Motorola's new Motofone F3 is the phone many people are looking for -- a handset without all the fancy-pants extras built in. It makes calls, does text messages and that's it.
There's no camera, no Internet access and none of that multimedia nonsense. It's also very slim and has the longest battery life we've seen in ages.
Our review model came from Phones4U on a pay as you go tariff with a T-Mobile SIM, for £15. You have to buy it with £10 of credit, so overall it will cost you just £25 to get your hands on one. With a price like that, what could possibly go wrong?
Strengths
At only 9mm thick this phone slips into a pair of tight jeans or the inside of a packed bag without any trouble. The Motofone F3 also feels pretty sturdy and its matte surfaces mean no noticeable fingerprint stains.
The F3 has an electrophoretic screen, quite unlike the normal colour LCD on most modern mobiles -- it's more like a calculator. Unlike phone screens, there's no backlight, so it uses much less power. We charged it once and it lasted for over two weeks on standby without any problems.
Another advantage of the electrophoretic technology is the black characters on the white background are easy to read, even in bright sunlight. So if you find yourself constantly covering your mobile's screen outside to see what's going on, the F3 is worth checking out.
We really like the network strength and battery gauge sections on the top right and left of the screen -- they look great and are large and easy to see. The large letter and number characters pop up like calculator digits and are clear as day.
Similar to the majority of other Motorola phones, the F3 features a flat keypad divided up by curved rubber lines. The navigation button and the number keys are large and easy to press and the curved rubber lines on the keypad make it easy to distinguish between keys.
Weaknesses
Having made what could potentially have been one of the best budget phones ever, it was a huge disappointment to see Motorola has allowed some fatal flaws into the F3's interface.
It took us quite a long time to work out how to use the most basic functions initially, even with the manual by our side.
According to the F3's online product page it "offers a redesigned user interface with innovative voice prompts in local languages to guide the user quickly and easily through menu navigation, messaging, and other functions. In addition, graphical icons visually demonstrate the menu features."
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User reviews3
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BlurXC 25 March 2008
Good: Simple, light, thin, cheap, tough, loud, clear, looks good
Bad: Almost too simple, and nonstandard
Comment: Most reviews of this phone are 99% positive or negative. Why? This phone was made for developing countries, and they say they did on-site research to create the user interface. They may have well set out to make features many people will hate in developed countries. Many people, but not all.
This phone is light, thin, loud, with great reception and massive battery life. What's not too like? Well, if you text, you'll hate it, and if you want bluetooth, a camera, or multimedia, you can forget it.
It seems to please people who want huge text on a simple display, and a minimal (if nonstandard) menu system. Lots of young people note it would be great for older people.
E-ink is a brilliant new tech trick, but if you like to see more than 6 text characters at a time, you'll have to scroll sideways, and the text characters come in a random mix of upper and lower case (MoM, CALL doUG), perhaps because they're made of line segments, as on a calculator.
The menu system is minimal. Settings most people don't change are actually concealed in numeric codes. Hands free sets seem non-existent. Many people hate the interface, but some really like it. May depend on how much you hate your present phone.
Read all the reviews you can, don't spend more than you have to, and consider this a luddite project. If you can buy it with a free trial period, so much the better.
I happen to like mine, but YMMV.
Fidrus 2 January 2008
Good: Battery life, slim elegant design, good sound
Bad: Absolutely awful menuing and messaging
Comment: I have never really liked Motorola's menuing system - compared to other phones, they have always struck me as being non-intuitive. But the menuing on this phone is just awful. Even the simplest taks require the manual to be consulted. And the phone keeps asking for codes to do everything. The display is OK for numbers, but awful for letters - it reminds me of the way people used to key in numbers such as 32135, turn the calculator upside down, and reid the word "seize".
The characters are also way too big for the screen, so that only a few letetrs fit on at the time. This leads to constant irritation, especially if you want to send or read a text message. Even long numbers are problematical!
Overall, a good product spoilt by a bad display and bad menuing. This could have been so much better ... how could Motorola have let this product out onto the market in this condition? Didn't they let a few people try it out first?
Dave Smith 29 July 2007
Good: Fantastic daylight screen..
Bad: Clumsy menu
Comment: Paid £9 for it at Asda !!
Looks good, thin, great screen. Brilliant in sunshine. Intuitive menu?? It isn't unless you are blessed with psychic reasoning. What a shame...
Huge text, perhaps TOO big... makes reading text messages a bit clumsy, as the text letters are often different sizes in the same word, lIKe tHiS, pOor and SoMETi Mes split words. Hard to read. I wonder why they did this, but a bit too big for texting.
Loudspeaker. Long long battery life. Good looking, but disappointing menu, really disappointing!
Visual design 90%
Menu 30%
Text Readability: Sometimes good sometimes poor. Pity... Visually, it looks like it would have been a really good cheap basic phone.
Still... Ok for £9 but not worth a lot more.
See all 3 user reviews