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251 of 254 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good phone, but not without its flaws, August 14, 2005
This review is from: Motorola RAZR V3 - Cellular phone - GSM - folder (flip) - silver
I'll start with the bad first, given the amount of interest this phone has generated.
1) The Phonebook application is a little...wonky. Some people have said you can't add more than one piece of contact info per contact, which is NOT true. You can, but its nearly hidden underneath the "MORE" function while editing the contact. However, its not convenient and you cannot add additional e-mail addresses or phone numbers to your contacts using the Phone Tools app...which is annoying, since T-Mobile charges $30-40 for the hardware/software bundle.
1a) It also takes forever to scroll through your Phonebook contacts. I thought it MIGHT be caused by having some SIM contacts, so I transfered all of them to phone memory. No dice. The scroll speed is untenable. Even my wife's Moto V330 is quicker. What gives? I had to create a voice prompt for almost every contact in my list.
2) Even at full blast, the volume just isn't loud enough. Plus, the "audio sweet spot" on the speaker is hard to keep next to your ear. If you are planning to get a Bluetooth headset and use that exclusively, this shouldn't keep you from getting the phone.
3) Compared to a Samsung V205, a Sony Ericsson P910i and Motorola's own V330, the RAZR gets poorer reception. The previous phones mentioned all get four bars at my house. The RAZR gets 2. This even after calling T-Mobile tech support for help. Their advice? "Keep turning the phone on and off and it will hopefully find another tower."
4) T-Mobile offers NO games for this phone yet. Given how high profile this form factor has become, I find this level of support to be somewhat poor. I know - you don't buy a phone for its games. But just to show how lacking T-Mobile's support is...the RAZR includes a demo for BeJeweled. After the (very) short demo is over, it asks if you want to buy it. Clicking the link brings you to a webpage that says "Sorry, we don't offer games for your phone yet". My wife's V330 has a similar issue. She's had it for over 4 months and T-Mobile STILL offers no games for the phone. Again, I know you shouldn't buy a phone based on the number of games offered for it, but its still a feature, something to whittle away the time while waiting at the DMV. Poor show here, T-Mo.
5) Camera phone still only 640x480. Decent pics at that resolution, but given that there are cheaper phones on the market (I didn't get this phone for free) with higher pixel values, this is a moderate oversight on Moto's part
6) Phone response is fairly poor as well. Example - going through my contacts by pressing keys (going from Q to R to S)...so very slow. You think the phone hasn't responded so you mash the button again, at which point it responds to TWO button presses and you have to start all over again.
7) The Phone Tools application is a little user unfriendly and totally geared to people who mess around with Outlook CSVs on a daily basis. I've managed to get it to work, but not without some work.
Alright, so now for the good.
1) This phone is a veritable conversation piece. Oohs and ahhs all around...if you care about that sort of thing. I usually don't. I just want a functional phone that gets good battery life, gets a decent signal and can withstand a beating (I'm a klutz). But if you do care about the conversation-worthyness of your cell phone, this one has it in spades.
2) Great battery power. I've had it on for 5 days at moderate usage and I've still got 2 bars left.
3) This is a sturdy phone. My kid has already dropped it on cement twice and I've seen NO scratches at all. Maybe I'm lucky, as another reviewer mentioned that poor build quality on his piece. I've not had any issues. The phone is rock solid.
4) The usual amount of ringtones and wallpapers....all of which are amazingly expensive. Why does it cost 2 bucks for a hi-fi ringtone lasting 20 seconds when I can buy the song at iTunes for a dollar?
5) The PhoneTools software allows you to create your OWN ringtones. I haven't played around with the software yet, so I'm going to guess that your abilities to import MP3s or CD-audio will be truncated to some degree, if only to keep the coffers at T-Mo overflowing.
6) Excellent Bluetooth performance. Haven't had the opportunity to test file transfers and such, but the RAZR's connection to my Moto BT headset is great. Doesn't matter which side of my body they are situated. Decent sound quality even at 20 feet of unobstructed space.
7) Did I mention this phone is attractve?
8) Ringtones can get quite loud, even without degrading ringtone sound quality. I wish the speaker was this loud.
This phone has some serious shortcomings - most important among them is the poor performance of the Phonebook app, poor signal quality and low speaker volume. Ordinarily, I'd be bringing the phone back, like, tomorrow. But the design of the phone and its excellent BT performance makes me want to hang onto it.
Hopefully, Moto learns from their mistakes and releases a RAZR V4 with better earpiece volume and snappier response times.
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132 of 143 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's not all that great..., December 4, 2005
This review is from: Motorola RAZR V3 - Cellular phone - GSM - folder (flip) - silver
I've had this phone for about 5 months now and I'm not very impressed. I'm an older reviewer, do high tech things such as computer programming, like gadgets, background in electronics, but for my phone I want a "workhorse."
I don't want a game. I don't want a camera. I only need one ring tone (different than everyone else).
So why did I get this phone? Because the reviews indicated that this was the best sounding cell phone on the market. Best sounding on both ends. It does do that but there is a price you pay.
The problem with the phone is probably the very reason you want to buy one... It's like holding a credit card up to your ear. It's not comfortable. Imaging taking a playing card and placing the edge so it will go right across the hole in the side of your head. Well that's how you do it.
You are "holding" this very thin thing like you would hold a playing card in one hand. A case helps a little but it still is uncomfortable to hold in your hands. You can completely forget putting this phone on your shoulder and using both hands to quickly do something else. Try to hold a playing card between your ear and your shoulder for more than a few seconds.
I don't think uncomfortable is really the word... maybe, unnatural.
I've tried all the Bluetooth Jabra's out there including the speaker phone. The BT800 works the best since the people I call don't like the sound of the other ones. Bluetooth really isn't up to speed yet. It takes a while to sync and with the V3 that means going through a handful of unnecessary menu items. For it to be a viable technology, you should be able to sync it without taking your eyes off the road. Also (probably Jabra's shortcomings) if you have the headphone on the right ear, you better not put your phone in your left pocket or there will be dropouts. It's strange because you can set it across the room from you and things will work just fine. Doesn't like going through your body.
Clearly the way this product was proposed was to make a phone that looked really cool. Then have engineering do the absolute best to pack as many features into the phone and make sure the basics were right... good sound on both sides, loud ring, good vibrate, screen easy to read. They did all that. Then end result was a phone that looks really cool.
As a "bi-product" of this design (that could be practical and useful) is that you may behave different with this phone than others. For instance, I don't have a case or body glove on it because I stick it in my front pocket. If it had a case it would be harder to put in my front pocket. You completely forget it's there. It's like another set of keys or change in your pocket. If you are walking across carpet or outside on the grass, you have absolutely no concern about dropping it. It is so light there is no way it can be damaged in those conditions. However, on concrete or a hard floor, I suspect that dropping it on the edge would damage it pretty bad.
I did look at the repair manual and the problem is that it only has about four or five replaceable parts. IOW, although tiny, they are complete assemblies. This is the only phone that Motorola makes where they require the technician to go to their school before working on the phone under warranty. I'm certain each assembly/part is expensive. I don't really hate this phone but I'll probably sell it within the next year. You keep thinking that you are going to find something that you really like about this phone and it just never happens.
This phone is best for a kid that thinks the "look" is cool. It probably would be good for the guy or girl on the go that needs to impress others (yeah there are legitimate reasons for impressing others). But if you use a phone like a "tool" and you use it to be productive, I don't think this is the one to get.
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--> I came back to add more info for you after 9 months of use. One reviewer calls positioning the phone near the ear for the best possible position as the "sweet spot." That is a perfect term. The point is that the sweet-spot isn't that large... a fraction of an inch up, down, forward, back, might cut the volume down considerably. So you may find conflicting opinions about the volume produced by this phone. In the perfect position the volume of this phone is just fine. You will not have to strain to hear. However you will find that if you are walking or moving while talking to someone on this phone you devoting a constant effort to keep this in the perfect sweet-spot position. Also, besides the up, down, forward, back, you will also find changing the angle inward and outward will also make a volume difference.
While on this volume issue, the person on the other end doesn't have a problem hearing you at all "unless" you move it from your mouth. The sweet-spot for the microphone isn't near as critical but once you get past that position, apparently it drops out significantly. They won't say "you faded out" as to them you 'dropped out.'
The talk "time" is overrated. The standby time is correct. I've had no problem with the range. I believe the "meter" show less strength than what you are actually receiving as there has very few times of drop outs. I'm using T-Mobile, which around here, usually is not that strong but works just fine for me in most areas of the city/state. In addition to T-Mobile verses others... after a year T-Mobile unlocks the phone for you which might save a few bucks paying for it to be done on eBay (you can not unlock with just a simple code).
There are tons too many features to list so I'll just list a few to give you the idea of the capability. You can record your conversation on both ends which includes the legal beep so the other party will know they are being recorded. I use this for recording my customers that give me directions to their location. Next time you are with a friend, take a snapshot of them and you can easily place it in your phone book. Not only does the photo show up on the big screen inside, a smaller one shows up on the exterior screen when it is folded closed. There are buttons on the edge of the phone that do different things. Depending if closed or open they do different things... such as change the ring to a vibrate, to a silence, and even a button to "repeat" the last action that you performed. It is easy to get use to this and do it while in your pocket without looking.
Since there is a lot of confusing about the phone book, I'll add to the confusion. Yeah, you can put in "Bill Smith" one time, and include all his phone numbers in one setting, i.e., home, work, cell, fax, etc. There is a "small" icon to the right of his name indicating which type of phone number you can select. You can also sub-divide further by "personal, business, etc." The entry of the numbers is not that intuitive and the manual should be read and followed "step by step" (not quick overview) the first time. I still don't go by the icons since they are small and hard to quickly select while driving... I still enter each name separately such as, "Bill Smith - Home" and "Bill Smith - Cell." The other division of personal, business, is somewhat useless unless you initially setup your day for a business only directory, since it is hard to do while driving or on the fly.
Since I last posted, I had my phone replaced. The numbers quit lighting up in the dark. It senses if dark or light to save energy and turns on the keyboard lights in the dark. I still stand behind everything I said earlier and my opinions haven't changed. But I will add that playing the golf game included by T-Mobile while waiting in the doctor's office makes one like this phone a little better. The BT800 headset is still the best way to go even after the newer Jabra models have came out. I'm still selling in on eBay when my contract is up with T-Mobile and it is unlocked.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not as expected, September 5, 2005
This review is from: Motorola RAZR V3 - Cellular phone - GSM - folder (flip) - silver
Hi,
I am using this phone for last one week. I was very impressed the list of features, but was disappointed to find out many of them are not implemented well.
Bluetooth -
Cons -You have to dig deep into menu to turn on the bluetooth and once you enable blue tooth there is no way you can take your calls on the phone. In my prev sony T610 I use to get option and I caould even transfer to phone from bluetooth and to phone with just 2 clicks.
pros - Blue tooth works fine.
Camera - This camera is worst than my T610 which I regarded as marginal. Razr camera is use less as it is very sensitive to light and it does not takes acceptable pics in any light settings. Camera is useless.
Menu - Menu is not very intutive but once you know it is good. You have to spend fair amound of time to learn.
Search - I use to hate my T610 for it's search and I got the same here. You can search by only first word of name and then you have scroll down unlike other phone where you can type in multiple chars to narrow the search.
Phone Book - You cannot enter multiple phone numbers for single contact. You have to create multiple entries for the same person. Due to this you have to record different voice commads for each number of same person unlike T610 where I record only one for each person and then just say Cell/Work/Home appropriately.
Looks - I like the looks and screen is excelent.
Ring Tone - Best part is that you can use MP3 files as ring tones.
Last but not least - Limited memory no expansion slot
Conclusion - Don't pay for this phone. If you get it free then you can live with it. Not recomended for people using this phone to do business, for pleasure and style it's good.
Hope you all find this review helpfull
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