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

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.