Motorola Motofone F3 Review

I bought the Motorola Motofone after being introduced to it by this post on my friend Nick Baum‘s blog. For as long as I remember, I’ve been reading about how phones keep getting more and more complicated. Yet many people want their phone to do only one thing: make calls. The trick was getting a phone that was usable and friendly at the same time. When Motorola finally came out with the Motofone, it appeared that they had achieved just that. The only problem was that the phone was only available in India! Fortunately for me, I’ve been in India for the last 3.5 months. So I decided to buy one (or two), and write a hands-on review for it. Well, after writing a single-spaced narrative that spanned 3 pages and finding myself only half way through the things I wanted to say about this phone, my friend Nick came to the rescue with a list of questions for me to answer. So I’ll just break my unnaturally long essay into pieces and post the review in interview format-.

Update 2007-03-07: Cross-posted on nickbaum.com

Update 2007-03-27: For those of you looking for a manual of this phone, I found two, in English. Motofone Draft Manual [pdf] is one, and Motofone Digital Manual [pdf] is another. The latter doesn’t contain the list of ‘advanced’ codes.

Without further delay, the brand new Motorola Motofone F3:

Nick: How is the packaging, the new user experience? What’s included in the box?

Me: The phone came in a cylindrical container, aka a tube. Opening the box revealed inside the device itself (without any protective plastic bag/screen cover), a battery in a nylon bag, the back cover of the device, a charger, a user’s manual (in Telugu, Kannada and English), and the standard warranty papers. The package is a standard cardboard tube with plastic tops, which makes it feel a bit cheap. However the finish is good, and if it’s sitting on a table it looks better than expected, so it might actually work in places other than India, like Europe or even the US. Most phones come in solid & glossy cardboard boxes with the phone securely tucked away in polystyrene or a plastic casing, but the Motofone’s case is different enough that it might get away with it.

Nick: Tell me about the physical design of the phone. How does it feel?

Me: The phone is extremely light. The face is completely flush, with no nicks or grooves for dirt to get into (not even around the screen, which is simply a transparent piece of plastic as far as the outer shell goes). Even the keys are completely flat, which I love. I read somewhere that the phone was built for the weather in countries like India, where there’s a lot of rain and dirt in the air. I have not tested the rain claim, but I will take Motorola’s word for it. As for the dirt, the only place I can see dirt getting into is the speaker, but even that seems hard. Everything else is either completely flat or sealed with rubber. There’s still tactile feedback through the protruding rubber lines above and below the buttons. Both the buttons and the click wheel in the middle feel very natural. The clickable area is quite large, and you can easily feel the button being pressed.

The only input slot is the charger/headphone jack, which is smaller than any other charger jack I’ve seen. However, the fit of the plug is extremely snug in the phone (it will not fall off if you dangle the phone from the cord, but at the same time it does not require much strength to push it in/take it out), and it seems that it uses the same plug for headphones, which I have not tested. The thickness of the phone is about the same as an Apple Remote.

Nick: How about performance? In practice, how long is the battery life? How is reception?

Me: Motorola claims 300h of stand-by battery life which, for the less mathematically inclined, translates to 12 days. That might be true if you turn on the phone, leave it on a table and never touch it or receive any calls. The screen consumes absolutely no power when it’s not changing the contents of the display, so on stand by the only power drain is the signal reception and updating the time every 60 seconds. However, I would not expect the battery to last anything more than 5 days under any circumstances where the phone is actually being used. I did let the battery run down completely, but I did get a solid 4 days of constant use from it before the 5-segment battery indicator dropped to a single line (just barely dropped below 2, where the last line can easily go for another day).

As far as reception goes, I only have one word: outstanding. I’ve been using this phone for 2 weeks, and I still have not seen the reception indicator fall below the full 5 lines (and no, reception is not generally this good in my area). In line with this, the excellent speakerphone is a feature I did not expect. Voice clarity on this device is up to par with any phone I’ve ever tried, including land lines. I have no problems understanding anything anyone says to me on this phone.

Nick: How does the screen perform in different light conditions? How does it compare to regular screens?

Me: The screen is definitely the most innovative power saving feature of the device. I already knew that the E-ink technology used for the screen requires no power to keep the screen on, but it’s a different feeling when you take out the battery without turning the phone off, and the screen keeps displaying the last characters on it! (Yes, it does reset without any trace when you turn it back on). The contrast is excellent and the characters are clearly visible in any light condition from any angle (unless there’s complete darkness).

This being said, it’s not all rosy. The character display is exactly like the old 16-segment LCD displays of yesteryear. 2 rows of 6 characters, that’s it. What’s even worse, only the first row is used for actual alphanumeric characters, which makes reading messages a big pain. I do believe there’s a valid reason for doing this (read on about the user interface), but it doesn’t stop it from being extremely annoying. Also since the characters are constructed from segments, there’s no notion of upper/lower case. You will see an upper case letter or a lower case letter depending on which one will make the most sense when formed by the segments.

Nick: Describe the user interface? Is it immediately intuitive, or does it take getting used to?

Me: The interface is by far the most interesting aspect of the device, even more so than the screen. The phone has a language setting, but not in the traditional sense as none of the menus have any text in them. Instead, any action you might perform on the phone and might need some instruction, comes with a voice-over, in the language chosen by the user. As this phone is targeted for the low-income family, there’s a good chance that a user of the phone might not even know how to read. For this reason, I believe the choice to preload the phone with voice messages in the native languages of the region it is being launched in instead of simply having text in different languages is an excellent choice.

The first time I turned on the phone and entered my PIN, I was greeted by a man speaking in a language I did not understand. After a few seconds, the same man said, in English, “For English, press 3”. Since I bought the phone in the Karnataka district of India, the phone comes with 3 pre-set languages: Telugu, Kannada, and English, where the first two are the official languages of the district. These options come up whenever the SIM card is replaced in the phone, which makes sense. Once the language is selected, if you wish to change it you must either change the SIM, or go through the ‘advanced menus’ (read on).

As soon as I pressed 3, the same voice asked me if I wanted voice prompts while using the phone. 1 for Yes, 2 for No. I pressed 1 just out of curiosity. This option is presented to me every time the phone is switched on. Note that wherever I make a note of what the “friendly voice” says, this is always dependent to whether or not voice prompts are enabled. If they’re not, then the voice will never be heard from again (at least not until you turn the phone off and back on).

Since I had just powered on the phone, I was presented with the option for setting the time on the phone (with the voice telling me “Enter time”). After telling it the time and date, I was pretty much done with the setup.

There are exactly 6 menu choices. The menu can be accessed by pressing right or left on the click wheel. Pressing up or down while on standby changes the volume of the phone. The menu itself contains no characters, just icons. The same friendly voice tells you the menu you are on, which you can access by pressing the action key (top left). These choices are (as narrated by the friendly voice): Send a message, Read your messages, Call history, Change ringtone (7 possible pre-defined choices), Set alarm, Change time. Scrolling to the menu you wish to use you can press ‘up’ or ‘action’ and the menu will be selected, where the voice will tell you what you can do (“Write your message” for example).

There are a few other (advanced) options you can mess with: change language, select time format, set voicemail number, keypad tones on/off, auto keypad lock on/off, set SIM pin, SIM pin on/off, restricted calling – phonebook only, prepaid balance display, set balance inquiry number, and the obligatory reset factory settings. All of these options are accessible by pressing *** [3-digit number code] * [action]. These settings obviously require the manual which lists all the 3 digit codes, and are generally the kind of thing you would only set once and then forget about it. I haven’t tried to see if there are any easter eggs in there.

All in all, it took me about 10 minutes to get used to the interface. It did not immediately come to me (I spent a few seconds being utterly confused), but I believe the reason for that was because I’m so used to the standard interfaces that come on every phone. After getting the hang of this one (which was very fast to do so), it became almost second nature.

Nick: How does the address book work?

Me: There’s a phone book button (top right) which takes you directly to the phone book. There is no memory on the phone itself for an address book, so it uses the SIM memory which is limited to 12 characters per contact name, and one number per contact entry. Pressing the phone book button will bring up the phone book, which you can navigate with up/down, or press a letter to jump to that point in the phone book. To scroll through the 6 character limit of the display you must press right. Pressing right multiple times will display the phone number of the contact, and then an option to delete the contact (shown as a trash can, you must press ‘up’ to delete it when the icon is shown). Furthermore, each contact has a number associated to it (the SIM card memory location), which can be used for speed dialing. If an unknown number is on the display, an icon appears above the phone book button which indicates that pressing it will let you add that number to your SIM.

The Call History menu has a memory of the last 15 dialed/received calls (the menu icon indicates whether the number was dialed or received, depending on the direction of the arrow).

Nick: How does text messaging work?

Me: There are two ways you can send a text message. The first way is to start writing a message by using the “Send a message” menu (first choice), then entering the number or going through the phone book. Alternatively, whenever a number or a contact (either through the phone book or through the Call History menu) is visible, a “Send a message” action is available and accessible through the action button, which will take you to the same “Send a message” menu. Writing the message and pressing send will send the message to the number you already selected.

I already mentioned that only the top row is used for text, and that this makes reading messages extremely annoying. However, you do get used to it. If a word is less than 6 characters long, it will definitely be shown in its entirety. I.e. if you receive the message “hi how is california?” then “hi how” would be on the first screen, “is” would be on the second and “california” would span two screens, split at the ‘o’. The reason behind all this, in my opinion, is consistency. Browsing anything (messages, contacts, call history, etc) is a top to bottom action, and reading a message is a left to right action. If the message spanned two lines, it might be a bit more confusing, but the initial confusion might be worth the convenience. On the up side the response time of any action is next to nothing, so reading a message on this phone is NOT considerably slower than on any other phone, provided you’re not using T9 or any other sophisticated input method. The only way a message can be composed is by typing each letter in the standard way. Furthermore, there’s no ‘back’ button in the sense that you can navigate your message. If you make a mistake, you have to erase all the letters from the end of the message to the mistake in order to correct it, and then type everything again.

Nick: What do you like best about the phone?

Me: I’d have to say the large characters that display the time, the visibility of the screen, and the intuitiveness of the interface (after you take 10 minutes to learn it, mainly because we’ve all been conditioned to expect a lot of counter-intuitive interfaces from phones). Oh, and the price. You just can’t beat a $40 price tag on a phone that looks this good.

Also, I was surprised by the alarm. It’s quite loud, annoying, and must have a very well constructed sound loop because when it starts “chirping”, it appears as if the frequency/tone of the sound is slightly randomized, so it’s not a constant beat. Let’s just say it has more success waking me up than most other alarms I’ve tried (with the possible exception of The Matrix soundtrack CD starting at full volume).

Nick: What do you miss most? Is the simplicity a blessing or a curse?

Me: I think what I miss the most is the ability to synchronize my contact list with my mac, and slightly less I miss being able to connect my mac to the internet through the phone from wherever I am. However I still force myself to not carry my bluetooth enabled phone everywhere with me, because I believe having that kind of access to the internet should be reduced. As a computer scientist I spend a LOT of time on the internet as is, and having the ability to connect to the internet from anywhere at any time is just distracting. Feel free to disagree with me on this.

Beyond that, I do not miss the camera, the color screen, or the mp3 capabilities (I even have an iPod that I never use). If anything, I’d say the simplicity is a blessing. I never really used any of those features on my phones for any reasonable purpose, and simply having them there caused me to take ugly photos, waste time with 100px color photos, and suffer through low quality songs. Granted there are a lot of smartphones out there that get a lot of these things right, and maybe it is convenient to some to have a low quality 2MP camera in their pocket at all times. As far as I’m concerned however, if I believe I’ll want to take some photos, I’ll take a real camera. There’s just no way a phone can be designed to do all those things, and at the same time be small, light and usable. It always takes away from the primary purpose of the phone: making calls; which is why I believe the simplicity of this phone is a step in the right direction.

Nick: What are the greatest flaws of the phone? How would you improve it?

Me: I’d have to say the way the screen displays the characters. It seems that e-ink technology is able to create finer text, though I don’t know how that would affect the stand-by battery life (not that it matters much in real-life terms). Reading/Composing messages is troublesome at best, which is a problem concerning a lot of cellular communication now occurs via texting. I realize that a lot of the marketing around the phone is targeted to people who potentially don’t know how to read and/or write, but it’s a mistake to not consider the vast number of people who do and will be using this phone for that purpose. Other than that, I couldn’t be happier with it.

Nick: How popular is the phone in India? How is it marketed?

Me: I have not seen any ads for it, nor have I seen anyone else carry it or use it. That being said, I had a hell of a time finding a unit, as it was out of stock in every shop I went to. On the flip side, one shop owner I chatted up said they only brought 20 units total which sold in a couple of weeks, but they have no plans of bringing more. A few other stores hadn’t even heard of the device. I was finally able to locate a store that was having some stock brought in, and I reserved a device from them. The store attendant seemed to be very curious as to why I would choose a phone that had no features, and kept trying to get me to buy something else. Then again I’m in Mangalore, which is a city of 800,000 people in a country of 1.2 billion, and is also considered by many as a backwater village (i had to go to 4 different computer stores to find a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable). It’s extremely likely that Motorola has just not focused any marketing efforts in my parts of India, but I can’t confirm that.

Nick: Would you use this as your primary phone in the US?

Me: Probably. I’ve definitely given up a Nokia 6230 and an Ericsson K700i for this phone. Both of the other phones are turned off and stuck in my closet. That being said, I would not get rid of secondary phone with some more wireless capabilities, because I often find myself needing some mobile access which a simple phone cannot provide. I don’t know if I’d give up a blackberry for it, as I’ve never owned one (re: my comment on the simplicity of the phone).

Update 2007-03-28: Since some people have started adding undocumented key codes to the comments, I’ll try to maintain a complete list here and update it as more undocumented settings codes come up.

To access the advanced settings, press * * * [number code] * [action]

Those are the ‘official’ codes, covered in the manual. Now for the experimental part…
Note: Use these at your own risk, even before these codes were posted here phone numbers were lost from a SIM card because of them, so back up your numbers before you use them!

The following codes work AS IS, i.e. without entering the * around them

That’s it for now! If you find more, post them in the contents, I’ll pick them up and put them here.

Tags: Motofone, Motorola, Review
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394 Responses to “Motorola Motofone F3 Review”

1. 1. Comment by yochai
   on 30 Jan 2008 @ 10:39 pm

   Having the touchtone problem. I used to be able to use them; now I can’t. I’ve tried enabling/disabling tones using BOTH the codes and the menu; nothing helps!

   Also, anyone know how to make the phone vibrate when you receive a message?

   Thanks!

2. 2. Comment by yochai
   on 30 Jan 2008 @ 10:53 pm

   Okay, so I restarted the phone (after enabling/disabling 250/251) and now touchtone works!

3. 3. Comment by neenee
   on 31 Jan 2008 @ 11:22 am

   yochai – you can not make the phone vibrate for messages.

4. 4. Comment by Steve
   on 4 Feb 2008 @ 6:12 am

   help!!!! i used the code *#31# because i wanted to hide my # when i called ppl.. but now i can’t figure out how to change it back… does anyone know and/or does anyone have a complete list of all the advanced codes for this phone? the link on this site doesn’t work anymore.. also i know it is the phone because i put my chip in another phone and it shows my # when i call ppl and i put my friends chip in this phone and his # won’t show up from this moto f3… if u know please reply back to this message or email me at ryu__420@hotmail.com thanks!

   PS. i tried to restore factory defaults it didn’t seem to do anything…

5. 5. Comment by Rotarydoc
   on 5 Feb 2008 @ 1:45 am

   Hi,

   I just purchased one of these phones, and so far, like it alot. However, I am not getting anywhere near the expected battery life on standby that I have been reading about…I can only seem to get about 3 days of standby time out of the battery, after a full, overnight charge…that’s with no useage of the phone, alarms, or any features, and no calls made or received, only being on standby.

   Thinking I got one with a defective battery, I took it back to the store, and got an exchange, another brand new phone with batttery. I just got done checking it, and it’s already down to 2 bars on the battery, and it has not even made it 48 hours yet…again, with a full, overnight charge, and no usage except standby (literally sitting on the kitchen table, not being used).

   I looked up the battery supplied with the phone, and it’s a Motorola BD-50, which is rated at 750 milliamp hours, (mAh), which is a pretty decent battery rating.

   I know that with Ni-Cad type batteries, there is a “learning curve” so to speak, and as the battery gets used (charged and discharged fully for a few cycles) it develops a longer “run time”…but I have read and been under the impression that Lithium Ion batteries do not have this characteristic?

   At the same time I bought this phone, I also bought a Nokia 2610, which has so far shown absolutely stellar battery life, it’s been on standby for 4 days straight, and the battery meter has not budged!

   I really WANT to like this little Motorola, but the disappointing battery life is a bummer. I mean, after all, isn’t that one of the biggest selling points of this phone, and the entire reason for the E-ink display?

   I welcome any and all comments, suggestions, etc. otherwise really neat little phone!

   Thanks, Glenn

6. 6. Comment by jay
   on 5 Feb 2008 @ 4:08 am

   I got my f3 from india .buh its locked……..how to unlock it???????????

7. 7. Comment by neenee
   on 5 Feb 2008 @ 4:11 pm

   Rotarydoc, I agree.

   Though my F3 lasts about a week, I find the battery life disappointing as well, considering the minimal feature set and the e-paper screen. I would have thought that it would be able to last a few weeks, like many *many* announcements stated.

   Ah well, hopefully a new release will come out someday, rectifying the situation.

   Regardless of it all, I like it and will keep using it.

8. 8. Comment by Steve
   on 6 Feb 2008 @ 10:45 am

   [quote comment=”2203″]help!!!! i used the code *#31# because i wanted to hide my # when i called ppl.. but now i can’t figure out how to change it back… does anyone know and/or does anyone have a complete list of all the advanced codes for this phone? the link on this site doesn’t work anymore.. also i know it is the phone because i put my chip in another phone and it shows my # when i call ppl and i put my friends chip in this phone and his # won’t show up from this moto f3… if u know please reply back to this message or email me at ryu__420@hotmail.com thanks!

   PS. i tried to restore factory defaults it didn’t seem to do anything…[/quote]

   oh by the way, i’m on the rogers network and i called them and they said its phone specific.. does ANYONE KNOW HOW I CAN MAKE IT SO MY CALLER ID IS SHOWN TO PEOPLE WNEN I CALL THEM?! some houses won’t even accept blocked calls and its really annoying..

9. 9. Comment by neenee
   on 6 Feb 2008 @ 10:55 pm

   Steve, there is no known way to change whether or not the phone sends the caller ID. Therefor, I think your problem can not be caused by the phone, as by default the caller ID is shown. You can not have disabled that, so I think it’s a network setting. Good luck though.

10. 10. Comment by Steve
    on 7 Feb 2008 @ 12:56 am

    well.. i got a solution.. im selling my phone to someone and just buying a new one off ebay again haha.. i’ll even turn profit off it since noone i know has ever seen one of these phones! 🙂

11. 11. Comment by Goxy
    on 8 Feb 2008 @ 2:35 pm

    Rotarydoc, your battery must be defective… Mine lasts for full 10 days on standby, and around a week with 5-10 calls a day… Everything works great… If only someone could figure out a code for turning on the delivery report…

12. 12. Comment by yochai
    on 12 Feb 2008 @ 3:33 am

    okay now i’m having this problem where it tells me I have a voicemail when i don’t… any ideas?

13. 13. Comment by gene
    on 12 Feb 2008 @ 9:10 pm

    Don’t pay a lot of attention to the power bars. I talked for an hour one night with only 1 bar showing…

14. 14. Comment by gene
    on 12 Feb 2008 @ 9:08 pm

    [quote comment=”2204″]Hi,

    I just purchased one of these phones, and so far, like it alot. However, I am not getting anywhere near the expected battery life on standby that I have been reading about…I can only seem to get about 3 days of standby time out of the battery, after a full, overnight charge…that’s with no useage of the phone, alarms, or any features, and no calls made or received, only being on standby.

    Thinking I got one with a defective battery, I took it back to the store, and got an exchange, another brand new phone with batttery. I just got done checking it, and it’s already down to 2 bars on the battery, and it has not even made it 48 hours yet…again, with a full, overnight charge, and no usage except standby (literally sitting on the kitchen table, not being used).

    I looked up the battery supplied with the phone, and it’s a Motorola BD-50, which is rated at 750 milliamp hours, (mAh), which is a pretty decent battery rating.

    I know that with Ni-Cad type batteries, there is a “learning curve” so to speak, and as the battery gets used (charged and discharged fully for a few cycles) it develops a longer “run time”…but I have read and been under the impression that Lithium Ion batteries do not have this characteristic?

    At the same time I bought this phone, I also bought a Nokia 2610, which has so far shown absolutely stellar battery life, it’s been on standby for 4 days straight, and the battery meter has not budged!

    Don’t pay a lot of attention to the power bars. I talked for an hour one night with only 1 bar showing…

    I really WANT to like this little Motorola, but the disappointing battery life is a bummer. I mean, after all, isn’t that one of the biggest selling points of this phone, and the entire reason for the E-ink display?

    I welcome any and all comments, suggestions, etc. otherwise really neat little phone!

    Thanks, Glenn[/quote]

15. 15. Comment by grey
    on 18 Feb 2008 @ 2:03 pm

    hi, nice review 😉

    in fact, you made me buy one for a second number)

    Question: is there any chance to disable the display of the operator name on the screen?.. it kinda boring…

    thanks!

16. 16. Comment by neenee
    on 18 Feb 2008 @ 7:54 pm

    Nope, that’s not possible grey.

    But usually you see the time instead of the operator name =]

17. 17. Comment by grey
    on 19 Feb 2008 @ 10:06 am

    well, what can i say..

    i just love this phone)

    and my family, too. i guess i`ll buy another one for my father)

18. 18. Comment by neenee
    on 19 Feb 2008 @ 6:25 pm

    Hehe. My father has one too, as does my brother =]

19. 19. Comment by grey
    on 19 Feb 2008 @ 8:02 pm

    already spoken 52 minutes and 2 of 5 battery bars are gone.

    don`t know is it good or bad for this phone.

    any suggestions ?

    thanks!

20. 20. Comment by grey
    on 21 Feb 2008 @ 9:33 am

    update:

    spoken 128 minutes from Monday (and did NOT a full battery charge)

    for a phone which costs 43USD – it`s pretty nice!

    have one battery bar left, we`ll see how much it will stay 😀

    once again, i just love this phone!

21. 21. Comment by Alan
    on 21 Feb 2008 @ 11:31 pm

    For those UK readers, TJ Hughes are selling the F3 for £5 but it is locked to Orange PAYG. UNlock code would be very useful

22. 22. Comment by JH
    on 22 Feb 2008 @ 7:50 am

    Is there anyway to remove the Roaming / Out of Service Indicator. My phone is unlocked but must have been locked at one time because it always stays on.

23. 23. Comment by neenee
    on 22 Feb 2008 @ 4:46 pm

    Is that ‘house with a cross’ icon?

    If so, it will not only be enabled when your phone is locked, but also when you are using a service provider which makes use of other networks for its service. Lebara is an example.

    There’s no way to remove or disable that icon that I know of.

24. 24. Comment by JH
    on 23 Feb 2008 @ 2:35 am

    Yes its the House with the cross. It used to be locked to some other network in South America. I am using it unlocked on AT&T.

25. 25. Comment by Mark K
    on 23 Feb 2008 @ 10:56 pm

    Got mine from Tescos mobile in the UK (£15 including £10 call time) as an, effectivly, ‘disposable’ phone for skiing. Who cares if it gets wet/frozen/squashed). Is still in one piece and works great.

    The only thing I can’t yet find is a ‘delete call history’ function. Don’t want ‘er indoors’ to find out about ‘er wot I met on the slopes’ 🙂

26. 26. Comment by mubeen
    on 26 Feb 2008 @ 8:47 am

    hi i just bought a motorola f3 its nice and amazing but only with minute set of queries.could you please let me know hoe to delete the call history and whats the code for it
    awaiting for reply

27. 27. Comment by neenee
    on 26 Feb 2008 @ 10:20 pm

    There’s no code to clear the call history.

28. 28. Comment by Al K
    on 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:51 pm

    I just received shipment of it. The phone looks very cool and the reception is better than my higher end Samsung. Where the Samsung gets 1 out of 5 the F3 gets 5 out of 5! Text messaging is a pain and I think biggest setback was the lack of decent menu options, otherwise if you just want to talk this phone is all quality!

29. 29. Comment by Greg
    on 6 Mar 2008 @ 10:38 am

    I have a new F3 that is requesting some 4 digit pin #. Any idea on where I find it? It was a new unlocked phone.

30. 30. Comment by berto
    on 8 Mar 2008 @ 8:51 pm

    for those of you having voicemail problems, i.e. you can’t get rid of messages, try turning on the touchtone option (***250*up) and then turn your phone on and off. It worked for me. A simple restart tends to solve a lot of problems.

31. 31. Comment by spyder
    on 9 Mar 2008 @ 12:03 am

    It’s not the F3 which needs the PIN, it is your SIM card, look a your contract from your provider where you got the SIM from.

32. 32. Comment by PB
    on 14 Mar 2008 @ 12:40 am

    Am I to understand that the clock has to be set manually (i.e., phone does not get it over the network)?

33. 33. Comment by richard norwood
    on 14 Mar 2008 @ 6:38 am

    I love the idea of this phone but what’s the bottom line for someone who wants to get a motofone in the United States? F3 or or F3c? Who do I go to to get prepaid minutes and how much is it per minute. Many thanks.

34. 34. Comment by neenee
    on 17 Mar 2008 @ 1:56 pm

    The F3 is GSM, the F3c is CDMA, which is used for instance, in North America. As for the cost of prepaid minutes and where to get them, if you buy an unlocked Motofone F3(c), you can make use of the service of any provider selling prepaid simcards, and the per-minute cost for calling with them is something only they can tell you, it’s completely unrelated to the phone itself.

    Good luck

35. 35. Comment by neenee
    on 17 Mar 2008 @ 1:58 pm

    PB – yes. Time/date are set manually.

36. 36. Comment by peteski
    on 18 Mar 2008 @ 9:54 pm

    got my second f3 – J&R music world on line for $40

37. 37. Comment by Andrew
    on 27 Mar 2008 @ 4:40 pm

    I’ve had an F3 for a few days, and I like it fine. Tolerable range of ringtones, easy setup, super-light and cool. I wish it had programmable profiles, so I could switch it to silent for the duration of an appointment and not have to remember to switch back: but it’s supposed to be a hyper-simple rig, so I understand.

    Caveat: even if locked, if the red button is held down, the unit will turn off. It happened in my pocket, and I really wish it couldn’t.

38. 38. Comment by Jeff
    on 28 Mar 2008 @ 9:23 am

    I bought two of these phones 6 months ago, one for myself and one for a friend.

    This phone looked perfect on paper- no extraneous bells and whistles, long battery life and a great form factor. I was aware of the screen text limitations, and was willing to accept that.

    On the plus side, the phone is very slim and attractive. The screen is easy to read. The foreign language voice prompts are initially very amusing.

    However, the phone turned out to be a huge disappointment:

    Build quality is shoddy- mine had a creaking chasis and my friend’s phone simply died after 4 months.

    Usability was disappointing- the buttons are not responsive enough for fast texting and scrolling through phone numbers is awkward. I knew that there was little screen real estate for texting, but coupled with the very laggy and inaccurate scrolling via the keypad, this made text messaging completely useless.

    Voice quality is mediocre- callers reported poor sound quality (admittedly I could hear others fine).

    Battery life was a major disappointment- I would have to recharge every 2.5 days on very minimal use (less than 20 minutes of talk time per day). Given the very low power requirements of such a basic phone, coupled with an e-paper screen, this was highly disappointing, especially after reading about battery life estimates of 10 or more days.

    Overall, this phone was not worth even the tiny purchase price. My friend’s phone broke, and I ended up giving mine away. If you want a cheap phone, just get a low-end model from another manufacturer instead.

39. 39. Comment by Marty
    on 28 Mar 2008 @ 1:42 pm

    I’ve had the phone for about 2 months now. I live just outside Toronto Ontario. It works well with the Rogers network.

    Here are my experiences:

    Overall, a great phone that I’m quite happy with for the price

    I have also experienced the problem reported above that after about a 7 wks of use, when calling my voice mail and trying to type in my password, the system wouldn’t recognize that I was entering numbers. Similarly, If I called a business and had to type in an extension, it wouldn’t recognize that I was pressing any buttons. I reset the phone using the ***000*enter code, removed the battery, replaced the battery, and now it’s fine again.

    Battery life is not as advertised but I get about 4-5 days of normal use out of it leaving it on all the time.

    Reception is excellent.. no other problems.

40. 40. Comment by PB
    on 24 Apr 2008 @ 11:56 am

    My first phone was a bust (wouldn’t speak English, wouldn’t recognize the SIM). It did not come in a cylindrical container, but rather in a regular box. I appeared to be sold with a SIM as part of prepaid plan in Mexico. Maybe it was a return?

    The second phone came in a tube and works as advertised.

    – The reception is the best on any cell phone I’ve used. I agree with the reviewer that it rivals a land line.

    – Only had it a couple days so too soon to judge battery life but so far, so good.

    – The interface can be mastered in a matter of minutes. If the lack of features is going to bug you, then this is not the phone for you.

    – It would be nice to have a few more features though (editing an existing contact instead of deleting and starting over, assigning speed dial keys rather than having them assigned in the order you enter the contacts, clock updated via network). But I understand that if I ask for these features, others will ask for more and different features and pretty soon, it will be just like any other phone. There are plenty of “every other phone” phones and only one of these, so stick with what you got, I say. Consider it an enforced simplicity so you get on with on with more important things in your life than fiddling with your phone.

    Anyway, nice phone, nice price. Love the super-thin case, great reception, always on screen, and simplicity.

41. 41. Comment by cynthia smith
    on 1 May 2008 @ 8:38 pm

    IBUY TWO OF THe PHONE IN THE U S A TAKe THEM TO JAMAICA AND BOTH OF THEM NOT WORKING .i dont understand to open them I buy them because they says they are open.what must i do.

42. 42. Comment by PB
    on 5 May 2008 @ 10:55 pm

    I’ve had my phone for a couple of weeks now. Very nice but the battery could be better. I suspect that once you set the clock, it then works off the network after all. I can’t prove it but once you set it, it keeps time to the minute and every so often, the phone will turn itself on and the time will update. Most devices that don’t synchronize the time over network will go at least a few minutes off every week and what’s the point of the phone turning itself on to update the time anyway? That’s why I surmise this. Anyone care to comment on this?

43. 43. Comment by SB
    on 17 May 2008 @ 12:18 am

    my F3 displays a 5 digit code when i first press a button when bringing it out of clock mode, it also displays that code right before going back into the clock mode. what is this 5 digit code supposed to be, also can i stop or change it?

44. 44. Comment by CB
    on 20 May 2008 @ 4:10 am

    My question also… what do those 5 numbers mean and can I get rid of them? They annoy me. Otherwise, neat phone. Thanks.

45. 45. Comment by PB
    on 22 May 2008 @ 7:26 pm

    I think those numbers refer to the service provider the phone is connecting to.

46. 46. Comment by Anthony Felino
    on 4 Jun 2008 @ 7:07 pm

    I got mine about a week ago. It seems to do what it does well, with
    great RF and audio performance – definitely a notch above most of
    the phones out there. The display is excellent and so far I have not
    encountered any conditions where I could not read it. As I read up
    on the ‘net I found that the phone did indeed do the things that I
    thought it would not do and that I would miss. This includes getting
    the correct time from the provider. It must, because mine was still
    within a second after using it for a week, and I didn’t set it that
    close to begin with. The only problems now are that I can’t get it
    to ring without also vibrating once (not too big a deal) and that
    I have ATT and they can’t turn on the message waiting icon. I called
    their tech support, and they were patient and cooperative but they
    could not find a way to make it work. Mine is a South American model,
    and I’m wondering if the phones that Motorola is selling on their
    US website have the same problem. Anyone know the answers?
    Thanks, af

47. 47. Comment by PB
    on 4 Jun 2008 @ 11:13 pm

    @Anthony Felino: see this regarding voice mail icon

    http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=motorola&thread.id=98603

48. 48. Comment by Mec
    on 6 Jun 2008 @ 7:37 pm

    I love this phone, I bought it in Peru for about 28 US dollars and I am loving it, one question though, does anybody know how to edit an entry in the phonebook?

49. 49. Comment by neenee
    on 8 Jun 2008 @ 8:56 am

    You can not edit entries in your phonebook. If you had read the other posts, or at least searched through them, you would have known this.

50. 50. Comment by PB
    on 11 Jun 2008 @ 1:20 pm

    Anyone know what this icon means and how to disable it?

    http://picasaweb.google.com/bobish/Bucket/photo#5210594869918107346