New Motorola Razr V3 for under 300 dollars

Looking forward to reading your report. I recently saw a thread on Phonescoop.com in which a V3 owner indicated the phone would only transfer one phonebook entry at a time to his 2005 Prius. Here's the link in case you're interested:

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/p_forum.p...f=547&fi=169393

 

Well, I am definitely interested in hearing about your experience with this phone but am not interested in giving up on my V710 at the moment. I mean, Prius transfer issues and lack of ringing in the car aside, I absolutely love the phone. Further, I have yet to experience the likes of dropped calls, no signal, and other problems which seem to be carrier-related.

 

I have the Motorola RAZR V3. I also know someone with a BMW that has the RAZR V3.

I am only able to transfer one phonebook entry at a time to my 2005 Prius, but he is able to transfer the entire book.

The problem is not the phone, it is Prius. The bluetooth profiles offered on the Prius are inadequate.

 

The problem is not the Prius--the Sony Ericsson T68i can transfer the entire phone book in one go.

Unfortunately the Prius can only accept one phone number per contact, but since the craptastic Motorola phone book only supports one number per contact that shouldn't be a problem for you...

 

This is definitely not unlike the "chicken or egg" thing. You can transfer the entire phonebook at once with the T68i but a number of other phones will only transfer one entry at a time. Next up is the V710 which won't allow ANY transfer of the PB to the Prius (not even one entry at a time) but works perfectly with several BMW models, transferring the entire phonebook at once and thereafter automatically synching with the phone's contact list.

So, is it the phone or is it the Prius?

 

From what I understand, the problem is BOTH. Here is why:

1. There are many profiles that are available with Bluetooth technology, however, not all of them are programmed into the device.

2. With that said, one of the profiles allows the device to PULL data from the other device. The Prius does not have this profile and requires the phone to transfer the data itself.

I know someone with a BMW and the Motorola RAZR V3 and he is able to transfer the entire phonebook to his car, because the BMW has the profile necessary to PULL the data from the phone. This is especially nice since the RAZR V3 does not have the capability to PUSH more than one phonebook entry at a time.

So, in summary, the Prius is deficient in that it cannot PULL data from the phone, and the Motorola RAZR V3 (and the V551 - my wife has this one), is deficient in that it can only PUSH one entry at a time.

 

Yes, I believe you're correct; both are "deficient".

However, metamatic mentioned that the T68i will transfer the entire phonebook at once. A couple of other BT phones also have that capability.

Soooo, what would happen if we picked up a T68i (or another model) on ebay, entered contacts, and used that for the transfer? Would it work? I mean, could that be done WITHOUT activation or otherwise purchasing a service plan?

 

It depends on if the phone is SIM unlocked or not. However, in theory, it would work fine, as long as your phone numbers are stored on your sim.

 

I'll take the "works fine in theory" part. I mean, it's certainly worth a shot.

Now, pardon my naivete with respect to SIM, but should I be looking for an unlocked phone then? Further, I've seen some phones on ebay that are being sold without a SIM. ???

Thanks for any information you can pass along.

 

The SIM contains your identity--the phone number, your customer ID, and often your address book too.

You can put the SIM into any unlocked GSM phone, and it works exactly as if it was your phone.

For instance, I have three unlocked phones, and I can swap the SIM into whichever one I want to use.

When I change service provider, they just give me a new SIM. You can get pre-paid SIMs in disposable cards, or you can subscribe to a service like Cingular or T-Mobile and get one of their SIMs.

The idea behind GSM was to have a universal system, so that customers could move from vendor to vendor without having to throw away their phones--and you'd have a competitive free market. This was viewed as unAmerican by the US corporations, who lobbied the US government to prevent them from declaring a single mobile phone standard in the US. Hence, everywhere else in the world (except parts of Japan) uses GSM, while the US has a mess of standards, it has only recently become possible to take your phone number with you when you change provider, and even then you *still* have to buy a new phone.

Still, America will join the late 1980s soon, once the remaining holdouts (Sprint, Verizon and Nextel) switch to GSM too.

 

metamatic,

Thanks for the explanation.....much appreciated. However, considering the sole purpose for which this phone will be used (to upload a contact list to the Prius), is buying a fully compatible phone viable?

I mean, I don't want nor do I have any use for another cell phone number and certainly don't want to pick up a contract with another provider.

I just want to be able to enter contacts into the phone and transfer that list to the Prius. Are you saying I won't be able to do that without a SIM? Can you tell me what happens when you remove the SIM from one of your phones? I'm assuming you could neither make nor receive calls but do the phones' features function without the SIMs?

 

I'd say it's kinda overkill to buy a phone. But, if you could borrow one...

A PDA might do the trick too. I should see if my Zodiac will talk to the Prius. Or maybe the Pocket PC...

 

Oh, and whether you can do anything with a SIM-less phone depends on the phone. A lot of them won't even let you get to the main menu, though.

 

At first blush, it really does appear to be overkill to buy a phone for that purpose. But, after looking at the prices of some of the older models, it appears to be the cheapest solution.

I recall, for example, that Evan was selling his T610 last year for around 50 bucks or so and that's about what some of the older Sony and Siemens BT phones are going for on ebay.

Good thought there but, in my case, I already have an iQue (no BT) and the cheapest BT PDA I've seen is several hundred dollars. I noticed that a BT SD card is available BUT it only runs on PalmOS 4 and costs over $100. Thus, $50 or so for an older model BT phone isn't as bad as it first appears.

 

Goofy question but would you happen to know which ones? I'm looking at models like the Siemens S56, Sony T68i, T608, T610, et al, as I've heard they're all capable of transferring the entire contact list to the car in one shot.