Motorola RAZR2 V8 Review

Introduction:

Back in 2004, Motorola released the RAZR V3 which became an instant hit. Despite the lack of many features and a poor menu system, the handset was a big success for Motorola and they have been building on it since then. Three years later and we finally see the release of the RAZR2 which is supposed to completely reshape the RAZR series. It has big shoes to fill if it wants to be more successful than the original RAZR and all the variants. To see how Motorola did this time around, we have a RAZR2 V8 that we’ll be taking a look at.  

What’s in the box:

• RAZR2 V8
• 770mAh 3.7V lithium ion battery
• Charger
• Hands-free stereo handset
• Micro-USB cable
• Carrying pouch
• Get started poster
• T-Mobile welcome guide
• RAZR2 V8 user guide

Design:

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
Motorola RAZR2 V8	4.0" x 2.10" x 0.50"	103 x 53 x 11.9	4.10	117
Motorola RAZR V3i	3.90" x 2.10" x 0.60"	98 x 53 x 14	3.50	100
Motorola KRZR K1	4.0" x 1.60" x 0.60"	103 x 42 x 16	3.60	102

The main menu is laid out in a 3x3 grid and very plain but at least all the icons are easily distinguishable thanks to their sizes and animations. It can be customized but about the only things that can be done is the rearrangement of the icons, display it as either a list or grid, and to create folders and move icons into them to organize them.
The layout for the phonebook is very simple. All the contacts are listed in an alphabetical order displaying only the name, although this can be changed to view by name and number. To differentiate the phone and SIM contacts, there’s a little icon to the right of the name. A filter can be set to see just friends, family, or last called.
When adding a new contact, SIM allows only the regular name and number to be stored. If phone is chosen, then there are near limitless possibilities. The contact’s fields include multiple numbers and addresses, personal image/ringtone, and other information. The name, number and address fields store the main contact information. Notes take care of almost anything else from work information, anniversaries, all the way up to zodiac signs and even just notes.
One of our biggest gripes is that the screen just seems so small when adding a contact as only two fields are visible at a time. Think of turning the resolution all the way down on your computer and you get the same effect.
Contacts can be copied to and from the SIM, making management that much easier. If you wish to move only certain ones over, it’ll be disappointing to hear that only SIM contacts can be copied over in that way.
The calendar can be viewed in the traditional month view, by day, or by week. If day view is selected, it can be viewed either by hour or the tasks for the day. Week view lists all of the days, times, and appointments and can be setup to show 5, 6 or 7 days. The start day can be set as well as the start and end time. So that it is more or less detailed, the time increment can be at ½/1/2/3 hours. Even management is easy as events can be deleted after a set age, 1/2/4/8 weeks or never.
The calculator provided is just a basic one. If anything except the number or action (add, subtract, etc) needs to be selected, options has to be opened and the list will provide the functions. A world clock is there with three regions that can be set.
The alarm can be set through the options on the home screen or through the office tools menu. Once opened, there are three options: 30 minutes, 1 hour, or a specific time. Under specific, a maximum of three alarms can be setup on the handset. In a new alarm, there is the time, volume, repeat (just once/everyday/weekdays/weekends/custom), snooze (maximum of 99 minutes), and the volume.
The V8 lacks a memory card slot but this is made up by 2.0 GB (for the T-Mobile variant) of memory that is built into it compared to the original RAZR which had only 5.5MB of memory meaning that the new one has over 350 times more storage space! Still, it would be nice to see a microSD slot available as too much available memory never hurt anyone.
One nice feature is that you can even text using the front display. Alright, well it is limited due to the lack of a keyboard and it’s more of a way to simply read and reply to messages than it is to actually text someone. It is accomplished with the use of templates that can be edited through the text menu. These are shown in a list when replying so that the appropriate one can be sent.
As stated earlier, the RAZR2 V8 is a quad-band GSM/EDGE handset. If you are looking for a 3G version, then look more towards the V9 instead. For those that use Bluetooth headphones, you will be pleased to hear that it is equipped with A2DP.

Camera:

The RAZR2 V8 is equipped with a 2MP camera but lacks autofocus or a flash. It did capture photos rather quickly but saving them seemed to take a few seconds.  Photos came out clear and objects were overexposed only when they were light and in bright environments. The maximum resolution for photos is 1200 x 1600 but three additional ones are present. The only quality settings available are good, better, and best.



Camcorder:

The camcorder is accessed through the camera options by selecting video mode. The resolution can either be set to 128 x 96 or 176 x 144. So small videos are usable only for MMS messages and are useless on a computer. Video length is set to either MMS short, MMS long, or maximum are saved in a 3GP format. The controls are very similar to the camera so users should have few if any problems using the camcorder.

Audio:

So, no handset would be complete without a media player and Motorola seemed to go out of their way to make sure that it lived up to the hype. Music is selected like on an MP3 player, by artist, album, genre, etc. It’s just a little sad to see that the UI is a little plain as it only show the song information, controls, and status.

Close the handset and a very similar interface will be shown on the external display. Control is possible thanks to three touch sensitive buttons at the bottom. What happens if you like to keep it in your pocket? Well, the button on the left just below the volume rocker will lock the external controls if held for about three seconds.

So, the media player is up to the task but what about sound quality? We’re glad to report that it sounds surprisingly good. Sadly, there are no equalizer settings but spatial audio, which makes the audio sound much wider, and bass boost, that does make a difference. The headphones supplied are surprisingly comfortable with decent sound quality even though it’s a little flat. A wide selection of formats is supported: MP3, AAC, ACC+, eACC+, WAV, WMA v10 and v9.

On the downside, the media player is slow to respond to commands and when switching between songs, even though the music is on the internal memory. Also, the memory is a little clumsy to use. When a song is uploaded to the V8, it’s stored to the handset’s memory and has to be transferred to the extended memory. It’s more of an annoyance than problem but it’s worth mentioning.

Software:

You’ll find that the V8 supports Java applications and best of all they can be ran in the background. When exiting out of an application, you are presented with a set of choices asking whether to go back to it, put it in standby, or close it. If these choices are ignored, it will just go into the background and stay there until it is closed or the handset is restarted.