Motorola W315 Prepaid Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Richard Baguley Published on December 29, 2007 Comment on this |
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Dialing Speed (4.17) To test dialing speed we start with the phone turned on, in the closed position, then time how long it takes to dial one of five different numbers, ending when the send key is pressed. We then average the time. The W315 took an average of 5.4 seconds, which is a little on the slow side. This is because, although the keys on the keypad are large, there isn't much to distinguish the keys, so you can't navigate by touch.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Motorola W315 on Verizon | 4.8 | 4.17 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 (on Verizon) | 2.96 | 6.76 |
| Motorola Razr V3m | 4.9 | 4.08 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 on AT&T | 3.16 | 6.33 |
| Nokia N75 | 3.34 | 5.99 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 6.2 | 3.23 |
Talk and End Buttons (6.0)
The talk and end keys are the small circular keys just above the keypad. Neither are particularly large or well placed; we found ourselves sometimes pressing the clear and shortcut buttons by accident instead.
Call Management (6.5)
Pressing the up key on the directional pad takes you to the call management screen. From here, you can access a number of call logs, for received, dialled and missed calls, plus the timers. The latter allows you to keep track of the length of the last call, the received and dialled calls, all calls or all calls made over the lifetime of the phone. The last two sound similar, but the all calls total can be reset from the menu, so you can use it to keep track of the number of calls made in a month if you remember to reset it at the start of the month.
When you are in a call, the left soft key provides access to a number of options, including contacts (useful if you want to make a note of a phone number if you're using a headset in the middle of a call), speakerphone, TTY mode, and the call log options detailed above. You can also access the message menu, the calendar and set voice privacy mode, which amplifies the microphone so you can speak quieter but still be heard. You can also, for some reason access technical information like the serial number of the phone the version of software it is using and something called the PRL version. The right soft key allows you to mute a call.
This is a good selection of call management tools; we've seen many more expensive phones that don't provide these. However, some of these (such as the message and calendar access) aren't going to be much use unless you spend the extra to buy a separate headset; you can't use them if the phone is held against your ear.
Startup to Call (4.33)
To test startup to call we start with the phone closed and turned off, then time how long it takes to open and turn on the phone, then dial a number and hit the send key. The W315 took an average of 23.1 seconds, which is pretty fast; that's about the same as the LG Chocolate VX8550. But we typically see this from low-end phones like this; they don't have to run the complex operating systems that some phones are built on, which often take over a minute to start up.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Motorola W315 on Verizon | 23.1 | 4.33 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 (on Verizon) | 22.37 | 4.47 |
| Motorola Razr V3m | 35.7 | 2.8 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 on AT&T | 6.77 | 14.77 |
| Nokia N75 | 40.56 | 2.47 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 76 | 1.32 |
Ring Volume (8.54) To test ring volume we held the W315 four inches away from a sound pressure meter, set the phone's volume to maximum, and ran through all of the built-in ringtones, picking the loudest. The W315 topped at 87.8 decibels, a touch above the average that we see. That means that it is loud enough to be heard inside a pocket or bag with no problem, and loud enough to get you thrown out of a cinema if you forget to turn the sound off.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Motorola W315 on Verizon | 87.8 | 8.78 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 (on Verizon) | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| Motorola Razr V3m | 88.0 | 8.8 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 on AT&T | 85.6 | 8.56 |
| Nokia N75 | 85.3 | 8.53 |
| T-Mobile Dash | 84.5 | 8.45 |
Ringtone Customizability (0.0)
You get a selection of ringtones built into the W315, but you can't upload your own, or use MP3 files.
Non-Audio Alerts (4.0)
The W315's vibration alert is pretty weak; it's more of a gentle buzz than an earthquake in your pocket. This means it would be easy to miss if the phone was in your bag or in a coat pocket.
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