Features
The Motorola V290 was minimalist in terms of features, focusing primarily on communication basics. It lacked several modern amenities such as a camera, Bluetooth, and radio, staying true to its purpose as a straightforward communication tool. The absence of a card slot for additional storage was in line with its simplistic nature, although it supported a phonebook with room for 500 entries and kept a log of the recent 20 dialed, received, and missed calls, which was sufficient for the average user at the time.
The phone's sound capabilities were basic; while there was no loudspeaker, the V290 could alert users with vibrations or downloadable polyphonic ringtones, which was a popular feature for personalization back then. Connectivity options were sparse, with GPRS as the sole data service available and no support for EDGE networks. This limited the speed and type of internet browsing possible on the device, although a WAP 2.0/xHTML browser was included for accessing lighter web applications.