Motorola V60 (marketed and stylized as Motorola V. Series 60) is a clamshell

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

developed by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

. The handset was introduced at the 2001

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

as the company's flagship and was considered to be the true modern successor of the

StarTAC The StarTAC is a series of clamshell-style cellular mobile phones developed and marketed by Motorola beginning in 1996. The first notable flip phone, the original StarTAC model was uniquely at the time the size of a pager and weighed , making ...

series. It was sold in

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...

, and TDMA versions. The Motorola V60 featured a sleek, metallic exterior casing that made it very recognizable at the time and was noted for looking luxurious and classy compared to other cell phones of its time. Also present here is a small external display to show the time or

caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is ...

, one of the earliest 'flip phones' to have so. Internally, it included

text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

and

wireless Internet Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided mediu ...

capabilities. The V60 was hugely popular and was, for some time, the best-selling cell phone in North America. After a number of different variants were released, the V60 was succeeded by the Motorola V600.

Features

The Motorola V60 was released two years after the original 'V' series, often seen as the first "real" clamshell phone. The V60 was a high-end

feature phone Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...

during the time it was on the market. It was built on the same new platform as the Motorola V66 (the V60 is heavier) and the Motorola Timeport 280. The internal screen is monochrome and has a resolution of 96 by 64 pixels and uses OptiMax technology, displaying 3 lines of text, and an emerald colored backlight. The external display was very unique for its time, although it was not the first, as that feat belongs to

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

's SGH-A200 and SGH-A300. The Motorola V60 includes

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

4+1 for what was then fast data speeds and included a WAP browser. It however lacked an IrDA (infrared) port.

Release and variants

Three versions of the V60 were sold; the V60g ( triband

900/1800/1900), V60c (trimode

850/1900 and AMPS 850), and V60t (dual mode TDMA 850/1900 and AMPS 850). The CDMA units have a retractable antenna and the TDMA units have a stubby antenna. The Motorola V60 was first released (as V60c) in the US on March 26, 2001 on

Alltel Alltel was a landline, wireless service provider, wireless and general Telephone company, telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Alltel pr ...

. V60c was released on

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

in July 2001. The V60c was sold for about $349 on a one year contract, $399 on two year, and $449 on a three year contract. The V60g was sold for about $649 directly. It was later released (V60t) by

Cingular AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. Formed in April 2000 as Cingular Wireless LLC, It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless serv ...

and

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

. Abroad,

Hutchison Telecom Hutchison Asia Telecom Group or HAT, is a division of Hong Kong-based multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings. The division provides telecommunications services to several Asian countries. The division was formerly incorporated as H ...

carried the Motorola V60 in Hong Kong released in the August of 2001. It was also released in China, Singapore and Taiwan in 2001. The V60 also released in Europe beginning around November 2001, although the Motorola V66 (which is slightly smaller than V60 and has plastic housing) had already been on the market for a while. It costed 1,300 DM in Germany (approximately 1,065

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

in 2025).

V60i and v60x

The Motorola V60i expanded upon the V60 model. Externally it added a revised color scheme and removable faceplates. It added Java Micro Edition capability for running software such as mobile games and added the ability for downloadable ringtones and graphics. The V60i was announced on February 14, 2002 and was initially available on Verizon, then AT&T and U.S. Cellular, and in other countries. A common problem with this model was the antenna snapping off for no particular reason. In April 2003, a special V60i was announced with

Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with i ...

branding, exclusively sold at Harley-Davidson dealerships. The V60x is another model of the V60i that adds BREW applet support, picture messaging,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

location and

CDMA2000 1x CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatible ...

data. It was released in 2003.

V60p and V60s

Motorola V60p is a CDMA variant of the V60 with a

speakerphone A speakerphone is a telephone with a microphone and loudspeaker provided separately from those in the handset. This device allows multiple persons to participate in a conversation. The loudspeaker broadcasts the voice or voices of those on the ot ...

, designed for use with

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

push-to-talk Push-to-talk (PTT), also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of having conversations or talking on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode. H ...

(PTT) service that launched in the US in August 2003, with it being the first device released for the service. It is thicker than a regular V60 and has a rubberized PTT button on its side. Motorola V60s is a version that is identical but without the PTT ability. V60s was also carried by

Qwest Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dako ...

in addition to Verizon.

V60t Color

V60t Color is a color display variant released in September 2003 on

for $149 on a two year contract.

V60v

Motorola V60v is a variant for Sprint PCS.

Mercedes-Benz

Beginning in December 2001, Motorola V60c units began to be offered by

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

dealerships in the US as part of in-car handsfree phone systems. The V60i for

was also included with some Mercedes-Benz models, and integrated with the vehicle's COMAND infotainment system, as well as its

telematics Telematics is an interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications, vehicular technologies (road transport, road safety, etc.), electrical engineering (sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications, etc.), and computer science (multimedia ...

system. In these vehicles, the V60i included Mercedes-Benz branding.

References

{{Motorola phones V60 Flip phones