Motorola A835 Review

Overall Rating

Calendar very good
Very loud ringtones
Very good PC software that comes with the phone
Bluetooth a positive
Screen quality
Can survive the odd skirmish with the floor

Size - huge
Looks - ugly
T9 (predictive text) - very difficult to use.
Strange way of listing contacts
Cannot turn off the low battery sound even if it is on silent
Battery life
Night mode facility

I'll start with the good points. The phone has a huge speaker on the back which gives good sound volume (if not the best quality), perfect for those who struggle to hear their phone ringing if it is in their pocket/bag.
The phone also came with a data cable and software for the PC which was great to use once you had spent many an hour sorting out how to configure it.
The bluetooth on the Motorola A835 is great although you have to turn on a fuction called "find me" to allow anyone else with a bluetooth phone to connect to you - this only stays on for 60 seconds and there is no way of making it permanent.
The screen of the phone is very good and the camera is fantastic in broad daylight, while it is sturdy enough to have no problems coping with being dropped in those more careless moments.

However...
I am afraid that the A835 has more bad points than good.
Its a massive phone and looks terrible.
The text messaging is very difficult to get the hang of. I've had the phone for 8 months now and I can still write 2 words on a Nokia phone in about half the time I can write one on the A835.
The contacts list is very strange in that it puts all the numbers under one person's name together but then when you come to edit something about that person, it only changes that thing for one number - you have to change it for each individual number stored for that person.
If the phone's battery becomes low it comes up with a noise like most phones do. However, this noise cannot be turned off even when the phone is in silent mode and so you have to turn the phone off or risk interrupting people in meetings, lectures etc.
The above is made all the more irritating by the fact that the battery life of the A835 is terrible. I started off getting about 2 day's life (including having my phone off at night) - and this has now decreased to about just over 1 day. I don't use my phone more than a standard mobile user so this in my opinion is terrible.
As I said earlier, the camera on the phone is great in daylight but as soon as you take it anywhere dark-ish and put on the night mode facility, its useless. Night mode appears to do nothing.

All in all the phone is good quality hardware but its software really lets it down. Its hard to use, and when you work out how to use it, it doesn't do what you want it to anyway. I would recommend the 3 network but with quality phones like the LG 8120 out and available for free on a contract, do NOT go for this phone.

Members' Comments ontobygilles10's Review

• googleygaz on 27th Oct 2004

  Hi, I have just bought the A835 phone and it's great. I have read in some of the reviews of the phone that it has a light show when someone phones you and I do not know how 2 get this 2 work and how do you get rid of the beeping when you loose signal as this is very anoying.