Motorola V60i Review

Overall Rating

Programmable menus/buttons
Great looks, great size, metal feel, ergonomics
clear and easy to read screen
large/easy to read well designed keypad
reliability, flip practicality, external screen
amazing battery life, build quality/robustness

Hard to find accessories (handsfrees, faces, etc)
SMS lag
arial can cause problems if removed
limited connectivity

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.