The hefty clamshell serves up calling features like push-to-talk, Bluetooth, a speakerphone and conference calling. But are all the features worth the girth?
Review summary of the Motorola V365:
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 The Motorola V365 serves up a variety of calling features, such as push-to-talk, a speakerphone, Bluetooth and conference calling, as well as one of the longest talk times we've tested, making it a nice option for chatterboxes who take their calls seriously. However, the V365's extra girth makes it easy to mistake for a ruggedized phone -- which it isn't. And while the clamshell packs in messaging features like instant messaging and e-mail, it's saddled with a sluggish e-mail client, an unresponsive keypad and sub-par iTAP predictive text performance. Release: October 2006. Price: $100.
Pros: Great battery life; solid array of calling features, including push-to-talk, conference calling and Bluetooth; messaging interface supports a remarkable number of characters.
Cons: Mediocre call quality; uncomfortable keypad; unhelpful iTAP predictive text; bulky design.
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Full review of the Motorola V365:
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Design
Like many push-to-talk phones, the Motorola V365 is quite bulky and hefty at 1.1 inches thick and 3.9 ounces; luckily, it wraps all that girth in a rubberized, fingertip-friendly, shell. Just keep in mind that unlike Motorola's i580, the V365 isn't ruggedized, so don't expect the rubber finish to protect the handset against water or tumbles onto a hard surface. The V365 includes a disappointing monochrome external screen and a decent two-inch color internal display that suffer from a slight screen-door effect. The clamshell also boasts a VGA camera that takes tolerable shots, but nothing stellar (which is to be expected from this sort of camera). Unfortunately, the camera doesn't provide many customization options besides zoom and brightness.
Calling - Good
Call quality on the V365 was surprisingly mediocre; our friends sounded tinny and we encountered a bit of static, despite the fact that our reception rarely dipped below three bars. However, the flip phone does score a few points with its array of calling features, including push-to-talk, Bluetooth and voice tagging. The V365 also packs in a loud speaker phone that startled us in our quiet office, along with conference calling for up to five people. We were also able to maneuver between calls and separate one call from the rest, but that required a bit of menu digging. The clamshell's phonebook was rather uninteresting and bland, with space for only one number per entry, but it does support while-you-type-searching, eliminating the tedious task of drilling through a sea of names to find a contact. The V365 impressed us with its seven hours of talk time; however, that is still two hours shy of what Cingular claims.
Messaging - Good
Similar to calling, messaging was hit and miss for the V365. The handset crammed a whopping 221 characters on the screen for outgoing messages, far exceeding our preferred 160. The phone isn't a slouch on incoming messages either, fitting a full 160 characters with ease. However, we were disappointed with the flip phone's blocky looking text and stiff, unresponsive keys. The V356 does include iTAP predictive text, but we found that it slowed us down more than helped. In most instances, we had practically typed out the complete word before we received any suggestions, and we also had to wait for a couple seconds for suggestions to appear. However, the handset offers its fair share of messaging features, including instant messaging with support for AIM, Yahoo and MSN, along with mobile e-mail support for Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, AIM, and SBC Yahoo -- not bad, althought we did have to wait about 30 to 45 seconds for the Java-based app to launch. The V365 also easily sent our photos via MMS.
Related phones: More Motorola push-to-talk clamshells
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Motorola i580
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Score: 55% When: July 2006 Worth: $230 - $250 Carrier: Sprint Nextel
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This military-grade clamshell promises to withstand drops, dust and even rain, and it packs in a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a music player. Did it pass our punishing boot camp?
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Motorola ic502
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Score: 50% When: November 2006 Worth: $60 - $250 Carrier: Sprint Nextel
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This flip phone boasts the best of two networks with features including push-to-talk, Direct Talk and a speakerphone. Philip Berne investigates if two networks are better than one.
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Read » Features » Side-by-side »
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Price and availability
The Motorola V365 is available immediately from Cingular and retails for $250, or $50 after a two-year service agreement.
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