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4 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Nice phone, but not for frequent texters"
Pros: Clear voice and ear piece, loud, easy to transfer files.
Cons: Keypad has poor location, feel; smudges easy; display doesn't match 200thou colors of comparable competition
Summary: I received my Motorola z6tv two weeks ago. The primary reason I purchased it was for its strong rf signal I had read about on-line. While I did find the signal to be solid, I found that my LG 8350 to have a much, much stronger signal in even the weakest of areas. The z6 was an improvement over my last phone; however, I was disappointed by the fact that at my house, the LG was always one, and often two bars stronger.
The voice quality on z6 was strong, and those I spoke to said I was very clear. I also felt that the audio from the phone was loud and clear, and I am hard of hearing, so this was important. I also found that it worked well with the 4 bluetooth headsets I tried with it, a Jabra JX-10, Jabra BT-125, Plantronics Voyager 510, and a LG BT-730Z. It didn't sound tinny or provide excessive echoing on any of the devices.
The battery life was acceptable on the device, but it did not meet the listed talk time, falling approx 30-45 mins short. Recharge times were very fast however, so this helped to make up for this shortcoming. I always get extended batteries with phones I chose to keep, so I would be curious what the extended would have provided for this device.
The keypad is very tough to use for anyone who texts continually, because of the location of the keys in regard to how the device opens. The feel of the keys is also very poor and allows for easy mistakes. I found I continually mistyped words, and mis-dialed for that matter. Both the front of the device and the keys are also very shiny. And while this gives it a nice reflective look, it also made it extremely fingerprint\smudge prone. This drove me a bit batty to be honest, but is to be expected with a finish such as this I suppose.
The display was crisp, but for as new as this device is, I was disappointed that Moto hasn't found their way to 200 thousand colors yet. Also, as is typical in most Motorolas, it takes abysmal pictures. In this case, you now just get 2 mega pixels of garbage instead of 1.3.
I did find it very easy to transfer items to the phone via bluetooth, pics and ringtones both, as well as obx objects. The sound on the phone was very clear, and music playback was very simple. Ringtones were also clear and loud, and as I mentioned before with me being hard of hearing, this was nice.
I will be returning this phone for the Venus. I'll be giving that a whirl to see if I find it easier to use the keypad and to see if it also matches the signal strength of its sister LG8350. Worse case, I will get a 8350, but I'd rather have a phone with some extra memory considering the high number of ringtones I create for myself.
If you don't text often, or need continual simple access to the keypad, this phone was very nice to look at and easy to use. Hopefully its longevity is just as strong and doesn't die after a year as is typical with many, many Motos I have owned in the past. I will provide some feedback on the Venus after I have owned and used it for a couple weeks.
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