Customer Reviews

Motorola Renew W233 Prepaid Phone, Green (T-Mobile)

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

 

 

I don't spend a lot of time on the phone, but it has become increasingly important for people to reach me while I'm away from home, or out of the office. After researching the options, a prepaid phone seemed to be the best choice. No monthly bills, or long term commitment, for a device that would be used infrequently, plus the T-Mobile $100 for 1000 minutes prepaid plan gives me more than enough talk time, and I have up to a year to use it. Anything not used within that period can be rolled over provided you add more minutes before the year is up. Additional minutes can be easily purchased online, over the phone, or at store locations around the country.

The Moto W233 has surprisingly clear audio, along with a well amplified speaker, and strong signal quality. Nine hour talk time, eighteen hour standby on the battery. The screens are intuitive and simple, albeit quite basic. Included in the box is a pamphlet style "quick start" guide, however, a full version of the product manual is available on the Motorola web site.

The address book and calendar are adequate, and new contacts and phone numbers can be added from the T-Mobile web site, as well as through the dial pad. With the optional micro SD card you can also store photos and music on the device. The downside is that the screen resolution is far too poor, and too small, for viewing anything other than clipart style images. In other words, don't bother downloading your Flickr jpeg collection to this phone. You will be very disappointed.

The headphone jack is smaller than a standard earphone plug, so forget about using your favorite iPod earbuds with this one. Fortunately, a decent pair of buds are included in the box. The lime green color gives it a toyish appearance, which may cause some embarrassment when compared with your buddy's fancy flip out Nokia, but hey...you're doing your bit for the environment with this product made largely of recycled plastic.

The battery charges quickly (about an hour, give or take), and can be charged through the USB port on your computer after downloading the proper drivers from the Motorola web site. However, be forewarned, the drivers only work on Windows XP and Windows 2000. Nope, no Vista drivers. Amazing, ain't it?

Overall, if you're just looking for a decent device that enables your people to reach you when you're away from the land line, and you really don't need another phone bill on your budget, the Moto W233 is ideal. It's lightweight, small, fits in a shirt pocket, and fits nicely in your hand. For someone like me, this device is likely to be all I'll ever need when it comes to cell phones.

I bought this phone for my son's first phone. He's 11, but will be doing a lot of camps this summer so I wanted him to have a way to call if needed. With the pre-paid option, I can give him a $10 per month phone allowance. He gets to demonstrate that he CAN be responsible, but it's not a huge thing if he loses it. Either way he's learning, and it's a good basic phone. Nice voice quality. Good volume. I'm sure he'll have the MP3 features figured out soon.

I needed a replacement phone immediately. Because I *completely* resent the $18 'upgrade' fee T-Mobile charges on top of the cost of a new phone, I've decided to buy unlocked or non contracted phones from now on. I didn't know what kind of 'good' phone I wanted, so I bought this as a stand in... I just slid my regular sim card in when it arrived and I was good to go (i.e. I did not use any sort of pay as you go, pre-paid service with it).

The good:

It works. It makes calls. Calls are clear. It was a cheap filler phone and I'll hang on to it for that purpose again. There's a music player which works well.

There are two fun games included with it--sodoku and tetris--which work well and don't seem to be 'demos'.

The not great but dealable:

No bluetooth, no email client. It's a cheap phone, so not having those things wasn't unexpected but I realized how much I'd grown to like both of those things.

The memory expansion card is underneath the battery--not very convenient.

The battery itself is a REALLY tight fit...I've never had one which is so hard to remove (which makes dealing with the memory card more of a pain than I'm used to.

The not so great stuff that I didn't like about the design which goes beyond the it's 'it's a basic phone' explanation:

The headphone jack isn't a 'standard' one...and the included earbuds are utter crap so I've really missed my stereo bluetooth ones. It's a shame because the music player itself isn't bad.

The photo viewer is a disappointment. Pictures don't fill the screen well and take forever to load. Waste of time.

Perhaps the most significant is that I've had a LOT of phones and this has the tightest, most uncomfortable key configuration. The buttons seem hard to press and my hand cramps up. I'm not a texting maniac but I REALLY hate texting on this phone (and I've never thought about it before).

I can't figure out how to turn off the annoying little jangley chirpy sound when I plug or unplug it in to charge. Annoying when that wakes up my husband late or in the morning.

I bought this phone to replace a samsung phone which is broken because it drops whenever I get out my car. However, this motorola phone is cheap and provide almost the same features as my old phone just that its not a camera or video phone. The music is really loud and clear, and the battery does not run out quick. I am the 1st to get it in my neighborhood when it came out, and have bought a few people one too. People don't even believe it's only 30 bucks in the store. I'll definately recommend it to anyone.

*Also, I've dropped this phone a few times and the battery cover just comes off. Screen did not break or crack!

I bought this phone to replace a much more expensive Nokia phone which I lost. And I end up enjoying this phone so much more than the previous phone. For a basic mobile phone, the Motorola Renew is the best. The battery life is very impressive. Motorola claims you can talk on it for 9 hours. I guess it depends on other factors as well. If you only want a cheap basic mobile phone which does its job well, this is your perfect choice. Its carbon-neutral status is definitely an incentive to buy. However, even if it wasn't a "green" phone, it would still be a very good buy. If you're still in doubt about this phone (as a replacement or a prepaid), just go for it. I think you won't be disappointed.

Thisis a great phone with terrific reception!

I like that you can check your voicemail using a landline....easy, convenient,and no paying for minutes.

I like that you can add contacts to the phone using My Tmobile online: Add Contacts. Very easy to do,
and fun.

I like that you can check your minutes using your landline or the computer.
\
The 1000 minutes for 100 bucks is great and look forward to not getting a 40 buck bill from sprint each month.

I got a gel skin for the phone which gives it some heft and protects it....covers most of the green...which I do like, but like the blackbetter with the green showing just a wee bit.

It's a fun phone. I don't use it for music...have an ipod. I just can't get over what a great deall lthe whole thing is.

Perfect.

The only bad thing is tmobilel's cust. service....it sucks....bad. Hopefully I willnever have to call lthem.

The main reason to get this phone is because it is made out of recycled materials. The production process is said to be "carbon free." A great reason to buy this phone is because it's environmentally responsible.

Now, this phone may not be for everyone as you have to pay for the minutes you use but the cost is very reasonable. Simply the best and most simple plan I have found so far. No strings, no hassle. The "pay as you go" is perfect for me as I don't always use a ton of minutes every single month. T-mobile is VERY nice in that you don't have to pay a huge monthly bill. Instead, you can purchase the number of minutes you want (refill them as often as you want to) and they don't expire for quite some time. This plan and phone are perfect for me. It is also very easy to refill the phone's minutes online through T-mobile's website.

GREAT phone for people who don't "live" on their cell phones. Very flexible plans, very easy to use. I just got my cute little phone and so far I absolutely adore it. I will buy one for my parents for Christmas and would highly recommend it to others.

The seller promised the phone on the exact day and i did get it! the phone works great and is well pleased with my purchase

This phone is small, light, nice looking and inexpensive.

The big problem with it is that Motorola Phone Tools (latest version is currently V5.17d) doesn't recognize the phone. This means that, despite what the advertising says, you cannot sync your contacts or your calender to your computer, backup your contacts or transfer your old data from your previous phone. It is possible that Motorola will update their software in time but even if they do, it's deeply disrespectful to their customers to advertise functionality that they have simply failed to implement. The phone should be withdrawn from sale until they can make it work.

You can transfer music to it, but there's a trick to it. You have to plug the phone into your USB port and quickly follow a prompt on the phone's screen to switch to storage mode. It then pretends to be a thumb drive.

Update:
According to Motorola, the phone will never be supported by motorola phone tools, so despite what you may read on review sites that claim to have tested the phone, but clearly just paraphrase the marketing materials (I'm looking at you CNET), the phone cannot sync your calender with outlook, and you can't backup the address book or transfer one from your previous phone. It seems to me that Motorola are trying to kill this phone, perhaps so that they can claim that they offered a carbon neutral phone but nobody wanted it. Shame on you Motorola.

I have had this phone for 1 year. I wanted something simple that I did'nt have to keep plugging in every night. Battery power was a big issue for me with my last 2 phones. This phone boasts lots of battery time, and it can go 5 days without being recharged.
All this stuff about 2 g and 3 g and 4 g phones today being so great; they don't perform well when it comes to battery life. You have to keep plugging them in every day!!! The phone has never broken, despite being dropped so many times. The one problem I have with it is it won't power off without me removing the battery. I have had to power it off several times, and this is an annoyance, and should not be the case with a phone. Otherwise, it is light weight and slim.