Motorola Razr V3
 Dean  rates it:    Community rates it: (no ratings yet)
   437 of 856 readers found this review helpful.

its a phone

its purty

its a purty phone



and an amazing one too.



ok, here's the burst of specs and pr babble cut-n-pasted from the website:
Fun Features
User-customizable Softkey Functions, Main Menu and Shortcuts
Games¹ : 3D Java - embedded & space for downloads
Downloadable¹ Themes (Ringtones, Wallpaper & Screensavers)
MOTOMIXER™ (Remixable MIDI ringer software)
Polyphonic Ringtones
Picture Phone Book¹
MP3 Ringtones¹
Polyphonic Speaker : 22 Khz Polyphonic Speaker, 22 Chord support
Video Download1
Video Clip Playback with sound1
Precision Cut Metal Keypad
Integrated Digital VGA Camera with 4 x Digital Zoom
Call Management Features
Speech recognition
Integrated speakerphone
Caller Group Profiling1
Time & date stamp
Phone Book: Up to 1000 entries on phone plus up to 250 on SIM card
VibraCall Alert
Messaging Features
iTAP™ Predictive text
EMS¹ 5.0
SMS¹ Chat one-to-one
MMS¹ (Picture / photo + text + sound)
Group SMS
Quick messages
Mobile Concatenation
Instant Messaging Support : (Wireless Village) 1.1 embedded client
Email support: Pop3, SMTP, IMAP41
Lifestyle Features
Calculator and Currency Converter
Date and Clock
PIM functionality
Calendar
Alarm Clock
Performance Features
Talk Time² : Up to 200 to 430 minutes
Standby Time² : Up to 180 to 290 hours
Bands : Quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900)
Standard Battery : 680 mAh Li-ion
Data Features
GPRS 1, 6 : 2U4D
WAP : WAP 2.0
Connectivity : CE bus (USB / Bluetooth®)
Preloaded Software¹
Technical Specifications
Internal Memory : 5MB
Weight : 3.35 oz
External Display : 96 x 80 pixel, 4k CSN Color, 4 Lines of Text / Line of Icons
Volume : 65 cc
Finish : Anodized Aluminum
Dimensions (H x W x D) : 3.86 x 2.08 x 0.54 inches
Internal Display : 176 x 220 pixel, up to 260K TFT Color, with Graphic Accelerator, 9 Lines of Text
Color : Silver
Form Factor - Clamshell

and now for my thoughts on the matter:
first of all, you need to understand that I bought my as a promotion directly through the motorola website, using t-mobile as a service provider. that experience is a separate discussion all together. but it does have some impact on my review compared to those who have their razr through cingular, who is at this moment carries the majority of razr users (and sole carrier-or so I'm told- of the snazz black razr)

all being said. I'm happy with the phone.
I'm suprised by the quality of the pictures it takes and the quality of the images it displays, even though that was a feature I wasn't particularly interested in. the buttons are wonderful. and nice tactile *snick* at each press, they're large enough for my meaty thumbs to press them one at a time, and they just look cool. the speaker phone is amazing. its probably the best part of it. loud and clear. very loud. and almost as clear as its normal phone function. which, the earpiece for normal use is a minor dissapointment, too quiet. and the quality of the sound in normal use seems to vary. I'm fond of the external display and the ability to associate pictures with caller id so you can see who's calling if they're known to you. however the address book is pretty miserable. if a person in the addressbook has a home, office, mobile and fax number, then they get 4 separate entires. they ought to be a single with the option to pick which is the default. The ringer is cool too. able to use wav files, mp3's or some random polyphinc (sounds like midi to me) format. its java based so there should be a wide amount of apps and games available soon. right now its a bit too new, i think. it also does passible video snippets, again, not a feature I'm concerned about, but amusing.

an interesting thing is the amount of a hacking community that has grown up around it. I haven't gotten too far into doing anything to mine out of fear of watching it melt in my hands.. .but there are individuals out there doing some amazing edits to their phones, and I wish I had the spare cash and time to feel comfortable trying it. but if you get a chance to root about the web.. there's interesting stuff out there.

on the whole, I'd say this is a decent phone. but I'd also say, wait a bit before buying one if you can. let the earpiece volume get fixed without having to hack it first. let some games and apps get ported to it. but once those things happen- get it. its light, it easily drops into a pocket and is forgotten until you need it. its highly functional and has many features most phones have to pick one or the other, but not both. it can charge and communicate with your pc via a standard mini usb cable! its just a darn well designed phone!

Added:  Saturday, October 01, 2005

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