Motorola A840
Average Ratings
Relax it`s only a phone !
I took this phone for six weeks anywhere in,
Italy .
And I used everyday , and I had no problem .
It slammed it on the floor , many times ,and
still working .
I use to have problems with all the other phones, that I owned ,when I go to visit my brother , and play pool in his basement.
This A840Motorola , I have full reception,
just like the mainline . I wish it had the web .
There`s only two thinks I don`t like about
this phone .
One : Vibrate it`s not as strong like some phones.
Two : MP3 Player plays same song when it`s closed lid . To change the song I have to open the front . Maybe I don`t know how to
work it yet .
But what I like about this phone ,it`s the
reception , it`s Superb . ANYWHERE !!
Scale 1 to 10 I give a nice 9 .
Its a phone! Get over it!
Pros: Good call quality, works everywhere
Cons: No bluetooth
You guys make me laugh. Bad camera? No video? Gimme a break. I've had this phone for 14 months and have been to every corner of N America. I've also used it in at least 10 countries in Europe in the 20 times it's been with me when I've been there.
I would like bluetooth I admit, but in the end, this phone has been flawless in call quality and the software has never crashed once. I don't find it's construction to be flimsy as others have claimed.
Hey, it's a phone. It makes calls. It makes calls well everywhere I go and it works great. Its a phone, not a camera or a video device or a PDA or a ...........well, you get it.
Intl Alternative
Works very well internationally with seamless switchovers to GSM/CDMA as claimed. Agree with other Reviewer that flip clamshell doesn't inspire durability. My first a840 had a crackle sounding ear speaker right out of the box and Verizon replaced the unit with no problem. As noted by another Review, however, my initial order also was absolutely maddening!!! Getting someone at Verizon (even in the intl group) to understand I didnt want to place intl calls from my existing old phone, or that I didnt want to use their silly intl rental plan was really a frustrating experience - same with me it literally took over 1 hour and I was really ready to flip like the phone! Coverage in rural USA is very good where CDMA is a must have.
Good Replacement for my S46
After working my way through the Verizon Process to get the phone I am very impressed. Coming from Cingular that just cut off my multi-band phone service, replacing it with GSM. I am amazed how much better this phone functions in rural areas. I have had it for a week now and it seems to work very well. The battery life is much less than my S46 and the address book is nothing by comparison to the address/phone books in the S46. But the color screen is nice. On the whole a great phone if you can find someone to sell it to you. But I was patient while my local store figured out how to order it (3 people about 3 hours). Then I had a day while Verizon got me to the right people to activate it.
Seamless international roaming, average phone
I had the opportunity to take this phone for a spin in Europe (HU,GR,CZ) for the last two weeks free of charge to me (employer paid the bill), so I wasn't afraid to use it anywhere and as much as I wanted to in order to put it through the works. I'm hopelessly tied to CDMA service state-side, but have been excited by the prospect of dual mode phones. Verizon's CDMA tied to Vodaphone's GSM overseas seems to be a viable option. I enjoyed seamless roaming and was able to change GSM carriers at the drop of a hat to utilize the carrier with the strongest signal. Incoming calls and text messages were received without problems and the fact that I was overseas was nearly transparent to the caller.
Pros:
Seamless roaming in GSM markets.
Use your US-based phone number for incoming calls without notifying anyone your are away.
Send/Receive text in CDMA and GSM modes.
Fairly neat design and ergonomics (though not cutting edge or the smallest of phones!).
Camera up to par with entry level units.
Cons:
No pix messaging in GSM mode.
No data/GPRS availability in GSM mode.
Phone is plastic and keypad feels a bit cheap.
"Verizon" logo plastered on the front of the phone ensuring you will be tagged as an American while overseas.
Get it now features are totally unnecessary for the business market/user.
If you rely on PDA/Smartphone functionality, you will be disappointed--this is only a phone.
No GSM 1900 ensuring you will use Verizon in North America and eliminating competition (T-Mobile/Cingular in the US market).
Overall, the 840 is what it was designed to be--a phone that works really well in both the US CDMA market and GSM markets overseas. When they get dual mode functionality into a PDA-phone, we'll be home free.
PS I tried slipping the SIM card into another GSM phone and it worked just as well. Perhaps business customers might be able to get a Verizon/Vodaphone SIM card with their US cell number encoded and then use the card an a GSM PDA/smartphone.
1 week of use Review
Ok, I have used my A840 for about 5 days now. Software wise it is very stable and has yet to crash as my V710 still did after the new update. All the menus are the same as the V710, The rubber bumpers are taller so the screen stays farther away preventing the scratches. There is no bluetooth as expected but there is also no video which was unexpected. I also thought that I had to put my Vodaphone sim in which costs me $10 a month but it turns out that the A840 comes with a sim card which you insert so no it is not permant as others have said. The beauty of it is that instead of having a Europe number as I do on my Vodaphone sim you get to use your one number everywhere. So now I can cancel my $10 a month vodaphone sim. The phone would have been given a higher rating if they had not removed the video capability from the phone.
Problems
I agree with all the positives. But when a phone costs this much, it needs to work for more then 2-3 years. The charge ports go out and will not charge. This occurs on all of them from what I can see. I will be getting a cheaper phone and forwarding my calls as necessary internationally. Not worth it for the GSM functionality for the price.
OK phone. That's it. Just OK
I've had this phone for about a year and for international use, it's OK. It makes and takes calls and that's all I care about. I don't care about the lack of bluetooth, or camera, or calendar, etc. Just make and take calls in USA and Europe, thank you very much and it does that well.
I've had 2 issues with it: ever since it was new, if I press one of the side buttons to illuminate the outside display, about 90% of the time once the outside display shuts off, the light for the keypad remains lit, draining the battery in a matter of hours. Verizon claims nobody else has ever reported this issue.
YThe second issue happened yesterday 5/27/07, I turned it on and got the "invalid time/date" error and the only button that was responsive was the button to turn it off! When it was off the display was still barely visible so it was obvious it wasn't really completely off. If someone called, it would ring but I couldn't answer it. I called Customer Service who couldn't help so they told me to take it to a retail store for them to perform diagnostics on it. Once there, they told me that I needed to call Customer Service. In the end, everyone agreed it was a software problem so Verizon is sending me a new phone. Hopefully the display issue from the first paragraph will go away.
shame on you motorola
where do I even begin with this phone? Why in the world would Motorola choose the V710 as the platform for this phone to be built on? All the old problems with the V710 have made their way into this phone too. Why is there no video option? why is there no bluetooth? the v710 should have been recalled and the blueprints for that phone burned. The a840 is NOT an improvement on the old design. In my opion the world feature should have been introduced on all all new cdma product, perhaps the v3c?
ATTN Motorola, when will you learn to fully test your products before releasing them to the public. I don't appreciate paying for the phone just to become your guinea pig.
I give this phone .5 on the rating scale only because it combines gsm and cdma into one handset. Although I can assure i will not be taking this phone anywhere with me other than back to the store i got it from.
pros - world travel phone
cons - same software problems as the v710
- cheap build quality, flimsy flip
- why is this phone so big?
- wheres the bluetooth?
- wheres the video capture?
- why is the cdma chip digital only?
- why does the camera still take lousy photos? Isn't it supposed to be 1+ mega pixel.
- whats with the giant antenna, you don't see the razr with a big nasty antenna sticking out of it?
prett good :)
i am seriously soo confused with the CDMA and GSM mode... to tell the truth i dunt even no wut they r ... soo i just dunt mess with it ... i like the buttons .. they r very soft and make u wanna txt msg non-stop ( only if my plan allowed me to :D) .. i absolutely luv how u can change the brightness of the camera like 7 times... but i have to admit it is quite large (good thing ive got a big make up bag) but i dunno wut men would do :) (GOOD LUCK :P) itz good how it has an external memory ... I ALSO LUV the colors dat you can change for the borders or wut ever u call them :D newayz yeahh .. not bad
