Motorola V60 Review

Overall Rating

Compact size, metal case, works well when it works.

Let the buyer beware, extremely fragile, antennas break constantly. Great gift idea for someone you dislike. Must be a deliberate antenna failure design, extended warranty moneymaker?

The Motorola V60 phone has 2 antenna options, fixed (AT&T) and extendable (Verizon / Cingular). The extendable antenna is very fragile and breaks off easily, average life 1-6 months. Replacement cost is $15-20, parts are usually available locally. The fixed antenna won't break, the phone breaks instead and must be shipped to Texas for repair with or without warranty, for approx. 4 weeks since Motorola will not supply repair parts to repair shops or to owners. I repeat, Motorola absolutely refuses to supply or sell repair parts in or out of warranty. The phone must be shipped to Texas. If you have an extended warranty you can pay the $25-35.00 deductable and get a replacement phone immediately. If you are very careful and lucky you can get by with only $50-70.00 a year in repairs with the extended warranty or be without a phone for a month at a time. I've owned my AT&T version V60 for over a year now. I tried switching to the extendable antenna to be able to get repair parts locally but motorla wont't cover the parts under warranty since the phone came with the fixed antenna. I've broken 3 extendable antennas and broken the phone twice with the fixed antenna. The broken part is easy to replace but Motorola refuses to supply the part. My wife has the same phone and has broken hers 4 times now. I have written and emailed Motorola regarding a flexible antenna or design change but have never received a response. I wouldn't reccomend this phone to anyone I like. I know 9 V60 owners, they all hate the antenna problem, otherwise it would be a good phone.

Members' Comments onwoodeye's Review

• fredddd on 29th Oct 2004

  My solution to the V60 antenna problem is this: remove the back cover. Remove the old antenna base. Take a piece of wire from your home stereo speaker, strip off 1/2 inch of the insulation so you see the copper strands. Mess up the copper strands so they look like spaghetti. Shove the mess into the nice gold colored area where the antenna base used to be. Loop the wire so that when you put the back cover back on it captures the wire. about 4 inches is an optimal length to have sticking out when you're done. This arrangement lasts two to six months depending on how much I use the phone. It takes me less than 5 minutes to make another antenna when my home-built ones eventually break through too much bending around. I get 5 bars now with my home-built antenna where I used to get 3 with the original antenna. I resorted to this after my 3rd antenna purchase for this phone. I treated it like the $400 jewel it was, yet I still found broken antennas very frequently.