Motorola Motofone F3 Review - Returning to Basic Functions

What do you want in mobile phone? Are you looking for a phone that you can use every so often to make an emergency call or SMS? Or are you looking for a phone that will mould to your lifestyle? If you’re searching for the latter, then the Motofone F3 is probably not for you. This is a basic, feature-barren phone that will not satisfy users who want advanced phone features.

Aesthetically, the Motofone F3 is quite pleasing. It’s remarkably thin for a candy bar phone – just 114mm x 47mm x 9mm in size, with an overall weight of 70 grams. The phone comes in a standard black casing and its alphanumeric controls are large, backlit by white and very easy to see and operate. Features of the keypad include dial and hang up buttons, as well as contacts and menu buttons, all of which surround a five-way navigation panel.

One obvious and somewhat intriguing feature of the phone is the large screen, which uses a black and white electrophoretic display. The intention of this technology is that it is easy to read in a wide range of circumstances, including direct and intense sunlight. The display also utilises an over-sized font which, in conjunction with the large, clear screen makes this phone a good option for users with vision impairments. Rather than messages scrolling downwards over multiple screens, the displayed text on the Motorola Motofone F3 scrolls horizontally. This is an irritating limitation, because it means that even small details like missed calls and phone numbers extend over multiple screens. Since you can only advance at snails pace through the text, reading and writing text is a protracted and painful process.

So what else does this phone have? Well, it’s a GSM phone and since it comes with a pre-paid SIM card included in the box, it’s very suited to users who make irregular, short calls and who would prefer the simplicity of a pre-paid phone. The Motofone F3 does have SMS capabilities but there is no predictive text function.
That is pretty much it for Motorola Motofone F3 features – there’s no camera, Bluetooth, 3G or even games to play. There is a limited range of ring tones, although these are monophonic rather than the newly standard polyphonic tones.

A redeeming feature of the phone is its 450 minutes of talk time and 270 hours of standby time. When not in use, the screen powers down to a very simple time and date display, conserving power. Conserving power is something you should really try to do with the Motorola Motofone F3, because recharge time is fairly slow. You’ll need to plug in this phone overnight to ensure that your batteries have enough zing to even make a call or send an SMS – this is not the sort of phone where a quick top up restores the phone to full functionality.

The simplicity of the Motorola Motofone F3 is both an advantage and a limitation. If you want predictive text, a camera, Bluetooth, videoconferencing and games, you should not consider buying this phone. However, if you want a phone that will serve a limited and emergency function, the Motorola Motofone F3 is a solid, simple and cheap way to meet that need.

The Motorola Motofone F3 is available with free line rental, as well as other popular handsets. http://www.FreeLineRentalMobiles.co.uk is a good option if you are looking to maximize savings with 12 months free line rental deals.