Advice: Should I trade in for a v500?

[DaninChina]

Your opinions would be appreciated:

I am currently using an LG G8000, which is a pretty stable (it's never crashed) and capable phone (great reception, good voice quality, great screen, fast texting speed, average battery life, okay camera as far as phones go). Only 3 drawbacks, which are relatively minor:

1. It can't read Chinese, which is a bit of a problem here in China and some friends and China Mobile regularly text me in Chinese and I have no idea what is being said - I think that this could be a problem with work related texts...(wasn't getting many before I bought the phone so I didn't think it would become an issue...whoops!)

2. It's only dual-band...not an issue in China, and I rarely go home to the states, but it would be nice to be able to have something to use stateside...

3. IR is crippled (and thus useless for me)...I do have a data cable, which gets around that.

The v500 seems to be going for a fair price in Hong Kong now, and since it is quadband and has bluetooth, and seems fairly well-constructed, perhaps now isn't a bad time to upgrade (while the LG8000 hasn't lost all market value completely).

My concerns with a v500:

1. firmware is still buggy? Seems like freezes, lock-ups, and odd menu quirks are still common
2. Battery life is questionable
3. Contact management isn't so hot?
4. itap - is it really improved from before? I still like T9.

I guess that the SE z600 would also be a contender, and it's cheaper than the v500 too....but I don't really want to downgrade to a 160 x 128 screen....

Money is an object...I'm on a budget and I can't justify splurging on a new E398 or Nokia 7610...(though it would sure be cool)....

Lastly (for those of you in Hong Kong...all 2 of you? :)) - what kind of trade in value could I expect? It's retailing at Fortress for 1990 HKD....could I get half of that back?

[Sid]

Originally posted by DaninChina
My concerns with a v500:

1. firmware is still buggy? Seems like freezes, lock-ups, and odd menu quirks are still common
2. Battery life is questionable
3. Contact management isn't so hot?
4. itap - is it really improved from before? I still like T9.


1. I don't know about specific V500 firmware but I have flashed my V525 (almost the same as V500) to V600 firmware and it's been running rock solid.
2. battery life is a little below average, I get about 2 days standby. 2.5 hours talk time.
3. Contact management is not so hot but it shouldn't matter unless you have very specific needs. This is an excerpt from Michael's review: The contact system in the V600 is weird, as with all Motorola handsets. It is hard to tell if there are really multiple numbers/address in a single contact, or just a series of separate contacts that all share the same name. When you are viewing a contact you can only ever see one piece of information (name or address) at a time. If you wish to see another number, you need to press up or down. This makes it feel like separate contacts to me. The fact that a voice dial tag is assigned to a particular number, not to a person as in Sony Ericsson handsets, furthers this thought. Yet in spite of that, it all works well enough, if a bit slow. As I mentioned in the UI section, navigating through lists quickly is simply not possible. You will need to use the keypad to skip ahead in order to find a number with any speed. It is also worth noting that there appears to be no way to send a contact to another phone via SMS, Bluetooth, or otherwise. I find that a bit strange.
4. I hated the old iTap but the new one is pretty good. I prefer it over T9.

All up, a worthy upgrade, and certainly one of the best value for money phones on the market.

[Valdo]

If I were you, I would 'cause LG8000 is already outdated and it lacks of bluetooth.

[DaninChina]

Thanks, respectively, for your opinions and advice.

I think the v500 is a pretty nice phone and I would probably be quite happy with it.

However, after this weekend, it seems that I will not be putting my spare money towards a phone upgrade but rather the costs involved in adopting a puppy or kitten...(shots, equipment, food, etc.)...Kind of a long story...but this should be okay too.

:)

On the other hand, a new cellphone in the house doesn't leave messes to be cleaned up.

[manav]

Wow, so sweet a puppy! Anyways why not a V600 I dont know if the cost difference is large?

I'd rather you get a cat, they are so quiet. I will never be able to do that because my brother has asthama.

[DEViANT]

Other things worthy of note are the fact the pictures taken on the internal camera can't be sent to a PC (at least not by Bluetooth) and there is no IR link. You can send pictures and MP3 (ringtones) to the phone over the BT link just not retrieve them again, which is pretty poor if you ask me.

The phone itself is good, it has a nice form factor, sound reproduction is fantastic (with ringtones, etc.) and the screen is something else (ultra high-res, not up there with the GX20/30 but pretty damn good). I'm still not a fan of iTap ever since that fiasco with the V70...

I hear very good things of the Z600, I would definitely consider it, even with the smaller screen, the phone is just downright better and more flexible - it's more a smartphone than these other ones. The T630 would also be a consideration, the TFT it now has over the T610 and Z600 is a big upgrade and the connectivity on all SE products is nothing less than excellent. SE is really up and coming, unless Nokia produce something really excellent (i.e. 6260 and soon), I may well switch to them.

[DEViANT]

Originally posted by DaninChina
Your opinions would be appreciated:

I am currently using an LG G8000, which is a pretty stable (it's never crashed) and capable phone (great reception, good voice quality, great screen, fast texting speed, average battery life, okay camera as far as phones go). Only 3 drawbacks, which are relatively minor:

1. It can't read Chinese, which is a bit of a problem here in China and some friends and China Mobile regularly text me in Chinese and I have no idea what is being said - I think that this could be a problem with work related texts...(wasn't getting many before I bought the phone so I didn't think it would become an issue...whoops!)

2. It's only dual-band...not an issue in China, and I rarely go home to the states, but it would be nice to be able to have something to use stateside...

3. IR is crippled (and thus useless for me)...I do have a data cable, which gets around that.

The v500 seems to be going for a fair price in Hong Kong now, and since it is quadband and has bluetooth, and seems fairly well-constructed, perhaps now isn't a bad time to upgrade (while the LG8000 hasn't lost all market value completely).

My concerns with a v500:

1. firmware is still buggy? Seems like freezes, lock-ups, and odd menu quirks are still common
2. Battery life is questionable
3. Contact management isn't so hot?
4. itap - is it really improved from before? I still like T9.

I guess that the SE z600 would also be a contender, and it's cheaper than the v500 too....but I don't really want to downgrade to a 160 x 128 screen....

Money is an object...I'm on a budget and I can't justify splurging on a new E398 or Nokia 7610...(though it would sure be cool)....

Lastly (for those of you in Hong Kong...all 2 of you? :)) - what kind of trade in value could I expect? It's retailing at Fortress for 1990 HKD....could I get half of that back?

How about these for options as well though:

Nokia 6230, 6600, 3620/60, N-Gage
Sharp GX20, GX30, TM100
SE Z600, T610, T630, P800

I would avoid the V600 by the way, it does look nice, but that's where it ends, it is pretty much hardware identical to the lesser V500 and it costs like 25-30% more where I am.

[Arne]

I am a very happy user of a V500. I have only one negative thin to say about this Phone: I have learnt to live with iTAP - but it is still slower for me to use then the T9 on my old Nokia 6510.
Pros: The screen it fantastic, the sound is great, the Keypad is excellent - all in all it is a plesure to use!

[DaninChina]

I'm a little confused about the v500's bluetooth capabilities, based on Deviant's last post and Michael's review...

Some people say you can transfer pictures back and forth via bluetooth, others say that the transfer only works one way (ie, it's easy to send to the phone, but to have the phone send out pictures or mp3's to a computer or other device is more complicated).

What is the deal with the motorola computer software as well? It is necessary in order to have the phone transfer files to your PC?

the Motorola still seems pretty cool, but as I mentioned before, I'm probably just going to hold off for a while....

Bluetooth seems pretty sweet but I don't know when I'd ever use it - I don't need a headset, I don't need to use my phone as a modem, and synching with my computer is not a priority...

Totally non-phone related:
Still want to adopt a cat, but apparently there is a cat shortage in Shenzhen? My Chinese co-workers say it is because some people prefer to eat cats around here... :(
(are people really surprised that SARS and other goodness come out of Guangdong province???)

[DaninChina]

No sooner do I post about being "content" with the LG than I discover that the phone's T9 tends to forget words after a few weeks...

(annoying that I keep having to reteach it city names and swear words)...

Guess I'm back in the phone market again after all...

Would prefer to find a deal, however...

Motorola v500 or Sony z600 both seem alright...

I like the Sony's user-friendliness and general compatability with anything.

The Motorola just sounds cool to try. I guess quad-band would be nice, should I ever have a reason to go to somewhere in the states that has no 850 mhz coverage. (then again, I'm very seldom back in the states)