable classic, though,
it's a combination of factors that sum up to a 'je ne sais quoi' feeling
that is expressed as 'damn... that is a cool phone' regardless of its age
or capabilities.The V3 is a very huge contender for achieving this kind of
status. It's construction exudes sexiness and quality. The phone feels 'tight'
,
like a nice German
car. There are no creaks or play on the joints, and there is a nice heft
to it that reminds you that this isn't a toy. Even the box is amazing. When
I received it, I was impressed that the packaging was a solid alum. box.
That kind of detail goes a long way in my book.
Material selection was well done, giving the phone a feeling that it was
built to last. However, not all is perfect, there are some plastic pieces
in the equation. The lower half of the handset, for example, where the speakerphone
portion resides, is made out of plastic and is painted to match the rest
of the phone. Although the change in material isn't noticeable, my only concern
is with the aging process of the phone, whereupon the plastic discoloration
and aging will probably cause a mismatch in color between the plastic portions
and the metallic portions.
Upon opening the phone, the keypad strikes you as a something far from anything
else in the market. It's not that it's weird ala Nokia 3650, it's more that
it is so consistent with the design elements of the phone that its perfection
makes you think more of a mock-up from an industrial design firm than an
actual finished product. The keys don't jut out into distinctive buttons,
rather, they blend together woven through a rubber connecting strip that
lets you feel where you are in the layout. Motorola also fixed the key layout
of the send/end keys and put them in the 'right' order. They also added a
dedicated messaging key and a dedicated web key. One unfortunate thing, however,
is that the #5 key juts out a little more than
the rest,
so when
you close
the phone, the screen usually takes on the print of the number 5 when you
reopen it.
As far as the screens are concerned, the outer screen works like a reduced
functionality/resolution version of the interior screen. It's nice, but don't
expect it to be all
that. When closing the lid, it will show your wallpaper for a bit, and then
it goes into clock mode, and when someone calls, it'll show the caller ID
or their picture if you have it stored in your phonebook. A nice addition
is that they covered the outer screen with mineral glass. Within the range
of translucent materials, mineral glass is a perfect compromise between scratch
resistance and hardness. Acrylic (plastic), typically found in cheaper phones
is softer and less prone to breaking, but scratches easily, whereas
glass
scratches
less
easily,
but
can actually
break. FYI, Sapphire crystal, typically used in high end watches is the only
material, other than diamonds that is very scratch proof, so although the
V3's mineral glass is scratch
resistant, don't expect to not have your keys scratch it. The only phone
with a Sapphire crystal is the Vertu phone
that is far more expensive.
The inner screen is just a joy to see. I'm not going to utilize quantitative
measures to indicate how beautiful the screen is, just trust me. It's nice.
Phonebook + OS in general-
There have been substantial improvements to the responsiveness of the OS
over the other triplets (V600, V525, V400, etc). The phone is snappier
in responding, but there are lags from time to time. One of the features
that I've always liked about Motorola phones is the shortcut feature that
allows you to make a shortcut out of just about anything. In addition,
you can reorder menu items, which is also very helpful. However, the phonebook
is once again a disappointment.
Motorola really needs to wake up and get with the times. Long gone are the
days when you would have to have multiple entries for the same person. Every
single phone manufacturer has moved to the hierarchical phone book, whereupon
one contact has several numbers attributed to that name. In other words:
Chuck
---cell
---Home
---Work
Instead of Motorola'-s
Chuck Cell
Chuck Home
Chuck Work
With a hierarchical phonebook (not Motorola's), you have less clutter in your
phonebook. One option you do have with the phonebook is that you can collapse
it to just show primary contact information, but once you click to view the
other numbers of the contact, you still have to scroll. It's a fake hierarchical
phone book, for it doesn't show you all the numbers per contact in one screen
like the Nokia phonebook does, for example. I look forward to the day when
Motorola fixes this problem.
WAP Browsing-
WAP Browsing is nicer with the V3 due to its large screen, but WAP browsing,
continues to be, in my opinion, one of the worst implemented ideas ever.
Not only is it far slower than it should be (for the little amount of
bandwidth
it requires), but it is almost useless. I would not count on WAP browsing
to be any less painful with the V3 than it is with any other phone, but
at least
you'll be able to see more while you're doing it.
Bluetooth (Supertooth)-
Bluetooth with Motorola has always been a weird subject. Although utilizing
a simple headset has always been a relatively straight forward thing, synchronization
with software such as iSync will require a USB cable. Other things you can
do with the Bluetooth connection is dial up and use your phone as modem, as
well as browse the file system on your phone and send/receive pictures and
sounds.
What is worth noting, though, is that the V3 utilizes a higher output power
version of the Bluetooth standard which allows for greater distances between
the two bluetooth nodes in communication. This allowed for greater distances
between the phone and the bluetooth headset that I was using. Very nice.
One weird thing that I noticed, and that has happened to me twice, is that
if you put a headset too close to the phone, it will deactivate the Bluetooth
module. By deactivation I mean that if you go to the Bluetooth menu and you
hit on or off, it will say that the Bluetooth Module is not loaded. Restarting
the phone seems to fix it, so I'm not worrying about it too much.
Camera-
The Camera is VGA like all the other triplet cameras, but the clarity,
I feel, is much better. Perhaps it has to do with the mineral glass that
is protecting
the lens, whereas traditionally plastic is used for this role. No video recording
capabilities are present, but you can play videos that are uploaded via Bluetooth
or USB. One thing worth mentioning is that it takes the camera a while to
allow you to take another picture.
Battery Life-
If there is a weak link in the whole equation (aside from the phonebook),
it's the battery life. Although not terrible, it's not what it's advertised
to be
(6.67 hours). On Bluetooth, the phone lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes before
the bluetooth connection dropped due to low battery. This is actually not that
bad, but not as good as some other Bluetooth phones. Perhaps this is due to
the higher output power it utilizes. Without Bluetooth, I estimate that my
battery life talk time would be closer to 4 hours.
It also seems that the biggest thing that detracts to the battery life other
than Bluetooth usage is the standby time. A days worth of standby on the V3,
in my Opinion, affects your remaining talk time quite a bit more than it does
with other phones after a day of non-use.
To make matters worse, like the V600, the battery meter isn't very accurate.
There are 3 bars on the battery meter (unless you go to Phone Status to see
6 bars), and the rate by which these bars decrease is not consistent. That
is, the phone goes from bar 3 -> 2 in twice the time that it takes to go
from 2 -> 1. The problem with this is that when you are at bar 2, you don't
have as much time left as you did when you were on bar 3, before you drop another
bar. This accelerated decrease in measured battery life makes it hard to economize
phone usage accurately.
If you want to maximize battery life, I suggest that you lower the brightness
of the screen to zero, that you change the network selection speed to Slow,
and that you turn off Bluetooth when you don't need it. If you are using Bluetooth
(headset) I suggest you close the phone (it won't hang up the call). With that
configuration, I seem to be able to get at least 3 hours of talk time
on Bluetooth
(I can
only stay on the phone but so long before I run out of things to say to my
friends).
Sound Quality + Reception-
Reception is by far the best that I've experience with any phone. In my area
of service, I am utilizing Cingular's 850Mhz service, and with it, I can
get 2-3 bars of reception, whereas typically I could only get
1-2 bars with my V600 or Treo 600. I am amazed at what this phone can make
of
a weak signal! During phone calls with my V600, there would be times when
calls would drop or when they would sound fuzzy, and with the V3, it's always
a stable sounding phone call.
As for the sound quality of the speaker, both for ring tones and for speakerphone
calls, the clarity is exemplary. Under both uses, the loudspeaker is clear
and without distortion. Playing musically complex MP3s or Speech as a ring
tone is a pleasure with this phone.
Conclusion-
The V3 is a masterpiece for Motorola. It still has several things that could
use improvement, mainly the phonebook, but the design, the materials, and
the construction make up for it. Is it worth the price?... maybe. I can't
answer that question for you, but you will get looks, and you will get comments.
Let's see what time has to say about Motorola's attempt at a classic phone
that is ageless.
Firmware Information-
Flex Version: GSMV3xxT672UV041
S/W Version: R374_G_0E.40.3DR
DSP S/W Version: 62202000
Language List: 0021
Other Reviews-
Mobile-Review
BengalBoy's Review
Hacking the Motorola V3 (at your own risk):
http://www.silverspecter.com/vxxx.htm
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