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Home > Cell Phone Forums > Manufacturers Talk > Motorola Talk > V3i Review and Question - from Moto to Samsung and back

V3i Review and Question - from Moto to Samsung and back

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shomann
Antenna Booster Novice
Posts: 5

Phone Model:
Motorola V551

Service Provider:
Cingular (US)
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Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:49 pm 
Hey there all.

I recently bought a Samsung T809 (the thin slider from TMobile) unlocked to replace my V551 (the earpiece was dying). I had no trouble using it on my current cellular provider, Cingular, but I kept finding things that annoyed me.

It finally came to a head 2 weekends ago when on top of missing features and general stupidity, I kept getting a no signal while on a small road trip. Even the V551 was able to place calls on that particular stretch of road, so I bundled the T809 up, said my teary goodbyes to the best LCD I have ever seen on a cell phone and sold it on EBay.

There was really only one other phone that I was considering - the V3i. I had not yet been the owner of these uber-thin wonders, but was intimately familar with the Moto V-series software, having used it on a V600 preceeding my stint with the V551. Would the . V3i have the same traps that was I used to? The same frustrating "I wish they worked the way they should" features?

Happily the answer is a big NO. I am a very happy owner of an iTunes compatible V3i. All the annoyances of the prior v-Series phones and the terrible T809 software melted away as I immeadiately started testing my shiny new V3i.

The first thing I was stunned with was the box. Apple had to have some influence with the box design as I have only seen iPod packed with more flair. Its hard to describe unless you have seen one of these boxes, but the one side is a drawer you pull out that in turn reveals the tray that holds the plastic wrapped Razr on the other side. I took a moment to study this new Razr upon lifting it out of the box. Wow. I had held and even played with prior Razrs but this one's titanium-like matte finish is, in a word, perfect, at least for me.

Esthetics aside (which I did not make my primary purchase choice on looks alone, rest assured) I fired the new Razr up and played around. To those that don't know, most of the UI is customizable to your tastes save for font sizes and colors. Everything else, especially the look and order of the menus is in the user's control. For power users there is even an option to assign menu shortcuts that saves you several step getting to really deeply nested options (I have ones for Alarm Clock, Calculator, Connectivity, and Memory usages).

I was used to these things as I had been in the V-series phone I previously had. My surprise came when I connected my trusy Jabra 250 to the Razr for the first time. It just connected, no extra step asking me if I wanted to dial a voice name (I had to get rid of voice tag in my V600 after accidentally calling a friend at 3am in the morning without knowing it). In fact, I was presented with a the new voice command options. This is a VERY cool feature that I thought I would never use at first. Aside from the phone attempting to recognize phone book entries (you can train it with your voice and dialect), it will dial digits, your voicemail, activate the camera, and a few other options. You activate this menu with a hard-coded button on the right side of the phone and works with the button on the side of the Jabra (I would bet most BT headsets will work this way). Very cool stuff.

I was skeptical of the iTunes portion of the phone being something I would use. It does work well and my current version of iTunes recognizes the phone with no trouble. Transfer is a bit slow (atleast though the iTunes interface) and so is the iPod-like interface on the phone. The included stereo USB headset is clear and has a built-on, clip-on mic with a button to interface with the phone. One thing I thought was good design about this system is that the music continues to play even while using other functions on the phone, with the track and player controls taking over the main menu.

There is more to know about this phone and many review online. I would be happy to help anyone with questions/experiments concering the V3i and would highly recommend anyone considering one to purchase it. Its like the Razr with a sharper edge...

Oh yeah, my question. Does anyone with a V3i have a working time autoupdate? I was able to activate the menu though a simple seem edit, but it doesn't look like its updating.
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elmo01
Moderator
Posts: 2186

Phone Model:
Samsung SPH-M510

Service Provider:
Bell Canada
Reply with quote Report post to Moderator
Sun Apr 02, 2006 8:31 am 
the timecode signal is not available in all markets yet I dont *think* there is anything wrong with your device

mikekay10
Moderator
Posts: 2959

Service Provider:
Vodafone
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Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:47 pm 
Like elmo says it depends on network support - but you may also need the following seem edit

0032_0001 offset 55 - bit 2: Time Autoupdate (1 on, 0 off) <-- this will actually activate the feature, the menu item is in offset 00
shomann
Antenna Booster Novice
Posts: 5

Phone Model:
Motorola V551

Service Provider:
Cingular (US)
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Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:09 pm 
Thanks for the reply guys.

I had done the seem edit and gotten the menu to come up, but the phone would not autoupdate.

I had to reflash the phone due to an error with iTunes after trying to load Java games. This newer software enabled autoupdate and it works like a charm.

Overall, I am VERY pleased with this phones performance. It is able to place and keep calls in a few areas that other phones fail.

One thing that I can really not fathom are the reviews that berate the Moto software. This interface is so customizable, I have a hard time finding fault with it after a bit of tweaking. I know on the Samsung that I was fighting having to learn a new system. Also, simple thing that I took for granted from my experience with the V-series Motos like adding a number to a phonebook entry weren't there.

Now its a waiting game to see just how long Cingular takes to bring this phone to the US...
toni10
Antenna Booster Novice
Posts: 1
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Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:31 am 
hey guys

mega newb here, I got me a v3i and would like to add some games to it, I am in Australia and have tried to purchase a couple with no luck as I get error and download failed messages, help????
Shoman how did you do it???

hurleyguyinoc
Radiation Shield Addict
Posts: 76

Phone Model:
moto razr maxx ve

Service Provider:
verizon wireless
Reply with quote Report post to Moderator
Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:09 am 
shomann wrote:
Hey there all.

I recently bought a Samsung T809 (the thin slider from TMobile) unlocked to replace my V551 (the earpiece was dying). I had no trouble using it on my current cellular provider, Cingular, but I kept finding things that annoyed me.

It finally came to a head 2 weekends ago when on top of missing features and general stupidity, I kept getting a no signal while on a small road trip. Even the V551 was able to place calls on that particular stretch of road, so I bundled the T809 up, said my teary goodbyes to the best LCD I have ever seen on a cell phone and sold it on EBay.

There was really only one other phone that I was considering - the V3i. I had not yet been the owner of these uber-thin wonders, but was intimately familar with the Moto V-series software, having used it on a V600 preceeding my stint with the V551. Would the . V3i have the same traps that was I used to? The same frustrating "I wish they worked the way they should" features?

Happily the answer is a big NO. I am a very happy owner of an iTunes compatible V3i. All the annoyances of the prior v-Series phones and the terrible T809 software melted away as I immeadiately started testing my shiny new V3i.

The first thing I was stunned with was the box. Apple had to have some influence with the box design as I have only seen iPod packed with more flair. Its hard to describe unless you have seen one of these boxes, but the one side is a drawer you pull out that in turn reveals the tray that holds the plastic wrapped Razr on the other side. I took a moment to study this new Razr upon lifting it out of the box. Wow. I had held and even played with prior Razrs but this one's titanium-like matte finish is, in a word, perfect, at least for me.

Esthetics aside (which I did not make my primary purchase choice on looks alone, rest assured) I fired the new Razr up and played around. To those that don't know, most of the UI is customizable to your tastes save for font sizes and colors. Everything else, especially the look and order of the menus is in the user's control. For power users there is even an option to assign menu shortcuts that saves you several step getting to really deeply nested options (I have ones for Alarm Clock, Calculator, Connectivity, and Memory usages).

I was used to these things as I had been in the V-series phone I previously had. My surprise came when I connected my trusy Jabra 250 to the Razr for the first time. It just connected, no extra step asking me if I wanted to dial a voice name (I had to get rid of voice tag in my V600 after accidentally calling a friend at 3am in the morning without knowing it). In fact, I was presented with a the new voice command options. This is a VERY cool feature that I thought I would never use at first. Aside from the phone attempting to recognize phone book entries (you can train it with your voice and dialect), it will dial digits, your voicemail, activate the camera, and a few other options. You activate this menu with a hard-coded button on the right side of the phone and works with the button on the side of the Jabra (I would bet most BT headsets will work this way). Very cool stuff.

I was skeptical of the iTunes portion of the phone being something I would use. It does work well and my current version of iTunes recognizes the phone with no trouble. Transfer is a bit slow (atleast though the iTunes interface) and so is the iPod-like interface on the phone. The included stereo USB headset is clear and has a built-on, clip-on mic with a button to interface with the phone. One thing I thought was good design about this system is that the music continues to play even while using other functions on the phone, with the track and player controls taking over the main menu.

There is more to know about this phone and many review online. I would be happy to help anyone with questions/experiments concering the V3i and would highly recommend anyone considering one to purchase it. Its like the Razr with a sharper edge...

Oh yeah, my question. Does anyone with a V3i have a working time autoupdate? I was able to activate the menu though a simple seem edit, but it doesn't look like its updating.
i got a v3i and myself am very happy with it myself,i did have a v3x much BULKY... but was the same features but the v3i kiks ass!!! it has so many features over the old v3 and is the same size and i have cingular too and works well with the media net and mms texting pictures, and down loads very well and came with a 512 mb trans flash memory card and a leather case and the usb cable!! and other goodys all for 250.00 and no contract icon_biggrin.gif i purchaced from cellularblowout.com..and got a discount on it... i myself HIGHLY recomend this phone and most of all it gets attention too people look at it and ask were did you get it and say i want one, its the blue M light on the front that gets the look as well as the matalic blue purple case and the itunes works very well too..thanks icon_smile.gif the v3i a must buy phone icon_angel.gif

beauxp
3D Hologram Enthusiast
Posts: 19

Phone Model:
Sony Ericsson W810i

Service Provider:
Cingular
Reply with quote Report post to Moderator
Wed May 24, 2006 10:17 pm 
is this the correct link to where you got your phone? I tried it and it does not seem to work.

www.cellularblowout.com ?
hilarioxp
Antenna Booster Novice
Posts: 1
Reply with quote Report post to Moderator
Wed May 24, 2006 11:29 pm 
Hello guys! Im new here, so i hope you can help me out on this question...
I just got my V3i and it came with a 512 memory card but i want to upgrade it to 1GB, is this possible? I have a friend who said the phone wont recognise the card, is this true? Any answer will help! Luv the phone btw...

Regards, Emanuel.
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