Motorola FONE F3

China Product


Display technology

The F3 is the first mobile phone to use electronic paper in its screen. Motorola uses the term ClearVision to describe the new display, which is manufactured using E Ink's electrophoretic imaging film. The electronic paper main display allows for the phone's thinness (no glass), longer battery life, and outdoor viewability (paper-like reflectivity). It has a backlight for the keypad and a slit that projects the backlight onto the screen so the display can be seen in darkness.

The characteristics of the display are fairly restrictive. The text display contains only two lines of six characters each, making the use of text messaging (SMS) and data services less practical than on standard LCD displays. The display uses a fixed 'digital clock' style font, with no functionality for changing between upper case and lower case text. All SMSs sent by the F3 are received entirely in lower case, and each character of any SMS received by the F3 is displayed in whichever case makes the most sense using the font. Also, the non-alphabetic characters are severely limited due to this display, as the phone can only provide support for the following characters: acrylic business card holders

Comma (,) (periods . in incoming text messages are displayed as commas) acrylic business card holder

Hyphen (-) business card holders acrylic

Question mark (?)

At-sign (@)

Asterisk (*)

(+), to write this character, hold down the 0 key

No other non-alphanumeric characters can be entered, and on receiving an SMS any non-alphabetic character not listed above is displayed as a hyphen.

Although the display can be restrictive when it comes to text applications, the display is very energy efficient and conducive to extremely long battery life.

User interface

Since the F3 has only two lines of fixed icons on the top and bottom of the display, as well as one line of six 14-segment characters and another line of six 7-segment numbers available on its display, the user interface is very different from the usual menu structure normally found on mobile phones. The only thing resembling a (flat) menu is accessed by pressing left/right on the central button: It allows writing an SMS, reading a saved SMS, call history, choosing the ringtone (out of seven melodies), setting date and time, and setting the alarm clock. The menu is visualized by fixed icons in the bottom row, following the left/right pattern of the navigation button.

The F3 has a few dedicated buttons for opening the address book (top right), canceling any action (the red button), dialing the currently displayed number (the green button) and an "action" button (top left). A few more functions are available by shortcuts: When making a call, pressing the action button twice switches the loudspeaker on/off, while pressing up/down controls the speaker volume. The same button used in standby toggles voice prompts, while pressing up/down controls ringtone volume. When the phone rings, due to incoming calls, the ringer can also be silenced by pressing up/down. All activated features (set alarm clock, activated vibration mode, roaming, ...) are indicated by simple icons in fixed positions in the top row, every successful action is acknowledged by an "OK" icon flashing on and off a few times. The only context-sensitive button is the action button which is used for "OK" on options as well as choosing a number or address book entry when writing an SMS or for answering a received SMS.

Reception strength (left) and battery status (right) are constantly displayed in two prominent strips above the actual display. Both are readable in any light condition and from considerable distances.

Special features

The F3 Motofone is designed for usage in developing countries and sports not only a display which copes well with both bright sunlight and very dim light (experience shows it is readable by candlelight even without the backlight) but also voice prompts explaining the current function in a choice of languages (depending on region; a unit bought in Germany offers German, English and Italian). It is also fairly solid and rugged and should survive not only rough handling but also very dusty and/or damp conditions well, as the case has only two openings (a charger/headset jack and the battery cover) as well as a totally sealed keyboard. There are even videos on the Internet showing the F3 being thrown from a 3 story building into tarmac, and being run over by a car on a gravel surface. The phone survived intact.

The charger/headset jack for the F3 Motofone (and variants) is not a standard 2.5 mm or 3.5 mm headset port. It is a DC connector that can support mono sound quality. This is not well-documented at Motorola and internal documentation indicates the jack is a standard 2.5 mm TRS connector jack. The jack shown on the Motorola site clearly has a pin in the center of the jack, prohibiting use of a standard 2.5 mm plug. A mono headset is available as part number CFLN6103AA and the name of it is Motorola S215 Pedestrian Kit. This is a headset only and not an adapter.

The F3 has two internal antennas to maximize reception even when partially shielded by a hand or other obstacles and a loud maximum volume for ringtones and loudspeaker to facilitate usage in crowded city environments or public transport. The unique default ringing mode is vibrating silently for some seconds, then ring in modest volume, then ring with full volume (one can also set a vibrate-only mode or modes with fixed volume). To ease repairs or recycling, it can be opened by four Torx screws on the back.

Variants

The Motorola Motofone comes in two two-band variants: The F3 900/1800 MHz GSM for Europe and much of the rest of the world except the Americas; and the F3 u2 850/1900 MHz GSM for North America and a limited number of Central and South American countries. See GSM frequency bands for specific country coverage.

Both variants come in four different colors: black, blue, red and a silverish grey.

According to its very low price (starting from 20 to 30 /$) the F3/F3c is mainly sold with prepaid (pay-as-you-go) SIM cards and it seems that the sellers often (but not always) implement a SIM-lock. However, for slightly more (starting at ca. 30) it can also be bought without SIM-lock or card, giving full freedom to choose any provider.

In Brazil, this phone (without SIM-lock) is sold for BRL 99.00 as of February 2008 (approx. USD 57.00). The SIM-locked version can be purchased for BRL 29.00 (on telephone carrier stores). The F3 is currently Brazil's cheapest cellphone.

In Hungary it could be purchased in Dec/2007 for a total of HUF 2000 (approx. USD 11.58 (~7.87) at that time), with the price already including a prepaid card from T-Mobile with a balance of HUF 600 (approx. USD 3.46 (~2.35) at that time). Prices for mobile-phones in Hungary usually are higher than in other industrial nations.

In the UK, this phone is being sold by Home Bargains (as of 29/04/2008) and -Stretcher (as of 07/06/2008) with a Virgin Mobile SIM (T-Mobile network) for 7.99 (6.99 -Stretcher). The phones do not seem to have any sort of SIM network lock and have been successfully used with Orange, Vodafone and O2.

In Canada and the US, this phone is not available through Motorola's normal retail channels. Where available, the North American version is normally sold unlocked, with no SIM card.

In Mexico, this phone is available virtually everywhere, from specialized stores to simple supermarkets, it sells both refurbished and new, for a very low price; this phone is currently the cheapest in Mexico's Market. It is only offered in Prepaid form and most of the time with SIM Lock.

Although this phone is being manufactured largely in India, it has recently become completely unavailable in major metropolitan areas such as Chennai or Madras. It seems that Motorola is in fact actively phasing out the model in India due to poor sales perhaps because of the popularity of text messaging in India, which is arguably oversimplified on the F3.

Advanced Settings

To access the advanced settings, press * * * [number code] * [action] ([action] is the key in the upper left corner of the keypad, the one printed with an upward-pointing arrow in a circle)

Documented codes

Phone Setting

Number Code

Reset Factory settings

000

Restricted Calling (Phonebook only) ON / OFF

160/161

Keypad tones ON / OFF

250/251

Auto keypad lock ON / OFF

260/261

Set SIM Pin

300

SIM Pin ON / OFF

310/311

Select time format

470

Prepaid Balance Display ON / OFF

500/501

Voice Prompts ON / OFF (1)

510/511

Change Language

520

Set Balance Inquiry Number to use when the # key is pressed and held

642

Set Voicemail number

644

(1) can also be toggled by pressing [action] on the volume menu

Undocumented codes

Phone Setting

Number Code

Display total time of accepted incoming calls

111

Display total time of outgoing calls

121

Switch Audible call minute counter (beep) ON/OFF

130/131

Region Code display ON/OFF

400/401

List available networks with option to change to another network

402

Display network currently receiving service from

480

Display list of networks within range

481

View / Edit Service Cell Number (SMS Service)

643

Delete ALL stored messages

700

Enter SMS prepay query code (?)

701

The following codes work AS IS, i.e. without entering the * around them

Phone information details

* * 9 9 9 9 * [action]

Cell phone serial number

* # 0 6 # (scroll down for complete number)

References

^ The Motofone is One Tough Phone!

^ Detailed image of charger/headset port

Motorola. "MOTOFONE Makes its Global Debut Introducing Stylish Connectivity for Everyone". Press release, November 28, 2006.

Pradhan, Priyanka (November 29, 2006). "Motorola's Motofone F3 Launched". tech2.com. http://www.tech2.com/india/news/value-mobile-phones/motorolas-motofone-f3-launched/3061/0. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Motorola FONE F3

Motorola Motofone

Motorola Motofone F3c

Review: Motorola Motofone F3

Hands-on review

Live Pics with short review

Review by The Register

Motorola Motofone F3 Dissassembly

Pin layout of the data connector

Bicycle-mounted dynamo charger for Motofone

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