Ten More Of These & I Could Build A House! (Motorola C975)

Member Name: Shaaza

Product:	Motorola C975
Date:	19/08/08 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: has 3G, Video Streaming, you can video call, takes Micro SD Card

Disadvantages: No Bluetooth, Very Huge, Can't change the Cover, Software does not work with Vista

This Motorola C975 has been around for as long as I can remember. Back in the days I used to see this mobile In the 3 phone shop and thought it was a waste of money because of how big it was. It happened one day that I was walking past 'Savers' and this mobile phone along the others were being sold for only £5 and they also had airtime in them. So it felt like I was getting a free phone and the price didn't not drain my whole pocket money.
I chose this C975 because the rest were flip phones and I am not a fan of flip mobiles though I have owned a few.

When I got home and after showing off to everyone how I got a mobile for £5 including top up I opened the box and found the mobile, headset, mains charger, manual, USB cable (for synchronizing data from the PC to the mobile and vice versa) and PC software (which can only be installed in windows XP and below not including windows 95).
I charged the mobile and it took around two hours for the battery to get full. I started exploring the mobile to see what it could do. Back in those days I was only about fifteen or sixteen years old so my hands were rather small, therefore had to use both hands on this mobile as it is very big and heavy (weighs 139g).

It was sad to find out that the mobile phone did not have any games even though it has the Java software installed onto it, if I wanted any I had to buy or rent from 3. The mobile phone also did not have Bluetooth, which allows you to wirelessly connect to other mobiles and Bluetooth devices. This was very disappointing as in those days Bluetooth was starting to hot up, it was a must have thing. The mobile phone also did not have infrared which is another wireless connection to other mobiles and devices with infrared e.g. PCs. It seemed like the Motorola C975 was a big disappointment, this feeling did not last long as I realized that you could video call with this mobile.
As I had free calling credit I had to put this feature to the test, and I must say that the video quality was overwhelming although it's not a mega pixel camera mobile.
The mobile phone has cameras on both sides of the mobile, thus making it easy to video call.
Voice calls are also clear and loud even louder if you use the loudspeaker hands free. You could still use the headset as a hands free.

Not only does the two cameras make it easy for video call as you don't have to turn the phone around every time the person calling you wants to see you. The two cameras are also helpful when you want to take a picture of your self or the things around you. The picture quality of this mobile is not the worst and it's not the best either the picture quality is 65k Colours. This might be less, but it looks better than that of my Vodafone 1.3MP pictures.

The Motorola C975 has 3G suggesting that it is very fast when browsing the internet. I was lucky enough to live in an area with 3G network, I browsed the 3 wap pages, they loaded very fast and did not have to wait long. This is even better than Motorola new models such as the V3 which takes its time when uploading when one page as it uses GPRS (I could go to the kitchen and make a sandwich and the V3 will still be uploading one page).

I had, had enough of browsing this mobile phone when I realized that the battery was almost gone. This was a big turn off, as I had only browsed for about two hours. This also seemed to be the problem with my other Motorola V3, the battery never seemed to last, I had to charge the mobile twice everyday, which seemed to be energy wasted.
The mobile phone does not have a lot of internal memory it only has around 4MB of memory, which does not really allow you to store a lot of pictures, music or videos.
Although you can have a 1000 entries in the phonebook, and it records upto a 100 missed calls, received calls and dialled calls, which is rather impressive as all the other mobiles I have owned only records up to twenty.

Like many mobiles, this Motorola has a calculator, calendar, shortcuts, quick menu, and alarm. The alarm does not allow you to set multiple alarms like some of the mobiles I own and have owned.
It didn't even take long for me to get bored of this mobile and I passed it on to my aunt who unblocked it, so that she could use her Vodafone simcard in the mobile. However, years later she finally stopped using it, and it has been in a drawer for a long time. I just took it out recently (last week) as I needed a phone that will take a 3 simcard as my Sony ericsson K770i charger was borrowed by someone else, therefore the mobile has not had any battery for more than a week.
I must say that the mobile is rather durable as it still works perfectly. The battery seems to be worse as it doesn't even last for more than an hour, so the mobile is always on the charger most of the time. This is almost the same issue as the Motorola V3 which I have started using after a year and the battery lasts for no more than 30minutes.

A good thing which I recently found out about this mobile is that it take a microSd card. I couldn't really believe this, so I tried my 2GB microSd card and it really did work (see my microSD review for details). I don't know if it will accept high capacity MicroSD cards like the 8GB or 4GB as I have only used the 2GB memory card. It was pretty hard to insert the Card as the slot wouldn't close. I could play all my mp3 music which were already on the simcard. The Motorola C975 has a loud speaker, which is rather loud and when you play music on high volume it sounds like a stereo playing and the quality is really good. You can also instant message on the mobile phone. I have tried this, and when comparing to the Sony ericsson K750i, the Motorola is better on messenger, possibly because it gets a helping hand from the 3G network making it faster to upload messages and the big screen fits more text onto one page, saving time on having to scroll up and down the page.

Another disadvantage which I've found on this mobile is that, although it's unlocked and can be used with any other simcard, you can't change the internet settings automatically to allow the simcard to connect to the internet. With my O2 simcard which has unlimited browsing of the mobile internet, I found my self having to go on the web to find the internet settings for O2, which I ordered to be sent to the mobile to update the internet. The update sms never arrived and it looks like I might have to go to an O2 shop for them to do it for me, which I won't bother really as I won't be using the mobile for a long time.

The mobile phone has big soft buttons on it which makes it easy to navigate so as the big screen. Unlike other mobiles, the joystick on this mobile still works even though it has been used for a couple of years. This may be, because it doesn't have games on it therefore, the joystick was not used a lot.
With this mobile you can send SMS, MMS, Emails etc. The mobile does not take long to send pictures or text messages which is a good thing, as I am the sort of person who texts a lot. The mobile phone also has predictive text, suggesting that when you text it may predict the word you are trying to text which if correct may save you time in having to type the whole word. You can also copy and paste text on this mobile even on the internet, which I think Is great.
The mobile also has video streaming, which allows you to watch TV on the mobile. I have actually bought the 3 TV add-on and when I connect to the TV it does not take more than 25 seconds to load the TV, with the incredible loud speaker, it makes the TV feature experience even better especially when I watch music channels such as Kiss and MTV.

The cover of the Motorola C975 has roughed up and it could do with a change, but it's a shame to know that the cover can't be changed, therefore, I am stuck with the old cover. The cover is greenish in colour, I am not exactly a fan of green and moving around with a mobile phone that looks like and weighs like a brick is the last thing I want. Which is why I am not going to recommend this mobile phone to anyone. It might have some cool features like the 3G netowrk which other new mobiles don't even have or the video streaming, but if the cover can't be changed, and it does not have Bluetooth or a mega pixel camera, it does not interest me at all.

This mobile phone is actually discontinued, suggesting that they have stopped manufacturing it. You can still buy it as second hand from eBay, amazon and possibly some phone shops. But you wouldn't get it for a fiver like I did, you'd find yourselves paying at least £20 to get hold of this mobile.
Accessories for this mobile are still on the market e.g. the battery, headset, MicroSd card, simcard etc.
If you the kind of person who likes old fashioned mobiles that are very huge, but have some high-tech features then this mobile might be for you.

Summary: A very old huge phone with some nowadays technology but not all of them.

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