Being the cheapskate that I am, having finally decided to get a mobile phone I wanted a good value option. The MotorolaV2288 cost £60 including delivery from orange.co.uk and came with £20 of talk time, which I thought was a pretty good deal.
LOOKS
To be honest the Motorola V2288 isn't the snazziest phone on the block, although it's a lot nicer looking than some of mobile phones I've seen. Its dimensions are 130mm by 47mm by 27mm - it won't fit as easily in the palm of your hand as a little Nokia, but it does fit snuggly in my pocket. I also like the fact that the phone is almost oval-shaped, therefore lessening the resemblance to a brick.
The handset is a nice off-white colour, although the phone is provided with
two rubber covers to "enhance" the look - one blue, one pink. These covers are quite awkward to put on but they do give the phone a bit more protection. I have taken the phone out with the blue cover, but I would have to be very brave before venturing out into Leicester on a Friday night with the pink cover on! It looks like a Barbie phone. The phone comes complete with a handsfree kit and belt clip.
THE HANDSET
The phone actually feels quite light for its size. It has a nice big display and quite straightforward key layout, ideal for a mobile novice like me. The "Menu" button is the most important, and this is located directly below the screen. The handset has buttons for adjusting volume on the side, and the battery compartment is easily accessible. Previous reviews have said that it is easy to press the answerphone button accidentally, something that has happened to me on a few occasions. The phone seems quite hardy although I have not dropped it (yet!).
THE DISPLAY
Just what you'd expect really, the display shows whether you have any new messages with a little envelope icon. The battery power and signal strength are also clearly shown.
THE MENUS
I have generally found the menus on this phone well laid out, although they did make more sense after Orange got round to sending me the instruction manual! The main menu options are:
*Access Internet - takes you to WAP services
*Phone Book - self explanatory
*Call Related Features - call barring, for example
*Messages
*Phone Setup - alter ring tone etc.
*Network Selection - alter your network if necessary
*Call Meters - shows call times
Within each of these options are various other sub-menus which I won't go into - there are just far too many. On the whole it is relatively straightforward to find what you are looking for, and the 3 buttons you need to navigate through the menus (Cancel, Menu and OK) are all conveniently placed together at the top of the keypad.
TEXT MESSAGING
The phone can store up to 10 text messages. It doesn't have predictive text messaging. The layout and size of the keys means that texting is fairly quick - the keys aren't too close together and are quite large. To select a person to text (or phone) it is easy to choose them using an alphabetical search in the phone book.
FEATURES
*Ring tones - Not a strong point, and you can't even download any nice tunes. The 11 options include Standard (Brrrrrrrr!), British (Brrrr! Brrrrr!), Three Ring (do-do-do, do-do-do) and Musical (something that sounds distressingly like a funeral march). If your main priority is a trendy ring tone, this ain't the phone for you!
*Vibrating alert - Another bad point, the phone doesn't have this feature. Doesn't bother me really, but probably really useful for some people.
*Radio - The phone has a little button on the side which lets you activate an FM radio. This could be quite useful for long journeys or just moments of boredom, but on the negative side...
1. You can't get medium or long wave radio 2. On FM radio there's always the possibility of picking up Graham Torrington's Late Night Love
So I try to avoid the radio to be on the safe side.
*Clock - The phone has no clock, so get a watch!
*WAP - Easily accessible through the main menu although I have not used it as yet following friends warnings that "WAP is crap!". I will reserve judgement.
*Battery life - I have to say that the battery does seem to run down fairly quickly, but then again this is my first phone so I have nothing to compare it to. According to the information from Orange you should get up to 3 hours of talktime and up to 5 days standby.
The Motorola V2288 is quite a basic phone, but what do you expect for around £50? It looks fairly decent and has a lot of useful features, whilst lacking the trendiness and additional options available with little Nokias and suchlike. As a mobile phone virgin this phone is a good starting point for me, and I'm sure we'll be happily attached for quite some time. Whether I will have the nerve to take it out of the house with the pink cover on, I will have to wait and see...
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Advantages: Siemens, Small, No ariel, WAP, Battery life, Customizable, easy to use menu Disadvantages: Does not have GPRS but is not in the price range
matty4donna 15.06.2002 (23.07.2002)
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![Elekra-Tek Motorola V2288 Mains adaptor 240 to 12 volts [ UNIVMAINS_UNI ]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/76379134.jpg "Elekra-Tek Motorola V2288 Mains adaptor 240 to 12 volts [ UNIVMAINS_UNI ]")
Oct 1st, 2001
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