Motorola RAZR VE20 (8 GB) Cell Phone
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- Installed Memory: 8 GB
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB
- Style: Clamshell
- Network Type: CDMA 1900 CDMA 800 EVDO aGPS 1900
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Oh my little VE20, I have taken you for granted
Pros
Excellent call quality, sensitive receiver picks up where other phones fall short.
Cons
Short battery life, color is rubbing off quickly from pocket-wear, annoying message alert
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
It's a great phone. If the battery gave me six more hours of use per charge, it would get 5 stars.
Ya know, I paid a premium for the VE20, as I sought this model shortly after its release, and paid for it outright to keep from extending my contract. The single biggest reason I wanted this model was it was claimed that the phone received so very well where others came up short.
The good:
The phone does indeed receive quite capably. Both my apartment and a friends home are considered cellular blackholes, and my phone has been reliable for the past (approximately) 12 months at both locations, as well as most others.
The version of T9 included with this phone has been my favorite so far. It's prediction is very helpful and a great time saver. Messages are nicely seperated into their unique folders for inbox, sent mail, voicemail, pending texts, and picture mail. Most phones do this, but having recently tried the Blackberry, I was surprised to find out they do not. The added orginization of the VE20 kept things much less cluttered.
The ringer and speaker volume were plenty loud @ about 1/2 and the call quality was excellent, notably lacking any humming, whining or whistle noises during calls (The Blackberry tour sounds like a toy train is coming).
The standard headphone jack has been helpful. I don't use it often, but sometimes while on the bike, it's nice to skip the mp3 player and just carry one device.
The navigation (TeleNav) works as well as TeleNav does with any phone. The maps seem reasonably accurate for street locations and names, but often screws up the actual address locations by as much as a mile. This fault is not phone specific, but notable between the garmin and TeleNav.
The speakerphone worked quite well, with reasonable noise cancellation allowing me to use this function more often than I have with phones in the past. The speaker in the rear of the handset is plenty loud and clear.
The entire time I've had the phone, it has only "locked up" on me 3 times, and one of those was due to my dropping it.
About dropping it... don't do that. The handset is built well enough that it feels quite comfortable and capable while using for calls and 1 handed opening / closing. I am about 5'9" and one time, while the phone was at, or below waist height, I dropped the phone on a Pergo floor. The colorful outside display shattered. It remained in place, and is still functional, but it is definitely busted.
The Bad:
There are a few things that were missed on the design floor that were kind of surprising.
What must be mentioned first is the battery life. If you use your phone at all, and happen to forget to plug her in that night, be sure to plan your next day around landlines. The phone itself doesn't use much power (run for a week plus in airplane mode) but while pinging cell towers, this phone dries up in 13-24 hours. @ 24-30 hours, it will be turning itself off.
A couple shortcomings with texting: This T9 version really fights you with the potty words, unless you stream them constantly. That goes for any word not in the dictionary. Adding a smiley face is far far too tedious. There is absolutely no autocorrection for capitalization or punctuation.
The Ugly:
Every phone has at least one annoying feature, or lack of feature. This phone definitely does. If you turn on notification of messages, it could potentially get annoying. It will ping ding or do whatever you want it to when the message comes in (or a call is received and missed)... and then every 15 seconds or so, until you give it some attention, or the battery dies, it beeps. No big deal, right? The phone is on the other side of the room, and you're watching a movie and a text comes in... you have to get up. You leave the phone out of arms reach while taking a nap? Hardly a deal breaker, but what a PITA.
The good:
The phone does indeed receive quite capably. Both my apartment and a friends home are considered cellular blackholes, and my phone has been reliable for the past (approximately) 12 months at both locations, as well as most others.
The version of T9 included with this phone has been my favorite so far. It's prediction is very helpful and a great time saver. Messages are nicely seperated into their unique folders for inbox, sent mail, voicemail, pending texts, and picture mail. Most phones do this, but having recently tried the Blackberry, I was surprised to find out they do not. The added orginization of the VE20 kept things much less cluttered.
The ringer and speaker volume were plenty loud @ about 1/2 and the call quality was excellent, notably lacking any humming, whining or whistle noises during calls (The Blackberry tour sounds like a toy train is coming).
The standard headphone jack has been helpful. I don't use it often, but sometimes while on the bike, it's nice to skip the mp3 player and just carry one device.
The navigation (TeleNav) works as well as TeleNav does with any phone. The maps seem reasonably accurate for street locations and names, but often screws up the actual address locations by as much as a mile. This fault is not phone specific, but notable between the garmin and TeleNav.
The speakerphone worked quite well, with reasonable noise cancellation allowing me to use this function more often than I have with phones in the past. The speaker in the rear of the handset is plenty loud and clear.
The entire time I've had the phone, it has only "locked up" on me 3 times, and one of those was due to my dropping it.
About dropping it... don't do that. The handset is built well enough that it feels quite comfortable and capable while using for calls and 1 handed opening / closing. I am about 5'9" and one time, while the phone was at, or below waist height, I dropped the phone on a Pergo floor. The colorful outside display shattered. It remained in place, and is still functional, but it is definitely busted.
The Bad:
There are a few things that were missed on the design floor that were kind of surprising.
What must be mentioned first is the battery life. If you use your phone at all, and happen to forget to plug her in that night, be sure to plan your next day around landlines. The phone itself doesn't use much power (run for a week plus in airplane mode) but while pinging cell towers, this phone dries up in 13-24 hours. @ 24-30 hours, it will be turning itself off.
A couple shortcomings with texting: This T9 version really fights you with the potty words, unless you stream them constantly. That goes for any word not in the dictionary. Adding a smiley face is far far too tedious. There is absolutely no autocorrection for capitalization or punctuation.
The Ugly:
Every phone has at least one annoying feature, or lack of feature. This phone definitely does. If you turn on notification of messages, it could potentially get annoying. It will ping ding or do whatever you want it to when the message comes in (or a call is received and missed)... and then every 15 seconds or so, until you give it some attention, or the battery dies, it beeps. No big deal, right? The phone is on the other side of the room, and you're watching a movie and a text comes in... you have to get up. You leave the phone out of arms reach while taking a nap? Hardly a deal breaker, but what a PITA.
