My Motorola A630 order arrived yesterday, around four weeks after I ordered it.
The good: It’s small and quite handsome. Battery life seems impressive. I’ve had it off the charger for about 30 hours, Bluetooth on, about 90 minutes talking (around 30 minutes on my Bluetooth headset and 30 on speakerphone), probably two hours of “playing”, and the battery gauge shows two of three bars. With the phone in my pocket my Bluetooth headset is relatively static-free — much better than with the Audiovox SMT-5600. Indoor reception is excellent, probably a T-Mobile vs. AT&T / Cingular thing. For whatever reason, Voicestream blessed South Florida with awesome GSM coverage. Bluetooth setup was easier than any other phone I’ve owned.
The bad: On A/C power the external display’s backlight sometimes emits a headache-inducing high-pitched whine. It uses funky Motorola connectors instead of mini-USB. I haven’t managed to successfully configure e-mail — seems to be a problem on T-Mobile’s end, I’ll probably call Customer Service tomorrow. I’ve read elsewhere that e-mail does not support HTML or attachments.
The ugly: Motorola’s UI seems alien to me. The browser appears to be WML-only. Sync software is neither included nor free. E-mail and AOL Instant Messenger seem to be WAP-based (read: LAME). AIM uses AOL’s mobile support, which limits the Buddy List to just 30 entries.
The neutral: The keyboard is usable but not great. The keys are bigger than on a Treo but the layout is somewhat funky.
Verdict: This phone is basically a V600 with a QWERTY keypad. SMS fanatics — this is your phone. For everyone else, the A630 is not a smartphone. Repeat, it is not a smartphone. Not even close. If you lust for a Treo, Sidekick, or Crackberry — keep saving your pennies.
It is a good phone, compact and attractive. I’m going to keep it simply because I want to get back with T-Mobile and there’s really nothing else that better meets my needs / wants. I’ll see if I can find better web, e-mail, and IM clients… if not, I’ll probably get the SMT-5600 unlocked.
Update: Low battery warning came after a whopping 43.5 hours, and it died somewhere around 45 hours. I am impressed.
Update 2: The web browser will display (X)HTML if the file is small enough. A 15KB page is too big — 413: Requested Entity Too Large. An 8KB page with two 3KB JPEGs is OK. I’ve determined that it runs Motorola Internet Browser (MIB) 2.2 but I haven’t managed to locate any documentation on what the official specifications and limitations are. For all I know the problem might be T-Mobile’s WAP gateway — all of my other web-capable phones run full stand-alone browsers.
Bryce,
I don’t know about you, but my phone’s reception is for shit. I’ve had cheap nokias, samsungs, and ericson phones, that all worked awesome until there was absolutely no service, then they just didn’t work.
This stupid gimmicky phone, if it gets service has nowhere near enough volume for talking in a bar or restaurant, and rarely works inside any building that is more substantial than a cheap home. I was in a basement bar the other night, and my friends all had service from various carriers…I didn’t have shit! Even upstairs there was no reception!
The ringer also quits realllllly quickly. It hardly rings! It’s like as soon as I notice it ringing i’ve gotta be quick otherwise I miss every call!
I don’t know where you’re located, or who paid you for this review. I agree with most of it by the way, but to not mention how poor the reception is, is giving people bad info. I bought my phone based partially on your review, so I’m a little disappointed.
I don’t mean to be long, or sound like I’m really tearing you a new one. I just feel I need to let you know just how bad this phone really is.
thanks, sorry
Dear fucktard,
If you’d checked the home page before insulting my integrity you might have noticed that I posted several follow-ups and I decided to send the phone back for non-RF reasons.
If you’d bothered to READ the post you commented on, you would know that I am in South Florida. The network that Voicestream (now T-Mobile) built here is probably the best in the region — although the verdict is still out on the combined AT&T / Cingular. My experience while I was visiting friends Houston was acceptable but un-noteworthy, and I understand that folks in NYC, on the West Coast, and some other parts of the country consider T-Mobile’s coverage in those areas to be quite bad.
Thank you for your comments. Please fuck off.
Sincerely,
T Bryce Yehl
tby@yehl.us
http://www.ntwizards.net
PS: Everything I’ve posted on the A630 can be found at http://www.ntwizards.net/topics.html#A630
bryce,
i think it is you that is the fucktard. one thing i can’t stand is some pseudo intellectual computer geek that spits out a bunch of jargon to sound intelligent. for whom are you reviewing these products? as a seasoned IT professional, i understand your techno babble, but it’s pretty lame. you returned this phone for “non-RF reasons”? that’s really fucking intuitive. i know what you mean, but does anyone else?
i read the reply of jneutron, and i agree with what s/he said. you failed to mention any of its major shortcomings for the everyday consumer, such as significant ringer, headset and speakerphone low-volume issues.
based on your pathetic review and your reaction to some less than perfect feedback you got, your site has lost all credibility in my eyes.
kindly fuck off.
cheers,
alex
Hmm. Apparently Alex, I mean “alex”, is either A) too cool or B) too lazy to use the fucking shift key.
Moreover, who the fuck are you anyway Alex? In the United States, we have the right to think, feel and print whatever we want… so if Bryce wants to write solely about the features that he found annoying, then so be it. You can go to one of the 3000 other sites on the web that regurgitate the same review for every new gadget on the market if you don’t like the opinion you find here. Just don’t act like you are the only person in the world that understands what Bryce is saying.
Perhaps you Googled your way here. Perhaps you linked from one of several technology sites that offered links to Bryce’s review. Regardless, if you didn’t like what you saw and have no intention of returning, just click the back button and fuck off.
Andy