Customer Reviews

Motorola KRZR K1 Silver Phone (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm very disappointed in this phone for a couple of very serious usability issues - you can't tell if this phone is on or off - the outside window is really worthless. The outside glass is so shiny, whenever the backlight is off you can't see anything in the window. Do you use your phone to tell the time - too bad, can't see it. Want to see signal strength - sorry, can't see it. Want to see anything in the window in outdoor light, sorry. It really is pretty worthless.

Camera is OK, not great. Performance seems good. Features are ok, although I miss being able to program top level top keys - they are always Shortcuts and Menus.

Size is very nice, fits great in hand when calling. Keypad is really pretty good for texting. The predictive text input is better than earlier Motorola phones.

The problem is that with all the choices T-Mobile has right now, I'm not sure there is a much better phone. The RIZR has many of the same issues as the KRZR - external display pretty worthless with the backlight off. None of the Samsungs seem to get very good reviews. Nokia 6133 is ok, but seems a bit flimsy.

So, I'll live with this for the next two years, but I'll certainly miss being able to check signal and time at a quick glance.

UPDATE: I've had this phone for six months now, and I feel a little better about it. I still really hate the fact that the front screen is worthless, but the phone has held up really well, and the keyboard is pretty easy to text with. A hint: get screen protectors. This really solves the fingerprint problem you can read about in other reviews.

First and foremost this is a Style and Media phone. Silver is far more luxe than tired black and it synchs w/ this shiny glass front much better. T-Mobile's silver KRZR k1 is glam. The sound of the media player is peerless (to my knowledge). The sizable micro mini memory card holds plenty of media, and this is a good thing for a phone which records up to 3+ minute movies at a time. What's more, you may even arrange playlists to suit your mood & the battery life seems much better than one might expect w/ such a bright screen to boot. However, I might dim it a few notches for optimal battery life. It will still be plenty bright.

The camera is quite noteworthy. More adjustments than I can get into, just know that you need to adjust both camera and video to take best quality photos. They are not the default settings. You might also note that, any time you zoom a pic or vid, you are greatly reducing its clarity. Other than that, adjust your images to 2 megapixels and your photos will be quite large and quite clear. I'm one of those w/whom the difference between HDTV and a good TV is almost unrecognizable. I like a nice, crisp photos... I don't study them. GREAT camera... great video.

Music, videos and photos may be downloaded via bluetooth or a USB cable which is provided.

Now on to the Net. This is where the rubber meets the road for me as I don't really use portable music players. Right off the bat, I downloaded Opera's Mini Browser. It's far more robust than the factory installed. I was able to go to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and many other sites as well. The KRZR also comes loaded w/ Y! Messenger & AIM. Good stuff. This phone does NOT have an email client.

I'm a smartphone owner (Nokia 6600), so I'm used to an email client for a couple of accounts and being able to use Opera Mobile which allows one to attach files and send messages, open multiple windows, store passwords and bookmarks, download mp3s as well as access nearly any website. Unfortunately, sick American corporations have determined that since we will pay an extra $20-30/month for PDA service (basically the same phone w/ a QWERTY keyboard), why offer more affordable smarthphones. THANKS TO AMAZON you may still purchase smartphones, but usually w/o the discount attached to a service plan.

As for reception, this has as much to do w/ locale as phone and service operator. T-Mobile is a GSM carrier which means you may use your phone all over the globe. It also means you may text overseas & you have a SIM card to transport your phone book and account easily to any other GSM phone you may have or purchase. If you purchase an unlocked GSM phone in Timbuktu, you may insert your card and go. Not so w/ Sprint & Verizon. Ya gotta go through daddy. At one time TDMA/CDMA services (Sprint & Verizon) had better tracking, but GSM (T-Mobile & AT&T) has caught up. T-Mobile has excellent reception and tracking... at least in the places I've been to & my phone worked in Europe w/ ease.

I always thought of Motorolas as cheap and the RAZR as gimmicky. Moto's interface is a bit dated and could be a tad more intuitive, but the KRZR seems to be of good quality so far.

As for Wirefly, well, I'm no fan of the company. One worker had the nerve to ask for my credit card info. Nice try, but I don't use my credit card twice for the same purchase. What the fffff.....!

Overall, The KRZR K1 is decidedly an upscale unit. It has USB, bluetooth, stereo bluetooth, 2 megapixel camera, Opera Mini, memory card, records 3+minute videos, will hold numerous songs, works overseas, has excellent sound, a bright screen and sexy looks to boot. HOT and HAUGHT! It's a wonderful phone - more for the Dolce & Gabbana type than the 'down and dirty' type.

A phone with all features but all of moderate quality. I mean it has music palyer, camera, etc but those are not of very good quality.

Camera : Camera tooks nice snaps but many time due to wrong position of camera and a key picture got distorted. You have take 2-3 shots to get perfect picture

Music Player : It is a basic palyer, speaker quality is also ok.

Battery Life : Very good battery life it works for 2-3 days for me. If you use media player, camera etc then also it lasts for considerable time.

Scree size : Much smaller than razer.

Overall a good phone with killer looks. Good deal those who wnat motorola but not want big and bulky phone like razer.

This phone was designed very poorly. From a cosmetic standpoint, it has a mirrored finish that is constantly smudged with fingerprints. After a week of carrying my phone in my front pocket, the mirrored surface cracked. The phone still works, but now I get to look at a cracked surface for the next two years while I work off the new service plan with T-mobile I'm locked into. Another problem with the display on the phone while it's closed is that it's hard to see the time and date. The buttons on the side of the phone are too recessed to be easily pushed to prompt the time to light up.

The set up menus aren't very straight forward on this phone either. They've tried to make it very flexible, and in some instances that just confuses matters.

There is this 20 second backlight that blacks out the screen every 20 seconds. Like me, I'm sure you're saying "you can turn that off..." But, I certainly can't find it, nor can the service people at Tmobile. So, when I'm trying to get into my Yahoo mail, which takes forever and multiple key strokes, the screen will go black while waiting for the web browser to launch. When you hit a key to make the screen come back on, if that key corresponds to an actual command on the (now black) screen, it'll still activate what ever the command is. So, while the screen lights up again, it's now trying to do some command that you don't want, so you have to back up and try again... I'm sure that there are "safe" keys that I will eventually find that will wake up the phone without activating a command, but I should have to do this. Like with any screen saver, a keystroke should just wake up the screen and not actually "do" anything.

Another problem with the phone is the key pad. The "up, down, left, right" arrows are very hard to hit without hitting a key next to them. So, once again, I spend my time reversing commands that I inadvertently hit along the way. I used to have a very simple Samsung phone with Sprint and I never thought I'd miss that antiquated guy, but I do...

Sound quality is average at best. Not sure if that's the phone's fault, Tmobile, or my area of coverage...

Good luck if you but this phone model. The K-RAZR is a step down from the RAZR, not an improved version.

this is a well made product with many features.the only downside i have experienced is the batter life.

This phone probably does deserve a five. But its not getting one.

It has a great camera, gets better reception than the Razr v3, and has new software that allows you to download firmware updates. The buttons are more responsive than the Razr and older Motorola's. That said it lacks flash, its just a Razr with a few improvements.

Greatest phone ever! Dropped it many times, still hasn't broken itself. I even slammed the car door on it accidently, only a small crack. Still works. Must get for active people!

FUNCTION FOLLOWED FORM On this one!! You can't see anything in the outer window, especially in the sun light. So you can't see who's calling or what time it is without opening the phone. It hurts your ear when talking. The buttons are difficult to push. It's my third Motorola and the prompts are different than others...Motorola should maintain consistency to keep loyal customers. Too many prompts to reply to a text. Thought the functioning of this phone was totally sacrificed for it looking 'cool'. I returned it and got my money back.

I have had my K1 more than 1 year. It has been working perfectly. It looks just like the first day. I love the mirror-like cover. The picture quality is more than you can expect. The only bad thing I can say, is that after a year, the battery life started to be shorter. It used to work upto 3 days for me, now I have to charge it everyday. But nothing else. It has been the best phone I have ever had.

The phone looks nice and is made pretty well. It held up to daily use in my pocket for over a year and I never gave much thought to protecting it. It survived drops to the street. It survived a complete soaking while I was caught in a rain storm with the phone in the pocket of my cycling jersey. I liked the small size a lot.

The software on the phone, however, is complete garbage. I don't know how it is that Motorola sells so many of these (and it's older brother, the RAZR). The menus are slow and unresponsive. Setting the alarm takes - at minimum - 7 clicks (with lag in between). That's assuming you are simply enabling an alarm you had already set up. If not, prepare for another 5-10 clicks. Alarms may not be an important feature to you (or to me really), but you can expect a continuation of this maddening user experience in all other areas. I don't have a single nice thing to say about the software.