Motorola V500 Review

Overall Rating

Large buttons
Large Screen

I brought this phone from my local choices video rental shop in June 2004 but the first 1 had to go back due to switching on and off. As with most things you can occur a faulty batch as I did and so got a new phone. Now it's March 2005 I thought I'd write a review for this phone.

After mainly having Nokia phones from the Nokia 402 (5110) to 3210-3510i I decided to switch brand as every phone after the 3210 just kept freezin' all the time and switching on and off. As I have difficulty reading menus and text messages on phones I wanted one with a big screen and this fits the bill perfectly with the vibrant colours you see the screen in all weather conditions unlike the Nokia 3510i which is useless in bright sunny conditions.

The buttons on the Motorola V500 are big and easy to use and has many useful features like Bluetooth. The camera is good but as there is many newer phones they can take better pictures but this one is good for all I'll ever use it for. I've read many reviews on here how the phone can change volume and beep when the phone is not in use in bag or pocket this is a design flaw as the side buttons can still be used when the phone is closed. There is a solution to stop this happening.

GO TO SETTINGS-
SCROLL DOWN TO SECURTIY-
LOCK APPLICATION-
THEN CHOSE SETTINGS

Now when the phone is in vibrate mode as mine is then when the phone is closed it will not beep and will stay in vibrate mode. I have also read reviews where people can't receive or send text messages and have to have orange sim updates. I had this same problem but it's not the phone that's at fault but the sim card as the same thing happened to me on a Nokia 3310 on Orange.

I think the reason this happens is if you leave the phone on all day and leave it switched on over night just like I do the sim card doesn't have time to organise itself and if the sim card is left switched on all the time with out being powered off then the sim card will malfunction this is why you need sim updates.

Another issue that needs clearing up why this phone can't be unlocked for free this is because Motorola unlike Nokia change the codes for removing the locks on the phones more often. You need to go to a shop or market stall to get them to unlock it as they have the hardware and software to do it where Nokia you can download a code generator that creates keys using your phone's serial number and you can do it your self.

This phone can't play video clips and Motorola have the V550 and V545 models that come with the video play back. These newer models have the same spec as the V500 but with added video play back. There is no justifying replacing the V500 for a newer model as the V500 can be 'modified'. If you have a data cable you can download software to 'flex' the V500 to a V600 and this has the benefit of bringing up new menus that weren't accessible before and the feature of video playback. For other errors like freezing that can happen on some V500 you can flash the bios to a newer version that will stop this happening. Overall the Motorola V500 is a good phone that can have the features of a V600 when activated hope you find this useful.