Motorola V2288e Review

Overall Rating

Inexpensive, FM radio.

No clock/alarm or games.

At the end of the day a phone is a phone is a phone. It is the extra features which make a phone attractive, this is a make or break point when buying.

The V2288 is a basic phone, it does this task very, very well. The phone menu system is simple to use and there is a quality feel to the handset. The buttons are generous in size and have a light yet firm feel to them, you could text all day on this phone with no discomfort.

There is no vibrate alert or voice active dialling, no games or fancy ringtones. What you do get is a good solid basic phone, there is the inclusion of an FM radio; personally I found this a more appealing feature than a few games that I more than likely would never play. There is another good feature to this phone, the batteries. They are 3 rechargeable AAA size batteries, obviously you don't have the worry of running your battery down and being stuck with a dead phone until you get to a plug socket.
Simply buy a pack of AAA batteries and you are back in business.

You have the option to customise this phone via different coloured rubber/plastic sleeving, you also have a fair choice of ringtones; some better than others but for the average user who does not want the latest poorly emulated pop tune blearing out every time they get a call, the choices will suffice.

These phones are quite cheap now, I got mine last month for £25 brand new on orange. I got the phone unlocked for £5 (this tends to be the normal price for older phones). In the box I got the sim card, 2 phone sleeves, batteries and charger, phone and hands free kit and manual. So for £30 I got a new phone and sim and the facility to use any other sim I want. The V2288e is not an ugly phone at all, nor is it huge - it is just slightly bigger than a Nokia 3210, but slightly lighter.
If you are after a good solid reliable phone then this is for you, if on the other hand you want a highly complex state of the art mobile office type jukebox, look elsewhere!. I never consider WAP to be of much use really, the V2288e is WAP enabled, the screen is a good size for WAP if you desire to use it for that purpose.

I whole heartidly recommend this phone for anyone wanting a basic reliable phone.

Members' Comments onGreg.'s Review

• Sparkey. on 2nd Apr 2003

  I agree with most things except for the batteries. These are not the standard AAA but AAAl which makes them a real pain to try and get hold of. We've tried places like The Link, Dixons etc but they don't stock them anymore.If anyone knows of a stockist please write it on these reviews.

• DeCal on 5th Sep 2003

  AAA-L batteries try this site.
  www.strikalite.co.uk/prodcat_type_list/18/AAA/0/NiMh_Batteries.html#