Review of the Motorola RAZR (V3M) for Verizon Wireless

The Motorola V3M for Verizon Wireless, while lacking a few cosmetic features, is a powerful tool. I have had mine for about a month, and I must say, I am impressed. I have a natural distrust for Motorola products, however the RAZR has proven my suspicions wrong.

I just got out of a love/hate relationship with my last Motorola product, The Q. While it was a great phone, it left much to be desired. This has been the trend with nearly every Motorola cell phone I have owned, but I was drawn to the RAZR. I decided after The Q didn't work out, I would give Motorola one last chance, before returning to my old standby, LG. I figured, over half of the people I know have a RAZR, so it can't be that bad. They were right.

I picked up my V3M RAZR from the Verizon, and was immediately impressed. The brushed aluminum outer case, combined with the light weight and small size told me that this phone was designed to be both tough, and functional. I have a long history of cell phone abuse, so having the metal case is a great feature, and is sure to save my phone some undue wear and tear. There are 3 buttons on the sides of the phone, an up and down volume toggle, and "smart" key on the left side, and a voice recognition button on the right. I would have liked to have a camera button on the side, but there is one on the face so its not critical. With the phone closed, you can hold a volume button and it will bring up the profile change menu. The "smart" button will change your selection, so you can go from ring to vibrate to silent very easily. My biggest complaint with the outside of the phone is, the buttons are set on the upper flip, not the bottom base. This means that, when trying to open the phone one handed, I often press the voice recognition button, which starts the program unneeded. After a very short period, I was able to teach myself how to open the phone with out this happening. The external display shows the date and time, signal strength, and batter life. On the Verizon model, you are not able to change the outside screen wallpaper, a small downer, but not that big a deal as I mostly use for the time and caller ID anyway. Profile pictures you set will show on the outside screen when receiving a call.

The inside is impressive. The main screen is large and bright. The inside buttons are flat, and have a rubber strip around them. This is a unique style for a cell phone, and is odd at first, because there is no raised button like most phones. The strangeness is short lived however, and you quickly become used to the style, as it allows your thumb to slide across the keypad surface quickly and with ease. There are two soft keys at the top of the keypad, that will do different things, depending on what menu you are accessing in the phone. Below them is a camera button on the left, and a clear (backspace) button on the right. In the middle is a circular four way navigation pad, with an "ok" button in the middle. Below the camera and clear buttons are the traditional green "send" key, and the red "end" key. Traveling further down are the traditional numeric keys with star zero and pound rounding out the bottom of the pad. As mentioned, the side keys are on the upper flip, surrounding the main screen, so turning on the speaker phone ("smart" key) and changing volume is a little awkward due to the buttons being so high up. The main screen has customizable wallpaper, and a screen saver for when your phone is open.

The Verizon model sports the traditional Verizon menu system, and is easy to navigate, easier then the Motorola system that I have used on past phones anyway. From the home screen, the left soft key opens the messages menu, and the right brings up contacts. The phone will store 1000 contacts. The center of the four way navigation brings up the menu, while the up, down, left, and right buttons bring up other features. The phone is equipped with the iTap word prediction system for your text messages. With a single press for each letter, it will predict the word you need and can fill it in automatically. Ive found it to be very accurate, and it learns as you type, so words used more often will be the first options. The V3M model comes with an expansion slot for a MicroSD media card, because it is designed to play MP3's, something the V3C model does not. The V3M sports the VCAST system, which is mildly entertaining, but not $15 a month so. The plus is, if you have the $15 a month VCAST package, not only do you get access to the video clips, all your Mobile Web time is airtime free. That comes in handy if you use the Mobile Web, or VZ Navigator a lot. Verizon has released the VZ Navigator to finially use the phones GPS chip for more them E911. VZ Navigator is a Get-it-Now application, that costs $2.99 for 24 hours, or $9.99 for a months subscription. It does use airtime if you do not have the VCAST pack. It provides you with turn by turn maps and voice directions using the GPS system. I have only used it once, bur found it to be accurate, and useful. Its definitely a selling point of the phone.

There are a few cons to the phone, but they mostly seem to be minor annoyances. Battery life is said to be horrible, but compared to The Q (which wouldn't last a whole day), I think its pretty good. Its a daily charger, but plug it in while you sleep, and your good to go. The phone can not ring and vibrate at the same time. I don't know why, every other phone does, but its minor. You can't change the outside LCD wallpaper. The brushed aluminum case feels almost slippery, but if held by the sides, its easy to keep a hold of.

I go through phones a lot. I get bored, or don't like them and change several times a year. I had previously written off Motorola as an inferior phone, but the V3M RAZR is helping me bring back hope. Its a solid phone, with great features, at the right size and price. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.