Customer Reviews

Motorola RAZR V3t Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

This phone is a big step up from the regular RAZR V3 as it has the same features as some of the newer phones on the market, but still has the same RAZR design. To all those people who like the RAZR, but would like to have a better camera and more features, this is a definite choice. As long as this phone is priced reasonably, I think it is better than any other T-Mobile branded phone right now. (excluding smartphones & pda's)

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.

The new BLACK T-Mobile Motorola V3T defines a "sexy" phone. I bought this phone specifically for the music player, yet the stylish slim design that the Motorola's have (unlike the formless Nokia bricks).

Pros:
- The blue-glowing Motorola symbol (that the V3's don't have)
- Very impressive signal strength and battery life (Only need to recharge 1-2 times a week)
- Black is way sweeter than the mainstream silver (although the Dragon tattoo is pretty nice)
- Setting Songs from your microSD as a ringtone (though it is a little tricky to figure out. You need to transfer the ringtone from your microSD to your phone's RAM via "Switch Storage Device")
- Cool MyFaves Icons to assign to each of your friends (MyFaves is where you pick your 5 favorite phone numbers and get all the calling for free). Most people call their top 5 people for 80%-90% of your minutes (prove it to yourself and check your bill). I usually have at least half of my 1000 minute plan left over now that I've switched to MyFaves.


Cons:
- Only comes with a 128 MB microSD card which holds about 35 songs. A 1GB microSD card costs about $25.
- Ships with mono headphone jack (not 2 ear headphones)
- Non-standard headphone jack. Uses mini-USB instead of normal earbud/iPod headphone jack.
- Can't find the mini-USB adapter so that I can use my earbuds

Conclusion:
Solid phone for 2007 if you're looking for a Music Player phone that still maintains a sleek design. Get T-Mobile's myFaves if you tend to call your tight-knit circle of friends a lot.

Motorola has definitely improved on their popular razr design. Having owned the previous generation razr for nearly two years, I can confidently say this one is far better. Lets start with the quality of the phone. The hinge is much smoother as you open the phone. The buttons are easier to push and respond to input better han the old phone. The speakerphone works great and the microphone in the earpiece is easier to hear. The digital audio player is great and plays mp3 media with excellent sound quality. I upgraded my phone with a 2G sandisk micro SD card so now it holds a ton of media. Next, it is aesthetically it is a very attractive phone and the finish appears to be durable. Finally, it is user friendly enough for the average consumer and the manual points out everything you'd expect and then some.

I wasn't too sure about the new RAZR V3T but after a few minutes with it - I knew it was the phone I wanted. With this one, you can store songs on the SD memory card so be sure to get at least a 1 or 2 GB SD card. I got a 1GB card on sale for ~$30. The sound quality on playback is, not excellent, but still good enough to replace my MP3 player for most things.

Razr v3t is an excellent, sleek, thin and lightweight mid-range cell phone at an affordable price from T-mobile. I got two of these phones free with Bluetooth headsets from t-mobile with a family plan. This razr phone has a very nice black finish as compared to its predeseccor v3. It also has bluetooth 1.2, a digital music player and 1.23 megapixel integrated camera.
You can also upgrade its default 128MB, removable microsd memory card, upto 1-2GB microsd. Believe me, the Digital music player on this device is incredible and the sound quality is at par with any music player like iPod shuffle or nano. I am using this razr as my second iPod, with 400-500 songs on my 1GB Sandisk microsd card.
You can also buy a motorola Stereo Headset Adaptor (model# SYN1504, just for $3-$4) to convert the output from MiniUSB to ordinary 3.5mm, to connect it to any device/headset and listen to songs from it. I have connected it to my sony car adaptor as well and now I can listen to songs from it in my car.
The data cable connectivity with PC is very simple and easy to use. No need to install any software. You can aslo sync in this player in Windows Media player but its a little bit tricky. Also it can only play itunes ACC and Mp3 format. No support for WMA files, but you can always convert them to Mp3. Only supports Mp3s upto 192kbps bitrate.
Bluetooth headset connectivity is also very simple and flawless. My Bluetrek headset instantly get detected by this razr. So no issues with BT.

I upgraded to from the Nokia 6103 to this one and I'm loving it, much bigger screen, 8x zoom camera, texting it easier, with the nokia you had to hit ok like 4 times before it actually sent the message. Even those it was not listed on the box that it was suppose to come with a memory card mine did and I'm loving that I can store my ringtone and pictures on it so that heaven forbid anything should happen I can tranfer them with no problem. I'm addicted to the blockbreak game that came preloaded. The digital music player is another great feature for playing MP3s. Overall this is a A+ phone.

Edit: I just used the mini usb cord that came with my phone (also not listed to come with)and I'm VERY impressed with how easy it was to transfer songs, pictures and emails to my phone. I run window XP and instantly recognized the connection and after that it was as simple as going to the removable disk drive and dropping the files in the folder. Never again will I purchase another ringtone

I recently got this one from t-Mobile(returning the Blackberry Pearl) and i am more than happy. Very sleak and easy to use. Motorola has indeed taken care of so many problems with the older RAZR phones. Now the battery lasts longer, phone charges faster, has a 1.3 MP camera(works okay) and a Micro SD card slot for all the music you want.

The bluetooth works like a charm( i am using a Plantronics 510 headset). Its missing some of the features that my Nokia 6600 has, but i am okay with without them.

I would give it 5* but the user interface lets me down. For instance, to turn on Bluetooth, i have to navigate thru quite a lot.

Overall a good phone with decent features.

This phone looks cool, and has a few good points:
1. the ability to use MP3s as ringtones
2. the bluetooth capabilities work well.

That being said, it is otherwise a piece of wildly overrated junk.
I am presently on my second one- the first one stopped working after about 8 months, and my 3$ per month insurance policy gave me the great honor of being able to buy another one for 50$. Hoping that my first one was a fluke (and not having any other good options for a different phone without changing contracts altogether) I plunked down the cash for another one. And now, less than 6 months later, this one is starting to malfunction- the menu keys stop working, so that I have to shut it down and restart.

Besides dependability, this just isn't very well thought out in terms of software and buttons. To give just one horrifyingly stupid example: the phone has a tendency to shut off its ringer just from being in a typically active person's pocket. There is no way to have the buttons disabled until the phone is flipped open, unless you want to have the whole phone on a lockdown so that you need to enter a password every time you use it. How stupid is that?????

Bah.
-mk