Review of the Motorola RAZR V3: Stylish & Slim Option with Lots of Color Choices

Review of the Motorola RAZR V3: Stylish & Slim Option with Lots of Color Choices
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(5 out of 5)

The Motorola RAZR was first released in late 2004 and was one of the thinnest phones at the time. It belongs to the series of clamshell

mobile camera phones developed by Motorola and was one of the most successful Motorola phones ever released. The question remains: why review it in 2010? The answer to that is that its success story hasn’t come to an end. It made quite a name for itself when it was ranked number 12 by PC World in “The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years.” The RAZR V3 was extremely thin in dimensions and because of its sleek outlook, it was marketed for the fashionable consumers who wanted a mobile phone that would make them look good.

Design (5 out of 5)

The Motorola RAZR V3’s casing is made of anodized aluminium, which makes it extremely thin and lightweight. Its dimensions are 3.86 x 2.08 x 0.54 inches and its 3.35 ounce weight adds to its visual appeal. The design is quite solid which means that even if you drop the phone on the ground, it will rarely break. The battery is very thin and is secured in place at the back of the phone via a tiny latch. The latch makes the battery easy to remove

The internal display of the RAZR V3 is a 2.2-inch colored TFT. Its resolution is 176 x 220 pixels and it supports a maximum of 256 colors. The graphics accelerator provides a pretty crisp display and pictures and videos are a pleasure to see. As with many phones, the display becomes a little difficult to see when used in heavy sunlight. The handy external display has a resolution of 96 x 80 pixels and can show four lines of icons or text.

User Interface (4 out of 5)

The keypad of the Motorola RAZR V3 feels quite comfortable to use and has convenient back lighting which is blue in color which helps make typing quite easy in the dark as well. One slight disadvantage is that the keypad is totally flat and that makes it difficult to type without looking at the phone (which we normally do). The silver keypad surface may become quite low in visibility when used in bright light due to reflection issues. The keypad has a central action button that is easily programmed with the functions you want your phone to carry out on the home screen. Two buttons on either side of the keypad access the Web and the messaging system and thus provide a convenient access to both. Below these, red and green buttons provide the ‘connect’ and ‘cancel’ options for handling calls.

Features (4 out of 5)

The RAM capacity of the V3 is 5MB and that isn’t much, really. But the good news is that the phone’s camera has a low resolution and that means that a reasonably good number of pictures can be taken and stored. The Motorola RAZR V3 has built-in support for 3D Java apps. There is an additional 5MB space for adding further applications. There is also support for polyphonic ring tones and the 22kHz polyphonic speaker works well, supporting 22 chords. This, however, means that standard 44kHz audio (from desktop computers) have to be converted first, before they can be heard on the phone. Another useful add-on is a Picture Phonebook that displays a photo of listed contacts. There is also support for recording and playing 3GP video/sound.

The V3 provides a convenient web browsing user experience with WAP 2.0. Users can also use the voice dialling via speech recognition and can use the hands-free feature via the integrated speakerphone. The V3’s camera isn’t much to speak of, because of its mere 0.3 megapixels but it has adequate exposure settings to make it worthwhile using for a quick snap or two.

Performance (4 out of 5)

User reviews suggest that the phone’s reception is better when the phone is opened than when it is closed because there is an invisible antenna connector located at the lower half of the phone. Otherwise, the call quality is quite good and volume levels are easily adjusted to suit users’ needs. For web access, watching video or playing games it can be a little slow and the options are limited but at the time of release this phone performed admirably compared to the competition. If all you want is a simple phone, primarily for making calls, the Motorola RAZR V3 is still a great device.

The Verdict (5 out of 5)

The Motorola RAZR V3 (and its later versions) is still a very popular phone today, mainly due to its sheer convenience factor and cool design. The phone comes in today at about US $70 and I would say that it’s worth the price

The later versions came packed with better features than the original Motorola RAZR and they sell pretty well in the market today. The RAZR’s later versions are a good buy for those who are looking for style, mixed with efficiency and convenience.