Motorola W755 (4 GB) Cell Phone

My husband and I switched cell phone providers over a month ago.  We’d spent a couple of years with T-Mobile (after a disastrous stretch with AT&T-Cingular), and were looking forward to hooking up with Verizon.  Don’t misunderstand—we had NO complaints about T-Mobile, but the area to which we are considering moving isn’t covered by T-Mobile.  In fact, it isn’t covered by anyone but Verizon.  So we switched over early in order to get a feel for the service.

So far, so good.

Right up front, I do have to say that this phone, the Motorola w755, was a bit of a disappointment.  See, I’d really wanted the Nokia Dark Knight Special Edition phone.  No, it’s not a “better” phone, features-wise.  But it’s got a cool bat wing insignia.  Yes, that should clue you in when it comes to my technical requirements.  Verizon does have a 30 day return policy on new phones, but the Dark Knight phone was all gone by the time it occurred to me.

In all fairness, my disappointment had nothing to do with my new Motorola w755.  In fact, I was immediately impressed by the sleeker design—compared to my old Samsung t309, this phone is practically space aged!  It’s a slightly wider phone (1.9 inches), but it’s markedly thinner (0.7 inches), weighs only a small bit more (3.6 ounces), and boasts a slightly larger screen.  Its clam-shell design is a favorite of mine, and it slides easily into most phone cases, including the FoneGEAR Velcro-closure case I use.  My husband also got this phone (can’t argue with two free phones), and it fits his cell pockets just fine.

Outside

The Motorola w755 (in Slate Black) has a strangely rubberized exterior (with chrome-like accents).  This rubberized exterior does seem to protect it from scratches, which is a good thing—my first cell wound up losing large chunks of finish due to the occasional ding and dent.  No, I wasn’t playing dodgeball with it.  The exterior display is attractive and easy to read, showing time, date, messages and calls, signal, and battery reserves.  The cover also has some nifty touch controls for use with music and Bluetooth, but, at this time, I have no use for those controls.  My husband has imported some of his I-tunes collection, and he says he’s quite happy with the touch controls for music.  There is also a “mute all” and associated “vibrate” touch control on the front, which kills all ringer and indicator tones.

Along the right side of the w755 is the voice activated . . . well, activator.  Open the phone, push the button and voila, the phone asks for a command.  I’ve used this for voice calling (“Call Dad”), and it works quite well.  Other commands include send, go to, check, contact, play (for music playlists), My Verizon, and Help.  Yes, I did sit in Walmart (where the reception is excellent, by the way!) and voice-command call everyone on my contact list just to check things out.

On the left side of the w755 are the volume control keys and the speakerphone key.  The speakerphone must be turned OFF after use; otherwise, your next call comes through on speaker, too. 

Speakerphone quality is about average—it’s not too garbled, but it still sounds like speakerphone.  It’s clear enough that I do USE it—something I didn’t do with my Samsung.  My hearing isn’t so great, so I tend to keep the volume maxed on regular calls.  However, when calling someone else who is also on Verizon, things tend to be a bit louder, so I crank down by one beep.  This control is easy to use while the phone is attached to the face.

Speaking of which, my husband’s one complaint about the phone is that it’s a little TOO slim for him to do the “clamp the phone between the shoulder and the ear” thing.  I haven’t been able to do that since my old Star Tac back in the 90s, so I don’t notice.

The w755 boasts a 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x zoom and various photo-effects (like antiquing or converting to black and white).  I know that 1.3 isn’t a big deal (there’s a THREE megapixel out there!  It’s my birthday, it’s my birthday . . . in a few years), but coming down off the Samsung’s sad little VGA, this camera really does render up much nicer pictures than I’m accustomed to.  The video is also MUCH better than the old Samsung’s, with very little in the way of pixilation or distortion.  It’s not crystal clear by any means, but I can actually recognize the people in videos by their FACES rather than by the color of blobs their clothes present.  A warning, though—the video can be shot for a LONG time, but the regular “send” capability dies at around 20 seconds.  In other words, you can shoot it, but then you can’t send it to your email without the fancy data cable stuff.  Yes, that’s going to be part of my birthday, too.  Has to be—I have a gaggle of 35 second videos I can’t get onto the computer.

One small complaint when it comes to the camera—sometimes (not often), the camera locks up after taking the picture.  It freezes for perhaps 20 seconds, then crashes to a “finding network” screen for a few seconds.  The picture is lost, but the camera then works fine.  It doesn’t happen often, and I didn’t consider it a big enough deal to return the phone.  My husband’s phone also does it on occasion.

The Motorola w755 is considered “highly tele-coil compatible.”  Translation?  It works well with hearing aids.  That never occurred to me, and yet, with my ears the way they are, I might want to pay attention to such things.

Rounding out the outside of the phone are the ports—one for charging and data cables, one for headset.  This phone came with only a charger—not a car charger, no ear buds, just a plain ol’ plug-it-in charger.  The covers aren’t as “snap-in-place” and secure feeling as the Samsung’s, but we’ve had no problems with breakage yet.

Inside

The Motorola w755 has a nicely “sprung” flip—it closes securely and feels as solid as any other flip/clam I’ve owned.  The buttons are larger than I’m accustomed to, and raised just enough to make use easy and fat-finger-free (for me, anyway).  The call and end call buttons are brightly colored (green and red), and are tough to misinterpret (calls can also be ended by flipping the phone shut, so long as ear buds or Bluetooth aren’t in use).  The camera button is clearly marked, and a second click takes you from camera to video.    Navigation is a breeze, with the usual “soft” buttons up top and the center button for menu access.

The menu is clear and easy to understand—just a click on the center button brings up (from left to right):

Media Center—this is where the ringtones, music, games, photos, and videos hang out.  It is, of course, where I headed immediately.  One of the magical music applications available is a song recognition program.  Turn it on, play ten seconds of the song, and the program IDs title and artist.  Call me a geek (geek!), but this is something I’ve long wanted, and I spent an hour playing songs at it to test its capability.  I was pleased.  The ringtone search application is very easy to navigate, with songs broken down into genre, artist, title, and popularity.  It was easy to find what I was looking for, though I do wish they’d had more Stones.

Messaging—this is the usual for cells these days: inbox, sent, drafts, voicemails, mobile IMs, etc.  Easy to work, no challenges or ugly surprised lurking here.

Contacts—again, nothing strange, nothing missing.  Contacts, new contacts, groups, speed dial, and ICE.  The w755 can store 1,000 names and numbers.  That’s about 980  more than I need, but it’s good to know that, in case of sudden fame, I’m set.

Recent Calls—as I would expect—time and date, missed calls, received calls, and dialed calls. 

Settings and Tools—this is where you go to set up Bluetooth, hit My Verizon, adjust sounds, displays, and phone and call settings.  This is also where you can check your memory usage and phone info, including checking your own number (yes, I’ve been known to forget).  This phone offers calculator, calendar, and alarm clock, but lacks a countdown timer, which has thrown my husband for a loop.  Not sure why there’s no countdown timer, but I’m finding it doesn’t seem to be a common offering on newer phones.

Back to checking memory--the Motorola w755 comes stock with 70mb of memory, though there are 512mb and 4 gig cards out there which can be installed BEHIND the battery.  Yes, a bit of a design flaw there, but not one I’m going to have to worry about any time soon. 

Oh, and I’ll bet you want to know about voice quality on a regular call, don’t you?  After all, it is a cell PHONE, right?  Well, I’m quite happy with it.  It’s not land-line clear, but it’s clearer than any cell phone I’ve ever had.  Not distorted, none of the “talkover” or echo loss that you find with some cells.  I’ve yet to drop a call, and that’s always a good thing.

Before I wrap up, I’d like to mention that the Motorola w755 is VZ Navigator capable.  This is an add-on application that comes with an additional monthly fee, but if you’re out and about in unfamiliar territory, it’s quite nice.  We used a Magellan GPS while on vacation last summer, and, while the screen is much smaller, the VZ Navigator app certainly works as well as the Magellan.  In addition, this phone comes aGPS equipped (for emergency location), with or without the VZ Navigator.

In all, I’m super-happy with my new phone!  No, it doesn’t have a fancy Batman insignia on the back, but really, who’s going to be looking at the back of my phone?  With 220 talk minutes (and up to 390 hours standby) on the 950 mAh Lithium Ion battery, I’ve got myself a phone that performs well, holds a charge long enough to not be a pain in my behind, and looks pretty snazzy, to boot!

A small note—a check of the Verizon site shows this phone is now $39.99 with contract rather than free with contract.  I think it’s worth it, but may not have felt that way BEFORE I’d used the phone.