
Last month, Alcatel and Verizon announced the new GO Flip V feature phone that offered a modern take on the flip phone with LTE, WiFi-hotspot capability, and a color display for simple browsing. It’s available now on Verizon for $100.
Software
Press and hold the red power button to turn on the GO Flip V and you will see the home screen appear on the inside display. The time, date, battery status, and various connection status icons appear on the display. Options at the bottom of the home screen include notification, menu, and shortcuts.
Choosing the menu then opens up another display with icons for call history, messaging, contacts, gallery, media center, email, browser, tools, and settings. Most of these are self-explanatory with a focus on basic communications.
The tools option lets you access a voice recorder, calendar, clock, note, calculator, and file manager. You can actually send attachments in email so a file browser makes sense.
Typical email providers like Yahoo, AOL, Outlook, Gmail, Exchange, and others are supported with the browser giving you basic web surfing capability too. I spent some time browsing a few sites, but this phone is primarily designed for phone calls, texting, and receiving email.
There are a couple of text entry options, including T9 and multi-press letter selection. T9 works pretty well and it was a blast from the past to go back to using it. Up to four suggested words appear as you start pressing buttons with T9 and the system had it right most of the time I was entering text messages. I used to also be able to use multi-press text entry with my phone in my pocket, but have lost that touch.
Given the form factor and design, the GO Flip V is designed with accessibility in mind. For those who are speech or hearing impaired, the GO FLip V offers the highest value of hearing aid compatibility with an M4/T4 rating. In addition, Real-Time-Text (RTT) allows your phone to transmit messages as they are being written and may be used with Text Telephone (TTY) devices.
Daily experiences
I haven’t tested many Verizon phones, but the GO Flip V worked in all locations I was passing through over the past couple of weeks. Calls sounded great on both ends and the speaker was even decent for hands-free calling.
Text messaging was pretty easy with the keypad, but browsing the internet was pretty limited. The camera is pretty terrible so just connect your iPad and use it for photos of the pets or kids.
I honestly expected the phone to last me a week between charges with a few calls per day, about 10 text messages, and a few minutes of hotspot connectivity. In my daily usage, it lasted two to three days and wasn’t that significantly different than today’s latest smartphones. It’s a very light phone so I wouldn’t mind having a bit bigger battery to take me longer between charges.
The flip form factor is great for calls as it places the headset speaker and the mic in the perfect location. However, the hinge is not as strong as it should be and I am a bit worried about the long term durability of this phone.
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