27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great improvement over my previous Motorola phone, May 14, 2007
This review is from: Motorola RAZR V3t Phone, Black (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)
The phone is wonderful and the built in MP3 player is not so wonderful. I will review the phone and then review the MP3 player's problems and good points.
THE PHONE:
My previous phone was a Motorola V330 -- the blue one. After almost 2 years, I lost it. Now, I'm glad I did. The V330 had many good features, which are continued here. It also had many problems which are rectified by this new phone.
The good features which are carried over:
1. Clamshell design with big color screen with SVGA quality
2. Bluetooth for wireless headset
3. Built in speakerphone
4. Voice activated dialing with the touch of a button, including with bluetooth
5. 1.3 megapixel camera with 8X digital zoom
6. AIM Instant Messaging
7. Plays JAVA games
8. Internet and instant messaging
9. Large memory capacity, including micro SD memory expansion, which can store lots of pictures, video and games.
10. You can purchase software to help u/l and d/l pictures, ringtones, etc. directly from your computer.
11. Most thematic elements can be changed including Polyphonic ringers, wallpaper, screensavers, etc.
IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE V330:
1. The phone book has been reorganized so that there is now one entry for each name, and then a subdirectory for each of the person's different phone numbers.
2. The 5 way navigation key is improved, although still a bit difficult to use due to the flat keyboard.
3. The "call" and "hang-up" keys are now properly backlit so that it is possible to see them at night.
4. The hands-free voice dialing on the V330 required you to record a sample of the name. It would only dial by name. And usually, it would not understand you. The RAZR uses voice recognition/phonetics. It is activated with a button on the side of the phone, which brings up a voice menu. You tell it "name dial" or "digit dial" (or one of several other commands) and then you can dial by saying the name, or phone number. You say the name, then tell it to dial work, mobile or home. This is a great improvement, and works almost every time.
5. The RAZR front screen is not the typical little motorola blue/gray clock display. It is a proper color screen showing signal strength, battery strength, your main screen wallpaper and a clock.
6. It comes with USB cable so you can transfer songs, pictures, and ringtones. It will also charge directly from the USB cable.
MP3 PLAYER
The MP3 player seems to be an afterthought, and is not well thought out. First, it does not play enough audio formats, pretty much limiting you to MP3s with bit rates of 192K or less -- no variable or high bit rate MP3s. Having to mess with the audio formats gets me to the point of saying "Why bother?" To me, the main advantage is that I'd lose an MP3 player in about 10 minutes, and I lose my phone about once every 2 years. The MP3 player sounds good. It is java based rather than hardwired. Since it is software based, it takes some time to start up and the controls are not wonderful because it does not have dedicated control keys.
However, the main issue I have with the phone is not the MP3 player, but the things which are not included in the box. The phone only comes with a 128k micro sd memory card and does not come with the stereo headset. The memory card is mounted inside the phone on top of the battery, rather than in a slot on the side where it should be. This is only a minor inconvenience.
T-mobile wants $30 for the headset, and a lot more for an adequate 1 Gig memory card. (You can find the headset here on Amazon or on Ebay for a lot less, and memory should be around $20.) The headset does not connect into a standard jack, but plugs into the mini-usb port which doubles as the connection to the computer and charger. This means you cannot plug it into a home stereo, although you could probably connect it to a USB connector on a car stereo.
The motorola stereo headset is very cool in that it has a microphone built in and doubles as a wired headset for the phone. It sounds good, with nice high end and good, although not excellent, tonal balance.
CONCLUSION
Excellent cool looking flip phone which doubles as an adequate MP3 player, if you are willing to put up with the player's quirks and the cost to make it functional.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A slight upgrade makes the RAZR even better, December 8, 2006
This review is from: Motorola RAZR V3t Phone, Black (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)
The new V3t retains the same ultra-thin, ultra-cool form factor (together with the funky keypad) but adds a few features. (BTW, these features have been available on the Verizon CDMA version for at least 6 months or more.) You can now play MP3s from flash memory; the sound quality is decent for casual listening. I personally find the black color scheme just insanely cool. Call quality is excellent, a strong point in the latest Moto phones. Where there's adequate T-Mobile coverage, reception quality is above-average -- much better than Cingular in any case, IMHO.
Data-wise, the v3t supports EDGE, which I believe the 2.5G data network on the GSM networks run by T-Mo and Cingular. I don't use data as the plan is expensive, plus I already have the Sidekick 3 which uses the much slower GPRS data network. But, as a fan of MSN Messenger, I'm glad to see the v3t now supports this great IM client.
T-Mo's coverage is good in metro areas and spotty in rural areas. Where T-Mo, owned by the German telecom company, really shines is customer service. I get through quickly to a live person each time and they speak English with little Indian accent and genuinely try to help you. T-Mo's phone selection used to be pathetic but now with the latest Moto and Sony-Ericsson phones, they are really worth a look. The new RAZR just has to be owned, period.
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