Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought this as a backup phone when one of my other phones died, and only used it for a little while until I started using a Motorola KRZR K1 (I also reviewed it).
I wasn't expecting much out of it. I bought it in 2009 when cell phone technology was undergoing a chaotic metamorphosis from the thick, clumsy, mostly plastic bog standard flipper phones with teeny-tiny 65K LCD screens and .3 MP VGA cameras to powerful smartphones with slide out keyboards, computer-like features and multimedia players, 3 MP cameras, video recording, internal memory in the gigabytes, and 3-inch full color touchscreens.
The Motorola V551 is a baspc telephone like we have at home attached to a wire, but with lots of un-phonelike features. It is designed to make calls and make life easier on the go. It's relatively compact but still chubby at 3.5x1.93x0.97. It is very light for it's day mostly due to the primarily plastic construction at 3.7 ounces and doesn't take up much room in your pocket, which is good. It does have a stub antenna that's about an inch tall, but you can't retract it, which is fine.
The feature list is stark and what you'd expect from a handset costing under $20, but it was an extremely well-equipped handset of it's day (released in 2004), only overshadowed by the other handsets costing much, much more even on contract like the RAZR...
Quad-band GSM unlocked (originally an AT&T handset)
EDGE/EGPRS data transfer
2" 176x220 TFT 65K color LCD screen
Monochrome 96x32 external LCD display showing missed calls/messages, notifications, battery life, date/time, signal strength
1000-entry phone book with picture ID, ringer ID, and multiple numbers per contact
Email support POP3, IMAP, SMTP
Calendar and digital organizer
Instant messaging, SMS, MMS, EMS with templates
T9 alphaneumeric keypad with iTAP predictive text input
Polyphonic downloadable ringtones with MP3 support
Customizable ringer/notification tones and phone profiles
Vibration alerts
Speaker phone
Voice dialing, TTY/TTD, voice recording
Push-to-talk compatible
Midp Java v. 2.0 for Java-compatible downloadable games
Fixed-focus 640x480 0.3 MP VGA camera with digital zoom and self-timer and portrait mirror
Video capture uo to 15 seconds MPEG4 format
Digital media player with MP3, MPEG4 video support
WAP 2.0 Internet browser
Bluetooth 2.0
MicroUSB 2.0 to hook to a PC with mobile phone software
PC Sync
It has a world clock
Simply put, for the average user, it will do what you want it to do. Not much. It did what it was designed to do, which was call and be called. Phone calls were great, loud and clear. The loud speaker/speaker phone was also great. It made calls perfectly, which was what it was designed to do, better (in my opinion) than the handheld dual core computers people are carrying around these days. Messaging was what you expected. Turn on the predictive text and it was a little better, but you'd do well to get out 2-3 WPM. Email, browsing, and other functions weren't much better. The organizer was great. Battery life is nothing to write home about. The 820 Mah. battery will last you a couple days on stand by, a full day of talking and texting.
Durability-wise, if it's like my other Motorolas it will keep soldiering on even under abuse, dropping, splashing, etc. It's a flipper, so the guts are relatively well protected and unexposed unlike a full touchscreen smart phone.
In a pinch, like when your $500 HTC or Samsung goes swimming, falls out of your pocket and self-destructs, runs away, or otherwise dies and early death, this will be ready (if you have one) to take point until a new recruit joins the platoon.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Motorola V551 GSM Cell Phone Cingular At&t Bluetooth - Unlocked
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