I got mine from Sprint for, like, $29.95, over a year ago.

I'm satisfied with mine. Admittedly, I mostly want a phone (preferably relatively thin phone that I can slip in my suit's breast pocket without causing a bulge, and a flip phone if at all possible) for speaking with other people on the phone, so full alphanumeric keyboards, built-in cameras with zoom lenses, and extensive PDA capabilities don't matter much to me. If these matter to you, there are much better phones out there than the V3m. I mean, you can access the Internet from a V3m, it's just not one of the phone's great strengths, at least when compared with some other phones that are more geared toward such things.

What jthueter said about the battery is pretty much true. FWIW, new batteries (generics, off eBay) are dirt cheap. There's even a higher capacity battery, a little thicker than the stock battery, which can be used with a replacement battery compartment door (which accommodates the additional thickness). Motorola sent me one, along with the appropriate door, for free, after I complained to them about battery life.

I voice dial, most of the time. The V3m's voice dialing capability works well. I think I've used the speaker phone function maybe 3 times, and it was mediocre at best, but I'm not sure that many cell phones can double as great speaker phones. The phone's maximum volume is generally adequate, but nothing to write home about. Once, just for kicks, I tried streaming some King of the Hill episodes I had on my computer, to my V3m, via orb, and while it was sort of a dancing bear situation (you're impressed that the bear dances at all; you don't demand that he dance well), it did technically work. I would add that I'm on the SERO plan, so I have unlimited data. If you don't, you might not want to watch much tv on your phone.

Reception has been decent enough, even in some fringe areas, but nothing exceptional. Sometimes, I wish the response were a little snappier when going through the phone's various menus, but it's not quite slow enough to really annoy me. I've never played games on the phone, so I can't say whether it's any good at that. I'm not sure if it can play mp3 files, either, since I've never had any interest along those lines. Setting up custom ringtones is easy enough, and it's nice to know, for example, that when I hear my phone playing Fur Elise, it's my colleague Lisa calling me, and I don't have to remove the phone from my breast pocket to figure it out. Ringtones are loud enough that I never have trouble hearing them.

Oh, and here are step-by-step instructions for turning on your V3m's GPS capabilities. It's no Garmin Nuvi 880, but it can be handy to have the capability in your cell phone, and it's free, so that's nice. I think there's something similar here.

All in all, it's an okay phone, for someone who mostly wants a phone, and not an entertainment and Internet device that also handles phone calls. It's not the latest and greatest, not by a long shot, but not everyone needs or wants cutting edge technology. Getting the phone for free with your contract is a pretty good deal.