Motorola RAZR maxx Ve Review

User Interface

Interface:

One major disappointment on the Maxx is that it still uses the same outdated Verizon UI, which most people are becoming tired of. We would have loved to see a FlashUI interface used, but it looks like we will have to wait until the Motorola RAZR2 V9m comes out for this feature. Despite the lack of any pretty graphics or animations on the Verizon UI, it is still relatively fast and easy to use. To access the Main Menu, you press the center round button on the navigational pad. From there, the Main Menu is categorized into Get it Now, Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools. This menu organization is standard on all Verizon phones, regardless of the UI that is on the phone.











Phone book:

The phonebook now allows up to 1000 contacts to be stored, each with the First and Last Name, Mobile 1, Home, Work, E-Mail 1, Group, Picture, Ringtone, Mobile 2, Fax, and E-Mail 2. The Picture setting allows you to designate a picture to be displayed on the external display when a saved contacts calls, while the Ringtone setting allows you to select a specific ringtone to be played. Both of these features allow easy identification of the person calling. Any time you want to access the saved contacts list, you simply press the Right Soft Key located on the top of the keypad. This will show all of the saved contacts in alphabetical order. You can either scroll through the list, choose the “Go To” field and type in the person’s name. This will search through the list and display any matching results. There are a total of 99 Speed Dial locations, which any of the contacts may be assigned to. After one is assigned to a speed dial location, you press and hold the location number for it to dial. This is the first phone that requires this method for speed dialing. Most phones require you just to press the speed-dial location and then the Send key. Because of this, we decided to check with the User Manual. On page 72, it says that for Speed Dialing “Enter the 1 or 2 digital speed dial number, then press the Send key. For 1-touch dialing, press and hold the speed dial number.” Based on this, it appears that there is a software bug that does not allow traditional speed-dialing, but only one 1-touch dialing, where you have to press and hold the numbers.

Organizer:

The Down Button on the navigational pad will access the Calendar. The current date is highlighted, and you can select any date, month, or year by using the control pad. Once a date is selected you can add multiple events. Each event allows you to enter in the Appointment Name, Start Date/Time, End Date/Time, Time Zone, Recurrence, Alert Tone, Vibrate, and Reminder. After an alert is saved, and the date & time is reached, the phone will play the alert tone and show the event information in the display. This is an easy and convenient way of keeping track of meetings, appointments, important tasks, or even to remind you when your favorite TV show is about to start.

The Voice Command option has become one of the most useful features on modern cell phones. By pressing the Voice Command button on the right side of the phone, or Call button on a Bluetooth earpiece, you are given several choices: Call Name or Number, Send Message, Lookup Name, Play Playlist, Go To Menu, Check Item, and My Account. The most usefully of these commands is the “Call name or number”. If you say “Call”, you can then say the name of a stored contact, or speak the digits for the phone to dial. When used with a Bluetooth earpiece, you can use the voice commands to call any person or number without having to pick up the phone.


The Speakerphone quality on the Maxx has been improved over the previous Razr models. It is activated by pressing the Smart Button located on the left side of the phone. While using the Speakerphone, there are a total of 8 volume settings available. The voice quality in the speaker remains excellent until the volume is turned up to the highest setting. In doing so, we could start to hear some distortion and rattling in the sound. Overall, we were quite pleased with the Speakerphone quality, considering the horrific quality of speakerphone that is used on the Chocolate, VX8600, and VX8700. Another nice plus is that the Speakerphone on the Maxx can be left on (it does not need to be activated for each call like on the VX8700), and it can be used with the flip closed. The only other phones with a speakerphone as good as the Maxx are the KRZR K1m and A990.




There is a total of 84MB of Internal Memory, which is almost twice as much as the VX8700. The phone’s software uses 14MB, which only leaves 60MB for downloading and storing applications, ringtones, wallpapers, music, games, etc. However, most users will agree that using a MicroSD card is recommend for any phone to allow MP3 music playback, and transferring of pictures and videos. The Maxx currently supports up to a 2GB MicroSD card, and it is possible that a software updated may allow the use of a 4GB card this year.