Motorola V80 Review
First Impressions
This is one very stylish phone, and it is certainly different to any other phone on the market today. There is not a single sharp edge on the phone, it's all curves and rounded edges & oozes style with its gloss black finish and silver parts. Above the large screen which dominates the front of the phone (176*220 pixels, and of excellent clarity and brightness) is a cute little 5 way joystick in a lovely shade of green which is used for navigating around the features of the phone. Holding the phone in your hand (it fits snugly into your palm) nudge the bottom of the phone's lid to the left. With a burst of sound and light it spins 180 degrees and locks into place, revealing the keypad which looks decidedly retro but is clear, well lit and very easy to use. The buttons are nearly flush, but there is enough of a lip on them so that you can feel them.
Sizes & Dimensions
- Size/Weight: 99*44*19/90gm
- Screen: 176*220 pixels, 65536 colours, TFT.
Features
- Triband (GSM900/1800/1900)
- Memory: 6MB
- GPRS
- Bluetooth
- Phonebook
- Polyphonic Ringtones
- MMS
- POP3/IMAP4 e-mail
- Voice dialling
- Games
- Speakerphone
What's In the Box
Included in the box with the phone: Comprehensive user manual, software disk (Motorola Mobile Phone Tools, trial version only), Bluetooth headset.
Menu Structure
The menus use an icon driven format. They are simple to navigate through and can be totally customized to your own preferences using a simple drag and drop procedure.
Camera
The camera is activated by using one of the smart keys or by moving the lid of the phone back by 90 degrees (so the phone is in a boomerang shape). This gives you the choice of taking pictures in either landscape or portrait mode without having to hold the phone s keypad at a different angle. The camera itself is a 640*480 pixel VGA camera, with 4x digital zoom, and offers adjustability of colour balance, brightness plus a useful self timer. There is no mirror provided for self portraits though, as there is on it's sister phone the V600. Picture quality is reasonably good, not up to the mega pixel phone camera standards, or indeed the phone at the other end of the scale the NEC E313/228, but it is better than some of the similarly priced models.
Multimedia & Games
Apart from the usual culprits of pictures and ringtones (more on them later) the phone will play videos in MPEG-3 and 4 format with sound (but it will not record them). I have heard though that a software flash can remedy this, but I do not recommend you do it yourself. Quality is poor though and the sound is loud and distorted and cannot be adjusted. There is a Motomixer which allows you to modify MIDI tones to you hearts content. Themes can be created to give your phone a different look. One very smart touch to this phone is rhythm lights (Motorola call them haptics ). Set these, and the rim of the phones lid will flash different colours in response to sound/music/speech. Gimmicky, but a definite talking point in the pub. The phone has 2 games as standard and utilises the JAVA MIDP 2.0 format. More can be downloaded OTA (Over The Air) using your WAP browser, but strangely require software to upload them to your phone from your PC. This is not supplied on the software disk that comes with the phone though, which I think is rather short sighted of Motorola. However it is easy enough to find on the internet to download.
Messaging & Email
SMS - Motorolas version of the Nokias predictive T9 text system is called iTap. It does take some getting used to. Having said that, it has one useful feature called Autofill which comes in handy if you repeatedly type large words or phrases (e.g. e-mail addresses). You can switch this off if you want to use the simple text input method, but it is well worth persevering with.
MMS Messages are easy to compose and to send. The usual options are there such as attaching sounds etc. The phone encourages the use of MMS. Having said that the SE T630 is marginally easier to use on this front. E-MAIL - The V80 supports POP3 and IMAP4 protocol, and once set up correctly is very easy to use.
Browser
The V80 supports both GSM AND GPRS (Class 8+2) connection to the mobile internet that is supplied by your network provider. Settings can be downloaded off the Motorola website and is recommended as the menus themselves are rather convoluted. Once set up though browsing is quick and easy.
Ringtones
There are 49 supplied as standard on the phone and are a combination of simple alert tones and MIDI tones (24 chord polyphonic). More can be downloaded onto the phone. They are loud and easy to hear. You can set them so they vibrate as well. The phone will play MP3 tones.
Office Tools
The usual calendar, calculator, voice memo and alarm clock are all present.They are simple to use and easy to access.
Phonebook
Holds 1000 numbers on the phone, which is ample storage for all your contacts. You can allocate pictures and tones to each caller, and sort them into caller groups (e.g. friends, family, business etc.) You can attach e-mail addresses to your contacts. Searching through the contacts is easy, but if you have 100 contacts starting with 'A' you could be a while looking for one near the end of the list.
Connectivity
Bluetooth is included on the V80 and is very easy to set up and use. The edge of the phone s lid flashes blue to show that the Bluetooth connection is active - a nice touch. Strangely there is no option of infrared, which is a great shame. You can connect to your PC using the good old data cable.
Battery Life & Signal Strength
Call quality is excellent. The person on the other end of the line can be clearly heard with no distortion. The phone holds onto its signal very well, and provides an audible beep if the signal disappears. The manufacturers quote battery life at 130 hours standby and 3.5 hours talktime. Not great, and definitely not as good as the Nokias.
Summary
The phone is an excellent alternative to the normal fare available. The pros far outweigh the cons, and the different looks will appeal to the trendier people in the market for such a phone. The phone is virtually the same as the V600, so if you want the features of the V600 but don't want a clamshell phone, then go for this one. I cam promise you will not be disappointed.
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