| Review of the Motorola V710 |
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The Motorola V710 is a fairly large phone from Telus PCS, especially compared to some of the other models they sell. However, it provides a really big screen to go along with its large size, and it isn’t all that heavy. It weighs only 4 ounces, which doesn’t exactly put it in the fly-weight category, but that’s markedly lighter than other phones of similar size.
The V710 is available on Telus PCS. Last Updated: 25-Jan-2005 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
RF Performance
RF Sensitivity: Most Telus PCS phones that I’ve
tested of late don’t have pull-up antennas, and so their RF performance is
constant. Others that have pull-up antennas haven’t shown a marked difference in
sensitivity between up and down. The V710 has a pull-up antenna too, but sadly
the difference in performance between up and down is rather noticeable. With its
antenna pulled up the RF sensitivity of the V710 is roughly on par with any of
the other recent Telus PCS phones that I’ve rated highly in this regard.
Unfortunately when the antenna is put down the performance drops dramatically.
Some of you might be tempted to say that it’s not a problem, as you’ll just
extend the antenna whenever you use the phone. Yes, this will work, but it
doesn’t take into account the fact that the phone idles with its antenna down.
You’ll miss incoming calls in areas where the signal is marginal, yet good
enough to carry on a call, simply because while the phone sits there waiting for
a call it won’t have particularly good RF sensitivity.
Over-the-road Performance: I found this aspect of
the phone to be about average. Plenty of audio disturbances were noted, but it
wasn’t as bad as the Kyocera K494. By the same
token, it wasn’t nearly as good as the Nokia 3205i
either. The disturbances were generally well muted, and may not bother those who
aren’t picky like me.
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
Audio Performance
Tonal Balance: This is one area where the V710
excels. Tonal balance is about as good as I’ve heard on any CDMA phone I’ve thus
far tested. It wasn’t overly bassy like the old
Motorola V60c, and it wasn’t the
least bit tinny or hollow like many of the other phones presently sold by Telus
PCS. Compared to the Kyocera K494, which also has really good tonal balance, I’d
picked the V710 by a slight margin.
Sound Reproduction: This aspect of the phone is
also very good, which combined with the excellent tonal balance makes this model
the best-sounding Telus PCS phone presently available (with the K494 coming in a
close second).
Outgoing sound is also reasonable, but it doesn’t quite stand up to the high
standards set by the incoming audio. Just the same, your callers aren’t going to
have too much to complain about.
Earpiece Volume: This is another aspect of the
phone that gets a solid AVERAGE mark. The volume of the earpiece is good, but
hardly stellar. It should be adequate for most situations, but it hardly holds a
candle to the K494 and its SmartSound feature.
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: Once again, about average. The
ringer isn’t exactly feeble, but it won’t blow your socks off either. With a
properly-selected ringtone the ringer should be audible in all but the most
extreme conditions.
Keypad Design: I’m not sure what to say about this.
Overall the keys felt quite good, but the 6 key on my phone had a nasty habit of
either not pressing or bouncing and entering the 6 twice. According to the
gentleman I borrowed the phone from a bunch of other V710s in the store had the
same problem with the 6 key. This might be the result of a bad batch, or it
might be the result of a bad design. I can’t be sure, but I recommend that you
check this before you buy one.
The 6-key problem aside however, the keypad was quite nice. It was a mostly-traditionally
layout (with a few odd key overlaps that didn't seem to matter), and the overall feel of the keys was good. The navigation keys weren’t
quite what they could have been, but even they weren’t that bad overall.
Headset: I tried the V710 with my excellent Samsung
earbud, but I encountered a strange problem that made using the phone with the
earbud a huge pain-in-the-neck. For some reason the volume kept cycling slowly
up and down, with no apparent relationship to the background noises or
conditions. Ignoring the volume changes however, the overall sound quality was
very good (just as it is through the native earpiece) and tonal balance was also
top-notch.
Display: The V710 has a fairly large 176x220 pixel
main color display that looks gorgeous. It’s usefulness in direct and in-direct
sunlight however is a little disappointing, but this seems to be about
par-for-the-course for many color phones these days. Once again the V710 pulls
in an AVERAGE rating.
It also includes a 98x67 pixel external display, but this one suffers from the
same readability problems in daylight. External color displays may be great for
people looking for flash-over-function, but it seems to ignore the main purpose
of having an external display in the first place, which is to let you see who’s
calling before you open the flip. Indoors the display is great, but outdoors you
are going to wish it had an old-fashioned monochrome LCD display.
Phonebook: Standard Motorola, which is to say
rather limited. As I’ve said about virtually every Motorola phone I’ve tested in
the last 2 to 3 years, the phonebook functionality, while competent, it light
years behind the competition and is really in need of a makeover.
Conclusions
In some respects the V710 is a terrific phone, in that it has excellent audio
qualities and very few major failings. On the other hand, it doesn’t really
excel at much other than sound quality. Its poor RF sensitivity with the antenna
down, its average over-the-road performance, and average earpiece volume make it
much more difficult to recommend to the discerning buyer. Whether it’s suitable
for you depends upon how much emphasis you put on the various aspects that I’ve
tested. If sound quality is a big requirement, and you’re happy with keeping the
antenna up all of the time, it might be one of the best Telus PCS phones to get
right now.
