Review Of Motorola V365 – Black (AT&T)

REVIEW:
You’d be forgiven if you expected Cingular’s new Motorola to look like the Motorola V360 for T-Mobile. Though they’re siblings, the V365 barely resembles the V360, and that’s a good thing since we never thought the V360 was too pretty. V365 is a bulkier handset and it has the same silver face bordered by a dark, rubberized ring. V365 adds an MP3 player, push-to-talk support (PTT) and a memory-card slot. But the feature set also is comparable, with offerings such as a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone. .The Motorola V365’s design is a bit deceiving. It’s thicker than some smart phones and almost twice as thick as Moto’s celebrated Razr. The V365 fits only in bigger pockets, but it did benefit from a solid construction and a comfortable feel in the hand. Also, it does without the external antenna of similar Moto phones. The price of the V365 is reasonable and it’s easy to purchase for its users.

The 1-inch-square external display is bigger than the screen on the V360. It shows all the information that you need in a handset. It shows battery life, signal strength, the time, the date and the phone number called ID, but no display options are customizable. Disappointingly there’s no support for photo caller ID. Above the display is the camera lens, but the V365 lacks a flash and a self-portrait mirror. The voice-command button sits on the right spine just above the mini USB/charger port. On the rear face of the V365 sits a small speaker. It’s not an ideal location, but we’re more displeased that Moto stuck the MicroSD card slot behind the battery cover.

The internal display of the V365 supports 65,000 colors. You can’t change its font size but you can change the backlight time and the brightness. There’s a four way toggle with a dedicated menu button, two soft keys, and the Talk and End/power controls. The navigation array is set a good distance from the display due to the oversized hinge, but it’s tactile and easy to use. The keypad buttons are large and well spaced, and we like that they’re raised above the surface of the phone. They also have a bright backlighting for dialing in the dark.

Now come to the features of the Motorola’s V365, it contains few surprises. The phone book holds a hefty 1,000 contacts, with room in each entry for six phone numbers, a nickname, a birth date and a street address. You can organize callers into groups and assign them any of 14 polyphonic (24-chord) ring tones for caller ID. Some other basic features include text and multimedia messaging, a datebook, a vibrate mode and an alarm clock. On the higher end V365 also offers support for Cingular’s PTT network, instant messaging, voice commands and dialing and full Bluetooth.

The camera of the V365 is good. The VGA camera takes pictures in 640×480, 320×240, and 160×120 resolutions. The photo quality is decent for a VGA camera. The MPEG-4 video recorder takes clips with sound in two resolutions and you can choose a lighting setting here as well. You can personalize the V365 with a variety of wallpaper, sounds, screen savers and color themes. . As always, more choices and ring tones are available from Cingular with the AP 2.0 wireless Web browser.

SPECIFICATIONS:

GOOD FEATURES:
1 Very easy to use.
2. Good battery life.
3. Excellent voice clarity.
4. Good call quality.

BAD FEATURES:
1 Crude MP3 Player.
2. Only VGA camera.
3. No color external display.
4 Navigation a bit slow.

MAIN POINT
The Motorola V365 offers satisfying call quality and a mid range feature set that includes Bluetooth and push-to-talk support. But on the downside V365 is bulky, and its camera options and external display are disappointing. So I give 2.5 stars out of 5 stars to it.