I was just reviewing Amazon.com’s Mobile Phone Early Adopter Product List where I noted that the
Motorola V300 has reached number 1. This is a phone that I haven’t seen in the wild yet, although it’s been available since around the beginning of the year.
People are picking up this phone because it has the ability to use MP3 clips for ringtones and other alert tones. This was emphasized when the V300 was one of five mobile phones featured in T-Mobile’s “Holiday of Love” promotion. In that promotion, customers were allowed to download a limited number of ringtones and wallpaper at no cost in honor of Valentine’s Day. This phone probably did well in the stores because the promotion highlighted two of this phone’s best features.
Other features that make this phone attractive are a very good TFT screen, excellent speakerphone capability, voice dial, and a VGA camera. The user interface on the V300 is similar to that of the Motorola T720, which was known for its friendlyness. PC Magazine says that it’s good for sending and receiving email and that T-Mobile allows the attachment of photos directly to email. That’s not always possible with some cameraphones and mobile carriers.
This phone has limited connectivity with other devices. Your best option for syncronization to a PC is a USB interface. There’s no Bluetooth or IRDA support.
The Motorola V300 may not be the be-all-and-end-all for the geek end of the mobile phone community, but it’s cute and easy-to-use, which means Motorola will sell a lot of them. Amazon’s got it priced a little higher than some cameraphones, but you’ll see the difference when you compare the V300’s screen and musical capabilities to lower priced phones. If you like your phone entertaining and functional, this may be the right one for you.