Motorola V180 review (Unlocked)

Other features were similar to those on the Motorola V220. You get a vibrate mode, voice dialing, text and multimedia messaging, a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser, a calculator, a calendar, and an alarm clock. Unforeseen but useful additions include AOL Instant Messenger, USB capability, and a speakerphone, which can be activated only after a call is made.

You can personalize the V180 with a variety of wallpaper, color styles, screensavers, menu styles, and sounds. You can get more options from T-Mobile's T-zones service. For playtime, the handset comes with one Java (J2ME)-enabled game (Billiards), a demo version of Bejeweled, and FotoFunPack2 for editing images and pictures. While the latter is a nice addition, it would be more useful on a camera phone. Additional gaming titles are available for download, and you can get more ring tones as well. To channel your inner musician, you even can use the integrated MotoMixer application to compose your own ring tones.

We tested the triband (GSM 900/1800/1900) Motorola V180 world phone in San Francisco using T-Mobile's service. We encountered exceptional call quality with good volume and clarity. Callers could not tell we were using a cell phone, and we had no problem getting a signal. Calls with the speakerphone were clear, provided we faced the speaker toward ourselves. Quality did diminish slightly with the included earbud headset, but that's to be expected.

Battery life on the V180 was very impressive. We met the promised time of 9 hours with no problem. Standby time was also very good. We matched the rated time of 10 days. Unfortunately, though, the handset uses a different charger than those used on most Motorola phones. According to the FCC, the V180 has a digital SAR rating of 1.39 watts per kilogram.