Customer Reviews

MOTOROLA C650 T-MOBILE GSM CAMERA CANDYBAR PHONE

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This phone is pretty great.
I used to have the Nokia 3650, which was a great phone too, it was just a bit bulky, so i use it as a side phone when i need it. The Moto-C650 is so small (about half the size of my 3650) and so functional.

PROS:

*It's small! You can find the dementions yourself, but its small enough for me

*It's loud, the ringer's loudest setting is at least twice as loud as my 3650 ever was, and it uses the same speaker for its speakerphone which can also get very loud and clear, of course, you can turn them down if need be.

*It has excelent reception. Now i know this is somewhat subjective, because it depends on location and service (We use T-mobile about 30 miles from the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Area)
Even when the reception bars are low, the phone still has good clarity)

*Easy to use menus

*Cool camera, it has about twice the resolution of my 3650 (a lot more than the screen on the phone can even display), and some cool functions like on-screen brightness controls and a 4x digital zoom

*Clear, Colorful screen

*Cool USB Port on the bottom that has (Potentially) endless aplications

Cons:

*Small buttons, with a small phone, you obviously get small button, but for a guy with big fingers, it can get a bit clumsy (hitting the 1 button instead of the Send, etc...)

*When i said the USB port had potentailly endless apllications i ment POTENTIALLY, meaning there are none now...not even a driver from Motorola to enable it to connect to your computer, now im sure there will be many in the future, there just are none now...

*There are no easily accessable "Profiles" as in Nokia's sybian phones, so you cant easily switch between ringer, or have "Quiet, Meeting, Outside" settings with one button switching. All you can do without entering the menu is turn it up and down, vibrate setting and Silence, i minor inconveniece but worth mentioning.


Thats about all i can think of right now, i might add more later after i have had the phone for more than a month.

I got the C650 as a replacement for the T610 - I liked the menus/display on the t610 better but was having major reception issues (signal strength jumped all over the place, missed/dropped calls) in major cities all along the west coast. I had this problem with three different t610 phones (how many I had to try before they'd let me switch brands) and know other people who've had this problem too. The c650 gets much more reliable reception.

And to respond to other's comments: I find it's relatively easy to pop off the back if you put two nails of one hand in the two slots and one nail on the other hand where the silver inlay is on the top of the phone. I personally like that it's not easily removed - so your battery doesn't just pop off randomly (my old sprint phone would do this). Also, if you set one of the soft keys to "recent" you can easily access missed or received calls. You only have to hit the call button to see previously dialed calls. You don't need phonebook as a soft key since pushing the up/down button will get it for you.

Finally, use the menu-* key lock! I've had the phone go through menus in my pocket and order wallpapers/ringtones without me even knowing it!

Respectable phone, not perfect, but reliable.

I had an old Nokia and needed to upgrade because the battery had died and it was cheaper to get a new phone than buy a new battery. I also needed a tri-band (900/1800/1900) phone because I needed it to work in the US and Europe. The C650 fit the bill and it was cheap. I am not disappointed, though the phone has some annoying drawbacks.

On the plus side, the phone has a standard USB interface. I had the Motorola MobileTools CD from an earlier Motorola phone I bought in Europe and installed the software on my laptop (the CD has drivers for all Motorola phones) and was able to access the C650 and all multimedia features from my laptop very easily. This allows you to download photos/videos to your PC and easily update your address book and personalize the phone (use any MP3 audio file as your ring tone etc).

Major annoyances: as other reviewers have noted, the display is very dark unless the backlight is on. This is annoying because the backlight is turned off by default when you lock the keyboard, so sometimes it can be hard to tell if the phone is on at all (pressing a key doesn't do anything, you have to unlock the keyboard, then lock it again).

The little "joystick" control is very hard to use, especially when you have to press it in the center position to select a menu choice (most of the time I end up pushing it in the wrong direction). My main gripe is that the AC adapter only works on 110V current. This is unforgivable for a tri-band 'world phone, all the more so because it's advertised as a 'travel charger' but doesn't work outside the US: all my other phones had 110/220V adapters so like an idiot I assumed this one was and I fried it by plugging into an European power outlet. In the end I had to buy two separate adapter, one for 110V and another 220Volt for travel purposes.

Standby and talk times are as advertised, so no complaints there.
I don't really care much for the camera or any of the other multimedia features, so I can't comment on the picture quality as I have no basis for comparison against other phones.

Overall, it's an adequate phone that's worth its money as long as you don't have unrealistic expectations (and are willing to buy a new AC adapter if you plan to travel to Europe).

I like this phone for many reasons, but with any phone there are some drawbacks. First of all this phone is very small and stylish. This phone offers a lot of bang for your buck. It has Mp3 ringtones, a decent camera, and good internet browsing and MMS capabilites. However, the joystick is very cumbersome. It may seem like a good idea, but it begins to lose sensitivity after about a week. Also, like other reviewers noted, when trying to push it straight down to take a photo or select an item in the menu, you normally wind up pushing it the wrong way. T-Mobile service is very good. I have been with them for 3 years. Previously I owned a Samsung r225m (see my review on its product page) and with the Motorola phone, I have noticed areas that I now get reception where I previously didn't with the Samsung. Overall, the this is a great, inexpensive phone, with great service, small design, and powerful multimedia features make a great cell phone for all.

**UPDATE**UPDATE**UPDATE**4/20/05**
Phone working great, however the black plastic coating is peeling off on the right side of the phone and this phone scratches very easily. Still working fine, but keep note that this phone is more delicate than one would think.

**UPDATE**UPDATE**UPDATE**6/19/05**
Phone completley crapped out. I was getting shocked and it was freezing up and dropping calls. I replaced it with a Samsung e315 (See my review).

I was looking for a T mobile phone which is small, tri-band, with speaker phone and vibration. First of all this phone is so cute and little, it is a world phone so you can use it in Europe. The speaker phone is great and loud enough. The screen is beatiful and the picture quality is very good. This phone has a direct USB connection which is great but it neither comes with the driver nor the cable. I have cable but since the driver is not released you cannot connect to computer. I think this is something Motorora has to fix. I am using the phone in LA and I am very happy with the reception and sound quality.
Overall this is great phone.

This phone was an extreme disappointment. I had to return for another phone after trying to use it for 3 days. The volume is very quiet, even in maximum! The screen is very small and difficult to see in the day light. The bottom of the phone to charge plug is not smooth and has sharp edging. No wonder they had to give more rebate than the 1c cost for you to use it. It is not worth it.

After almost a month with this phone I have had enough experience with it to change an earlier review I wrote. I rate this phone at 2 stars (not the 4 showing above) because I totally agree that it has serious design defects that will drive you crazy. The complete black-out of the screen is bad enough, but having to cover your head with your coat to be able to read it outdoors in even minimal sunlight, even with the backlight on is, the height of technological idiocy. What were these people thinking? Or were they even? Are all color phones like this? It's enough to make me long for my old Ericsson with it's black and white screen which you could read in any light.

The back cover is not really the problem that some people complain about because there is an easy trick to popping it off in just a couple of seconds. You can do it using a credit card or other plastic ID card. This is much safer, less damaging, and much more efficient than a screwdriver and works like magic. Use a corner to press the white latch in and then slip the edge of the card into the crack between the case halves at that end. Slide it over to one corner and around along the side without letting it slip out. That will pop the back right off, saving the plastic case, your nails and your nerves. It only takes about 10 seconds as opposed to 10 minutes or more of useless struggling with other methods.

However, another really serious problem is that the manual has very sketchy or zero documentation about several important features, like the multimedia functions for example. This being a multimedia phone, you would think they would cover that in detail. Not! The info on the use of the camera or its settings is too rudimentary and there is practically nothing about how to manage photo files in the camera or SIM card, and zero about how to download them to a PC. I imagine that that information comes with the software CD that they jack you up for as an extra, but do you have to pay extra to get the basic information too? Furthermore, when you go to the Motorola website, none of the missing documentation on this model is available to download and there is no user email support either. Does Motorola even care?

The latter might even be semi-O.K. if it wasn't for the fact that the phone has the nasty habit of going into "boot loader" mode when you accidently press the start key or some other keys in some unknown way. I say unknow because the manual and the website have zero information about this feature so you of course don't know what keys you pressed to bring it up or how to avoid doing it again. Boot loader is a sort of black hole of a DOS-type bootup screen which wants you to insert the USB cable to access a PC, but without the driver or PC software (which don't come with the phone) inserting the cable does nothing. There seems to be no way to cancel this screen and access the phone without removing the battery. This has happened to me four times already, so it's a really good thing I figured out how to get the back off easily. Otherwise it would already have been "Goodbye, Moto!! Hello Trashcan!!"

Even if you can get this phone absolutely free like I did, unless you plan to use it only as an indoor phone, I recommend avoiding it because using it any other way is too aggravating.

I have this phone about 1 month and I am happy with it so far. It immitates some good feature of Nokia such as Faceplate changeable.
The camera is so cool, although the TFT screen is not quite good to show full quality of the picture. You have to transfer the picture took from camera to your computer to enjoy its real quality, but really good.
Also, very light weight. Nice design. Functions are good enough to qualify your everyday activities.
Something I need to complain is the battery life is a bit short. If you talk too much (1-3 hours a day), you might have to charge it every night. In addition, it does not have any cover for the camera. Between the camera and the faceplace cover, there is a big space that often vacuum all dust into the back inside of the phone. So you may need to open and clean it occasionally.
It does not have Bluetooth !!. Fine, you can use a Bluetooth adapter or a wired headset or the built in speaker. I don't like Bluetooth anyway, it can make people think you are crazy when they see you talk ... to yourself. In addition, it consumes battery a lot.
Overall, I love this phone. Many times in the mall or in work place, people saw me using this phone, they stopped and asked "What brand it is ?", "It is so cute". Indeed, it is smaller and cuter than the Sony Ericsson T610 which has similar design.
If you want light weight and functional but don't like flip phones, this is the one for you.

I bought it since it was the best deal, I mean cash-back when you sign one year contract. Now here's what I hate in this phone:

When in Power Saver mode, screen is totally dark, can't read anything on the screen. When outside in bright daylight, again can't read anything on screen even when the backlight is on. Battery takes 4-6 hours to charge, and mine died after 4 months, new battery costs $45.
It has USB port, but no cable or Software is included so they basically want you to spend more money on that after the initial purchase.
Back cover is hard to open, watch for broken nails. I tried all methods, screw drivers, credit cards, but this back cover has some serious attitude problems. Camera quality is poor, but so is with all other phones in the market in this price range.
Charger works on 110V only, don't plug it into an outlet in Europe or Asia, or you'll fry it.
Speakerphone is good when you are alone in a silent room, you won't be able to hear anything on speakerphone with your car window open. Ringer tones are NOT loud, I missed many calls because I was on the train and even though ringer volume was set at 7, I couldn't hear it.

I like this phone so far.
It's smaller than I expected. It scratches somewhat easily, so you definitely need a protective case.
I think it's user friendly. Camera works great. It's fun to take pictures. Very loud, and a lot of good features.
I recommend it.