Motorola RAZR2 V9m Review

Motorola V9m User Interface

Interface:

The User Interface on the Verizon V9m is probably the most spartan out of all the Razr2 models. This is because Verizon has removed the original Motorola UI and replaced it with their own proprietary non-graphical UI. It is also unbelievable that a phone of this class and price only has one Theme installed and cannot be changed or personalized in any way by the consumer. The theme does look better than the one used on the Maxx Ve, with no red bars, but pales in comparison to the themes used on the LG VX8550 Chocolate, VX8700, and upcoming Samsung SCH-U900. For a phone with this price tag, it is inexcusable that there are no additional themes included. Despite this, however, we found that the software is fast and responsive, and is lacking in bugs and sluggishness that we encountered while using the Sprint V9m. The Main Menu is accessed by pressing the center circular button on the keypad, and is categorized into five sections: Get it Now, Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools. These are the same sub-menus that are present on all Verizon phones and offer the same features.


Phone Book:

The Phonebook on the V9m is exactly the same as the one used on the Maxx Ve. Up to 1000 Contacts can 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 specific 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, but we whish the external PictureID were larger and utilized more of the screen. 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. Once a contact is assigned to a speed dial location, you press and hold the location number for it to dial.



Organizer:

The Calendar is nothing new, and once again is identical to other Verizon phones. 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, with each one allowing 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, and important tasks.


Another option would be to utilize the three independent Alarm Clocks. This is a faster way to set an individual alarm, without have to go to the calendar.

Other tools include a basic Calculator (for simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), Notepad, and World Clock that shows cities and times across the globe. We are unsure as to why the Tip Calculator was not included.


Motorola again utilizes VoiceSignal’s software for their excellent speech recognition program. As with most phones with VoiceSignal, you can use it to not only voice dial numbers and contacts, but also to check the status of items such as signal and battery, and to initiate text and picture messages. It does not have dictation software however, so the user must type out the message using the keypad. Accessing the Voice Commands are done by pressing the designated button on the right side of the phone, or by pressing the right touch-sensitive button on the external display, and 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 V9m only comes with 54MB of Internal Memory, and 7MB are already used out of the box. For additional storage and file transferring ease, you can use a MicroSD card up to 2GB in size, which provides the best way of accessing MP3 music, pictures, and videos.