Motorola KRZR K1: Review

Today I'm going to review the Motorola KRZR K1; it has a few great features that really set it apart from the other phones in this price range.

I bought mine from a t-mobile store for about 200 dollars; with rebates it cost 50 under a one-year contract. You can also purchase the KRZR with other companies; I live in a major city, so quadband GSM technology is an advantage for call quality.

It weighs 3.6 ounces, a bit heavier than the other phones, but it makes up for it with a smaller profile. Compare the KRZR to the V3 RZR, you can see; the KRZR is a few millimeters smaller with a snubbed profile.

The KRZR came with a supplied 256 megabyte mini-SD card, which provides more than enough room for photos, text messages, contacts, and possibly a few songs.

You can drag and drop your mp3s similar to a portable hard-drive mp3 player.

The KRZR doesn't have an outside control for music, so it's not an ideal music player when compared to the other phones in this price range. It also doesn't have the standard eighth inch phone jack, so you'll have to use USB headphones, or stereo Bluetooth headphones.

The KRZR comes with the standard features that you'd expect for phones of this price range, such as speakerphone, polyphonic ringer, great ringtones, voicemail, picture and text messaging, ICQ, AIM and MSN messengers, alarm clock, calendar, a nice java application, a multi-language menu, and other features like push-to-talk. The KRZR also has Bluetooth, so you can sync, transfer information, and use a Bluetooth-enabled headset.

The screen is 1.9 inches, so it has a nice small profile, but the rectangular shape took some getting used to, especially because I previously owned a v3 RZR.

The outside screen is made from polished glass and aluminum and it picks up fingerprints and smudges quite easily, but you can also use the surface as a mirror - perfect for putting on contacts or applying make up.

By far, the best feature on the KRZR is its 2.0 megapixel digital camera. This phone had the best camera on any phone in the store and there are few comparable phones to compete. I use this KRZR for photoblogging, so it fits my purpose fairly well. One thing the KRZR does not have is a flash, so you're going to be limited to well-lighted day-time photos.

I took a great sunset picture of Wacker drive and Clark Street in Chicago at 1600 by 1200 resolution. The digital camera is really the highlight of the KRZR, and the main reason I purchased it.

The second best feature on the KRZR is its battery. This phone is rated to last 5.8 hours talk-time, and 12.5 days on standby. Not bad.

The KRZR can also record and play 3gp videos. The KRZR is less than ideal for watching streamed videos because it uses a 2.5 G Edge network.

As with all the Motorola phones, you get a quality operating system. All the icons are easy to find and easy to manipulate. The iTap system makes texting easy. You can customize many aspects of the OS, and with Motorola phone tools, you can mod your Operating system even further.

To summarize, the KRZR has one big feature that demands respect - the 2 megapixel camera can't be beat. You also get some great features that come with this line of Motorolas such as Bluetooth, java and the high-quality OS. As a music playing phone, it's fairly average, as there are a few other choices out there if you want to specialize in a music-playing phone. Also, if you want streaming content, look for a phone with access to a faster network.

PROS

2.0 Megapixel camera

Battery life - 5.8 hours talktime, 12.5 days standby

It's stylish

Motorola OS

CONS

Slow network, not ideal for mobile video content

Not ideal as a music-playing phone