Motorola V3 Razor Review
I'll be honest; when I first got the phone I really wasn't sure about it. For a start it is wider than you actually imagine. It isn't that much bigger in height and width than my Samsung. The major difference that sets them apart is that the Samsung has rounded corners which makes it appear smaller. Aside that you can quite easily see why it is called the Razor when it is in your hand. It is SO thin, as in thinner that you expect a phone could ever be. It has to be said it is the most stylish phone I have seen, the whole thing is made of a metal alloy and not just plastic which makes it feel designed when it sits in your hand. It is comfortable to hold and use for me but then I have large fingers, I could imagine it would be awkward for dainty hands. The keypad is unlike any other, it's flat with only the slightest of raised bumps to remind you where the button is but it actually feels and works a lot better than the usual raised buttons.
Just for second I'll tell you what is a let down about this phone. The camera is nowhere close to being as good as the one on my Samsung e700 which was a biggish let down. With only three predefined resolutions you have the choice of massive, crap and tiny. The quality when looking on the handset itself looks bad but when you send them off to something with a larger screen you realise that the quality isn't that bad when all said and done. There is no option to add effects like on the Samsung but that doesn't really matter that much. It is ok in most lights but starts to fail in low level lighting quite a bit, no worse than my Samsung though to be honest.
Call quality is good, not brilliant but not bad at all. No different to any Nokia I have had.
When you first switch it on you are confronted with what seems like a "hold your hand" OS, which it is and this put me off but you can dig in to it and start to make all the adjustments you need to have it suit you. One thing that I was very chuffed about was the ability to set the soft keys yourself. No longer are you limited to having what they think you'll use the most. You can set them to what you use the most so if that is texts, easy, camera? No problem, email? Yeah it does email properly which is one of the sole reasons I will probably decide to keep it and not send it back. I can even set this to collect it when I want automatically (currently set to one hour) and so I get my email (send me some now!?) on-the-move without the need to log on anywhere. Cool stuff. Usually you can't set the outgoing mail to what you want, like your own smtp server, well you can with this phone which means firstly that your number is not sent as the email address and you can remain professional looking as it is actually being sent from your proper email outbox. Even cooler, no more lost emails as people respond to an address that simply doesn't exist. Text messaging on this phone OS was new to me. I have always had the luxury of the T-9 dictionary which I must say I am used to. Well for anyone that hasn't used iTap I suggest you give it a go as it outclasses the T-9 one by a long way. You can actually see your choices without having to go through them one at a time, genius and better still it moves words up in the most used order so after a few days of sending texts I was typing them even faster than I ever had as all my most common words had been shifted up the order. Sending MM messages wasn't a problem either and the inbox is a combined one which makes finding messages easier than it was on my Samsung where I had separate inboxes for both types.
The phone book stores 1000 entries and as usual you can assign pics to each entry that will display when the person rings; or you can just have a simple list. Plenty for anyone. USB port offers the ability to hook it up to a PC but you can also use Bluetooth for it as well. I had the Jabra BT200 headset delivered with the phone and it was easy to set up and pair with the phone. Your connection is encrypted so nobody can hook in to your Bluetooth signal and listen in. It paired with an Ipaq I tried it with in two secs and gave me the ability to share sound, video and picture files that were on the phone. I have since added a huge amount of mp3 effects files to the phone in order to make it more mine. Which brings me to a geeky point. I found that themes for the Razor are in short supply on the web and aren't really offered anywhere. So I went hunting for an SDK for the phone and to my surprise found one. I can now make my very own themes which only amount to wallpaper, ring tone and screensaver but none the less, it is better then what most phones have to offer (you'll need XP, J2ME and Java frame).
It plays videos pretty good but no option to take video and the one thing that is missing from the Razor is memory. 5megs for media is just not enough these days and I know you can just dump your pics (medium res' pics have file sizes of around 10kb) when the memory is full but it just feels like its not enough memory for this day and age. The playing of sounds (mp3's) is good too considering it is a phone.
It does indeed have a speakerphone for talking hands free when in a quiet private place and it works pretty well; though not having had one of these before I wouldn't know what was good or bad.
All in all it is a good handset but if you're thinking of getting one I would go to a shop and ask to see one working as it defo' isn't everybody's cup of tea and I have till tomorrow to decide if I am keeping it, though i think I am. It has things on it that suit me and so I would argue that it's functionality outweigh the lack of memory space, awkward width and medium quality camera. I've been saying for a long time that if you really want decent pictures get a camera that is for doing that; mobile phones are a PHONE it just happens that the Razor can do all the things I want and need it to.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
I'll post some pictures of it when I can be arsed.
#1. skeddy
Posted about 5 years ago
Before you go and take it back, or decide to keep it, have you though about upgrading the firmware from myhellomoto.com ? There's new firmware that enables video recording. Obvioulsy be really careful !!
And unless you've already been there, maybe motomodders.net might be worth a visit ?
#2. tek
5 years
I have been and seen those two sites. The PKman package was worth a look but I'm wary at the moment of getting used to the fobe first before I start hacking in to it at that level. It's a one shot do, once you fuck it up you fuck it up because this is done using the USB cable. If you fuck the OS then you can't start the fone to actually fix it using the USB as that needs to be plugged in and the OS on the fone needs to be loaded to get it to work...
Give it a few weeks after I have combed through the code and I might start to mess with it but for now the fone works and I am mostly happy with it so I'm going to keep it. Actually... it's too late now to change my mind 
#3. gurion
5 years
yawn...RAZR? got bored of that months ago!!! Currently using: SE/// P900 (for laughs and watching movies on the train 
, Samsung Z500 (not released yet) 3G/EDGE Clamshell, Sagem myX6-2 (for testing InFusio), SE/// K750i (for photos, butgetting bored of 2Mp 
, SPV C500 (for work type stuff).....and I've got about 5 other handsets from Blackberry to HTC.....
But then I work in the biz right?! 
in other news, new nipper (probably called Marcie) due end of August 
#4. tek
5 years
bloody hell long time no speak gurion! No point in asking if you're ok since you got another rug rat on the way!
Yeah you do work in the sector so I would EXPECT you to have a whole host of handsets heh. The V3 does all the shit I need it to plus I have found some extra shit for it (like it can actually record video woo!) and I spent some of yesterday making my own skin for it which when I can be arsed I'll put on the fone itself. Any tips or places I can get some funky stuff to put on it?!?
Anyways hope you're ok! 
#5. gurion
5 years
i'll have a word with the team that designed it 
....and yup. not three bad mate ta!
#6. ChiefBarley
5 years
Thanks for the review. My brother recently picked up one of these, so I've had the chance for a little hands-on. For such a touted phone, it does lack a bit in innovative features. Unfortunately, it seems the only gimmick was the size of the phone. Don't get me wrong, it seems like a solid phone, for doing phone-type stuff. But, I was just expecting a bit more.
#7. tek
5 years
Yeah it does seem lacking at first which was my initial reason for not liking it. However it has become its simplicity (and the ability to do those things well) that has made me like it. I mean I have my email set up on it and that works perfectly well, the camera isn't all that bad its actually the screen that makes it look bad and lets it down. The text messaging system I've found to be the best I've used and of course the actual phone itself is decent in call quality and it is the best built phone I have had. Granted it is wide but when you have big stubby fingers like me then it works well heh... I've heard bad things about the two Samsungs (d500 and e720) so I'm glad I went for this phone now.
#8. skeddy
Posted about 5 years ago
I've been offered a free E720 from my provider as an upgrade to my Nokia 6600.
Seen mixed reviews about the call quality. Some say it's good, some say it's bad. Now, it's going to be free, but do I risk it ?
#9. tek
5 years
You got with what you think is best but if they have offered you that then you should also have been offered the razr as well. The e720 apparently has shite call quality because of the new feature that it automatically adjusts the volume depending on the background noise level. Well consider walking down the street or with music playing and I think you can safely say that is WILL be shit. The advantage of their selling point is 80megs storage on the fone itself but also consider that with any fone you can connect to your PC you have LIMITLESS storage don't you? So that 80megs means nothing! My e700 was ok but I found that it used to forget all the words I had entered in to the T-9 dictionary all the time and that it had a habbit of just switching off. The camera functions were really really good but then its a fone.. I dunno I'd be wary though as it doesn't seem to be a localised thing with the call quality, from what I have read on the net it is the world over. Now if you use it a lot to make calls then... *shrugs* I would ask about the other Nokias too, perhaps there is one that suits your needs better! Bare in the e720 is just the e700 with a slightly better camera and 80megs storage and with POOR call quality. Are you really going to be getting yer cash worth? 
#10. skeddy
Posted about 5 years ago
How gutted with that phone was I ?!? Very !!
As you'll have seen from my site, It didn't really cut the mustard at all.
Anywhos, sold that, got a nice shiny Nokia 6680 from ebay, and becuase I'm a t^%t, got the only damn one at a good price that was locked !!!! So now I have a nice new Nokia, but can't use it until I get the unlock code for it !!! Doh !!
#11. tek
5 years
Well you had to find out for yourself, fact is it might have been ok for what you needed it for it just didn't seem to do the shit I personally wanted from it. I'm glad you got a better fone tho, won't be hard to unlock it matey
#12. skeddy
Posted about 5 years ago
Hopefully some fella at the market will be able to do the job for me, or if I ask gurion really nicely, maybe he knows someone in the know. It's such a new phone (and apprently it's BB5 now !?!?) that the usual tools aren't about yet.
Cheers for the advice on my site too, lead to pentlyful discussions down the pub over the weekend.
