Motorola V600 Phone (T-Mobile)

The tri-band Motorola V600 cell phone features Bluetooth connectivity, an integrated VGA digital camera, and MMS with video clip playback. You'll also get "Situational Lights"--a feature that lets you light colors for various types of calls--and much more, all displayed on a large, high-resolution 176 x 220 pixels, 65,000 color interior screen.

The basic Motorola clamshell format continues to provide a solid and attractive option for any dedicated cell phone user. Its steel frame is compact and attractive, (the faceplate-changing capabilities seem a bit unnecessary) and it's loaded with all the essential features you'll need for power usage plus a few bonuses. You may find the volume a bit high out of the box, and it goes into hibernate almost as fast as you can dial a number, but these are minor, adjustable quibbles on a truly stellar phone.

Calling Features

See a detailed view of the phone's features,
front and back.

Used simply as a cell phone, the V600 features a five-way navigation key with multiple dedicated function keys for easy menu navigation. Primary calling features include voice dialing, integrated speakerphone, vibrate mode, call timers, redial, missed call indicator, call log, any-key answer, auto-answer, auto-redial, roaming indicator, speed dial, linked (credit card) dialing, phonebook look-up, phonebook scroll, mute control, no-answer transfer, one-touch 911, system select, usage alert, and a phone book of up to 1250 entries, including picture caller ID functionality. When the phone is closed, its external screen (two lines, 96 x 32 pixelss) displays caller ID, date, time, and various status icons, including text message waiting, voice message waiting, battery and signal strength, and voice and message mail. There's even a blue backlight on the secondary display for nighttime viewing.

The V600 sports well-placed, well-machined keys, and its compact size does nothing to hinder dialing even for large-fingered users. The solid scroll keys bring you to very intuitive menus presented nicely on a single screen, marked by functional but showier-than-necessary graphics. There are also dedicated external buttons for speaker volume, voice recording, and ring volume.

Messaging and Internet
The advanced MMS capabilities built in to the V600 enable users to send, edit, forward, and receive image, text, audio, and video messages over the wireless Internet, to and from compatible phones or PCs. (Messages can run up to 100k in size.) You'll also get instant messaging capability, messaging templates, SMS two-way messaging, conventional email, and predictive text assistance. Beyond messaging, the V600's Internet connectivity lets you access online services such as stock quotes, road directions, airline information, entertainment, and more. You can also download Java applications (version CLDC 1.0, MIDP 2.0, 100k per application limit) for which the phone provides 5 MB total (shared) memory. High-speed data transfer and download round out the package. The V600 supports digital TTY/TDD functionality for the hearing impaired.

Organizer
Organizer features include a calendar, calculator with currency converter, date book with event storage, and voice memo. You can also transfer this data to your PC wirelessly via the phone's Bluetooth capability.

We found the V600's appointment scheduling to be right in line with our fairly basic needs. Other than the universal annoyance of pecking out appointment details with the ten-key letter system (there's no QWERTY keyboard here as you'll find on some of the more recent, albeit early-adopter phones) this phone's organizer features provided enough data entry space for any busy person taking these functions seriously, but no more.

Fun and Games
For fun, the V600 sports a built-in 640 x 480 pixels integrated digital camera with zoom and brightness adjustment functions. Pictures taken with the camera can be stored in the phone or sent to others via multimedia messaging. The 5 MB of memory available for storing pictures is also shared with whatever wallpapers, screensavers, ring tones, Java applications, or games you may download from the Internet. The V600 also features 24 chord ring tone capability. Users can assign different tones for different callers in the V600's phonebook, and assign separate tones to denote incoming messages, faxes, and reminders. Wireless multiplayer gaming capabilities and two included games, "Bejeweled" and "Stuntman", round out the entertainment perks that ship with this phone.

Conclusions
We liked this phone's very basic camera. It was easy to use and worry-free and the device can be accessed instantly from the phone's top level screen menu. From power on, it only took us a moment to take and save a fairly nice picture. However, photo quality is only adequate; about as good as you'd expect for a cell phone circa 2004, as opposed to a dedicated digital camera. We also found the ring tones included with the phone to be generally pleasant, and it was a breeze to assign a custom tone to a number in the phonebook, thanks again to the easy menu system. The included games were basic and fairly fun (at least once). In "Stuntman", the phone's vibrate mode provided road rumble as a little car skidded around a bland, full-color stunt course. But player beware! Once the game starts, the volume becomes LOUD and is not apparently adjustable. Finally, there is a nutty little feature called Motomixer, which lets you modify various settings on little songs that you can download, emulating a very rudimentary, miniature studio console.

In all, we found the Motorola V600 to be a rock solid, highly effective cell phone with attractive and efficient graphic and audio capabilities. We recommend the V600 without reservations for any serious user.

Vital Statistics
The Motorola V600's security features include call restrictions, phone lock, and new password capability. The phone weighs 4.4 ounces and measures 3.5 x 1.87 x 0.83 inches. Its lithium-ion batteries are rated at up to 450 minutes talk time, and up to 240 hours standby time. It runs on the GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 frequencies. In the box, you'll receive the V600, instruction manuals, a high capacity li-ion battery, a headset/earbud, and a battery charger.

Compatible with T-Mobile phone service, the quad-band Motorola V600 cell phone features Bluetooth connectivity, an integrated VGA digital camera, and MMS with video clip playback. You'll also get "Situational Lights"--a feature that lets you light colors for various types of calls--and much more, all displayed on a large, high-resolution 176 x 220-pixel, 65,000-color interior screen.

Calling Features
Used simply as a cell phone, the V600 features a 4-way scroll key with multiple dedicated function keys for easy menu navigation. Primary calling features include voice dialing, integrated speakerphone, vibrate mode, call timers, redial, missed call indicator, call log, any-key answer, auto-answer, auto-redial, roaming indicator, speed dial, linked (credit card) dialing, phonebook look-up, phonebook scroll, mute control, no-answer transfer, one-touch 911, system select, usage alert, and a phone book of up to 1250 entries, including picture caller ID functionality. When the phone is closed, its external screen (two lines, 96 x 32 pixels) displays caller ID, date, time, and various status icons, including text message waiting, voice message waiting, battery and signal strength, and voice and message mail. There's even a blue backlight for nighttime viewing.

Messaging and Internet
The advanced MMS capabilities built in to the V600 enable users to send, edit, forward, and receive image, text, audio, and video messages over the wireless Internet, to and from compatible phones or PCs. (Messages can run up to 100k in size.) You'll also get instant messaging capability, messaging templates, SMS two-way messaging, conventional e-mail, and predictive text assistance. Beyond messaging, the V600's Internet connectivity lets you access online services such as stock quotes, road directions, airline information, entertainment, and more. You can also download Java applications (version CLDC 1.0, MIDP 2.0, 100k per application limit) for which the phone provides 5 MB total (shared) memory. High-speed data transfer and download round out the package. The V600 supports digital TTY/TDD functionality for the hearing impaired.

Fun and Games
For fun, the V600 sports a built-in 640 x 480 pixel integrated digital camera with zoom and brightness adjustment functions. Pictures taken with the camera can be stored in the phone or sent to others via multimedia messaging. The 5 MB of memory available for storing pictures is also shared with whatever wallpapers, screen savers, ring tones, Java applications, or games you may download from the Internet. The V600 also features 24 chord ring tone capability. Users can assign different tones for different callers in the V600's phonebook, and assign separate tones to denote incoming messages, faxes, and reminders. Wireless multiplayer gaming capabilities and two included games, "Bejeweled" and "Stuntman", round out the entertainment perks with this phone.

Conclusions
We liked this phone's very basic camera. It was easy to use and worry-free (nothing's going to break off), and the device can be accessed instantly from the phone's top level screen menu. From power on, it only took us a moment to take and save a fairly nice picture. However, photo quality is only adequate; about as good as you'd expect for a cell phone circa 2004, as opposed to a dedicated digital camera. We also found the ring tones included with the phone to be generally pleasant, and it was a breeze to assign a custom tone to a number in the phonebook, thanks again to the easy menu system. The included games were basic and fairly fun (at least once). In "Stuntman", the phone's vibrate mode provided road rumble as a little car skidded around a bland, full-color stunt course. But player beware! Once the game starts, the volume goes LOUD and is not apparently adjustable. Finally, there is a nutty little feature called Motomixer, which lets you modify various settings on little songs that you can download, emulating a very rudimentary, miniature studio console.

In all, we found the Motorola V600 to be a rock-solid, highly effective cell phone, with attractive and efficient graphic and audio capabilities. We recommend the V600 without reservations for any serious user.

Vital Statistics
The Motorola V600's security features include call restrictions, phone lock, and new password capability. The phone weighs 4.4 ounces and measures 3.46 x 1.85 x 91.0 inches. Its Lithium Ion batteries are rated at up to 450 minutes talk time, and up to 240 hours standby time. It runs on GSM 800/900/1800/1900 mode. In the box, you'll receive the V600, instruction manuals, a high capacity 750 mAh lithium-ion battery, a headset/earbud, and a battery charger.

1 Poor Reliability
I would not recommend this phone. It has plenty of bells and whistles, but suffers from poor reliability and design. The operating system frequently locks up, leading to missed calls. The ring buttons on the exterior of the phone are easily jostled and often change the ring style without the owner being aware of the change. Lately the phone has simply stopped ringing altogether when an incoming call is detected. The event lights work and the caller is identified, but no ring sounds. I have contacted TMobile and will be getting a replacement phone, however my research indicates these problems are widespread within the V600 model. Motorola would have done better to eliminate some of the bells and whistles and instead make certain the phone functions to make & receive calls.

2 Good features but freezes
It's bluetooth function works pretty well for me. No additional software is needed to transfer pictures, ring tones with a Windows XP Pro. Worked with my logitech BT headset like a charm. Picture quality and the battery life are average.
The biggest problem is the phone freezes from time to time. The first one I got freezed at least onece a day. Then I replaced it. the second one is better, but still freezes about once every week. Hope a new firmware can fix it.

3 Bulky, bad reception, annoying features
This phone looks better on the screen than in hands. I am having tons of difficult with this phone working on Cingular network - in midtown Manhattan apartment building on 50th floor or in Chicago suburbs this phone loses signal and has bad reception. Obviously Motorola had a bad designer for this phone - it is impossible to turn off ringer without making a sound, hard to believe but true. It is also too bulky and heavy compared to new phones. Stay away from this phone.

4 Bad bluetooth okay phone
I run a OSX on a macintosh and would recommend anyone else doing that to stay away from this phone. It will not sych the way you want which generally ruins this phone for me.

5 Heavy and kind of big, but lots of features
It's a solid phone, good sound, battery - but it's heavy and kind of big. I was used to a smaller phone and although I took a step up with features, I took one down with size,weight.

Also, the phone book stinks. Instead of having one entry per name, and then selecting whether you want to call the person's mobile, home, or office number - there are seperate entries for each of those so it looks like this:

dave (little icon shows home)
dave (little icon shows mobile)
dave (you get the idea)
dave

6 Phone drastically needs a firmware update. Don't but it!!!!
I got this phone to use the Bluetooth with my Prius. That is about the only feature which works well. The buttons on the outside of the phone manage to mysteriously turn the ringer off resulting in missed calls or turn it from vibrate to ring resulting in embarrassing rings at inappropriate times. There is no way to inactivate them. The battery meter shows 6/6 (full charge) for two days. On the third morning, 6/6. A few hours later, it is warning me every few minutes that the battery needs charging. I can't find a way to tell it "I know. Now stop yelling at me". The interface for entering numbers is far from simple. The only use I have had for the camera is to replace the screen background with a dark background for readability. The original background picture makes it difficult to see the screen.
I bought the phone when I switched to T-Mobile because ATT would not discount a new phone with Bluetooth when my contract expired. The T-Mobile salesman lied to me when he told me the phone workrd fine in the hospital I work at. He said his mother worked there and never missed a call. I never received a call.
Unfortunately, I was too busy to get back to T-Mobile before 30 days so I am stuck with this phone for ten more months.
Don't make the same mistake.

7 Excellent phone, great service, pretty good features
We've had three of these phones for about three months now. The connection and audio quality is the best of any cell phones we've used. I've called T-Mobile for a few things (including transferring our Sprint numbers when that contract ran out). They've been knowledgable, friendly and efficient every time. Never needed to call them back. The T-Mobile rebates came back in good time; don't know yet about the Amazon ones.

The speaker phone is surprisingly good, in both directions. Battery life is very good (I charge mine every few days). The display is readable in most light conditions.

The calendar is decent, and like the phone book works nicely with Apple iSync (through a USB cable, not through Bluetooth). Transferring pictures and ring tones via bluetooth works great.

Of course it's not perfect. It feels bigger than it looks, and it looks pretty dated. The camera isn't good for much. The user interface is a bit slow, and not particularly smooth. (For example, look at the confusion caused by Motorola's approach to number groups: it works quite well, but it seems to confuse just about everybody. You delete an entry from the phone book by erasing the phone number.)

I'd definitely buy these again.

8 decent phone
This is the first cell phone I've ever had, so I can't really compare it to anything. It serves my purpose. There are some negative things to note about it. For one the instruction manuel is a waste. It really does not tell you anything except the absolute basics. There are many features that I would have never found out about if I didn't fool around with different buttons. I have still don't know how to use speed-dial for anyone after speed dial 9. If anyone figures out how I would appreciate someone telling me how. Second of all, when scrolling or moving between menues, the software goes really slow. Third of all the phone reminds me that I have a missed call even after I check my recieved phone calls list, and sometimes even after I have called the person back. That can be really frustrating at times. But on the plus side it does have a good speakerphone, it does have voice dialing, and the sound clarity is good. Once again this is the first cell phone I have ever had. I wouldn't call this the worst phone in the world, but it definitly has a few significant flaws.

9 Yeah, sure.
The V600 is a 3.5 out of 5 phone, IMO. Not the best but certainly not the worst. And T-Mobile beats everyone else in my experience. Perhaps the V600 is not good in England because their connectivity technology is a bit short. We notice that the Brits are really progressive. Thats why they depend on our Amazon.com, our EBAY and countless other needs they can't seem to get going for themselves. Ck the Prince of Wales and his new bride for a good example of Brit quality. Anyway, Thanks for your encouragement, Mr. Lime - and your politeness, you have confirmed our held views. Maybe consider some good Brit manners with your enlightening reviews next time. Cheers ! ! !

10 No Problems At All
I have not had one problem with my Motorola V600. I upgraded from the Motorola V300 so I could have a phone with Bluetooth technology. My phone works great with absolutely no issues. I only buy Motorola phones, because I think they make the best phones on the market today. As for the menu being difficult to navigate, not true. My 6-year old navigates through my phone with no problems to get to the games and the camera.

11 Motorola V600 - WORST PHONE
I bought Motorola V600 in replacement of Sory Erricson T610. I have used several cell phones since 1992 and this is the worst phone I have ever used.

Phone book scrolling is very slow and some futures in this phone are not good at all. No Doubt that V600 have all the futures and look wise is very attractive but no use. I have been using this phone since November 2004 and now I am sick and tired with this.

12 not sold anymore.
i have been researching cell phones these past few weeks and finally spoke to a customer represenative this afternoon who told me that the MOTOROLA V600 and V300 will no longer be sold because they were having so many problems with them. buyer BEWARE! hope this helps.

13 Not bad, with some minor flaws
I received 2 of these phones with T-Mobile service which I am pretty happy with. I will say if you are not used to Motorola phones you will probably find the menu and features not very user friendly, but once you get used to it you will find it functional. After switching from a Sanyo (excellent) handset I was a little disappointed in the audio on the V600. Having said that I find the reception pretty good. Listed below are my pros and cons:
Pros
1. Looks good
2. Nice features (Calendar, Alarm, calculator, picture id, speakerphone)
3. Seems to be more solid construction than other Motorolas
4. Good consistent reception.
5. A setting to vibrate a couple of times before ringing
6. Fixed antenna not extendable
7. Bluetooth

Cons
1. Speakerphone has to be already connected to a call to function.
2. Not a fan of the charging adapter very small and delicate.
3. No cover on charging adapter
4. Sometimes displays that I missed a call when in fact I answered it.

Since these phones were free after rebate I am very happy with the V600 it's growing on me.

14 Bad Phone -- stay away !!
I bought V600 last year in June, as soon as it came out thru Cingular Wireless.

Phone kept losing connection with service. Every 10 minutes or so, if I am talking to someone, it would drop the connection. Even though I have full 4 bars on my connections.

I returned it. Cingular does have great service, it sent me another phone, same model.
This phone kept freezing up. So I sent that one back after a week.

Cingular sends me another V600. This one has problem with the bluetooth module, and did a automatic reboot of itself.

Finally, I gave up and so did Cingular. They told me that Motorola has had lots of problems with this phone. So Cingular sends me another phone, V551.

Well, that was the end of line for me. Even with this phone, which was supposed to have all the problems fixed of V600, it is slow to response, and loses connections to the service. I know its not cingular problem, because it does show that i have 4 bars of connection. Its just, it doesnt want to work.

This was my first and Last Motorola phone. I WILL NEVER BUY Motorola crap again.

15 Good phone but could be better
I got this phone coz there aren't really any GREAT phones with tmobile anyways. Got it a month back and I'll say I am satisfied with it. The voice and signal strengths are good and I haven't experienced any dropped calls. The Menu is a bit cumbersome but then I was used to the simple nokia interface. This phone has the best ringtones I have heard in a phone and the situational lights on the front look cool, so it has all the bling bling you'll need. Also it is highly customisable and you can spend hours just exploring all it's features. The camera is ok and the video player seems like a good thing to have. However, the phone book stores only one number per person and the recent/missed calls list stores only the last one call for a person, not all or even 5. It's a lil on the heavy side but is not big like the Nokia 6600 or Samsung D415. Overall it's an average phone but works good as far as talking on it is concerned and if you can get used to the menu, you can have some fun with it too. I am keeping mine.

16 I'll never buy another Motorola phone
This is one of the worst phones I've ever owned. Prior to this I had the Motorola T720, and I didn't like it either. The only reason I went with the V600 was because I like the flip phones, and at the time I purchased this one, it was the only flip with bluetooth, and I wanted to use a bluetooth headset I already owned.

The reception is terrible, and I don't care what that other guy says, the phone does have a lot to do with it. I was told that by a customer service rep.

I don't like the way the addresses scroll. There's always a slight delay when pushing the scroll buttons...very annoying. And I have the same problem here with the ringer getting set to silent mode when I put the phone in my pocket. That's because of the stupid buttons on the side. They are useless. I don't know why Motorola insists on using them.

I like the speakerphone feature, but again, Motorola screwed that up. You can only turn on the speakerphone after a connection is made. How rediculous. You should be able to turn it on before placing a call, or when answering a call...like the cordless phone in your house.

A friend of mine just got an LG phone which he has been raving about. I think I will dump this phone in favor of that one.

17 Completely Customizable and Decent All-Around
I stumbled across the reviews on the Motorola V600 phone and was surprised at how negative many of them were, so I thought I'd share my 2 month (so far) experience with the V600.

The V600 was my first "21st Century" phone. My previous phones had all been Nokias. My last phone was a B&W TDMA Nokia 8265. I was a Nokia fan for numerous reasons - my first choice for a new phone was a Nokia 6230 with Cingular, but they would not offer me a good deal because I had been a AT&T customer. So, aggravated, I moved on; T-Mobile had the best deals going and I got the V600 for -$20.

At first, I was intimidated by selecting a "complicated" phone. My husband has Sprint and has gone through many Samsungs, Sanyos, and LGs. But the menus on the V600 are very easy to learn (I spent a good solid hour customizing everything and more time with the phonebook). I preferred the phonebook on my Nokia, but Motorola's is not bad at all. Everything about the phonebook is customizable! Actually, everything about this phone can be customized. For example, many reviewers complain about volume being too loud while playing games - it can be turned down by going to the "Java Settings" in the main menu!

Anyways - the screen is bright, the camera is decent, and the faceplates can change. I live in the Boston area and get pretty good reception everywhere. I get tremendous battery life, in the 2 months I've had the V600, I have never once ended the day with any less than half a charge (and that's on an incredibly busy cell day). Most of the time, I can hear the person on the other line very loud and clear (better than my Nokias ever did).

The only things about this phone I don't love is the fact that "locking the keys" requires a password and occasionally I will have the phone in my pocket on silent and somehow the side buttons get pushed just right, and knocks the phone off of silent mode - it'll ring. Also, being a Nokia fan, I do not feel comfortable with the flimsy way the Motorola chargers connect. And one last thing, the pictures are kind of confusing to organize.

In the end, if you're going with T-Mobile, good move - you will love the customer service and rate plans. However, you are stuck with a pretty limited phone choice - know that even a year after it's release, you can't do much better than the Motorola V600.

18 bad search
I have 200-300 nums. phone has to have diff entry for each cell, office, home. and search only works for first letter than you scroll till your car crashes. I have 40 entries under s and need avg of 23-25 clicks to find a name even though I am a power user and use tricks like searching for t and going backard into. I had motorola v66 and I thought moto would have fixed their search problems by two generations later v600 and i still got the stupid 20 key scroll. never buy motorola phones unless you intend to be moron.

19 a general statement on all cell phones
it is not the phones fault if your phone has no reception unless you have no sim card or a broken antenna. it is 100% where you live. thats y people are saying that they have the best reception ever and the worst reception ever on the same exact phone. so in all further reviews, leave out the commments on reception.

20 Use and get mad phone.
I don't know how many times this phone gave me an urge to smack the handset. External LCD character gets scramble more than twice out of 5 times, which really made me feel bad.
But the worst part is that this phone sometimes doesn't even perform its fundamental job which is just making and receiving calls. I believe the problem is ver poor signal reception compared to other brand cell phone(my service was T-mobile).
Battery performance is pretty weak as well.

I'm not sure this was the only problem of mine or not but, another problem was the regular speaker(not for the speaker phone)for the ear contact becomes dummy 7 out of 10 times, which eventually led me to throw the phone down at the ground so harshly.

I mean, this phone has lots of funcionalities, especially bluetooth technology is pretty decent over all. But they first need to make the phone which has robust fundamental base(stable making and receiving calls) and then should add lots of features.
I was regretting so many times while I was using this phone and I got back to Samsung again thinking that I would never go back to Motorola in the future.

21 Not the phone for me...
In June of '04, I purchased the V600 when switching from ATT to Cingular. My old Nokia 6500 series worked just fine, and the service was satisfactory. Since changing phones and service, the V600 was replaced, replaced again, recalled and replaced, and finally replaced for the fourth time with a Motorola 551. (I will be reviewing that one also.)

I cannot even count the ways that I hated the V600. No electronic device, especially a phone, should cause someone to cuss out loud at least a half a dozen times each and every day. I don't care if it can take a picture or walk the dog. I want it to answer when the time comes to answer. I want the ringer to work when and how I choose. I expect it to start dialing when I start pressing the keypad. The V600 didn't do any of these things consistently...and there were a whole host of other maddening quirks that drove me to the aforementioned cussing.

Buyer beware.

Oh, and I also purchased the Motorola HS810 bluetooth headset. It now drops a call and needs re-charging after about 10 to 15 minutes.

22 its excellent ...
i just got this phone yesterday and its awesome...the camera can zoom in up to 4x. and its pretty clear. and i can also play mp3 ringtones because it's a speakerphone. a lot of people are saying that the service isnt good or whatever but really...it depends on where you live..i get excellent service in my area..i didnt have ANY dropped calls or anything .

23 V600 and T-Mobile: Almost Perfect
Summary -

The phone does everything I expect of a phone. Coverage in my area is excellent and T-mobile has installed a Cell in our office complex giving 100% inside and outside coverage at workplace. Camera is nice add-on and speakerphone works but may not provide sufficient volume for a noisy car environment.

Since I already have a Notebook Computer, PDA, Video Camera and digital camera I was really interested in a phone that functions well as a phone and service that allows the phone to function in my home, office and area plus free roaming capabilities.

After many years of TDMA service with a competitor I finally decided it was time to update to GSM. My carrier only offered the basic handset selection free to continuing customers. Even though I was out of contract and would have gone with a new contract if they provided the phone of my choice (equivelant to the v600) - NO GO - They lost a customer.

Coverage -

Good coverage in all major cities and transit routes. For my area, even though my home is shown on t-mobile's coverage map as merely "good", good equates to "excellent". I've found no change in quality with between full signal and 2-bars or 50% signal (Their coverage map actually allows you to check to street and address coverage - outstanding feature) Reception is excellent!

The Phone -

The Telephone offers Bluetooth (not sure I'll use it much though I did test it and it works), a digital VGA 640 X 480 camera which works just fine and a myriad of audio, video and gaming "eye candy". I generally think of a phone as a phone and this one is excellent as such. The fact that it provides a usable camera is a nice touch I'll use and I do use the speakerphone but the remainder of the features (AOL, text messaging, etc) are excess baggage for me.

The audio quality of the phone itself is outstanding as well as the sensitivity. The menus are a reasonably intuitive though a little complex in order to support the extra features.

For those wanting to use the camera for downloading photos to a computer, there is an optional USB cable and software kit available from Motorola and various aftermarket vendors. Download can also be done via bluetooth if your computer has bluetooth.

Battery life may be an issue if you are heavily using the camera or doing ringtone concerts - but in normal phone use expect 3-4 hours of talk time and/or 3-5 days of standby time depending on your usage. For this class of phone, it's very good.

Pro's: Phone: Good Sensitivity, good price (free after rebates), camera, speakerphone, Good voice quality
Plan: Good cost, free nationwide roaming, best in price for a nationwide shared plan.

Cons: Phone: Speakerphone audio may not be sufficient for a noisy car environment, busy setup menu.
Plan: Coverage may be spotty in remote or rural areas (but aren't they all?)

The Service -

The provider (T-mobile) has provided knowledgable and professional assistance through the purchase and start-up phase. This explains the excellent rating given by consumer reports. The coverage area for GSM appears to be similar to that provided by most other GSM services as most providers share service or site locations for a number of locations. As a company in #2 position they appear to be "trying harder" which is a plus for the customer.

Be sure to check the coverage in your intended use area. Reasonable return policy if it doesn't work for you.

24 Good phone, poor network
My overall experience with this phone is good. It support mp3, mp4, mid as ringtone formats. It also supports animations and videos, many graphic formats. So, you can have fun with it. However, the T-Mobile network is poor. Very often, there is no voice or data network. I often need to go outdoor to talk or to get my download. I also bought T-Zone service. But, T-Mobile customer service is friendly.

Taking into account that their rate is low, especially their T-Zone "all you can eat" plan for $5. I download cool stuff free from this site:
http://www.funformobile.com/
I can get all my mails, ringtones and wallpapers with $5/month. Not bad at all.

25 Horrible Service and Crappy Phone
I have used Motorola phones for over 6 years now and when I changed jobs, I switched carriers (Verizon to T-Mobile) and phones. Unfortunately, I have been disappointed greatly by both. The phone is slow to react when you answer calls, heavy and it "freezes" up and the only way to get it working is removing the battery and reinserting it. In terms of service, I've had more dropped calls in 1 month than in 6 years. The service is horrible. I understand the Verizon is more expensive, but if you want service... I suggest you switch out of T-mobile...

26 An "OK" Phone
Pros: Looks, Bluetooth, mp3 ring tones, VOICE DAILING... thats about it!!

Cons: Speakerphone can only be activated after the call connects, very annoying, Phonebook search function can only be done in 25 more steps than needed!, Reception is not great, We have a samsung E355 on the same plan. we tried to connect from same location to compare the call quality.. the result..samsung has a far better reception quality than v600, attimes motorola's quality is unendurable. Photo caller id function is also backwards... u need to take a picture, store it, then open phone directory, open photo library, choose picture.. then link to phone number. too many steps. with samsung.. take a picture and the next step u can link the picture to a phone number. Call history log does not list all calls with time and number. if 3 calls are recieved consecutively from one telephone number, log only displays the last call. No trace of other two calls. Call duration information on individual calls made is not saved in timer log. it displays cumulitive time info. Phone is Bulky, bulkier than old clam shell phones..

Conclution: Not much thinking went into making this phone. They made a list of features that they want to include in a phone and just threw it in there without organization. It is a good phone to look at..but.. not for practical use.

27 Disappointing and heavy
I excited about this phone, but now I wish I'd returned it. I had a good impression of Motorola after spending a year with my t720i, so I decided to upgrade. The v600 is very heavy and awkward to use. I can't flip it open with one hand, and I'm constantly pressing the side buttons by accident (this didn't happen with the t720). The OS is slow, and the battery isn't nearly as good as that of my last phone. Also, the Bluetooth technology doesn't work very well, especially with a Macintosh computer.

Apart from that, I don't think this phone works very well with T-Mobile. My roommate has a Sony Ericcson phone, and I've started using his phone for longer calls. Even though we're on the same network in the same apartment, his phone sounds almost like a landline, while mine is reminiscent of a walkie-talkie.

28 Bad design, nothing but dropped calls, never worked
We bought this phone for an expensive price last year thinking it was one of the best Cingular had to offer. Nothing but problems over and over. We tried to report it as defective phone - it wouldn't hold the voice mail set up and you had to call cingular again and again to reprogram it. Then there is the problem of the buttons on the side that change your ring from loud to silent with a beep but those buttons should be located elsewhere where they accidently won't get pressed. We have 4 Cingular phones one Motorola V600 and the rest the Motorola V400 GSM. ALL OF THE PHONES DROP CALLS LIKE CRAZY. YOU CAN BARELY EVER GET A CONVERSATION TO ENDURE TO ITS CONCLUSION WITHOUT IT DROPPING. ALSO WHEN YOU TRY TO DIAL OUT IN THE CAR, THE "CALL FAILED" HAPPENS MORE TIMES THAN IT GOES THROUGH. AS SOON AS THIS CONTRACT IS UP - WE'RE THROUGH WITH CINGULAR. BEFORE CINGULAR WE HAD SPRINT AND THEY DISCONTINUED THE 3 PHONES WE HAD AND A FRIEND WHO WORKED FOR SPRINT TOLD US THAT THE REASON THEY DISCONTINUED OUR PHONES WAS DUE TO A PROBLEM WITH DROPPED CALLS - WE ALSO HAD TONS OF DROPPED CALLS WITH SPRINT. BEFORE THAT IT WAS AT&T Wireless - with dual band analog/digital but that didn't work the way it was supposed to either so every time you were out of range - the call dropped. WAY BACK WHEN WE HAD A CELLULAR ONE BIG PHONE THAT NEVER DROPPED CALLS. WHAT'S HAPPENED? PROBABLY TOO MANY USERS NOW SO THEY ROTATE DROPPING CALLS PURPOSELY SO THAT ALL THE USERS WILL THINK THEY GET EASY ACCESS TO THE TOWERS - JUST LIKE THE ISPs DID WHEN THEIR CUSTOMER BASE BECAME TOO LARGE FOR THEIR SERVER CAPACITY.

29 Very poorly designed
A lot of bugs and problems. I had my phone exchanged 2 times because it kept hanging up on all incomming calls. Come to find out, the case (all cases I have tried to date) make the flip out lid extend to the point of answering if not careful when unclipping from holster, so if your not careful, you will hang up on your call by mistake (now I carry the phone with no case in my pocket). The phone is bulky. The top LCD screen keeps on getting distorted, I have to turn the phone on and off. The phone buttons have a very, very slow responses time and I have dialed the same numbers over and over in a hurry. The buttons on side of the phone are too sensitive, you can by mistake set it on silent mode (this happens ALL THE TIME!). And the most annoying issue on top of all others is that even if you delete your voicemail, the phone still shows you have calls, so you have to delete them manually in the phone to clear the icon. Next phone will be a NO-FRILLS, cheap, SIMPLE phone!

30 Not a very good phone
I use phone for talking. Not to take 5 mega pixel picture of a mountain or to browse webistes for free deals. And I suppose, I am paying monthly service fee for phone service rather than browsing, playing games etc. Of course I would welcome any add on feature comes on top of basic feature.

I used a nokia basic model from cingular. I liked it because I could see call lists for dialed numbers/recieved/missed. On this motorola phone, I did not see missed number log. In one day, I miss 10 calls, all I would see is last missed call number in the received call section. It is kind of confusing.
This is a very basic feature and is missing. I do not know who tried to call me!!!

Of course, I did experience call drops during long duration calls. Battery life is not good.

Let me get one thing straight to motorola or who ever the engineers building cellphones !!

GET THE BASIC FEATURE WORKING!!

Phones are used for Voice communication and it is absolutely essential that this feature works!! If I need to take picture, I will buy a 500 dollar 8 meg camera and take a good picture.. and If I need to browse, I rather log on to my laptop. Least, I expect is to have a phone which takes pictures/ logs to net and fails to perform basic feature.. The voice communication..

My suggestion, donot buy this phone. I am stuck as I cannot exchange this phone any more...

31 Terrible Phone
Only had it for one night, phone did not start the second day. They gave me a new one! The second phone they gave me had problems charging the battery sometime it charged sometimes it did not. eventually the receiver stop working it did not receive or send calls. The company changed it again. thats 3 times too many for me!!

32 TMobile es no Bueno.
I like the phone but, TMobile has no, that's NO (NO) reception. NONE. ZERO. Every single time I use my phone I lose the phone call. Every time!

33 Tips for Mac users
Overall, the phone is working well for me. The setup of the phone book is taking a little getting used to. Since you can't type a contact's name in the keyboard to dial their number, I am switching to using the voice dial, which seems to work well if you give it enough syllables. Pictures are decent and the battery life is good, if you avoid doing partial charges.

This is the big tip for the Mac users. Buy the official Motorola USB cable (Cat number skn6311a) and you can synchronize your Address Book and iCal entries using iSync. No additional software is necessary. Other cables may not work. (I tried one other and got no response) Supposedly, iSync over Bluetooth isn't supported, so I'd recommend just paying the $15 to order a cable from an on-line distributor.

Another tip, it's probably worth buying a second battery. This phone has wierd behavior on charging. If you are talking on the phone and the batteries run out, and you plug in the power adaptor, the phone will still run out of power and die. If the battery is dead and you start charging the phone, you cannot turn the phone on. You have to charge it for a few minutes, unplug the power adaptor, turn the phone on and then re-plug the power adaptor. It's a pretty brain-dead design flaw if you ask me, but I intend to just run down each battery completely and swap to a fully charged one every time. (This should ensure longer battery life anyhow.)

34 Mediocre phone, good service
This phone has a nice quality feel and comes with some great professional sounding ringtones so I don't feel like a monkey grinder when my phone rings. The phone has decent voice recognition. The battery life is so-so, giving me about 2 days for average use. It gave me 140 minutes talk time using the speaker yesterday. The speaker feature is indispensible, especially for sitting on hold. I also like bluetooth headset support. Finally, the menus are fairly intuitive and there are some cool customization features. My wife wishes she had the V600 menus on her Sony Ericson T610.

With the good out of the way, let me now say I too wish I had her T610 with the V600 menus. My problems with the V600:

1) QOS is terrible. TMobile sent me a replacement. I was pleasantly surprised by their support, but the new phone is no better. My calls cut in and out and are otherwise difficult to understand while my wife's calls are crystal clear (We share a plan).
2) Bluetooth is non-standard and limited. The phone does not use the BT phonebook standard. I am able to send one number at a time to the phone from my PocketPC, but not a whole phonebook. I can download files from it, but cannot send files up. As a result, I cannot put a nice picture of my wife or dog as wallpaper or in the phonebook unless I took it with the phone. I tried other BT things as well that did not work. It's so bad that I wonder if TMobile had it crippled to increase use of their connectivity services. Oh, and it drops BT connections to my PktPC, computers, and wife's phone. I wish the phone had infrared to fall back on.
3) The camera takes mediocre images at best. I understand the v500 series is much better. Plus, I have to decide what to do (store, send, both,...) with every image before I can shoot another.
4) The phonebook is terrible. An entry can have only one number. So, if you have 3 numbers for mom & dad, they take 3 entries. Combine that with lack of search and only 1st letter navigation and you feel like you have been kicked back to the 20th century. I dread looking up my 'M' friends -- press M then scroll 10-20 entries.
5) Another 20th century hassle -- voicemail could be much better. It does not identify the mail when it arrives or delete the new mail indicator after I have listened. Instead, I go into the Messages menu to see I have 3 from "Voice Mail". After I have listened, I have to manually delete them from the Messages menu. Ughh!
6) I too have had display problems. This is unimpressive but minor since rebooting the phone is no big deal and no data is lost.
7) Finally, a minor design gripe: They really need to get on the integrated antenna bandwagon. The Sony and Nokia models without antennas sticking out are so much more comfortable in my pocket.

All in all, as cool as that new Razor phone seems, I am scared away from Motorola for awhile. I almost prefer my year 2000 LG model. It is not really worth it, but at least I got paid to take this phone (Amazon rebates). TMobile, please, give us some good phones for a change.

Best wishes in your phone search.

35 Excellent, stylish phone
I've had this phone for two months now, and have been very pleased with all aspects of it. It has a nice solid feel to it, the keys are easy to dial one-handed, and sound clarity is excellent, including the speakerphone mode. The screen is extremely sharp when contrast is reduced to the darkest setting. There is a nice assortment of wallpaper, ringtones, and color desktop settings. The pulsing light display on the exterior is a nice addition to have when the ringer is set on mute.

The menus take a little time to get used to, but its a much more advanced phone than my previous (Samsung a460), so that's to be expected. I've only tried out the camera a few times, and it seems more than adequate.

Battery life seems to be very long; phone is always on, and I only need to charge 1-2 times per week. Charging only takes 3 hours with included travel wall charger.

It also works flawlessly with the Motorola HS820 Bluetooth headset. I am using this phone in the Seattle area with T-Mobile as provider, but have traveled with it and have gotten 3bar+ reception virtually everywhere, even deep inside of airports. I could never do that with my Sprint phone.

The only hiccups have been having to twice "reboot" the phone by removing and reinserting the battery. The first time the screen just froze, and the second time I got a message saying that bluetooth was not installed. It's a minor inconvenience to remove and reinsert the battery (takes a few seconds), and considering that I have to reboot my PC at least one a month when it gets locked up, I'm not considering it an issue. All settings are retained, so no harm comes of it. Now if it starts to happen daily or weekly, that would be annoying.

The Feb 2005 issue of Consumer Reports gave the v600 an above average rating, so that's another plus on its side. If you don't mind a slightly larger, heavier flip-style phone, take a look at the v600.

36 whan they build it thay didnt think
i have purches that phone 2 month ago after i got use to use the sony t610. the sony was keeping my wireless bluetooth wireless device connected just fine but the motorola like to drop the connection and is unreliable.
whan the bluetooth is connected you dont have much choices for ringtones, it is eather loud or not loud -- thats the choices.
from tine to time the connection to the bluetooth will be lost and i have to restart the phone.
also the software is very confusing even for me that im very good with computers.
it happent to me that whan i want to dial using voice dialing and i didnt say anything it will dial someone.

talk time is very good.
the camers takes nice pictures.

i have purchase the v600 because of the features but next year whan my contract end i will look for another phone not from motorola.

37 No Complaints At All
I have not experienced any of the problems that some reviewers seem to gripe about. I find the size and display to be excellent, and the reception quality is first-rate. The batery life is exceptional compared to my previous phone (a motorola i85c). The camera is not the greatest when it comes to megapixels, but it is more than adequate for a phone add-on. I would recomend without reservation!

38 Great when it works
I'm VERY disappointed with this purchase! The screen on the front often distorts and stops working. The internal screen stops working all-together. Then, suddenly it begins to work again after a week. Then, it breaks again. I've had to switch back to my old phone.

A friend of mine also has the V600, and is experiencing the exact problems I am having.

I don't recommend this phone. Motorola really slipped up on this one!

39 Not A Reliable Phone
Mine i got it brand new and it dies within 1 month. I have it replace by T-mobile and the new one once a again dies within 1 month of use. since then i have been replacing it for 2 additional times. So people, you see how reliable this phone can be right!!!!

40 Totally Amazing
This phone is extremely awesome. It has some of the best features I have ever seen, not to mention that is looks great on the outside. First of all, all the people that I have called tell me that they can hear me very crisp and sharply, almost as if I was on a regular phone. Also, the playback sound is great. The quality is one of the best I've heard on any cellphone

The phone is also extremely user-friendly. Everything in the phone is easily accessible. The menu is small and concise, and, overall, nothing is crowded in front of you. T-Mobile is also really awesome. I'd choose this over any other service provider. I am in the 30338 Atlanta area, and I always have a full bar.

Finally, I'd seriously recommend this phone. It is perfect. Also, the fact that you get paid to actually buy it (through the rebates) is awesome. This phone is truly one of the most stylish, feature-ready, and inexpensive (thanks to Amazon) on the market right now.

41 Features/style - 5 stars, Bug vulnerability - 2 stars
In design, this is a great phone. The reception is good, the camera takes pictures as good as one can expect on a camera phone. The phonebook has groups (or categories) that you can group your contacts in, but it is a little clumsy accessing them. The only major problem is bug vulnerability. Periodicaly, the screen will freeze up and you will be required to remove and replace the battery to fix it. It seems annoying, and it is, but once you get used to it you can do it in 5 seconds and it isn't a big problem, and it doesn't happen alot. If you plan to use the phone in a rural area, don't get T-Mobile, as it is only for cities and interstates. Get Verizon instead. Overall, this is a pretty good phone.

42 You get what you pay for!
I'm kicking myself for not doing enough research before buying this phone. Bought this V600 and a V300 on impulse based on 1) the VERY low prices, and 2) good customer satisfaction reports from Consumer Reports for T-Mobile: second only to Verizon. But I made a huge assumption that all GSM networks are created equal, so although I was switching from AT&T/Cingular's GSM network to T-Mobile's GSM network, I figured network coverage would be the same. Also, since Amazon advertises this as a "Quad Band" GSM phone I assumed it would be able to roam everywhere that there was ANY GSM signal. WRONG! First problem: T-Mobile only supports the 1900 MHz band in the US. The phone is actually only a Tri-band, and the missing fourth band is the 850 MHz band that is growing rapidly in the USA, especially in rural areas. So a couple of days after getting the phone I had the frustrating experience of driving for several hours in a rural area of Texas where my wife was easily conversing on her AT&T wireless V180 quad band phone, while my GSM phone had no service at all. Got home that night and started the research I should have done in the first place, to find out that T-Mobile has very limited roaming beyond major cities and interstates, and appears not to be positioned to support the 850 MHz band, which in addition to being the future of rural GSM, apparently has better reception characteristics everywhere (like penetrating deeper into buildings). So now I'm really ticked, but frankly it was just too much hassle to consider returning the phones, getting new AT&T/Cingular phones, and hoping to somehow port my phone number to the new carrier. Luckily I'm only committed to one year, so I can jump to Cingular if T-Mobile hasn't decided to support broader roaming by then.

On the good side, T-Mobile lived up to its reputation for good customer service. Pleasant and knowledgable CSR handled consolidation of my two Amazon purchased phones into one family plan, and the porting of my old AT&T wireless phone number to the new phone(took less than 12 hours). And the phone itself has been great. So if you don't care about roaming, this phone might be perfect for you.

Also, I learned how to enable the 850 MHz band of the phone with some "Seem editing" tools available widely on the internet, making the phone a "Quad Band" again (and you can make the V300 a quad band too!) -- but that doesn't really do any good unless T-Mobile starts supporting roaming onto the 850 MHz networks.

43 The worst phone yet
This is the worst phone built by Motorola. The v300 was much better. A lot of bugs and problems. I had my phone exchanged 3 times. I called Motorola support, and they deny the problems.
First, of all the phone is a bit bulky. The top cover can be very easily scratched. Next, the top LCD screen keeps on getting distorted, I have to turn the phone on and off.
The phone has a slow responses time. The phone sometimes automatically turns off or freezes. The buttons on side of the phone are too sensitive, you can by mistake set it on silent mode. The phone doesn't have any better signal then v400.
I think this phone was built by a bunch of rookies.

44 Pretty satisfied
I had a Nokia 3650 as my previous phone, but I was very dissapointed with the phone and the service I got from T-Mobile, so I wanted to get a phone that has many of the same features that wasn't as big as the Nokia. It's definately smaller and has almost as many features.

What it doesn't have that I have been told that it did is infared, video recorder, and a flash for the camera. Other than that, I've been pretty happy with it so far. It's definately much more simpler than the Nokia 3650, which is built for the level of genius which I don't possess, and apperantly t-mobile as well. It was so technical that neither t-mobile or nokia could help me figure out how to work it.

On with the Motorola though. Everything is done for you, such as the connection to sending and recieving e-mail, and AOL is definately much much easier. The camera is great, and it zooms up to 4x. The phone is overall more fun with all the extras, like the color rings and the downloadable game choices.

Some complaints from others, the buttons on the outside are easy to push, maybe too easy, and then the buttons on the inside are harder to push, or harder to find the right place to push. Haven't had any dropped calls yet, and reception in my area which was bad is much better, anywhere in my house. Also, for the missed calls/recieved calls complaint, they're all listed under "recieved calls", but the missed calls do not have a check mark next to them, where the recieved calls do, so you can tell the difference.

The phone is just fun to learn how to use it, but definately not the type for someone who needs to constantly access things with a quickness, like a rushed business person. Oh, another annoying thing, if you hate I-Tap, beware. When you're inserting a person's name into your addresses, it will automatically go to I-Tap, but by pressing the # button, the inserting mode will change. I just hate I-Tap with a passion.

Unlike the Samsung E715, the middle button is the select button, and you can turn the camera shutter sound off, or change it to a different sound, like a duck or chimp.

If you've never had a motorola phone before, make sure you check one out, because they're definately different. It takes patience to get used to them than say a Nokia. So far, it's a great phone, and just a relief to not have to deal with such a technical phone as the Nokia 3650. I love it so far.

45 awful phone from an awful service provider.
Twice now ive had to return this phone becuase it got no reception anywhere, not in my apt not in my school and not even on major freeways. Clearly a defective phone, twice. This happens everywhere, its not like the walls are 2 feet of thick concrete, its like this on the freeway! Also, people with tmobile and other phones seem to get decent reception but its not even close to the quality of verizon and cingular and sprint in this area. tmobile in columbus ohio is very spotty, and the v600 is just a poorly designed/made phone. I heard its been recalled by cingular for having terrible reception due to some antenna issues, so Id suggest staying away from this. Also, stay away from motorola phones in general since the ones ive dealt with have VERY slow software programming, poor interfaces and tend to randomly freeze up (requiring pulling the battery off and then reinserting). Getting bluetooth to work with this is also a pain (and im not exactly stupid when it comes to computers), and to top things off, it wont ring and vibrate at the same time, the best it can so is vibrate and then ring after two vibrations. very stupid. also, the sound quality with full reception sounds a bit muffled. its like analog phone quality (without the coverage) in a digital world. id suggest a samsung a680/e317 instead.

46 Good phone but few problems
CONS
Font size is too small. I asked Motorola representative and they've told me that there is no "Zoom" feature for this phone.
If anyone knows how to make the font size bigger, please tell me.
PROS
I like how it lights up when phone rings. If you have the phone on vibrate or silent you can see the lights.
Good camera.

47 Worst Phone Ever
I just sent in my phone to Motorola for repairs. In addition to Motoral being completely consumer UN-friendly, the phone has serious problems. As you will read in other reviews, the side keys are way too sensitive and will turn the phone to silent if you're not careful. The key response is very slow. It can take over a second for the phone to register the pressing of the key. I've had the phone for about 6 months and the internal screen started to come off and leak some sort of jelly-like substance. My experience with their customer service was, quite possibly, the worst I've ever experienced. If you're looking for a good phone, pass this one up. I'm going back to Nokia.

48 Nice luxuries but poor phone book features
The good news is that the phone works well and seems to get good reception in marginal areas (which includes my home). You can store up to 1000 phone numbers in the handset. I've got about 700 in my directory. Beware, if you're used to Audiovox or LG (or even Nokia) phone directories that Motorola's V600 is primitive and difficult to use, by comparison. There is NO alphabetic search. To retrieve a number, you may type only one alpha, which becomes the first letter of the title, and you scroll on endlessly from there. It is also very inconvenient that the phone lists are cluttered by duplicate entries, when you know someone who has several phones. Instead of presenting this a single screen for the person and listing each of the phones (home, cell, work, etc.), the V600 list the person's name as though it was a separate entry for each number. Of course, you get to scroll down through all the redundant names, as well, on your way to the number you need. After reading a comment that indicated Motorola's tech support is known to be a joke, I can confirm that this was also my experience. They were polite but untrained, unknowledgeable, and very...very painfully slow to attempt an answer to each (simple) question. Sorry folks, the V600 looks like a lovely piece of hardware, but the phone book got left over in the stone ages.

49 good looks but poor motorola service
Camera, bluetooth, and good speakerphone quality is attractive in addition to its good looks. Missed calls and going dead while talking is a reality. Battery runs out in a few hours after a few months of use. I think this is a little expensive for what it provides you with. Another problem is that it does not always catch the signal when deep in store and in basement(?provider issue). Poor customer service from Motorola and T-mobile frustrates.

50 Decent phone but has flaws
CONS
The side buttons are extremely sensitive to touch. So it can put your phone to silent mode any time of the day. When you are on call the phone does not show the time, I found this extremely silly. The way it handles missed calls is hardly worth any praise. It does not have a clear missed-call log. It puts all the calls in the received. And has a tick to indicate it was received or not. This will irritate you soon.

PROS
The phone is sleek/attractive. Camera is decent, speaker is good, Bluetooth works well with HS 200 headsets. It has different tunes for text message/calls/AIMs. I found this useful as I use my phone as pager too. Configurable shortcuts for faster maneuverability

51 Seriously Flawed Design
This is my 4th cell phone and the last Motorola product I will ever buy. This rather expensive phone has lots of features that are difficult you use, flawed or useless. The thing I detest most about this phone are the left side buttons which are extremely sensitive to touch. When placing the phone in a pocket or holster, if you bump these buttons you will change your ring style usually to silent from vibe and ring, rendering the device an expensive brick. I "upgraded" to this phone and now experience frequent dropped calls and poor reception in areas where I used to have great service. Obviously Motorola didn't do its due diligence in human factors engineering or field testing of this horrible product

52 Do not buy this phone!!
This has to be the worst phone i have ever seen...and i have been using cellphones for quite a while now. Everything that everyone says is bad about this phone is true....every single complaint you WILL experience one time or the other with this phone. I have owned the V600 for about 4 months now.. and it's on it's way for it's first handset exchange.You get a white screen without warning,especially when you are about to recieve a call. So the call is lost,and you have to take the battery out and re-insert to get the phone working again. Now my battery only holds about 2 hours of charge even after a full recharge...which means if i do not have a charger nearby; too bad for me!! Dropped calls happen ever so often that it's so not a joke anymore; and it connects to my bluetooth headset and bluetooth car kit when it feels like it.It's been a total nightmare!! Motorola should be held to some kind of class-action suit or something..this phone, with all it's cool features,just does not cut it especially for extremely busy professionals. T-mobile service just further adds insult to injury..my handset exchange is on hold for a while now because they are back-ordered with this model. I'm sure that is due to the numerous complaints with the phone. Whatever you do,especially with the sales offered by so many companies on this phone that it looks like an awesome deal(why do u think it is so cheap in the first place??!!)DO NOT GET THIS PHONE!!

53 Nice phone, glad to ditch low-tech Nextel
Awesome phone, service in my area is good. All features work well. Bluetooth association with HS820 headset was a snap after reseting the headset. Very clear phone calls. Should have come with a belt clip, a car charger would have been nice as well. [...] Takes the sting out of a 200.00 early termination fee levied by Nextel

54 Motorola v600 unlocked/t-mobile
I bought this phone unlocked for $275 new from ebay. I did this so I would NOT have to sign a contract with anyone plus since it's a global phone it makes more sense that way. It's bluetooth does not seem to be compatible with my Apple computer and that really pisses me off. What's with them anyway? I also miss the indicator light that was on my old 722i. That dumb light was very useful. Not only could I find the phone easier when it's dark I also knew w/out opening it whether or not I was in a cell zone which for me was very handy. The camera works great. I think that if you don't need the bluetooth buy the v300. It's the same and seems sturdier.

55 Buyer beware!
I would recommend against buying this phone. It's not worth changing your service to T-Mobile with a horrible phone like this one just to get a great rebate. I purchased the V600 from Amazon in Nov last year, and had nothing but trouble with it. My main complaints were that the reception was very poor, and I was experiencing a large number of dropped calls. I realize that the T-Mobile service may not be the best in Los Angeles, but I have quite a few friends (using different phones) who have no complaints about the service - which leads me to believe this phone is to blame.

If you are an extremely patient person who doesn't mind bad reception and constantly having to call the person whom you're talking to five times in order to complete your conversation, I guess this is a good phone for the money. It's pretty compact (although heavy), has a decent camera, the buttons are okay, and the clamshell design is nice. I tested the speakerphone quite a bit, and it worked very well.

Bottom line: If you value reception quality, stay away from this phone! If not, then it's a pretty good deal.

56 Some ups and downs. Making this phone 4 stars.
Bought this phone for $24.99 (amazon.com). Its takes a while to get here if you order it from amazon.com. I am using this phone since two months. I like how it look. Some complain about the weight, but I don't think It is heavy. This phone is compact, It fits in pockets unlike some Nokias. I bought a linksys bluetooth adapter for this phone and I its really cool how I cam transfer games, pics, ringtones from and to the phone. It plays mp3s so you can put any song as you ringtone. My friends are amazed how I can put any song as my ringtone. The speaker is loud and clear, you can even hear it in a loud noisy room. I would have to say that this is probably the best spekaer I have seen in a phone. You don't have to buy games anymore, you can put any game on it from you computer. Its sweet for standing in line, car trips, and etc. The camera is really sweet. Its not those cheap crappy camera with other phones, I really like the camera. It has a sharp crispy colorful screen. I also like the keys. It has aim on it for those people like me who love chating. You will find a new feature in this phone everyday. There is a slight learning curve. Some fetaures are hidden deep in the menu. I wanted a flip phone that had bluetooth and could fit is most of my pockets thats one of the reasons I bought this phone. Now for the bad part. Okay the phone is kind of slow. if you press a key sometimes it will respond like 2 seconds later. This can be really annoying sometimes. The phne freezes up like atleast once a day its so annoying. The first month of use it never happeend but during second month it started happening. I think it is because I keep it in my pocket and It hits my lets every time I take a step. So I higly recommend a clip or a holder. Every time I pause a game, Whenever I try to play it again after two hours the phone restarts, and I have start over. There is music in the games. 5 MB!! that not enough. It fills up really quickly and they have no expansion slots for expanding the memory. I think that sucks because you can't fit all the ringtones, pics, and games in 5 MB. You have to delete something. I used to own a old motorola T722 and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) still hasnt change for the V600. I think they need to change somethings in the phone like the menus becuase its getting old. I get good service and good call quality except when you are inside a building then it has hard time picking up signal while my friend with At&T has full signal. Except the freezing and the slow processor I think this phone is pretty awesome. All of my friends love this phone. I would give it 3.5/5

57 T-Mobile's V600 NOT Quadband. US 850MHz band disabled.
T-Mobile's website describes this phone as tri-band supporting only the 900/180/1900 MHz bands.

58 don't buy this by looks
the looks were great and it was from Motorola.....so i went and purchased it. but the main problem is that it drops calls after every 12 mins.
everything else is fine with the phone.

59 replaced 4 times with cingular
I have had the phone for about 7 months, I love many of the features, the colors, camera, blue tooth for my car and the size of the phone.But Ive had so many dropped calls and calls that don't go through, that they have replaced it 4 times -Now cingular will replace this phone for a motorola v551 and they are no longer carrying the phone because of this known problem. The case also scratches easily. hopefully the v551 will be better.Dropped calls are frequent!

60 The phone is good if ya Baby her
this phone is a good heavy strong outer coated phone, but whatever you do, don't let these things fool you, treat this phone like a baby when you first buy it. Don't drop it, don't close the phone hard, if u do, u will know cause a white screen will let u know, then its take the battery out put it back in and start all over.

I paid $400 for the phone, and when it was ready to be sent back to get a new(don't tell me everyone hasn't dropped their phone a time or 2) point being if you send it back after paying full insurance and they say we will send you a repaired phone( i don't wont repaired phones that someone else broke, but it is cheaper than i can get mine fixed), ya it all begins there. you will never get a brand new phone and are dealing with fixed ones until you buy another one.

Other than that fact, the phone is one of the best I have had, all 3 of em(i use for work and i put em thru h*ll),the strong signal and loud speakers help the main function of the phone if thats what ur looking for. ( o and for the people that have the problems with the buttons on the outside of the phone making noise while in your pocket or changing your settings, go into your looks and lock just those keys out u don't need em anyway)

61 Dropped Calls
Tech support is awful. i've had 20 dropped calls in the past month. i'll have four bars and in the middle of a conversation and the call would drop. I called Moto tech support located somewhere in india, and they said could do nothing. They told me to buy another $300 phone. i've talked with several other v600 owners and they've had the same problem. DON'T BUY NEW MOTOROLA PHONES.

62 Good Phone!
I have had several phones, from Nokia to Samsung, and I love this phone. It has tons of features, a great look, and can even check your email. I am VERY happy with it and have not experineced any problesm at all. On the contrary, I constantly use its many great features and admire it's good looks and bluetooth wireless headset (optional).

63 Not iSync compatible, and bad addressbook
I've had three Motorola phones in the past. It was the past when digital networks didn't exist, having a cell phone was a luxury, and batteries last only a day at best. Since then Motorola has done some wonderful things to their phones and V600 isn't an exception: it has the longest battery life I've ever experienced--up to a week; has nice polyphonic ring tones; and most amazingly the picture quality of the camera is absolutely fabulous. If these are all you care about in a cell phone, go ahead and buy it.

I couldn't agree more with several other reviewers about the phone book. V600 has by far the most counter-intuitive, clumsy, antiquated phone book system I've ever seen. If a person has more than one phone number and/or email addresses, V600's phone book will take each number/email as one entry. Take, for example, my father who has four phone numbers and three email addresses. If I add him (or his vCard), the phone book adds seven new entries. After adding three of my family members, the V600's phone book showed 19 entries! Motorola seriously has to do something about this, or I'm never going to buy Motorola phone again.

Now, this phone is marketed as a proper Bluetooth phone. I say this is not true. This phone cannot be used as a remote control (via Salling Clicker), does not synchronize with iSync, and does not even talk to other phones of same kind. If synchronizing contacts with your computer is a big deal for you, again, don't buy this phone. If you'd like to use your cell phone as a clicker for your Powerpoint/Keynote presentation, don't expect to do it with Motorola V600. If you want to pass around your phone number via Bluetooth to other people, do not buy this phone. Stick to whatever Sony Ericsson you have...is my $0.02.

One other observation is that the phone dies in moderately cold weather. If you plan on taking this phone on slope, make sure you keep it close to your body (inner pocket or something).

64 Drop Phone Calls
I've had cellular phones since they first came out in a BAG with a full-size handset. This is the worsed performer of all I've ever owned. Motorola has sent two V600 replacements (thanks to my service plan)and the same problem of dropped calls or no antenna persists.

In any given location, the antenna strength drops to nothing or calls just drop off. A 'trick' I've figured out to get antenna signal back is to call my Service Provider's number and allow it to fail...this fills up the antenna strength! Go Figure!

Some features of the phone are pretty cool, such as the outside color lights, the clarity of the inside screen, or the camera features; but all-in-all the main use of the phone needs antenna signals to work. It's frustrating especially when you are on a business call or talking to someone you simply do NOT want to hang up on!

I'll sum it up by quoting my Service Provider's comments, when he said, "I get so many problem calls with the V600, that we should be answering the phone saying, 'V600 Service Help Line'."

65 OK
The phone is basically OK. The battery life seems better than my previous phone, and apparently with these lithium ion batteries don't have memories so they're less hassle to keep charged. However I found a few things annoying about the phone:

1) the connector on the bottom, onto which you connect the charger or a data cable, is weak. Sometimes you connect the charger or the data cable but it doesn't quite connect all the way, and a connection can't be made. So you think you're charging it, but you're really not.

2) Despite being a flip phone, there are several buttons on the outside that are activated even when the flip is closed. As a result, the buttons can get activated while the phone is jostling around in your pocket. This is exactly the situation I was trying to avoid by getting a flip phone. It would be better if the external buttons could be disabled while the flip is closed.

3) The lens for the built-in camera is close to the hinge of the flip. That's also where the button to take a picture is, and it's exactly where your fingers will be unless you have very tiny hands. As a result your fingers keep getting into frame. It's tricky to hold the phone with your fingers far enough away from the lens, but also close to the trigger to take a picture.

4) When the battery gets low enough, it gets so weak that you can't even recharge it when the phone is on. Unless you turn off the phone, all the external power goes to powering the phone, apparently, so the battery will never get charged. You have to turn off the phone for a few hours during the recharge. You can avoid this by recharging when the battery is only a little bit depleted.

Other than that the phone seems to function well enough.

66 This phone is off the hooooook!!
How could you call this a bad phone! It's awesome, hence my title. I've had my phone for a long time, not a single, horrible problem like others have written. Sure the picture lags for a couple of seconds when someone calls... but it's only for like 2, so get over it! Batteries brake only if you constantly touch or remove them. I've said what I had to. Peace up! Ktown down!

67 Piece of ....Not really worth it
I have had this phone for 2 months now, and had to change it once already. It has MAJOR software issues, it freezes constantly, takes about 3 days (always on) to update date and time. Bluetooth works sporadically. If you bought one, sorry. If you haven't, buy something else (even the V300 is a lot better than this).

68 pretty good....
I've only had it for about a month and half, after i switched over to t-mobile.
The phone is a bit heavier then most... but that's not such a bad thing. It's my first camera phone, the camera is very easy to use and the pictures come out pretty clear, and are good quality, and the zoom option is good. I like the multi-lingual options, and it's easy to send messages(both sms and mms). There are many ringtones to choose from, but besides the standard ring, i didn't like them too much, and decided to get a ring tone from the t-zones website.
The phone book is pretty good, if you save your numbers on the SIM card, you have less options then if you save the number on the phone itself (like with having icons next to the name), but either way, it's quite easy.
It's easy to figure things out, you can figure out how everything works just by messing with the phone and looking at the options..but there's always the option of looking in the manual. Battery and talk time is good, i don't charge my phone everynight, and it lasts pretty long.

Downsides... the keypad, it took me a while to get used to. Sometimes the keys are hard to press and the numbers can take a second to come up. If you happen to use a phone card, when putting in the pin number, the input is kinda slow.
Also, the side button is good because you can change the ring style(loud, soft, silent, vibrate, vibrate then ring) without opening the phone... but if you have it in your pocket or in a hand bag or something, you might unknowingly change your ring style(it hasn't happened yet, but it's a possibility).

Overall i like the phone, i think the price might be a bit high... but if you're using the phone for basically talking, taking pictures, playing games and general stuff, it's worth it.

69 It's a good phone
My last phone was a Nokia 3650. Overall, I like the V600 better, but I did like the 3650's phone book, date book, text messaging, and reception better. The 3650's phone book was better for organizing and searching for entries. It's datebook was better for entering appointments and meetings. It's text messaging would send the message in fewer steps. Lastly, the 3650 seemed to have better reception, and I liked the that it had a removable memory card.

The V600 on the other hand is much smaller, and the keypad is much easier to operate without looking. Also, the V600 has much better speakers, especially the external speaker that's used for the ringer and speakerphone. It's ringtones and sound effects are much better. It's camera is a leaps and bounds improvement. It has much more extensive shortcut capabilities, and lastly it has much better battery life.

Read on for more detailed descriptions of these differences:
I don't like the V600's phone book, because every phone number for a given person is listed as a separate entry. Also, you can only search through your entries by the first letter of a of the entry, then you must scroll through every entry that begins with that letter. Therefore, if you have several entries that begin with the same letter it can take a while. With the 3650 I could continue entering letters until I got a match.

Also, I don't like that the V600 does not distinguish between first and last name, and it will only search by the first letter of the entry. Therefore, you must remember if you created the entry using first and last name or last then first name. The 3650 would search for all possible matches.

The V600 also does not work as well as an appointment book, because you can't set an appointment by beginning and ending times. You can only enter an appointment by beginning time and length of time, but length of time can only be entered in whole hours.

I like the 3650's text messaging better, because it took fewer steps to begin and fewer steps to send. With the V600 you have to scroll through more options before you get to the option to send a message, and there are three confirmation steps to go through before it will send the message. With the 3650 I could just hit the send key and be done.

Overall, I feel that the V600 is a better made phone, I just don't feel that the features listed above are as user friendly.

70 Display some times gets hung ( a white screen)
I did't see the reviews before i got this phone. The first day it self the display got hung when my wife is trying to call me from the same shopping place. I had to remove and place the battery to get started. The same problem araised when the battery is down and the display is hung even when the phone is given charging. I had removed and placed the battery to get to see the screen. As one of the reviews say the software is also very slow.

T-Mobile support asked me to do a master reset. But i am sure the problem is still there in this phone.

This is a slow response phone!!!

71 V 600 Problems
I have had this phone for about 6 mos. I have sent it back 3 times and still have the same problems. Intermitent "dead periods" in the middle of a call for 1 sec to 60 sec. They have sent 3 replacements with the same issues. My wife has another brand phone on the same GSM service and it works when my doesn't. Stay away from the V 600 !!

72 The Display is Horrible
I was very desperate to get my mobile after I ordered it. Everything was cool for 1 week. No sooner a week I found nothing on the display on the flip. Something came back but couldnt read it. All the characters were half broken. When I opened the flip to check something no buttons worked. I had to restart the mobile (Reinsert the battery). I got it replaced and alas the second phone gave started giving the same problem after 2-3 weeks. The display of this phone sucks. But other than that the reception in T-Mobile is good. The features are good. I am not sure of the size of the software, but there is a noticeable time gap for every button click you make. So be careful about buying this phone.

73 don't believe amazon for mobile phones...
I ordered a couple of V600 with T-Mobile service, from Amazon.com. This happened a couple of weeks ago. Amazon told me that the order would be delivered by 16th december.
On 14th TMobile confirmed that the credit check is done and it is approved. Today is 21st and still Amazon says they haven't received approval from TMobile. TMobile again and again says they have sent the update to Amazon.
Obviously no service provider takes two weeks to check the credit. So I am sure the bottleneck for my order is Amazon. SHAME ON YOU AMAZON!!!
Regarding V600 with TMobile service, some of my friends are using it and it is too good. I am eager to see my new V600 phone. But probably I will not be able to see them in 2004 :-( . I have ordered a few books, a laptop from amazon earlier and the service was prompt. But for mobile phones, don't believe them. It seems they don't keep track of their mobile phone inventory efficiently.

74 V600 Dissapointing experience
I bought my V600 with very high expecations and the software
on the phone is far from satisfactory. The phone has crashed more that 5 times already needing me to restart the phone(
mean remove and re-insert the battery).

It resulted in blank screens in some cases and inability to make
calls in other cases when the phone crashed.

75 Motorola problem phone
I bought this model phone from ATT Wireless in May 2003
and have had considerable trouble with the display failing.

The first time it failed was withing their 30 day return/swap
policy and so the local store exchanged it.

The next 2 times, I carried it to an authorized Motorola
repair station here in Nashville and the second time,
the service technician told that Motorola was having a lot of
trouble with this model and it's display, but Motorola hadn't made a permanent repair solution available to them yet.

I would not recommend this phone to anyone.

76 It's a gamble. Love it or HATE it.
3/14/05 update: Both of my V600s were replaced with refurbished V600s after they both failed, having more gibberish on their screens than not. Calls were constantly dropped. Once I lost most of my information while trying to Bluetooth it to my laptop to save. The software is not worth buying. My next call will be to T-Mobile (excellent customer service) to report one of the phones has lost its display lighting. I can barely see what is on the screen and the calls on it are dropped at least a dozen times a day. I have gone back to using my old Nokia 3650 but would love to find a flip phone that has both a camera and Bluetooth to transfer jobsite pictures to my computer at the end of the day. Her goes!

Original review: I recently "upgraded" from my larger Nokia 3650s, non-flips to 2 V600s. Everything I have read about the phone is true or not true depending on the luck of the draw or batch, I suppose. My two phones are in the HATE category. I have dropped calls, missed calls that never ring, gibberish on the screens, unable to turn the phones on or off, keys that have to be hit twice to "wake them up", like the touchpad is not connected to the phone at all, and the constant accidental noises that the keys on the side make whenever you grab the phone. I guess I am lucky because the cameras on both phones seem to work well. I was very disappointed to learn I couldn't backup data from the phone to my bluetooth laptop without BUYING software. The battery seems to die prematurely whether or not I make calls. Once the whole phone got so hot I could not touch the hinge of the flip to open it to try to turn it off. I finally had to remove the battery, let it cool off the cooked battery, and then try to use it on a NEWLY PURCHASED car charger after it had partially charged again. So, if you get a good V600, I am sure you will love it. Not me! I am so sorry I bought them. T-Mobile's customer care people have been great but I still have all these problems and no one has suggested that T-Mobile has the clout to tell Motorola to swap out the phones for new, improved models, not some second-hand refurbished ones that someone else has already had problems with. My old clunky Nokias are looking better and better. Motorola, shame on you!

The software is so un-intuitive; read all the other reviews. What struck me was that it took both hands to do almost everything. Why didn't the programers make the choices easier by pushing the same pattern of buttons over and over to move forward through the screens or to go back? I must be spoiled by the excellent software of the old Nokias. Reading and pushing the correct button to do anything seems awkward and dangerous if you are one of those people who phones and drives.

Taking a picture is easy enough. What should the next button be as a choice? Save or Send, right? Wrong, there is a whole menu that opens and if you want to Save a picture for later use, it is two taps down on the multifunciton button to Save. Then you have to push another button to actually Save. By the time the picture is taken, saved, and the software has the camera ready to take another picture, it is at least 30 seconds if you are adept. I know it doesn't sound like a long time, but when trying to capture moving targets, it is an eternity.

There are more fine points that are negative, but if the above things don't stop you, you deserve to find them out for yourself.

T-Mobile, if you are listening, please exercise some muscle and help us unfortunates who didn't believe the bad things we read before buying this phone! Motorola, one more time, SHAME ON YOU!

77 Excellent Phone
I don't know what all the fuss is about in earlier reviews. This phone is one of the best phones out there. I just got this phone from T-Mobile with the one year agreement. I had Sprint for one year before this and their service is ok. I really like the Sanyo 8100 that I had with sprint though. That phone was hardcore, I dropped it in saltwater twice while fishing and it still works perfectly. Anyways this phone has all the features of my old phone and much more. First off the LCD is very sharp and the design of the phone would appeal to most people. All the calls I have are crystal clear and YES I have made calls over 20 minutes long. So far I have not had any dropped calls and the phone had never froze up on me. I live in the Boston area, so I guess I'm suppose to have great reception. I haven't play around with most of the features yet, because I use my phone to make calls, and not as a PDA. I did use the calendar feature though to put down some important dates and is was very easy to setup. So far the phone and the service has been superb for me. Hopefully this phone will have the same endurance as my old Sanyo 8100.

78 Stay away from T-mobile service
I tried to cancel my T-mobile service a month ago but I was told I need to pay $200 dollars unless I find someone to take over my resposibility. I was suggested to suspend my account so that I didn't need to pay the monthly charge until I find someone to take over my phone. I do and find someone to take over my responsibility. Now they charged me $50 for last month during suspension that I never used my service. I talk to the superior and they said that either you pay $50 now or do the cancellation and pay $200. Why different people in T-mobile tell you differnet story. Don't trust this company. They steal every penny from your pocket!!

79 Stay away from this phone!!!
Again, stay away from this phone. I've made the mistake not to take into consideration the negative reviews that had previously been posted on this site (btw, it looks like I am the first to do a review for this phone; that's funny, I was here the day before and there were multiple other reviews for this V600) and went ahead and bought the phone. Major mistake. I got the phone Nov 22 and ever since I've been having only problems with it. I am returning it to Amazon for replacement with another phone. Not Motorola for sure. It loses the signal just out of the blue, and it won't come back to life for anywhere between 10-15 minutes and a couple of hours. If during this time I want to make a call I have to power it off and back on. I have 2 other lines with T-Mobile with different phones, and they all work in the same areas and conditions.
It also appears that Cingular (another GSM carrier which had this phone) already pulled it off the market for reasons unknown to me. I can only guess why :-)
Otherwise, nice features, it is small enough, Bluetooth compatible, takes decent photos. Too bad it can't do what it is actually supposed to do best: make and receive calls!

80 Unreliable - No fixes in Sight
I've had the V600 for about 3 weeks. It has great features, but it "locks up" for short periods of time (1 minute to 2 hours). It eventually comes "back to life", or the batteries can be removed and the device rebooted.

T-Mobile has no plan to make these work. This is a "Known Issue". Motorola has not plans to fix it. The V600 is approaching "End-of-life".

Cingular recalled ALL of their V600s and replaced them.

If T-Mobile cared about retaining their best customers, they would replace all V600s with a reliable phone.

81 Cell Phone Motorola V600
I love this phone and i got the song 'my boo' as my ring tone i think that motorola Is the best type of cell phonen in the world and i tell them to keep up the good work whats poping holla.

82 Not all roses
The official review says things like "nothing's going to break off" but that's not entirely true. My cover slips off in my pocket all of the time as I pull it out to answer a call. It has already gotten bent and no longer fits as well as it once did.

Furthermore, my coverage hasn't been all that great. With a little investigation, it appears that other t-mobile phones receive a stronger signal with all other conditions being the same.

Additionally, the phone isn't very responsive. Sometimes when I start to dial a number, there will be significant lag (1/2 to 1 second) before the number, and accompanying sounds, begin to appear.

Finally, on the Mac, iSync doesn't work with this phone over Bluetooth. You either need an additional utility like "OnSync" or purchase the USB cable for the phone and then iSync is supposed to work.

83 Unsung feature Is DA BOMB!
Motorola's V600 has the killer feature missing in all the other phones I've researched so far. I got rid of my Nokia 3650 do-everything phone because of the omission of this feature. It will function as an ANALOG modem when used with a Bluetooth equipped Laptop. This means you can use your existing dial-up account for internet access without the hideous per-kilobyte download fees. Naturally you use your airtime but most of us have nights and weekends free plans anyway...when do you surf the most?? The only thing I've found irritating about this phone is having to spend $30 on software for data exchange on the computer when other phones come with that type software included.

84 Great phone, but far from perfect
I purchased this phone roughly 6 months ago and have been relatively happy with it. Previously, I had never owned a GSM phone, and while the design is great and I love holding it (it's quite a bit heavier than most phones), the service is worse than on my old 2 phones, and my friends with Verizon and Sprint seem to have better service, but it definitely isn't bad. I can talk in a normal voice and have good conversations on it, even at 2 bars, and I have very few dropped calls.

Sometimes, when keeping the phone in my pocket, the screen freezes and turns white, and I don't recieve any calls. While all I have to do is turn the phone off and on again, this is rather bothersome.

The battery life is really good. I've been very impressed with it.

The chrome paint separating the digital display from the rest of the phone chips easily, don't expect that to stay for very long.

Everything's a bit pricey, but you definitely get what you pay for . This isn't the phone to end all phone's but it definitely is a great phone. I'd probably reccomend the v710 or whatever the next version is, but you won't be dissapointed.

85 some good, some bad
My husband and I spent $300- each on these at the T-Mobile stores and got the bluetooth ear pieces and two $50 mail in rebates which seemed like a pretty good deal at the time. Three mailed back phones later, I feel as though I should have done things differently.

* For bluetooth and as a phone the v600 works fine.
* It drops calls more often than our Virgin mobile phones did.
* If you like to make themes and mp3 musical loops for each individual in your address book you can have a lot of fun with it.
* If you want to use it as a camera you may end up having a lot of problems.
* It has a great weight to it and doesn't feel flimsy.
* T-Mobile does not have the customer service I was led to believe they have. It sucks, basically. Not all of it, the people in the stores definitely try to help you out more. But on the phone we received a lot of disconnected calls and lies from at least two customer service reps.
* No close-ups. Because the zoom means smaller and closer, not actual zoom.

Every single camera I received had camera problems right out of the box.

#1 - great previews, but the actual pictures once I sent them showed up as blurs.
#2 - bad pixelation both in the preview and sent photos.
#3 - great previews, but the actual pictures once I sent them showed up as blurs.
#4 - great previews, but the actual pictures once I sent them showed up as blurs.

All of these issues occurred right out of the box. Literally. As we just started our service two months ago, I feel frustrated. And if you have major problems like this don't think you can get an equal value model or make up the difference (which some customer service people told us). T-mobile wanted me to get a cheaper phone in what they consider an equal exchange but that does not have bluetooth. Or the ability to import mp3 tones.

I had to send the V600 back to Motorola due to the fact they never get the phones from T-Mobile. So they had no history of this bug. And T-Mobile did not take the bug seriously even though I sent two cameras back to them. The second with detailed instructions and the pictures to show the difference between preview and actual photo.

So, if you want to get a good phone with great bluetooth and the ability to play with making loops for your address book, then this will work great. You would just do better to get a cheap digital camera instead of using this one for anything more than basic stills. And check it for taking picturs of yourself in the store or as soon as you get it via mail. Because I've replicated the bug a few times and taking pictures of yourself to send to family seems one of the ways they promote to use it. And I tried to use it for that (as well as other things) and had a major problem.

86 not really bluetooth
Bluetooth functionality leave a _lot_ to be desired from this phone. It really only works well with it's own proprietary PC based software. Although you'll be able to transfer files to and from your Mac, that's about all it can do with that platform. Although it's supposed to be capable of OBEX object and file push, these features don't really work.

Disappointed overall, as I was attracted to a bluetooth phone for doing this sort of stuff, but obviously I didn't do my homework well enough. Will probably exchange this for a Nokia.

As a regular phone, however, I do really like it. Reception and sound quality are great, and the interface is very easy to use.

87 Nothing special and needs some improvements.
There is nothing great about the Motorola V600. It's pretty much a typical cell phone with some features that are supposed to make your life easier. I've had this phone for over a month now and here's what I've discovered I hate about it. My biggest gripe with the V600 is the side buttons. When the phone is closed, the side buttons are still active, and they change the ring style. Since I carry it in my pocket, I've had plenty of instances with the ringer being turned off, to vibrate, or to loud accidentally. This is a huge usability flaw in my opinion. Normally the side buttons are inactive when a flip phone is closed. Not the case here.

Another problem area is the phone book. I can't believe they make new cell phones that can't store multiple numbers with a single name. I have one person in my phone 5 times (home1, home2, work, cell, and pager). This is really annoying when trying to find names. Furthermore, when storing to the SIM card, you can't store additional information like Category, Voice, and Picture. You can only use these features when storing to the phone, which defeats the whole idea of a SIM card in that if you change phones, you need to reprogram all the numbers again.

One aspect of the phone I did end up liking was the design aesthetics. It's a pretty cool looking phone and the external display glows blue. It also has three rings around the Motorola logo that glow when the phone alerts you to a call. However, the choice of material here is questionable. The back batter cover is a stamped metal piece that is extremely slick. I've literally dropped this phone when my hands had a little moisture on them (remember I live in Arizona). So I like what it looks like, but not what it's made out of.

Other features that this phone has are a calendar, web access, Bluetooth integration, calculator, voice recording, camera, video viewing capability, and instant messaging. These features all work fine, but once again, there's nothing special about them. It seems that Motorola designers spent most of their time and energy in creating a phone that has completely customizable menus. You can rearrange menu items and configure hot keys to do pretty much anything. The first thing I did was set my configuration to my liking, but have not changed them since, so all the time and effort spent developing the interface was pretty much useless for me after the first hour.

The reason I chose, and plan on keeping, this phone is because my brother works for Motorola and it was the highest-end phone that he could get for free. Guess I got what I paid for. I use my V600 on a T-Mobile account. So to recap, if you have other choices when it comes to choosing a phone, it might be a better idea to get the other phone. There's nothing great about the V600, but if you just want a phone to make and receive calls, it works just fine. Sound quality, included accessories, ring tones, and battery life are all up to par.

88 Motorola V600
I've had this phone for about a little over two months now, and I absolutely love this phone. My reception is pretty good; I get signal in my kitchen [I could never get signal there w/AT&T, although I did have great signal everywhere else.] The sound quality is good, and the speakerphone is loud and clear, the camera takes okay-quality pics -- I'd rate the camera 4 out of 5. I'd give it a 5 IF it had a flash function. The phone itself it beautiful and sleek. I really enjoy the event lights, they're cute. The one thing I don't get is how people constantly complain that you have to make a separate entry for every person and their multiple numbers. You don't -- obviously some people don't bother reading the manual. -__-"" Being a longtime Nokia user, it did take some time to get used to the reversed call/end buttons. There's a lot of personalizations on the V600 also: the left and right soft keys, the smart key, the 4-way navigational key, color themes. A downside though, is that the games included in this phone kinda suck: one game and two demos. For the price of this phone, Moto should have given us all 3 full games. But that's not too big of a deal. If you're used to T9 texting, iTap takes a little getting used to. Overall a very nice phone.

89 Good mix of what everyone else writes
Overall, I really like the phone but I have to say that I have experienced the issues the many of the reviewers have also.

PRO's
Nice screen
Good call quality
Good camera (compared to pthers in the market)
Nice look and finish
Good features
Comes with great useable ringtones

CON's
Speaker is low quality (I tried other V600's and experienced the same)
Sometimes there is a lag when the buttons are pressed
It does not come with a belt holster (1st Moto phone without one)
You have to position the phone on your ear in a certain precise place, otherwise you will hear nothing.

Overall I like it a lot and cannot find a similar phone on the market so I am keeping mine

90 It's a great phone with a few minor problems
I read all the reviews before mine and found that V600 users either really love this phone, or really hate this phone. My V600 was probably from the new batch - tri-band T-mobile (however I use it on Cingular, and seriously...quad-band is totally unecessary), so far it has been great and I haven't had most of the problems/defects some users described. I can see that some users complain about the features because they are not used to Motorola phones, but for people like me, who has always, or almost always used Moto phones, there's no problem at all. Here's one suggestion, if you are used to other phones, especially Nokia, you are going to have a hard time with Moto, be prepared. Some users complain about not being able to open the phone with one finger, I've never had that problem, I guess it requires some finesse?

Pros -
Bluetooth (ultra easy for ringtones and other file transfer expecially when you have bluetooth on yout computer or PDA)
Speaker phone
Good picture quality
Camera with zoom and adjustable lighting
Bright color screen
Solid (some may complain it's heavier than other phone, but please remember that this isn't built with PLASTIC)
Interchangeable faceplate
Very nice light on outer case
Volume is loud enough for me (I can even hear it when my music is turned loud in the car)
Accurate voice dialing

Cons-
You can only enter the speaker phone mode a few seconds after initiating the call
Can get kind of slow when memory is not even close to full
More storage can really make this phone even better
Huge stock antenna (I've changed mine to a mini stubby cap and it looks great, reception is not compromised)
Wouldn't hurt if the phone is a bit thinner or/and smaller
The phone comes with too many unuseful ringtones/wallpapers which can't be deleted to save some "already not so big" storage. (with the easiness of transferring file via bluetooth...I have like 20-30 ringtones on my phone..)

I'm still playing with the phone and having fun, hope you will too!

91 i would recomend that you do not buy a motorola because:
i am EXTREMLY disapointed with motorola. i bought my v600 over the summer for 300 bucks and loved it for about a month. but then, it went dead. just like that, with no warning and no low battery. it wouldent turn on and wouldent show any sign of life no matter what i tried. i went everywhere to see what was wrong but not even the experts could not figure it out. so i looked up the warranty info and found that it was still under warranty, and that if i just sent it in, motorola would fix it and send it back to me in no more then 15 days. so i sent it, and they recieved it on september 3rd. i expected that at the latest, it would be back at the end of the month. i called and called when it dident come, i talked the people on the phone about a million times and they gave me a diffrent deadline when my phone WOULD be here everytime i called, and every time, that day passed with no v600 at my door. i was informed that it would be replaced because the problem could not be fixed, but by this time, i was already a VERY dissatisfied customer. after talking to all those people on the phone and wasting all my time, and even being hung up on by one, my phone got here today. today is OCTOBER 19TH AND I JUST GOT THE PHONE. that is over TWICE what they said it would be. OVER A MONTH WITH NO CELL PHONE. and thats not all. the replacement is RE FURBISHED and has time on it so i cant sell it. it also has a dent a plastic part, the speaker has a rattle AND the down button on the pad barely works. i dont even want to waste any more time on the phone with motorola. this was the LAST purchase i will ever make from them and i recomend you do the same.

92 Warning! Motorola has discontinued this phone!
Originally, I was searching for this Motorola V600 cellular phone as a replacement for my V505, when I was disappointed to find that Motorola has discontinued the V600. Not only are they no longer going to support the phone, the number of features, like downloads of music and games, will be reduced, but this also means the phone was a flop for a reason. A number of Motorola employees told me that this was because the phone was "problematic," prone to dropping calls randomly, having awful signal strength and audio quality, and constantly needing to be sent back to Motorola for various defects in the manufacturing process. A warning to all--Don't come near this phone with a ten foot pole. I absolutely love Motorola and they have a number of fantastic phones, but the V600 is not one of them.

93 Motorola V600 Problems
I purchased the Motorola V600 3 weeks ago and is not worth $20. Issues:
1. The "7" and sometimes the "6" key. I would have to depress those keys multiple times before it would register.
2. The phone would freeze when I was disconnecting from a call. The phone would not hang up and would have to depress the off button for 3-5 minutes before shutting down.
3. The volume control is poor. On the highest setting the volume is still low compared to other phones.

I just purchased the Motorola V505 and seems to work better however, when I receive an incoming call and answer the call, when I hang up from that call - I get the message missed call so all calls I answer after I hang up are coming up missed call.

94 Beware: User-hostile product!
I had very high hopes when I had my V600 in my hands. Now, after 5 months of use I regret the day I bought it. My aim was to get a flip cover phone with Bluetooth. On the paper, there wasn't really any competition against the V600. But the reality is altogether a different story.
First, compared to the competition it is heavier. However, one can live with that.
Second, the clamshell doesn't flip open very easily. It requires some hand acrobatics to open with one hand (in case you have your suitcase or something else occupying your other hand). Is it so difficult to create a small protrusion for a finger?
Third, (and now it starts really getting bad) who in his right mind would put voice activation button which you tend to press every time you try to flip the cover open and the stupid phone asks you to say the name aloud. I don't even use the voice call function for God's sake!
Fourth, the keypad is of very low quality. They keys don't work always and there is flaking on my phone's keypad where it writes "V600".
Fifth, the software is the most none-user friendly one I have ever used. Granted, I had only one Samsung and all the other phones I have owned were Nokias but really, does it have to be so stupid? Don't Motorola engineers ever benchmark? Just copy Nokia if you don't have a good idea. Why do I have to create an entry for each number a person has? Why can't I adjust the phone ring tone for different categories of people?
Sixth, in my fifth month of usage, I need to recharge this headache of a phone every day!
Seventh, the software sometimes decides not to connect to the Bluetooth earpiece. Bluetooth earphone is the only nice thing about Motorola. It is the best design in the market, light and small. However it has a horrendous drain on the batteries. Be warned.
I am returning my V600 tomorrow and I am curious as to what they will do but I have had enough!
I would advise anyone who need a good phone to stay away.

95 Features galore but slow sometimes
This phone is a good size, and attractive. I want to like it. And, I do. BUT, it allows only one number per entry in the phonebook so if your friends/contacts have three numbers (home, work, cell) you'll be scrolling through a lot of entries to find the one that you want. There is a way to search faster, but it is still a bit cumbersome if you're driving. This is a drawback.

The software is also slow, for instance, it sometimes takes about a second after you press a number for the tone to sound. This is super-confusing if your ear is hearing a diffferent button tone than your finger is currently pushing. It's like the delay between seeing a firecracker in the distance, and hearing it a few seconds later. Major bummer but it only happens when entering the first number.

I do like the calendar function, and the camera is cool. The ringer id function is good, too (different rings for different groups). Event and ringer lights I can do without. The V600 occasionally fails to ring and this can be quite irritating (is it phone or service provider, I can't say).

The bluetooth function is a hit. The ear piece that comes with the V600 is quite good. The optional Jabra headset works well, too (for $75). It is a quad-band phone so it should work overseas, but it may come out of ther box locked to one service provider. If so, I have seen a website advertising that you can get it unlocked over the internet for about $25 or mail it in (but I have not personally tried this yet).

The internet connectivity is a nice feature. But, if you get AT&T service as I did, the m-mode is not worth the cost unless you want to shop for rap ring tones, bikini pictures, etc. In other words, it's just a big sales blitz.

All told, I do like this phone but there is room for improvement.

96 Motorola V600
I like the phone & the features, it's not as user friendly as I was hoping. I purchased my first one in August, it's now the beginning of Oct. & T-Mobile is sending me a new one because this one is defective...(it won't charge). Hopefully this one holds up better.
I love the bluetooth features. That is awesome.
Camera and phonebook entry could be a little easier to operate like my E715 was, but guess you can't have everything.

97 Very poor product
I am so p*ssed off that i got suckered into buying this load of old cr*p. the functions are about the same as on my old mans ford anglia and so is the stitch gear. poorly thought out product. One good point is the excess weight of the unit (2.5 Kg) means i dont have to go the the gym anymore, as carrying this around all day gets my arms and traps really pumped.

Overall i wish i'd gone for the V80 which is a real mans phone.

98 a swing and a miss
It is not a very good cell phone. I actually get to work with dozens of different cell phones every year and this one, as much as I'd like to recommend it because it a US manufacturer and a very well constructed device, is just not very good as a phone. It drops call easily, fails to receive calls reliably, changes ring modes spontaneously, and the operating system is not very pragmatic. For example, the called number history and received call history are each limited to ten numbers, sure it can download and play video wonderfully, but to limit the call history to 10 calls is short-sighted as I personally find that allocation of memory a little more useful. Similarly, the camera is well done, and the bluetooth is a nice feature, but the menu system cannot be navigated with just the directional arrows, expect to have to use no less than 7 buttons while driving to call someone back.

99 Does not stand up to the expectation
To get the ringer right so that you can always hear it is a hassle. Sometimes it does not even ring. It might have something to do with the reception. It feels little flimsy too, I feel like I have to take good care of it so it won't break. It is okay nevertheless.

100 Great Phone on T-Mobile Plan
This is an excellent phone, i've had it for over a month now and have had no major problems with it. The reception has been much better than friends who have other phones on the t-mobile network. I've travelled to Vegas, ATL, Orlando and many other places and have no problems. The battery life is not a problem as i charge my phone each night, but even on the nights i've not done so i've been ok unless i've been on the phone ALL night.
The interface is good, but it is a bit slow at times. Even so, this is still a great phone and the deal through Amazon.com is worth it. I seriously recommend this phone to others who want a decent phone for a decent price.

Motorola V300 Phone (T-Mobile)


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