Motorola W490 launching October 1st on T-Mobile
Remember that new Motorola W490 we told you about a while back? Don’t think we forgot about the little bugger. The handset, which closely resembles Moto’s last RAZR iteration, the KRZR, is a solid middle-end device sporting little more than a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, myFaves compatibility, and, well, not a whole lot more. It’s not a bad looking phone, and for $49.99 with a new activation, there’s not a lot of room for complaining. The handset will be available in a variety of colors, including black, bright green, and purple. The phone will launch on October 1st, with immediate availability at T-Mobile corporate stores, Costco, and Target. Complete distribution will follow on the 8th of October. Any takers? Head on over to Engadget Mobile to check out the full scoopage!
Thanks, tmophonehome!
you can WHAT?
Hi
You usually have 14 days to return T-Mobile products and I believe 30 days in CA.
I just got this phone it’s great! Before I buy a micro sd card, usb cable, and a headphone adapter has anyone had any luck copying music from mac os x to this phone?
Thanks!
Hi
I think is a great phone for me . I got it on 25th of december , one time again it’s a gret phone!
Update: I went ahead and bought a 2GB micro sd card at my local radio shack because they were on sale, along with a usb data cable. Mac OS X recognizes the card fine as a mass storage device. Drag and drop works well for transferring music to this phone in os x 10.3.9 but for some reason each file transferd also creates a duplicate file which has to be manually deleted from the phone. Kind of annoying, but at least it plays music and lets you set any mp3 as a ringtone – very cool!
Although the manual says mp3 files must be encoded at 128 kbps, higher bit rate mp3s play fine. My next step is to find a decent pair a headphones that will work with this phone. I ordered a set from Amazon that plugs directly into the mini-USB port on the w490 even though it got horrible reviews. If it’s as bad as people say, I may get a stereo bluetooth headset when I can afford it or get a mini-USB to headphone plug adapter.
I’m curious to read others’ experiences using stereo bluetooth with this phone. At first I didn’t think it supports stereo bluetooth since it’s not listed as a feature on the box, but the Motorola website confirms it does indeed support it.
I’ve had the phone for a few months now. Its OK. My experience: Callers sound muffeled. Pictures are decent. Smart type program for texting is good. There’s no way (that I could find) to silence the keys and still have the ringer set to loud.
My problem is I hate the giant T-Mobile “T” that is displayed on the outside screen when you open the phone. (I know its lame, but since I bought the phone and pay for the service, I shouldn’t have to advertise for T-Mobile.)
Does anyone know if its possible to change the outside image when the phone is open? I’ve changed the backgound image and the screensaver, but so far no luck.
thanks.
I’m trying to download songs on to my phone via a mini-USB that came with my phone, but no matter what I do, my PC would recognize it as a removable disk! I changed the usb settings to data connection, but when my computer tries to download the hardware to the computer, it says I need a put a disk that came with it into the computer as well. I’m at the mercy of anyone who can solve my problem, because I don’t want to have to buy a memory card.
I see no one has mention Bluethooth file transfers. I don’t have a memory card in my phone or the software to transfer through USB. I transfer my songs, pictures and files over bluetooth from my laptop. I have a USB bluetooth dongle attatched as my laptop does not have internal bluetooth. With this method, you can just click “Send via bluetooth” (after you have turned on bluetooth and activated “FIND ME” under your phone’s bluetooth settings) and send the file to your phone. I hope you all take advantage of this feature. You can purchase a bluetooth dongle (if your PC is not bluetooth equipped) for about 25 dollars from any store that sells PC accessories.
I have taken great pictures with this phone. It has a weird delay when taking pictures as it “shifts” the image after snapping it so you will have to be careful not to move so quick thinking the image is stored.
Sound quality is clear during the calls that I have made/received and speaker volume is excellent.
The included handsfree kit is the best one I have had as the earbud is soft with a stylish design.
A lot of the answers to the setting questions such as how to mute the key pad when in LOUD mode are hidden in it’s many features. Go to Ring Styles > Loud Detail (our Soft detail or whatever detail you have set) > after you click the Loud Detail link, scoll down (up is faster) and you will see KEY VOLUME. Set that to zero and you won’t hear anything. The DETAIL settings have many options, including the setting of your ringtone.
Bluetooth is the way! If you have it available, I recommend using it to transfer files and pictures.
Those with SD cards. Just take your SD card out of your phone, place it in your PC, copy the info you want to it and place it back into your phone. This will solve all issues until you are able to get the setup that you desire.
This phone is better than all the other phones that I have owned and has more options and features than many of us will know until someone tells us.
I hope this helps someone.
Srry
but what the hell is a screen saver for a phone?
staender srry i did the silence key thing
but i forgot;but if i remeber, i will post it :]]
Ughh
D
I don’t really like this phone
slow
And its boaring
so i’m getting da RIZR
the easiest way to get a picture from your phone to your album is to send it as a picture message to #222… its that simple… so many steps to use the bluetooth or usb cable…
How to silence the keys for the W490:
Settings –> Ringt Styles –> Loud Detail –> Change and then select “Key Volume” to “0″
This phone supports T-Mobile Edge data connect, Bluetooth pairs (with no new drivers) to both Vista Home Premium laptop and Nokia 810 Linux tablet, for internet connection. So it may not be much as a phone, but it is one of the few phones that can serve as a modem across multiple devices via Bluetooth.
Since the W490 appears to the the “shriveled down” version of the RAZR, can we please start calling ithe RAZN. I need it to have a cool name so I can use it to pull chicks….
Dear Staender,
Sorry dork when you are too cheap to but a phone – and opt for the free one – T-mobile (or any one for that matter) needs a liitle free advertising. Why dont you skip the drive-thru for a few days and actually but a decent phone – then you can do whatever you want. No offense, but this seems like common sense.
Giants Rule!
Truck -
OK Clog – that is awesome, did you come up witht hat by yourself? or do you have a comic genius friend who feeds you lines and steal them to make friends on the internet? I have a tall dorky friend who has this model he got it for free because he is cheap – I am going to call hi the RAZN – Awesome – much better post then that guy half way up the page – Staender (Which by the way I’m half German – Staender transalets to “Erection” – fun fact.)
Ok I’m out –
Truck -
RAZN
what the hell
sounds like rasin
and chicks like you cuz of your dam phone
Ummm when you text,,
You can have a signiture
but wjen i go and put in my signiture and save it,,
it doesn’t show up in other peoples text when i send them a text,,
why?help?
Just got the W490, which replaces the Nokia 6103 I had for a year. The Nokia 6103 is the worst phone I have ever owned, I alost threw it out the window a couple days ago!
The W490 has great voice quality, excellent low signal call quality, were my Nokia, would get no service the W490 has at least 2 bars.
It reminds me allot of my wifes Razr which is an excellent phone, my previous all time favorite.
The SD card option works flawlessly, plug the phone into you computer and drop and drag music, photos and videos, it is that easy.
An excellent phone.
um can you have a signiture on this phone?
You cannot assign caller ID ringtones to people. You are supposed to be able to, but it does not work and when you ask T-mobile what to do they transfer you to Motorola who gives you instructions on how to assign the ringtones, and it does not work. These phones are junk. I have had mine since October and I hate it. I signed a new 2 year contract and now I’m stuck with this phone.
can you transfer contacts from your pc through bluetooth on the phone or do you have to have a usb cord?? email me @ dakota_1425@yahoo.com please if you have the answer to my question
I have Vista and I my files and folders do not show up on my computer when I am trying to download files. It says some applications are not accessible on the phone. How can I download files now?
I got this phone in november. I love it. I have dropped it I don’t know how many times. The mp3 player is awesome. If you go into the sounds, and create a playlist, you can just close the phone and sit it down. if you open the phone it will have the next/back/pause keys in the middle of the scren and you can get into your text messages, callender etc…etc. I have set this phone down in water and even with the location of that danged dot, it hasn’t turned pink yet.
As for the SD card, not all phones come with one. Sometimes you actually have to go get one from somewhere else yourself (wal-mart carries them) and a cheap sd card reader. The usb isn’t to hard, just find one that will fit the phone and your computer, go to my computer and open it up, you can drag and drop songs that way.
there is only 1 thing I do not like about this phone and that is that isn’t alot you can do with the camera besides take pictures.
But I have taken SEVERAL pictures of sunsets with this phone, and they always turn out stunning. I also like the fact that the camera also has a nighttime setting that works fairly well for a phone camera.
so why does the self portrait feature not work? thats kind of a big mis print…