Motorola V60i Review

Overall Rating

Great reception,
Excellent sound quality,
Outstanding noise canceling microphone,
Battery performance,
Intelegently designed.

Not Bluetooth enabled,
20 voice dial not adequate,
Phonebook is not as large enough,

Having been an early adopter of wireless technology I have owned them all - from the early analog briefcase sized "cellular phones" to my current sleek and sophisticated Motorola V60i. I depend on this baby! I use my V60i extensively everyday, my monthly usage exceeds 4000 minutes, month in month out. With this as the background let me tell you - Motorola V60i is by far the best high performance wireless phone I have owned to date. Does it have shortcomings? Yes! However, it is still the best choice for the high end user who demands a high caliber productivity tool as opposed to toy a flashy colorful techno-gadget.

Hardware and the software are designed intelligently and ergonomically for optimal performance. The scrollbar and buttons are placed well - placed where one would intuitively reach for the given function. It has excellent sound quality, the headphone speaker has good clarity - crisp and clean while the microphone has outstanding noise canceling ability without sacrificing clarity or tonal quality. It captures signal very well, even in marginal signal areas such as deep inside the concrete walls of an office complex or my basement home office, unlike V60i's younger and colorful sibling T-720 and the other current colorful and tricked out offerings from LG, Samsung and Kyocera; all of which I have tried and settled for the for the V60i. To my way of thinking, I need a first-class phone first, a PDA, a web browser, a gamer's toy, MP3 player etc. all become secondary to its primary function as a wireless phone.

Motorola V60i's battery performance is superb - rated at 245 minutes talk-time, (although in real life usage 245 minutes is hopelessly optimistic at best). It is easy and inexpensive to almost double the talk time - just replace the standard battery with aftermarket higher capacity battery. Extended life batteries are bulkier, so unless you are a heavy user the small sacrifice in bulk might not be worth it.

Before I forget - Motorola V60i is a vast improvement over V60c. The earlier V60c's were plagued with software and quality control problems. I had to exchange my old V60c four times before I got one that worked just right. Unlike the V60c my new V60i - right out of the box has proven to be a reliable workhorse so far.

The voice reorganization feature including the ability to create voice command shortcuts and voice dial up to 20 names is a wonderful feature especially useful while driving. However, 20 voice dial names are not adequate - given that you may have multiple entries for each individual, e.g. John's home, John's Office, John's mobile etc. After speaking the voice command, there is a delay of a second or two before it dials. This can be a source of irritation to any type A personality. However, to Motorola's credit it does recognize the voice command 99 out of 100 times on the first go around - even in noisy environments such as airports or in a convertible top down on the highway. The 500 entry phonebook is not as large as I would like, and it could be better designed. Each individual name stored can occupy three or four entries between home, office and mobile numbers etc. De facto, you have a phone book of only about 100 names assuming multiple entries for each name. The interface to scroll to the desired entry is tedious and ergonomically not well designed; requiring hand eye coordination. Not good while driving especially since the font size on the LCD is rather small. Speaking of the LCD - the monochrome LCD is viewable from any angle and is viewable even in bright sunlight flying down the highway in my convertible, unlike its more colorful competitors.

Increasing the size of both the phonebook, the voice-dial entries/commands and improving the design of the software interface are sorely needed. In addition, in the perfect world, this wireless phone would be Bluetooth enabled and come bundled with a Bluetooth headphone. Perhaps a built-in cradle on the body of the handset for a detachable Bluetooth headset; where when the headset is placed in the cradle it would recharge itself, ready for the next use.

I have just described only a few of the basic things, things important to me in the way I use my wireless phone. Let me hurriedly add that V60i has a gaggle of features like the date-books, WAP and appointment calendar et. al. - a substantial list of features to keep any gadget freak amused.

If you desire a colorful shiny toy and are willing to sacrifice the quality of the phone -for those additional features do not look to the V60i to satisfy you. All things considered, Motorola V60i is a well-designed tool for the high-end user who truly appreciates often-underappreciated phrase "form follows function". It is a superbly designed package of the finest wireless technology, like a Mercedes Benz, it is understated, it is elegant, is functional, it is ergonomic, it is dependable and true to its primary mission Motorola V60i delivers what it promises to be - it is truly a superb wireless phone.

Members' Comments onRH.'s Review

• conor. on 13th Jun 2003

  This was a very helpful review. It was detailed and puts forward a good case for choosing this phone above others

• Teby on 4th Jan 2004

  Yes I do agree with you. I had used this V60i for a year now and I never have problem. Your clue very valueable to me and thanks for kind sharing this information.