LG VX8100 Phone Review

        

Review posted August 26, 2005 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief Note: the LG VX8300, released in July 2006 replaces the VX8100. Read our news of the LG VX8300 here. The LG VX8100 is one of two flagship EVDO flip phones available from Verizon this summer. The VX8100 is all about curves, good looks and small size compared to its somewhat larger competitor, the Motorola E815. The LG packs a nice set of features into a small package: stereo speakers with great sound, vibrant internal and external color displays, a 1.3 megapixel camera, ample memory, a miniSD expansion slot, Bluetooth and support for V Cast over Verizons EVDO high speed data network. The only thing lacking in the Verizon version was an MP3 player; but now Verizon offers a firmware update to add MP3 player functionality. Thats great given the VX8100s excellent stereo sound and expansion slot. Design and Ergonomics The VX8100 is a mid-sized clamshell phone thats smaller than the Motorola E815 but larger than "micro" flips such as the LG C1300 offered by Cingular. There isnt a straight line on the device which lends itself to feeling good in hand. The casing is bright silver and the front face has an attractive blue inset which surrounds the large 65,000 color external LCD. Fast forward, rewind and a play/pause button just below the LCD should work well with the MP3 player (we received the pre-MP3 player version). These controls dont control video playback on the external LCD, only audio. The 1.3 megapixel camera lens lives just above the LCD and the large stereo speakers function as the end caps for the phones sturdy hinge. The miniSD slot is located on the right side under a pop-open flexible cover thats permanently attached so you wont lose it. As with most cell phones, the volume up/down rocker is on the upper left side just below the headset jack. The voice command button is located just below the volume rocker. The LGs power connector is on the bottom edge and the non-extendable antenna is on the top right. Open the clamshell and youll be greeted by a large number pad with slightly domed keys that click lightly for just the right amount of tactile feedback. The phones directional pad is outlined in blue and is quite large and easy to operate. The phones inner display is vibrant yet easy to see outdoors. Reception, Data, Voice and Phone Features The LG VX8100 is a digital dual band phone supporting both the 800 MHz CDMA and 1900 MHz PCS bands. As with most recent Verizon phones, it does not offer analog support. The LG supports Verizons V Cast service for high speed download and playback of video and V Cast gaming. V Cast offers programming from CNN, ESPN, Comedy Central, E!, Fox Sports and AccuWeather. The phone has both EVDO and 1xRTT for data. 1xRTT is a 2.5g wireless data standard that gets about 90k speeds; while the 3g EVDO, available in many major metro regions, averages a brisk 450k with a range of 300 to 800k. Unfortunately, Verizon has disabled Bluetooth DUN (dial up networking), though folks have found an easy way to enable it. DUN allows you to use the phone as a modem for a notebook or PDA, though Verizons terms of service prohibit tethering for use of EVDO.

The phones OpenWave web browser is fast and renders pages in an attractive manner. The browser uses Verizons Mobile Web 2.0 service ($5/month) and their VZW Today start page with links to news, weather, email, sports, entertainment and more. Though not pre-installed, you can download a free IM client using the Get it Now feature which allows you to chat on AIM, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging. This app will appear under the Get Extras section of your phone after youve downloaded it and uses text messages to send and receive IMs. Messages were reasonably quick over an EVDO connection (since these are text message based, connection speed shouldnt be important), though its not nearly instantaneous as true IM-ing using a smartphone or PDA phone. The client can stay active in the background, notifying you when new messages come in.

How does the phone fare for voice? Conversations are loud and clear and the LGs full duplex speakerphone is amazingly loud and doesnt distort unless you crank up the volume to extremes. The VX8100 supports standard features such as call mute, voice privacy, call recording and entering a note while in conversation. Phone reception is average: not as strong as the venerable Motorola V710 but offering adequate reception in even weak areas. Unless you need a phone that works in a very poor coverage area, the LG should suffice. The LG supports 72 chord polyphonic ringtones and has a vibrate function.

The phone has true voice recognition and you can issue voice commands to have it call someone in your address book, digit dial, call voicemail, tell you about your missed calls and read aloud the date and time. The phones address book can hold up to 500 contacts with several phone numbers each. You can assign a photo to a contact as well as a customized ringtone for voice and a customized tone for incoming messages. You may also assign contacts to groups; either one of the canned groups or one of your own making. In addition, the LG has 99 speed dial slots, with the last three assigned to commonly used Verizon functions (#BAL, #MIN and #PMT) and 1 assigned to voicemail. Theres also a basic calendar with day, week, and month views. You can create your own appointments and reminders and set recurrence as needed.

The VX8100 can send both text and MMS (picture) messages. It does not come with a POP3/IMAP email client, though you have the option to download email applications using the phone. The LG does have an email function that takes you to Verizons web-based email portal for access to Hotmail, AOL mail, Yahoo mail and a few others.

Display, Sound and Multimedia

The phone has an absolutely gorgeous main display thats very color saturated, bright and vibrant. It displays 262K colors at 176 x 220 resolution. Photos, videos and games look fantastic on this phone, making it a multimedia pleasure. 3D games such as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory ran well and looked good. Its especially well-suited to watching V Cast videos paired with the very good stereo speakers. The two speakers are mounted on the hinge-- one facing left, one facing right for good stereo separation.

The 65K color outer display is excellent by secondary LCD standards: its bright, colorful and easy to read. It measures 128 x 128 pixels and shows the wallpaper of your choice, signal strength, battery level, time and date.

While the Verizon version of the VX8100 lacked an MP3 player for the first month or so, Verizon now offers a firmware update to add it. We received the pre-MP3 player version so cant describe its quality. But the great speakers and handy exterior controls should make for a good music experience. The LG has 72 chord polyphonic ringtone support, comes with 15 ringtones and supports multimedia ringtones. In addition, it has a voice recorder which can record 1 minute long voice memos as well as phone conversations.

Camera As youd expect, Verizons flagship EVDO feature phone has a camera capable of taking still photos and videos (or Pix and Flix as Verizon and the VX8100 call them). The 1.3 megapixel CMOS camera takes good photos that are a bit dark: mostly sunny days look partly cloudy. In outdoor and good indoor lighting, photos are reasonably sharp and dont show much grain. Other than the "overcast" effect, colors are fairly accurate and photos dont blow out highlights in strong light nor is there much color fringing. The LG offers a variety of camera controls and has an LED flash which helps a bit at close range in poorly lit environments. You can adjust brightness, white balance, turn on night mode, use color effects, enable/disable the flash and change the shutter sound. The phone can take photos at a maximum resolution of 1280 x 960, and can shoot photos at a variety of lesser resolutions. Photos are saved by default to internal memory, though you can use the image viewer to move them (one by one) to a miniSD card. Of course, you can send your photos and videos via MMS as well. The camcorder is of average quality, with some blockiness but good color and nice sound. Video resolution is fixed at 176x144, and the files are saved in 3G2 format (viewable with Quicktime on the desktop).

Bluetooth and miniSD Slot

Want to use a Bluetooth headset or car kit with the LG? No problem; it has integrated Bluetooth 1.1 with support for both headset and hands free profiles. In our tests, it worked well with a range of current popular headsets such as the Motorola HS820, Cardo Scala 500 and Jabra BT800. The phone supports only Bluetooth headset and car kits, it does not have profiles for OBEX push, FTP or DUN (dial up networking). That means you wont be able to send photos to other devices using Bluetooth. You can however, transfer photos to a miniSD card and use a card reader on your PC to manage those files. We tested the VX8100 with ATP and PQI miniSD cards and had no trouble transferring files to and from the card using the phone, a PDA and PC with card reader. Since Verizon has disabled DUN on the phone, you wont be able to use it as a wireless modem for a computer or PDA over Bluetooth unless you do a little hacking yourself to enable that feature. Do keep in mind that Verizons terms of service prohibit tethering the phone to another device for EVDO data connections.

Battery Life

The LGs 1,000 mA standard battery lasted us two days with the phone turned on from 9am to midnight, 45 minutes per day of talk time and 40 minutes of gaming and watching V Cast videos. This is average for a CDMA phone with a bright screen, high speed data and loud stereo speakers. Should you need more staying power, LG offers an optional 1,700 mA battery. If youre in an EVDO area youll get better battery life than in an area with fringe or partially deployed EVDO because the phone will hunt for that trace EVDO signal throughout the day, consuming battery power in the process.

Conclusion

A very nice feature phone from LG and Verizon, with great ergonomics in a small clamshell package. The VX8100 has all the top features: 1.3 MP camera, Bluetooth, built in stereo speakers, stereo headset support, a vibrant display and EVDO for watching V Cast videos and downloading some very cool games. The miniSD card slot makes it easy to get photos and videos off the phone and onto your computer. The absence of Bluetooth DUN and OBEX profiles hold this otherwise very good phone back from a five star rating. However, Verizon is to blame for these omissions, not LG who did include them in their original phone design.

Price: $149 with new contract or renewal, $199 without. Various voice plans available. Mobile Web is $5/month and V Cast is $15/month for unlimited use.

Web Site: www.lge.com, www.verizonwireless.com

Specs:

Display: 262K color TFT, 176 x 220 Pixels, 11 lines. 65K color TFT, 128 x 128 Pixels, 7 lines.
Battery: 1,000 mAh Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is user replaceable. Claimed talk time: 3.7 hours. Claimed standby: 6.8 days.
Performance: 32 RAM, 64 megs flash ROM.
Size: 3.58" (H) x 1.92" (W) x 1.03" (D), Weight: 4.16 ounces.
Audio: Built in stereo speakers, mic and 2.5mm headphone jack. Voice Recognition software included. Full duplex speakerphone. 72-Chord Polyphonic Sound Support, Voice Memo Recorder (1 Minute Each; Up to 200 Memos Total). Has vibrate feature.
Phone: Digital dual band: 800 MHz CDMA and 1900 MHz PCS bands (no analog). Supports both EVDO and 1xRTT for data.
Camera: 1.3 MP camera with LED flash. 8x digital zoom. Camera Resolutions: 1280 x 960, 640 x 480, 320 x 240, 176 x 144, 160x120 pixels. Video resolution: 176 x 144 pixels, 3G2 format.
Bluetooth: Supports both headset and handsfree profiles. DUN profile not included. Bluetooth 1.1, class 2 radio.
Software: Contacts, Calendar, text and MMS client, instant messaging (downloadable), Gallery, camera, Get it Now (download Pix and Flix, ringtones, BREW games and apps such as email and IM clients) and Open Wave WAP web browser for use with Verizons Mobile Web service 2.0.
Expansion: 1 miniSD slot. 
                                                        ( Author :  Lisa Gade, Source : mobiletechnews )

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 preview First look

Introduction

With the X10 Sony Ericsson have gone from zero to hundred in a split second. While they may know their way around high-end devices, pulling off an undertaking such as the XPERIA X10 must have been a special challenge. And they have yet to get to the finish.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 official photos
The thing is that Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is the first Android smartphone by Sony Ericsson. Its also a Snapdragon first for the company, and theyve even come up with a first of its kind proprietary Android UI. Making the X10 a reality seems like a long way full of potential pitfalls for a company that hasnt still recovered from its financial woes.
But the XPERIA X10 or Rachael, or X3, or whatever it has been called in the long months of development, seems like a device thats worth all the hard work.
Even more so, X10 will not be a solitary device but more of a high-flying start for a full-blown platform of Android devices with their own distinct interface and user experience. That kinda sounds familiar. A year and a half ago, we were again there listening to Sony Ericsson presenting the XPERIA X1 in much the similar words. Well, lets hope theyll have better luck with starting off and developing this new part of their portfolio this time.
We had the pleasure of attending a very limited press event held in London, at which Sony Ericsson presented their latest and greatest before they showcase it for the general public. Much like attending a press-only movie screener we had the opportunity to gather some first-hand impressions of what is probably going to be the Sony Ericsson flagship next year. But before making our first go at the XPERIA X10, lets recap its features.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA, HSUPA


• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone


• Dimensions: 119 x 63 x 13 mm, 135 g


• Display: 4" 65K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, 854 x 480 pixels


• Platform: Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz processor


• OS: Android 1.6 (Donut)


• Memory: 1GB storage, 256MB RAM, microSD card slot, 8GB card included in the retail box


• Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and face detection


• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack


• Misc: Sony Ericsson custom social networking and media UI, built-in accelerometer

There have been numerous leaks about the XPERIA X10 so chances are you already know most of those specs well enough. As to the few new ones, let us assure you that some of those came as a surprise to us as well.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 presentation for the press
Take the Android OS version, for instance. Despite all the hopes for getting the latest and greatest of the Android crop, Sony Ericsson are serving a cold meal to all the gadget lovers out there. They refused to comment any further on the matter but perhaps all is not lost. Our best guess is theyll have some hard time adjusting their proprietary UI for Android 2.0 (Eclair) so they prefer to stick to 1.6 for the time being in an effort to get the XPERIA X10 out in the market as soon as possible.
And the current plans for the X10 availability say Q1 2010. Yup, missing the holiday season and shipping the handset during the tight-pocketed January and February is certainly the last thing theyd like to do, but proper product development obviously demands it.
Speaking of which, the Sony Ericsson X10 units presented at the event were devilishly fast in all Android tasks and applications, but the proprietary UI by Sony Ericsson clearly needed a lot more work.
But lets not waste any more time and jump into the physical details of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10.

Design and construction

The XPERIA X10 is anything else but a compact handset - but thats expected in a device with a 4" display. Still, due to the curved edges, the phone feels extra thin despite the fact that a girth of 13mm is not ground-breaking (the Toshiba TG01 is 9.9mm).
The XPERIA X10 is also impressively light for its huge screen real estate, so much so that it feels almost plasticy. But dont let that sound bad, we really liked how the X10 felt and handled.
The XPERIA X10 is the second Android handset sporting a resolution of 854x480 pixels. Believe it or not, that resolution has been a set standard even before the X10 and the Motorola Droid/MILESTONE came to being. Its even got its own abbreviation FWVGA - short for Full Wide VGA, which simply denotes its got pure 16:9 aspect ratio. That FWVGA resolution is actually quite common among widescreen multimedia projectors.
By the way, dont miss checking out the cool lockscreen on the second image below.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10: a device with an extra large display, but with an extra thin waistline
The 8 megapixel camera lens is on the back of the XPERIA X10. Theres also a tiny LED flash here, to keep the lens company. On the top of the device, there is a standard microUSB port, a 3.5mm audio jack and a huge on/off key.
Interestingly, that right there is the only the second Sony Ericsson handset to use a microUSB port (though there should be more to come in 2010). The first one was its XPERIA X2 cousin.
When asked, Sony Ericsson explained theyve designed, constructed and manufactured the X10 from the ground up all by themselves and theyre not relying on another company such as HTC to do the manufacturing this time.

Sony Ericson XPERIA X10: an 8 megapixel camera and a microUSB port on top
Obviously using Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 for web browsing will be a real treat. In fact there are a lot of websites that will fit into 848 pixels worth of width without having a side scrollbar. It almost feels as if next year well be seeing mobile phones matching the resolution of your regular netbook, doesnt it?

Browsing GSMArena.com on the 4-inch FWVGA display is a nice experience
Youre welcome to jump over to the next page, where well give the Sony Ericsson Android UI a quick rundown coupled with some videos for an extra treat.

Hands-on video

While we have the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 covered on the next page, heres a low down of what the device all about.

Customized Android OS 1.6, but no multi-touch

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 runs on the user-friendly Android 1.6 OS (codenamed Donut). Unfortunately, version 2.0 is still a no-go for the time being and there are no plans for an official upgrade to the latest version.
Another nasty surprise is that the OS wont be making use of multi-touch gestures such as pinch zooming in the web browser and gallery.
That being said, Sony Ericsson still had some impressive new UI all set on the Android phone and though it still needed a lot of polishing around the edges, it surely showed some nice potential.
Timescape is a user interface (or simply put - an application) that brings all your communications together. It gets activated by pressing the Timescape widget on the homescreen and displays an aggregated view of your SMS, MMS, email, missed calls, Facebook updates and Twitter updates all on one screen. A longer press on a tile lets you pnews its content.

Sony Ericsson proprietary Timescape UI for XPERIA X10
You can easily filter the displayed stuff by event types or by contacts (strangely called Infinite view).
The following video we took should give you a good idea of what the Timescape UI is all about:

  

Customized Android OS 1.6, but no multi-touch (continued)

Quite similarly called, Mediascape gathers all your media together. Music photos and video each have a dedicated homescreen divided in two parts – local and online.

Sony Ericsson proprietary Mediascape UI for XPERIA X10
The following video we took should give you a good idea of what the Mediascape UI is all about:

Camera

A clever automatic face recognition system has been integrated in the images department as well, recognizing up to five faces in any image. Once you name each of those faces, it goes ahead and recognizes all its appearances in your phone gallery. Whats even more, tapping on the face on any of those photos afterwards, allows you to call or text that person.
Sony Ericsson are also promising that the 8 megapixel camera on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 will have all the features you would expect from a Cyber-shot cameraphone including, but not limited to, Face and smile detection and Touch focus.

Sony Ericson XPERIA X10 camera interface
We were unable to take any photos and videos with the XPERIA X10 during its official announcement but, luckily, we managed to find some nice camera samples (Thanks, Sony Ericsson!). However, dont forget that those have been shot with a pre-release unit (probably like the one we are now pnewsing) so dont be so picky and just enjoy them.



Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 camera samples
The photos certainly look great for a pre-production unit. The amount of resolved detail is pretty satisfying, although not as impressive as it was on the Sony Ericsson Aino. We are pretty pleased with color saturation as well.
The noise levels are pretty decent with chroma (colored) noise almost nowhere to be seen on these shots.
The first three shots were probably taken with a different metering mode enabled as the handset tried to retain as much detail as possible, resulting in a flat and unrealistic image. While it will give you more headroom in post-processing we are pretty certain that most of the users would prefer the punchier output, witnessed in the last couple of shots.
When it comes to the video, it is recorded in WVGA 800 x 480 pixel resolution at almost 30 fps (about 28fps to be exact). And here you can download the full resolution sample itself.

Final words

Well, its been nice to check out what Sony Ericsson have been up to lately. From what we see they certainly have been hard at work in the upper segment of their portfolio and we really like to think that theyve been equaly hard laboring in the midrange behind closed doors. Anyways, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 might as well be their magnum opus after a long period of setbacks and we really hope it will get them back on track. We quite enjoyed what we saw and were looking forward to seeing some more once the X10 gets a more polished custom UI and more balanced performance. Hopefully, it should be out on the market some time in February.

                                                                                          (Source : gsmarena.com)

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Motorola RAZR V3 Review

    

Checked August, 2006 by Tanker Bob The Motorola RAZR V3 has been on the market for almost two years.  So why bother with a news at this point?  At least two reasons:  1) It is still the #1 selling mobile phone, occupying 3 (the silver, black, and pink models) of the top 10 positions for the first half of 2006 according to Business Wire; and 2) Because it’s way cool and still turning heads in personal and business circles.  Motorola has some impressive new offerings, but it has yet to top the RAZR in terms of user draw and loyalty.  What continues to make it so popular?  Read on… Design and Ergonomics First and foremost, the V3’s construction boasts a solid anodized aluminum case that looks great in any setting, business or personal.  It’s very thin and light, measuring just 3.86 x 2.08 x 0.54 inches and weighing just 3.35 ounces, easily disappearing in any pocket.  With the V3’s diminutive size, you’ll forget you’re carrying it until it rings.  Yet, it possesses a solid feel in your hand and the hinge is quite robust.  It would not be a good idea to carry a plastic phone in your back pocket, but that’s where I carry the RAZR V3 all the time without concern.  I have dropped it a number of times from my shirt pocket on to tile floors, yet it still works and looks like new.  Even after two years on the market, the RAZR still garners appreciative looks and comments anywhere in the world when displayed. Another distinctive feature of the RAZR appears in its keyboard.  The highly distinctive keypad is etched from thin metal with a blue backlight appearing through the letters and symbols.  This enhances durability (I wore the key labels off of my last phone) and appearance, looking very futuristic and stays looking great.  Unfortunately, the flat keyboard design virtually eliminates the ability to dial without looking at the phone.  Reflections on the silver surface sometimes make it difficult to see the keyboard letters for text messaging in bright light.  The shiny finish also fingerprints easily.  On the other hand, fingerprints wipe off easily, and it provides excellent visibility in low light. The keyboard revolves around a directional key pad with a center action button.  The function of all these may be programmed for use on the home screen.  The web access and messaging system buttons on either side of the keypad provide quick access to these functions, and below them are the green connect and red cancel buttons.  While holding the phone normally, the user’s thumb naturally falls to these areas, centering on the center action button.  The keys have excellent tactile feedback. Motorola chose to use a mini-USB connector for headset connections, battery charging, and data exchange.  If you are moving to the V3, be forewarned that you’ll need a new headset, although the RAZR is far from unique in this aspect.  The good news is that you can charge the phone through the USB connection. The battery is incredibly thin and takes up most of the back of the device.  A small latch makes it easy to remove the cover, and the battery itself has a “slide in” arrangement that holds it securely.  Inside its compartment, it sits over top of the SIM card and the IMI placard—a very tidy arrangement.

The V3 includes only 5 MB of RAM, which isn’t much by today’s standard.  However, the camera’s low resolution means lots of pictures will fit in RAM.  If you’re heavy into Java games, though, you may have to be selective.  Personally, I’ve never come close to hitting the RAM limit, but I don’t normally use games on my phone.

Phone Features and Reception

I tested the Cingular branded, worldwide quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS version, but Motorola also has a CDMA version in the V3C model.  Although the RAZR lacks an external antenna, its reception is consistently excellent.  Unbeknown to most users, the V3 has a very small, covered external antenna connector on its back lower left.  When using a headset, I’ve noticed that the reception tends to be better with the phone opened as opposed to closed. 

I have used the RAZR all over the Eastern US and in most of Northern Europe with no problems to note.  Both data and voice proved highly reliable on all my travels.  Sound quality and volume both with the handset and through a headset are excellent.  I can use both in heavy traffic without difficulty.

The RAZR sports a host of use-enhancing features.  It supports WAP 2.0 for a quality web browsing experience.  Speech recognition enables voice dialing, and the integrated speakerphone provides hands-free use right out of the box.  The speakerphone works great, with clear inbound and outbound conversation at comfortable volume levels.

Using GPRS, the V3 can download programs, images, videos, ringtones, etc.  GPRS isn’t known for speed, the V3 providing about 40 kbps (slow dialup speed) on a good day, but I found it adequate for the common data tasks on the RAZR  The V3C with CDMA 1x supports the higher speed EVDO protocol.

The V3 also has a nice vibrating alert feature.  While vibrating alerts eat more battery, they are great for meetings and other gatherings when you don’t want a ringer going.  The vibrations are adequate when the phone is touching your body directly, like a shirt or back pocket, but isn’t strong enough to be felt if it is mixed in with other stuff in a front pants pocket or even in a light jacket.

Display, Gaming and Multimedia

Another of the endearing quality of the RAZR is its large, 2.2 inch, color TFT internal display.  It sports 176 x 220 pixels, up to 260K Color, and keeps things crisp with a graphics accelerator.  It also supports 9 text lines.  Its incorporation into the RAZR’s flat form actually makes it appear proportionally larger than its rivals.  The high quality of the screen make the V3 a pleasure to use, and also facilitates the comfortable viewing of pictures and videos.  One downside, though, is that it can be difficult to read in bright sunlight.

The V3 also possesses an external display that supports 96 x 80 pixels with 4k CSN colors and 4 Lines of text or icons.  When the RAZR is folded closed and not connected to a call, the outside display shows the user’s wallpaper plus the time and service status.  When an incoming call or message arrives, the outside screen shows the incoming number or message notice.  When the RAZR opens, the outside display changes to the provider’s logo by default.  When the RAZR is closed during a call, the outside display tracks the call time if the user so chooses.  That’s a lot for a small display, and it all works very well.

The RAZR’s gaming system supports 3D Java applications.  It ships with a Bejeweled demo and a slideshow program embedded, and has 5 MB of space for additional downloads.  Bejeweled is my favorite handheld game and it plays well on the V3.

The V3 uses polyphonic MP3 ringtones played over a 22 KHz polyphonic speaker that supports 22 chords.  This opens a host of possibilities for ringtones, including music and human speech.  Note the 22 KHz requirement.  If you wish to play standard desktop 44 KHz MP3s on the RAZR, they must be converted to work on the phone.

The RAZR incorporates a Picture Phonebook in case you have difficulty remembering who goes with what name.  The built-in camera makes accumulating the pictures easy.  One of the possible phone book displays is optimized for this feature.

 The V3 also records and plays 3GP video clips with sound.  The graphics accelerator provides smooth video performance.  Although the screen looks great, at 2.2 inches it isn’t exactly a Cinemascope experience.

Camera I guarantee that no one will buy a RAZR V3 for its camera.  The integrated digital VGA camera has a 4x digital zoom, but it only offers 0.3 megapixels.  You won’t be using it for your family portraits.  But then, few buy phones for their photographic prowess. The camera zoom may be selected between unzoomed, 2x, and 4x, with increasing zoom producing smaller pictures.  The photo resolution may be set to 160x120, 320x240, or 640x480.  The exposure setting may also be changed to make the CCD more light-sensitive in low-light situations.  I found the exposure setting to be quite useful.  The cameral also has a time-delay setting, but it’s hard to see what one would do with that.  A phone on a tripod? Actual pictures turn out fine within that limit.  The picture with the Elizabethan actors (dogs) was taken in a drama theater lobby with no extra lighting, but increasing the exposure slightly. The camera can actually capture video in 3GP format.  This can eat up the 5MB of RAM pretty quickly—27 seconds of video ate 286K of memory in low resolution (128x96).  In high resolution (176x144), 16 seconds of video takes 286K.  The RAZR captures sound with the visual images.  The maximum per-video capture length runs about 286K. Lastly, the camera also works with the clamshell closed.  In this mode, you can do a self-portrait using the smaller outer screen as a “viewfinder”.  All photos and even shorter videos may be sent in multi-media messages (MMS).

This picture was taken outdoors in hazy lighting without altering the standard exposure setting.

The large flower pot was taken close up in bright sunlight.

Bluetooth

Generally, small electronic devices use Class 2 Bluetooth, which has about a 30 foot range.  The RAZR V3 ups the ante by using Class 1 Bluetooth with a range of about 100 ft (not legal outdoors in France).  This sounds good on the surface, but it turns out that virtually no other handheld device uses Class 1.  This limits the range with those devices to about 30 feet anyway.  Also, Class 1 BT eats up significantly more power.  This showed up in testing as significantly shorter battery life under active BT operation.

The good news is that the BT stack in the V3 supports OBEX file transfers, dial-up networking (DUN), and headsets.  The former allows the transfer of sound files, pictures, videos, addresses, calendar items, or bookmarks.  The DUN allows the RAZR to be used as a modem with its GPRS connection.  The DUN worked perfectly with the Dell Axim X50v both in the US and Europe, for both email and data transfer.  I used it consistently to get the weather on my X50v while traveling.

I was able to pair the V3 to my Dell Axim X50v and my desktop Windows XP SP2 computer.  I used it with the Logitech Mobile Freedom Bluetooth Headset, i.Tech Arrow I Bluetooth Headset, and the Parrot DriveBlue hands-free in-car setup.  Pairing proved easy for all of them.  Once a device has been paired initially, if BT is enabled on the RAZR first on subsequent connections, it will automatically connect with the device when it is powered up.

Bottom line is that I almost always use the RAZR with the Logitech headset and am very happy with that combination.  The only downside is that it eats up the RAZR’s battery much faster than without the BT active.

Battery Life

Motorola says that the V3 comes with a 680 mAh Li-ion battery.  However, the battery in my black RAZR is 710 mAh.  Hmmm.  Motorola claims a talk time of approximately 200 to 430 minutes, and a standby time up to approximately 180 to 290 hours.  The excellent battery figures first attracted me to the phone over a few others.

In reality, many things affect battery life.  GSM uses a smart power management system that automatically uses less power for strong signals and more power for weaker ones.  So, if you use the V3 mostly in a strong-signal area (like most of Europe), your battery life will be better than someone in rural America.  Lower frequencies penetrate building walls better than higher ones, so if your carrier uses a higher frequency in your area then your signal and battery life will probably suffer inside buildings.  Building construction and the location you lay the phone in a car greatly affect the signal strength you will see.

All that said, my experience has been that the lower end of Motorola’s estimates will be more of the norm, maybe even a bit optimistic for average users unless you live under a cell tower.

Now, if you really want to hammer your battery, use Bluetooth for a while.  My conservative estimate would be that active BT use (e.g., actively talking over a BT headset) will cut your battery life by over 50%.  I accept that as the cost of doing business, but I also have a plug-in headset as well for a backup.  If you travel, take your charger with you if you will be talking for an hour or two using BT.  This makes me wonder even more why Motorola chose BT Class 1 for the RAZR  They have gone back to Class 2 BT for successor phones.

Software

The OS is the typical proprietary Motorola with a Java wrapper on it.  That has strengths and weaknesses.  The strength is that the Java wrapper will run almost all J2ME mobile applications like Opera Mini 2.0, and the Java can be modified by clever users.  The downside would be the inability to run Symbian apps on the phone.

The V3’s menu system is far from any standard, but it isn’t as inscrutable as some claim.  I learned the system very quickly.  It can also be individualized with user-customizable softkey functions, main menu layout, and keyboard shortcuts.

The phone support software is top-notch.  Recent calls may be recalled by incoming or outgoing.  Missed calls bring a banner to the screen, then appear as uncompleted incoming calls.  All completed calls, ingoing and outgoing, have a checkmark next to them.  For quick dialing, simply press the connect key for a list of the 10 most recent outgoing calls.  If a call fails, the V3 offers the option to redial.  When it connects on a redial, the phone rings to notify you of the connection.

The RAZR keeps track of your cumulative talk times (incoming and received), data times (local and DUN), KBytes transferred, as well as total for the life of the device (until reset).  So what I do is reset the recent talk and data tracking to zero at the beginning of my service month, then the phone tracks my usage for the current month.  It won’t be exact to the carrier’s records, but it will be close enough to keep you out of trouble.  This is a great feature.

The only major shortcoming comes in the phonebook.  Out of the box, it only jumps to the first name starting with the first letter you type.  There’s no search capability, and no multiple entries per name.  So, if your friends have multiple numbers (home, work, mobile), then they will have multiple phonebook entries.  With a capacity of up to 1000 entries in RAM plus up to 250 on the SIM card, that’s a lot of arrowing up and down through entries without search capability.  What was Motorola thinking?

The good news is that you can group callers together into profiles, tailoring rings to groups.  This can be a nice way to know if a family member or business associate is calling.  You can also set an ignore group to remain silent so they never disturb you.  Of course, I would never to that…

The SMS and MMS support is pretty robust.  The messaging system will concatenate long text messages.  The manual says it will chain up to 13 text messages, but I’ve never had it connect more that five before giving up.  One email account may be programmed into the phone.  Performance over GPRS proved satisfactory.  Messaging comes preprogrammed to a button on the keyboard for quick access.  All the messaging capabilities use the same menu-driven interface.

The input system uses iTap, which differs from the standard T9 you usually see on mobile phones.  I found the predictive engine quite robust, though those coming from T9 will have a small learning curve on the interface.  The predictor learns over time as it observes your input patterns.  I found iTap to be a better predictor than most T9 engines I’ve tried.

The built-in WAP browser also comes preprogrammed to a button on the keypad.  Pressing it loads the browser and connects to the Internet.  The browser can be very slow in loading.  No data is compressed in the WAP browsing process, so the slowness of GPRS really comes home to roost even on simple WAP pages.  I downloaded the free Opera Mini 2.0, which uses a proxy that compresses the WAP 2.0 data.  This results in both a faster browsing experience and reduced data charges with your carrier.  I highly recommend it.

Other features include a basic calendar that supports alarms, a separate alarm clock, a simple calculator/currency converter, online chat capability, and a voice recorder.  It supports voice dialing as well for total hands-free operation.

Optional Software

The V3 box does not contain a data cable or software to connect to the desktop.  The suggested software is Motorola Phone Tools by BVRP available over the web for about $29.95 (more with the cable).  It allows you to synchronize your phone with MS Outlook in a very simplistic way, plus transfer pictures, videos, and sound files.  It will automatically convert files that need conversion (especially sound files) before sending them to the phone.  It generally works quite well and should come with the phone.  Other brands come with this kind of software in the box or downloadable, but the absence doesn’t seem to have hurt Motorola’s sales.

Faint of Heart – Don’t Read This Section

I normally wouldn’t include this in a phone news, but I want to bust a myth.  Symbian OS fans like to say that the Motorola OS has limited customization.  On the contrary, it can be modified beyond your normal phone imagination.  I hinted above that the Java aspect opens up possibilities.  It turns out that there are folks so dedicated to the Java OS wrapper on Motorola phones that they spend an inordinate amount of time modifying it.

Caveat Explorata:  MobileTechReview does not endorse any of the following sites, not do we endorse altering the operating system of your phone.  This will undoubtedly void your warranty and may cause your gerbil to develop unsightly warts.  If you turn your phone into a paper weight, don’t say that we didn’t warn you.

That said, these folks have awesome web sites with detailed FAQs.  A few of the best are MotoModders, MotoX, TheMotoGuide, HowardForums, and Lord Farkward’s FAQ.  With the tools, files, and information from these and other sites, plus the USB drivers from Motorola Phone Tools, you can tailor your V3 to suit your fancy.  You might even find a cure for the lack of phonebook searchability.  I won’t go into the details here, but there’s a whole modding world out there full of happy, highly-customized campers.

After playing with this strange fire, I actually pity the poor Symbian OS owners for the lack of customizability of their phones.  So there!

Conclusion

The Motorola RAZR V3 redefined style for mobile phones and proved a thoroughbred straight out of the gate.  After almost two years on the market, it still turns heads, sells better than other phone, and commands a large and loyal following.  Motorola followed up with the CDMA V3C, the V3i, V3m and the V3x, all with progressive improvements.  Now available in at least three colors in the US (silver, black, and pink), the RAZR V3 still outsells all other competitors, and for good reason.

Pros:
Incredibly thin and light
Metal clamshell body with robust hinges
Futuristic etched-metal keyboard
Great reception worldwide with quad-band GSM/GPRS
Java OS wrapper for great customizability
Robust Bluetooth support
Very customizable

Cons:
Non-searchable, single-entry-per-name phonebook
USB headset connection requires new headset for most new users
Poor camera resolution at 0.3 Megapixels
Only 5 MB RAM

Web sites: hellomoto.com, www.cingular.com

Pricing: Around $100 with 2 year contract

Shopping: Where to Buy for Cingular, Where to Buy for T-Mobile

Specs:

Display: Internal display: 176x220 pixel, up to 260K TFT color, with graphic accelerator, 9 lines of text. External display: 96x80 pixel, 4k CSN color, 4 lines of text / 4 lines of icons.
Battery: 680 mAh listed (710 mAh actual); Talk Time: Up to approximately 200 to 430 minutes advertised; Standby Time: Up to approximately 180 to 290 hours claimed.
Performance: 5 megs RAM, undisclosed CPU.
Size: (H x W x D): 3.86 x 2.08 x 0.54 inches; 3.35 ounces.
Phone: GSM quad band world phone (850/900/1800/1900MHz with GPRS for data.
Camera: Integrated digital 0.3 megapixel VGA with 4x digital zoom, 160x120, 320x240, or 640x480; Video at 128x96 or 176x144.
Audio: Polyphonic speaker @ 22 KHz, 22 chord support; MP3 playback and ringtones, vibration alert, and silent mode; Speech recognition, voice memos, speakerphone.
Networking: Class 1 Bluetooth version 1.1, USB 1.x.
Software: Calculator and Currency Converter, Date and Clock, PIM functionality, Calendar, Alarm Clock, WAP 2.0 browser. iTAP predictive text, EMS 5.0, SMS, Chat one-to-one, MMS (Picture / photo + text + sound), Group SMS, Quick messages, Mobile Concatenation; Instant Messaging Support: (Wireless Village) 1.1 embedded client; Email support: POP3, SMTP, IMAP4.
Expansion: None.
                                               ( Author : Tanker Bob, Source : mobiletechnews )

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