Motorola Timeport P280
Average Ratings
Probably the Best GSM Phone ever.....
While this phone is no longer offered new it can be easily purchased online (EBay, etc) for less then $50 USD. While now it is a several year old design it still represents a benchmark in design for the ability to send/receive calls and hold onto a signal long after other phones have dropped off and disconnected.
This is one of the last phones that Motorola produced that did not have all of the bells & whistles that we take for granted today. The RF engineers @ Moto must have really spent all of their efforts on sound quality and signal conditioning because it shows in the performance of the handset.
Fit and finish is great and battery life - when network searching is set to slow - is great at several days.
Now not all is perfect. The address book is a mess and sending text messages with ITap is carpel tunnel forming at best.
If you live outside North America, or in the US with no 850mhz coverage and just want a cheap, simple,reliable, cell phone that just simply works the P280 could be just what you're looking for.
P280
I had this phone when it came out through Voicestream and then through T-mobile until about Fall 2003.
During this time I enjoyed this phone very much. The back light was adjustable, menus were easy to use, and at the time, 4 lines of WAP was doing very well for yourself. The screen was very clear as well as the call quality. Someone mentioned this as well that this phone worked in areas others didn't. I think this was the strong point of this device. It truly worked better than a lot of newer phones today in spots that most didn't get service.
The phone book problem was because the phone's memory would often erase. You had to save phone book entries to the SIM card, which was 501-700 on the phonebook entry. 1-500 was stored on the phone and if you stored phone book entries on the phone and power cycled often, you usually lost your numbers which was a bummer. Once I switched to SIM, no problems.
I NEVER had any problems with the keypad. Very easy to use and QUICK responses from the keypad.
Overall this is one of the best phones in Motorola history. I have yet to find such a phone that combines quality with quantity [amount of features that is] that this very phone did.
jon
I've been using this phone technology for roughly 10 months on Voicestream's service in the Seattle proper (metropolitan) area. I've also taken it on domestic trips to other major cities and rural areas.
RF performance: It holds a signal in difficult places (basements in Seattle in particular and areas where coverage is sparse or marginal) better than friends' other phones on the same service.
Voice Quality: I like it better than my friend's Nokia and my corporate C(or is T?)DMA Nokia, too. It's rare, if ever that anyone's told me they can't hear me when I'm using it.
Menus: I have no complaints, but it is a matter of personal taste. You might not be bothered; you might hate them. Your satisfaction will likely vary from mine.
GPRS: I don't remember not being able to get a connection.
Construction: feels more flimsy than it looks, but it's taken a few falls w/o a problem.
Display: The hi-res is nice for me - I toggle it to low-res for my sight-impaired friends if they want to borrow it (when they don't have signal :) )
Battery life: Keeping the backlight to 10 second threshold and I can go 4x24 on standby in rural, no-coverage areas w/o feeling like i want to top off the battery charge. I usually charge it nightly when I'm in an area with coverage. I've never talked on it enough to run the battery below two (out of three) bars of meter charge. Those displays lie, I think, however. I've run the battery down intentionally, but I've never had the phone order me to hang up before the battery drained.
Overall, a nice phone and Motorola won my customer contentment with it.
Great All Around Phone / Great Features
I'm not discounting anyone else's reviews (maybe they did have that much trouble - or maybe their phone was defective out of the box).
However, I've been working in the industry for about 10 years and I really like this phone. I could use whatever T-Mobile (VoiceStream's new name) handset I want, and I use this one. Now, I do so because I'm not one of those who likes the smallest phone in the market.
I've had no problems as the user/rater did below with buttons not working. I have seen 1 or 2 out of 50 P280's have those same issues (normal defective rate).
I like the large screen, the zoom-in feature (making the font larger than most phones on the market now), the Voice-Activated Dialing, Memo-recorder (use it all the time to record directions that somebody is giving during a conversation, or when the 411 operator is giving me a number, or just to remember where I parked when I went to Six Flags).
Storing numbers seems to be a snap, along with then adding the VoiceDialing while doing so.
The only thing I don't like is that when playing black jack, a tie is not a push - but rather a win for the dealer, and the phone is the dealer!
Very good medium-size phone, good battery life, large screen, easy functionality, AND GPRS Browser capable w/ world phone to boot.
Motorola 280
This phone is very easy to use and the Clarity is very good The only thing that I don't like about it is that all of a sudden I lose all my numbers stored in my phone book and it seem like the ones that I do lose are the ones with Icons to indicates if it is a cell phone or home # Etc. but if the person that doesn't have and Icon next to there name it won't be lost, nobody can figure it out. Other than that the phone it great. I would recomend the phone to anyone I also have the internet on it and that also is a nice feature
Motorola P280
After using Motorola phones, Nokia, Audiovox, Samsung, Panasonic, etc...... I find that this phone is the sorriest phone that I have ever used.
The Pro's are that the phone is a true world phone so it can be used in the states as well as the rest of the GSM world. The phone has the ability to copy it's phone directory to the SIM to make the phone directory portable.
The Con's are too many to list but the most annoying are -
1. To lock the keys shouldn't require 2 hands and precise timing between pushing the menu and the * key.
2. Pressing the menu button seldom gets the menu on the first try. The tilt/push/tild key typically thinks that it was tilted and the phone book comes up.
3. Adding a phone book entry is not straight forward.
4. The keys are too hard to press and misdialing is not at all uncommon
5. The phone comes on when charging making the charge time longer. Not usually a problem unless you have been out late and the charge time is short!
Essentially when I bought the phone the reviews were GREAT. Owning the phone is a real disappointment and when the Nokia 6310i is available, I will buy it to replace the P280. I will of course try to sell the Motorola. This is the essence of the old saying - You can buy better than Mororola, you just can't pay more!
