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Motorola Motofone F3 GSM phone (GSM 850/1900) $19.99 Archived From: Hot Deals

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Seems like a decent price on a basic cell phone, especially if you need a replacement for a lost phone. 1 Sale per day

1 Link A Day

Ultra thin and easy to carry, the MOTOFONE features a revolutionary ClearVision display that leverages Electrophoretic Display (EPD) technology to provide users with a large, high-contrast screen viewable even in bright sunlight. The ClearVision display combined with a flush-fitting keypad and dust-resistant design makes the MOTOFONE durable in active everyday use. And it sounds great too with polyphonic ringtones, speakerphone and powerful volume communication is loud and clear. Combining Motorola’s award winning design sensibility with intuitive and easy to learn functionality, the MOTOFONE enables even the newest phone users to embrace mobile communication with confidence and style.

* Voice prompts in local languages
* Intuitive icon-based user interface
* Stylish Ultra thin design
* Extended battery life
* USA model phone GSM, World Band: 850/1900 MHz
* Durable housing for optimal performance despite dust and sun
* High-contrast screen using new ClearVision display
* Large font size for easy readability
* High-volume for call clarity in loud environments
* Automatic notification of current prepaid balance
* Embedded polyphonic ringtones in eight voices
* Ability to download ringtones
* Special Features: Calculator, Alerts, Games, Phonebook, SMS Chat one-to-one, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Organizer
* Includes: Phone, Battery, Charger, Manual, User Guide, Gift Case and Warranty Card

Quick Summary is created and edited by users like you... Add FAQ's, Links and other Relevant Information by clicking the edit button in the lower right hand corner of this message.

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anyone bought stuff from 1saleaday.com? any opinions on their quality/service?

i've done some research on the motofone a few years ago, and this is a pretty awesome phone for someone who doesn't care about anything but voice, durability & battery life. i see this being good for an outdoors person or for an older person who's not too tech savvy.

on eBay there's some of these phones sold for twice the amount.

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In for one. This will make a great backup phone, thanks OP!

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i'd buy this phone, but i'm with Verizon, so I'd rather have the CDMA version of this phone: Motofone F3c. Speak up if you know where to get a CDMA version!

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I refuse to buy anything from that site.

Unlike other daily deal sites, they tack on a flat shipping charge for each item.

So the price isn't $19.99; it's $25.98 per phone, no matter if you buy 1, 2, or 10. Yes, if you buy 10 of these phones, they will actually charge you $60 to ship it UPS ground.

Sorry, I don't support sites that blatantly overcharge you on shipping.

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I bought one of these last week for $34 from Amazon. I received one intended for Mexico, had no problems switching it to English. I thought it'd be nice to have a "weekend" phone so I don't lug my Treo with me hiking.

It's REALLY bare bones - even the phonebook is stored on the SIM card. Google for the English manual at https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=727577&native_or_pdf=pdf

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p0tempkin said:I refuse to buy anything from that site.

Unlike other daily deal sites, they tack on a flat shipping charge for each item.

So the price isn't $19.99; it's $25.98 per phone, no matter if you buy 1, 2, or 10. Yes, if you buy 10 of these phones, they will actually charge you $60 to ship it UPS ground.

Sorry, I don't support sites that blatantly overcharge you on shipping.

I concur.
5.99 for one phone is OK, but to not lower shipping for multiple phones(how much can these weigh!) is ridiculous(wow, save a whole .09 cents in shipping if you buy 10 ).

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I've used this phone. It gets about 2 days battery life max because of the display that is always on. Navigating menus and creating a phone book is very cumbersome. Save your $20 and spend more to get a decent phone.

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zidan said:I've used this phone. It gets about 2 days battery life max because of the display that is always on. Navigating menus and creating a phone book is very cumbersome. Save your $20 and spend more to get a decent phone.

The display is supposed to be one of its unique features for long battery life:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE_F3#Display_technology

I just noticed Amazon's got this phone for $33.99 w/ free shipping. Arrives w/ the Spanish setting.

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Ignore the naysayers here. They don't get it.

This is the anti iPhone. This is a phone that is a phone - nothing more. It was designed from the ground up to be used by possibly illiterate people, in harsh conditions. It is sand and water and drop proof.

Zidan is wrong; my friends' F3s battery life is minimum 5 days. The display uses an e-paper variant, so it is highly readable in light or dark situations and from any angle. The display is always on because it only requires power to change the display, not to keep it on.

As far as the interface; yes it's radically different from any phone on the market. That's because the idea of "menus" is something we've inherited by using computers. But for people who have never used computers the menu is a foreign idea. The F3 correspondingly does not use menus at all. There's nothing buried. The interface takes a bit of "unlearning."

The phone is light and thin. The ringtone is extremely loud - why? because weddings in many other countries last for weeks at a time and are also very loud. That summarizes the spirit behind this phone.

I highly recommend this phone if you're at all tired of cellphone bloat, and just want a nice, simple backup.

Linkage galore:

http://www.cneophytou.com/2007/02/19/motorola-motofone-f3/
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=telecom&id=17663&a=
http://del.icio.us/tag/motofone
http://blog.learnedonwomen.com/learned_on_women/2007/01/less_is_so_much.html
http://nickbaum.com/2007/03/motofone-review/

This is a really terrific design team commentary on why everything is the way it is on the F3:
http://www.fcbpreview.ca/motofone/

The F3 would make a great backup phone for anyone, or if you know you're headed out to the beach and don't want sand in your precious blackberry...etc etc.

Enjoy!

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DJphilosophy said:zidan said:I've used this phone. It gets about 2 days battery life max because of the display that is always on. Navigating menus and creating a phone book is very cumbersome. Save your $20 and spend more to get a decent phone.

The display is supposed to be one of its unique features for long battery life:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE_F3#Display_technology

I just noticed Amazon's got this phone for $33.99 w/ free shipping. Arrives w/ the Spanish setting.

I am not the only one who has had bad luck with this phone. This is from a review on Amazon

I bought this phone as a temporary replacement for my previous phone which died in anticipation for the g3 iPhone releasing in June 08.

I urge people to spend a little more for a better phone and to pass on this piece of garbage.

Upon first glance, the phone is sleek, sexy, and simple. It's also very thin. However, after getting my hands on it, the user interactions on the phone is awkward and frustrating. The menu can be confusing and take a while of getting used to. Also annoying is that the display can only show 6 numbers or characters at a time. Checking your call history is a pain and not worth the effort.

Because of how awkward the navigation is and limitations of the display, I carry a small notebook with all of my contacts in it. It is much faster to look up and dial number from my contact book than it is to try and navigate and use the contact list in the phone.

Also, for a simple phone, the battery life is horrible. I have to charge the phone every 3 days. I had a Nokia N-Gage QD that could last a week on a full charge.

Another thing that is annoying is that when I receive a call, the first 3 rings are at very low volume and barely audible and does not ring at full volume until the 4th ring. I basically have 2 "audible" rings to answer before it kicks the caller to voicemail.

About the only thing this phone is good for is to dial phone calls and maybe keep 2 or 3 emergency numbers stored. Save yourself the grief and frustration and spend a little more with a more intuitive interface and better display.

So if you just need a phone, fine, this will work. I admit it had perfectly fine call quality. But I ran into battery issues. Maybe they had manufacturing issues with the battery, I don't know (it's a cheap phone). I am just stating my experience and I'm not the only one with this issue.

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Yeah...I imagine that's true Zidan. It's odd there is such a disparity on battery usage, but who knows!

And yep - it took both my friends a couple days playing around to figure out the menu system, but they prefer it now.

One of these friends says that if you SMS at all, this is not the phone to use. It's doable, and in some ways appealing in the way it renders all text via old-school LCD (a mix of caps), but if you reach your SMS limit every month this phone will definitely miff you.

Definitely not a phone for everyone, that is true. But if you just want a phone that makes calls and keeps on ticking, this is the phone to do it with.

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If you REALLY must have THIS phone, why buy if from 1SaleADay?

IT's CHEAPER at Amazon: Motofone from Amazon

They have a special deal:
Free Offer: Get a free international GSM SIM card from Mobal, ($20 bonus airtime included), with the purchase of any unlocked phone from Amazon.com. Just add both items to your Shopping Cart and use this promotional code at checkout: MOBALSIM. The savings will be deducted from your order total. Offer valid while supplies last. (Applies only to products sold by Amazon.com. Limit one per customer.)

So 33.99+FREE shipping+No tax=33.99-$20 Airtime=13.99

Compare Amazon's 13.99 to 1SaleAday's 19.99+5.99=25.98!

Amazon's price is over 40% less than 1SaleAday! 1SaleAday's price stinks

P.S. only get the one from Amazon, there are several listings for this phone there.

However, be forewarned, it's gotten mixed reviews!

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regarding the allegedly "cheaper" price on Amazon - mobal is a global sim card that (IIRC -- I used mobal while traveling abroad about 2 years ago) gives you a UK number and charges pretty ridiculous rates. so you might get 20 minutes of domestic airtime use out of this. so yea, NOT a better deal.

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vishesh said:regarding the allegedly "cheaper" price on Amazon - mobal is a global sim card that (IIRC -- I used mobal while traveling abroad about 2 years ago) gives you a UK number and charges pretty ridiculous rates. so you might get 20 minutes of domestic airtime use out of this. so yea, NOT a better deal.

Yes I didn't see that at first. But you can still get about 10 mins from it at the high per minute rate. You do get FREE incoming text messaging. So if you are using it as a 2nd phone, you could just use it to GET text messages free for life(it never expires)
(but it is good if you travel to the UK, free incoming calls there).

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I have used this phone for 6 months and got it from this vendor for 36 dollars including shipping.
It has the best reception of any phone I have used for ATT. ATT maybe the one of very few that use 850 band GSM in the world.

But it is also correct that the ring is annoying since it is only loud enough to be heard on the 3 or 4th ring. I had to disable voicemail to get more rings.

The text display is also terrible with caps and lower case letter at random.

It is sturdy and cheap, worth 26 dollars for an unlocked cell phone.

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closeupman said: You do get FREE incoming text messaging. So if you are using it as a 2nd phone, you could just use it to GET text messages free for life(it never expires)
Could you elaborate on this a bit more ? I know you have explained it but seems a bit odd to me (noob). Is there a site that I can go and read up for more info on this free for life feature?????

Thanks in advance.

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Quick Question:

It says it's a USA model. I'm going to be in Europe this summer for a little bit. Will I be able to just buy a local SIM and use the phone? Or will it only work for any local US GSM carrier?

thanks.

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newuser01 said:closeupman said: You do get FREE incoming text messaging. So if you are using it as a 2nd phone, you could just use it to GET text messages free for life(it never expires)
Could you elaborate on this a bit more ? I know you have explained it but seems a bit odd to me (noob). Is there a site that I can go and read up for more info on this free for life feature?????

Thanks in advance.

Go to www.mobal.com. I would make sure you NEVER answer the phone with this sim though as they charge 1.75/min for incoming calls

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