Customer Reviews

MOTOROLA C168i AT&T CINGULAR PREPAID GOPHONE CELL PHONE

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, my phone that came with my service plan is.. well.. its now a paper weight (darn razrs!!) I didnt want to spend another 100+ on a phone that wil just break, then i stumbled upon these gophones, they are from 19.99-99.99 at best buy and work perfectly with my AT&T monthly subscription SIM card, so its just a crazy cheap phone.

The battery life is AMAZING, its rated 9 hours, when i first bought it i opened it in the store and turned it on, it had 1 bar. It wasnt for another 3 hours untill i got home to charge it, and it still had the same 1 bar of battery life. I also talked a good 25 minutes too.

VERY durable, i love the battery back, its not one of those slide ones (like some Sony phones), and its not one where you just push a button (like the RAZR). its a combination, you press the butten and then slide, it works REALLY WELL so there is very little chance you will break/lose the cover.

came preloaded with 3 games for me, this cool space invader style game, a soccer game, and this weird mole game that is my personal favorite. Came with a TON of actually decent tones you can set as your ringtone.. unlike the RAZR which came with a horrid selection.

it also came with an unactivated brand new sim card. so if your like me and you just bought this phone so you can put your old sim card into it, you will get a bonus sim card that you can sell on craigslist for like 10-15 dollars, seeing that it came with one of the new 3G cards.

my only real complaint is that the keypad is really cramped, but its still easily usable, but you still get the feeling that its cramped, and my phone only came with 3 preloaded images to set as my wallpaper, and at times the call quality is a little shakey, but it rarely happens and when it does it goes away very fast... but for 30 dollars! thats a fraction of a price than the cheapest upgrade service plan phone.


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I really doubt anybody will actually read this edit, but it is definitely worth a mention. I have had this phone since august (its Feb. 11). I hope dropped it countless times, this phone WILL NOT BREAK. Seriously, I've tried.
I take horible care of this phone. I wanted to test its durability (and show off to my friends that my 20 dollar phone is more durable than your 5,000,000,000 dollar one) As demonstrations I've thrown it at trees, walls, concrete sidewalk, I've thrown it in the snow... hell I've even tossed it on the concrete and invited my friends to join me in a game of soccer with it. No joke.
I didn't just do this once, but several, several times. The worst that has happened to it is the battery-cover snapped off and the battery fell out, all I had to do was put the battery back in, snap on the cover and turn the phone on.
After about 4 months of treating it like that I did the same thing, actually just today (Feb. 11th). I chucked it at the concrete ground, the battery/battery cover flew off (as usual) but to my surprise when I turned it on I had a small black bar through the screen, but even more surprising is that it still works perfectly, everything does.
It amazes me how poorly I've taken care of this phone, if I had done even 1/16th of the things I did to this phone to my old RAZR I can assure you it would have snapped in half or something.
I highly recommend this phone. I'm going to buy another one soon, heck I might even pick up 2 one for an emergency replacement.

This phone is great. Simple to use, great battery life, always has a strong signal and AT&T has a great pay-as-you go plan. I'm happy.

Easy to use features, slim in size at a very good price. It is better compare to my exsiting T-Mobile prepaid phone. I called from a landline to both phones and the at& t picked up within 13 seconds while the T-Mobile at 25 sec or most of the time, just jumped to my voice mail only.
I highly recommend at&t.

I got this phone based on a recommendation from AT&T :( silly me. I wanted a back up phone my wife could use in case her other phone failed to turn on (also a motorola different model almost 5x price). They recommend this phone because of it's low cost and it's a go phone so you only pay for minutes you use. I bought the phone and loved it. It was very low cost, came with airtime. It feels very solid, except for the battery cover which seems flimsy but seems to hold up with no problems. It had what I felt as good sound quality and a good number of features for such a low cost phone.

I wanted to prep the battery since my wife was going to travel soon, so I left it powered on and would constantly press a button so the light would stay on and drain the battery. The display is amazingly bright, I could almost use it as a flashlight. I was also really surprised at the battery life. Anyhow after two cycles of draining the battery and then charging it to full, I figured it would be all set to use as an emergency phone for my wife who was going on a two week business trip. Wrong :( on the last day of her trip her main cell phone battery was low so she decided to try to use the back up phone. It wouldn't turn on :( I don't know if it was due to the xray machines at the airports or what but the battery was drained. She said she never turned it on at all until that day so maybe it got turned on accidently in her purse (phone turns on by pressing a button on the front for 4 or 5 seconds). Anyhow to make matters worse the AT&T rep also said I could also use it as a main phone by transfering the SIM. Nope didn't work either, I was on the older AT&T plan so I had to be migrated. Atleast the phone didn't cost too much. I figure I can still keep it as an emergency 911 phone too (Go phone minutes expire :( which the AT&T rep didn't tell me about). And it does look pretty good as a paper weight.

We never use cell phones, but thought we needed one for a long road trip. With our last phone we were always irritated that the battery seemed to be dead every time we tried to use it. Based on reviews, we chose this phone. Battery life is great! And the phone really does handle abuse very well. My husband forgot it was in his shirt pocket. The phone went through the washer and dryer and still works as well as ever!! I'm not sure how it would work as an everyday phone, but for those who only need it occasionally I would highly recommend. It will be there, charged and ready when you need it.

I needed a temporary phone for a friend in a retirement home until he got settled in his new place. I charged it up and it ran for several days on its own. He would have preferred a larger key pad due to his poor eyesight, but he seemed to do okay with it, and it was simple enough for him to be able to use it to simply make or receive calls (I didn't get into the answering system with him!).
Now that he has moved and has his landline installed, I am giving it to a friend who has no cell phone, and cannot afford the price of a regular one. This will be just right for her limited calls when she is on the road. So.... two for the price of one!!

Sturdy - clarity is great - easy to use

Only problem - no Speaker option......

Big issue for me but im living with it atm.

I almost never write reviews for anything, but this stupid little cheap phone has proven so reliable and indestructible that I just had to say something. I bought this phone at least 3 (maybe 4) years ago, after two "fancy" (expensive) flip phones each lasted less than a year before falling apart. My goal was not to buy a phone that would last 4 years (I didn't expect any phone would) and certainly was not to buy a $20 phone that would last 4 years. My goal was just not to spend $150 on another phone. I hoped it might last 6 months, until I decided what to do next (change service providers, get a new contract with a free phone, etc.)

To my surprise, this little brick of a phone just keeps going. It has not been treated lightly (I recently opened up the back to find the serial #, and found it full of dirt & dust). It has crashed with me skiing, been splashed with salt water while sailing, and been drenched in sweat while in my bike jersey. Still, it works.

Complaints: I dearly wish it had a camera, even a crappy one. Sometimes the exposed buttons get pressed accidentally. It has no fancy features. But I'm going to buy another one-- just in case this one ever quits.

UPDATE 1/1/12: This phone is still going. 5+ years now. I bought this phone when the first-generation iPhone came out. Four generations of iPhone later, I still don't have one, because this phone has refused to die. Incredible.

I bought this phone to replace an LG phone that I didn't like. As I expected, all I had to do was put the old SIM card in the new phone and it worked. There are two serious drawbacks to this device, both related to the candy bar style. First, all the buttons are exposed, so it's easy to hit one accidentally. Second, the screen is easily scratched. This one got scratched making it difficult to read in sunlight. Aside from those two flaws, the phone works great. Connectivity, battery life, and quality of voice are superb. Since I don't do texting I can't comment on that. It is nice and small, and if it came with a case, or if I could find a case for it, then it would be perfect for my needs. The price was right. Now I have a new SIM card with $10 worth of calling on it that I don't need.

I have had the C168i for two years as a replacement for a different phone I broke. Note that it is a "goPhone" but you can use any monthly ATT service with it just by putting your SIM card in. My friends make fun of me for my boring looking phone, but they have since gone through 4-5 $150-200 phones while my $20 "crap" phone is still going and going...

This phone is perfect for someone who doesn't need a camera, videos, bell and whistles stuff, but wants a sturdy reliable phone with a long battery life. It is also very inexpensive.

Also, I attest to the main review that this phone is a "TERMINATOR" phone, meaning it is EXTREMELY resistant to almost all forms of physical harm. I have never tried soaking it in water, but I have dropped it, thrown it, scraped it, kicked it etc. and the screen and battery are still perfectly functional.

Great battery life as well. My battery has NEVER run out on me. EVER! And I am super-negligent when it comes to charging it.

Of course, the phone really only has normal calling and basic texting. The only complaint I would make is that entering new contacts into the address book is somewhat difficult and counter-intuitive until you learn how to do it.

You won't regret buying this phone.