Category: accessible Devices
After months of trying to decide on a phone, I finally found one that seemed to suit my needs. It's the Motorola Motofone F3. Well, I bought it for $30 brand new and it arrived on Wednesday. But I had to wait for thirsday so that my parents could place my sim card from the other phone in it and set it up so that I could start my adventure. In any case, here are my first impressions. Btw, the setup is accessible. But I didn't want to play with the first phone since it's expensive and Mom's taking it back to use.
Size
As expected, far from being the large and heavy phone that I was originally seeking, this is a very thin, small and light phone. Under ordinary circumstances, I'd never choose it. However, it's durability is supposed to be fantastic, able to handle drops from three-storey buildings, rain, sweat, wind, dust, you name it. That means no more broken phones because I accidentlly dropped it on the floor or wet it with my hands, which is the fate of my last phone prior to Mom's temporary replacement.
Keys
After reading the various reviews of this phone, I knew that it didn't have keys that stuck out, the kind that I was seeking. But they assured the readers that this was a very easy-to-use phone and that the rubber boarders around the keys were very good at helping someone tactually distinguish between them. Each row of keys is basically a plastic strip. So instead of 1 2 and 3 you have one big key, and each row is like that. However, Each number, or ke, in the case of the nonnumerical keys, has a little dot above it. It doesn't stick out but it can still be noticed. If you don't think about it, you don't even realise that the keys aren't separate. Each has a very clear feedback both tactually and audibly through touch tones.
Reception
When I called my mother for a test run, she said I sounded as if I were right next to her. For my part, she came in nice and clear with no drops, missed words, digital noise etc. If anyone's ever used a Track Phone, that's the kind of reception the Motofone is supposed to have. Basically, it'll work just about anywhere and under almost any condition. It has two internal antennas to aid in serving this purpose and they seem to do a very good job.
Voice Prompts
One of the truly amazing qualities of this phone, especially given it's simplicity, is the voice prompts. While it won't read your sms messages, your call history, the battery status or tell you who's calling, it will certainly tell you what menu you're in and let you choose certain options like change ring tone. The voice is male, very clear and pleasant. Now I don't have to accidentally get stuck in a menu without knowing what happened. That said, it's pretty difficult to get into them without using the circle in the centre of the phone.
Battery Life
the little paper that came with the phone said to charge it for 24 hours. So while I've been using it, it's been charging. I've only unplugged it about an hour ago. It's supposed to have a standby time of 12 days when not used and several days when being used. this is impressive by any standard and is one of the main reasons why I bought the phone in the first place.
Ring Tone
There are eight ring tones on the Motofone. None are especially exciting but they do the job and they do it well. The volume can be set, though I'm guessing either with sighted assistance or through a key combination, since I haven't done it yet. It can be very loud, so even if you're in the next room or in a crowd of people, you can hear it. You can set it to ring at a fixed volume or to get louder with each ring. The ring tone itself certainly is changeable with use of the voice prompts and no sighted assistance. Simply hit the right arrow on the circle, identifiable by a dot, until you hear change ring tone. Then you can cycle through the choices, with the up and down arrows, until you find the one you want. Once you're satisfied, hit the action key, (the one at the top left, above the answer button), and you've got yourself a new ring tone! It's the first time I've ever been able to use this feature on a mainstream phone.
Speaker Phone
Another really nice feature of this phone is the hands-free speaker phone. This is good for when you're doing things and don't want to hold the phone or for when you're in a conference. It's very easy to use as well. Simply hit the action button twice to activate and twice again to return to the regular mode. Motorola also makes a headset for the phone but I haven't bought that yet. I've read that it won't accept a standard headphone type plug so it's necessary to get the one made by the manufacturer or one with a similar connection.
Alarm
As with the ring tone, this is completely accessible. Just hit the right arrow on the circle until you hear "set alarm". You can then enter a number, on the normal numberpad, say 1000 for 10 O'clock, and hit action. It'll ask you for am or pm, which you can cycle through with the up and down arrows on the circle. Then hit action and you're done!
Speed Dial
While I don't normally use the address book in any phone, the way this one works bares mentioning. Apparently, the first nine numbers can be reached simply by holding down the coresponding key for a few seconds. So if your brother is on three, you simply hold down three and it will call him. But I'm fairly sure that this one will require sighted assistance since the voice will not read the numbers and letters that you type. I could be wrong, though, since I haven't tried it. It's also worth mentioning that if, like me, you're on TMobile, you might want to see if you can start your contacts at 2, since holding down one will bring you to your voice mail. If you still want to use one as a contact number, then there's a way to set a number for voice mail with this phone, but again, I haven't tried it. I believe it's a combination.
Hotkeys
This phone uses a command line interface, or at least hotkeys, for several features. While it may seem confusing at first to learn them, this is far easier than navigating through menus where things may or may not be spoken. I believe the phone actually runs under Linux. So those of you who use that os and those, like me, who love DOS, will have an appreciation for the clean interface. That said, many of the important features are accessed through the menus, so you don't have to learn hot keys for really simple things. As I've demonstrated, a great deal is perfectly accessible there, so this shouldn't pose a problem.
Other Advantages
this is an unlocked GSM phone. So if, for example, I wanted to switch from TMobile to another service provider that uses the GSM network, I can easily do that with this phone. It's also possible to use the Motofone with prepaid plans if you don't want to be stuck in a contract.
downside
There aren't really any downsides to this phone other than ones which involve personal preference. I'd like it to be larger and heavier and to have more well-defined keys, though as I said, they're easy to use as is. I'd also like the voice to be able to announce the battery status and who's calling. I love the kind of external entennas that can be pulled out but haven't seen them in a new phone in years and these do work wonderfully, so I really can't complain about them.
Overall
this is truly a wonderful phone. It's simplicity insures fewer or no headaches. If you want a modern
Well, I think I finally heard a low battery alarm but am not sure. I heard a few beeps from it and then they stopped. the phone is still working, so either it takes a long time to die or it wasn't the battery alarm. In any case, I dropped it today, and when I picked it up, there wasn't a scratch or dent on it. I haven't really gone out with it, but when I do, I'll let you know about the reception. also, when I holding down one, it won't bring me to my e-mail. However, I called myself, entered my password and it worked fine.
Well, it was definitely the battery. when I tried to make a call, it was dead. The only bad thing here is that the sound is pretty quiet. I could clearly here it in my place because I didn't have any other noise in the way. But if I was in public or had people over, I might not necessarily hear the little beeps indicating that the battery was dying. Fortunately, I can get one of those emergency battery charger kits that run off of AA batteries. I think I have one but am not sure if it'll fit into the socet on the phone.