Motorola V600 (Motorola V600)

Member Name: carlmcq

Product:	Motorola V600
Date:	26/05/05 (677 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Appearance

Disadvantages: Battery Life, Camera

I noted that a number of previous reviewers for this mobile has mentioned how they were once a 'Nokia' person. I am in the same band of brothers.

The allure of a 'flip phone' was what converted me to trying the Motorola, and due to it's acceptable market price, I was more than happy to give it a go.

On first impressions, it's sleek, curvasceous casing is a positive, and through experience, it certainly has high levels of durability and robustness, especially considering the pounding I give it every day!!!

However, from then on in, it fails to speed away from the likes of Nokia, or rather more like the Nokia over takes Motorola.

For someone like myself, converting from one phone make to another can be somewhat confusing to begin with due to the variation in button placings, and this phone is no exception. But once fully 'trained' (which doesn't take too long!) the Motorola is simple enough to naviagate around, with a concise and understandable menu page, that helps with the job of trying to find things!

But other features of the phone are far less encouraging than it's appearance and navigation.....

It's battery life leaves little to be desired, although a friend of mine says their model lasts for longer so I may just have a faulty battery pack. Apart from the Battery display on your mainscreen, within the 'Settings' option on the Menu, there is a 'Battery Meter' inside 'Phone Settings', which ranges from 1 to 6 - this will decrease by two each every day, approximately, therefore meaning that you will need to recharge almost every 72 hours - hardly convenient for anyone going away from a week and without a charger.

As well as that, the camera is hardly one from the catalogue of David Bailey. Yes, it's zoom feature is a handy accessory, but the quality of image is not as good as a lot of camera phones on the market these days, particularly when the lighting is bad, or even too bright! Dust and dirt gathers quite easily in the lens, which is hard to clean because of its size, and on more than one occasion when I have tried to take pictures, it has produced an error message such as 'Picture Capture Failed' - the reason for which, I have no idea.

Finally, many people do judge a phone by its gameplay, Nokia having been immortalised by 'Snake' of course, but the Motorola has left a lot to either the imagination, or to the Internet download option. 'Stuntman' is a smart enough game, but rather sluggish and limited, and 'Monopoly', yes that's right, the game that can last for days on end, is also available to anyone who has lost all sanity!

In conclusion, don't let my last couple of paragraphs deter you from it altogether. As a 'phone' it is more than acceptable due to it's look and naviagational skills, as well as a relatively good reception quality. But if your seriously looking for your phone to take pictures and play games on a regular basis, it may be wise to steer clear, and opt for a newer model along the Motorola 'RZor' range, as what could have been a great phone in the v600 is nothing better than just, plain and simply, 'rather good'.

Summary: