Motorola V551 / V330 / V547 / V555 / V557
Average Ratings
Keeping this phone
Pros:
Phone feels good in your hand - has substance.
rubbery blue stuff aint so bad
Screen is crisp and large
Just about everything is customizable (for e.g. (1) wallpaper (2) menu skin (3) order of options - in menu (4) default functions for 5 way key and soft menu keys)...etc....
The camera takes good quality pics (for a phone) and zoom and other features help.
Both in-call and ringtone volume is loud (I have mine currently set to 6 so as not to disturb those around me) - One cause of low ringer volume could be the custom ringtone chosen... some pages sell better ringtones that ring louder.
The phone has the same Vibe then ring & vibe setting that prior moto's had
Internet is pretty fast (keeping in mind its a phone)
Video is pretty good too (keeping in mind its a phone).
The phonebook â You can enter more than one number per name (contact). In terms of viewing, i took the advice of past reviewers and viewed my contact list by main # so that each contact appears once. As you scroll â if you hit the right arrow on a contact is cycles through the other numbers for that contact and yes, it loops. However, you can also view it the old way where there is one entry per number, distinguished by the home, main, mobile, etc.. icon shown.
Blue tooth.
The reverse blue external display is sleek looking and easy to read
Good reception - in call reception is good and person you are talking to hears clearly despite background sounds.
Cons:
The phone is a bit heavier and wider than optimal.
The blue rubber stuff aint that bad but it aint that pretty either.
Very few accessories available for it so far
In order to connect via usb you need the drivers from Moto â can be $$
The price of Bluetooth accessories.
The side voice memo button is easy to press accidentally while talking
Yes that darn cingular logo is almost everywhere â but if you customize the look (your own wallpaper, for e.g. a pic you took) you can minimize the annoyance.
The external display should have been bigger and color.
Lots 'o Good, but Returning w/i 30 days
I had been frustrated w/ SE-616 for a couple of reasons ... invisible in any sunlight, and it's software latency (slow response) was aggravating. After a year, I had an upgrade credit, wanted a flip, and so here I am reviewing the M-v551 after three weeks!
PROs:
I like the basic performance of the v551:
signal is great,
screen is terrific,
sound performance is fine,
connection hold is fine,
Bluetooth works great w/ Jabra-200.
The VGA camera is especially nice, a quick click and it's a snap" to use it as your wallpaper - nice. The basic phone works well if you just need to stay at the upper levels of send & receive calls.
But, as soon as I tried to dive into its feature-depths, I became frustrated. Why, then, spend so much for those extra features?
CONs:
IMO, the software interface and menu structures are abysmal. Moto was late to follow industry norms for
- SND (green) on left side, and
- END (red) on the right side.
Good that they've joined the party, but their internal menus are a mess, maybe because they didn't fully complete the left-right swap? There's no "intuitive" aspect to this software, whatsoever.
Try to turn on Bluetooth? ... the "select" button keeps swapping from left to right, back to left. Also, their BT menu structure runs several layers deep (my SE-616 needs only one button to grab the headset & go).Result is ... unless you've got a photographic menu, you simply MUST look at the phone to process a name, or mode, or setting change.
Finally, what's with the delay when sending a numeric keypress (like your v-mail password) ??? The delay makes it very weird and confusing - never had that with half-a-dozen other brands.
CONCLUSION:
The interface is priority for me. This learning curve is too steep to be worth the trouble. I'm heading back for a t637, or maybe Nokia, with very intuitive software.
If I wanted a completely new interface, I'd go to a Smartphone with benefit of PDA during that learning curve.
worth the money
Replaced a tri-band Nokia 8260 (AT&T) when its display started blanking randomly, after Singularly swallowed the smaller fish. North Dallas customer, and no more half-call dropouts that occurred regularly with AWS, thank the gods!. All in all, very satisfied with the feature set.
Pros: small, lightweight, well-made (no squeak/play in hinge), superior sound, UI somewhat customizable, speed dials, user shortcuts, good still picture quality.
Cons: battery life a bit low, 3rd-party accessories a little rare (try V600 for cellsuits), Moto's website lacks in V551-specific content at times
Other: no white screen yet, audio pops noticeable when walking ringtones/audio (not just mp3s), a little thick, MPT 2.0 has a one-time glitch in accessing phone (see below).
Maybe later f/w will address audio artifacts. Don't seem to hear them on incoming calls however. Whining about Java games is lost on me, and no need for video capture as yet, so no comment.
In general, if you lust after the latest model eqpt, expect infant mortalities on introduction. I'll stay off the bleeding edge, thanks; lived too long there.
With a USB data kit, make it V551 compatible, or play with BlueTooth as you wish. For USB, expect to select the modem (Motorola USB, not V551!) in the setup menu during initial connect, especially with laptops. Someday they'll fix the phone image so it'll look right in MPT (BFD, yeah), right Moto?
Plenty of audio capture/conversion s/w out there (ARwizard, wavepad, etc) unless you're cheap/lazy. 8, 32, and 40Mbps (Lame) play fine (stock tones are 32Mbps FgH); haven't tried other combos. matrixm is ok if you're not into rolling your own sounds, but seems stuck on 8Kbps via SMS links for the present.
In short: be nice to the mobile eqpt, and it'll reciprocate; treat it like garbage, and get what you deserve.
I LOVE THIS PHONE !!!!!!
i just got my moto v551 and i just love it i had the moto v3 razor at first but was not at all impressed with it the v551 has much better features like video-which is great, edge-which is very fast for internet, and i also think that the camera on this phone is much better also. if you are the type of person that just likes phones for their looks then the v3 would be a good phone for you if you don't mind paying that much for a phone with just good looks. i have to say that i am much much more happy with the v551 and i actually saved money and still think i lucked up with a better phone.
V551 has the loudest earpiece
For those you undecided about this phone, this is the best phone for loudness and clarity for Cingular service.
Tested every phone available at Cingular stores for loudness. Moto V551 was superior to other wimpy brands for sound loudness. Tested other Motos, Samsungs, Sony Ericssons, Nokis, LGs & others.
The RF signal on this Moto is very good. On par with Nokia & Sony. But much better than Samsung.
Reason I didn't give V551 a perfect score was because the menu system is difficult to understand compared to Nokias, Samsung and Sanyo.
If you use Bluetooth earpiece, it will drain the battery about 20-40%. Not worth the investment unless you have the phone charged while using Bluetooth.
The Edge internet on the phone is blazing fast compared to other phones I've used on Sprint and Verizon.
Durable form factor design. The rubber thingy is easy to grip and it will cushion an accidental drop onto your carpet.
Final Thoughts: If you want a phone with all state-of-the-art features like Bluetooth, Edge (high speed internet), still & video cameras & speakerphone, get this phone! You won't be disappointed!!!!!
I just Love it!
I, like many others, was an AT&T member but merged to Cingular...I work for a company that gives awesome discounts so I got the phone with all the "sweets" for a very low price. I love this phone, I have had many phones in the past and this one it the best! There is certain things I am not thrilled about but overall this phone is the "poop!"
Pros...everything you can think of..I love having video, camera, downloadable rings, internet and speaker phone! Speaker phone is just awesome..I love the way you don't even need a headset or bluetooth. You can close the phone and talk away, just like at home.
Cons..Volume isn't that loud and the whole picture caller id thing is kinda stupid. You have to set the settings for touch pick up if you want to see the picture first, before you answer. Otherwise the phone, when closed, just says the name and when you open it it will show the pic for a second and disappear. Other then those...Great Phone!
v551
I have owned a Motorola v551 phone for about a month (I use Cingular). I am very enthusiastic about the phone EXCEPT for a couple unfortunate omissions.
First the pluses :
1 Bluetooth in conjunction with my Bluetooth
headset is awsome. Most of my activities
don't even require flipping it open.
2 Voice activation works well.
3 It is chockful of features. Very nice
overall.
4 This phone has a great feel to it.
5 Java works nicely on it.
6 Voice quality is excellent.
Now the negatives :
1. The alarm clock needs to have a daily
alarm setting with at least three
alarms. My Samsung had this feature and
I also ended up using it as my alarm
clock.
2. Motorola needs to get real. Test the
phone with Apple computers. Bluetooth
doesn't work with iSync.
- cld9731
good stuff
i had a nokia 3650 for about 1 year or so. then i decide to switch phones because, quite honestly, the nokia is great but man, it's just way too big for me.
i was with att and now i migrated to cingular with a 2 year plan, so i paid 100 and will get a 50 dollar rebate. basically, it's a 50 dollar phone for 2 year plan and 100 for a 1 year plan.
overall the phone is good. i believe the battery life has some issues but it's better than my nokia which would run out of battery after just about 2-3 days on standby.
pros:
mp3 ringers, polyphonic is old, too old, it's time for mp3s to take over
bluetooth (on par with the nokia(s) that have bluetooth, but it's a bit harder to use on this phone)
speaker phone option
loud sounds and ringtones (nokia 3650's ringtones can barely be heard, this phone is loud, even if others complain about the loudness, in my opinion, it's loud and proud)
picture with zoom option is nice!
cons:
address book, i hate with a passion.
low memory storage (pictures, mp3, video, err, 5mb of space is way too low.)
manual is pure crap, it explains nothing at all
video recording is choppy, like someone else said, it's way worse than nokia, and it's true, the resolution may be better than the nokia (in my case, the nokia 3650 is way smoother)
one thing i truely hate is that i can transfer pictures with my nokia 3650 to my computer but the V551 can not for some real odd reason. i use bluetooth but i can only receive and not send. it's sends to the nokia fine, but it has yet to send to my computer.
a little heavy for a small phone, feels like my nokia is lighter even though it's bigger.
i'm giving this phone a 4.0
I LOVE U MOTO
This is the second motorola phone that I have had the pleasure of owing. The graphics are awesome, the ringtones are fabulous, and the speakphone option is a total plus! I can't say enough good things about this phone!
I only have a couple of negative things to say about the phone:
1) The manual sucks...this is probably the worst product manual I have ever seen (actually, the v400 pm is worse, so I stand corrected). The pm for my previous phone (v60gi) explained every little detail of the phone. My advise to motorola is to bite the bullet and pay the extra buck to expand the manual to its full potential, and if they want a Spanish version (which takes up half of the v551 pm), DISTRIBUTE A SECOND COPY!
2) This is more of a problem with the tech people configuring the phones...CONFIGURE THEM PROPERLY! My v551 was configured improperly and the techies had a difficult time figuring out why the email/AIM options were not working...I still think they may not know how to do it, but there are documents floating out on the web with this information.
So, with all the options working on this phone, it is brilliant!
Hate it
It has a great display, but overall I hate it. When you type the keys there is a 5 second delay on key tone, the one-touch button on the side that changes the ringing style is a pain, you can't add more than one number per entry in phonebook, it creates another name, and you can't add addresses. It doesn't have a notepad where you can add notes, the calender has a horrible reminder set up, you can't add birthdays or important events easily.
