- GSM quad-band technology for communication around the globe
- Compact design with soft-touch covers and vivid color internal display (65,000 TFT)
- Integrated VGA camera with 4x zoom and dedicated one touch video capture and playback
- Preloaded FotoFun Photo Editor for editing by adding clip art and backgrounds to existing images
- Conference calling and integrated hands-free speaker
- Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), POP3 and IMAP4 client for e-mail management, and Wireless Village instant messaging
- J2ME MIDP 2.0 support for application, ringer, wallpaper, graphic and game downloads
- Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free conversations
- EDGE technology for high-speed data transmission with WAP 2.0 compliant browser
- SyncML device management and Personal Information Management (PIM) synchronization
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Cell Phones Released in Q4 2004
Technical Specifications |
| Network: |
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| Form Factor: |
Clamshell |
| Dimensions: |
89 x 49 x 25 mm |
| Weight: |
114 g |
| Antenna: |
Stub |
| Navigation: |
5-Way Keypad |
| Battery Type: |
820 mAh Li-Ion |
| Talk Time: |
3.75 |
| Standby Time: |
225 |
| Memory: |
5 MB |
| Expandable Memory: |
 |
| |
Imaging |
| Main Screen: |
65000 colors (TFT)
176 x 220 px |
| External Screen: |
2 colors (STN)
96 x 32 px |
| Camera: |
0.3 MP / 640 x 480 px / 4X Zoom / Self-Timer / Video Recorder |
| |
Audio |
| MP3 Player: |
|
| FM Radio: |
|
| Speakerphone: |
 |
| Push-To-Talk: |
|
| |
Multimedia |
| Wallpapers: |
176 x 220 px |
| Screen Savers: |
176 x 220 px |
| Ring Tones: |
MP3 |
| Themes: |
|
| Games: |
J2ME |
| Streaming Multimedia: |
|
| |
Messaging |
| SMS: |
|
| EMS: |
|
| MMS: |
|
| Email: |
POP3 / IMAP4 / SMTP |
| Chat: |
|
| Predictive Text: |
iTAP |
| |
| |
|
Applications |
| Phonebook Capacity: |
1000 |
| Calendar: |
|
| To-Do List: |
|
| WAP: |
2.0 |
| Voice Commands: |
|
| Calculator: |
|
| |
Connectivity |
| Bluetooth: |
|
| Infrared Port: |
|
| High-Speed Data: |
GPRS (Class 10) / EDGE |
| Wi-Fi: |
|
| GPS: |
|
| PC Sync: |
SyncML |
| |
More Information |
| Website: |
Motorola V551 Website |
| Discussion: |
Motorola Forum |
* Compare with other phones side-by-side, or Search by features. We always try to make sure our specs are accurate and
complete; however there may be times when information is not known. If you come across
any missing details or mistakes, please
contact us so we can help
other consumers.
Motorola V551 User Reviews |
| 1. Posted by charged |
Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:53 pm |
The V551 is great! I had received a V551 in replacement of my V221 which was a horrible phone only lasted me a night. Anyway the V551 is a great all around phone its tough I dropped it few times not a scratch!
Pros:
Good camera
Pretty decent screen
Can take videos too
Outside looks great
Cons:
Only can take about 15 seconds of video
Makes a loud sound when you press the volume button
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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| 2. Posted by qc832 |
Tue Jan 04, 2005 7:15 pm |
I was a little wary of going away from my Kyocera SmartPhone (with Palm) but I'm glad I did. This phone is very slick
Also, I went in on family plan and my wife got the Nokia 6230 and I hate it-screen res is ugly, buttons are difficult to use and the phone flat out sucks compared to mine. However, she loves the phone. Honestly, I don't believe her, I just think she wants to not admit that mine is better 
PRO: screen resolution looks great, speakerphone is excellent, bluetooth is huge for backup purposes(with a little tech know-how, you can throw ringtones and pics on there for free with Motorola's Mobile Phone Tools)
Battery life is above average, and on ebay extra batteries and a desktop charger go for under $20 which I recommend for the workplace as a backup
Camera is decent but I dont want a cell phone for it's camera, go buy a digicam so I dont use it often except to make a quick wallpaper for my phone
MyMedia section is slick, and the themes are very cool, wish there were more (maybe for download somewhere)
SO-SO: Datebook could be more robust, but nice to have - could be a few more games on phone, even if they are demos.
CONS: yes the voice dial is weak, but I dont use it often, however, I would like to see an option to voice dial while phone is closed; minor peeve is that when turning down the volume you must scroll through all volume levels to get it to vibrate or silent, not very helpful in a meeting!
Highly recommend this phone (using a Cingular plan) to anyone - even over the Razor whose buttons just aren't right and the price isn't nice either (yet).
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531 out of 583 people found this review helpful.
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| 3. Posted by starfyre |
Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:15 pm |
i'm very glad i picked this phone before reading the reviews, because it seems a lot of people have griped about the v551's supposed "errors" due to being unable to figure out certain things first.
rule of thumb with the latest motorola flips: if all else fails, try pressing the "menu" (very top middle) button and there will more than likely be more menu options available. (you can tell if the four-bar menu icon shows up on the bottom-middle of the screen.) to learn how to operate a late motorola flip you need to allow yourself a few minutes to just play with things, and it all becomes clear once you learn the logic behind it. motorola phones are indeed different from kyocera and nokias, but they still make sense.
i was previously on at&t wireless with a v600, and before that back to cingular with a v60i, which are all phones of the same "school". so i was already used to just about the entirety of its interface, and i had that edge in knowing the function of just about every single one of its features right off the bat. i was a little thrown off for a second by the reorganization of its main menu (the office tools being -in- the settings menu, in example), but overall it's just as easy to figure out.
as previously mentioned, yes, the alarm settings can be removed and/or edited. you can also temporarily disable said alarm(s) if you're taking a vacation from your hectic alarm-ridden schedule.  two of my friends and i actually rely on my phone's alarm features to get us all to class in the morning. again, try using the menu button when the alarm is selected in the alarm clock menu.
as also previously mentioned, ringtones can be assigned based on both name and category. try storing the names in your phone instead of the sim card, since sim cards don't store ringtone assignings. i've had no trouble at all downloading mp3s, so i don't know why some users have had problems with it. maybe poor reception due to location? i'd talk to your carrier about that.
the address book can store many numbers for one name. maybe you're not seeing this option because your numbers are stored to the sim card? you can also make the phonebook show only the (user-set) primary number for each contact on the main view, which makes life a lot easier for you if you've got a lot of numbers and contacts.
and lastly, you can actually adjust your ring style in meetings and other such quiet situations without opening the phone and lowering the volume one bar at a time. you'd be surprised what the left side "smart" and "up/down" keys on the phone's external can do, including cycling through customizeable ring styles and missed calls. try hitting one of the up/down buttons (until it says "ring style: loud" or whatever), then press the smart key until it cycles to the one you want. press the up or down key once again to make the screen show the time again.
pros:
- this design rocks. one could argue that being able to switch covers is a nice feature, but i still adore the new rubberized case way better. it's easier and softer to hold this way, it's less prone to sliding on flat surfaces (or out of pockets), and it's an attractive color combination. nothing suggests state of the art mobile technology like blue and silver, heh.
- i'm all about bluetooth. these days i can't really imagine owning a phone that doesn't have bluetooth capability after this and the v600 have wormed their ways into my life. it's worth spending a hundred dollars on a good quality bluetooth headset, especially if you're on the phone even -half- as much as i am. (up to five hours a day, no kidding.)
- i was at first skeptical about battery life in the phone, but it advertises seven hours of talk time and i think that's fairly accurate. it actually lasts longer than the v600, which claims eight hours. i think when bluetooth's perpetually powered on and often connected with a device it uses a little more battery, plus the camera and video recorder are -bound- to devour your battery time. for how loaded down this little phone is, i think it actually does really well with battery life.
cons:
- yeah, the manual's pretty bad. i've not had to look through it for anything, but being it's just as thick as the one for the v600 -and- has room somehow to restate it in three languages i'm guessing it's nowhere near as thorough as it needs to be. which is probably why many people are having difficulty learning the phone.
- i seriously wish they didn't switch the answer and end call buttons, lol. you've no idea how many times i accidentally ignored calls because i hit the wrong button when i was first adjusting to it. but then again, at least the buttons are universal with other phones in that respect.
- i noticed the screen freezing problem as well, which is fixed by opening and shutting the phone once. i don't know what exactly causes it, but i've narrowed it down to certain situations with the phone first connecting with a bluetooth headset, and sometimes changing something using the smart key with the external display.
if i see anything more i'll report.
conclusion:
i'm a personal fan of this phone, it's got to be the best i've owned yet. (and i switch phones really often.) i kind of wish i could figure out the screen freezing pattern and how to avoid it, but it's a small inconvenience i've yet to really get my tail in a knot over.
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232 out of 256 people found this review helpful.
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| 4. Posted by mrbillyvee |
Sun Jul 10, 2005 7:50 am |
The 551 is an awesome phone! As with any product of any kind there are some flaws and some shining benefits.
Let's start with flaws. First the silly manual. A joke!! Really. Aside from instructions on how to turn it on and some other fundamental info there really is no help. THANK THE GODS FOR THIS SITE !!!! The small amount of memory is adequate, but leaves one wanting more. The fact that you cannot add memory is a dropped ball on Moto's part. SHAME !! The blue tooth is cool, but a bit hinky. Ya have to re-find the other phone often. That's about it for the flaws.
That out of the way I just want to say this phone kicks booty !!!
The plusses are numerous:
The display is gorgeous. The MP3 ringtones work great. I used to HATE getting phonecalls on my pathetic V60i. Now I rock out when someone calls. The blue tooth is sooo cool I can transfer ringtones and photos from my phone to my wifes 551 with ease. The menu does take a bit of time to learn but once learned it works well. I would also like to take this opportunity while I'm gushing to thank Cingular for roll over minutes. It's so nice to actually OWN the minutes I pay for. But back to the point: Another BIG plus is the price. I got mine a year ago(2004) for $120. My wife just got hers(July05) for $50 with $50 mail in. The bi**ch!!! heheh Either way the price for what you get is unbeatable. The camera is suprisingly good. As well as easy to use. The video function is cool too. Don't expect to film a Jim Cameron movie with it and you'll be ok.
In conclusion, I HIGHLY reccommend this phone. Buy it, learn it and HAVE FUN with it.
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134 out of 151 people found this review helpful.
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| 5. Posted by reichkollektor |
Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:33 pm |
I have used just about every manufactures phones in one form or another,but I usually settle on Motorola because of their quality.I chose the V551 bacause of all the features it has and the design.I have not had any of the trouble that others report on battery life.But I did have a problem with it not connecting or connecting and not being able for the other party to hear me.But Cingular replaced the phone as they said that I had a faulty phone.I haven't had any real problems since.Where I live signal can be a problem with any phone,but the V551 works just fine.I would recommend this phone to anyone who is looking for a feature packed phone.The only problem that I have is the owners manual from Motorola.It is very poor in layout and hard to understand or reference. 
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168 out of 190 people found this review helpful.
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| 6. Posted by MotoGirl29 |
Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:48 pm |
Hi, 
I have always been mostly a Nokia user with the odd Samsung or Mitsubishi phone ( which both were very poor phones ) but recently I have purhased the V551 and so far it is the best phone I have had yet. One thing that I really like about the phone is the Bluetooth. I have the HS810 headset for the phone and I love it. I can be on the lower level in my house with it on the and the phone can be on the upper level and I still have perfect sound and reception. It is perfect.
I have to agree with other postings I have read regarding the menu options, they are a little complicated to find out about all the features untill you get use to what gets you to what feature and then it it is pretty simple to use.
Also the battery life does drain pretty quickly. From fully charged the battery life will last me around 3 days depending on what functions I use and how much I talk on the phone. Previous phone that I have had from Nokia have lasted more then 4 days but also did not have some of the same functions.
Though overall this is by far the best phone I have purchased in a long time and I plan on keeping it for a long time. Anyone who hasn't yet purchased the phone and is looking into it, I would suggest this phone to anybody.
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162 out of 189 people found this review helpful.
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| 7. Posted by brittwwyk |
Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:08 pm |
OK...I got my first V551 last February. Tried to get the same model I got for my daughter the month before (the V505), but was told that model was no longer available. The V551 looked beautiful and I was really pleased with it...for about a week.
Phone #1: couldn't hold a charge for more than a day - and I use my cell phone VERY little. After a month or so, I lost the ability to send text messages. I would start them, get about 10 words written, and it would just freeze up. Very frustrating. Called support services, and was able to get a replacement (same model).
Phone #2: battery still wouldn't hold it's charge for long, but this one was better. I didn't have to recharge for 1-1/2 to 2 whole days! WOW. I was pretty happy with everything, and started downloading some ringtones, pictures, etc...fun stuff. About six weeks later, the external ring sound just went away. Had to use vibrate or I'd never know when I had an incoming call! Very frustrating. I hae to constantly carry the darn thing. Pretty soon, it stopped vibrating as well. As I now had no idea when calls were coming in, it was time for...
Phone #3: battery now holding a charge for 3-4 days, depending on usage! Yippee! One big downside was that all those ringtones and pictures and things I had on my camera could not be transferred to the new phone. Had to pay yet more $$ to get everything downloaded once again. What a pain. I was really happy with phone #3 for the next 4 months...that's when the internal sound started crapping out! It's now to the point where I can't hear ANY internal sound unless I put it on speakerphone. Not so cool when you're trying to have a personal conversation in a public place!
Now, if you'll all excuse me, I have to call and get Phone #4... 
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18 out of 21 people found this review helpful.
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| 8. Posted by cyrusm |
Tue Jun 27, 2006 1:57 pm |
I have had my V551 (bMobile 900/1800 GSM)for about a year now. Worked fine until recently. I am having problems hearing clearly although the party I am connected too hears me ok. I am not going deaf because I have another phone which works great although its with another provider (Digicel 1900 GSM). Further sometimes I swear the phone does not ring but I see missed calls recorded....what the?
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22 out of 26 people found this review helpful.
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| 9. Posted by nealj |
Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:45 pm |
I must preface this review by admitting my bias -- it has been almost a month since I have been able to actually USE this phone.
I have the V551M -- essentially the same phone but with added MuchMusic software and ringtones -- for Rogers Wireless PayAsYouGo in Canada. I agree with pretty well everything everyone else has commented on so far...
That being said, I particularly liked the capabilities of this phone when it was working. I love the Motorola menu system (though I always make a point of switching from icons to list view), and the smart typing capabilities are great for text messaging.
The camera is far superior to those I've seen on other mid-range phones. The pictures don't look too great on the camera, but once sent to a computer they're pretty decent. I also love the video recording feature.
MP3 ringtones and all the other gadgets that come with it are also incredibly exciting. I've found that you can actually download your own MP3's onto the phone using the browser and then set them as the ringtone at a fraction of the cost of a downloadable tone from Much/Rogers.
Here comes the bad part though. As with any Motorola phone, the charger can be finnicky. The "Unable to Charge" message appears frequently (though not as frequently as I've experienced with my old 120T).
After having this phone for less than 6 weeks, it died. No warning signs, no nothing -- just went kaput. Motorola's service is sub-par at best. The first service centre to repair it managed to get the phone alive again but installed the wrong software. After having the software replaced, it has since died again. I'm now going on almost a month without having had use of the phone, as a result of Motorola's inadequate service capabilities, and incompetence at best.
My advice: pay a little extra and get a comparable phone from a different company. Motorola's phones may be affordable and really flashy/catchy/exciting, but nothing is worse the hassle they will put you through when (yes, when) they die.
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119 out of 141 people found this review helpful.
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| 10. Posted by InfernoX |
Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:52 pm |
I have gone through many phones only the cours of 13 years. At first, I hated this phone. Like many others on here, if it was not for this website, I would have return the phone. The manual for it was terrible. Now I am satisfied with it.
First, I switched over from Verizon to Cingular because Verizon disables the other features of Bluetooth. Because of the switch, I got the V551. Overall, I like the phone and its features.
Pros:
- Good vibrant screen
- Nice rubberized feel on the OEM shell
- Small size
- Good feel to the keys/buttons
- Battery life is good
- Camera is OK. Buy a real camera if you want to take family photos
- Video is OK, 15 secs.
- Bluetooth works great
- Price was $99 at Cingular with $50 rebate
Cons:
- Menu navigation is terrible
- Manual is terrible
- Phonebook copy to SIM card shows duplication
- Has multi-alarm function but does not allow to set future dates with alarm. Yes you can do it in calendar mode but very inconvenient.
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50 out of 60 people found this review helpful.
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| 11. Posted by kidplur |
Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:57 am |
I have been forced by Cingular to migrate over to the V551 and believe me...I am NOT a Motorola fan. However, I have to admit that I'm pretty pleased with this phone. I'm a big Nokia fan and also SonyEricsson, but this is the first Motorola I could see myself sticking with for a while.
Display: Beautiful, large, vibrant display. Every customer that sees it loves it. There are few displays (except the Razr) that rival it.
Sound: MP3 makes a huge difference and you'll never go back to polyphonic! You can make your own MP3s using a software such as Power MP3 Cutter, which cuts out whatever part of the song you want, and upload it to a webpage such as Geocities, and just point the phone to that URL to download it. It's easy, it's FREE.
Text Messaging- I have to say this is the probably the part of the phone I hate most - it just doesn't learn like the Nokia's do - it continually thinks you're trying to spell a word that you never want to spell, or put a apostrophe when you want a period (that's the one I hate most) and no matter how much you select something else, it never offers that first in the future. But you do adjust and it is nice how it will offer to finish the word you're typing by just hitting the up key.
Camera - Blah...it's 330k - what do you want? I can't get excited about it. And yes you can do grainy video! Woohoo
Reception - honestly...it's so - so. I will say that most Nokia's such as the 6200 get a stronger signal than the V551 - internal antenna or not. And I say this also from selling experience. You will rarely get a phone that gets better reception than a good Nokia. It's not bad and it's not great.
Internet - The EDGE is awesome, once again something hard to go away from once you've had it for a while - though Cingular's Media Net is really lacking, compared to mMode from ATTWS for example. It's very boring and bland and not much substance.
Extras - I love the multiple alarm clocks - the datebook is one of the better that I've seen...I don't use the IM client. The Themes are great, though only 3 are included on the phone. Voicedialing is adequate and Voice memo is capped at a minute. Also be aware that the V551 is not fully supported by Moto Phone Tools, and you can only sync numbers - not xfer ring tones thru the software - well...sporadically it works but not normally - there is a new release coming that will support this model.
Menu - I'm not sure why people are saying they hate the menu structure - EVERYTHING is customizable. You can change the top keys, you can change the shortcuts for the 4way directional pad, you can change the menu around (tired of scrolling to the bottom? move it to the top), you can change the smart key on the left side of the phone. I personally love the Shortcut feature which allows you to place shortcuts (you hit Menu +1 for example) to bring you right to a certain menu or application OR to launch you directly to a fav webpage
Reliability - This is the weak spot for Motorola - Their quality assurance has improved but it's still crappy. The 4th day after I got my phone, it decided it didn't want to charge...kept saying Unable to Charge - and I'm not the only one to experience this phenomenon, believe me. Normally if you power the phone off and charge it for a while or you just keep trying, it goes away, but it's annoying. I've ran into some people's displays going white, which normally goes away if you close and reopen the flip...there also seems to be a range of reception on the V551s...some times it's awesome and sometimes it just drops calls all the time - something that seems to have carried over from the V60 and V600 series. Same thing with the battery life - it seems to start out strong and dwindle quickly after you've had the phone for a while. I always recommend trialling the hell out of this phone, taking advantage of Cingular's 30 day return. You can always get the phone replaced thru ExchangebyMail as long as you don't mind a reconditioned phone, or get the insurance for the first 8 or 9 months.
Bluetooth - has a habit of shutting off after 20-30 minutes if not used - many times requiring you to re-pair the headset - Motorola seems to be clueless about this and customers come in with that problem all the time. And a big MINUS for me is that if you're using your Bluetooth headset, you can't use your MP3 ring tones, you're stuck with the standard ones - and yes, that is just how the phone is, according to multiple Mot reps I've spoken with.
But quality issues aside, this is probably one of the best flips on the market at a great price. At least until Nokia floods the US market with it's upcoming flips
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107 out of 134 people found this review helpful.
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| 12. Posted by ash_man |
Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:28 am |
This is my first Moto having had Ericsson and Sony Ericsson phones on GSM and and LG and various Sanyo's when I was on CDMA networks. I am still getting used to the menu structure but overall I like the solid feel of the phone. I am amazed at the crystal clear quality of incoming and outgoing calls, they are the clearest I have ever heard on a cell phone. I did a lot of research before getting this phone, it was a big step for me to go back to a flip which I swore I would never have again after my LG TM520 (VX1) which I gew to hate. That being said, I am happy with all the features, I guess my biggest disappointment which has yet to occur would be the purported poor battery life. I am used to not having to charge my phone for 4-7 days and that is with plenty of talking, but so far the V551 has lasted almost a week on standby its presently at 4bars for battery life, but that is with very little talking. The screen is great, the phonebook is ok once you set it up properly, the bluetooth works flawlessly, the moto mobile tools are fun, the weight and feel of phone is superb. The fact its quad band (dual band GSM for north america) means I get a strong signal at work now on 850 whereas I used to barely get any on 1900. The only other thing that I would of like to have seen is expandable memory, you can't give a phone a VGA camera (which takes great pics, better then my brother in laws V300) and video capability and MP3 ringtones with a paltry 5MB of memory.I'd rate this phone a 9/10
AM
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92 out of 117 people found this review helpful.
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| 13. Posted by vraptor567 |
Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:07 pm |
when I picked my new phone out last december, I liked all the features of the 551, nice color screen, great camera, seemed like a great phone. But then I ran into the dark side, I was dropping 80% of my calls, the phone would still show me as connected, but either I could not hear the person I was calling or the party I was calling could not hear me, I feel like I am in that commercial "can you hear me now" all the time. Cingular has replaced the phone 2x and I am waiting for the 3rd replacement to arrive. I changed to a low end nokia (6010) for a week and all my calls were clear. Not sure what the problem is but I would not recommend this phone if you want reliable connections.
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49 out of 63 people found this review helpful.
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| 14. Posted by Evil2U |
Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:59 pm |
My review isn't as good as the guy before me.
I do agree with some things.
The good things.
1) the sound quality is awsome.
2) The reception appears to be good, if you like to be fooled.
3) blue tooth..
Bad things.
1) Super slow.. The GUI is so slow
2) Drops call's 50% of the time even though you have full bars.
(bars will just go away then come back magicly just to drop your call.)
this is my 2nd phone like this.
3) To easy to accdently switch ringer style ex. in meeting its set on
vibrate. I reach in my pocket for a pen or something.. then my phone
will ring loud. or I expect it to ring and it vibrates instead, so i miss
calls.
I probably would blame the call dropping on the service if i had not had a phone that before this one that worked so well. It is a shame that I lost it.
The v551 makes me so mad on some days I just wanna break it.
I suggest not to get it. Look for something else.
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38 out of 49 people found this review helpful.
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| 15. Posted by mmace1 |
Wed Jan 05, 2005 5:34 am |
I am a little short on time, so let me do this in an efficient manner, with the pros, cons, & conclusion:
Pros:
1.) Exceptionally good reception
2.) Exceptionally good call quality
3.) Undeniably attractive design
4.) Exceptionally sturdy & well-constructed feel
5.) Great Features - 640x480 camera, video recording, 1000 phone book w/ 5 numbers per contact, huge internal display w/ the quality of a computer monitor, speakerphone, etc, external display w/ caller ID, etc.
6.) 4 band world phone, including 850mhz - May give better reception in the US than your old phone…since there are 850mhz towers, but many phones are not capable of accepting 850mhz.
Cons:
1.) Poorly designed menu system - Took me a day to figure out everything, and usually I can learn to use consumer “hi-tech” products nearly instantaneously. In fact, tons of people complain about missing features in the phone...and 90% of the time, they just have been unable to find the freature because the menu is SO bad! It is OK though, once one has learned how to use the menu, its perfectly functional, not a problem at all, it is just a more difficult process than most to learn it...like it was designed in a vastly different culture or something...
2.) Poorly written user manual. – Unfortunate, since the menu makes it difficult for one to explore the phone’s functions oneself.
Conclusion:
An excellent phone despite for a bad menu system & manual. Overall, my favorite of every phone I've owned or handled. Also, an excellent bargain. Mine was on Letstalk.com for $50, plus a $30 mail-in-rebate that is as usual, rather hard to cash. This was all w/ a 1 or 2 year contract of $40/month or more with Cingular. Last time I checked however, Letstalk.com is no longer offering as good of a deal, though still definitely a bargain.
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104 out of 135 people found this review helpful.
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| 16. Posted by bsams |
Wed Mar 02, 2005 6:22 pm |
The V551 is a great phone! After reading all the reviews I bought the phone and I have already recommended it to others. It has exceeded all of my expectations for a phone in this price class.
However, the manual is barely useful for a new user and a pain for experienced users. There is little or no indication of why you might want to use a particular feature or menu item. There are countless undefined terms and acronynms. Locating a feature via the menus is a matter of luck and finding some of them again requires a good memory.
The index helps but it is very inadequate; unless you know the jargon of Motorola, how do you find a function in the index? Many terms used in the menus and on the screens are not defined or indexed. It would be helpful to include more words for things that a user might want to do.
The book is overly complicated as a quick start guide. How about a web site with a more complete user manual and a comprehesive index of terms used, error messages and status indicators. All jargon terms should be defined in the text or in a glossary and be listed in the index.
For instance, one user found the message "Phone is muted" on the screen. What does this mean? Is this good or bad? How do I un-mute the phone? By menu item? Where? By volume control? If muting is useful, How do I put the phone in "Muted Mode"?
 No form of the term "Mute" is in the index.
The phone has many excellent features and easy ways to access them for an experienced user. But how does a novice learn about them? I have been a system desigor for many years but it still took me several days to learn how to move around the menus and begin to customize the phone. It took a few more days to learn how to answer the questions of other users in our company.
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54 out of 71 people found this review helpful.
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| 17. Posted by Juststand |
Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:42 pm |
Hello: This is my first Moto product. I had been a Kyocera (2135) candy-bar style phone user (same rugged model for nearly 4 years), 'till I decided to move to a contract and a new phone.
After having had a larger, easy-to-dial phone, I was dismayed at the tiny, tender, delicate, hard-to-dial/use phones on the market! I'm a graphic artist and have a "real" digital camera, so I did not want a low-res toy-camera on a phone. I simply wanted durability and good sound features and with the V551 I have found it so far.
I was recommened the Moto V551 for quality and as an alternate to the buggy V600. I'll probably never use the camera or web/ blue tooth features. But for the other features I DID want this was the phone to get! This is a flip-style phone, but this model gives offers the length and weight I like.
It is the very sturdy compared to other many other phones out there. This durability factor somewhat standard for Motorola. Reviews said the user interface is NOT very user friendly -- it is not, compared to a Nokia or Kyocera. But for the core phone/ voice mail features I will be using I'm finding my way.
The sound quality is superb over other "tinny" sounding minature phones I tried out. The phone feels solid and well put together. The rings tones that come with the phone are good, though more business sounding rings would be preferred. I not interested in sing-song tune ringers and mainly leave my phone on vibrate mode 24/7. Unfortunatly assignable ring tones for incoming calls (personal vs business) are not available on this model.
The blue texture is nice, though too soon to tell how it'll hold up in the long run. I slapped a case on it anyway, which I do with all my phones to preserve the finish and give them bulk and saftey strap that I like.
I have fairly large fingers and did not want the hassle of hard-to-dial "dainty" keypads. This is one of the wider flip-phone models -- it's fairly easy to dial, even with gloves on. Dialing with gloves on? Yes! One does find the need to dial with gloves on in colder regions!! 
Does anyone know how to "Turn Off" the upper left "Singular" key that activates Net features?? It's in a bad place (near the green TALK key). I don't want to incure Net charges.
I will give an update to this review as I learn more about the phone.
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80 out of 108 people found this review helpful.
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| 18. Posted by This is zazie |
Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:15 am |
My husband and I each bought a Motorola V551 in February 2005. We bought it because I am in Europe a few months per year and I wanted a quad-band to be able to use my local SIM while in Europe.
Pro: The only thing I liked about this phone was its smooth shape that nested easily inside my palm.
CONS - I absolutely hated everything else and all its problems
- The buttons are so positionned that one always ends up pushing the wrong button by mistake e.g., voice activated, video activated, or going onto the web, etc.
- As many have said, the manual is horrendous and I see this failure as a sign that Motorola has no notion, or could not care less, about customer experience.
- It was impossible to delete all those silly screen images and various animations that I did not care for.
- The reception was not good at all and calls got dropped daily not only when I called from home (in the hills) but also from downtown Palo Alto.
- My phone was exchanged three times via Cingular because of these problems and another early on (can't remember which). My husband's phone was exchanged once because the external screen was black
- Another problem both my husband and I had was that sometimes when we tried to place a call the phone would go automatically to the customer response center at Cingular. This happened also when we roamed.
- The battery life is very short. Even on standby I think this phone does not last more than 3 days.
- Although I bought this phone for its international capabilities, it was impossible to get it unlocked. (that was before I knew about Mobile Kangoroo where they unlock phone for a fee). When I bought the phone no one at cingular had told me the phone was locked. From what I read in the reviews here I had gotten the impression that the phone would be unlocked or that it was easy to do. I had many, lengthy discussions with cingular customer service to try to unlock my phone and when someone kind finally made it work for me it was the time that my phone had problems and, of course, the unlocking code did not work with the new phone. I know a lot more now and I learned especially that Motorola is notorious for making it difficult to unlock phones.
- In addition to all the spontanous dropped call. The V551 dropped calls when I was near my Apple Notebook and when in the kitchen perhaps also when the microwave was on (though I must confess I did not tested this hypothesis systematically)
- I also learned, too late, that Motorola does not work well with Apple - that was true of the V551. My Notebook recognized the phone but I could not get beyond and transfer data.
I will never buy another Motorola phone.
I lost my phone.
Actually, I misplaced it, most probably outside somewhere around the house. But, of course, when I tried to call it the battery was dead because I had not charged it for 3 days. After all that rain, it does not matter anymore if I find it.
I bought a NOKIA and I am happy again. The reception is much better (6 bars) than with the Motorola (1 or 2 bars). No dropped calls. The manual is excellent - NOKIA knows something about customer experience.
Somewhere I read a review that referred to the "Nokia experience" and how those who had a Nokia knew what the reviewer was talking about. I know.
Come on people, look beyond the vanity bells and whistles and beyond the surface. Motorola has bad products and does not give a hoot about customers.
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17 out of 24 people found this review helpful.
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| 19. Posted by This is zazie |
Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:08 pm |
My husband and I bought each a V551 in March 2005. We signed up with Cingular because it is the only service that reaches into our little mountains above palo alto.
His phone worked on and off (e.g., when he dialed he would automatically go into Cingular's customer line). Cingular sent a replacement phone 3 times in a row! The last one did work and so far no problem...
My phone worked sort of okay for a few months but the line dropped on almost every call I made (even when being downtown Palo Alto). This #might# have been a Cingualr problem? However, for the past weeks the phone degraded slowly and now I have no sound when I dial so I have to put the speaker phone on to be able to hear and be heard. But no problem when I receive calls.
Cingular is sending me a replacement phone. (I must say their representatives are highly courteous and quick.)
I have an extreme dislike for the V551 menu and with no manual to speak off I find myself using this fancy phone only to make a few calls per week. I stayed away from mobile phone for a few years, and without recent mobile phone experience and a bad manual I can't make sense of what is available to me. This is so frustrating.
The Nokia I had 10 years (?) ago in the States was so much better (i.e., it did what it was supposed to do, the manual was excellent, the little memory card superb). The only reason I chose the Motorola this time around is because I wanted to use it in Europe with my European sim card (I do spent quite a bit of time in Europe) and the V551 was the only one in the Cingular store that offered WW coverage.
And then, in spite of what I read on this forum, the V551 came locked (which I found out the hard way when I was in Europe, so I went back to the old Nokia I inherited in Europe as well, always working faithfully). Trying to get the unlocking code was a game of frustrating ping pong between Motorola and Cingular -- each saying the other had the code.
Overall an annoying experience. And a costly one as well (the plan cost us about 95$ per month-- though the initial "contract of our planned bill was lower but all kinds of additional stuff gets tagged onto the bill. Not worth the hassles.
I wish I had bought a phone with a pay-as-you-go plan.
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15 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
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| 20. Posted by DANTE |
Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:59 pm |
I have to say, that this is a great phone considering the price. Of course razor is better but its also 5 times as expensive even after signing a 2 year contract. - How much do you need out of the phone anyways?
Cingular was giving it for $99 after a $30 mail-in rebate on 1/2/05.
To clarify a few things
#1 Alarms can be deleted and edited, just select an alarm and press the top middle key for option such as edit and delete ( wouldnt it be just illogical to not put that option?). You are welcome.
#2 In case anyone is wondering this phone DOES play MP3's. If you wish to use them for ringtones I reccomend using some software and trimming the song to a clip that is no longer than 17 seconds (approximate lenght of 4 rings) and saving it in a 64k-128k constant bit rate mp3. It should take you no more than 350k per ringtone which roughly is about 15 ringtones (30 if you use 64k and I havent seen much difference between the 128 and 64 as long as you use high quality option when compressing). If you wanted to play full mp3's then maybe you should have bought an mp3 player instead of a phone. I used www.funformobile.com to send it to the phone and I had no problems. I am not sure however what the rate is for sending these to your phone, so you may want to check it before you tranfer 5 megs of mp3's in it.
I hope that this is going to be helpfull to some of you out there.
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45 out of 69 people found this review helpful.
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| 21. Posted by msowsun |
Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:51 am |
I just bought a new V551 in Nov 2005. My phone now came with an internal memory of 7Mb. This is an upgrade from the previous 5MB.
I have been using it now for 1 month and have no complaints.
(well two minor ones)
1) When I plug in the charger, it seems to default the ringer to "Loud". (I usually have it set to "Vibrate and Ring"). When I unplug the charger, it returns to the previous setting.
2) As others have said....When you are holding the phone in your hand, with the cover closed, it is possible to accidently press the "Volume" and "Smart" keys and change the ring style without knowing it.
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15 out of 23 people found this review helpful.
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| 22. Posted by BDRichter |
Mon Dec 27, 2004 7:56 pm |
I had a motorola V60i with AT&T on the TDMA network. It absolutely sucked. But we recently got GSM with Cingular, and I bouht this phone. It is absolutely AWESOME. I love it. I had ot go spend $30-$40 on a bluetooth adapter, so now my PC can have my pictures that I take. Also, I can download MP3 ringtones to it with the bluetooth. That way, there is no cost to order, or send multimedia messages, and havea $0.25 cost.
I love this phone. The camera and screen are crystal clear. I spent about 2 hours customizing it to what i wanted, and I love it.
I reccomend this phone for anyone who wants a phone with MP3 ringtones and a camera. You will love it. And the GSM network (for me at lest) is perfect.
Thanks Motorola and Cingular.
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48 out of 74 people found this review helpful.
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| 23. Posted by ensoll |
Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:33 am |
I just bought and finished setting up a shiny new v551. This is a little suprising for me because I swore Motorola off after seeing many people with trouble over the years and my own 7 months ago with a T720. The T720 died after only a year of gentle use. Since AT&T got sucked up by Cingular and I needed to make some changes to my account, I got sucked over to Cingular too. The logical phone for me to buy for my needs, especially since I already have all of the auxiliary equipment, was the V551. I gave in, but went ahead and bought the phone insurance this time. Motorola's not going to <bleep> me again!
So far, the phone seems appealing in form and function. It feels good in the hand and balanced well. It has a solid and heavy feel. It's about time someone in the cell phone industry finally thought to overmold rubber on the outside of the phone. Minor nicks and dings should be minimized.
Functionally, the 551 feels almost exactly like the 720. The menu logic is basically identical. Of course, there are some key differences such as the speakerphone, Bluetooth, and camera (still and video). The only feature I need of these is the Bluetooth. I must have a wireless headset!
I can't say I relate to the menu logic of these phones very well. I find it cumbersome to find many settings. As a comparison, I have always found the Nokia phones to be very user friendly in this fashion. With Nokia's, I don't even need a user manual. Everything just makes sense.
This brings me to one of my biggest gripes with the Motorola phones. The user manual is more like a multi-lingual Quick Start-Up Guide. There are so many gaps in coverage in Motorola Manuals. To me, this is pathetic. How can I have any faith in a company who doesn't even have the decency to provide it's customers with the information to make use of their over-complicated & poorly-made products?
I'd promise to report back in a year to follow up on this seemingly negative report but we all know that by that time it won't make any difference because the phone will be obselete.
Basically, if the phone has the features you need, go ahead and get it. It's not bad. Just plan to spend some time with your local Cingular store representative getting some help setting it all up. And get the insurance!
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51 out of 79 people found this review helpful.
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| 24. Posted by kimvichi |
Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:03 pm |
I have always been a Nokia user. My first experience with Moto left me no choice but to swear-off any Moto phone from here on out.
The first V551 I had works great for 3 months and then start dropping calls.
Pretty soon I will loose any signal (Cingular) any where within two miles from my house. A month later I can not get any signal at all inside the building where I work (downtown Dallas). I had Cingular for a long time and my last phone was Treo 600 which was also awful inside a building but I could still get signal although the reception was terrible. Pretty soon no one can talk to me on the cell phone anywhere around my house or work, and I work in support so cell phone is very important for my job, so you can imagine how frustrated I get when I can not do my work.
So I went to a Cingular store and check the signal strength around my house and said it was fine. Updated my sim card did not do anything for me. After the second trip to the store they gave me the Cingular Exchange service number and told me to contact them to get a replacement phone because it was still in warranty.
The Cingular Warranty exchange had send me the first replacement phone (also V551) which works for 3 weeks and then it shutting down on its own. Sometimes up to 3-4 times a day, after 3 weeks it will not come back up and would not power on.
So here we go on to the 3rd V551 which I had working fine for two weeks and then when I plug it in to charge the battery, the phone will display "Unable to Charge" on the screen, if I left it charging it will not turn the background screen off and dropped battery level to one bar.
I just don't know what to do with this Moto V551 anymore I am beyond frustrated, I read all the review in this website before I bought it but guess it did not apply to me. My husband has a Moto Razr3
and he has several problem with his too including battery that wouldn't even last half a day.
All through this ordeal I have to give Cingular Warranty Exchange Service an A+ for their help, because I have had nothing but the greatest service and very helpful people. which is much less than I can say about people at some Cingular Store...
I finally came to my senses and begged Cingular to send me a different phone, first they sent me a Samsung without bluetooth so I begged again and said at least the crummy V551 has the BT. Now I am using a Sony Ericsson 520a for about a month with a smile on my face, we will see how long the smile will stay.
Thank god for Bluetooth technology I was able to transfer my phone books and pics from my old phone.
If you are still trying to make these Moto works, give it up... 3 was enough for me... good luck.
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9 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
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| 25. Posted by DannMc06 |
Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:59 pm |
Hi. Alrite. I got my new cell in September of 2005. I was physced! I got it and thought it was great. It took great pics and everything ! But now in February, when my photo memory got to 19%, you can't even tell what you took a picture of. Its stupid! Now it seems that at times, I can't hear people talking to me, but they can hear me! It's really annoying. Plus, it will randomly descide which calls will ring and vibrate, which calls will vibrate, and which calls that will just stay compltly silent. It was great at the begining, but now it is awful.
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8 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
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| 26. Posted by sey |
Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:27 pm |
Judging by the previous reviews this phone is either hit or miss. Granted the user manual is more useful as kindling, I've had no problems with this phone. Currently, I am on a Cingular plan. I bought the phone and service plan at one of them Cingular stores, and it has worked flawlessly since I first touched it.
My phonebook is exactly that, 5MB is more than enough to store the names and numbers of everyone I know and then some. I added a couple wallpapers and use one of the default ringtones because I listen for what sounds like a phone ring instead of the newest 50 Cent song before I pick up the phone. People have been complaining about a poor battery, however I never charged it over the weekend of the 4th and it was fine. Friday morning the battery meter was at 6/6, friday afternoon it was 4/6, sunday evening it was still 4/6, and finally monday afternoon it was 2/6. The camera lacks clarity, but I figure most phones are the same, that's why I have a digital camera if I want to take a quality picture. I've noticed that if you plug the phone in to the charger when the phone has full battery, it won't charge. Otherwise I've had no problem at all charging the battery.
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19 out of 31 people found this review helpful.
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| 27. Posted by ensoll |
Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:53 am |
After 5 days of battling with this phone, I exchanged it for the Nokia 6230. It cost $50 more, but is a much better phone. As I said in a previous post, I was very unsure about getting another Motorola phone because of a T720 I had before which started to fail after one year.
This v551 seems destined for the same fate. Sitting in my open palm, the ringer would change at random from Loud to Vibe Then Ring. It definitely did it when plugging/unplugging the charger. There is no mention of this in the crudy User Manual if it's supposed to be some kind of feature.
Battery life with a Bluetooth headset paired up is dismal. It didn't even last a day on standby. Also, don't turn that headset off because the phone will shut the Bluetooth off and then you have to set it all up again. What a pain and certainly not what I want to have to deal with on a daily basis.
Also, the phone can't dissimilate between the phone memory and SIM memory. If you have numbers saved to both (backed up on the SIM), it will show duplicates in the phone book. This defeats the purpose of having a SIM card. You will have to use the phone memory if you want to use the few voice dial slots this phone has. What's the point of the SIM? It's partly to have a backup of your numbers in case the phone breaks (no, not Motorola phones. They NEVER break...) Pff!
Another thing, if you import all of your numbers from a SIM card (say from your old phone), then try to move one of the numbers to the 2-9 position for speed dialing, the phone will OVERWRITE the number that exists in that slot. It doesn't MOVE the number to the bottom of the list. How do you like that? I didnt' find out until I had overwritten 8-10 numbers. Do you think I remembered WHICH numbers I overwrote? No, I had to start all over again from copying the SIM. Motor-HO-la!
My new Nokia is a wonderful, logical phone. Everything works as one would expect with no crazy menu's to fumble with for two days and Nokia provides a User Manual that is useful. It even has a 32MB memory stick and FM Radio, amongst many other things.
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57 out of 97 people found this review helpful.
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| 28. Posted by danceteck |
Thu Feb 17, 2005 8:56 pm |
I absolutely love this phone. I find the clarity fantastic.
My first two were Ericsson's and my last was a Motorola T720. Since I used the T720, I had absolutely no problem with the menu system. I'm on Roger's Network in Canada and the phone was advertised with a 420 talk and 235 standby battery. I was skeptical, but it does seem to be fairly accurate.
The Bluetooth seems to work well as I've transferred several files from my PC and vice versa. I've been experimenting with the Voice Dialling with about 95% success. I didn't really need a camera, but since it comes with it, I'll probably use it in a pinch.
The limited memory doesn't bother me as I don't store a lot of ringtones, images, or games.
Overall, I'd give it a 9/10.
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25 out of 44 people found this review helpful.
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| 29. Posted by roscoe2041 |
Sun Dec 26, 2004 3:16 am |
PROs: The screen is great.
The camera takes only a little more than ten second clips, which is fine.. but I wish that you could let it last as long as you wanted (provided there isn't much memory) And the camera is good.
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