Digital Trends

Motorola Timeport 270c

March 7th, 2003 | by Ian Bell

FM Stereo Headset

One feature, which Motorola is adding to a number of their phones, is the ability to use the Timeport™ 270c as an FM radio when coupled with the additional FM Stereo headset.

The Timeport™ 270c instantly recognized the headset when plugged in and uses the phone's joystick to navigate through radio stations. Reception was excellent and when a call came in, you had the option to set the phone to automatically answer the call, or you could switch to the incoming call by pressing a button located conveniently on the headset cable. A handy microphone is built into the headset cable so hands free talking is available. Although reception was exceptional, the sound quality, as far as bass and treble, was substantially flat. We found this to be odd since the amplifier built into the phone itself appears to be powerful when using the cell phone's built in speakerphone. This would lead me to believe that the speakers in the headset are not as capable as I would have liked to imagine. The appearance of the FM stereo headset is very sexy, and looks to be state of the art when being used. The FM stereo headset is Compatible with the V. Series™ 60c, 120c, and Timeport™ 270c mobile phones and costs about $59.99 MSRP.

Navigation

While the Timeport™ 270c offers a heap of features, its navigation in the menu system is easily controlled by a 4-way joystick. The 4-way joystick is the first of its kind on any Motorola cell phone. We found the joystick and navigation to be very intuitive, settings for such controls as ring volume, network settings, and other options are where you would expect them to be. There are even options to change the animation of the menu itself! The 270c features 32 customizable rings and 4 built in vibration alerts. We found the 270c to be very user customizable and not to mention, friendly. One awkward thing we noticed about the phone was that the “Send” and “End” buttons on the faceplate were reversed compared to phones manufactured by other companies. After using a Nokia cell phone for several months, I found the button reversal in the 270c annoying for a while until I adapted. On another note, I found the large-screen display that shows up to 6 lines of text or 96 characters at a time is well backlit and very easy on the eyes in both light and dark settings. Motorola says the battery has a life of up to 225 hours of standby time and 235 minutes of talk time when used with the included Lithium Ion Battery. Our phone averaged about 190 hours of standby and 200 minutes of talk time, not bad for a battery as small as the phone uses. Charging time took as little as 45 minutes, which we were very impressed with.

Enhanced Features

We are calling the features of the Motorola phone enhanced because while the features may be standard on a lot of phones, Motorola has added numerous twists to the mix. For example, the Personal Information Manager (PIM) can store 400 Phone Book and Data Book entries. Other cell phones might be able to store this many entries, but how many of these entries can be activated by voice? Not only can you assign a voice title to each phonebook entry, you can also record up to 2 minutes worth of personal voice notes. We found the voice activation to work excellent in quiet areas but when using the Timeport™ 270c in a car, be sure to speak loudly and clearly, otherwise the phone might accidentally confuse your request with another entry.

Speaking of talking on the phone in the car, the 270c has a built-in 360-degree speakerphone. Not only can you talk hands free, you can also conduct conference calls with other callers or people in the same room sharing your phone. We found the speaker phone to work exceptionally well, so much in fact that people often mistook the Timeport™ 270c cell phone for a full sized regular phone. The speaker in the 270c is loud and clear, so much so that when the volume was up to its maximum peak, the phone shook with the loudness of the speaker. Motorola spared no expense with using a quality speaker in the Timeport™ 270c.

Other features included with the Timeport™ 270c are SMS messaging, which allows you to send, receive and store short alphanumeric text messages with another compatible wireless device or email address. Motorola also included a WAP 1.1 enabled Micro Browser, which allows you access stock prices, local news and sport scores, all wirelessly. We found the WAP browser to be confusing and slow, typical of any cell phone regardless of the manufacturer. We think there is still a long way to go in perfecting the WAP 1.1 protocol and software, but since the Timeport™ 270c is state of the art, WAP is included nonetheless.