Motorola V60i Review

Overall Rating

Small, removable metal covers, solid build, great reception, external screen extremely useful, ability to cancel calls without opening the phone, several different ring settings all highly adjustable (silent, vibrate, ring and vibrate, soft, loud), very clear text, large easy to read numbers on screen and keypad, stylish, huge list of features, incredible battery life for such a small phone.

Lack of accessories, extra headset must be bought to use MP3 player/radio, slightly heavy for the size.

The Motorola V60i is the newer verion of the V60. It's without a doubt, the best phone i have ever had. I have only couple of small complaints. Basically these are most towards the lack of accessories. I have some complaints about my reception at times but this is with my service provider (optus), not with my phone, and thus i will not put issues onto my phone which do not relate to it. Phone reception is as close to perfect as i can imagine, as is speaker quality. The phone is small and smooth making it easy to stash on your pocket, car glovebox or anywhere really. It looks georgeous, best looking phone i have ever seen in my opinion. Battery life was originally a little disappointing until i read in the manual that the external status light and animated menus use a lot of battery power, and can be disabled. Once i disabled these features i found my phone lasted me around a week (give or take), and this is when being left on 24 hours a day. My old 8210 and V3688 would each give me around 4 or 5 days at the very maximum, and i would only leave them on during the day. I don't turn my V60 off ever, not even to charge it, so a week is pretty impressive for such a tiny phone (and even tinier battery). That said, the battery is the thinnest and lightest I have seen, possibly slightly bigger then an 8210/3688 battery, but much thinner and probably half the weight. All of the weight is in the phone itself, which is one minor complaint - for it's size it is quite heavy. However, it does not seem much (if any) heavier then my Dads Samsung (flip colour screen model) which does not even feel close to as solid or strong. I have dropped the phone a few times accidentally, and have had no problems. As mentioned before, build quality is excellent, and the 'flip' motion is very solid and firm (unlike my 3688). The aerial has changed on the V60i, and thus does not appear to have the problems that the V60 had originally, and i have no complaints about the aerial. It's very easy to remove (just unscrew it) and screws back in very firmly, with no shaking or movement. My 3688 did not have an option of ring and vibrate, only 'ring', 'vibrate' and 'ring then vibrate'. My V60 has vibrate, ring and vibrate, silent (neither ring or vibrate), soft (ring only) and loud (ring only). More importantly, these can be selected using the external buttons and screen and with no need to open the phone - very useful for when u have to put your phone on silent in a hurry. Also, incoming calls can be cancelled by pressing the volume button while calling, and this can be useful when put together with the external caller ID (also useful when you are driving and can't risk talking on the phone at the same time, or are in a movie, etc). GPRS is a feature i do not use, but regardless it is present, as is tri bands (another feature i do not use). The phone has multiple games, which are basic but worthy enough (poker, blackjack, falling numbers, paddle ball i.e pong and mindblaster). I'm not big on games but this should make the nokia boys and girls happy. There are also several ringtones and every person in the phonebook can be given a unique ring tone. Each ring setting (silent, ring, soft, loud, etc) can each be configured entirely to ones taste and you can chose your own tone for each setting and each use (including voicemail, calls, text messages, etc). Menus are changed from the 3688, which upset me at first, as i found the old motorola menu very user friendly and useful when i got used to it. However, i quickly got over it because the V60 menu is very easy to use, and is in fact very similar in execution to that of an 8210, with a few minor differences. Phone and sim can each store up to 500 names if i recall, allowing for 1000 total. There is an included MP3 player and FM radio, but unfortunately this requires a special two earpiece headset to be purchased. No leather case or car charger is provided with the phone, but in its defence, few phones do. A charger, 1 battery and a handsfree kit are all provided. Data cables are also an extra cost purchase. My leather case is a typical nokia style one, with the metal clip, which was a disappointment after getting used to the removable, rotatable clipped leather case i got with my 3688. Unfortunately, Motorola accessories seem to be quite a bit harder to come by here as opposed to say, nokia. I had a problem a few months back where a couple of times, for no apparent reason, no one could call me, and i could not call others - the phone could not even recieve a dial tone. Then i would turn my phone off and back on and it would be ok. I talked to the provider and they said it was probably just becaus of a lot of useage over the Christmas/ New Year period. Since that day I have never again had the problem, so i assume that was the case. The calculator uses a much better interface than that on my 8210, and is much less complicated. Text editing is pretty much like that of my 3688, only with the option of spellchecking like an 8210. Something of a combination of the two. I have no complaints here except that before with my 3688 when i was writing a message and accidentally pressed the exit button or a call came through interrupting, the message i had written so far would be saved and was still there when i came back to it. With my V60i this doesn't happen and I have to write it out again. As this does not happen often this doesn't bother me greatly. It is the only real considerable fault i can come up with. It is somewhat heavy for its size, but this is likely a result of the excellent build, and great solidity of the handset, and thus I cannot complain. All in all, it is without a doubt the best phone i have ever used, and has given me no real problems to this day. Highly recommended.

P.S. This is a review of the phone itself, not my service provider, and for this reason i have rated accordingly. For my service provider, I would probably give a 7 for reception, but the phone's is fautless. It has every feature i could ask for, is the most stylish phone i have ever seen and i have taken one mark off value for money, not because of the phone itself, but because of the accessories which have not been included. As this is part of the package i consider it usable in the criteria. All i can think of that the phone does not have is colour screens and ringtone download compatibility, but i consider these gimmicks (especially the latter), so for me it has every feature i could ask for.