This is the T-Mobile version of the Motorola V551 / V547 / V555 / V557
I'm not going to cover every aspect of the phone, but overall it is a good phone, however Motorola phones in general needs some improvements in various areas. I'm mostly listing things which I don't like about the device.
Known Issues:
-- If you have a trained voice name in a phone book entry, if you edit the phonebook entry for any reason it will forget the voice dialing name, it might now show it at first. This is a bug in the current firmware.
-- If you save a web shortcut in the phone, it will be lost if you have to powercycle the phone. This is a bug in the current firmware.
-- If you using a bluetooth headset the phone will use a ringer you cannot change, overriding the custom ringer settings for the default ringer, and for the custom ringers in your phonebook entries.
-- Random features not accessible/working, if the phone has been on for a while it might not allow you into certain menus like videos, you have to powercycle the phone to regain access to those menus.
Things they should improve:
-- Their phonebook structure. Many other phones have done a much better job at the phonebook. It leaves much to be desired.
-- Quality of voice dialing features. The voice recognition leaves much to be desired, even with recorded voice names it might use the wrong one as it doesn't use the voice recognition very well. Other brands like AudioVox have done a much better job. Also the storing of the voice name is tied to the phonebook entry per the previous information, and it should be stored seperately than the phonebook entry, along with optional voice commands which could be used to dial non-voice names in the phone book.
(I could have a friend talk into my audiovox, and it would match the name. If I have a sore throat, or if there is minor background noise it doesn't recognize the original user sometimes.)
-- Fixing menu options which don't always work how they should, like how long it takes for your lcd display to stay on, and when it actually launches the screensaver if you even use it.
-- Lack of security options to prevent others from accessing certain parts/features of the phone when it is not locked.
How the phone excels:
-- The quality of the voice on the other end is really good, and the speakerphone is usually very clear.
-- Many of the menu options provided are various, but give you many options about customizing your phone in a logical manner.
-- The batery life of the phone is really good, but if you enable bluetooth on the phone expect the battery life to reduce by half. However if you compare the phone to many others which don't even offer the feature it still lasts as long with bluetooth enabled.
-- Supporting standard formats like mp3 - I make my own ringtones/wallpaper/etc, and upload them to my phone via bluetooth without any hassle. The only limitation is the memory, but they give you 5MB of memory to store all of your data with all the other features so they give you plenty of room to customize you phone how you really want, just not enough memory to be a real mp3 player. However you can make playlists on the phone for those audio files and midi files you already have for something to listen to.
-- Quite durable. It is not the most durable phone I have owned, but I would say the only weak point is the flip.
-- EDGE - For those who have EDGE available over GPRS, it will be much faster than GPRS, otherwise it can fallback on GPRS.
-- Customizeable menu options - You can customize the default options for the soft keys while on the idle screen, even customize how you see the menus in the phone.
Conclusion:
I give the phone a 3.5 out of 5.0. Its a good phone, but the firmware needs to be fixed for certain issues like the ringers with a bluetooth headset, along with giving better options for the phonebook, voice dialing, and security options.
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by BlitzenZeus  edited by KeysCapt
last modified: 2005-07-10 09:08:15 |
