Motorola v600 & the Mac - Good combo?

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Hello, all.



"Long time lurker, first time poster!"



Anyway, now that carriers (in the US) are giving away Motorola v600 phones, I've been contemplating getting one. Before I do, though, I thought maybe I would solicit the reviews of some fellow Mac users. So, for those of you who have this phone, what do you think of it in general, and does it play nice with the Mac?



I've heard that Motorola's implementation of Bluetooth is not so good, and the USB data cable is recomended for iSync and file transfers. I've also heard this phone is kinda cheap and breaks easily, and it has problems with dropped calls.



Personally, I'd rather stick with a Sony Ericsson phone, but all the US carriers seem to be discontinuing them left and right. I've got the T68i and I love it. Works great with the Mac. I've always had flawless Bluetooth file transfers and no problems with iSync. Anyway, besides the Motorola v600, would anybody recommend something else? Is there something on the horizon I should wait for?



Thoughts? Opinions?



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    Quote:

    Originally posted by derric1968

    Hello, all.



    "Long time lurker, first time poster!"



    Anyway, now that carriers (in the US) are giving away Motorola v600 phones, I've been contemplating getting one. Before I do, though, I thought maybe I would solicit the reviews of some fellow Mac users. So, for those of you who have this phone, what do you think of it in general, and does it play nice with the Mac?



    I've heard that Motorola's implementation of Bluetooth is not so good, and the USB data cable is recomended for iSync and file transfers. I've also heard this phone is kinda cheap and breaks easily, and it has problems with dropped calls.



    Personally, I'd rather stick with a Sony Ericsson phone, but all the US carriers seem to be discontinuing them left and right. I've got the T68i and I love it. Works great with the Mac. I've always had flawless Bluetooth file transfers and no problems with iSync. Anyway, besides the Motorola v600, would anybody recommend something else? Is there something on the horizon I should wait for?



    Thoughts? Opinions?



    Thanks!




    I have a V500, which is basically the same phone without the metal case (the V400/500/600 can all run the same firmware). The cable is not just recommended for iSync, it's mandatory, but otherwise it works pretty well. If you want to sync phone numbers using BlueTooth you can pay $10 for a program named OnSync, I used that before iSync worked with the phone and it's pretty decent; you can sync your Address Book.



    RF performance with the phone is OK, if you have Cingular/AT&T and are in an area where they are using 850MHz GSM, reception will be better (better penetration). I'm on T-Mobile, which uses 1900MHz everywhere, and I can't get a decent signal on the ground floor of my house. Compared to every SonyEricsson phone I've used, when operated on the same frequency, SE phones have worse RF performance.



    One thing I hate about it (and this is common to ALL Moto phones) is their phonebook... every other modern phone lets you have multiple #s for a name. With Motos, it's not possible, though it's faked by allowing multiple identical names with different numbers, which the phone will group for you, giving you (more or less) the same effect as multiple #s with one name.



    Have you looked into the new SE phones (T630, 700i, etc.)?



    If I had the money I would get a Moto RAZR V3, that is one phat phone, even though functionally it's just a V600 in a very skinny package.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    Cingular is releasing a new Sony Ericsson phone; the s710a within the next month or so. Basically a k700 combined with a cybershot digital camera. Uses a swivel, you can check out the SE website for details. If you don't need the camera, then check out the k700 which is a pretty nice phone.



    I prefer SEs because they have the best UI (IMHO) and because of Sailing Clicker which lets you control your mac from SE bluetooth phones. They're adding support for more phones though.



    The RAZR is nice, but has a horrible UI (esp. phonebook), and for such an expensive phone build quality is not that great. Plus the camera sucks. And of course its superbluetooth (100 foot range instead of 30) is useless because you can't use Motorola and bluetooth on Macs so far.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    Thanks for the input guys!



    Yeah, I was looking at the SE s710a. That looks like a great phone, but I have two reservations about it. Firstly, it is exclusive to Cingular, and I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the days when every friend of mine that had Cingular service complained about it endlessly. I can only imagine the service has improved since then, especially since the merger with AT&T. Secondly, considering all the features on the s710a, it will likely cost as much as the Razr, even with service. The one thing the v600 has going for is the price (which is free!). The down side to Motorola is the UI and the long list of complaints about the v600.



    But the more I think about it, the more I lean towards shelling out the extra bucks for what I want (SE s710a) and passing up the cheap freebie (v600).
  • Reply 4 of 5
    arty50arty50 Posts: 201member
    I have a V600 and would say you should get something else. The reception is great, but it's a hassle with Macs. Syncing may get better once Tiger is released. Tiger implements SyncML which the Moto phones require for full syncing; right now the iSync support is more of a hack. The bluetooth on the V600 sucks too. Supposedly the V620 fixed the bluetooth problems on this phone. Also some V600s had problems with the 850 band, it's the reason Cingular dropped the phone. Once again, the V620 supposedly fixed this.



    My 2 cents. As a phone, it couldn't be better. Reception is great and I get signals where most people don't. Beyond just the basic phone features, it's not so hot. This is mostly due to the poor bluetooth implementation and lack of full Mac syncing support. Also, mine has been very durable. I've dropped it a few times now and absolutely nothing has gone wrong. I couldn't say the same for my old Nokia.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    True, the SE710a is going for similar prices to the Razr without contract online, but it looks like a way nicer phone if you want a phone that actually does something unlike the Razr.



    As for the exclusiveness to Cingular you can buy it online and unlocked. This costs about the same as if you bought it from Cingular but didn't go with the contract.



    Anyway if you wait a bit the price will drop. The SE700i is cheaper then the Razr and is almost the same phone (difference being the 710 has EDGE and 850 band instead of 900 band and a radio. Plus it's black.)



    I'm buying an SE710a as soon as the price drop,, being Canadian Rogers is our only GSM provider (Fido, our other GSM provider and my service provider was bought up by them although they continue to sell different phones as they're using the Fido brand. My benefit. Cheaper plans on Fido for what I want. Downside, less competition since Telus and Bell (our CDMA guys) suck IMHO) anyway Rogers or Fido won't offer this phone until the summer so I'm stuck buying an unlocked version and at $850 CAN I have to wait a bit.
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