Motorola Motofone F3 Review

I bought the Motorola Motofone after being introduced to it by this post on my friend Nick Baum‘s blog. For as long as I remember, I’ve been reading about how phones keep getting more and more complicated. Yet many people want their phone to do only one thing: make calls. The trick was getting a phone that was usable and friendly at the same time. When Motorola finally came out with the Motofone, it appeared that they had achieved just that. The only problem was that the phone was only available in India! Fortunately for me, I’ve been in India for the last 3.5 months. So I decided to buy one (or two), and write a hands-on review for it. Well, after writing a single-spaced narrative that spanned 3 pages and finding myself only half way through the things I wanted to say about this phone, my friend Nick came to the rescue with a list of questions for me to answer. So I’ll just break my unnaturally long essay into pieces and post the review in interview format-.

Update 2007-03-07: Cross-posted on nickbaum.com

Update 2007-03-27: For those of you looking for a manual of this phone, I found two, in English. Motofone Draft Manual [pdf] is one, and Motofone Digital Manual [pdf] is another. The latter doesn’t contain the list of ‘advanced’ codes.

Without further delay, the brand new Motorola Motofone F3:

Nick: How is the packaging, the new user experience? What’s included in the box?

Me: The phone came in a cylindrical container, aka a tube. Opening the box revealed inside the device itself (without any protective plastic bag/screen cover), a battery in a nylon bag, the back cover of the device, a charger, a user’s manual (in Telugu, Kannada and English), and the standard warranty papers. The package is a standard cardboard tube with plastic tops, which makes it feel a bit cheap. However the finish is good, and if it’s sitting on a table it looks better than expected, so it might actually work in places other than India, like Europe or even the US. Most phones come in solid & glossy cardboard boxes with the phone securely tucked away in polystyrene or a plastic casing, but the Motofone’s case is different enough that it might get away with it.

Nick: Tell me about the physical design of the phone. How does it feel?

Me: The phone is extremely light. The face is completely flush, with no nicks or grooves for dirt to get into (not even around the screen, which is simply a transparent piece of plastic as far as the outer shell goes). Even the keys are completely flat, which I love. I read somewhere that the phone was built for the weather in countries like India, where there’s a lot of rain and dirt in the air. I have not tested the rain claim, but I will take Motorola’s word for it. As for the dirt, the only place I can see dirt getting into is the speaker, but even that seems hard. Everything else is either completely flat or sealed with rubber. There’s still tactile feedback through the protruding rubber lines above and below the buttons. Both the buttons and the click wheel in the middle feel very natural. The clickable area is quite large, and you can easily feel the button being pressed.

The only input slot is the charger/headphone jack, which is smaller than any other charger jack I’ve seen. However, the fit of the plug is extremely snug in the phone (it will not fall off if you dangle the phone from the cord, but at the same time it does not require much strength to push it in/take it out), and it seems that it uses the same plug for headphones, which I have not tested. The thickness of the phone is about the same as an Apple Remote.

Nick: How about performance? In practice, how long is the battery life? How is reception?

Me: Motorola claims 300h of stand-by battery life which, for the less mathematically inclined, translates to 12 days. That might be true if you turn on the phone, leave it on a table and never touch it or receive any calls. The screen consumes absolutely no power when it’s not changing the contents of the display, so on stand by the only power drain is the signal reception and updating the time every 60 seconds. However, I would not expect the battery to last anything more than 5 days under any circumstances where the phone is actually being used. I did let the battery run down completely, but I did get a solid 4 days of constant use from it before the 5-segment battery indicator dropped to a single line (just barely dropped below 2, where the last line can easily go for another day).

As far as reception goes, I only have one word: outstanding. I’ve been using this phone for 2 weeks, and I still have not seen the reception indicator fall below the full 5 lines (and no, reception is not generally this good in my area). In line with this, the excellent speakerphone is a feature I did not expect. Voice clarity on this device is up to par with any phone I’ve ever tried, including land lines. I have no problems understanding anything anyone says to me on this phone.

Nick: How does the screen perform in different light conditions? How does it compare to regular screens?

Me: The screen is definitely the most innovative power saving feature of the device. I already knew that the E-ink technology used for the screen requires no power to keep the screen on, but it’s a different feeling when you take out the battery without turning the phone off, and the screen keeps displaying the last characters on it! (Yes, it does reset without any trace when you turn it back on). The contrast is excellent and the characters are clearly visible in any light condition from any angle (unless there’s complete darkness).

This being said, it’s not all rosy. The character display is exactly like the old 16-segment LCD displays of yesteryear. 2 rows of 6 characters, that’s it. What’s even worse, only the first row is used for actual alphanumeric characters, which makes reading messages a big pain. I do believe there’s a valid reason for doing this (read on about the user interface), but it doesn’t stop it from being extremely annoying. Also since the characters are constructed from segments, there’s no notion of upper/lower case. You will see an upper case letter or a lower case letter depending on which one will make the most sense when formed by the segments.

Nick: Describe the user interface? Is it immediately intuitive, or does it take getting used to?

Me: The interface is by far the most interesting aspect of the device, even more so than the screen. The phone has a language setting, but not in the traditional sense as none of the menus have any text in them. Instead, any action you might perform on the phone and might need some instruction, comes with a voice-over, in the language chosen by the user. As this phone is targeted for the low-income family, there’s a good chance that a user of the phone might not even know how to read. For this reason, I believe the choice to preload the phone with voice messages in the native languages of the region it is being launched in instead of simply having text in different languages is an excellent choice.

The first time I turned on the phone and entered my PIN, I was greeted by a man speaking in a language I did not understand. After a few seconds, the same man said, in English, “For English, press 3”. Since I bought the phone in the Karnataka district of India, the phone comes with 3 pre-set languages: Telugu, Kannada, and English, where the first two are the official languages of the district. These options come up whenever the SIM card is replaced in the phone, which makes sense. Once the language is selected, if you wish to change it you must either change the SIM, or go through the ‘advanced menus’ (read on).

As soon as I pressed 3, the same voice asked me if I wanted voice prompts while using the phone. 1 for Yes, 2 for No. I pressed 1 just out of curiosity. This option is presented to me every time the phone is switched on. Note that wherever I make a note of what the “friendly voice” says, this is always dependent to whether or not voice prompts are enabled. If they’re not, then the voice will never be heard from again (at least not until you turn the phone off and back on).

Since I had just powered on the phone, I was presented with the option for setting the time on the phone (with the voice telling me “Enter time”). After telling it the time and date, I was pretty much done with the setup.

There are exactly 6 menu choices. The menu can be accessed by pressing right or left on the click wheel. Pressing up or down while on standby changes the volume of the phone. The menu itself contains no characters, just icons. The same friendly voice tells you the menu you are on, which you can access by pressing the action key (top left). These choices are (as narrated by the friendly voice): Send a message, Read your messages, Call history, Change ringtone (7 possible pre-defined choices), Set alarm, Change time. Scrolling to the menu you wish to use you can press ‘up’ or ‘action’ and the menu will be selected, where the voice will tell you what you can do (“Write your message” for example).

There are a few other (advanced) options you can mess with: change language, select time format, set voicemail number, keypad tones on/off, auto keypad lock on/off, set SIM pin, SIM pin on/off, restricted calling – phonebook only, prepaid balance display, set balance inquiry number, and the obligatory reset factory settings. All of these options are accessible by pressing *** [3-digit number code] * [action]. These settings obviously require the manual which lists all the 3 digit codes, and are generally the kind of thing you would only set once and then forget about it. I haven’t tried to see if there are any easter eggs in there.

All in all, it took me about 10 minutes to get used to the interface. It did not immediately come to me (I spent a few seconds being utterly confused), but I believe the reason for that was because I’m so used to the standard interfaces that come on every phone. After getting the hang of this one (which was very fast to do so), it became almost second nature.

Nick: How does the address book work?

Me: There’s a phone book button (top right) which takes you directly to the phone book. There is no memory on the phone itself for an address book, so it uses the SIM memory which is limited to 12 characters per contact name, and one number per contact entry. Pressing the phone book button will bring up the phone book, which you can navigate with up/down, or press a letter to jump to that point in the phone book. To scroll through the 6 character limit of the display you must press right. Pressing right multiple times will display the phone number of the contact, and then an option to delete the contact (shown as a trash can, you must press ‘up’ to delete it when the icon is shown). Furthermore, each contact has a number associated to it (the SIM card memory location), which can be used for speed dialing. If an unknown number is on the display, an icon appears above the phone book button which indicates that pressing it will let you add that number to your SIM.

The Call History menu has a memory of the last 15 dialed/received calls (the menu icon indicates whether the number was dialed or received, depending on the direction of the arrow).

Nick: How does text messaging work?

Me: There are two ways you can send a text message. The first way is to start writing a message by using the “Send a message” menu (first choice), then entering the number or going through the phone book. Alternatively, whenever a number or a contact (either through the phone book or through the Call History menu) is visible, a “Send a message” action is available and accessible through the action button, which will take you to the same “Send a message” menu. Writing the message and pressing send will send the message to the number you already selected.

I already mentioned that only the top row is used for text, and that this makes reading messages extremely annoying. However, you do get used to it. If a word is less than 6 characters long, it will definitely be shown in its entirety. I.e. if you receive the message “hi how is california?” then “hi how” would be on the first screen, “is” would be on the second and “california” would span two screens, split at the ‘o’. The reason behind all this, in my opinion, is consistency. Browsing anything (messages, contacts, call history, etc) is a top to bottom action, and reading a message is a left to right action. If the message spanned two lines, it might be a bit more confusing, but the initial confusion might be worth the convenience. On the up side the response time of any action is next to nothing, so reading a message on this phone is NOT considerably slower than on any other phone, provided you’re not using T9 or any other sophisticated input method. The only way a message can be composed is by typing each letter in the standard way. Furthermore, there’s no ‘back’ button in the sense that you can navigate your message. If you make a mistake, you have to erase all the letters from the end of the message to the mistake in order to correct it, and then type everything again.

Nick: What do you like best about the phone?

Me: I’d have to say the large characters that display the time, the visibility of the screen, and the intuitiveness of the interface (after you take 10 minutes to learn it, mainly because we’ve all been conditioned to expect a lot of counter-intuitive interfaces from phones). Oh, and the price. You just can’t beat a $40 price tag on a phone that looks this good.

Also, I was surprised by the alarm. It’s quite loud, annoying, and must have a very well constructed sound loop because when it starts “chirping”, it appears as if the frequency/tone of the sound is slightly randomized, so it’s not a constant beat. Let’s just say it has more success waking me up than most other alarms I’ve tried (with the possible exception of The Matrix soundtrack CD starting at full volume).

Nick: What do you miss most? Is the simplicity a blessing or a curse?

Me: I think what I miss the most is the ability to synchronize my contact list with my mac, and slightly less I miss being able to connect my mac to the internet through the phone from wherever I am. However I still force myself to not carry my bluetooth enabled phone everywhere with me, because I believe having that kind of access to the internet should be reduced. As a computer scientist I spend a LOT of time on the internet as is, and having the ability to connect to the internet from anywhere at any time is just distracting. Feel free to disagree with me on this.

Beyond that, I do not miss the camera, the color screen, or the mp3 capabilities (I even have an iPod that I never use). If anything, I’d say the simplicity is a blessing. I never really used any of those features on my phones for any reasonable purpose, and simply having them there caused me to take ugly photos, waste time with 100px color photos, and suffer through low quality songs. Granted there are a lot of smartphones out there that get a lot of these things right, and maybe it is convenient to some to have a low quality 2MP camera in their pocket at all times. As far as I’m concerned however, if I believe I’ll want to take some photos, I’ll take a real camera. There’s just no way a phone can be designed to do all those things, and at the same time be small, light and usable. It always takes away from the primary purpose of the phone: making calls; which is why I believe the simplicity of this phone is a step in the right direction.

Nick: What are the greatest flaws of the phone? How would you improve it?

Me: I’d have to say the way the screen displays the characters. It seems that e-ink technology is able to create finer text, though I don’t know how that would affect the stand-by battery life (not that it matters much in real-life terms). Reading/Composing messages is troublesome at best, which is a problem concerning a lot of cellular communication now occurs via texting. I realize that a lot of the marketing around the phone is targeted to people who potentially don’t know how to read and/or write, but it’s a mistake to not consider the vast number of people who do and will be using this phone for that purpose. Other than that, I couldn’t be happier with it.

Nick: How popular is the phone in India? How is it marketed?

Me: I have not seen any ads for it, nor have I seen anyone else carry it or use it. That being said, I had a hell of a time finding a unit, as it was out of stock in every shop I went to. On the flip side, one shop owner I chatted up said they only brought 20 units total which sold in a couple of weeks, but they have no plans of bringing more. A few other stores hadn’t even heard of the device. I was finally able to locate a store that was having some stock brought in, and I reserved a device from them. The store attendant seemed to be very curious as to why I would choose a phone that had no features, and kept trying to get me to buy something else. Then again I’m in Mangalore, which is a city of 800,000 people in a country of 1.2 billion, and is also considered by many as a backwater village (i had to go to 4 different computer stores to find a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable). It’s extremely likely that Motorola has just not focused any marketing efforts in my parts of India, but I can’t confirm that.

Nick: Would you use this as your primary phone in the US?

Me: Probably. I’ve definitely given up a Nokia 6230 and an Ericsson K700i for this phone. Both of the other phones are turned off and stuck in my closet. That being said, I would not get rid of secondary phone with some more wireless capabilities, because I often find myself needing some mobile access which a simple phone cannot provide. I don’t know if I’d give up a blackberry for it, as I’ve never owned one (re: my comment on the simplicity of the phone).

Update 2007-03-28: Since some people have started adding undocumented key codes to the comments, I’ll try to maintain a complete list here and update it as more undocumented settings codes come up.

To access the advanced settings, press * * * [number code] * [action]

Those are the ‘official’ codes, covered in the manual. Now for the experimental part…
Note: Use these at your own risk, even before these codes were posted here phone numbers were lost from a SIM card because of them, so back up your numbers before you use them!

The following codes work AS IS, i.e. without entering the * around them

That’s it for now! If you find more, post them in the contents, I’ll pick them up and put them here.

Tags: Motofone, Motorola, Review
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394 Responses to “Motorola Motofone F3 Review”

1. 1. Comment by Cleber Ferreira
   on 3 Mar 2007 @ 9:34 am

   Well, gentlemen.
   Nice report indeed!
   Very useful information. I love technology. I have a Nokia 9210i, a Samsung Mitz I330, a Palm Tungsten and a pair of laptop,all to work and kid. I have bought a F3 motofone for my kid of 15, because he is most of times not concerned to details. It is a nice designed e easy to use mobile. Now could any one help to have the US Motofone F3 manual just to unblock the use of different service providers?

   Many thanks, any way.

   Cleber Ferreira

2. 2. Pingback by nickbaum.com » Blog Archive » Motofone Review
   on 7 Mar 2007 @ 11:59 pm

   […] This interview cross-posted on cneophytou.com […]

3. 3. Comment by Iain
   on 8 Mar 2007 @ 12:49 am

   Excellent review. It persuaded me to buy one of these and they are very nice phones. They’re now available in the UK for £15, but you must buy £10 prepay top-up with it. So…£25 really…but they all appear to be unlocked.

4. 4. Comment by Taras
   on 16 Mar 2007 @ 12:01 am

   If you get the red one from the phones4u website it doesn’t force you to buy credit – so it’s £15. The black one, however, does. (I got both, one for a relative!)

   Thanks for the “complex options” guide, I really need to turn off these keypad tones…

5. 5. Comment by Trish
   on 18 Mar 2007 @ 12:45 am

   I have this phone and I need help. I keep getting an error x up on the right hand corner. Does this mean I have no signal? I have tried calling different numbers, but no joy. Can anyone please help me?

6. 6. Comment by Constantinos
   on 18 Mar 2007 @ 2:36 am

   Well, the manual doesn’t say anything other than ‘Error’ with respect to the x icon… However there are a few things you can check for.

   First of all, is it the round icon with the x in it? There’s three icons with x’s in them (one of which is the ‘new sms’ icon, an envelope, and the other two are a ‘home’ icon with an x indicating ‘Out of network’ and the last one is a bell, indicating ‘silent’ or ‘vibrate only’.)

   If it is indeed the ‘Error’ icon, then check the signal strength / reception indicator (top left, above the screen). If it’s empty or ‘sliding’, then indeed the phone has no signal from a network it can connect to, and you should check with your service provider.

   If none of the above is the issue, then I don’t know what to tell you. Try using different area codes, maybe enter the full number with a country code and a + in front? Don’t see how that would do any good other than filter out any possibilities of miscommunication with your network…

   I hope your phone starts working.

7. 7. Comment by Trish
   on 18 Mar 2007 @ 5:06 am

   It is the round icon with the x in it. The reception indicator is empty, so I guess I have no signal. I live in Southern Ontario and my provider is Rogers. Would a new sim card from another provider help?

8. 8. Comment by Constantinos
   on 18 Mar 2007 @ 4:11 pm

   I’d first check with Rogers to see if they offer GSM coverage in your area, and if they don’t then ask what providers do. The Motofone F3 is a GSM-only phone, and for a CDMA network you’ll need the Motofone F3c instead.

9. 9. Comment by Trish
   on 18 Mar 2007 @ 9:21 pm

   Thank you very much for your help. I will let you know.

10. 10. Comment by Trish
    on 18 Mar 2007 @ 9:30 pm

    I have a SIM card from my provider so doesn’t that mean that Rogers is a GSM network?

11. 11. Comment by Constantinos
    on 19 Mar 2007 @ 12:45 am

    Probably, but you still want to check about coverage. Also, I believe the F3 is a dual-band phone, meaning it cannot work both in Europe (or Asia) AND in the US. It’s one or the other (it does come for both, but not on the same handset).

    I’m not sure what bands Canada is using, but I’m guessing the same as the US. Is your phone 900/1800 MHZ (EU/Asia) or 850/1900 MHz (US/Canada), and is your network offering those frequencies? If not, then I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Changing a SIM or a provider won’t fix it, as all providers must use the same frequencies in each country.

12. 12. Comment by Roshan
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 9:32 am

    Hey , just got the phone a couple of days back , was wondering wether it had the option for call waiting ? and how to activate it

13. 13. Comment by Constantinos
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 9:38 am

    No, it doesn’t. However there is a (small) chance call waiting can be activated with your service provider, where the provider will hold the call for you (so the phone doesn’t have to do it). I know for sure this can be applied to landlines irrespective of what handset is being used.

    So no, the phone doesn’t have that capability, but you might be able to get it through your provider.

14. 14. Comment by Roshan
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 10:24 am

    Thanks 🙂 one more quick question, somehow i didn;t get the manual with my phone , is there any chance of uploaidng on here? How do u turn on the vibrating alert ?

15. 15. Comment by Constantinos
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 11:20 am

    Well, I don’t have a scanner here (if you noticed, everything in the review is a photo take with a camera – including the manual captures!) but everything about this phone is straight forward. Beyond the advanced codes, you don’t need the manual for anything else.

    To manage ring volume/vibrating alert, just press ‘up’ or ‘down’ while the phone is not in any menu. From observing it, the levels are (lowest to highest):

    – Silend Vibrate
    – Silent (no vibrate)
    – Volume levels 1-5 (no vibrate)
    – Vibrate / Increasing ring volume

    Also from the same menu you can press ‘action’ to toggle voice prompts.

16. 16. Comment by def
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 4:25 pm

    Hello! Does anybody know how to put a space between words when typing a message ? Is the right arrow the only way ? Thanks.

17. 17. Comment by Constantinos
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 4:46 pm

    That would be the ‘*’ button (bottom left). Just press once when typing a message.

18. 18. Comment by comrpnt
    on 21 Mar 2007 @ 9:35 pm

    Just received a Black F3 from Phones4u on-line (with Virgin £10 pre-pay) and it works fine on Orange. Just popped out the Virgin SIM and put in my existing Orange SIM and away it went. Lovely phone. Well done Motorola, just what I was looking for. 🙂

19. 19. Comment by def
    on 22 Mar 2007 @ 5:20 am

    [quote comment=”736″]That would be the ‘*’ button (buttom left). Just press once when typing a message.[/quote]

    Thank you !!!

20. 20. Comment by pasha
    on 22 Mar 2007 @ 9:47 pm

    I’m plannin to buy motofone. Can anybody tell me how many messages can be stored in this phone.. N is it user friendly???

21. 21. Comment by Constantinos
    on 22 Mar 2007 @ 11:49 pm

    The number of messages that can be stored is however many your SIM card can hold (no phone memory for messages).

    As far as ‘user-friendlines’ goes, it depends on your defiition. It’s got the most intuitive and clutter-free interface I’ve seen in any such device, but it’s EXTREMELY basic. Also, the phone is not very SMS friendly (you can only read messages on a single, 6-character line, which makes you have to scroll to read anything). Having said that, I have found this to be less of a problem than I thought it would be.

22. 22. Comment by new-F3-owner
    on 24 Mar 2007 @ 11:53 pm

    It is the best ever review of Motofon F3 I’ve read. When I bought the phone as a one week old toy from its first owner on allegro.pl (sort of e-Bay) in Poland; did not have to shop in India. Browsing the allegro pages, I learned that the motofon attracts attention, yet the owners frequently resigned for not having a sense off humor and proportion. For this reason I paid a bargain prize of less than U$50. I like this novel feature: although I still keep my Samsung 450 but am happy with F3, as it offers exactly what is needed. MMS, e-mail, pictures and sounds – all have only be tried, no real need for it. My SMS experience was perhaps only 20 messages per year, thus I feel not affected by the lack of F9 dictionary or the beauty of the fonts. The F3 fonts look ugly but are readable even at Sunlight and the 7-segments E-ink digits are perfect. Your arguments about the 300h of stand-by battery life are very convincing and the entire review deserves a wider publication as an appendix to the minimalistic “manual” by Motorola.
    regards, Pawel B. Sczaniecki

23. 23. Comment by Max Hollemans
    on 26 Mar 2007 @ 4:29 am

    I bought this unlocked Motofone in the Netherlands for 35 Euros, and I love it! Its design is beautiful and classy. It does exectly what I want from a telephone: I can make phonecalls, nothing less, nothing more.

    It reminds me of the good, old, primitive times, when I programmed a Sinclair ZX81 computer, and used DOS instead of Windows.

    There are a few strange things however.

    I: Though the field strength meter is at it max, the ‘no provider’ sign always lits up. Nevertheless, it works without a problem.

    II: I found it impossible to change the ringtone for receiving an SMS. That tone is not very loud, I would like to be able to change it, like the ‘normal’ ringtone.

    III: My battery was nearly empty within 3 days, without making any phonecalls. That’s not what Motorola promised. Now I’ve loaded my battery overnight, mayby that helps….

24. 24. Comment by def
    on 26 Mar 2007 @ 6:23 am

    Hello, Can anyone tell me how can I make certain characters when writing a SMS. The only way that I know is to press the “1” button and it will show 4 different characters.
    The thing is that I receive sms and my F3 displays certain characters that I don’t have or I don’t know how to input. Thank You.

25. 25. Comment by Max Hollemans
    on 27 Mar 2007 @ 4:17 am

    A very active person on a Dutch forum discovered the following ‘Easter Eggs’

    400 / 401 –> switches something unknown on/off
    130/ 131 –> switches something unknown on/off
    700 –> only shows OK
    701 –> entry first a number, then text
    480 –> shows the provider of the actual connection
    481 –> shows a list of available providers (and maybe a possibility to choose one?)

    Watch out! I tried 701 and it messed up my telephone book!

26. 26. Comment by Constantinos
    on 27 Mar 2007 @ 4:04 am

    @Max Hollemans:

    [quote post=”73″]I: Though the field strength meter is at it max, the “no provider” sign always lits up. Nevertheless, it works without a problem.[/quote]

    Are you sure it’s the ‘no provider’ sign and not the ‘out of network’ icon? the latter just indicates you’re roaming..

    [quote post=”73″]II: I found it impossible to change the ringtone for receiving an SMS. That tone is not very loud, I would like to be able to change it, like the “normal” ringtone.[/quote]

    Yeah, there’s no way to do that. At least none that I found.

    [quote post=”73″]III: My battery was nearly empty within 3 days, without making any phonecalls. That’s not what Motorola promised. Now I’ve loaded my battery overnight, mayby that helps.[/quote]

    Was that from its first charge? I think you need to keep it plugged in for at least 8 hours the first time, or something along those lines. Also with these new batteries, it’s good to cycle them at least once (full charge, then deplete them completely and charge them fully again) before they start performing as expected.

    @def:
    [quote post=”73″]Hello, Can anyone tell me how can I make certain characters when writing a SMS. The only way that I know is to press the ‘1’ button and it will show 4 different characters.
    The thing is that I receive sms and my F3 displays certain characters that I don’t have or I don’t know how to input. Thank You.[/quote]

    I have no idea. Doesn’t appear to be a way. If anyone finds a way to do that, please let us know!

27. 27. Comment by Constantinos
    on 27 Mar 2007 @ 4:21 am

    [quote post=”73″]481 –> shows a list of available providers (and maybe a possibility to choose one?)[/quote]

    This is cool… Yes, it will let you select one!

28. 28. Comment by jason
    on 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:34 pm

    Very nice to find people with similar interest in this phone. I bought mine in The Netherlands for 44 euro. What a beautiful phone! I could go on and on about it’s design, it is the most consistent I’ve seen on any such device. The philosophy behind the thing and the thing itself are perfectly harmonious!
    But the lack of T9 bothers me, so I’m looking for the f3c. Anybody know if or when the f3c will become available?

29. 29. Comment by khairuk
    on 27 Mar 2007 @ 8:50 pm

    [quote post=”73″]400 / 401 –> switches something unknown on/off
    130/ 131 –> switches something unknown on/off
    700 –> only shows OK
    701 –> entry first a number, then text
    480 –> shows the provider of the actual connection
    481 –> shows a list of available providers (and maybe a possibility to choose one?)[/quote]

    Anybody out there has the whole list of the “easter eggs”?
    im from Singapore and i bought it for $73 and its worth every penny… its not offically launch yet, i bought it at an export shop… love everything about it, just that the message tone is too soft and there isnt any T9 input… hope motorola can do something about it…
    Anybody out there who has more useful hidden information out of this cool phone?

30. 30. Comment by def
    on 31 Mar 2007 @ 5:25 am

    I also discovered that you can Lock/Unlock the keyboard by pressing: Action Key then *

31. 31. Comment by def
    on 31 Mar 2007 @ 5:22 am

    [quote post=”73″]Furthermore, there’s no ‘back’ button in the sense that you can navigate your message. If you make a mistake, you have to erase all the letters from the end of the message to the mistake in order to correct it, and then type everything again. [/quote]

    That’s not true 🙂 Just use the Up and Down Arrows to navigate.

32. 32. Comment by Laura
    on 1 Apr 2007 @ 4:13 pm

    hi, i just bought the motofone. when i text, the letters are not always exactly digital in nature but rounded i the corners. i’ve never had a motorola before. is this normal or is there a fault with it?

    also, how do you turn on the ‘alphabet’?

33. 33. Comment by Constantinos
    on 1 Apr 2007 @ 5:08 pm

    [quote comment=”874″]hi, i just bought the motofone. when i text, the letters are not always exactly digital in nature but rounded i the corners. i’ve never had a motorola before. is this normal or is there a fault with it?

    also, how do you turn on the ‘alphabet’?[/quote]

    The Motofone’s display is not your standard cell phone display, as it uses LCD segments to show each character on the screen. Some of those segments are curved, so if that’s what you mean by ’rounded corners’ then yes, this is normal behavior.

    As for the ‘alphabet’, what do you mean? The phone does not have T9 support, if that’s what you’re referring to.

34. 34. Comment by Vincent
    on 1 Apr 2007 @ 2:14 pm

    khairuk > Anybody out there has the whole list of the ‘easter eggs’?

    I wish it were possible to display both the time AND the date.

    I bought this unit a couple of weeks ago for 45E. It’s nice, slim, long battery life. Besides its not showing the date, I only have two issues with it:

    – typing/reading SMS is a big pain: It only shows a few characters at a time, and they’re all the big LCD type, ie. you can only type in UPPERCASE. I guess people will think you’re screaming at them 😉 Motorola said that using LCD instead of pixels saved battery life.

    – no calculator. It’s useful when going to a restaurant with a group of people 🙂

35. 35. Comment by Constantinos
    on 1 Apr 2007 @ 2:22 pm

    [quote comment=”867″]Furthermore, there’s no ‘back’ button in the sense that you can navigate your message. If you make a mistake, you have to erase all the letters from the end of the message to the mistake in order to correct it, and then type everything again.

    That’s not true 🙂 Just use the Up and Down Arrows to navigate.[/quote]

    Not on my phone you can’t… 🙂

36. 36. Comment by Constantinos
    on 1 Apr 2007 @ 2:26 pm

    [quote post=”73″]- typing/reading SMS is a big pain: It only shows a few characters at a time, and they’re all the big LCD type, ie. you can only type in UPPERCASE. I guess people will think you’re screaming at them 😉 Motorola said that using LCD instead of pixels saved battery life.[/quote]

    Actually received messages are all in lowercase… at least from my experience.

    It seems to me that devices vary a LOT from one version to the next, depending on what market they’re built for.

37. 37. Comment by bianca
    on 1 Apr 2007 @ 7:40 pm

    [quote comment=”824″][quote post=”73″]481 -> shows a list of available providers (and maybe a possibility to choose one?)[/quote]

    This is cool… Yes, it will let you select one![/quote]

    Hi,

    I just got this motorola phone and I was wondering how I can select another provider..I tried to do the above thing, but the only thing I could do is looking at those providers, but choosing….Well, that doesn’t work…So please feel free to help 😉

    Cheers,
    Bianca

38. 38. Comment by Angelo
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 1:49 pm

    i got a motorola f3 & my gsm provider has given me 2 connections in one sim
    line 1 & line 2
    how can i switch between line 1 & 2
    is there any code for this..

39. 39. Comment by Laura
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 2:20 pm

    apologies, i was rfering to the predictive text feature. does the motofone have it and if so, how do i access it?

40. 40. Comment by Constantinos
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 3:32 pm

    [quote comment=”882″]apologies, i was rfering to the predictive text feature. does the motofone have it and if so, how do i access it?[/quote]

    No, it doesn’t.

41. 41. Comment by ozjin4
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 8:13 pm

    Nice review of a nice phone. Like everyone else i m a bit disappointed by the segmented character display. Makes it worse u r restricted to the top line only for sms!
    Thumbs down to Motorola for not including a more comprehensive list of “advance settings” codes. I know their guiding vision was for a simple phone without language / literacy restrictions but at least put a list up on the web.
    I’ve seen in promo shots of the phone with the date displayed under the time, hopefully someone will work out how to turn that on soon.
    Finally has any one figured out what the symbol that’s been placed with the # key is and what does it do!??

42. 42. Comment by Andy
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 5:04 pm

    Thanks for your outstanding write-up of the F3. Its always good to get a first hand impression rather than relying on the manufacturer. Bought my F3 last Friday from phone4u in the UK. £15 + £10 of Virgin airtime. Replaced the Virgin SIM with one from TESCO to keep my old number without any issue, it just worked. Will use the Virgin airtime later.

    A note on SMS, I have found no way of selectively deleting characters from a message, if you make a mistake, the LEFT arrow deletes a character at a time until you get to the letter you need to correct. The UP and DOWN arrows scroll you through the message you have typed so far, they don’t let you correct it.

    Has anybody discovered a way to get the time and date displayed rather than just the time. It does it when setting the date and time so I am guessing there must be some way to turn it on.

43. 43. Comment by gigel
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 11:43 pm

    it’s about prepay credit. depends on network operator. that icon represents a stilisation of “money”

    my questions:
    how to download new ring tones
    how to unlock
    how to turn off the keyboard backlight

    cheers

44. 44. Comment by Constantinos
    on 2 Apr 2007 @ 8:20 pm

    [quote post=”73″]Finally has any one figured out what the symbol that’s been placed with the # key is and what does it do!??[/quote]

    Are you talking about the lock symbol, or the space symbol? The third character on the # key is the space…

45. 45. Comment by Max Hollemans
    on 3 Apr 2007 @ 3:07 am

    When I tried the # (pushing it for a second or 2), I received what I typed in function ***701* back as a SMS message ?!?!?!?!?!

46. 46. Comment by Constantinos
    on 3 Apr 2007 @ 3:10 am

    [quote comment=”890″]When I tried the # (pushing it for a second or 2), I received what I typed in function ***701* back as a SMS message ?!?!?!?!?![/quote]

    I’m not sure those are related..

47. 47. Comment by Constantinos
    on 3 Apr 2007 @ 3:20 am

    Sorry gigel, your comment was caught by Akismet..

    [quote comment=”888″]it’s about prepay credit. depends on network operator. that icon represents a stilisation of “money”

    my questions:
    how to download new ring tones
    how to unlock
    how to turn off the keyboard backlight

    cheers[/quote]

    Yes, that’s pretty much it. As for your questions:

    You can’t
    I was under the impression that f3s were sold unlocked?
    No idea – must be a hidden advanced setting, if it exists

48. 48. Comment by James
    on 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:10 am

    I just purchased an F3 in the US, from a US distributor. I got the phone today and now realize that the places I’d been seeing the phone described as a quad band phone were wrong (or in the case of the Motorola website, just arcane in the way they displayed the specs). So I can’t use this damn phone here! I got a reply from Moto support explaining that it’s a dual band phone, either 900/1800 or 850/1900, but no indication as to how I might switch to 850/1900 or if I can actually do that. One of the comments here indicates that it’s a different physical phone for each pair of bands. Is that true? Or is there a way to switch which pair of bands it operates on? I would really like to get this phone working here in the US.

    Thanks,

    James

49. 49. Comment by Max Hollemans
    on 3 Apr 2007 @ 3:01 am

    [quote comment=”887″][quote post=”73″]Finally has any one figured out what the symbol that’s been placed with the # key is and what does it do!??[/quote]

    Are you talking about the lock symbol, or the space symbol? The third character on the # key is the space…[/quote]

    Errrr that’s on the *! Next to the # is a symbol with -as it seems- three coins. Does it have something to do with the money that’s left for pre-payers?

50. 50. Comment by Constantinos
    on 3 Apr 2007 @ 3:08 am

    [quote post=”73″]Errrr that’s on the *! Next to the # is a symbol with -as it seems- three coins. Does it have something to do with the money that’s left for pre-payers?[/quote]

    Oh.. heh, sorry, I thought you meant the * button!

    That’s related to advanced setting 642 (Set Balance Inquiry Number). Pressing and holding # should show you your remaining credit balance provided that 1) you have a pay-as-you-go SIM card, and 2) you’ve set the 642 setting correctly.