Motorola V323 / V325 / V323i / V325i
Average Ratings
Great for light use.
I don't really have too much to say about this phone. It cost me 25 dollars without a contract, brand new from an unauthorized Verizon Wireless dealer. I needed a quick replacement and this was the cheapest one they had in stock. It is very durable, however the metal plates scratched too easily. It got beat up just in my pocket all the time. I never dropped this phone in the 2 months I used it. Signal strength was great. Camera quality was very poor. Battery life, however, was the worst part about this phone, and was eventually what provoked me to get a different phone. The phone would be charged overnight and taken off the charger at around 7 am. It would need a charge by around 3 PM, and this is with moderate use during the day. That's just bad. Also, iTap is a horrible predictive text system and Motorola just needs to man up and implement T9 into their phones. If you're a very light cell phone user this phone may work out alright for you. For a budget phone it has an OK feature set and it performs well. Battery life ruined the experience for me along with iTap. I still stick with LG to this day.
v325
PROS:
-TOUGH!! I am an avid mountain biker, and this phone has fallen out of my pocket on a rocky downhill and sustained no damage besides a few scuffs.-
-good display
-loud ringer
-amazing speaker phone
-good voice recognition
able to answer/call w/o opening phone when in speaker mode
-comfortable to hold, nice keypad
-after a few seconds in camera mode the display bars go away giving you fullscreen camera
-photo editing
-charges fast
CONS:
-just as it charges fast, it also loses that charge very quickly
-SLOOOOOWWWWWWWWW menu transitions
-very grainy camera resolution
-takes about 10 minutes to clear 100 texts
they key things i love about this phone are the toughness of the stainless steel and rubber exterior and the ease of the speakerphone use. however, the menu speed and the fact that i have to charge it twice a day are a huge turn off to me.
Lousy battery ruins a good phone...
I had high expectations when I bought this phone. While it has met some of those expectations, it falls well short in others.
First, it is a very sturdy phone and the reception is great. I get a signal in the parking garage, elevator and stairwells of my condo building, areas in which none of my other phones ever got a signal.
Other pros: rubberized metal coating makes gripping easy; big backlit buttons area easy to see and push; bluetooth capability; voice dialing is excellent; light sensor senses dark spaces and lights up keys automatically.
Really big con: lousy battery life. Be prepared to charge this phone every day. I never leave home without a charger, which is a horrible way to live with a cell phone. On a fresh charge, I can talk to someone for 30 to 60 minutes, and then check the battery, to see that it is already getting low. Very frustrating!
Other significant cons: The brushed metal on the front and back of the phone looks cool at first, however, after three months and a few scratches, the phone looks like it has been used for three years!
Also, the menu screen inside the clamshell is a very glossy glass, which is impossible to keep clean. I am constantly wiping the menu screen after each call.
I have rated this phone only on the features that I use. I don't text, take pictures or use VZ navigator, so I did not comment on any of that.
Unless you don't mind a horrible battery, I could not recommend this phone to anyone. Battery life is just too important for me to overlook.
Go with US Cellular
Looks like Verizon screwed the pooch again with their OS on this phone. I've had this phone for about 18 mo. with US Cellular and am pleasantly pleased. Battery works great, reception is awesome, and I LOVE the blue lights on the outside screen. I worked as an US Cellular agent and hardly ever saw any returns or problems with this phone. The only grip I have is with Motorola phones in general. The ringer is too quiet and why not make it vibrate and ring at the same time like every other manufacturer does?? Overall great phone (with a great carrier!)
Unreliable Phone
Got three of the V325's on the same day in July 2006 along with a Samsung SCH930 for me. Just spent last Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the local Verizon store getting all three replaced along with new chargers, and batteries for them all (at no charge thanks to the sheer kindness and business savvy of the store manager). The previous phones were having multiple problems such as failure to charge, drop dead in middle of phone call (like removing power), and some software glitches. Out of the three that were replaced last week one is extremely hot when charging and runs out of battery power after being off the charger for 2 hours, one shows caller id listed 8 or 9 times on each call received and one appears to be functioning properly (but it's my son's phone and he might not even know it's malfunctioning). We replaced 3 Samsung SCH A650s with these and my wife is beating me up to take the Samsung's back and have them turned back on due to the lack of reliability and multiple issues with these phones.
Pros: Nice looking.
Cons: In addition to lack of equipment reliability, poor software build, short battery life, there is no way to download photos and videos to computer without serious software downloads/purchases and O/S tweaking and equipment manipulation.
Overall: I will never obtain another Motorola again, I have learned my lesson. My Samsung is working just fine, not a single glitch and my wife is very perturbed that mine works so well while she suffers. For the sake of my sanity and to appease my wife and kids I will be sure to stay with Samsung in the future.
Battery dies and phone stops charging
The phone was great. I had wonderful reception. It has a loud ringer and a great speaker phone. I just loved it. UNTIL...I only had the phone for 6 months and suddenly the screen went blank. I took it back to the Verizon store and was told that the charging port was defective. I prayed and prayed that they could fix it because my friends had just left for Iraq and we spent the weekend taking pictures. As I waited for two hours for them to try, 3 other people came in with the same phone and the same problem. I was heated. They could not fix the phone, so I lost all of my pictures. Here is a lesson: as soon as you take pictures send them to pixplace. You can do the same with your text. This is a great phone, but only expect to have it for 7 months to a year. I felt sorry for one guy whose warranty had just run out. But not as bad as I did for myself since I lost all of the pictures of my friends who left for Iraq two days before. Verizon replaced the phone because it was under waranty, but I will never be able to get my pictures back. I pray that my friends return safely.
Great basic phone, but Verizon cripples them
I have the Verizon 325i. It's the same hardware as the V325, but it has different software. More on that later.
We have three of them for the business.
PRO
It works, pretty much anyplace, including inside places where digital only phones are useless.
It feels solid, and has a good case.
The screen is nice and readable.
The menu layout is sufficiently clear that you don't need a manual.
The battery interchanges with the old Motorola 276 and some others - so I now have spares.
CON
The phone is crippled as far as access to it from a download cable. I got the Motorola Phone Tools kit. It doesn't have the V325i. It didn't recognize it. I had to go through manual configuration to have it know the phone as a 325.
The multimedia access from the phone tools kit is blocked by the Verizon crippleware software. You can send a page and you can get to your phone directory. Most of the functions are blocked.
You can do a little better with bitpim, a freeware (open source) product. I configured it to think the phone is a Motorola V3C, and that allows me to download and upload wallpaper. It doesn't allow you to upload ring tones. Fortunately it has enough "basic" ringtones that you can probably find one that works for professional needs. Unfortunately it isn't very personal.
I also have had a LOT of problems with the "phone modem" just getting out of sync so you can't access it through bitpim or Motorola Phone Tools. This is genuine Motorola software and a genuine Motorola cable. I don't think it's the USB ports. I think it's the phone.
Trivia note - there is no flash on the camera. There also is no car charger. I had to order them.
The Verizon service is really solid and I like the phone hardware, but the software is a big disappointment. Downloading multimedia is a STANDARD feature in a phone. I really dislike the way Verizon blocked it to try to force you to use their "Get it now" feature and spend big bucks.
Picked this one over the Razor phone
When I first signed up for Verizon Wireless I could have gone with the Razor phone but when I found out it didn't do analog I couldn't get it. The places I go to are serviced by Verizon but analog only and the Razor phone only does digital. So I picked out the V325i because it does analog witch is what need right now because I drive in area were analog is the only signal in those places were as digital is not yet avalibale. Besides analog is so much better than digital will ever. Analog can go for miles and miles vs what digital can do. The V325i can get analog signals for miles and miles witch is what I really like about the V325i phone. The V325i is the type of phone you want to use if you go were there is just analog.
Nice Phone
I have had the 325i with Verizon service for two months and I love it. I had a V60s for two years and I liked it but this phone is better in every way.
My main criteria is reception and this phone has the best reception I have seen. The reception is better than any phone my friends or family have. In Cincinnati I have never dropped a call or had problems making a call. My old phone had some dead spots around town but especially in my house and in the basement. I travel and the reception is great from cities to rural Alabama. I spend time in the Ft Knox area and had very poor reception with my old phone. The 325i occasionally takes 5-10 seconds to connect when I make a call but is better than other phones in that area.
Mechanically the phone is a perfect size. It is relatively small but not too small to use the displays. It feels solid. My son has the LG Chocolate and I think he likes the feel of the 325i better.
The only thing I have used the bluetooth for so far is for the hands free headset and it works fine. I don't use the corded ear piece and I know there have been issues with that so I can't comment.
The UI is fine. Not completely intuitive but I am getting used to it.
As with any phone I have seen recently I wish there was more of a variety of rings that sound like a phone ringing. I found one that is OK so I am happy.
Battery life has been a nice surprise. With the standard battery I can leave the phone on for days. With my V60s I had gotten into the habit of plugging the phone in every night.
Speakerphone is loud and clear. That is probably the one area where the V60s was better. That phone had a super-loud speaker phone.
Basically what I expected
It's basically done it's job without any major problems. I have had it about 6 months and it's showing some wear from being in my pocket all the time, but it's only visual. The camera is ok, but nothing great. I'm now having a problem with the phone charging when I plug it in, but I don't know yet if it's a bad charger or the phone.
Visually the phone looks good, but it could use some more features. I have never had a problem with reception. The battery life is good. If my charging issue gets solved, I'd say I am very pleased with the phone.
