Motorola MPx220
Average Ratings
MPx220 - sending back to cingular for a Nokia
This phone has a lot of great features, however the following probs have me taking it back to cingular and replacing it with a Nokia.
-Ring/SMS alert volume - At highest setting is very quiet
-When you get an SMS while you are on the phone, you can't interrupt the music/tone so you have to tell the caller to wait until the music stops before you can continue your conversation
-Freezes up at least twice a day in moderate usage
-GPRS modem doesn't work (could be I have a broken phone)
-Motorola's tech support is terrible
"Motorola's Rush Job"
For people planning to buy the mpx220, don't waste your money. The mpx220 is a lot of hype and lacks true substance. Before I bought this phone from Best Buy, I took a lot of time researching phones; I checked reviews on Cnet, Best Buy website, and Consumers Reports. In other words, I put an awful lot of time in researching my new phone (I wish that I would have know about "Phonescoop" before buying my phone; there is a lot of great info here). Short and sweet, here is the situation: Pros: The phone looks great. It is light-weight. It offers a lot of features. Cons: The ear piece and speaker volume is terrible! If you are in a car or in a room with people talking, don't plan on using this phone. Also, the "mega-pixel" camera is a joke. It takes terrible pictures. Some may say that if you want a good picture, go out and buy a camera. Well, that is like saying that if you buy a high end TV (expensive), you should be happy if it has a great picture but don't complain if the sound is terrible.
Excellent Phone
I recently bought this phone from a friend who bought a Razor. It has been the best $150 I have ever spent for a phone.
I initially hesitated after reading this forum but for that price I knew I could sell it on Ebay if it was as bad as reflected by many here.
The sound is clear and plenty loud enough. The programming is smooth quick and without gliches.
I was going to buy a Sony a760 until I had a chance to use this phone for awhile now.
My T637 is relegated to my back up now.
The camerea is as expected with a cell phone. Many fall for the megapixel count in deciding quality of pictures however that is only a small part of it. The ccd is and lens is the most important part. The megapixels only give you a great enlargement of whatever faults in the other components. So the camera is rightfully and expectedly so so.
The screen is clear and the features amazing. This phone has more ways to customize and personalize than any other I have used.
Getting pop accounts set up for gmail and others is a cinch. The sync with outlook is flawless via BT or USB. The battery life is fine considering the features this phone has.
My only complaint is I do not like clamshell phones but I think Moto is coming out with a bar phone version at the end of the year.
A friend of mine took back his Razor to get this phone and never looked back. I bought this phone from a guy who bought it in Feb and now has a Razor.......He wishes he had this phone back. But Im keeping it until Moto or someone comes out wth a bar smart phone this size.
The only reason I did not give it a 5 was because of the bulky clamshell design and the vibrating speaker phone at high volumes. Both worth dealing with for the feature set and flexibility of this phone.
Great Smartphone!
I just got this phone on Friday (only 3 days now.)
I am very pleased with this phone so far. I get good reception and it has all the features that I was looking for.
I had the 6230 and upgraded to this one. The 6230 had a better speakerphone but I don't agree with any of the other negatives on this phone.
I fully drained the battery at first and then charged it up overnight. I haven't had it on the charger for 2 days and still have 2 bars of battery life left. I plan on fully draining it again before starting my charge whenever criteria. Battery life has been fine for me so far.
I also don't get the "gotta have a great camera in my phone" mentality. The camera in this phone is not great. We have a Canon S230 that takes great pictures.... This works fine for ad-hoc shots of whatever.
Many complaints about the earpiece volume. Here's my experience so far. I thought it sounded soft at first. After only 2 days of using it I have noticed that the volume is louder than when I got it. I actually turned it down a couple times yesterday. Call it speaker break in time. Anyhow, works good for me and I can carry on a full conversation.
So here's the list as I see it so far.
Cons:
Speakerphone is poor.
Camera is weak.
It's expensive.
Side volume keys in the way/too sensitive.
Can't switch profiles without opening it.
Pros:
Beautiful phone to look at.
External photo caller id
Internal antenna
Great RF so far.
good battery life (:p)
beautiful screen
Clamshell design
Great configurability
Bluetooth
Stereo MP3 player
Infrared
Smooth PC sync & comes with USB cable
Small smartphone
Overall I like it and am keeping the phone. Have lots to learn on it.
MPx220 delivers
I've been holding off getting a PDA or a Smartphone for more than a year now, mostly because I didn't want to have to lug around a PDA *and* a smartphone.
Well, the MPx220 is the phone I've been waiting for. It has the global bandwidth I need for my business travels, bluetooth for headset and data connectivity, excellent ActiveSync synchronization support, a variety of data connection modes for email and web browsing, including IPSEC VPN support, expandable memory (mini-SD) and a fairly compact size in a protective clamshell design.
The clamshell design is nice to protect the screen from scratches and keep dirt out of the keys without bulking up with a phone cover. The MPx220 case feels firm and solidly built.
Battery life is good - three to four days on-network with occasional voice calls and lots of GPRS web browsing. Bluetooth is disabled by default to conserve power, which is fine by me. I'll turn on bluetooth when I need it.
The earpiece volume rocker switch is a bit large, making it easy to press accidentally while handing the phone around or opening it. I haven't found a finger technique to flip the phone open one-handed yet. The spring force that keeps it closed is a bit high.
The MPx220's built-in camera is adequate for taking quick snaps that say "I'm here!" If you want to take high quality travel photos suitable for printing cards or calendars, get a real camera.
Multiple phone numbers, email and postal addresses for each contact can be stored stored in the phone's memory (hurray!). Contacts stored on the SIM card are the standard name and number content.
I've had difficulty copying SIM contacts into the phone's contact list. The "Add to contacts" menu item when viewing a SIM contact doesn't appear to do anything.
Support for WiFi networking (and VoIP) would be a welcome addition.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the MPx220 and expect to use it as my primary phone (and PDA!) for the next 8 to 12 months.
Just the facts review without the fluf
PRO -
1. Signal & reception seem to be very good
2. OS seems very fast with some exceptions. Faster than the MPX200
3. Voice clarity good
CON -
1. Volume in all instances except headset is way to soft
2. Bluetooth reception with all 4 of the headsets I own is poor (scratchy-ECHO-Drops)
3. Construction is lite and flimsy especially compared to the MPX200
4. Camera is useless indoors so the flash is irrelevant
5. Caller ID comes slow. You have to wait 2 to 3 rings and switching from one call to another is slow and unreliable
6. Too big
7. Battery is so bad. Very short
So far, So good.
A bit of a learning process to get full functionality out of the phone, as expected, I suppose.
Bluetooth sync (via ActiveSync) and earpiece took about a day or so to work all the kinks out, but works well now.
I was able to set up 2 different POP3 e-mail accounts in the Microsoft Messaging software.
It wasn't completely obvious how to do this, so here are the instructions:
Start > Messaging > mMode Email > Menu > (8)Options > (5) Account Setup > Menu > (1) New.
...and then enter your settings.
It takes a while with the slow GPRS connection, but hey, it's only 2004, right?
The earpiece is a little quiet, as you have no doubt read elsewhere.
Other than that, no real complaints. It has worked more or less as advertised, but there's always room for improvement.
I'd really like to see a version of Excel for this device... I have a lot of calculations I have to do for work rather quickly, and that would be helpful.
Not too bad...few glitches
Overall the phone is good. I did extreme research before buying this one. Reviews scared me. But since I had the facility of exchanging, I took the risk. Since all of us can exchange phone within the first 30 days, I would say, if you like the features of this phone, take the risk. I don't use internet so no comments on that.
Cons:
1)The camera is pretty bad. My V400 takes better pictures than this one. Pcitures are a bit faded but they definitely dont show any pixels (which is good). Night pictures turn out mostly black!
2)Speaker phone is not as great as V400 or V180.
3)Phone freezes sometimes
4)Lot of menus are there just 'coz they have to be. There is no other way of managing all the features this phone has. However, some features should be in different menus.
5)Can't customize external LCD with your own wallpapers.
6)Battery life short.
7)Volume can't be controlled from outside if the phone flip is closed. Wht'z the point of having external volume control ?
8)Volume control can't be controlled for ringtone (V400 and V180 has this).
9)Tabs on the battery cover are flimpsy. every time I remove it, I m scared I m gonna break those off one day.
10)If you save any number on the SIM and on the phone, that entry appears twice.It creates a mess.
11)Reception(cingular) is better for v400&v180.Reception takes a while to pick up even after comming out in good reception area.
Improvements:
1)Windows 2000 style menu would be nicer. You can just scroll to the main item and use the right cursor key to open the sub-menu.
2)I can think programming. I think Microsoft cut shortcuts to reduce programming efforts. This just made it a bit more menu style.
3)Attaching picture should be included in new contacts list.
4)Make it slider.
5)Outder design:make it more attractive.
Pros:
1)Lots of features. MP3 is awesome
Expandable memory is a great thing to have
2)Power phone!
3)Charges while you are connected with USB
4)Calender be better
Awesome phone? or Door stopper?
I now have the newest version, 1.3. Saddly to say that this phone very much still have issues. For the average user, it's fantastic... but for those of you who wants more with your phone... i would play with one beforehand and read more recent reviews.
Pros:
1. Looks Great!!
2. User friendly
3. large expansion capabilities
4. large display
5. all that jazz with mp3/video/sync blah blah
6. improved battery life and signal
Cons:
1. like a computer, it crashes occasionally
2. proned to fingerprints all over
3. speaker (ear) is either too soft or too high in pitch... something will get compromised when changed--quality or volume
4. settings occasionally gets resetted.
5. camera pretty much useless-- even with all the suggested settings altering. My v600 with 640x480 took better pics.
6. what's up with this crappy display? why does the v300 and v600 have better display? argh, makes me mad especially when they claim they have a 1280x860 cam resolution.
7. mp3 ring tones are soft.. maybe i should just make my own.
8. NO accessories available except the same 'ol aftermarket crap... useless CD, no handsfree set in the box... nuthin.
Overall, if you can look pass those little annoying pebbles in your shoe, it is a great looking phone that has great potential. Don't take our word for it... remember, it's up to the user and what they use it for. You can't have everything in one unit and expect it to be perfect. Besides, most people don't even use all the functions... it's wants vs needs.
What did you say?
We just returned ours to Best Buy after 14 days of giving it a fair test/chance.
The bottom line is
1. The volume problem is just something we can not live with.
2. The fact that you can't voice dial w/ blue tooth makes you wonder what were the Moto engineers thinking (or smokin).
3. Difficulty turning the phone off.
4. Long start up time when turning on.
5. Screen freeze up for no apparent reason.
This phone really had the potential to be a winner, but what a disappointing reality.
Has anyone else had these problems? Does anyone have experience with the V551 or V3 on Cingular? I am a Realtor and use about 3000 min a month, so I need a reliable workhorse. Blue tooth is important to me because I talk & drive a lot. Does anyone have suggestions?
Thanks,
Tim
