Motorola RAZR2 V8 Review

Name: Motorola RAZR2 V8
Brand: Motorola

By PhoneArena Team

Updated: Sep 09, 2008, 6:41 AM

4comments

Motorola

Introduction:

Back in 2004, Motorola released the RAZR V3 which became an instant hit. Despite the lack of many features and a poor menu system, the handset was a big success for Motorola and they have been building on it since then. Three years later and we finally see the release of the RAZR2 which is supposed to completely reshape the RAZR series. It has big shoes to fill if it wants to be more successful than the original RAZR and all the variants. To see how Motorola did this time around, we have a RAZR2 V8 that we’ll be taking a look at.

What’s in the box:

RAZR2 V8
770mAh 3.7V lithium ion battery
Charger
Hands-free stereo handset
Micro-USB cable
Carrying pouch
Get started poster
T-Mobile welcome guide
RAZR2 V8 user guide

PhoneArena's video review of the Motorola RAZR2 V8

Design:

There really hasn’t been a change from the prototype when it comes to the design. The handset looks very appealing and much sleeker that the original RAZR. The front is made up of a very glossy, dark navy colored material which just attracts fingerprints like crazy so just enjoy it in the box as it’s probably never going to be neater. Once finished ogling the material, your eyes should catch the 2 inch external display with a 2MP camera just above it. The display has a resolution of 240x320 and everything comes clear very vivid making this just one stunning display. There is no flash or mirror but the front display shows what the picture is going to be of. While it’s not much larger than the RAZR, it looks like it’s a very big handset when in fact it isn’t. We imagine that this is just an illusion created by the front display.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
Motorola RAZR2 V8	4.0" x 2.10" x 0.50"	103 x 53 x 11.9	4.10	117
Motorola RAZR V3i	3.90" x 2.10" x 0.60"	98 x 53 x 14	3.50	100
Motorola KRZR K1	4.0" x 1.60" x 0.60"	103 x 42 x 16	3.60	102

Along the left, there is the rocker, function button, and microUSB slot while the right holds a lone button for voice commands. All of these are unmarked as their actions vary depending on the application being used. They are very easy to press and feel and if it isn’t enough, Motorola designed the handset to slightly vibrate when they are pressed.

Once the handset is opened, you will notice many similarities with the RAZR V3, mainly the keypad which is still made of a very glossy material. The layout has changed however and rows are separated with a slightly raised line in-between them while numbers are only raised slightly. The keys are easy to press but finding them is a small challenge. Since they’re flat and small, using them by feel alone means that many unwanted ones will be pressed. This is especially present in the D-pad which feels smaller than it really is. When lit up, there is a blue backlight.

Keypad

2.2 inch display

The top is dominated by a large, 2.2 inch display with aresolution of 240x320. Just like the outside display, Motorola didn’t skimp onits quality. Colors are just vivid and realistic. As long as the display wasnot aimed at the sun directly, it was easily visible in bright environmentseven at half brightness.

Interface:

Motorola needed to redesign the menu as the old UI is becoming very outdated. The V8 uses a Linux-Java interface which is also used in handsets like ROKR Z6 and MOTO U9.

The home screen displays the battery life, signal strength, time, network, connections, and myFaves. It can be customized but it’s limited to the theme, myFaves settings, and clock.

The main menu is laid out in a 3x3 grid and very plain but at least all the icons are easily distinguishable thanks to their sizes and animations. It can be customized but about the only things that can be done is the rearrangement of the icons, display it as either a list or grid, and to create folders and move icons into them to organize them.

Most of the options fall within their own groups but there are a few that feel out of place. One such example is the location of the text settings. To access this menu, one has to go to main menu -> settings -> phone settings -> text entry. There is no need to bury it so deep and it should be found within the messaging menu instead.

Phonebook:

The layout for the phonebook is very simple. All the contacts are listed in an alphabetical order displaying only the name, although this can be changed to view by name and number. To differentiate the phone and SIM contacts, there’s a little icon to the right of the name. A filter can be set to see just friends, family, or last called.

When adding a new contact, SIM allows only the regular name and number to be stored. If phone is chosen, then there are near limitless possibilities. The contact’s fields include multiple numbers and addresses, personal image/ringtone, and other information. The name, number and address fields store the main contact information. Notes take care of almost anything else from work information, anniversaries, all the way up to zodiac signs and even just notes.

One of our biggest gripes is that the screen just seems so small when adding a contact as only two fields are visible at a time. Think of turning the resolution all the way down on your computer and you get the same effect.

Contacts can be copied to and from the SIM, making management that much easier. If you wish to move only certain ones over, it’ll be disappointing to hear that only SIM contacts can be copied over in that way.

Calendar

Organizer:

The calendar can be viewed in the traditional month view, by day, or by week. If day view is selected, it can be viewed either by hour or the tasks for the day. Week view lists all of the days, times, and appointments and can be setup to show 5, 6 or 7 days. The start day can be set as well as the start and end time. So that it is more or less detailed, the time increment can be at ½/1/2/3 hours. Even management is easy as events can be deleted after a set age, 1/2/4/8 weeks or never.

When adding a new event, there are four menus to select: General information, notes, attendees, and repeat. General holds the main information like location, time, subject, and type. The notes and attendees fields are similar except that under attendees, there are two options (show time as and sensitivity.) The final menu is repeat which by default is set to off but can be change to daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

The calculator provided is just a basic one. If anything except the number or action (add, subtract, etc) needs to be selected, options has to be opened and the list will provide the functions. A world clock is there with three regions that can be set.

As expected, task list and notes are here. The note only has an entry field and a flag note option. The task list, on the other hand, allows a due date to be set, mark if it’s completed, assign a priority and subject , and finally an entry field for any notes pertaining to the task.

The alarm can be set through the options on the home screen or through the office tools menu. Once opened, there are three options: 30 minutes, 1 hour, or a specific time. Under specific, a maximum of three alarms can be setup on the handset. In a new alarm, there is the time, volume, repeat (just once/everyday/weekdays/weekends/custom), snooze (maximum of 99 minutes), and the volume.

The V8 lacks a memory card slot but this is made up by 2.0 GB (for the T-Mobile variant) of memory that is built into it compared to the original RAZR which had only 5.5MB of memory meaning that the new one has over 350 times more storage space! Still, it would be nice to see a microSD slot available as too much available memory never hurt anyone.

Messaging:

Motorola made it easier for users who send SMS and MMS messages quite often by combining the two. If there is just plain text, the message will be considered an SMS. Once any graphic is added, however, the handset automatically changes the message to an MMS without warning. iTAP is standard here and it’s quite useful and easy to get accustomed to.

One nice feature is that you can even text using the front display. Alright, well it is limited due to the lack of a keyboard and it’s more of a way to simply read and reply to messages than it is to actually text someone. It is accomplished with the use of templates that can be edited through the text menu. These are shown in a list when replying so that the appropriate one can be sent.

The IM client allows you to add an AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, or Yahoo! Messenger account. The client is very simple and easy to use. Actually, it’s almost identical to that of the one on the Samsung Blast.

It’s nice to see an e-mail client that is outside of T-Zones with a great selection of providers: AIM, AOL, Yahoo Mail!, Comcast, Compuserve Earthlink, Gmail, HotPOP, Juno, Mac, NetZero, and Verizon. All messages are shown in pages of 10 and ordered by the sender with brief description once it is highlighted. Drafts and sent messages can be viewed to but only the ones that have been sent from the handset.

Connectivity:

As stated earlier, the RAZR2 V8 is a quad-band GSM/EDGE handset. If you are looking for a 3G version, then look more towards the V9 instead. For those that use Bluetooth headphones, you will be pleased to hear that it is equipped with A2DP.

Internet:

The V8 comes with Opera 8.50 but it has to be accessed through T-Zones. Speeds were quite impressive considering that this is an EDGE device. Once the page is opened, it is reorganized in many ways. First, there is no side-to-side scrolling which may seem nice but once you get a long page, be prepared to do a lot of scrolling down. Sadly, there is no option to change the view to desktop view. Next, any photos and pictures are shrunken down so that they fit to the screen but they do manage to keep their sharp image. All of this makes for an easy, but possibly long, experience.

Camera:

The RAZR2 V8 is equipped with a 2MP camera but lacks autofocus or a flash. It did capture photos rather quickly but saving them seemed to take a few seconds. Photos came out clear and objects were overexposed only when they were light and in bright environments. The maximum resolution for photos is 1200 x 1600 but three additional ones are present. The only quality settings available are good, better, and best.

Camcorder:

The camcorder is accessed through the camera options by selecting video mode. The resolution can either be set to 128 x 96 or 176 x 144. So small videos are usable only for MMS messages and are useless on a computer. Video length is set to either MMS short, MMS long, or maximum are saved in a 3GP format. The controls are very similar to the camera so users should have few if any problems using the camcorder.

Audio:

So, no handset would be complete without a media player and Motorola seemed to go out of their way to make sure that it lived up to the hype. Music is selected like on an MP3 player, by artist, album, genre, etc. It’s just a little sad to see that the UI is a little plain as it only show the song information, controls, and status.

Close the handset and a very similar interface will be shown on the external display. Control is possible thanks to three touch sensitive buttons at the bottom. What happens if you like to keep it in your pocket? Well, the button on the left just below the volume rocker will lock the external controls if held for about three seconds.

So, the media player is up to the task but what about sound quality? We’re glad to report that it sounds surprisingly good. Sadly, there are no equalizer settings but spatial audio, which makes the audio sound much wider, and bass boost, that does make a difference. The headphones supplied are surprisingly comfortable with decent sound quality even though it’s a little flat. A wide selection of formats is supported: MP3, AAC, ACC+, eACC+, WAV, WMA v10 and v9.

On the downside, the media player is slow to respond to commands and when switching between songs, even though the music is on the internal memory. Also, the memory is a little clumsy to use. When a song is uploaded to the V8, it’s stored to the handset’s memory and has to be transferred to the extended memory. It’s more of an annoyance than problem but it’s worth mentioning.

Software:

You’ll find that the V8 supports Java applications and best of all they can be ran in the background. When exiting out of an application, you are presented with a set of choices asking whether to go back to it, put it in standby, or close it. If these choices are ignored, it will just go into the background and stay there until it is closed or the handset is restarted.

Performance:

We were quite impressed with the performance of the V8. It was surprising to see that reception was so strong. In areas where most handsets struggled to get signal, the V8 managed two to three bars.

Sound quality was right up there with reception. We never experienced any issues hearing the other person and on neither did they. Both voices came through clear without a hint of echoing or static. It’s hard to say if it’s because of the shape of the handset or just the sound itself but it just seemed like it was further away from the ear.

The speed of the UI is another story though. Everything just seemed to be so delayed. Opening each menu took a few seconds and when using the keypad for navigation, different applications were opened because the handset didn’t register one of the keys that were pressed. It’s surprising seeing as it’s powered by a 500MHz ARM II processor.

The V8 is rated for 8 hours and 20 minutes but with it being so slim, is that possible? Actually it is, as we got 8 hours and 10 minutes. It’s honestly remarkable to see how that such a slim handset manages such a long talk time. Standby time is rated for 12 days.

Conclusion:

It’ll be interesting to see how well this handset does in the long run. The original RAZR came at a time when no such device existed but now the market is full of many thin models that offer so much more flexibility compared to the RAZR2. Instead, it has to rely on its functionality and great looks, both of which it does well. So, if it’s a sexy handset with great talk capabilities that you’re looking for then definitely make sure that this is on the list.