Of course, you might feel differently. That's the thing about design: It's a purely subjective decision. The VU204 is a strangely oval-shaped phone that measures 3.65 by 2.09 by 0.76 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.4 ounces. The plastic case feels slightly velvety and looks as if it's made out of Play-Doh—or as if a narrower phone has been sat on and squashed. Open it up and things still look cheap, especially the hard plastic keys with rounded edges; when it gets dark, they light up with a rather sickly looking backlight.
The keys are generally well laid out, easy to use, and spacious, and the keypad includes dedicated speakerphone and camera keys, which work fine but are still visually unappealing. The volume buttons are also stiff and ugly. The 1.9-inch, 176-by-220 screen tends to use bold fonts that end up looking a bit low-res. The VU204 uses Verizon's new super-easy-to-use interface, whose clear, bold text and linear design make navigating simple.
If you can get past the design, however, you get a good voice phone here. Reception was decent, though not excellent. Call quality, on the other hand, was very good indeed: Calls both sent and received sounded very clear, and no distortion came through. The VU204's volume is plenty loud, though the LG VX5500's is slightly louder. The phone did a good job of rejecting background noise in transmissions. Its speakerphone (on the back of the phone at the bottom) was loud enough for outdoor use—and I was happy to see it works with the flip closed.
The phone's 15 included ringtones are very loud, but you can't use your own music for ringtones. If you want to use songs, you have to download new MP3-quality ringtones from Verizon for a fee. The vibrating alert is okay, but it didn't strike me as particularly strong.
The VU204 paired easily with our Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset, and it also had a standard 2.5mm headset jack. The phone has the generally excellent Nuance voice dialing suite, which doesn't require training and can be triggered from a headset. The VU204's 5 hours of talk time was good for a Verizon phone.
Beyond basic voice functions, the VU204 has a pretty poor camera. Pictures seemed fuzzy—even for a VGA camera. I was glad to find that I could transfer photos over to my MacBook Pro using Bluetooth, though.
The VU204 also has Verizon's VZ Navigator GPS software, which ran well enough in testing. Like almost all other Verizon phones, the VU204 can do text and picture messaging and IM on AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo networks. For e-mail, you can use the $5/month downloadable Vemail program. The phone also plays downloadable games and has a very basic WAP browser, which surfs a limited number of Web pages over Verizon's relatively slow 1X network. The phone has about 15MB of free memory to store photos, programs and games.
In the end, the Motorola VU204 just isn't the most attractive phone you'll find. If you want a more professional-looking Verizon voice phone, I'd say go with the LG VX5500; for a more stylish phone, the Nokia 7205 Intrigue is a good choice.
MOTO VU204 meets everyday, on-the-go needs with handy features and tools from Verizon Wireless, including access to popular messaging features such as mobile IM, e-mail, and text and picture messaging1. The clamshell phone captures candid moments with a VGA camera with 4x digital zoom and a dedicated camera key for easy access. The MOTO VU204 also supports stereo Bluetooth wireless technology, as well as Verizon Wireless’ Media Center and VZ Navigator service.
Both the Motorola Rapture and the MOTO VU204 are compatible with Motorola’s new MOTOPURE H15 Universal Bluetooth Headset. This must-have accessory features an exclusive flip design that has the best background-noise cancellation, based on independent testing of the top-selling dual-microphone Bluetooth headsets.
Pricing and Availability
The Motorola Rapture VU30 is available for $129.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year customer agreement. The MOTO VU204 will be available for $29.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year customer agreement. Customers can purchase the MOTOPURE H15 Universal Bluetooth Headset in stores and online beginning Oct. 8 for $99.99.
* Price as Tested: $0.00 - $199.99 List
* Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
* Operating System: Other
* Screen Size: 1.9 inches
* Screen Details: 176x220, 65k-color TFT LCD main screen; 1", 96x80, 65k-color CSTN LCD external screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 0.3 MP
* 802.11x: No
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: No
* Network: CDMA
* Bands: 850, 1900
* High-Speed Data: 1xRTT
No comments:
Post a Comment