Motorola C343 / C343a / C341
Average Ratings
What a piece of ....
In-spite of the cute, compact design of the C343a, it has proved to me to be a piece of junk. This phone was offered to me as a "free upgrade" about 1 1/2 years ago by Qwest if I signed an additional 1 yr contract. Since then, I have regretted that decision, & I'm still not sure who I am more dissatisfied with - Qwest, or Motorola. After numerous complaints to Qwest concerning the fact that my phone wasn't ringing, it wasn't showing missed calls, & I wasn't receiving voice-mail notifications, nor the actual voice-mail messages themselves, they tried resetting some things, & finally sent me a replacement phone. To this day, I still have the same problems, even with the replacement. Oh, & also, when set to "vibe & ring", the phone only vibrates. I have complained a few more times to Qwest, & they have offered to either replace this phone (with the same model), which I not so graciously declined, or I can purchase a new phone for an astronomical amount of money & extend my contract again - I guess they aren't offering any more "free upgrades". They also advised me that they had only issued this phone with their service for a very short period of time because of equipment problems & complaints - so I basically got a free piece of junk! My last complaint, or should I say my last act of desperation after so many attempts to resolve the continual problems with this phone, was to Motorola. They talked me through a reset of the initial set-up, which Qwest has done several times as well, & told me if that didn't help, I could send it in to them for $75 plus tax, plus blah, blah, blah, to see if they can fix it, or I can drive about 70 miles to the only Motorola service provider around here to see if they can fix it at no charge, except of course my gas & time, which I have already wasted enough of. So, now I'm down to this; maybe it's not my provider, maybe it really is that Motorola manufactured & distributed.......... a complete piece of junk!
This Phone Is Horrible
I have had this phone for 1.5 years and finally Verizon is letting me get rid of it. I have gone through 5 of them. The earpiece went 3 times, the mouthpiece once, and the battery terminals corroded. The buttons are confusing since they are backwards, and the battery dies almost instantly during a long call. I upgraded to this phone for 10 bucks and now I see why it was so cheap.
Pros: Small and many features
Cons: Everything Else.
Squeeky!
I've onyly had this phone(the c341) for about 6 months and i am buying another one. It just feels cheeply made. And when I text/dial/push anything, the phone cover(origional) squeeks! It drives me nuts! Another thing that bugs me is the text messaging. on my old phone when you wrote a text message you had no interruptions. like when you received a new message, it wouldn't make the message u were typing stop. Now on this phone, when u get a new message it interrupts and stops what ur typing and makes u chose to open it or not. That was the only problem i had when i was buying this phone.
Pros:
-colorful/playful/fun looking phone
-hard keys, not those squishy ones
-menu is good
-ringtones are ok for what you paid for
Cons:
-no date displayed!
-cant receive pic messages
-text thingy
-cheeply light weight faceplate
-faceplates you buy for it change the phone design totally. The c341 has no faceplates that look like it.
Eh...it's ok
Pros: Well, this is overall a pretty solid little phone. I've had it for about a year and don't have too many major complaints. The phone is pretty user-friendly and very cute. Good selection of ringtones and customization options. It is pretty durable, as I have dropped it several times and it is still working.
Cons: The keys are tiny and the phone is sometimes slow to respond when dialing a number (sometimes I have the whole number dialed before it shows up on the screen and the keypad makes any noise). I had to have the antenna repaired because of dropped calls but ever since it has been fine. This may seem silly, but I wish the screensavers would stay animated like they are in the picture-viewer (when it is actually your screen saver there is little or no movement unless the phone is charging). Also, the phone has "frozen" two or three times (but that's over the course of a year).
All in all, not horrible, not great. Just definately better than the Audiovox I used to have.
Good at first, but prone to failure
I bought this phone in March of 2004.
Pros:
I liked the color screen, bright keypad, loud volume, and customizeable ringers. The reception is good with this phone and comparable to others I've used.
Cons:
One problem is that the menus are severely slow to respond while making a call, and slightly less slow normally. Another problem, the phone gets really hot during a long call.
HUGE CONS:
The problems started in January when the phone began to boot to a lit but black screen. Then the earpiece started to get very quiet. Now the built-in earpiece only works for the first 5 seconds of a conversation. Thank god they include a free hand's free earpiece.
Luckily, I turned it in for repair just two days before the warranty ended. USCC is repairing it for free, but I must say that I am disappointed with this. The rep at the store said that this model suffers from a dead earpiece quite often, and he said that this is unusual since the mic is usually more prone to failure.
Don't get me wrong, the phone is functional. The navigation is intuitive and the phone is nice, but the problems with slow menus, screen blacking, and a dying earpiece make this phone not worth the hassle.
THE GIST:
This phone is okay for an entry level user, and especially if you don't use the phone for long conversations that will burn up the earpiece.
I digress below:
With all that said, I have the means to get a moto V810 for $30 when another one of my family member's contracts is up in a week or so. So I am not hellbent against Motorola or anything. Allthough LG does have some convincing offerings. My GF's LG vx4400 hasn't ever given her a problem, but the reported quality of the RF on the V810 won me over since my college is in the boondocks of WV.
Do not get this phone
Ok so yeah this phone looks cool and its pretty and colorful, but it stops there. I had this phone for 3 months and it died completely died and took every number i had with it so i had the moto 343 then they gave me the moto 341 and it kept dying the bat life sucked so i got a new bat didnt help. Also it took people 5 times to actually get a hold of me then 3 months after i got that phone it died on me. thats 2 phones in 7 months. Thats not good if they die on you but to have two die on you that means the phones suck
Finally Motorola!
Finally Motorola makes a awesome none flip phone for Verizon's awesome network. I had the C333 and was pleased but I longed for a Tri-Mode phone since there are areas in Indianapolis that require it. The phone display is very nice and the phone size is perfect for my shirt pocket. Thanks again Motorola.
Proved successful so far...
We have been selling this product for over three months now and have had less than 5 returned back to us. It is considered so far to be a quality affordable product. It has a versatile sleek look and appeals to all ages and sexes. Definitely a good starter phone. Its features are a bit hidden, but once you get the hang of them, its very easy to run. I would definitely recommend this phone to people if they are looking for an inexpensive model, or as a quality cellular telephone.
i give it a 3.0 for now..
i always get excited when i hear that my wireless provider that i work will be releasing new phones into our market. but once i found out one of the phones we were getting was a motorola handset i was totally turned off by this phone (because of the problems the 120 had). its cool that its a color screen and the animations on it are at least kinda cool...but to navigate this phone is such a pain. you tend to think that your menu button is your ok button and you forget about the soft keys in the upper right and left hand corners. i hate what the screen displays when you actually get into the menu. cause you dont really know exactly what you can get in to. at least you can customize your shortcuts and what comes up first when you get into the menu. since it is a motorola you can find ringtones on the net... also since this phone is a brew phone you should be able to access a network right on the phone and download ringtones right on the phone. at a small price of course. maybe if i have more time with this phone and see what the customers think...maybe i might change my mind.
c343 ROCKS!!!
I just love this phone! it has many cool features such as customizable ringtones, color graphics, and a huge inbox for text messages. One of the problems I found is that when you plug the charger in, the phone automatically goes to a loud profile. It tends to be a pain at work. Also, I can't find any sites for ringtones for the composer. Other than that, it is a very cool little phone.
