Motorola W315 Prepaid Cell Phone Review - Software

Richard Baguley
Published on December 29, 2007 Comment on this

OS (3.0)
The W315 runs Motorola's own proprietary OS. We found this to be starightforward to use, but not particularly responsive; the phone often took a couple of seconds to respond to keypresses. It's also oddly designed, with several features buried out of the way. The calendar application, for instance, is buried under the the Tools menu, next to the calculator and alarm features.

Home Screen Score (3.0)

Minimal is the phrase that springs to mind here: the home screen of the W315 that first appears when you open the phone shows the signal strength, data connection type, roaming indicator, alarm, message or voicemail notification and battery level along the top of the screen. In the middle you see the network name, plus the time and date. If you get a text message or miss a call, the home screen is replaced by a notification that allows you to view or exit the notification screen. If you leave the phone unattended for a time and get several messages and miss a call, the missed call message replaces the message notification, so you could easily miss messages if you aren't paying attention.

Extensibility (0.0)
Because you can't connect the phone to a PC or access the Internet, there is no way to download extra software onto the W315. So, you're pretty much stuck with what you have.

Customizability (3.0)
A limited amount of customizability is available on the W315; you can use the two built in themes, or customize features such as the color scheme, banners and sounds. You can also change the style and layout of the menus.

OS Responsiveness (2.5)
The OS of the W315 is not particularly responsive; we often found ourselves waiting a second or two for the phone to respond or for a new screen to appear. Because the phone is not exactly bristling with features, this is not a huge problem, but it is certainly not the fastest and most responsive phone that we have seen.

Gaming (0.0)
There are no games included on the W315; if you want to play games, bring your Nintendo DS with you.

Browser Features (0.0)
The W315 does not include a Web browser: there is no way to access the Internet.

Browsing Interface (0.0)
Because there is no browser, the W315 scores 0 points for the interface.

Browser Access Speed (0.0)
Because there is no browser, the W315 scores 0 points for the interface.

Calculator (2.0)

A very basic calculator is included with the W315; it can add, subtract, divide and multiply. But it doesn't have any more advanced features; ask it to calculate the square root of a number and it'll look at you like a cat that you've just asked to do the washing up.

Alarm (4.0)

The alarm features of the W315 are surprisingly good. There's a quick alarm feature (which allows you to set an alarm that goes off 10, 30, 60 or 180 minutes later) and up to 3 individual alarms that can be set to sound once, every day, monday-friday or monday-saturday. There's also a morning call feature, which will awaken you at the time you specify with a selected ringtone. That's a good selection of alarm features for a basic phone.

Document Software (0.0)
Nope. There is no document software on the W315.

Other Software (0.0)
There are no other pieces of software on the W315; it's a no frills phone in the purest sense of the word.

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