After my recent rant about the lamentable state of the US cellphone market, I calmed down. What am I really looking for? I've already got a decentadequate digital camera; I've got a Bluetooth mouse, so I don't need to use my phone as a remote control for my PowerBook (plus I won't always be using my PowerBook - more in a week or two). I need a basic cellphone that has decent battery life, good signal reception, good audio, and an easy UI. I use the WAP! portal! to! My! Yahoo! a lot, so decent GPRS (EDGE) is a plus. Oh, and I'd like a usable hands-free solution, rather than that earbud-on-a-string that always seems to get tangled in my seatbelt.
So today, after my Nokia 3650 spontaneously powered off for the umpteenth time, I picked up a Motorola V551, along with a Motorola Bluetooth headset. Let's see how it goes. I've noted one annoyance already: Motorola and Apple don't agree about Bluetooth, so to use iSync I'll have to get a cable. And when I select silent or vibrate mode I'd like a really clear indication of this in the external display. But on balance, I like it. It feels right; menus are mostly clear; the multimedia stuff is ignorable; the screen is dazzling; predictive text entry is a little easier than I'm used to; IM and email is a snap. The battery claims are impressive; we'll see what reality is like.
Oh, yes, I did have one more criterion: that the price be low enough that if the perfect phone comes along tomorrow I won't feel like a schmuck.
Posted by geoff2 at January 31, 2005 11:49 PMStrange, I have the same problem with my Motorola V600, which looks fairly similar to the V551. I still can't get isync working even with the cable, so if you figure it out, please let me know. I can send music and pictures via bluetooth to and from my mac with no problem. I just ignore the message that says it won't work and send it.
The V600 does display when its on vibrate mode, not sure about silent, as I am never silent, only off. I hope the bluetooth headset is better than the speaker phone. It needs to be lying on a hard non-porous surface to work well. The speaker phone works okay in the car, I put the phone in the well in door armrest, drive and talk
Posted by: Susan in St. Paul at February 1, 2005 12:32 AMIn a recent discussion on an internal Sun mailing list about this very issue (iSync with V600) it was suggested that a third-party cable might be the problem. One respondent said that he'd only been able to get a genuine Motorola cables to work. If true, this sounds as bad as the "proprietary Bluetooth" thing.
Posted by: Geoff Arnold at February 1, 2005 12:51 AMYeah!!! It seems to work!!!! I am syncing now.
I went out and found a genuine Motorola data cable at a T-mobile store because the AT&T store had the Cingular "motorola compatible" cable I already had that did not work. Genuine cable cost $39.99 plus tax, comes with software for windows
Posted by: Susan in St. Paul at February 2, 2005 11:30 PM