{"id":214,"date":"2008-06-26T19:40:05","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T00:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/?p=214"},"modified":"2008-08-02T11:05:01","modified_gmt":"2008-08-02T16:05:01","slug":"motofone-f3-north-american-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/26\/motofone-f3-north-american-version\/","title":{"rendered":"Motofone F3 (North American version)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I purchased a north American version of the Motofone F3 (Manufactured in Brazil), which operates on the 850\/1900 Mhz GSM bands (used almost exclusively in North America) for $34 including S\/H from dakmart.com. After plugging my SIM card in the phone it reported that it was on the AT-T network. My original Motofone F3 from India<\/a> worked only on the 900\/1800 bands, and wouldn't work on the AT&T network (or any other North American network). <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What didn't work:<\/h4>\n

I was surprised to find out that it didn't load the date and time from the cellular network. Instead, I was prompted  to enter the time and date. Even more surprising, the phone doesn't remember the date and time if it is turned off. Every time you turn on the phone, you have to re-enter the date and time.  Additionally, the phone did not receive AT&T's standard voicemail indicator messages (sent as a special SMS), so it never indicated that I had voicemail waiting. As long as I had missed a call when the phone had coverage this was fine, because the phone did display a "missed call" indicator that looks like a phone with an arrow pointing at it. However, if I ever missed a call while in a tunnel, or if AT&T didn't ring through to the phone (which happens relatively frequently on the 3G network with my other phone durring peak times) I would have no indication that I missed a call and had a voicemail waiting.<\/p>\n

What works:<\/h3>\n

Voice quality is fine (as good as any other GSM phone I've had), and the built in speakerphone works very well. The e-ink display is very readable, and I like the fact that it displays the clock all the time. The phone gets very good reception, I have been very happy with the performance of the internal antennas.  Battery life is good. I charged it up on a saturday afternoon, and it lasted (with light use) until Thursday morning before the power indicator went down to one bar. I only made a few minutes worth of phone calls on Thursday, and then on Thursday night I called someone and talked to them for 15 minutes before the battery completely died. It beeped warning messages at me and flashed the battery indicator for the last 10 minutes of the call. So, I would say that the phone would easily goes for 3 to 4 days between recharges with light usage.<\/p>\n

Quirks:<\/h3>\n

The phone book editing is very basic. You can add numbers, and delete numbers. To edit a number, you have to delete it, and then re-add it. (Luckily, the recently dialed\/received calls list will store the number even if you delete it from the phonebook, so you don't have to remember the number if you have called it or received a call from it within the last 15 calls.) Positioning entries in the phonebook (which are stored on the SIM card) is done in the same way. (To move a number to position 4, delete the number that is currently in position 4, and add the number you want to be in position 4.) The phone book displays entries in alphabetical order so the only thing that the numerical position matters for is the speed-dial setting. Pressing and holding the numbers 2 through 9 will dial the associated phone book entry. The number 1 however does NOT dial the first item in the phone book, instead it dials the voicemail number.<\/p>\n

In your pocket:<\/h3>\n

The Motofone F3 weighs less than my Motorola V3xx, and is slightly thinner and narrower. It is however a half inch taller, due to the candy-bar form factor. This extra half inch is surprizingly noticable when carried in a front pants pocket. In fact, the extra narowness combined with the extra height (and general candybar form factor) make it less comfortable in my front pocket than my V3xx. Perhaps this is just because I've gotten used to the flip phone factor over the last four years… My main complaint was that the phone would rotate so that the long-side was parallel to the ground, instead of staying upright.This made it feel extra wide in the pocket and it would tap my leg when walking or sitting until I rotated the phone so that the long side was pointed down again.<\/p>\n

In your hand:<\/h3>\n

As candy-bar phones go, the F3 is very small and light. It initally feels toy-like due to the light weight, but after a few days of use I was perfectly happy carrying it around with me and using it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I purchased a north American version of the Motofone F3 (Manufactured in Brazil), which operates on the 850\/1900 Mhz GSM bands (used almost exclusively in North America) for $34 including S\/H from dakmart.com. After plugging my SIM card in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phones","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}