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New cell phone

M

musicalmcs8706

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 5, 2006
112
0
Okay it has come time for me to get a new cell phone. I'm on a family share plan with my mom and my sister. My mom just wants a basic phone. No issues there. My sister wants the RAZR. But my question is what should I get? I want a camera, speakerphone, speed dial, and external caller id. I have Verizon service and my choices are basically the Motorola v325 or the LG VX5200. Which one should I go with?

I haven't always heard great things about Motorola, but my current phone is an LG and it's been beaten up quite a bit and works like a charm. I basically have a few days before the decision is made. Should I get the free Motorola or shell out a few bucks more for the LG? Let me know!
 
musicalmcs8706 said:
Okay it has come time for me to get a new cell phone. I'm on a family share plan with my mom and my sister. My mom just wants a basic phone. No issues there. My sister wants the RAZR. But my question is what should I get? I want a camera, speakerphone, speed dial, and external caller id. I have Verizon service and my choices are basically the Motorola v325 or the LG VX5200. Which one should I go with?

I haven't always heard great things about Motorola, but my current phone is an LG and it's been beaten up quite a bit and works like a charm. I basically have a few days before the decision is made. Should I get the free Motorola or shell out a few bucks more for the LG? Let me know!
Click to expand...
My brother got the Motorola v325. Its free now? He will be mad. Umm. If I were in your shoes I would actually get the RAZR. I love mine. It also has all the features you want. But for the two phones you said I would pic the LG just because I don't like the Motorolas outside texture. But I guess that's just personal prefrence.
 
Verizon is about to get a few new phones. Some words of advice:
Avoid their motorola products. The RAZR is painful and especially since the Verizon plastered theme doesnt run well on it, at all. I have a V710 and it isnt doing to hot.

The Motorola KRZR (although i just said dont get moto) is about to come out, and so is the LG V8500, or the LG Chocolate as some of you might know it as. Personally, im waiting for Chocolate.

Or avoid verizon and get a GSM carrier caus verizon sucks.
 
tomokun said:
Verizon is about to get a few new phones. Some words of advice:
Avoid their motorola products. The RAZR is painful and especially since the Verizon plastered theme doesnt run well on it, at all. I have a V710 and it isnt doing to hot.

The Motorola KRZR (although i just said dont get moto) is about to come out, and so is the LG V8500, or the LG Chocolate as some of you might know it as. Personally, im waiting for Chocolate.

Or avoid verizon and get a GSM carrier caus verizon sucks.
Click to expand...

The Q is awesome, even though it does run windows its better than the verizon ui.
 
The two phone cell phone companies I say avoid like theres no tomorrow are siemens and motorola. Siemens because the phones are deplorable with no redeming features. My sister got a motorola phone and she had to go through THREE phones over a year because it just couldn't stop breaking, she is now on her fourth phone in a year. I say go with the LG :D.
 
DO NOT GET THE RAZR...I repeat DO NOT GET THE RAZR.

I have it and I am dissatisfied. Where shall I begin. Verizon pretty much took this phone from motorola and put the Verizon OS on it. The Verizon is illogically layed out in my opinion- I don't know who they had designing it but it is ridiculous- I can't delete a picture when its open, buttons for text formatting input options varies upon what you are doing (i.e changing from lower case, to all caps, to symbols). Additionally, they took this OS and just threw it on the phone and apparently did not make sure it actually worked on the phone. I got the razr soon after it came out. For months it froze constantly, made squealing noises, and you could hear yourself in the speaker when you talked. I finally went to the verizon store and complained. The software was two versions behind so they updated it (thanks for telling me that my phone needed new software verizon). The new software is much better, the phone runs faster, and doesn't freeze as much, but it still has glitches. For example you cannot set the ext. LCD to have a background- it is default red now (before the ext. LCD had the same background as the internal screen). Additionally when you do the self portrait picture mode with the camera the screen ext occasionally flashes between the viewfinder and the screen that is on when the phone is closed (time, service, batt life). Battery life is extremely inconstant. Some days I use my phone a lot and get 3 days out of battery life, other days I never use it and the battery lasts for 8hrs. And since my phone is in the same area, service shouldn't be a huge factor. Another software issue is there is no Ring+Vibrate mode which is stupid. The phone os puts unsightly red bars at the top and bottom of the LCD that displays status info. It would have been nice if they let you change the color of them.

As for the design of the phone, the phone is hard to open with one hand without smudging the screen, the screen is very dim compared to other phones (perhaps to extend battery life), and the ext. is almost useless because it is so small.


All these little things add up. I can't stress enough how careless they were in putting there stupid OS on the phone. I think the standard moto OS would have been better. I think the only reason they put it on was so that they could advertise "get it now" on every pixel of the LCD. Its annoying. Seriously, the phone has been out for quite some time now, they should have ALL the quirks out of it, and they should have had none in the first place. In that they did fix some problems, I thank them, but it would have been nice if they had sent me a text message at least.


Stick to something w/o verizon's os. LG phones seem to do well with verizon's OS. If I wasn't sincere about this I wouldn't have written this much. My friend has the same phone as me and he has similar problems too.
 
What about the Motorola L6 (or L7 if you can spend a bit more)...? It's pretty good and compared to the RAZR mine does not have all the above motorola software issues mentioned - You can have Vibrate+Ring, can change the wallpaper, and change the colors of the red bars, delete current picture when open....
 
iShane said:
My brother got the Motorola v325. Its free now? He will be mad. Umm. If I were in your shoes I would actually get the RAZR. I love mine. It also has all the features you want. But for the two phones you said I would pic the LG just because I don't like the Motorolas outside texture. But I guess that's just personal prefrence.
Click to expand...
It's free when you buy the RAZR. And for me it doesn't work very well as I have large hands and I'ved used it and it just doesn't work well for me.
 
I have great service and no problems with Verizon wherever I go and since I got the phone I've gone from Michigan to Florida, to Minnesota, and Iowa, and all the places inbetween and have had service no matter where I go.
 
CompUser said:
DO NOT GET THE RAZR...I repeat DO NOT GET THE RAZR.
Click to expand...

I agree to the most part. I have a Verizon RAZR and have had it for like 6 months. I am not a big fan of it. 80% of the time I can't hear people, even with volume all the way up. It scratches easily, but thats with every phone. The hinge now makes a lot of noise when I open and close it and it just seems poorly/cheaply made, and I do take care of it, I don't toss this thing around and never did. It is also very, very slow and freezes up. And I don't know if that is the phone, or the Verizon software on it, but it takes a while to respond to buttons... I wish I just gotten the cheapest, non-flip phone they had...However it sure is a "cool" looking phone and the camera on it is not bad at all for a phone.
 
I can't speak for the Verizon version, but I have a Razr, and it is the first phone that I have kept for so long since I had the original StarTac with slim batteries. In the interim, I have had Sony Ericssons, Nokias, etc, and despite a somewhat clunky interface, my Razr is great. As I primarily use it as a phone, it works great, and it syncs very well with my Macs.

I got the Razr in the first few weeks of its release in the UK, and nothing that has come out since has tempted me to switch at all. That is rare indeed for me.
 
A general rule of thumb...

Verizon OS Razr: Bad, Slow, Freezes, lots of glitches
Normal Moto Razr: Works Fine, has normal features like Vibrate+Ring

Verizon No, Cingular/T-Mobile/etc Yes

Don not get the verizon razr. Its not worth it.
 
get the moto E815. Awesome phone, it doesn't have the freaking verizon UI which is a huge plus. its got everything you wanted plus Bluetooth. I just got a plantronic discovery 640 headset. It rocks!

When will verizon give up and enable OBEX and get rid of their crappy UI:mad:
 
CompUser said:
Verizon OS Razr: Bad, Slow, Freezes, lots of glitches
Normal Moto Razr: Works Fine, has normal features like Vibrate+Ring
Click to expand...


The Verizon OS *DOES* Run smoother on the V3m compaired to V3c's that I have played with. The Verizon OS DOES SUCK however. If you have a V3c, you can flash the old firmware on it.

HOWEVER! Verizon *IS* doing a new OS on the next generation of phones. If you can hold out, I strongly reccomend waiting for Chocolate or the Chocolate flip (VX8500 and VX8600 respectively).

VX8500_Blue_UI.jpg

More images can be found here AND YES, it has proof of OBEX in a *gasp* VERIZON phone
They have came a long way. They are putting in more freedom with newer phones according to pre-release reports. Like for instance they *are* allowing OBEX according to reports, a first for VZW.
 
I hate how all verizon phones dont have ring+vibarte and how on the ones I do have it a pain in the rear to change the ringer volume (at least the phones I have used from verizon).

I dont get why they dont let people use ring+vib. do think if you want the ringer on you dont want the vibarter on as well.... I feel my phone ring more offen than I hear it which the ringer turn up. I like having the extra insurances. Mind you I havent used verson in 2 years because they dont work well at all where I spend about most of the year. So I been on sprint the past 2 (where I discover the ring+vib and changing ringer volume with the side buttons in no time) and going over to cingular next month (consodating some planes instead of my sister, bother, mom and me being across 3 different networks all of us are moving to cinglure). As a compainy I dont like verizon they caused a lot of problem in dealing with them. Plus with them I fried more phones than any one else. Going though 5 phones all with hardware and software glitchs in 6 months does not speak well for there quility.
 
Timepass said:
I hate how all verizon phones dont have ring+vibarte and how on the ones I do have it a pain in the rear to change the ringer volume (at least the phones I have used from verizon).

I dont get why they dont let people use ring+vib. do think if you want the ringer on you dont want the vibarter on as well.... I feel my phone ring more offen than I hear it which the ringer turn up. I like having the extra insurances. Mind you I havent used verson in 2 years because they dont work well at all where I spend about most of the year. So I been on sprint the past 2 (where I discover the ring+vib and changing ringer volume with the side buttons in no time) and going over to cingular next month (consodating some planes instead of my sister, bother, mom and me being across 3 different networks all of us are moving to cinglure). As a compainy I dont like verizon they caused a lot of problem in dealing with them. Plus with them I fried more phones than any one else. Going though 5 phones all with hardware and software glitchs in 6 months does not speak well for there quility.
Click to expand...

Some of them do. My sister has an LG phone with the verizon OS and it lets you ring+vibrate. My mom has the E815 but the BT is crippled if I remember correctly.
 
Tanglewood said:
Okay...so they have subscriber issues. Helio is piggy backing on Sprint's network so they are still going to have good coverage whether they have 10 subscribers or 1 million.
Click to expand...


Yes, but should they go under, you will have to find another provider, which isn't very convenient.

Anyway, I have the Cingular RAZR which I will sell when my dream phone comes out. The UI isn't great, but honestly it is a phone, I use it to take the occasional picture, call people a few times a day, and send a few texts. I'm not going to get worked up over a UI I spend less than 45 minutes a day using. Conversely, I spend several hours a day on my MBP (curse you MR!), so the OS is very important.

I like it, it is slim, functional, and gets good reception. The only thing to watch out for is that the two vents at the top of the phone (when open, bottom when closed) on the screen half of the phone have tiny fans which constantly suck in air. In the air is dust. If you leave your phone out without a case dust will get sucked in behind the screen. I had to get mine replaced because of this, and now I use a case all the time. Other than that, it is a good phone. Of course, if you will spend a good chunk on time on this phone, don't go with a RAZR, get a phone with a better UI.

The last thing that I forgot to mention is that the RAZR is quad band, meaning if you ever travel to Europe it will get excellent reception (I was there for two weeks a couple weeks ago and never lost a signal through 4 countries.)
 
D34th said:
I agree to the most part. I have a Verizon RAZR and have had it for like 6 months. I am not a big fan of it. 80% of the time I can't hear people, even with volume all the way up. It scratches easily, but thats with every phone. The hinge now makes a lot of noise when I open and close it and it just seems poorly/cheaply made, and I do take care of it, I don't toss this thing around and never did. It is also very, very slow and freezes up. And I don't know if that is the phone, or the Verizon software on it, but it takes a while to respond to buttons... I wish I just gotten the cheapest, non-flip phone they had...However it sure is a "cool" looking phone and the camera on it is not bad at all for a phone.
Click to expand...


Go to the VZW store and have the software updated to the latest version. It works a little better than before. Isn't it nice to VZW to notify you when your phone has updated software!:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :confused:
 
Timepass said:
I hate how all verizon phones dont have ring+vibarte and how on the ones I do have it a pain in the rear to change the ringer volume (at least the phones I have used from verizon).
Click to expand...
My LG VX3200, which was the basic flip phone has that feature and can use the side button unless I want completely vibrate. But it's almost always on vibrate. I don't want the RAZR. I want to know about the v325 or the LG VX5200. Out of those two which one should I get?
 
I have to get a new phone, because my old one is horrible (i posted a picture on macrumors). I pretty much have it narrowed down to the Motorola E815 or an LG VX8300. Any suggestions on which one to get, or a different phone all together in the same price range (around $200-250)?
 
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