Motorola W385 Cell Phone

Cons: Takes absolutely horrible pictures! The camera is useless!

Summary: The phone itself and all of its features are great. The camera picture quality is horrid!! I just upgraded to this phone and my old motorola took fantastic pics! So, I am super disappointed in the camera.

Cons: Poor battery life, easily scratched camera lens area, vibrate can hardly be felt, menus are all over the place, longer than similar phones in its category

Summary: I "upgraded" from an LG 245 to the W385. What an awful $99 mistake that was. The phone is exactly 34 days old today and the battery now lasts less than 24 hours. I've read all over the web that many people are experiencing this and apparently it can't be solved by changing the battery. This issue was the straw that broke the camel's back and caused me to get a new phone tonight.

Prior to this, I noticed that I got a scratch on the pretty (useless) front cover, right over the camera lens "peep hole". This is a very minor scratch but it causes a blurry streak in every single picture I take now. I never had this issue with my LG 245, because the lens was slightly sunken and it had a protective ring around it. Motorola opted to not include such a ring because sleek and sexy looks were apparently more important than basic functionality.

On top of all this, I have missed so many calls because the vibrate alert is almost non-existent. Unless you keep your phone on your desk, you will probably never find the vibrate useful. I never missed a single call with my LG 245 vibrate alert. It was strong and very noticeable.

Anyway, major disappointment. I feel totally cheated and can't believe Motorola would put out this kind of crap.

Cons: People thinking it's something it's not.

Summary: I've had my w385 for 6 months now and it still strikes me as an amazing deal for people who use their phones for one thing, a phone. I can't comment on texting ~ I've never done it. Same for the camera, the lenses is covered by my phone cover. What I can comment on is that this phone STILL goes for a week plus between charges (best was 13 days when new). Obviously, you need to condition a battery to get the best use from it.

The sound quality is FAR superior to that of any other phone I've used.. at least until you use wired headsets (never owned or used bluetooth anything, so no comment there). I bought the Motorolla wired headset for this phone and tossed it in a drawer, never to be seen again. The thing was worthless.... but that's fine, it was just one more thing to try and take care of and I certainly don't miss it.

The keys have a fantastic tactile feel to them, again much better than the other phones I've been subjected to.

The display is quite a bit below the "average" of other phones out there, but it displays the numbers I'm dialing just fine and that's all I use it for.

Out here in Wyoming we get some poor cell coverage. Where my previous phones would be at a loss for signal (and the backup phone still is), the W385 just keeps hanging on. I'm constantly amazed at just where I'm able to find signal with this phone.

And finally, the durability. My phone lives in a pants pocket through rough environments (I'm constantly under a building, or tossing screws/nails/tools in the pocket with the phone and climbing a ladder, etc...), environments that have caused the death and mutilation of a large number of other phones. This was bad enough that I almost chose the Casio GZone, but I didn't want a brick in my pocket. This phone is very well built, handles abuse better than most and still looks fairly good at the end of it all.

If you want just a PHONE, then you'd be hard pressed to do better than the W385. If you need a toy to play with, then it's going to be a disappointment.

Cons: Lousy software and menus. User manual that comes with phone is worthless. Only one external jack, the mini usb. Too easy to hit the wrong menu button.

Summary: Like most people, the cell phone offerings on the low price end of our providers cell plan did not offer much. The W385 was one of the better phones offered, which says very little for the others. The W385 cell phone menu sucks, and the user manual didn't even make good shredded paper cat litter. Motorola spent more time on the safety and legal information booklet than the user manual. The lawyers won the booklet budget, the tech writers lost. Shame on Motorola. I hated programming this phone so much, I bought the PhoneTools software on ePay really cheap with the mini USB cable to plug it into the PC and set up the phone book and other options. The thing that really bugs me, is this was one of the better choices from our cell phone provider. The other low cost phones offered weren't worth skipping across a pond. Did I mention the W385 user guide, manual, and menu really suck. Hear that Motorola....

Cons: Only one port for headset and battery charger, poor ringtone choices

Summary: I hate this phone. When I upgraded a few months ago I was only given 2-3 choices of a free phone. This model has only a few ringtone choices, and I can't plug in my charger and my headset at the same time because they plug into the same port! The phone is difficult to manuever, and features have been almost impossible to locate. I complain to everyone I know about it, and even though I don't want to have to pay for a phone, I'm thinking about not waiting for the free upgrade because I can't wait to get rid of this piece of junk! My old phone, which finally died, was much better!