Alright, I picked up a v710 at the local Radio Shack. Here are my comments so far:

Phone is nice build quality. Menu system like most current Moto's
Primary Screen is vibrant, outside screen is nothing to desire
Earpiece volume is adequate but I would prefer it to be louder like the VX6000 by LG
Blluetooth IS Crippled - Can't even transfer contacts from Outlook!
Phone pairs to the TL but there is no battery or signal strength indicators. (I haven't been able to test if it dispalys a number when recieving a call.
I haven't charged the phone, but the battery appeared as full when opened, and the phone is almost dead. The phone had bluetooth off and was in an area with full signal strength all day. I need to charge the phone before saying the battery sucks, but that is the initial indication.

Will I keep the phone? I don't know. I love the handsfree in the TL, but not having it work to it's full ability is pretty annoying, at least to me. Also, the inability to sync contacts is some crap in my opinion! Now it will take me at least an hour to program all my contacts in the phone. Talk about some BS. I almost wish GSM didn't suck or I would have kept the V600 I bought, tried a few days and returned.

Probally more to follow later.

TheNip

 

Definitely charge the battery overnight before making any conclusions on its life, even if it seemed fully charged to begin with. The lack signal strength and battery level indicator in MID is disappointing, but not a show stopper. Lack of Outlock sync does suck - even though I have no BT laptop to do it with anyway Looks like I'm going door to door with Radio Shack til I find one.

 

Can you ellaborate on "cannot synch with outlook" part? You do not get the connection to PC or the software is not capable of synching? What software are you using to get the contacts from outlook? Do they provide one with the phone?

 

To the above poster :

Easy, I have a USB bluetooth adapter. You link the phone to computer (done with ease) then in outlook an option appears to send contacts to the phone. However, to do this the bluetooth on the phone has to allow OBEX file transfers (i think). However, the v710 doesn't support that, at least not according to what my bluetooth configuration panel is telling me.

In short, I had (for a few days) a v600 and it installed about 8 different sub-level bluetooth programs/transfer protocols. the v710 gives you only 2 - handsfree Gateway and Dial up networking. installing the v600 i could transfer info like crazy and even acess the files on the phone. With the V710 there is nothing.

I'm still looking into things, but repairing the phone hasn't done anything. I think we are SOL on this one.

 

TheNip73:

Any chance the phone is capable of synching contacts directly from a Bluetooth equipped PDA? Mine is an Ipaq 2215.

Your review is leaving me disappointed with the V710. I'd hate to have to switch carriers to get a better phone.

Thanks for the useful info, and please update us as events warrant.

Regards,

 

TheNip73, thank you for "taking one for the team". Rep points given. The only feature I'm really interested in is the HFL and it sounds like it works great. I was interested in playing around with some of the other BT features, though, and am disappointed. I'll probably still end up purchasing the phone--it would've come in handy on my just-completed trip to Colorado.

 

Leeherman,

I don't think any syncing will be possible with any PDA's, computers, etc. the bluetooth appears to be limited to car kits/headsets and being able to surf the web via a bluetooth link to the computer. I'll watch the phone forums over the next few days to see if others have issues/resolutions to this "problem."

I've been experimenting for about an hour now and I've got nowhere. Total bummer, I know

 

I've been reading all the messages on the phone boards in anticipation of this phone. You are correct that you will not be able to sync to Outlook via Bluetooth. But supposedly you CAN sync with Outlook using a USB cable and Phonetools 2.0. I bought both of those in anticipation of buying the phone months ago. (Along with a car charger and an extra AC adapter and an extra battery.)

I'm going to have to wait for Verizon to have the phone before I buy it, but I expect I will buy it on August 11th.

As for the battery strength info and signal strength info and caller Id info not passing from the phone to the TL, someone had reported that weeks ago on the phone sites, and I copied it here. I am hoping that if enough of us complain, we can get Motorola (or Verizon) to fix that in a future firmware upgrade. It shouldn't be THAT tough to do.

Good luck, and thanks for the information!
Andy W.

 

I would try another BT GSM phone or wait for one of the new ones (Moto V3 Razr, Moto MPx 220, Moto 551, Treo 610 (Ace))... The V600 is known to have reception problems.

 

It isn't the phone, it is the dead zones of coverage as well as the lack of coverage in northern minnesota, Mankato, etc. i only wish it wasn't so...

 

Does anyone think they will patch the phone so that you can see the caller ID, battery and signal strength?? I have seen a couple of phones come out with new firmware... Can we ask Motorola to look into this?? Right now it doesn’t really make sense being the v600 does everything and is a lesser model per say..

 

Alright guys, I'm going out of town for the weekend after work tomorrow. With that said I won't have any updates until Monday. Good news is maybe I will see if the phone switches into analog at all during my drive to northern MN. Too bad I'll have to take my VX6000 with as well as I don't have time to reprogram my contacts to the V710. Anyone know where I can get Mobile Phone Tools for cheap? I can't justify the money just for syncing contact info one time. Oh wait, look at this website: http://www.bvrp.com/eng/products/mob...patibility.pdf Looks like the bluetooth isn't even going to work to its potential with mobile phone tools...

Til' Monday...

TheNip

 

You can go to a Verizon store and they will transfer your contacts for you. Depending on how they're feeling, they may do it for free (since you just bought their new phone, even though you didn't buy it from them), or they may charge you some small amount ($5, I believe) to do it for you. But if you just need to move the contacts once, this is definitely the best route.

Good luck.
Andy W.

 

At the bottom of the page it seems that moto thinks it will sync, you need the software on your PC and maby there bluetooth adapter.
http://commerce.motorola.com/cgi-bin...28,25&type=All

Bluetooth USB PC Adapter PLUS
Mobile PhoneTools 2.0 CD ROM - 98575

"Compatibility:
This bundle of Bluetooth PC USB Adapter and the mobile PhoneTools version 2.0 is compatible with the Motorola V600 and V710 Bluetooth enabled phones."

 

FYI...caller ID does work..I didn't notice about battery or signal, I will pay attention while using the phone today.

 

I just got my V710. The MID only displays the sign for strength, but no bars. The center console display indicates only a telephone when the V710 is properly paired. The sound quality is good through the car speakers. The camera quality blows, it's a bit grainy, but that's not why I bought it anyway.

I am satisfied, because all I really wanted was a HFL-compatible phone.

Pix coming later, and in my own thread as I don't want to hijack TheNip's.

 

confirmation on caller id?

 

It is displayed.

 

So...how does the caller ID work with the TL? Is it just the phone number that is displayed? Or if the incoming call is from a number that has been entered into the TL's phone directory will the actual name be displayed, instead of the number?

Thanks!
Andy W.

 

Only a number is displayed for me (non-navi) as the only record of the associated name is through my voice prompt (which obviously cannot be shown on the screen). I would assume that the navi model would be different.