Motorola V551 / V330 / V547 / V555 / V557
Average Ratings
Great phone! - The best GSM phone for Cingular Currently!
This phone is great! By far the best RF of any Cingular GSM phone that i have ever owned (and trust me, i have had alot of them)
Cons:
Great battery life - i get two days with me constantly playing with the camera and video recorder, and using speaker phone constantly!
Great RF, this phone has the BEST reception of any GSM phone that i have ever owned.. usually keeps between 3-5 bars, but can hold a crystal clear conversation on 1 bar if needed.
Great features! this phone has awesome features, like blue tooth, speaker phone, 5mb memory (I've got some vids and about 35 pics @ 640x480 and still have 57% memory free!), etc.. this phone is one of the best for Cingular and Multi Media right now..
The blue stuff on the outside feels comfortable to hold.
It's by far the most comfortable cell phone that i have held against my ear!
Many people think this phone is too heavy, i think it's just right in size and weight!
____
Cons:
I haven't found any cons to this phone so far, I'm really pleased with it's performance and features!
Better Than Most
Let me preface by saying I have used AT&T GSM since its inception in my area. I have used a Nokia 6200, SE t616, and t637.
The Motorola phone is by far the best rounded of them all. There is no perfect phone but this is as close as its going to get.
Design: This phone has a very solid feel to it and has some weight( which I view as positive).
The rubber coating and rubber contact points on the phone will stop it from sliding if you put it down in you car. A+
Screen: Its magnificent. Bright, crystal clear, and sharp. The small outside screen is nice too and can be seen in direct sunlight or lit for night.A+
RF: Not quite as good as my Sony T637 but still pretty good. Much better than the Nokia. This is very subjective because who really knows how each manufacturer calibrates their bar signal strength. It works most everywhere I need it to. A+
Phonebook: Typical Motorola. Some like it some don't. You will get used to it. A-
Menus: Again typical Motorola. Nice and fast and you can customize EVERYTHING on the phone. A
Camera: Nice quality, Zoom, Video, Brightness control. Its really allot of fun, but there is no phone that will replace your digital camera so stop comparing the two. A
Battery life: I get 4-5 days with moderate use. It really depends on what type of signal strength you get. Lower strength higher battery usage. A
Browser: This phone has EDGE and when you can use it its great! The browser is as good if not better than anyone else's. A
Bluetooth: If you have never used it you are missing out. I dont use it for a headset but to connect to other phones and computers. It works great. You can add shortcuts on your main phone screen to expedite turning it on and off. A+
Speakerphone: Never had a phone with a better speakerphone. Great volume and clarity! A+
This is by no means the perfect phone , but its close. Motorola doesnt preload allot of games but if that interests you you can get pleanty of them on the internet.Ear and ring vol are great too.
I give it a 5.
V551
I agree with Chris....
This is my seventh phone this year. I began with Nokia's 3600, went to a SE t616, had a pre-recall V600, a loaner V400, a post V600, a Nokia 6230, and now the V551. I use the phone in Dallas on Cingular's network.
I too received this phone from the learn and earn contest. I like the way the blue parts of the phone feel. I see this to be a more durable phone than the V400/600. I wish they would have used a different color than blue to separate it from the V505 and V300. I really like the separate and dedicated buttons for the camera and to get to the internet. EDGE is not available in Dallas, yet, so I am stuck with the 40KBps for GPRS. The blurting on this phone is wonderful. Range has improve significantly. With my V600 and Nokia 6230, I could get about 35 feet, before distortion. Now I am pushing 40+, with the same Moto HS-810. When I receive a call the phone rings and the headset beeps in my ear. I haven't figured if this could be fixed or not.
RF has improved, too. I live on the North side of Dallas, and in my office at my house, I use to get 2 bars. Now it pushes four to five all day. There are a couple of new factory ring tones with the phone. The speaker volume has improved too. At vol. level 7 it is very loud, compared to my pre and post V600's. I am also glad the talk/end buttons have conformed to the "normal" direction, like the V180 and V220.
I also like the fact that it has a my account feature like the LG1400. This gives you another way to utilize Cingular's "star" services. Be wary as this will connect you to the internet.
Negatives: No games, just a trial version of bejewled. When I open my phone it squeaks. Very annoying, too bad there is no way to lubricate it.
Very good value for $149 with a 2yr commitment. I highly recommend it to a friend. Tons of features for the value. Unless you like the flashiness of the V3, the V551 is money well spent.
Will
Fun Phone, but not Great
Had this phone for 1 year through T-Mob in Orange county/Los Angeles Area.
Pros: Good, lightweight durable flip phone.
Great screen clarity
Camera is adequate
Video is less than adequate
Cons: call quality is very less than adequate. Volume is too low. Original hands free headset sound clarity is awful, better to use the speaker phone, which is a little better, but not much.
I never tried a bluetooth headset.
Reception and sound quality in my apartment was not very good, so I switched to sprint and nokia 6016i with MUCH Improvement.
Overall, a good phone with lots of fun features, but if sound quality is important to you, I do NOT recommend this phone.
After calling my friends/family with my new Nokia, they were amazed at the call quality difference, so I'm not sure if it is T-mob service or the phone that resulted in the poor quality.
Finally, the reception usually less than 4 bars. Most of my friends got reception in the classroom and I was getting no service.
But I played pac-man on this phone for about 15 hours--great screen clarity!
Good Job Motorola!!!
A superb phone for a person wanting a convenient, easy-to-use, and fun phone!
Pros:
Camera!!!- Duh
Easy to use menus
good design
picture quality
easy phonebook
Cons:
Not many ringtones
Big
Slow Camera
Will never buy Motorola again
Period owned: 6 months
Times exchanged due to the same defect: 3
Pros:
*Feature-packed
*Ability to create custom shortcuts
*3 skins
*mp3 ringtone capable
*Bluetooh works good
*Decent quality pictures
Cons:
*SLOW menus and long response time. If you've ever owned a Sanyo, you will notice how much longer it takes for a Motorola to respond after a button is pressed. I mean, I don't want to "Please Wait" when I'm trying to attend to a second call using call waiting.
*Buggy software. Had to get it replaced 3 times because it would randomly turn off, sometimes while on a call.
*Displays "Unable to charge" for some reason at times. Just have to play around with it to get it to charge. Sometimes it will look like it's charging fine and then it'll stop charging.
*Displays separate entries in the phonebook for multiple phone numbers under the same person. This can be changed though to display only the primary no., but then you have to guess if you've saved more number for that person.
*Cingular overbranding.
*To make a call using speed dial, you have to press and hold the no. For example, if you have John Smith stored under no. 4, you have to press and hold 4. This works for some people and not for others.
*Tools like calendar, calculator, alarm etc. should not be under Settings. They should be under, well, Tools.
In the end, I will never buy a Motorola phone again, no matter how thin or sleek they look. A phone's primary function is to make and receive calls efficiently, which Motorola apparently forgot to incorporate in the v551. The extra features are good, but they're secondary.
Go motorola !!
I wasn't to happy with Motorola from past phones such as the v180 or v220, but when i got this phone much to my surprise, it was awesome first thing i notices was the vibrant colorful bright, also very large screen, the first thing i did was take a picture, also another great feature, it has a really good camera I love this phone!
Pros:
- good durable design
- great camera
- aw some features
- charges super fast
- really loud ring tones
- loud speaker phone
Cons:
- a little big and bulky, but still not cheap and plasticly like other Motorola's
all in all i would say, go get this phone asap!!!!!
WOW
This phone is great.. ok ill go stright to it
Cons:(very minor stuff)
-The phone is fairly big
-The volume is not too loud..only up to seven(it is loud enough to hear in normal environment but louder woud be nice)
-The memory space is not big enough( i like to put music in mine and already takes more than half with one song)
PROS!:The sound is great
-the speaker phone is outstanding
-my signal is great everywhere
-easy to navagate around the phone
-video is fun to play with
-vivid pictures for VGA
-EDGE is a huge plus
-fun themes
-sleek design
-the rubber shell is handy, makes it a little more duable
-very solid phone
-its like the Razor V3 but a way better price!
-bluetooh works above par(love bluetooh!)
what more can i say! its a great phone and the pros blow away the cons! if your thinking about getin it then get it!
Better than the past...
I want to give this phone a 5, but I can't. I got the phone 4 days ago and Moto has really redeemed themselves with this phone. One of the most beautiful screens I have see. Vivid colors and very clear. I won't really list the pros, as the whole is a pro!!!
But the cons are as follows
Phonebook- You have to have two different entries to have a caller id pic or caller ringtone. (that is if you want all your numbers stored to sim) also, only thumbnails for caller id pics.
Email Client- I cannot get my imap setting on the phone to work. My server requires authentication and there is no option to put this on the phone, so i can't get incoming mail.
Menus- I am getting use to them, but they put stuff in some funky places.
Vedio Capture- Kind of pixelated, but its VGA, get over it...
Overall, this phone is the best bang for the buck... besides the megapixel cameras (and even some of those) this is the best camera on a phone I have seen.
If you have or had a V400 or V600, don't let those two loosers fool you, Moto has come a long way baby.
I dare anyone to say different about this phone....
at my call center I was Mr. Ihatmotorolawithapassionandwishtheywouldalldie...
until I tried this phone...
V551- Pretty Good
Well, I got this phone a week ago to replace my x426, and there is no comparison between the two when you compare the features. Here are some pros and cons:
PROS:
-Good sound quality (Cingular)
-Camera is good at still pictures
-Nice features
-Picture ID
-Voice activated calling is surprisingly very good
-Voice activated shortcuts
-Video phone (15 sec clips)
-Speakerphone
-Bluetooth (I don't use it)
Here are some cons:
CONS:
-Kind of small address book
-Not good at taking moving pictures
-Big
-1 demo game(bejeweled)
-No external color display
-Terrible choise of ring tones
Overall, this is a good phone and I would reccomend it to anyone who wants a feature-packed phone.
