Customer Reviews

Motorola V195 T-Mobile gray clamshell GSM cell phone

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

 

 

I got this phone a week ago. I am Dallas with T-Mobile service.

Call Quality: Very Good

Bluetooth: Motorola Phone Tools cost a lot of money and will not put recurring calendar appointments with end dates into the phones calendar. I have used XP bluetooth support to upload a few images. That is very easy and fast. i haven't used a bluetooth headset.

Usability: The menu seems a bit slow and complex. The keys are okay size, but there are too many of them. Also, my old Nokia had the "back button" on the right and the "select" on the left. Moto is the opposite. I constantly hit the wrong one.

The speed dialing is odd. You press speed number followed by # key. This just brings up the phone book entry. Then you have to press the call button. There is also a press and hold speed dial function for buttons 1-9.

Speakerphone: This seems to work well. It is quite loud.

Battery life: very good. It seems it will last well past a week on the full battery level without a charge (if you aren't talking). On recent 1 week vacation I charged before leaving, never turning off the phone. After one week the phone showed 2/3 battery level. I talked about 2 hours during that time frame.

Pros: Bluetooth, mp3 support, USB connector, nice large external display

Cons: Internal screen is just ok, software is just ok, voice quality sucks.

This phone had exactly the features I was looking for. I don't use the camera on the phone I have now and did not want to pay for another camera phone. The bluetooth worked well. The ability to use mp3s for ring tones was great. The phone has a mini USB connector for data transfer and charging. You'll need to pay for the Motorola Phone tools if you want to charge it from your computer (Windows XP). It will charge just fine with no software on a Mac. Coming from a Sony Ericsson phone, it took me awhile to figure out where things where on this phone. The handy date book and calculator were buried under settings->tools. The menus and buttons are highly configurable and after spending a few hours customizing it, I had things set up where I found the phone usable.

Where this phone fell flat was on its most basic function, talking to other people. Incoming calls sounded muffled, like the other person was talking through a pillow. I had to just about yell so other people could hear me. The same was true using a bluetooth headset. I didn't want to be the loud talking cell phone guy, so I returned the phone. I was at the end of my 14 days, so I did not elect to try another one.

If you are considering this phone, try it out in the store and be sure to make a call on it. Try the same call on your current or another phone to make sure its good. I noticed the difference immediately when I went back to my old phone. If motorola gets the voice quality fixed, this will be at least a 4 star phone.

For the Apple fans out there, iSync does not support this phone as of this writing. You can hack iSync to get this phone to work.

For the Salling Clicker fans, Clicker does not support this phone as of this writing.

Update:

I decided to give this phone a second chance and got a new one.

The 2nd v195 I had worked better, but still had problems. The sound quality was much better. The voice dialing would recognize me. It would also lock up the phone sometimes.

Round two resulted in reception problems. The 2nd phone was at least one bar lower on the signal strength then another v195 in the T-Mobile store. I also tried dialing my v195 from a Nokia 6103 in the store. I never did receive the call.

This phone still has potential, it just needs some Quality Assurance back at the factory. Maybe Motorola can take the two bad ones I've sent back and make one good one. If you are serious about this phone, be sure you buy it from a place that is easy on returns.

I got this phone to replace my home landline, and so far, I have zero complaints/issues. The battery life is exceptional, and here in the Philadelphia suburbs, T-Mobile provides great service. The call quality is outstanding, and the phone is comfortable to use. The build quality seems very good, so if you're looking for a no-nonsense phone, without the bells and whistles, this is the phone for you.

Update:

At about 2 weeks into ownership, I can confirm that the phone continues to work flawlessly. The only very minor "con", is the bottom usb/earphone jack cover. You have to wrestle with it a bit to move it aside to make room for whatever you plug in. Rather than deal with that, I found a great deal (on that popular auction site), on a spare BT60 battery w/desktop charger. I just swap batteries in and out of it, as opposed to plugging the charger into the phone. Other than that though, still 2 thumbs up!

My thoughts on the Motorola V195 are mixed. For its main purpose, as a handheld phone, it works satisfactorily. This gets the phone three stars since this is how I mostly use it. Because it is better than entry-level, I expected more, but did not really get more. That is where it lost two stars.

Basic Functions

* As regular phone:

Works fine. Reception is usually clear, cut-offs rare. Phone numbers are saved well, although I wish I could group numbers (work, cell, home) into one name rather than having separate entries. Speaker phone works well. Ear bug has no problems.

* Physical phone:

Light, but not lightweight -- plenty of lighter units can be found. The protective rubber piece which covers the outlets for the ear bug and recharger, fell off and was lost. It was difficult to use before that. The time displays well, and has, for most purposes, replaced my watch. I can adjust the volume easily from an outside button.

*Extras

Bluetooth:

The upgrade I bought this phone for, Bluetooth headset usage, disappointed me. The headset is extra, and does not come with the standard phone. I consider voice dialing on this unit useless. My voice is in no way unusual, with a common Midwest accent. However, when I say 'Steve' it dials my dad or others. 'Dad' could likewise bring me in contact with others.

Even when I am in a quiet room or my car, the reception using the headset is terrible. I use the ear bug instead.

If you need a good phone, you will be happy with this one. Need to use Bluetooth? Keep shopping.

Anthony Trendl

editor, HungarianBookstore.com

I got this phone to avoid all the bells and whistles of the camera phones. I just wanted a simple phone to send and receive phone calls. This is not the one. The reception is terrible. I live in a moderately sized city and have a 3 mile drive to work near a major interstate. My phone dropped calls near the major interstate and did not work in most buildings. Forget using it while shopping in a mall or a Target. I was never a big fan of Motorola and decided to give them a second chance. I would not have purchased this phone again. It also seemed to have problems finding the T-Mobile signal and would roam to Cingular. I have also noticed the battery does not last as long as they claim. I would say about half what is stated is more correct. The phone's features are also cumbersome. There is a lot of button pushing for not a lot of anything. The phone list does not let you place numbers that you call at frequently at the front. They are alphabetized no matter where you want them to be. There is a speed dial but it requires as least three button pushes and who wants to have to remember just what number is what person (I have enough to remember). The only plus is the Bluetooth - that is if you can get a signal to use it.

I just got a new unlocked Motorola V195. But found the following issues

1) The phone does not ring when it is charging. I made sure that the ring option is loud at all times. Even then it does not ring. I tried to keep ring and vibrate. ANd when charging and when calls come, the phone vibrates but does not ring. Can someone help?

2) The speaker phone also does not work when the phone is charging. Is this some stupid software glitch or is it problem with the phone.

i switched to this phone from a samsung and was disapointed.

pros

a) blue tooth

b) speakerphone

c) battery life

cons

a) very poor UI

and the worst of all,the software. this phone does not record an entry per person, but it is an entry per no. if you are storing 3 no's for Joe ( home,office and cell) you will have 3 seperate entries in ur addr book. this is a real hassle, even worse the v 195 also lets you store 3 entries with the exact same name.

suggestion:

the v 195 is less expensive than most of the other phones in market. it might seem a decent buy considering its features. But, the ui and poor software make it less usable. get a samsung or a nokia if you can.