
The Motorola V710..Much more than just a phone.

I first got interested in this phone after I bought the Motorola SD4500 Color Home Cordless Phone system. It allows you to add up to eight extension phones, video monitors or interfaces to your home phone. In addition, the SD4505 optional cordless charger and cellphone interface module allows you to interface your home phone with a limited number of Motorola Cell Phones such as the V710. Shared phone directories, shared call records and the ability to answer calls from either your cordless or your cell is a very useful feature.
The V710 is certainly a spectacular cell phone all by itself. I put a two gigabyte mini SD flash chip into it which allows me to load and watch DAYS of movies on it's screen, to store endless MP3 clips for its MP3 player or to take albums of pictures with the built-in camera and camcorder.
Most cell phones are nowhere near loud enough to be heard using the handsfree or speakerphone system. NOT the V710! Its tiny speaker produces enough good quality audio to keep your deaf Grandma as happy as a clam.
It is for the most part very easy to use and can be made to interface with your computer for two-way exchanges of movies, pictures, files, ringtones and music with a $10 optional charging/data USB cable. Even though I'm not a gamer, the phone comes with a number of games, certain firmware (Telus Included)supports Java to enable a huge number of additional games to be loaded.
THE CONS: Verizon and Telus have both deliberately disabled/crippled the Motorola V710's native ability to transfer files by bluetooth and to use its built-in ability to support Motorola Phone Tools spectacular file transfer and conversion program. Some vendors on E-Bay will sell you the info to enable MPT support for about $5, but if you want to use the bluetooth for anything more than attaching an earphone, forget it. Workarounds (as yet) to revive the full BT create more problems than they solve.
I couldn't get the voice digit dial recognition to work other than to say "SAY AGAIN", but the voice dial is easy, convenient and works perfectly. The voice memo feature is also convenient and easy to use.
They use plastic rather than glass windows on the inner and outer displays, which means that they scratch pretty easily. Fortunately, the windows are just sticky glued in place and can be easily peeled off for relacement. Attractive snap-on cases are also available to cut down the scratching.
Its a little heavier than I'd like but you have to give up something for a long battery life.
The real question is "Would I buy it again ?" And the real answer is " I sure would, Its the BEST phone I've ever had ! " Now if we could only get the Telcos to keep their grubby and greedy little paws off Motorola's firmware, life would be real real real good. "Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent telcos down here!"
Review ID: 10000000005804625

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