vB Easy Archive - Motorola List of Grievances

Pages: 1

Motorola List of Grievances
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: bobolito

For all generations of the Vxxx phones from the V300 all the way to the V635 only.

This is intended to be a list of design flaws. Please don't post issues related to software bugs, malfunctions or features that should or should not be there. THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT ANY OF THAT. So let's keep it neat, please.

Let's start a list of flaws that Motorola should've, but will not correct simply because that's the way they think it should be.

- When the phone rings and you try to open the flip sometimes it slips from your fingers and closes which hangs up on the person that was calling.

- When you are using the headset and the flip is closed if you unplug the headset it ends the call. Why?

- (V600) When you connect your Bluetooth headset it automatically switches the ringer to Continental and you can't change it to any other ringer or lower the ring volume either. You can't even put the phone on Vibrate when using Bluetooth! Why?

- When you press the SmartKey with the flip closed, it automatically activates the camera (V635 only)....WHY!?

Does anyone have some more?

Posted by: Cool6324

Lets not forget their beloved Motorola Charger and Port. One month old phone, has to be replaced.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

Maybe this is more like "manufacturing problems", I'm not sure...

For some reason, these newer Motorola phones, from Cingular's V400 to the more recent V3 and V551's, all share roughly the same set of unexplained maladies. This includes, but not limited to:

1) CROOKED LCD DISPLAYS (internal and external)
Look carefully. Nearly all LCD screens on newer Motorolas are off by at least one pixel in rotation, either clockwise or counterclockwise. This may be easier to see when the backlight is turned on. The front LCD of these phones are more obvious: they may be shifted up, down, left or right as well.

2) HINGE ALIGNMENT
This is probably the curse of all clamshell phones. Motorolas are more prone to having the two phone halves wobble in any direction when closed, and some won't even close with the two halves properly aligned. Even the V3 RAZR is not immune to this. When closed, the left hinge corner will almost certainly wobble. The one I had didn't even close flat: one edge would always be higher than the other.

3) HINGE SCUFFING
The Motorola V600 was notorious for the "cracked bezel" syndrome. This was probably caused by cosmetic scuffing or stress damage when the phone opened up. Later revisions featured a rubber bumper to protect the phone's shiny black plastic bezel, right above camera lens. Fast foward to phones like the smaller V180 and V220: Nearly every one of these I've seen already have scratches and cosmetic damage to the same area.

4) MUSHY BUTTONS
Why can't Motorola get this right? Every Motorola phone I've tried lately without exception will have one or more buttons that don't feel right. That is, they feel soft, or just won't "click" like the rest of them. On the V3, the buttons are on the UPPER portion of the phone, above the hinge. This is a little unnatural at first. Even worse, nearly every V3's side buttons are different than the next. You may get one with perfectly working side buttons, others may be as stiff as a board.

Posted by: TheRupp

I'm not really a big fan of the loud sound the phone plays when you change "Style" with the flip closed. It's pretty intrusive especially if you're trying to silence it.

Posted by: boston_errol

**clears throat**

Let me be the first to just say... bobolito... This belongs in the "Manufacturer Rants" forum you NEWB!!!

jk jk!

but yah here are some design flaws:

v600 - bezel would get scratched as a result of the top portion of the phone resting on the hinge when opened

XXX - external side buttons for volume/profile. these are so annoying. the phone can change itself from vibrate to loud by itself in your pocket just by brushing against your pocket. they are so loud too, and they require a seem edit to disable. i hate these.

XXX - when I talk on this phone, i always end up hitting the voice record function while i'm on a call, thereby unintentionally recording the call.

these are just a few... there are farrr more software problems but this thread isn't about that so i'll try to hold back!

by the way i don't completely hate MOTO.. i just ordered myself a e398

Posted by: DonaldMick

V220: Um, everything

Any Moto phone pre-Razr/V551: Send on the right, end on the left

Posted by: Reverend Ozz

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cool6324

Lets not forget their beloved Motorola Charger and Port. One month old phone, has to be replaced.

I see a lot of people complaining about the Motorola Charging Port. In all the Motorolas I've ever owned, I've never had any trouble. You aren't just yanking the Charger out of the phone are you? You do press the "M" thing on the Charger to remove it from the phone, right?

Posted by: bobolito

Quote:

Originally Posted by boston_errol

**clears throat**

Let me be the first to just say... bobolito... This belongs in the "Manufacturer Rants" forum you NEWB!!!

jk jk!

Yeah...I realize that unfortunately WirelessAndy posted irrelevant issues that are not design flaws, but rather manufacturing defects. Those don't qualify in this thread.

Guys, I am talking about features that were purposedly designed to work in a particular and incorrect (or unfriendly) way. Crooked LCD displays, bad hinges, etc. are manufacturing defects, or quality control issues, not design flaws. The difference is that manufacturing defects DO NOT affect all phones whereas design flaws affect ALL phones for that model. Let me give you all an example, the way they designed the way to change the ring profile when the flip is closed doesn't make much sense in my opinion. Normally, you press one of the volume keys to bring up the profile menu and then press the Smartkey to cycle through the profiles. A more logical way of designing this would be to have you press the Smartkey to bring up the Profile menu and use the up and down volume keys to cycle through the Loud, Soft, Vibrate, etc. profiles. That is a design flaw! It is something that was purposedly made in an unfriendly way. The flaky charger port could pass as a design flaw because it virtually affects all Motos. Make a better plug design and the problem goes away.

However, a good example of a design flaw is like the one posted by HurricaneDonald "Send button on the right and End button on the left." Why did you go against the world standard, Moto?

TheRupp posted another good example of a design flaw. Those beeps are really annoying and there's no reason they should be there. To Motorola: In case you haven't noticed, people can read if the phone is on Vibrate, Soft, Loud, Silent, etc. There is absolutely NO NEED to have those annoying beeps, for God's sake!

By the way, if it makes you happy, Boston_errol, I will move this thread to the Motorola forum in a few days after the content here is exhausted. I don't think these are rants. This is just a list of grievances.

Rants are usually posted by a mad customer unsatisfied with some product or service that wants to vent his/her frustration. Even with all the grievances, we still love Motos and are not complaining (or ranting) about their products.

Peace

Posted by: Nick94

Quote:

Originally Posted by HurricaneDonald

V220: Um, everything

Any Moto phone pre-Razr/V551: Send on the right, end on the left

This is 100% true. My wife has a V400, I got the V551, and every once in a while we use each others phones and invariably hang up on some poor person.

And to add to the list:

- The phonebook/PIM. Compared to the SEs and Nokias, this is just sad. No room for addresses, etc.

- Lack of 'extras'--i.e. no 'task list', no stopwatch or timer, etc. (I guess this is not really a design flaw, but a missing feature)

- Bluetooth menu counter intuitive--no straightforward easy on/off.

- Seperate silent and vibrate mode, and you cannot edit them. For 2 months I have stupidly assumed that a phone in silent will vibrate as well and that I just couldn't feel it through my jeans. Guess I was wrong.

- More a result of Cingular, but that internet button is in the way. I hit it all the time, and if I did not have unlimited MediaNet, I would pay for those random KBs.

Posted by: mamosley

vibrate and ring at the same time. I would like the option of having the back light on the external display on with the flip open so I can show off my hacked display text.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

I apologize.

I still think that choosing to use shiny, glossy plastic on the front bezels where the hinge comes to a rest and causes damage is a completely obvious and preventable design flaw.

If side button profile switching tones are annoying, then at least LG got something right. Even with the often hated LG G4010, you could simply switch to an all-vibrate mode by pressing one of the volume keys for more than a second when the phone is closed. The phone vibrates once to let you know you're now in vibrate-only mode. Press it again, it chimes to say it's back in an audible mode. Easy! And this is without the benefit of an external screen, too. The LG L1200 did this, too. You could do this without looking.

Samsungs have that press-and-hold the "#" key for going to vibrate mode. The Treos have that nice slider switch mounted up top. And don't most Nextel models have a similar scheme with the top-mounted button? I even think the armadillo-like i530 could swtich to silent mode by clicking on the volume down button enough times.

You're right. Are the annoying BLOOP! BLOOP! BLOOP! tones the only way to go for Motorola? I've often created shortcuts to go to the volume control settings, and use the * and # keys to toggle between the Soft/Loud/Vibrate modes MUCH more quietly. Yeah, it's a few extra steps, but far less noisy.

Suggestion to Motorola: When closed and in standby (not in a call) make a long press on any volume key toggle between Vibrate Only mode and the previous audible mode.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamosley

vibrate and ring at the same time. I would like the option of having the back light on the external display on with the flip open so I can show off my hacked display text.

Fortunately, later Motorola firmware versions on the V551 actually feature Vibrate AND Ring. It was about time.

Posted by: boston_errol

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobolito

By the way, if it makes you happy, Boston_errol, I will move this thread to the Motorola forum in a few days after the content here is exhausted. I don't think these are rants. This is just a list of grievances.

No no bobolito!! I'm just kidding!

I now see what you mean by posting a list of grievances. I think I posted some above, with my first and foremost complaint being the side volume bleeps and the existence of the buttons themselves. I agree, despite the Moto software, I still love their design and the ability to hack/customize pretty much everything and anything you could ever design. You can even bring phones back to life! I've seen it done before!

Posted by: shortyd999

Why list different phone numbers for the same person as different contacts and THEN having the option to just show the primary??!?!

I know of no other manufacturer that does this but Motorola.

Posted by: bobolito

Quote:

Originally Posted by WirelessAndy

Suggestion to Motorola: When closed and in standby (not in a call) make a long press on any volume key toggle between Vibrate Only mode and the previous audible mode.

That's a good idea. It goes well with my suggestion of having the Smartkey activate the Ring Style menu and then use the volume keys cycle through the different ring styles.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

Yup. Sounds good to me.

This is what the LG's currently do (G4010, L1200, L1400). I kind of like it, except that the phone plays a truncated sample of the ringer as you increase in volume. I don't recall if it makes noise as you go DOWN in volume.

If I recall, very early Ericsson phones did something similar, too. Too bad it wasn't accessible via the side keys from the main menu.

Posted by: bobolito

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortyd999

Why list different phone numbers for the same person as different contacts and THEN having the option to just show the primary??!?!

I know of no other manufacturer that does this but Motorola.

Another problem with the phonebook is that it doesn't have a way to Delete All. You can only delete one by one. However, this fits more in the "missing features" category rather than design flaws. But I've seen worse: Samsung X426 has probably the worst phonebook I've seen. Only Nokias have the best phonebook.

Posted by: TheUnforgiven83

Quote:

Originally Posted by WirelessAndy

Fortunately, later Motorola firmware versions on the V551 actually feature Vibrate AND Ring. It was about time.

Is their anyway to get this firmware for my early V551? I hate Vibe then Ring. Also V551's don't vibrate intense enough for my tastes, I can never feel the **** thing ring when it's on a hip holster. Maybe this same firmware would actually tell me if I have EDGE as well. lol

And on an unrelated design flaw: The V180 I had, when placed into a slip-in holster, would scuff the screen up from contact with the Left and Right Softkeys as well as the * and # keys. Had the thing two weeks and the screen had 4 deep scuffs where these keys drove into the screen.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheUnforgiven83

I only know about the newer firmware from buying yet another V551 a few months ago, versus the earlier ones.

That screen contact issue is really annoying with some models, dating back to the V60. Anyone get that oval of scuff marks on their V60? Sad to see it's still a problem. I actually added very thin rubber bumpers on my V60 to prevent that scuffing, and added a screen protector to boot!

Posted by: TheUnforgiven83

Quote:

Originally Posted by WirelessAndy

Well at least the V551 doesn't do this. It has small rubber bumpers built into the keypad half of the phone, and the keypad is slightly recessed into the phone to prevent scuffing.

Posted by: dfab1

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheUnforgiven83

You can seem edit to get vibe an ring on the v551

http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...t=vibe+and+ring

There also was a v551 monster pack that added vibe and ring and added the edge icon to the display, try searching the motorola forum, loads of info there

Posted by: stoobie-doo

Am I the only one who wants to connect via bluetooth to both my headset (to talk) and my Palm (to dial a contact) at the same time?

And remind why it's a feature that my ring profile changes when I connect via bluetooth or I plug in my phone (that is, of course, when it recognizes the charger is plugged in).

Posted by: DurtyD

OK, since other people have posted some software stuff, here's mine:

Why can't they display what the ring setting is (i.e. vibrate, loud, etc.) on the external lcd screen.

In order to tell what you have it set to, you either have to open the phone, or hit the side buttons (which make noise - another issue).

Posted by: TheUnforgiven83

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfab1

Just did this and it works great!!! Thanks a million for the link. Now I have a nice little E(is it supposed to have a red and a green thing under it?) and a Vibe and Ring, which is what I loved the most about the RAZR.

Posted by: bobolito

One more grievance: The voice key is too uncomfortable to use. You have to hold it. If you let go, it automatically stops recording. Who in the world thinks it is easy to hold that key during the whole recording time?

The way the voice key should work is that during a call you press and hold the voice key for 2 seconds and that causes the phone to automatically start recording. When it starts recording you can release it and it will keep on recording. Press the voice key once more to stop recording. Much easier, more intuitive and not awkward.

Posted by: VTECaddict

another software thing. on the camera phones, after you take a picture, the store button brings up a list of thing to do (store only, send MMS, etc etc). the store button should just store it and go back to camera mode, and there should be a menu available after capture for the other activities. i hate pressing store, then scrolling to store only, and then finally storing the picture.

Posted by: TheRupp

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTECaddict

another software thing. on the camera phones, after you take a picture, the store button brings up a list of thing to do (store only, send MMS, etc etc). the store button should just store it and go back to camera mode, and there should be a menu available after capture for the other activities. i hate pressing store, then scrolling to store only, and then finally storing the picture.

Oh god I know. My LG used to just store, that was nice. And another LG thing (lol, sorry i'm not an LG fanboy, TRUST me), it had the ability to search through the phonebook using more than one letter. Like i could search for "Br" for Brad instead of hitting "B" and having to scroll through it until I get to "Brad".

Posted by: VTECaddict

yes, a search function in the phonebook would be immensely useful. even my cheapo nokia 3120 has a phonebook search...heck, my nokia 5190 (remember those?!

) had a phonebook search.

another thing...the camera on the v600 is so deeply recessed that its always full of dust and lint. theres no way of cleaning it short of a q-tip.

Posted by: TheUnforgiven83

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRupp

They actually put that feature on the MPx220. But it may just be a feature of Windows Smartphone 2003. The way it does it is a little different though. When you start to just punch a number in without even going to the contacts list, you can do it two ways, you can start typing the contacts name like LG's and Nokia's do and it will pop up the people with what you spelled out in their names, or you can just type in a phone number. It was a little confusing at first, but after using it a few times I really liked it. Worst thing about those MPx220's(well aside from my charger port dying) is the too easy to hit volume rocker.