Motorola V980 mobile phone

Motorola V980 is a dual mode clamshell cameraphone, which is capable of operating on the 3G networks and can also act as a tri-band GSM phone. This is a Vodafone exclusive model aimed at the budget end of the 3G market, and it is ideal for those who want a phone with some good features, but who do not want to pay the top prices. An important factor for many potential buyers is the relative size and weight of some 3G handsets, and the good news here is that the V980 is a compact mobile phone and not a heavyweight.

Motorola V980Although there is no Bluetooth™ or infrared connectivity, there are still plenty of other useful features included in the handset. This phone offers integrated GPRS and WAP technology, two-way video telephony, video capture download and playback, MPEG4 and MP3 players, video and audio streaming, TransFlash™ memory card slot, voice memo recorder, speakerphone for hands-free conversations, MMS multimedia messaging, voice control, Java™ enabled, active flip, and an e-mail client.

The V980 has two displays, with the main screen being an active matrix TFT device, offering a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and reproduction of up to 65,536 different colours. This internal screen may appear a little small for a 3G phone, but it will be found to present an adequate display for the phone’s functions. The external, passive LCD screen provides a resolution of 96 x 80 pixels and 4,096 different colours. As is usual, this external screen displays the time and details about the phone’s status; it also displays messages to notify you of incoming calls and other events. A useful feature of the external screen is that it can be used as a viewfinder when the phone is closed, which makes it ideal when you are taking self-portraits.

In common with most 3G video calling phones, this model has two cameras. The lesser of the two cameras is a dedicated device for taking pictures of the user when they are engaged in a two-way video call, and this user-facing camera has a CIF resolution specification (352 x 288 pixels). The main camera is a standard VGA resolution device (640 x 480 pixels), which again indicates the budget nature of this phone, as many other 3G phones are being equipped with megapixel cameras. Useful camera features include a 4x digital zoom and a LED flashlight to assist with taking photos in poor lighting conditions. If you need a little photographic versatility, then it is possible to quickly switch between cameras, to display a picture of what you are looking at or to show a self-portrait.

Another important feature of Motorola V980 is its ability to capture or download video clips at up to QCIF resolution (176 x 144 pixels) and 15 fps. Live streaming of audio and video over-the-air is a further useful asset, which means you always have the opportunity to keep in touch with news, entertainment and other action, and to hear and see the material that interests you. The phone’s MMS capability is a fairly essential feature these days, and enables you to exchange a message containing a combination of picture/photo, plus text, plus sound with any compatible phone. Having an onboard MP3 player gives you the option to carry your favourite music around with you, and the phone’s stereo speaker system can produce a good amount of volume for playing back your tracks, or for adding sounds when engaged in games.

The internal memory is relatively small for a mobile phone with multimedia facilities, because features such as the MP3 player and video recorder will soon eat up all the available memory. Therefore, it is quite indispensable that a TransFlash™ card slot has been provided to enable the user to expand the memory, and this also gives you a choice to change cards when necessary. Having expandable storage capacity permits you to download more pictures, sounds, video clips, or Java applications, and then to save them on the memory card. A 32 MB card is supplied, but TransFlash cards of up to 256 MB may be used. This is where one of the drawbacks of the design becomes obvious, because the battery has to be removed in order to swap cards. This may not inconvenience some users, but it does mean you cannot “hot swap” memory cards, if that is one of your requirements.

For the user who wants to add some personalisation to their mobile phone, the V980 has the usual feature of being able to customise the wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones to your own tastes, and if you need more choice then extra content may be downloaded over-the-air. It is also possible to use the photos taken with the camera as screensavers or wallpapers. To assist with caller ID, you can assign a photo taken with the camera to a phonebook entry, and set unique ringtones for contacts as well.

The software capability of new phones has become one of their more significant features, and as Motorola V980 is Java™ enabled it can offer users the opportunity to run a wide range of Java games and applications. One game comes preloaded, which is the IOMO Football game, but it is easy to download new programs when required. Users can also access the Vodafone live! portal to download or stream content directly to the phone.

Being a 3G phone, the download data rate will be at broadband speeds, and considerably faster than is available from the GSM bands. However, when you are outside the range of a 3G network you can still use the normal GPRS technology, although video calling will not then be possible. The advantage of the 3G and GPRS services is not only that they give you fast data speeds, but they also provide you with an “always on” connection to the network. For users who want to make use of the services available via the mobile Internet, you can use this phone to browse the Web for finding news and entertainment, and other online services over Vodafone live! An e-mail client is also provided with the phone, and this offers you the tool to access your normal e-mail correspondence, using the standard POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols.

The only available connectivity option for linking up to a computer, or other compatible device, is by using the phone’s USB connector. After making your link by cable it is then possible to exchange files between the phone and other device. A popular facility, often required by users, is the ability to synchronise a phonebook, calendar and other personal information between their phone and computer, and this model offers such synchronisation. For those who prefer to synchronise remotely, over-the-air, SyncML is included in this phone.

The V980 has several organiser facilities, including a calendar, clock, alarms, calculator, and currency converter. The phone also has Motorola’s own iTAP™ predictive text entry and a vibration alert.

Motorola V980 cameraphone specification

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Last updated 30th January 2008, 14:39 GMT