Th Choice Is Yours (Motorola V70)

Member Name: georginaj

Product:	Motorola V70
Date:	30/01/03 (1083 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small and light, Stylish and modern, Good backlight and features

Disadvantages: Buttons are small and fiddly, If you have big hands you will struggle, That many features you wont use them all

After owning three mobile phones in five years, all of which resemble bricks, I have recently changed to a motorola v70. This is the first motorola phone I have owned. In the past I have had a Nokia, an Ericsson and a Philips Savvy. I am not one of these people that follow trends and I don't have to have the latest model, I just fancied having something that was smaller and lighter for a change. It was time for a little treat.

**********************************SPECIFICATIO NS***************************

Weight 2.9 oz
Width 1.5 in
Depth 0.8 in
Height 3.7 in

********************************PHONE DESCRIPTION**************************

This mobile phone is chrome, with a round screen and a rotating cover. The rotating cover covers the keypad and rotates all the way around the phone in a full circle. It rotates around the screen and because it covers the keypad, you do not have a keypad lock. This rotating cover is used as a keypad protector, to answer and end a call and as the ear piece whilst on a call.

The screen and keypad are lit by a soft, blue electro-illuminisent light. This light is activated when the rotating cover is moved.

Under the screen there are three small, silver buttons. These buttons are not covered by the rotating cover. If you press them when the cover is over the keys, nothing will happen. They only work when the phone has been activated, which is done by moving the cover from over the other keys. These three buttons are the main menu buttons.

On the top of the phone, on the right hand side is the ariel. It is black in colour and is about an inch long. Next to this is the port for the hands free kit and at the bottom of the phone is the port for the charger. On the side of the phone (left) there is a small silver button. This is the volume control.

The keys on this phone are a rectangle shape and are very small and silver in colour. The back ground that they sit
on looks black, until the light is activated and then it glows a nice soft blue, like the screen.

************************************FEATURES** *****************************

*Phonebook- Here is where you store your names and numbers. You can add, delete or edit any of them from here. The phone has a seperate memory for storing names and numbers so you can leave your sim card free, if you want to. In total the phones memory will hold 500 names and numbers. Then of course there is the space on your sim card aswell.

*Messages- Here you can access your voicemail, text messages, quicknotes, outbox and drafts. You can record you voice mail greeting, change it and switch you voice mail on or off. When texting, you can choose between four options. There is itap, which is predictive messaging, tap, which is normal texting, one letter at a time, numeric, which is number texting and symbol, which is symbol texting. You choose your prefered option and the phone will save that setting until you change it. The quicknotes is for writing yourself little notes and saving them. Your outbox will store all sent messages, until you manually delete them. The drafts flder is for storing unfinished messages so that you can go back to them later and finish them.

*Recent calls- Here you can view all your recent calls, whether you recieved them, sent them or missed them. They will be stored here until you delete them. If you miss a call from a number that is not stored into your memory it will save the number in Notepad, so that you can see the number. If someone send s you a text with a phone number in it, it will also be stored in notepad sothat you can use it.

*Calltimes- every call that you have recieved will have the time it was recieved stored in this flder, until you manually delete it.

*Games- this phone has three games. Paddleball, blackjack and mindblaster.

*Settings-Here you can set your phone to silent, vibrate, loud
or soft ringing. There are 25 ringtones in this section for you to choose from and the phone allows you to choose a ringtone for when you recieve a text message. You can have one ringtone for text messages and another for incoming calls. There is also a composer, which allows you to create upto 32 more ringtones.

*Call divert- this feature lets you divert a call, if you are unable to answer your mobile. When this option has been activated, anyone who calls your mobile will be diverted to another phone number, the one that you entered.

*Phone staus- In this section you can view your battery life and personal phone numbers.

*Datebook- This function allows you to set yourself reminders. It has an alarm so that you will never miss another birthday, meeting or appointment.

*Quickdial- here you can assign phone numbers to keys for speed dialling. It saves you having to enter the number or look up the name. You simply press one number and it will dial for you.

*Shortcuts- you can set any of the above functions to a key, for quick reference.

*Voicedail- this function allows you to set voicedail on or off. Once you have set it to on, you have to record the names by speaking clearly into the phone. From then on, all you have to do to ring someone is speak there name into the phone and it will dial for you.

*My services- this lets you view which network you are using.

*Browser- This lets you set your phone up for WAP.

************************************EASE OF USE*****************************

Flicking through this phones menus, when I first got it, was a little daunting. I hadn't owned a motorola before and they are very different to nokias, which was my last phone. There is so much to look through that it took me a while to familiarise myself with it's functions. Once I had mastered it though, it was simple to use.

Entering names and numbers on this phone is simple. You
just have to decide whether to store them on the phone,the sim or both.

Texting on this phone was alittle awkward to begin with, The keys are very small and quite close toegther. I have quite small hands but little chubby fingers, so I found it a little fiddely to start with. Now I have got use to it, but there are still times I find myself hitting the wrong keys. If you have big hands, then I'm afraid you will struggle.

The composer is also a little tricky, or maybe it's just me. For some reason, none of the tunes I have entered sound like they should. I am not familiar with a composer though as I have never used one in the past, so this could be just me. If you have used one in the past, you will probably get on fine with it.

*********************************COMPARISONS** ****************************

Compared to a Nokia 3110.

The motorola is half the width and length of this phone and there is a big difference in the weight aswell. The motorola has a lot more features and it is a lot more stylish. Texting on the Nokia was easier though, due to bigger, more spaced out buttons. The screen on the Nokia is also bigger than on the motorola.

Compared to the Ericsson GA628.

The motorola is smaller and lighter than this phone and again, is a lot more stylish. The ariel is smaller on the Ericsson but the sreen is bigger on the motorola. If you hold the Ericsson in one hand and the motorola in the other it feels like a feather and a brick!

Compared to the Philips Savvy C15.

There isn't that much difference in the weight, but the motorola has the edge. Again it is smaller and more stylish than the Philips Savvy and the motorola has the bigger screen. The philips savvy did have icon messages though and the motorola doesn't. Texting on the Philips was also easier, again due to bigger more spaced out buttons.

***********************************PRICE****** *******************
***********

The price of this phone varies quite alot, depending on whether you buy it on a contract, pay as you go, with or with out sim and second hand or new.

Prices start from around £79.99 through to around £149.99

It is well worth you spending a little time and having a good look around, as there are some places that are definately better on the price than others.

************************************MY OPINION******************************

Finally, I hear you all sigh, this opinion is coming to an end!

I like my new phone, but there are features on my old phones that I miss and features on my new phone that I love.

Like I said earlier, I have never owned a motorola before and so it was a big difference for me. It took some getting use to, but with a little time and patience I got use to it, in the end. There is a lot to look through when you first get it and it can seem a little daunting. I particularly like the games, as all the phones I have owned in the past haven't had any, but I miss my icon messaging that the Philips had.

The menus are laid out differently and having three menu buttons threw me in the beginning. One is to access the menu, one is to choose an option and one is to go back a screen. In the beginning I kept getting muddle up, which was for what, but now I have it!

Is it better than my old phones? Yes and no, is the answer. I like some of it's features but miss some from my old phones. Every phone is different and this is a good little phone. At the end of the day, it does what it is suppose to and it has a lot of extras.

This phone also has a built in radio. I personally haven't used this feature yet, but if you like to listen to the radio whenyou are on the move, then this feature is for you. To listen to the radio, you have to plug the headset in, where the handsfree kit goes. It looks just like the handsfree kit, but it is for radio purpo
ses only.

***********************************GOOD POINTS*****************************

Stylish
Small
Lots of features
Composer
Large phone memory
Radio
Backlight
Interchangable rings

***********************************BAD POINTS******************************

Small buttons
Naff ringtones
No icons
Price
Sticking out ariel

******************************THE CHOICE IS YOURS***************************

A small, stylish, lightweight phone, packed with lots of features and is great compared to some.

OR

A small, lightweight phone, with small, close together buttons, vast menus and a sticking out ariel.

The choice is yours!

Summary: