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Orbic Journey V Review: Basic Phone for HD Quality Call

Orbic Journey V review dissects the many area buyers need to know before purchasing. Learn the features, pros, and cons, including the latest price.

Orbic Journey V Review

If you’re looking for a basic phone, Orbic Journey V is one of the options available today. This phone is a perfect alternative as a communication device for calling or texting.

Just like many phones today, Orbic Journey V is trying to keep up to date with recent technology such as LTE. It means you don’t have to sacrifice call quality when choosing a feature phone.

Orbic Journey V review digs deep on what the phone offers to the customer. Let’s take a look at the many areas of the phone, from its design, performance, to network capability. Here’s the detailed review.

Key Specs

Orbic Journey V specifications:

  • Weight: 120g
  • Dimensions: 105 x 54.6 x 18mm
  • OS: Custom OS
  • Screen size: 2.8-inch (internal), 1.77-inch (external)
  • Resolution: 320 x 240
  • CPU: 1.1 Ghz Quad-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210
  • RAM: 1GB
  • Storage: 8GB
  • Battery: 1400mAh, Removable
  • Rear camera: 2MP

Design

Orbic Journey V Design

Orbic Journey V is a flip phone. As expected, it is compact and has a thin side profile. When opened, the phone can stretch 105mm long. But it would still look small on your hand. Journey V is also light weighing only 120g.

Examining the phone while it’s flipped close, we see that this one has an exterior screen. We saw many flip phones put the camera on top of this second screen. But it’s not the case with Journey V. Instead, the camera lies at the bottom part of the phone, where you can also find the speaker.

The bottom part also where the phone houses a compartment for battery, SIM card, and the SD card. You can find the charging port on the bottom right side while the opposite is where the Volume keys and headset jack are located.

Flipping the phone open, we instantly like how the keypad looks. For a small phone, having large and well-separated keypads is necessary. Journey V fulfills this requirement.

In addition, the numeric letters are also easy to notice with its large fonts. The alphabets, however, are a bit smaller. But it can be solved with the keypad backlight.

Overall, there’s nothing particularly stands out from the phone’s design. It’s like the typical flip phones you find in the market. Also, there’s no additional capability such as waterproof or shockproof. The body of the phone itself is made from plastic and comes in black color.

Read also: Verizon Orbic Journey V Flip Phone Troubleshooting, Tips & Tricks

Display

Orbic Journey V Open Front

Orbic Journey V users will be spoiled with two screens. The main screen is a 2.8-inch TFT display. It’s not that big, although it’s a typical size for a basic phone. The display resolution is 320×240 pixels with 42.8 PPI pixel density.

Just like the design, the Orbic Journey V display also offers nothing special. The color output is passable, something you would expect on a basic phone.

You can adjust the brightness level and the backlight. However, even at maximum brightness, the phone can’t display things well under bright sunlight.

The screen is small therefore any texts on it will also look small. Since the display isn’t sharp enough, pixelated edges can make the texts even harder to read.

This is a problem that can be solved by increasing the font size. But it means the display would look terrible for web browsing. Bigger font size looks good in SMS or emails, but not on a website. The screen is too small for that.

Aside from the main display, the phone also has an external screen. It displays messages and notifications. You can check on new messages, incoming calls, and the battery level without opening the phone.

The external display only comes in 1.77″ resolution. For notifications, we find this small display size to be more than enough.

Camera

Orbic Journey V Back Cover

The camera on Orbic Journey V is also pretty standard. The specification says the phone has a 2MP, f/2.8 rear camera. Performance is inferior, nothing compared to a smartphone camera obviously. You won’t find any LED flash either. The absence of flash means you can’t use this phone as a flashlight.

To launch the camera, there’s a shortcut button you can find on the keypad. The key is the one with the camera icon on it. This shortcut is very convenient when you want to take a picture quickly.

Looking at the camera app, it’s evident that Journey’s camera does not offer a lot in terms of features too. You can take a picture and share it through Message, email, or Bluetooth. But that’s just about it. You can set a self-timer and turn on / turn off the shutter sound.

Flip phones were created the days before selfies, hence not having a front-facing camera is normal. Today’s flip phone seems to carry the tradition.

Just like in this Orbic Journey V, users won’t find a front camera on the phone. We think it’s not a big deal. Potential customers most likely won’t care about taking a selfie anyway.

Read also: Orbic Journey V vs Kazuna eTalk: Which should you buy?

Storage

Orbic Journey V Left Side

The storage capacity on Orbic Journey V is large for a flip phone. With 8 GB of ROM storage, this specification makes Journey V on par with an entry-level smartphone. If you’re being mindful of what to put on the phone’s memory, you might avoid having to install additional storage.

But if 8 GB is not enough, the phone offers the capability to add an up to 128 GB of SD card (not included in purchase). The capacity is a lot for a flip phone. You won’t have to worry about running out of space for a long time. Storage is one of the areas where this phone excels.

Performance

Orbic Journey V Right Side

Orbic Journey V runs on MSM8909 Quad-core CPU with 1.1 GHz processing speed. For memory, this phone uses 1 GB of RAM to run its tasks. This specification is also nothing special when compared to competitors. Journey V is neither remarkable nor it is below average.

As for the real-life performance, we assess Journey V from several perspectives. The first being how easy the navigation is between apps and screens. The phone responds well and quickly enough to instructions. But you have to navigate with the keypad, so it won’t be as fast as touch gestures on smartphones.

Secondly, we take a look at how fast an app when it launches. We found that apps open within a second when it’s clicked. The fast launch is due to there’s no multitasking feature on this phone.

Therefore only one app is allowed to run at a time. With 1 GB of RAM, this phone has plenty of memory available.

Now it’s time to look at the Orbic Journey V review for the software. Journey V runs on a customized OS based on Android Go 8. Android Go is specifically used for entry-level phones like this Journey V. We noticed some similarities with the usual Android user interface.

The status bar on Journey V looks similar to the status bar on an Android phone, if using the vanilla version of the OS. On the Home screen, the clock and calendar widget also looks familiar. We can also sense the same impression with how the app icons look on the app drawer.

But aside from appearance, don’t expect the typical Android user experience. You won’t find an app store, for example. The phone still allows you to upgrade but that’s just about it.

Theoretically, Android Go allows the manufacturer to install Google services such as YouTube and Assistant. But it seems Orbic didn’t take advantage of that potential. In conclusion, user experience on Journey V is just like any other flip phone.

Instead, the phone focuses on the essentials. Multimedia apps are available, but they are limited to Camera, Music Player, File Manager, and Sound Recorder. Browsing is possible with Journey V. But with the small screen, it is not that comfortable to read webpages.

Journey V also focuses on features related to easy accessibility. This phone lets you resize the phone, has an Assisted Dialing feature, and is compatible with a hearing aid device. It also has the Readout feature where the phone will convert texts to audio output. It seems like Journey V focuses on basic functions more than fancy features.

Read also: Orbic Journey V User Manual

Connectivity

To fulfill today’s demand, Journey V has to keep up with the recent technology in communication. So it’s not surprising when we see this phone runs on the LTE band (GSM and CDMA are also still available). The phone also comes with noise reduction to make sure you get a crystal clear output during a call.

In addition, Journey V features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. For USB connection, it uses the USB type-B, which you can use both for charging and data transfer. Concluding this Orbic Journey V review for the wireless network, we’d say this phone covers anything you need for basic communication.

Battery

Journey V is equipped with a 1400 mAh removable battery. The compartment is located in the back. Since the battery is removable, it means you can carry a spare one when you need to.

Feature phones use a lot less energy than a smartphone. Therefore with the capacity, the phone can last a couple of days if you use it for texting and occasional calls. To maximize battery life, turning off network features like Wi-Fi is important.

The battery drains very quickly when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is turned on. Keeping it on standby with network features disabled, the phone can reach three days without charging.

Wrap-up

Orbic Journey V is clearly for people who’d like to get away from a smartphone’s bells and jingles. This phone is easy to use and cater to your basic communication needs.

Before purchasing, be aware that you won’t get a mini-computer in your pocket. As mentioned earlier, the camera is understandably bad. Neither social media nor gaming is available.

Journey V retail price is $99.99. If you buy using an installment, you will pay $4.16/mo for 24 months. If you think this phone is for you, go to the nearest store to grab one.

Later, share your experience as the new owner in the comment section below. Your review will help to add more perspective to this Orbic Journey V review.

Pros:

  • LTE support with noise reduction
  • Large storage space
  • External screen
  • Decent battery

Cons:

  • Inferior camera
  • Not many options for apps
  • Good only for calling and texting

3 Comments

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  1. I bought two Orbic Journey phones in mid November. Got them in about 10 days. both required the battery to be charged, which I did. about three or four days both had to be recharged again. This became the pattern for the next month, 3-4 days recharge the batteries.

    I called Verizon where I got them, and after 30-40 minutes with level one tech I was transferred to a level two tech, who looked at stuff and said he wanted to run diagnostics on one of the phones. I said ok and he said it may make some time. In total I was on the line an hour and a a half, during waiting, the call got dropped. No problem, Verizon could call me back. Never happened.

    The program must have been written in the eighties. Migrating the menus are a terror. You have to push different buttons on different menus to make the call. The menu responses appear to be slow.

    I would not recommend these phones to my worst enemy.

  2. Have had problems with LG322DL Journey, no tool for sound card installation. Alcatel Myflip 2 sound card holder fell apart putting putting in nano card. Motorola E6 no sound at all. These phone companies are all putting out garbage products. No service to correct.

  3. Had the Orbic Journey V for about 3-4 months, works fine, battery fine, but when someone calls, you can’t hear it well due to a feble or ring that is too low. Per Verizon store, everyone complains but nothing can be done. I guess they never test them before leaving the factory.

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