Motorola W385
Average Ratings
Unbelievable Battery Life!
My husband purchased this phone 3 weeks ago and has only charged it once! He's not the heaviest user but he has always had to charge his phone at least once every 2 days!
The reception is good. The phone looks nice. Similar style to the Krzr.
Excellent phone for the price. Does have a camera and text messages, blue-tooth.
If you are looking for a good basic phone, this is definitely the way to go!
I'm pleased
I've had this phone for two weeks and thus far I'm really happy. It has an incredible battery life and decent reception, even in the woods. I was a bit concerned as I've always had a trimode but I'm still pleased with its reception. I had to buy it outright and wasn't happy but I'm glad I sucked it up. Changing to vibrate mode is kind of a hassle, the speakerphone is a little tin sounding, and the camera just sucks. Having said that, I don't buy a phone as a camera. I've read that it was built on the KRZR platform. The keypad is covered as opposed to the RAZR metal. I don't like that much, either but none of this would deter me from recommending it. I run it on Verizon.
GREAT LITTLE PHONE
I use a cell phone to make calls and send texts, that's it, and this phone is Great for just that. It's the right size, looks great, works perfectly, and I especially like the rubberized finish and the black keys with blue backlights.
For what I use it for, there are no cons. If you want more bells and whistles then keep looking.
Ok..... but READ this review! Very Helpful.
I have had the Motorola W385 since the Christmas of 2007. I loved it until mid- June/July of the year 2008. Then i started to have e problems. First off, i am a fast texter.... so i would text fast and then send the message. It would freeze up and restart. Then it would never send my message. This may or may not be a problem with you. Just thought I'd say it. That problem is really huge with my phone and happened over and over. I have my 4th type of this phone now because these problems kept happening.
Goods-
-Great Screen
- Easy to set up
-Great Calling Features
- Clear Ring-tones Playing
-VERY Durable
- Txting Features very understandable
- Easy to txt
Bads-
- Freezes when you are txting
- Volume button on the side doesn't work sometimes
Overall this is a great phone i have just had some unfortunate problems with mine. This is a very durable phone and has a sorta sickish outside to help with the grip.(A big help for me).
Thank You, I hope this review helps.
Decent Phone
I got this phone through Metro PCS about 8 months ago, and so far I have been pretty pleased. It has good sound quality, the keypad is easy to use and it is really sturdy (it has been dropped a few times). I was really worried about the charger door pulling off, but so far it has held well. Also, I have always charged it every night and it is now starting to not make it through the whole day, which isn't bad for a color screen phone.
I only have two cons...
The camera sucks. There is no flash and there is a bar on the bottom when you take the picture that makes the screen smaller. Also, I not sure if it is the phone or my carrier, but if you take the pic on the initial setting, it comes across larger on email. However, if you zoom in to take it, you can't enlarge it at all. The only thing nice about it is that there is no delay...
The other (minor) thing is that you have to use an adapter for a corded headset. So, when you are driving and using your headset in the car (a law in CA), you can't charge your phone also. I have a Bluetooth (that I hate) and I use that if I have to charge my phone in the car, so I would only consider it an inconvenience.
Overall, I would say this is one of Motorola's better phones...
W385 BlueTooth
I am very happy with this phone as well. I don't care about playing MP3's. I do think this will be my last phone that does not include a QWERTY keyboard because I find entering text messages, emails and web addresses clumsy with just the keypad buttons.
I use MetroPCS service and I also think I will not buy another CDMA phone. I am probably going to go iPhone next time.
This phone works very well with BlueTooth headset, I bought a Motorola H350 and this phone's voice command set is very good. I can either say, "Call__(name__" or , "Call__###__" and it does it. Sometimes it has to guess and check with me on names, especially if I am outdoors in a windy or noisy area.
Again, although it does, through MetroPCS offer AOL and /or Yahoo email and a basic web browser, the use of these functions is hampered with the keypad alpha entry system.
LOVED IT...THEN .....
My husband and I both have this one from Verizon and we LOVED it at first the reception is very good and call quality is great. Then after the second w385 for each of us..the first both froze way too often and the second set we got have had major battery problems...we have replaced the batteries on each of them like 4 times within 2 months. Verizon ended up replacing it with the KRZR (we got to choose b/w that and Samsung 540)
Pros:
great reception (motorolas rock for that)
call quality
speakerphone
loud ringer
can text a sound and save it as ringtone
front display is always visable
durable
cons:
battery life
freezing problems
hard to text on if you text alot because keys are so close together
Interesting
I would agree - the essentials are here. Could not care less about texting, camera, mp3 player, etc. I want a PHONE! This means good call quality, solid construction, and ease of use.
PROS
* Very sturdy
* Good call & sound quality
* Rubberized outer coating - nice tactile feel, tough
* Battery life - excellent. 950 mAh battery compared with 780 mAH on RAZR v3M, means 4+ hours talk time vs. 3.3 hours talk time
* Keyboard feel - good texture, not slippery
* Voice recognition software
CONS
* Navigation within windows confusing - took a long time to figure out how to get BT to connect or to switch from ringer to vibrate profiles
* Screen size - Could have removed horizontal restrictions and made screen larger without much more cost. I will be using this in the car and when I want to quickly and easily know who is calling.
* Power - Having to manually remove the USB port cover every time (just got my wife a RAZR v3m, no cover there) is aggravating and I know I'm going to break it someday soon. Might just do it preemptively, get that out of the way
* Keys - small for the way they are designed. Meaning, tough to figure out which key is which when not looking at it. Old Moto phones had raised dots on some of the keys for reference. If they had some kind of "landmarks", the keys would not be too small.
* Thickness - if it was a hair thinner it would be a perfect pocket phone. Small issue, since I'll keep it in a belt holster anyway.
A Few Issues to be aware of
Just bought this phone yesterday so haven't made many calls yet. But a few issues have already become apparent that may result in my returning this product.
First I am an email admin by trade and carry a Blackberry and also my personal cell phone. I have been looking to decrease the footprint of the devices I carry on my belt, or in pocket since I'm always bumping them or scratching them along a wall. A big issue for me would be to have devices that stick out less, or are closer and tighter to you body.
I've had a account with Verizon for many years and no big issues with service so I headed over to my local Verizon store. I looked at the models on display and saw a few interesting ones. But when the store rep brought out the Motorola w385 I was instantly curious. It has a nice feeling in your hand due to the rubberized coating. And the black looks cool too.
But now that I had a chance to play with it a little here are the issues I have found.
Small screen, but not only that - small font size. I thought I would be able to change that (like on BB) but so far have not found a way to do that. The font could easily be expanded within the screen size as there is a lot of white space between the lines. Very disappointing for an older person like me who used to have 20/20 vision. This alone may be my reason for returing the device.
Power charger - BE AWARE you cannot use another manufactorures power charger. I thought since it had a "standard" USB connector that the power charger for my Blackberry would work just fine. But when I plugged it in the phone put up a real stink and flashed a warning on the screen. Being able to use the same charger would have been a real benefit. If companies are going to use a standard connector they should standardize on the electrical design of the charger. I believe that you can use a USB port on your computer to charge the phone but the manual says you need drivers (weird).
That's it for now - out of characters.
tx
Jeffer3
