Motorola V180 - Black silver (Unlocked) Cellular Phone

This phone is not a quality phone. I will list the few pros first:
1. Sleek
2. Ton of features (speaker phone, java enabled, ringtones, aim, etc)
3. Fairly compact

Now to the issues I had with this phone (and the replacement sent)

I had to get this phone replaced 3 months of buying it b/c of dropped calls, poor reception and sometimes it wouldn't ring. The issues were so frusterating when a Samsung with T-Mobile wouldn't have the problems in the same locations.

I went to the place I bought it from and the sales guy there said they have had tons of problems with this phone. He said I have to keep reporting issues to T-Mobile and after 3 replacements they will upgrade me to v188. Supposedly that one is more reliable.

Even though I had the phone replaced after 3 months - in another 4-5 months similar problems started creeping up again.

I would have the phone sitting next to me and it had full service and the phone would not ring when I get a call but it would tell me that I missed a call and that I have a new VM.

Small but annoying problem - every time I make a call it says call fwding on - TMobile couldn't even turn that off.

Every time I receive a call and answer the phone and it would still show that I missed the call. Again annoying.

Speakerphone - don't even bother - after about 2-3 months of use it will stop working. This is a big problem since speaker phone was one of my primary requirements.

With the speakerphone kaput I turned to the Handsfree set. Well that only lasted about 2 months and it stopped working as well.

My wife has the same phone and has similar problems and poor battery life to top things off. She had her phone replaced to no avail.

Note that the issues persisted with the replacement phones! I am in the process of getting this phone replaced again and perhaps I won't have issues but Motorola has struck out twice so I am not holding my breath.


Disclaimer: I am an eBay employee and this review is my own opinion and is not written on behalf of eBay. This review does not reflect the views of my employer nor is it endorsed by them.

My husband’s first phone when we first switched our service to Cingular in Feb. of 2005 was the Motorola V180. I read all the specs on it and he didn’t want anything fancy, just something that would work good, have a good battery life and get a good signal.

The Motorola V180 has the following features (Information can be found on the internet):

• Instant messaging for quick and easy chatting

• Motomixer application to mix unique ringtones to play on the 24-chord polyphonic speaker

• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) for sending pictures, animations, wallpaper, icons and ring tones

• J2ME MIDP 2.0 support for application, ringer, wallpaper, graphic and game downloads

• Peer to peer 2-way games (SMS, GPRS and CLDC 1.0)

• Conference calling and integrated hands-free speakerphone

• Datebook and Phonebook synchronization via accessory USB cable to easily organize your life

• WAP 2.0 compliant browser with GPRS Class 10 for high-speed data transmission

It also boasted of their “quad” band network which later was reduced down to tri band and they stated it had a talk time of 5.83 hours.

This Mororola did have a good signal and it did have a good battery life and good talk time but after only a few months the phone started having static noise and it just got worse over time. Customer service tried some updates and then finally said to return the phone for a replacement and they would send the same phone. The replacement phone had the static noise upon the first use. The static on the phone was so loud that you could not even hold a conversation then it would just turn itself off and often wouldn’t power back up.

This was our second brand by Motorola and both turned out to be disappointing phones over all. My husband now has another brand phone. We didn’t try for a 3rd time on this Motorola.

The we have had a pair of this model of phone for over 6 years. The wife broke her phone in a way that required a replacement. Since we prefer a plain simple easy to use telephone, we decided to stay with this model.

This phone is so easy and simple to use. Install a SIM card, install battery, charge, and then use. The push buttons are easy to push with your fingers without accidentally hitting a wrong button. Also the color contrast of the buttons and the surround(silver buttons, black back ground)area make it easy to see what you are doing even without eye glasses on.

The battery life for us is about a 7 day period before recharging(talk time may vary the charge schedule), and charges well on a household charger(included), and on a car charger(I think it was an extra purchase)

We used these phones while traveling in Germany without a problem. A call to our carrier, Cingular/ ATT, prior our travels had us set up in minutes. Also with Germany being a 220v country and with different wall outlets, the car charger was a must have. Charge your phone while traveling in the car, as all car outlets are universal.

Bottom line, if you want a 'no thrill' easy to use phone to just talk, or send a quick text, this is the phone to have. I hope they will be still available in the coming years. We are happy with this product, and would definitely buy it again. And another great thing about this phone, is the price.

This phone is okay for an inexpensive entry flip-phone. It is thick though compared to many others, and I found the color screen to be very tiny and hard to see in the daylight. The games and basic ringtones are pretty lame, but if you get a USB cable and Motorola Phone Tools you will find you can add many MP3's for free along with pictures, etc. Many 3rd party providers sell covers to decorate it with, and you can get a variety of antennas too if your into customizing your phone. Reception was very good, thats about the best I can say about it. The other features were pretty basic. If your looking for a high-tech phone, this isn't it. Battery life is generally two days for me with normal use. To summarize: if your looking for a basic entry flip phone with good reception, this is a good choice.

All the things I like about this phone:
I liked the look of the cell. It has a speaker and it works really well. It's a Loud speaker if you want it loud like me, and adjustable volume too for those who don't want it loud. I love my other cell the Razr but, the speaker on it is not as loud as I would like or their ringtones. I have a hard time hearing on it. It was simple to use. It's a nice flip phone to lend out to somebody. That was the reason for the purchase. To use as a business cell. I liked the variety of ringtones it comes with. The e-bay price was right. It's lightweight yet full in your hand. You don't feel like you can't hold it or it's too big or small for you. (Someone with large hands could use this no problem) ( like my mother in law). The number keys have enough space between them so you wont key another number by accident and call the wrong number. I really like the size of the number keys. Overall this is a really good simple phone to use. I had a motorola cell before the razr, I didn't like the format, it was not user friendly and was to hard to use, but after the razr they changed the motorola format (Menu) and it is much more user friendly.
If you do not want a camera phone will all the bells and whistles this is a simple well designed phone. It shows you who is calling you. It's a good phone. I like it, And I am used to the bells and whistles with the Motorola Razr.
My dislikes. Hummm...
Well it's not a camera phone, ( but we already knew that) It does't show you who's calling with a picture of the person like the razr. And it's only sold in black. Oh just a cosmetic issue, The Company Motorola could inprove on it's color choices for the personalize themes and cell colors. Also they could make all ringtones at a louder level for driving with the windows down, with the wind noise. Not to many dislikes on this cell phone.