Motorola Razr V3 review
Finally, after a few weeks of playing with this phone I am ready to give my review of Motorola's New V3 RaZr Cell Phone. It is a Quad Band phone with a large 262,000 color screen, bluetooth, VGA camera stereo speakers and unique construction in a clam shell form factor. Motorola just announced this phone last week, but the OS and performance of my prototype would lead me to believe it is very close to production....in fact....this phone could be a production phone based on its performance, however, some of the menu items are exclusive to prototypes (such as the engineering menu) and there are features which will be added to the OS based on information I have been provided. So....here comes the BengaBoy on the RaZr....
The New RaZr is the first "All Metal Phone" sold in the U.S. Market since the Nokia 8890. It is skinned in Aluminum and framed with Magnesium painted in a Titanium Color.
The outside "Smart Window" is made from glass, and based upon information I have read on the internet the Motorola Design Engineers responsible for this model went to great lengths to keep plastic at a minimum in the construction of this phone. Because of that, the RaZr has a great "feel" to it that cannot be conveyed in photos or words. One has to "feel" it in order to appreciate this part of its design. In addition, the RaZr uses a radical new keyboard that is flat with rubber stripping defining the keys. It is layered much like the skin on a reptile, and a person simply runs his fingers over the keyboard in order to "feel" the keys. Slight pressure on the pre-defined area will enter the number or start the function of a pre-defined key.
To hold it is to feel rich.....to be seen using it is to be envied... Just don't leave it lying around on the bar or a dinner table unattended...I guarantee you it will DISAPPEAR!!
The only downside of this phones construction that I could find is that it conducts heat like a nuclear reactor IT GETS VERY HOT IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT!! Do not carry this phone to the beach and leave it on a towel or you will wind up throwing it in the sand the first time you try to answer a call on it!! OUCH!!
My opinion on this phone is that I believe other companies will see the upscale market available to them for "all metal" phones...at least that is my hope.. It is really worth the premium to me to have a phone constructed in this manner and I will even do without the features I'm accustomed to in order to have it in my hand. The 8890 commanded $800 new in its day...and still brings over $200 for a good example even with its lack of modern features. My old 8890 was used in this review and is still being used daily by its new owner after almost 4 years. He has dropped it a few times, but the overall construction and quality of workmanship has endured a very rough owner and still operates flawlessly. Expect the same kind of performance from the new Motorola as well as the same kind of value retention.....
The Razr is the second Motorola phone I have used that has an internal antenna and the first little phone from Motorola that I have used extensively. My previous experience with the V60, V70 and V600 have always spoiled me in regard to the RF quality of Motorola phones. The V3 RaZr is no exception. Its RF qualities are very, very good. It has excellent reception and holds to calls in the Motorola manner. Although I don't find its RF performance to be quite as good as the Sony/Ericsson K700i...(which I consider the best I've used) it will definitely not disappoint in this regard.
Battery life was very good with the RaZr despite an early review from some Russian site... All I can guess is that they had a rough prototype or a bad battery. My RaZr lasts all day and well into the evening before needing a charge and that's with about 3 hours of talk time per day.... its better than the K700i, although that could be because of the animated themes I use with the K700i..
Call quality of the RaZr is also very good with a very loud speaker and natural sounding reproduction of the caller's voice. Again, typical Motorola from my experience. Speaker Phone performance was exceptional...and I attribute this to the phone's stereo speaker system It is very, very loud without breakup. I believe all companies would benefit from using this in their phones to increase the quality and volume of the ringers and speaker phone function. It is kind of like the Bose system of a creating a stereo effect while using a central sound chamber and the reason for the RaZr's unique looking base - the front slits appear to be the microphone but are in fact the speaker, with another speaker on the back...(see the small microphone hole to the right by the # key) I may be entirely wrong about this
., but I don't think so...
Mp3 ringtones are supported and can be set for all alerts, alarms, etc....in addition to ringtone....
The RaZr's keys will be very familiar to the fans of Motorola's Clamshell phones... On the right top edge you will find the "volume/ringer" key and below that the "Smart Key" when viewed with the clamshell closed....
On the other side of the phone you will find the "Voice Dial" key as well....
These keys are chrome and are of a different design to the ones on my V600 which are plastic and smaller.
The RaZr offers a WAP browser, email client and Bluetooth radio for connecting to the internet, accessories, or your computer. Additionally it has a mini USB connector, but I did not have any software or cables available to test this ability.
The very large screen of the RaZr makes it very nice to use as a WAP enabled phone. The beautiful screen is extremely large for such a small phone...the largest of any small phone I have ever used..... and the 262,000 colors make it very easy on the eyes with large fonts and little pixelation.
Messaging
The RaZr's email client was setup to use my Tmobile internet2 account. Setup, although not for the un-initiated, was uneventful and the RaZr downloaded my email at 30 minute intervals like a champ, never once crashing or locking up the phone...even while surfing the internet...it just suspends the browser, downloads and then goes about its business....very good initial firmware working here.
Bluetooth
The RaZr is supposed to be using a high powered Bluetooth standard with long-range ability. I cannot say it is or it is not, but I can tell you that the headset performance with this phone is exceptional. No scratchiness, breakup or loss of voice quality no matter where you have the phone...be it your pocket, briefcase, etc.... I have not yet tested the range of the RaZr to headset, but will do some work on that later when I have Amy's K700ii available for a side by side comparison. I paired the RaZr with my NextLink Digital BlueSpoon with Zero problems...they work great together with all features supported.
The only problem I have with the RaZr and this is a big problem is that Motorola has once again tied its products together with a propriatal performance lock. Although the RaZr works great with the Digital...it will only hold the connection for about 15 minutes of inactivity before automatically dropping the connection. The HF-800 though, remains connected until manually disconnected or by separating the devices with enough distance to break the connection.
Connection with other devices was very easy and worked really well, transferring photos to my laptop, or transferring contacts from my P900, MpX, K700i to the RaZr. I also transferred a 2mb video file from my laptop to the RaZr with zero problems. Great Bluetooth performance with the exception of Motorola's insistence on tying its products together for optimal performance.
The first thing you notice about the RaZr after the construction and the keyboard...is the very large and beautiful screen. It is the first phone I have used with a 262,000 color screen and it is exceptional. The screen is made like a laptop computer with a very soft outer screen that "gives" to the touch....
Colors are Gorgeous!!.....and detail is exceptional...
The RaZr has a video player as well as audio player...but has a limited memory of about 5.5mb for multimedia.....
Games and Applications
Another new addition to the RaZr is its Advanced 3-D Gaming System. Absolutely love the Golf game and find it to be very entertaining...even for a 40 year old like myself. In addition the Razr comes with Golf, Billiards, and Skipping Stones.
The camera has 3 different resolutions that can be used with 640 X480 being the largest. At this setting the 4X Zoom is still available to the user in contrast to some phones that claim a large digital zoom but one that only fuctions at lower resolutions. A very nice feature that probably cost alittle money to engineer is the RaZr's ability to capture your own photo by using the "Smart Window" as a viewfinder... Sure beats trying to look into a little shiny chrome thingy...under a camera lens.....
Sampe Pictures:
The quality can be decent if you remember to clean the outer lens glass before snapping it...see the photos of my MpX and the Flag...the others have a little hand oil on the outside lens glass which is flush with the RaZr's metal body....
Video capture is not present on my proto-type, but I am told will be part of the production RaZr's firmware.....
The RaZr has some new features not present on other Motorola models....primarily the new "Smart Window"..... In addition to displaying color backgrounds and the time....it will show the photo of the contact calling you, display animation with email messaging, act as a viewfinder for the camera and notify you of email, SMS, or MMS messages, connection with other devices and the standard ringtone profile settings......
The RaZr supports 3 different types of Instant (CHAT) Messaging..Mobile QQ, Chat and AOL, .AOL being the only one I am familiar with...and it works great....
Finally, the RaZr supports a type of "Themeing" called "Skins".....although you can create themes that consist of wallpapers, screensavers, and ringtones working together under a common theme which can then be stored in MultiMedia...the Settings menu also contains 3 different "Skins".....which completely change the appearance of the RaZr's screen and menus.....
First it's a Tour De Force from the standpoint of design and construction...I absolutely love its materials, components and minimalistic design.... The Bang & Olfson of Cell Phones.....the RaZr is like nothing else you will ever see currently available from other companies.
Even with its new Mini USB charging port which I hope carries over into the other Motorola phones. Updated and One-of-a-Kind keypad with the "Send" "End" keys in the proper location.
No modern OS in a $700 cell phone...let alone one so Beautiful and Expertly Crafted should be saddled with such a insulting and child like Phone Book....its ridiculous to even conceive it. My contacts being transferred effortlessly from my P900 and K700 only to be "errored out" upon opening the file in my RaZr. Don't even think about trying to transfer the contact list from your MpX into it...that might cause a permanent failure. Really, a phone of this sophistication using a second graders idea of what a phone book should be is an insult to all of the Design Engineers who created this Masterpiece of Aluminum, Magnesium and Glass. Your on the right track Motorola with all of the above improvements being noted and far ahead of the competition.....but looks without brains is not going to win the long haul....
So, more memory for a faster responding menu and a better OS with particular attention to an improved and completely redesigned phone book are in order. If the phone book from my K700 was in there, I would declare it the best little phone available, even with the limited memory(after all, its a phone, not a Mp3 player or video player)....as it is....I'll just say that its the most Beautiful Designed and Constructed Cell Phone available period!! And that my friends is quite a bit!!
So, I hope you have enjoyed this BengalBoy Exclusive...I certainly enjoyed bringing it to you.....
Credits
This review has been edited and published with permission from the original author - Mark Morrow
(BengalBoy).
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: