Motorola W490 User Reviews

dedebrazil posted on 18 Sep 2008, 14:29

Average 5

3rd one in 2 months!!!!!

At first i loved the phone, for its cool small design of a smaller razor....
BUt then the nightmare started...
Keypad simply stopped working out of nowhere!... called warranty and paid the s&h.... a new phone arrived in a week.... ONE WEEK LOST.... but okay new phone new beggining.... so i thought.... the second after a month also gave me the SAME EXACT keypad PROBLEM! I called warranty again and begged for a better phone... they said it wasnt them it motorola, that if this happens a third time then definatly i'll received a upgraded better phone... bla bla bla... this time THEY PAID for s&h and another week lost..... So many people with the same phone problem... and its still not recalled!!?... Welll i don't know how long this third one is gonna last, but i'm actually hoping it does strike out on the third time, so i can finally get a phone without all these problems!

Kim1213 posted on 04 Sep 2008, 21:43

Poor 3.3

Do NOT buy this phone!!

I first upgraded to my W490 in February.  The phone was absolutely perfect until about June when the screen started delaying and finally the screen wouldn't come on at all when I opened the phone.  The screen would be either all white, all black, or white with lines.  I couldn't even turn it off.  To turn it off I had to remove the battery.  The screen would be fine after I turned it back on as long as I didn't close the phone.  I called T-Mobile in June and they charged me for shipping and handling to send me a refurbished phone.  I thought my troubles were over until last month when it happened again.  I called T-Mobile and had a LONG not-so-nice discussion with the supervisor.  I was informed that the warranty was with Motorola, not T-Mobile, and they could only offer me what Motorola allowed them to.  I was also told by a T-Mobile representative that this particular model has NOT been recalled (even though it should).  So, again I paid the $10 shipping and handling for ANOTHER refurbished phone.  I was going to wait and see if this one messes up the same way before I took any further action, but now I see that many people are having the same issues.  I am going to send a strongly worded letter to the corporate headquaters of both T-Mobile and Motorola.  If I do not receive a response, I will go to my local news station.  When I have accomplished something, I will let everyone know.

Pros

• It's pretty.

Cons

• Everything else.

Lindsey posted on 20 Aug 2008, 14:06

Average 4.8

PLUSES AND MINUSES

PLUSES: it has a long battery life!! i txt like a maniac and the battery lasts for about two days (my mom has the same phone and doesn't txt so hers lasts for about five days) the inbox and outbox together hold about 500 messages.

MINUSES:
When texting if you are a fast texter the phone is slower than you with showing what you have written so sometimes i end up waiting for everything to show up. The speaker phone doesnt work very well the person on the other end cant hear what you are saying!! It also sometimes freezes up on me if there are too many texts coming in at once. recently my camera has gotten messed up too where i go to look at my pictures and the whole phone completely shuts its self off!! kinda annoying!



Overall im satisfied w/ it. but really wanting a samsung blast instead!

Zee posted on 15 Aug 2008, 22:54

Excellent 9

I like this phone.

This phone is pretty good, much better than my previous experiences. I've had a SLVR before, it broke and before it broke the sound quality was inconsistent. The W490 is loud and clear every time i talk on the phone. I have two complaints and they are about the texting, specifically the delete button. One is its placement close to the send button (this is when texting,I don't mean the green send button). I have accidentally pushed send before I was ready to send the text a number of times in my time with the phone. Maybe a menu to switch the placement of the send button? Switch it to the left instead of right? My Last of two complaints, is that the delete button is a little slow in response. Don't know what's that about. Other than that, this is a quality Motorola, not as durable as Nokia, of course but still a neat toy to have.

Rob posted on 14 Aug 2008, 00:26

Good 8

A Good Phone

I've had this phone for just 1 week now and have put it through all of its paces. It works great. Used the Bluetooth to link with my computer and it is wonderful. I like the sleek and solid design. Bought it through T-Mobile my carrier. Have taken pictures, played MP3 files, downloaded my own ringtones and even the voice dial feature is good. All with no problems. The only thing I find lacking that my V195 was able to do - was to change the background color scheme. But I can live with that. Have yet to load my 2GB Micro SD card. Moto says to use Sandisk brand. Which I have ordered. This is a solid phone which good features. I do not use my phone for web browsing. Also, when I contacted Moto about an headset adapter for my 3.5mm head phones - they graciously sent me one at no cost.

Dawn Thompson posted on 13 Aug 2008, 19:19

Poor 3.8

I hate it too

I have had 2 in the last 3 months, both of them sit here with a white screen all I can do is recieve calls. can't see my phonebook to make calls I hate it

ashlyn posted on 11 Aug 2008, 20:37

Good 7

screen malfunctions

ive only had my phone a month and the screen keeps goin all white or black and freezing up. and the text messages are all out of order when i get them i loved the phone at first but now it just pisses me off!!!

Anonymous posted on 11 Aug 2008, 17:06

Terrible 1

wow this phone is a crappy phone I have had 12 of them in the past 3 months they keep freezing and wont start I hate this phone

Jessica posted on 09 Aug 2008, 09:06

Good 6.8

worst phone of my life

This is the second w490 in the past 3 months. After only a month the first one stopped working completely...all i could do was open it. I couldnt text, look at my phonebook, make calls, nothing. Tmobile sent me a replacement but now the back cover wont stay on and my texts either delete themselves or rearrange themselves. i really dont like this phone and cant wait to buy another one even though I just upgraded in april.

Anonymous posted on 30 Jul 2008, 11:41

Poor 4.2

EASILY one of the worst phones i have ever picked up, it is slow, if you are texting and a text comes in FORGET ABOUT IT, if you want to spell a word that has more than 5 letters PREPARE TO WAIT, if you want to do ANYTHING while it is trying to send or recieve a message, you might as well go to a movie or something cause this phone is SLOW!!!!!! Besides the slowness of it, it is extremely sensitive to water i cant even have mine in the bathroom when i shower because if i do the keypad no longer works for about a day. And now i have been getting the white screen of death i can turn on my phone but if i close it and reopen it all i see is white, sometimes black.

so in all i would strongly strongly STRONGLY not advise buying this phone OR ANY MOTOROLA PHONE every single motorola i have had has been GARBAGE. The camera isnt ANYTHING compared to its competitors cameras. DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous posted on 29 Jul 2008, 21:56

Poor 3.2

severely disappointed

You want to know why this is a low end phone? Because it will break if you even look at it wrong. I had this phone 3 weeks, and both screens are now shattered inside. All I did was make the mistake of having it in my pocket at work; the phone was not dropped or abused in any way. The screen shattered while the phone was sitting peacefully inside my front pants pocket. That and the back plate slips off all the time. I'm scared to even take it outside my house now.

So if you are an old lady who wants a flashy, overpriced house phone this one is okay. If you are in the market for a cellphone that might last over a year without any complications DO NOT BUY MOTOROLA, their phones are garbage.

Julian posted on 29 Jul 2008, 12:43

Average 5.8

W490

i go this phone it was qaulty then it started to mess up on me started to freeze i get the white screen..after that i talked to tmobile and they sent me that same one back and had the same problem this is my 5th one and they said that they cant give me a different phone....so they try to give me a downgrade form this one i said no i paid the amount for this one and u want to down grade me no way....they said sorry we cant do that so that really sucks....so i hate this phone no i dont want any one to get this phone cause you well get that same crap i did if u have any idea's for me let me know please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shelby posted on 21 Jun 2008, 12:49

Average 6.4

worst phone

I had this phone for a few months and loved it. Then it froze and i couldn't use it. T-mobile sent me another one and it did the same thing in less time. Sometimes it will randomly add numbers and letters when i am calling or texting. I am now on my fifth one because T-mobile wont let me get anything else. I hate this phone and it has been nothing but a problem. T-mobile told me that i had too much saved on my phone so on my last one i had only two pics and very few contacts to ensure that the memory wasn't full, yet i still had this problem. This is the worst phone i have ever had!!!

Gooney posted on 18 Jun 2008, 20:56

Good 6.6

Just "OK"

Size, case and display are very nice. Telecom feature works well on TMO. Finally phone is loud enough (a Motorola phone problem). It is NOT a KRZR tho. Menu functionality is very limited and much inferior to KRZR. It is a thousand times better in every respect than a RAZR. Bluetooth on KRZR was great. On (blue) RAZR and W490 it is poor. I really like using Bluetooth tho, but have turned it off for good in this phone. It just doesnt work well. Battery life is very good, about 4 days for me. KRZR was a day or two better. I use it 45 min/day and its off 5pm - 7 am.

Kim posted on 12 Jun 2008, 10:14

Good 8.2

excellent

well i got this phone yesterday, and it's a very awesome phone. They had 3 colors - black, purple, and green. Very good phone for a good price. Not as thin as the RAZR OR KZR, but still is good. Fits in your pocket, not like the RAZR. I really recommend this to someone who wants a stylish phone for a cheap price.

Kasey posted on 05 Jun 2008, 19:53

Terrible 1

Ridiculous

Okay. So I've gone through 4 of the W490 and I've had nothing but problems with the phone. The first phone was great for a few months but then everything started to go downhill from there.

The battery life went down very quick, from about 7 hours of talk time to about 2 hours of talk time in about 4 months. After my battery started acting funny the signal started to go out randomly and I had to remove the battery to restart the phone and regain signal.

Besides the signal, the phone kept freezing on me when I would open it and also when I would receive a text message. T-mobile has been no help, telling me that there is nothing they can do about me having problems with the "Best phone that t-mobile makes."

I would have given it a zero but the site wouldn't let me...I am very disappointed with this device

emilyinfini posted on 05 Jun 2008, 17:44

Good 6.6

HORRIBLE

This phone was great for a few months- I love the design of the exterior and the reception is decent. After only 6 months it busted (got slower and slower, and eventually the screen would never come back on if I closed it) and T-Mobile just sent me a refurbished version of the phone.
I am VERY unhappy with the poor quality of Motorola phones.

Bamaboy posted on 04 Jun 2008, 22:52

Average 5.6

Major Flaw

My first W490 broke on me after a couple of months. It started pressing buttons itself, and wouldn't let me press any. So I called T-mobil, they charged me 10 dollars and sent me a new phone same model. Now I am having the same problems with the new phone, but I am one week out of my warranty. I found this forum searching for this flaw, and lots of people had it.

happycamper2010 posted on 02 Jun 2008, 11:04

Excellent 9.4

this phone is THE best phone I have ever received. I'm a junior in high school and it has ALL the features I use on an everyday basis. I text alot and the keys have never given me any problems. I've had this phone for over a month now and it is AWESOME!

Raven posted on 27 May 2008, 15:27

Good 7.8

Can't figure it out!

I got this phone in Febuary. I haven't had any problems until about a month ago. The screen does not show up! I didn't do anything to it. This was not worth the money.

Hilary posted on 23 May 2008, 22:15

Good 8.2

hmmmm.......help?

heya, i've had the phone for several months and absolutley love it! only problem is they lie in the phone manual and say u can close the phone to take self portraits and i can't find the tty feature which the manual says is in the Initail Setup page. which royally stinks......anyone have info on that? if so pleeeeeeeease write me at hilsignsasl@gmail.com. other than that love the phone,,,,,plus the fact that i'm the only person i kno that has it and it is ~GREEN~ makes it that much more awesome. =)

Mr. Chivo posted on 22 May 2008, 01:27

Excellent 9

Key pad volume

For the guy who is asking how to mute the keys, here is how:
1)main menu
2)settings
3)Ring styles
4)vibe & ring details
5)Key Volume (change to zero)

There you go . . .

This is a great little phone. I've had it for three months now and I love it.
The only two complaints I have are:
1) the lack of a notepad application.
2) The location of the usb port, OK when connected to a pc, a pain in the butt when connected to a charger when talking, unless you hold it with your left hand.

Gwen Ross posted on 18 May 2008, 21:07

Good 8.2

How to find the music stored on memory card

I love the phone, the only problem is that I don't know how to find the music stored on the memory. If anyone can help me, please e-mail me at ghawk140@aol.com.

Thanks.

Kanie D posted on 15 May 2008, 10:10

Excellent 9.6

So far...

I am in love with this phone. The camera on it rocks for a camera phone. I have a computer for web usage so I don't really care that the screen times out after 20 seconds. It's super easy to set a shortcut so that I can get to my media player quickly. It fits perfectly into my jean pockets which is awesome. I had a Samsung t509s before this phone and I would always loose it in my pockets and purse. This one is small enough to fit anywhere yet big enough to still know where it is at. I don't really take self portraits with the camera on my phone, I grew out of that stage years ago. I love the color. i got the Bubblegum color and all my girlfriends are just envious over my phone. On all my other phones I would have push the phone into my ear for me to hear anything. On the w490 the sound quality is amazing. And that's saying something for someone partially deaf in one ear.

My only thing against this phone would be I cannot figure out for the life of me how to turn the darn key tones off. It's so annoying for me to hear a beeep beep noise every time I press a button unless I have the phone on silence. I have looked all through my phone and the manuel and still cannot figure out how to turn that setting off. This is only the second motorola phone I have used before. The SLVR I used before I swear I was able to turn this setting off. And motorola is nothing like samsung. So if anyone has figured it out and maybe I'm just a little slow on this part please let me know.

Chris posted on 12 May 2008, 06:56

Terrible 1

WORST PHONE I'VE EVER HAD

I have had to have this phone replaced FOUR times on me now. This phone was great when I first got it but long term, it's not so good. After a few months you can see the signs. It starts getting slower and slower until eventually when you open the screen nothing happens. It just goes totally white. Not only has this happened to me but 3 of my friends with this phone as well.

NOT WORTH IT!