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January 27, 2005

Motorola RAZR V3

New handheld from Motorola packs a punch.

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The quad-band Motorola Latest News about Motorola RAZR V3 from Cingular Wireless Latest News about Cingular is an ultra-slim, GSM/GPRS messaging phone with an internal antenna that features a 2.2-inch, high-resolution color screen, a 3D graphics engine, a push-to-talk radio and global roaming capabilities courtesy of the onboard SIM card.

Measuring 3.86 x 2.08 x 0.54-inches, the RAZR V3's slim and sleek anodized aluminum shell is literally packed with trendy handset innovations, such as an MPEG-4 video player, anMP3 Latest News about MP3 audio player, a voice recorder and Bluetooth Latest News about Bluetooth wireless technology. The device's built-in digital camera with 4x digital zoom even gives users the option of selecting three different levels of image quality.

Under the Hood

Weighing in at 3.35-oz, the RAZR V3 sports a 96x80-pixel external display that delivers 4K CSN color resolution. When the unit's protective shell is closed, the external screen shows time and phone status information on up to 4 lines of the display. In addition, the external screen performs double-duty as the handset's camera viewfinder whenever the shell is closed.

Nested inside the silver shell is a precision-cut keypad with electroluminescent "cool blue" backlighting, together with a 176 x 220-pixel color display that is capable of rendering up to 260K colors, as well as displaying up to 9 lines of text at a time. The handset's distinctive keypad features slightly raised rubber numbers that deliver just the right amount of tactile feedback.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T
With no Qwerty-style keyboard in sight, the RAZR V3 relies on iTAP software to predict each word as it is being tapped out on the handset's cellular keypad. This helps to simplify and speed up the text-entry process.

The handset's standard keypad is accompanied by a 4-way navigation key with center select, customizable "soft keys" and an "operator" key that takes the end-user to the wireless carrier's Web site in order to access customized content and services.

The RAZR V3 ships with a 680 mAh Lithium-ion battery Latest News about Batteries that is capable of delivering up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 12 days of operation in the standby mode. To further extend battery life, the display can be programmed to switch off when no activity is detected for a user-specified amount of time.

Staying Connected

Handset connectivity options include a Bluetooth Class 1 radio for enabling the Jabra hands-free headset ($71.99) accessory, an infrared port and a CE bus. The handset's Bluetooth capability can also be used to send a picture, sound, video, phonebook entry, date-book event, or bookmark from the handset to other Bluetooth-enabled phones, computers orPDAs Latest News about PDAs. In addition, Cingular offers a USB Latest News about USB data connect kit ($22.99) for the handset that will transform the unit in to a wireless modem.

When it comes to sending and receiving e-mail, the RAZR V3 offers support for standard POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 e-mail accounts. Onboard messaging capabilities includeSMS Latest News about SMS text messaging, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), EMS 5.0 AOL Instant Messenger Latest News about AOL Instant Messenger; and IM support by way of the handset's Wireless Village 1.1 embedded client. Also on tap: a rudimentary WAP Latest News about WAP 2.0 Web browser; a 1000-entry phonebook; a personal organizer, including calendar, calculator, alarm clock and currency converter; and PC synchronization via SyncML.

The RAZR V3 incorporates a 4-digit unlock code to prevent unauthorized calling, as well as a 6-digit security Latest News about Security code for protecting any personalized information that has been stored on the device. In addition, the handset can be programmed to lock automatically whenever it is switched off.

Show and Tell

When it comes to style, Motorola's new messaging phone is about as cool as it gets. Indeed, the razor-thin, feather-light RAZR V3 puts on quite an impressive mobile light show at night. Moreover, the built-in graphics accelerator allows the handset's 3D Picture Show and 3D Phone Book software programs to really strut their stuff.

But when it comes to getting down to business, Motorola's WAP 2.0 HTML browser is a minimalist offering at best. Moreover, the device is designed to operate over sluggish GSM/GPRS networks, which typically deliver data at snail's pace speeds.

The amount of user-accessible memory also is extremely constrained, which puzzles me, given the attention that Motorola's engineering department has lavished on packing the device with a large number of memory-hungry multimedia recording and playback capabilities. In my estimation, the absence of an expansion card slot is the handset's most glaring oversight.

The Bottom Line

Nevertheless, the device no doubt will have a certain appeal for fashion-conscious executives and sales personnel. As for the rest of us, the RAZR V3 may seem like the cellular equivalent of an overpriced pair of Armani jeans.

The Motorola RAZR V3 is available at all Cingular retail and online locations for US$499.99 when the subscriber commits to a two-year service contract. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give the Motorola RAZR V3 a 3.75 rating.

Posted by editor at January 27, 2005 03:33 PM