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Verizon Wireless CDM8975 review: Verizon Wireless CDM8975

Verizon Wireless CDM8975

Nicole Lee Former Editor
Nicole Lee is a senior associate editor for CNET, covering cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, and all things mobile. She's also a fan of comic books, video games, and of course, shiny gadgets.
Nicole Lee
5 min read

7.3

Verizon Wireless CDM8975

The Good

The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 is a robust push-to-talk phone with features like a megapixel camera, EV-DO, and a music player.

The Bad

The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 has a lackluster design, the external display is washed out, and photo quality is average.

The Bottom Line

The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 is a decent push-to-talk phone with good midtier features.

When we think of push-to-talk phones, we admit that we usually think of phones from Nextel rather than Verizon Wireless. But Verizon Wireless does offer very good push-to-talk devices, such as the rugged Verizon Wireless G'zOne Boulder and the more recent Motorola Adventure. If you prefer a more compact push-to-talk handheld, Verizon Wireless also offers the CDM-8975, which is manufactured by PCD. The CDM-8975 has many advanced features found on other Verizon Wireless phones, like EV-DO Rev. A, a music player, and access to V Cast. The CDM-8975 is fairly affordable at $99.99 with a new two-year service agreement.

Design
The Verizon Wireless CDM-8975's industrial look won't win any design awards. It has a rectangular utilitarian design that is black all around. It measures 3.9 inches long by 1.9 inches wide by 0.9 inch thick, and has a plastic shell with a rubberized back for better durability and a more comfortable grip. It feels solid and sturdy in the hand. The bright orange push-to-talk button on the side plus the large external speaker grille on the front mimics that of a walkie-talkie. The CDM-8975 doesn't have quite the rugged exterior of the G'zOne Boulder, but it should stand up to the rigors of everyday use.


The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 is a dull-looking phone.

On the front is a simple 1-inch 65,000-color external display. It looks washed out and is not very bright, but it shows all the information you need, like date, time, battery life, and signal strength. It also shows photo caller ID, and you can use it as a viewfinder for the camera. It also shows the recent calls list, PTT contacts, and a simplified view of the music player. When a song is playing, you can view the track information on the external display as well. You can adjust the clock format and the wallpaper, but nothing else.


The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 has external music player controls.

Underneath the display are the external music controls. These are very handy because you can activate the music player and control the music without opening the phone. Though the keys are a bit flat to the surface, they are slightly curved for some texture and we like that the keys have a nice give when pushed. Below the keys is the aforementioned external speaker grille.

Flip open the phone and you'll find a nice 2-inch display with support for 260,000 colors. Images look sharp and colorful, and the menu interface is easy to use. You can adjust the display backlight time, the wallpaper, the display theme, the menu layout, the size of the dialing font, the menu font size, and the clock format.

Under the display is the navigation array, which consists of a circular toggle with a middle OK key, two soft keys, a dedicated e-mail key, and a dedicated VZ Navigator key. The toggle acts as a shortcut to three user-defined shortcuts on the up, left, and down directions. The right arrow leads to a My Shortcuts folder, which you can customize with up to four application shortcuts. Under that is the number keypad with the Send, Clear, and End/Power keys. The navigation array plus the keypad are very tactile; all keys are raised above the surface, and they're also quite roomy.


The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 has a 1.3 megapixel camera on the back.

On the left side of the phone are the charger jack, a bright orange push-to-talk button, and the volume rocker. The microSD card slot, headset jack, dedicated speakerphone key, dedicated camera key, and dedicated voice command key are on the right spine. The camera lens is on the back, but there is no flash or self-portrait mirror.

Features
The CDM8975 has a 500-entry phone book with room in each entry for five numbers and two e-mail addresses. You can organize contacts into groups and pair them with a photo for caller ID, or one of 27 polyphonic ringtones or alert tones, plus a no-ring option. You also get a separate phone book for PTT contacts. For PTT, you can have up to 500 individual entries, up to 100 group contacts, and up to 50 members per group. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, call timers, text and multimedia messaging, voice recording, a calculator, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a notepad, voice dialing, a stop watch, and a speakerphone. You also get Web-based e-mail, mobile instant messaging, USB mass storage, PC syncing, and full Bluetooth capabilities. You can also download software upgrades over the air. Since it has A-GPS, you also get access to VZ Navigator.

The CDM8975 has EV-DO, which means it has access to Verizon's full range of broadband services like the V Cast streaming video service and the V Cast Music store with Rhapsody. As for the music player, it's housed within the V Cast Music interface. Options are quite generic; you have the typical music player controls, you can create and edit playlists, and set the songs on repeat or shuffle. You can load up to 8GB microSD cards for additional storage.


The Verizon Wireless CDM8975's photo quality is about average.
The 1.3-megapixel camera takes pictures in four resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120), four color effects, and six white balance presets. Other settings include three shutter sounds plus a silent option, a self-timer, and multishot. You can also use the external display as a self-portrait viewfinder. Do note that you have to keep the phone open to take a self-portrait shot. Photo quality was average. There was a bit of blur and colors looked overcast, but it was still decent for a 1.3-megapixel lens. There's also a camcorder, which you can only record in 176x144 video resolution. You can control the brightness, the white balance, and mute the sound.

You can personalize the CDM8975 with graphics and ringtones, and you can download more via Verizon's wireless Web browser.

Performance
We tested the Verizon Wireless CDM8975 in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless's service. Call quality was very good, and we were quite impressed with the speakerphone quality as well. Callers could hear us loud and clear, and reported hardly any static or background sound. On our end, we could hear them very clearly. They could still tell we were on a cell phone, but otherwise it was fine.

Speakerphone calls, as we said, were quite impressive. Callers could hardly tell the difference when we switched to the speakerphone mode. On our end, there was plenty of volume and we could hear them loud and clear. This carried through with the performance of the PTT calls. We tested the PTT with the Verizon Wireless G'zOne Boulder, and we were definitely impressed with the quality.

We were also impressed with the performance of the EV-DO Rev. A. Web pages loaded very quickly, and we downloaded a 2MB song in around 50 seconds. Though V Cast videos still looked quite pixelated, we experienced little buffering time, if at all. The Verizon Wireless CDM8975 has a rated battery life of 4.75 hours and 3.7 days standby time. Our tests revealed a similar talk time of 4 hours and 30 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the V750 has a digital SAR of 1.3 watts per kilogram.

7.3

Verizon Wireless CDM8975

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 7Performance 8