Motorola V551 / V330 / V547 / V555 / V557
Average Ratings
I'm lovin it!
This is a great phone for anyone who is looking to buy a new celluar phone. It's got everything anyone could ask for. For those people who complain about the phone book, there is a simple fix for that in the forums. So please head there instead of whining about it. This phone has got it all.
--Pros--
Nice color display
Bluetooth
External Caller ID
Voice Dial
Camera is top notch for a celluar phone
Layout
Nice big buttons
--Cons--
One demo game, but who really cares?
Manual
Good price, decent phone
Overall, this is a pretty good phone for what you pay. Bluetooth, video, zoom camera,etc are all nice for the $100 price tag. Motorola still has not made the vibrate AND ring option yet, which is pretty lame. Also, the phone doesn't feel very sturdy when opening and closing it. I think my old v220 felt a lot more sturdy than this one. Another big con is the fact that a lot of v.xxx compatible games don't function properly with this phone...the left and right soft keys don't work for some reason. I also think that the phone itself is entirely too slow when navigating through the menu, switching to speakerphone, cycling through pictures etc etc. But like I said, you get more than you pay for with this phone. It's a great bargain.
Nothing special
Just got my V551 about a week ago after moving from AT&T to Cingular. I previously had a SonyEricsson T616, and so far, I'm definitely not impressed with the V551. It's not the worst phone I've ever had, but
First the bad...
My biggest gripe is the phonebook. Not user-friendly in the least. On the screen where you add a contact, there is space for multiple numbers for each person (i.e. home #, work #, cell #, etc.). However, as soon as you save the contact, each number gets split into its own entry. That means if you want to assign a photo, ringer, or voice dial for a contact, you have to do it for each of their numbers. There are times you would want to do that, but I'd rather do it manually than have my phone making me do it for everyone. There are some tricks to mask the crudeness of the phonebook interface, but they don't solve the problem of the poor design.
Ringer settings: Side buttons to switch ringer profiles (5 pre-defined: loud/soft/vibe/ring-then-vibe/silent) are easily pressed while in a pocket. To switch profiles with the side buttons, the phone plays a stupid tone when you press the key... kind of defeats the purpose of switching to silent! Plus, there's no indicator on the outside screen of which ring profile you're in.
Battery charging: no matter what when I take my phone off the charger, the battery meter shows full, whether it's been charging for 2 minutes or 2 hours, and doesn't accurately show the battery charge level. (This could just be a defect in my phone.)
Menu layout is atrocious. Many useful features are buried or named strange. And forget trying to find anything in the manual. Yuck.
The good...
Bluetooth works well, though it seems to forget pairings. (Could be my laptop, though.)
MP3 ringtones is nice.
Standard headset jack, no adapters necessary.
Display is bright and readable, even outdoors.
All in all, I'm not impressed, and plan to get a SE S710a instead, as soon as it comes out.
My Favorite Phone-And I've Had A Few
This phone is my favorite, and i have had a few. I like the outside, blue and silver looks really nice. The Screen is friggen awesome. Speaker-Phone comes in handy(more than you'd think). So let me list the pros and cons
Pro:
Nice Screen
Nice Looks
Nice Battery Life(5 to 6 days. If you dont fiddle around with it too much).
Nice Setup
Nice Pics
Alot of customization features
Video is really cool, a bit choppy though
Cons:
Pics are only nice if the phone can adjust to the setting your in, other wise they suck
video is choppy
I love this phone, maybe you will too.
I would have liked the Razor, but to much money for it. If you got 500 dollars, check that one out
Great Phone
This is a super phone - so far. I really can't understand all the complaints I have read from users about the menu interface. To me it is as intuitive as possible. Maybe I just haven't tried lots of other phones, but, to me, the menus on this phone are easy to navigate and not at all confusing.
I like the call clarity, the great speakerphone, and the super color display. It would have been nice if they could have provided at least one full game, though (all they provide is a short demo of one game).
My wife and I both have the V551 (and they are both "AA" phones) - so I hope we don't have any issues with locking-up or white-screens. So far neither of us have had this.
Battery life, while ok, could have been longer.
So far I am quite pleased.
V551 is off the hook!
I bought this phone from Cingular today and so far, I love it. This is the best Motorola phone that I have ever used.
Pros:
Nice Size
Great Display
Good Reception
Great Speakerphone (my favorite)
The only con about this phone is.. do they have faceplates for this phone, if so please let me know. I have looked all over the internet looking for faceplates to this phone.
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!
This is a pretty good phone
I have had the V400, V600 and now the V551. Out of all the phones I like this one the best. It has blue tooth, good ear piece volume, and a great display. The video function I will never use. It is too blurry if you even wanted to use it.
Poorly designed phone
Got this phone about three weeks ago with a new 2 year service from Cingular in New York City.
I have just returned it to Cingular (exchanged for a Nokia 6230).
First the bad news (CONS)
1) Incomprehensible menus: trying to change settings on this phone is like pulling teeth. Menu items are in strange non-intuitive places.
2) Infuriating delay when entering numbers while connected to a call. For some reason the phone doesn't let you type in numbers quickly when connected. Using the phone with any kind of calling card, voice mail service, etc, is an excercise in frustration.
3) Cartoonish color/skin schemes. There is nothing simple, clean or easy to read about the graphic interface selections.
4) Ring/Vibe: the rings are too quiet and the vibe isn't strong enough to make it through a tough pair of jeans - much weaker than any phone I've owned.
5) Poor camera menus: saving/taking photos is a pain with more counterintuitive menu items.
6) Short battery life
PROS:
1) Good bluetooth connection with my Mac
2) Speakerphone is really loud
My advice: there are a lot of phones with far more user-friendliness than this one.
