Motorola V551 / V330 / V547 / V555 / V557
Average Ratings
V551, as Good as Expected
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Got my V551 last Saturday. The phone is as good as I expected from other reviews and the specs. The speakerphone is louder and clear. Bluetooth is not difficult to use. I took several pictures and transfered them to my notebook with moderate efforts. In fact, if you only want to download pictures and upload ringtones, bluetooth is good and convenient and there is no need of USB cables.
After initial charge, I made 22 minutes calls and transfered two pictures. The battery went down to one bar after 72 hours and I am recharging it now. So the battery is not as bad as a lot of people complained of here. Of course, it is still below the battery life specified in this forum.
Pros:
a. Bluetooth. It's handy.
b. Speakerphone. That is a must have for me. The sound quality is reasonably good.
c. Crispy display.
Cons:
a. Battery life could be better. But so far I only owned my V551 for a little more than three days and subsequent charges normally will make batttery last longer.
b. Still have to open the flip to stop a call. Can the smartkey be programmed to do that? I tried and couldn't do that.
Over all, I am very happy with it and it is a decent mid-range flip-phone.
Crap
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I can't vouch for whether my bad experience is the phone or the provider (I have Cingular and am in NC), but it has been horrible.
PROS:
Bluetooth
Customizable menus
Can change ring/vibrate/volume using side buttons.
CONS:
Absolute garbage signal strength.
Constantly cuts in and out.
I haven't finished a call yet--it constantly loses service and drops the call (most of my friends now refuse to call me on my cell, and forget using it for work--I don't even try anymore).
Can't have a conversation for more than about 5 minutes (because of above.)
Many calls come in staticky and I have to hang up with the person and call them right back to get a clear connection.
Standing in one place, the signal jumps from 5 bars to 2 bars to nothing (loses the call) then jumps back up to 2 bars then 5 bars, then 3 bars, then nothing, etc.
Battery life is amazingly sad. With average use (and only 5 minute conversations at a time), I have to charge it every other day, at least.
NEUTRAL:
The blue rubberized outside is great (and doesn't seem to ding up as much), however it tends to stick to things when you're pulling your phone out (insides of pockets, purses, etc.)
I have taken it back to the store, thinking there may be something wrong with it, but was told that no, it worked just fine. I have had this phone for less than a month and will be returning it for good to go back to my 3-year old previous model. Needless to say, I will never be buying Motorola again.
JUNK
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This Phone is the a pile of junk if I have ever saw one. Save yourself the trouble and don't ever not buy this crap. They are nothing good about this phone and the carriers need to stop selling this because they are loosing lots of customers it is giving them a bad rep. and Motorola has came out with nothing but junk in the last year I am a authorized rep. of a carrier that will remain anemones but I will never recommend another Motorola to one of my customers. They will drop call, loss signal and the worst reception.
Expensive paperweight
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Pro: Has camera and is a great shape to launch at walls and other hard objects.
Con: Doesnt make calls Call quality gargled and low speaker phone sounds like the phones underwater and has the worst battery life
Ive had 7 of these phones and they all have mostly the same problems they all drop calls and you cant understand the person on the other end. And the 16 hours battery life is pitiful they rate it for like 11 days and I know it wont get that but it does not even get a quarter of that and talk time is rated at 7 hours and it gets about 1 to 1.5 and this is with full service. Basically its a phone you want to stay away from I advice anybody considering this phone to reconsider youll have nothing but nightmares with it.
Way Too Many Bugs and very slow OS
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I have sold so many of these and I get the same thing every time.
Freezups
The Screen Flickers
It shuts itself off
You Take a picture and your waiting at least 30 to 40 seconds for it to store it, just so you can look at the darn picture you just snapped!!
What can I say positive about this phone??
Oh, It has bluetooth. Big Deal.
It has a nice screen...when it is not crashing on you!
Bad, bad, phone ,waste of money!
Come on Motorola you can do better than this.!!!
I am very let down with motorola lately.
After 2 weeks, I'm RETURNING them! AWFUL!
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The sound would fade (like you were going into a tunnel) and then it would digitally 'break up' for 15-30 seconds. At first it was just my Wife's phone (she calls alot more than I do) and mostly at home - we replaced her phone... and then it was both phones at any location. Our phones became completely unreliable.
Pros:
Pretty phone, many nice features
Nice camera - decent pictures
Cons:
Totally unreliable
The phone would break up even with '4 antennas' for signal strength.
Sorry - this phone sucks. I just went out and got two LX5450's with AllTel and so far am getting good signal strength and CLEAR calls - but it has only been a few hours.
Stay away from the V551 or you will regret it... err... return it!
Matt
bluetooth disables mp3 decoder
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Phone works great, good affordable video phone.
I had this phone for 3 weeks already and I still miss my T616. I connect my phone to the laptop all the time and the bluetooth is nothing like my old T616, first of all, I have to repair the connection all the time. Also, for some unknown reason the mp3 decoder stop working if your using a bluetooth earpiece. This means that if you have selected an mp3 ringtone and are using the BT earpiece the phone won't play the ringtone and will default to a standard one. This is a HUGE BUG for me since one of the features I like about motorola is the standard mp3 capability. Also if the phone is in idle for too long, the bluetooth won't work at all, you will literally need to reset the phone so it works. Again, not a bad phone but too many bugs for me.
Great Phone
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I've read some good reviews and some bad ones but still decided to get this phone. It was a choice between this one and the nokia 6230. The only thing that stopped me from getting the 6230 was that it wasn't quad band and the price. It turns out that this v551 is really great.Everything works fine and the menus are quick. Reception is great in my city (canton,oh) with cingular service. The only downside is like everyone says, battery life. It does drain a bit quick so I'm going to buy a better one.
Pros:
Great Reception
Stylish!
Fast Menus
Quad Band
Cons:
Battery Life
Worst phones we have ever owned
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I migrated from AT&T to Cingular two months ago and purchased a three phone shared plan and bought two Motorola V551 GSMs for $125 each and got a free Nokia 3120 as the third phone. The third phone was only connected two days ago. The phones do not hold a charge for more than a day (you have to charge them nightly), they black out suddenly, and about half the time calls go directly through to e-mail with out ringing or vibrating.
I called Cingular today and said that I wanted to either upgrade to a different phone and return them for the free Nokia, and was told that my only remedy was to trade them in for another two of these lemons. I told them I was going to switch to a diffent carrier, and they told me I would be charged a $200 cancellation fee if I broke my two year contract. I am going to switch to another carrier and challenge the charge for the two lemon phones through Citibank, the card I used to purchase them. Avoid these lemon phones and Cingular.
A very disatisfied Cincular customer.
GREAT Phone... SHRED the manual
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Only reason I won't give this phone (V551) a 5 is Motos waste of paper they call a manual. If you want to know how to use this phone, read the reviews and the forum, post questions if you need to.
Cons: The speaker phone is good but not what I had with my old i60c with Nextel.
THE MANUAL
Pros: Just about everything else! About a 1/2 ounce lighter and a mm smaller and it is perfect.
I hear complaints about the camera... IT'S A PHONE people! lol The camera on the V551 does what I want.
I use my digital camera to do the job right what I want a good photo... although it sucks as a phone!
My Netel gave me to 2 bars in my office, the V551 (Cingular) gives me 2 to 4 bars and no dropped calls yet. Sound is xlnt on both ends.
