Motorola RAZR maxx Ve Review

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1. William Russell @ 17 June, 2007 11:31:48 PM

The best RAZR yet

After owning the phone nearly 2 months I can give an in-depth review of the phone:

Call Quality - 9 (Excellent)
Overall, voice quality is excellent at medium volume, but I did deduct a point because at high volumes the phone can get buzzy and distorted. If in a noisy environment, high volume might be necessary. I tested the MAXX vs. the LG VX-8300 and VX-9900 and the MAXX has much more crisp and clear call quality.

Speakerphone - 9 (Excellent)
This is the best speakerphone I've ever used for a Verizon phone. The volume is loud and you can hear callers very very clearly. I'm told Nextel phones and the V60 series had unbeatable speakerphones, but I'm sure this has to come close.

Style/Design - 9 (Excellent)
This phone is very sleek and everyone who sees it is immediately impressed. The all black design with the glass give the phone a high class look. This is definitely one of Verizon's best looking phones at the moment. The ringlights are also a nice touch. I deducted a point merely because the front of the phone is a fingerprint magnet and you have to wipe it off often to keep it looking good.

Build Quality/Durability - 8 (Very Good)
Contrary to some reports, this phone has a metal housing and has a rubberized coating. It feels very solid in-hand and gone are the days of creaking (V710/E815). The hinges, although they vary, are generally quite strong, and the phone opens and closes smoothly. I'm told that the glass on the front is hardened in a special way and is very scratch resistant. I can definitely see this as most shiny plastic phones get hairline scratches all over, but the MAXX doesn't get those at all. The mini-USB charging port is very secure and fast, unlike the charger found on the E815. The only areas I deduct points here are: the battery door doesn't lay totally flush against the phone on the sides and there is a SLIGHT gap where you can see inside the phone; If the phone is closed quickly the screen slams onto the raised rubber bumpers on the keypad and leaves imprints; The keypad on this phone varies phone to phone, some are excellent, some are horrendous.

Software/Interface - 5 (Mediocre)
The Verizon UI is old news so I won't get into that, but there are some issues that are worth mentioning. The MAXX is very fast while navigating menus and has few to no hiccups. That said, pick up a Motorola E815, LG VX-8300, or Samsung A950, and you'll see that they move application to application more quickly. The MAXX isn't slow by any means, but for a high end phone it should be at least as fast for launching applications as the others I mentioned. The phone does have software issues (some of them more than others), and most revolve around messaging/pictures which I will get into below. I also feel that Verizon skimped on this phone as the secondary applications are oversimplified compared to other Verizon phones. For a high-end phone, they should have at least enhanced the interface to give a higher quality feel like they did on the 8700. Considering the MAXX has nearly triple the memory, I don't think it would have been that hard. The calculator and calendar fonts are too small look like they were just thrown on there for kicks. Newer LG and Samsung phones now let you adjust font sizes and they're more readable in the menus and applications.

Messaging - 5 (Mediocre)
This is a real mixed bag. Launching the messaging application is quick and one can even use voice commands to launch the text messaging editor then give the name of the recipient; This saves a lot of steps. Actual messaging is fairly quick using iTap and the phone learns very quickly. I have to say I'm very impressed with this so far. One can also store hundreds of messages in there inbox/outbox. A friend off mine had 300+ in the inbox, 400+ in the outbox with no noticable side effects. Where I'm not so impressed is that once the phone gets full of messages, it starts to hiccup while messaging and it may even miss letters. I have to delete messages daily to prevent this from happening. I'm wondering if the phone's amazing ability to learn is the culprit here and some have stated that turning learning off helps, but I think that would defeat the point. The keypad is great for dialing, but it is somewhat slick and being flat, it doesn't give much feedback. Some MAXX's have nice raised rubber bumpers on the keypad and are easy to use, others are slick and mushy/crunchy. For pix/flix messaging, many MAXX's out there have a reboot issue when the using the highest resolution. It's a random reboot problem with no set pattern, and some do it more than others. I'm not sure if this a phone or network issue and I've heard the LG VX-8700 has a similar problem. I'm really hopeful that a software update will fix the messaging hiccups. Overall, I cannot recommend this phone to hardcore text buffs in its current state, unless one really likes having hundreds of messages in their inbox/outbox. If a software update fixes this, then perhaps I'd recommend it for heavy texters.

Camera - 8 (Very Good)
The camera quality itself is very good and the flash is awesome for night shots. The software for the camera is not very good though. The auto focus button works great sometimes and horribly others. Of the MAXX's I've had, the auto focus has worked sporadically on nearly all of them. I think there might be a software glitch there. Overall, this is probably the best camera on a phone out right now for Verizon. It beats the A990 in some conditions, and is generally stable. I've found that if you have issues with the camera, rebooting the phone will often correct the problem.

Voice Activated Dialing - 8 (Very Good)
It picks up names very easily, either on the first or second try. It works very quickly and efficiently. It's greatly improved over the E815 in this regard.

Customization - 7 (Good)
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to really enhance or change the interface. What you see is what you get and the simple color changes under display themes don't help much (I deducted 3 points for this). It is good to see that the phone has more options than the V3m though. One can set all 4 scroll wheel shortcuts, adjust the brightness, set the backlight time, choose the clock format, and decide what pattern the ringlights flash to. If you're tech savvy, you can customize the phone with unique startup/shutdown sounds & animations, as well as change the external screen flip image. Getting ringtones on the phone is very easy by e-mail or other means.

Screens - 10 (Amazing)
The internal screen is very bright and crisp. It is even readable in sunlight. Colors appear rich and saturated unlike many other phones out there. The outer screen is impressive as well and it's nice to finally see an adequate caller ID window on a Verizon UI phone. Some phones merely display the name of the caller in tiny fonts at the bottom. Picture ID for texts is a great feature. I'd like to see a large external clock and the ability to read text messages on the front, but this has no bearing on my rating of the screens.

Overall Ranking: 7.8 (Very Good)

I am happy with the phone and will be keeping it, but there are some things that need to be addressed. As a phone, this is one of the best you can get. It also helps that the camera, build quality, and style are so good. If I texted more I'd likely get the EnV and use this as an alternate, but fortunately the texting is adequate for moderate usage.

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2. anonymous @ 29 May, 2008 02:52:44 PM

My phone keeps freezing. Im not really sure what to do about it. I've had the phone for about three months now and everytime I send a message it will freeze up on the message sent screen.

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