Motorola V710
Average Ratings
The Ultimate Review
OK, you want 2 buy the Motorola V710 but don't know if you should. Well I can tell you my personal experiences with it and you can make that decision for yourself. Now 1st of all when I got the phone it was pricey, I am un sure of the current price but that may be a factor in your purchase or not. Now the Phone is incredibly durable, and I mean this.
I have dropped this phone at least 100 times since I bought it in August 2005. It takes one heck of a beating. Its got a screen on the front of the phone so you can see who is phoning or texting you without actually picking up the phone, as well as picture I.D. appears on this outside cover as well. This is a great feature because what is the point of picture I.D. if you just open your phone and answer it, well there isn't a point to it. So picture messaging on a flip phone now here.
HORRIBLE battery life. There is no words for this, it has a big screen, and just opening it drains battery. Be prepared to charge this puppy everynight, because when you need it, most likely if its not charged in a day (or 2 if lucky) you will not have it. Also no way to turn off the low battery beeping, which is quite possibly the most annoying sound in the world.
GREAT reception on it, I never loose calls, also the Bluetooth is a really good feature.
The phones camera is horrible in lightly dimmed areas, and the flash does nothing to help because there isn't an automatic flash. Before EVERY individual picture if you want the "light you must set it manually, which is a very annoying feature. Outside the camera produces nicer photos.
Overall this phone is very durable, and a good phone to have. Has something like 500 number memory, and more than one number per name which is good, (home, cell, work, etc...). But be prepared for the worst battery life you have ever seen. No joke every night i have to charge it and I have a brutal memory lol. To me it was a good purchase and in conclusion I am happy with it.
Good, but not perfect
Pros:
* decent reception (not as good as my old Samsung SCH-A310)
* mp3 player, mp3 ringtones
* loud ring-tones, loud speaker phone
* solid build quality
* highly hackable
* can use as modem
Cons:
* "tin-can" ear-piece (distorts when whispering)
* drops calls (Verizon, near Buffalo, PA)
* voice commands didn't work for me - at all
* "grainy" photos
* outside screen shows info only after phone is "woken" (i.e. must press a key or open phone before outside display shows time)
My v710 has version 8700_01.40.OR software. While visiting a friend in Belvidere, NJ I tried placing a call. No dice with v710, but his Samsung i730 and my Samsung SCH-A310 could. All phones on Verizon, all calls placed from same location. Similar issue when driving Rt 228 around Saxonburg, PA, but coverage resumes within a mile.
Overall a decent phone.
Decent
PROS:
* The reception in my area (Poughkeepsie, NY) is unparalleled. My girlfriend and I both have Verizon. It happens often enough that I have a signal and she doesn't. (She has a Samsung SCH-a650).
* I like the look of it.
CONS:
* The volume is very weak. Even at max volume you have to be in a quiet environemnt just to hold a conversation. The 'sweet spot' is also very small. If your ear or the phone moves slightly, you've no chance of hearing the other person.
* The Bluetooth is not fully functional. It is essentially restricted to using the handsfree earpiece. You cannot communicate with other BT devices (e.g. other BT cell phones or your laptop).
* It is noticeably larger than other phones. It is often a struggle to get it out of the cell phone pouch in my golf bag, for example.
* The phone book is poor.
- If I want to search for, say, John. I have to hit 'J' and then scroll through every Jason, Jennifer, and Jessica I know. I could not hit "Jo" to skip all the above.
- Every phone book entry has a quick dial number associated with it. You can't add everybody and then later assign numbers. When you try to do this you will find that you've erased whoever had been the number you are assigning (even though you hadn't previously assigned that number to anybody).
- If you have a cell, work, and home phone for one person, this goes in as three seperate entries. (Which only compounds the 'searching for John' problem above.) I've heard that there is a way around this, but with every other phone it has been obvious how to do it - no manual needed.
* None of the initial rings are an actual ring. You can make an mp3 your ring (which would have been very nice if the bluetooth worked), but you don't have a suitable option among the original choices. They're all somewhat annoying.
All in all, the phone is decent. If there's any signal to be had, you've got it. You'll just have to strain to hear it.
Great PHONE! not a camera, a PHONE
I got the V710 in February when I signed up for Verizon. The first thing I have to say is this phone looks great. Verizon is filled with boring silver LG and Samsung phones, so the 2-tone black and silver turns heads. Next, RECEPTION, RECEPTION, RECEPTION. During the 6 months I used this phone, I only dropped 1 call, and that was in the mountains where my brother's LG wouldn't even work. This phone almost always has 5 bars of reception. Call clarity is excellent and the speakerphone works great. As a PHONE for talking, the V710 (and now the E815 as well) are the best you will find. Analog roaming ability is also nice for those who travel a lot in rural areas or mountains. The screen on the V710 is very large, bright, crisp, and colorful. The keypad although unusual, is actually very attractive (similar layout to the RAZR keypad) and is large enough for big fingers. It also has unique white backlighting like GSM Motos. The reason I had to give the phone a 4.5 instead of a 5 is the camera is disappointing for a 1.2 Megapixel. During the day, outdoors, with the right settings you can get good pictures, but indoors and at night, they are very grainy and washed out. Some VGA cameras are actually better than the V710 in low light. One has to remember this is a PHONE, not a digital camera, so if you want great pictures buy a dedicated camera. I now have an E815 and it's the ONLY phone I'd have taken over my V710. For those of you deciding between the V710 and E815...If you need/prefer to have analog roaming capability, don't care about V-cast, can adjust to keypad and don't mind a mediocre camera, get a V710. If you are fine without analog, want a better camera, easier to use keypad, more polished faster interface, and V-Cast, then get an E815. Both are amazing phones and if Verizon hadn't upgraded me to an E815, I'd happily be using a V710 still.
Motorola V710 Review
I had just renewed my contract through US Cellular a couple of weeks ago and in the process upgraded my phone. I used to own an LG VX600 that constantly dropped calls or would not receive them until I heard a beep indicating that I have voice-mail. Overall I am very happy with my new V710. It took a while to figure out the menu but I'm sort of a electronics freak anyways so it didn't seem like work for me. When I initially first started taking picture with the phone and after reading some of the reviews here I was not really happy with the quality. But after sitting down and going deep into some of the menus I noticed that the phone is defaulted to the lowest settings (160X120)on the phone so with a few clicks I adjusted it to High (1280X960) which did the trick! Beautiful pictures now. Takes up a little bit of memory but I can send them to my email and download them later, which also you can upload pictures to your phone if you prefer. The reception is great so far. Not one dropped call and it always rings. I did notice though that you have to have the phone positioned just right over your listening ear otherwise it will seem like the speaker volume is really low. And speaking of speaker volume, that was the other thing I ran across deep in the menu. Initially when I got the phone it did not seem to ring very loud, until I also found more settings to adjust. Now it's REALLY loud. Sounds great! Especially when you have MP3's for you ring tones. The video is a little choppy, but what do you expect. At least there's sound with the video. It's a little bit bigger than my LG, but with all the more features I'm sure the size must come with it. The battery that came with the phone didn't hold a charge too long either. So I went out and bought an after market extended battery with battery door for a couple of bucks and now it lasts at least 20% longer.
Pros: Great reception and many other features, MP3's, Bluetooth earpiece
Cons: Battery Life, Size of phone a little big
Returned it for the E815 after a few weeks of problems
Now I got this phone to use it as a phone...not a camera or an MP3 player or anything like that. So all I wanted was good call reception and quality. Well I did get that...but i also got some problems that led to me returning the phone.
Four different times a friend would txt message me and for some reason the phone would keep bringing up the txt over and over again as a duplicate. Only once was the person a verizon customer...so the other times the extra duplicate messages lowered my monthly allowance. Verizon tried to fix this each time...and each time it happened again.
In addition the screen kept freezing up and me and the battery life was horrible.
So I returned it today for the E815 and found out Verizon has disconinued the V710...will just cause.
Cliff Notes: Good reception, great scpeakerphone, but too many problems that outwieghed the good things.
Good Phone ... Question Moto's Quality
I purchased this phone about 6 weeks ago and actually like all of the features. I do, however, question Motorola's quality/reliability. A friend mentioned she had 2 of these phones die on her (power off and never power back on). This conversation occurred about 2 weeks ago. My phone has just experienced the very same failure mode.
Very disappointed in Motorola's quality/reliability for this phone. Hope they improve in this area going forward, as I'm a very loyal Moto-user ... would never own any other mfg's mobile.
As for the camera discussions ... I agree with the majority. If you want HIGH Quality digital photos ... BUY A DIGITAL CAMERA!!!
V710 VS. LG VX 7000
I just switched my LG 7000 out for the V710. I have found the V710 to have a signal strength twice as strong as the LG. I could not use my LG at home it would drop calls every time. The V710 holds 2-3 bars of signal strength in the same area. The menus are not as user-friendly but anyone with a head on there shoulders can figure it out.
If you are looking for a cell phone with great reception, all the tools you need for an average cell phone user, you cant go wrong with the V710.
I originally went with LG because of the poor phones Motorola has put out in the past, but I have to tell you they hit it out of the park with the V710.
GREAT PHONE.
Great Phone
Phone is great. Excellent reception relative to any other phone on I have owned. Design and looks great too. The new E815 is even nicer.
The major disappointments for me are primarily due to Verizon limiting use of Bluetooth and IMAP/POP email which Motorola advertises as capabilities.
Although I am not a camara phone buff...the picture quality is poor relative to others I have seen.
My wife and each prchased TREO 650s this weekend. These rea great devices. Ironic, the V710 is my business phone.
What a bunch of babies.....
First off, if a phone doesn't have clarity and range, none of the bells & whistles really matter. You buy a phone for dependability in those areas & secondly for intuitive interface, battery life and then bells and whistles. In terms of clarity & range, so far so good after a week. I find the phone menus to be very logical & the "feel" of the phone to be excellent. As far as battery life, it seems average & gets drained quickly w/the bluetooth headset. As far as features, to be down on the phone because of the the "toy" camera is a joke & unless you paid full boat for the phone, to whine about the "crippled" bluetooth is ridiculous. The reality is that once you use a wireless headset you are taking a step forward in terms of convenience & will never conceive of reverting back to wires. The wireless bluetooth is reason enough to celebrate & when you throw in the voice dial, those features make it worth the price of admission. Again, assuming the phone functions properly, just having the wireless headset makes it a winner over any phone without that capability. At Verizon, the parallel choice was the VX8000 & it didn't have BT which was a dealbreaker & although the VX8000 may be a fine phone w/ arguably better battery life, it is still a little larger than a cell phone needs to be. After I purchased the V710 I have been sifting through all the reviews & the common thread is that it is a clear, attractive & dependable phone. In fact, it has been referenced to successful Startac by many. You can read the same complaints over & over about those being misled in to thinking that the bluetooth doesn't make your phone the computer it was advertised to be. It is a fair shot if you were one of the first buyers who purchased the phone under that premise & paid top dollar. For the rest of us who got this phone at a discount, it is a serious step up if you are replacing any model from a year or so ago. As long as it proves to be reliable, it should be a keeper.
