My Motorola V3 RAZR review:

[Treatz]

I've had the V3 as my main line now for a good 2 weeks and I would now like to share my views and comments on the phone.
Please note: this is a V3 with Rogers software so that may improve or make worse the V3 on the Rogers network vs. having a generic software

Reception:
from the Get go, this phone just seemed to work well, real well. I remember saying to myself, "wow, could I make clean calls here before" and often had to back track to my 6230 to compare. the 6230 is excellent, and I'm quite pleased to say, the V3 meets that level of RF quality.

I was simply floored by the V3's ability to make a call sound good even in the poorer conditions. the sound quality of this phone is top notch. it is loud enough and has no discernable background hiss from what I can gather.

Sound
The sound quality of this phone is very good.
I happens to be my personal favorite of all phones right now.
the earpiece volume is excellent,
the speakerphone volume is very good. Good to the point where it’s actually usable



Cantina Test
as you know, or are bout to find out, I use the good Old cantina for testing my phones under less then ideal conditions. the Cantina being completely underground and concrete.

Here's Pics of the Cantina as per special request






Here's the best part,
I called up AndyVX and had a 20 minute conversation with him easily on the V3. on my end he never broke up or garbled once. I asked him about his end near the end of the conversation since I never actually Told AndyVX i was in the cantina until later on, and he stated i sounded excellent and had no clue i was in the Cantina until i told him and clanged the old mason jars

What made me happy was the V3 showed -78db on field-test at it’s best compared to the 6230 which hit -82 for it’s best. The V3 really impressed with it’s RF and quality. It just seems to be a very good phone. I like good phones

Camera
The camera on the V3 seems to be better then the V300/400/500/600 series of camera. It adjusts to different types of lighting automatically and is actually pretty decent. of course, my opinion is that a camera is nice to have to capture those moments that happen spontaneously, but this isn't going to replace your digicam or film cam.

here's some more pics for your viewing pleasure taken with the V3 of course:

the SEEG is so PRO on the rogers network phones tend to glow







Bluetooth

Range:
similar to the V500/600, the BT is pretty much the same. I did notice that when I have my V3 paired with the hs820 it has some incredible range. I am able to leave my phone on my desk and go outside the shop easily. However, there is a catch.. I can hear the person I called clear as day.. but then can't hear me that well. I chalk this up to the V3's Bluetooth transmitter being very strong where the HS820's transmitter isn't as strong. As such the V3 transmits to the headset, and I can hear the caller, but the HS820 headset just doesn’t have enough power to send back.

However, keep in mind the phone is inside on my desk with 2 walls and a good 15 feet of space, so it's not a problem. I'm just testing the extremities. Under normal use the HS820 and Moto V3 work exceptionally well. My biggest complaint about the HS820 and HS810 for that matter is that they lack volume and aren't loud enough for my personal liking.

Synch
The V3 synchs up with outlook pretty easily using the Motorola phone tools (run an update, it'll recognize the V3) and it's pretty straightforward. What I like about the BT Synch and Motorola mobile phone tools is that you can use MPT to set your positions of those contacts so you can set up your speed dialing 1 through 9 quite easily. Speed dialing on a Motorola is a confusing process to those who aren't familiar with it.

BT Pairings
Of course, operating in a similar way to the V600 has it's advantages. Namely, the V3 can have it's Bluetooth turned on all the time and other's can't see you (similar to SE's Bluetooth implementation of "hidden") what does that mean to you? you can leave BT on all the time and use it with your headsets/PC's/PDA's/carkits and never have to worry about being "bluejacked" or "bluesnarfed" as others just won't see you when they scan.

Headset use
the V3 still has that quirk where when using a BT headset it'll default to the "continental" ringtone and SMS defaults to the one beep. now, why it does that, beats me, but it's better then the V600 (prior to the FW flashes/flexes) where it wouldn't ring/beep at all on the handset and only the BT headset would make sounds.

I still don't like the Motorola/Nokia way of headset use and handsets though... If I get an incoming call, and press SEND on the handset, logically, i'd want the phone to pick up, not the headset. I can see both sides of this argument though where some users feel that the headset is a physical extension of the phone, and as such a BT headset should act the same way as a corded headset considering a corded headset you can press send/end on the phone and it'll control the call.

However, I feel that they should incorporate a choice into the BT software. Let me pick what mode I want to run my headset in. I prefer pressing Send on the phone and getting the call on the phone and pressing the answer button on the headset, and getting the call on the headset. Perhaps that's just me, however, I still would like to see Motorola match SE with respect to BT headset use on this one.



Aesthetics

What can I say. Metal, glass, 262k screen, very slim. Chemically etched metal keypad This phone is gorgeous to look at and a pleasure to hold. Furthermore, this phone gets attention I myself am not an attention seeker, but many on hofo are. It seems every where I go, whether it be ESSO, Tim Hortons, the Bank… they all ask “is that a phone” to which I of course reply “Yes, this is a Motorola V3 coming soon to Rogers Wireless

Keypad
I originally had reservations about the keypad because at first glance you think the “buttons” would lack tactile feel. This is not the case. I have no problems using the phone and it’s buttons without looking. It’s hard to put to words, you just have to hold the phone and play with it yourself to come to your own conclusions, but I feel that for the most part, People will like it.

Screen
262k, HUGE, gorgeous.
This definitely isn’t a 128x128 65k nokia square screen, I can tell you that.
It’s the best phone screen I can remember in a long time of phones that I have personally used. I’m going to have to put it side by side with a 7100r to see which is better. Needless to say, if the screen is one of your buying hot buttons, this V3 cooks.

The External Screen is a 4096 colour unit.
It’s ok. But I feel that a phone of this tier should’ve had a 65k outside screen because the 4096 color unit just isn’t nice to look at.

Bluetooth status light is a nice feature though. On the V3 there is a small bright blue led that lights up and flashes with the trademark Bluetooth “B” every so often when connected so a headset or using BT. It really does nothing but offer a cool led, so I like it.

Menu
the menu hasn’t changed much from the V300/400/500/600 series of phones with one exception. There are now 2 fixed buttons above the send/end keys.
These Fixed buttons make life easier by giving you access to the commonly used features of Messaging and WAP. Some people are of the mindset that Motorola should’ve left these 2 buttons as soft keys and let you assign what you want to them, but I feel that is simply overkill. With a 4 way joypad and 2 soft keys up top there isn’t any lack of customizable buttons on the V3


The actual menu speed itself is a bit of a sore spot with me as I’m not a fan of slow UI’s and in the Case of the V3, while it’s faster then the V600 having moved away from the Triplets based software and moving into a R374 based family, it’s still slow. At least to slow for my liking. This translates into waiting times for me when I’m SMSing my friends/family as I often find myself waiting for the phone to catch up to what I’ve written. Granted, people say I’m really fast with SMS, the phone still lags.

phonebook
the phonebook in the V3 is the same as the v300/400/500/600. Love it or hate it. I feel that this phonebook is just not up to the task of organizing your information as well as the SE or Nokia style of phonebooks. Although the phonebook appears to support multiple entries per name, it in fact occupies a space on the phone as a separate entity. This is clearly noticeable when you’re messaging a group of people and your scrolling through your phone book to pick off who you want to receive that message. What happens is that all those multiple entries now show up so instead of 1 AndyVX I know have every entry for him from cell# to work# to address and email address which tends to slow things up and get in the way.

On the flipside, having everything there allows a one stop shop.
For example, if I go and write a message “hi, how are you” and select AndyVX’s email address the phone is smart enough to realize I want that sent as a SMS email, and not a regular SMS. However, I would personally prefer only having cell #’s pop up when SMSing and Email addresses pop up when I select “write email”



Battery
Much to my amazement, the V3’s 670 mah battery actually powers it for quite a while.. the first thing I thought was “oh dear, 670mah battery on a phone with the specs the V3 has can only be trouble” but using it as my main line I can honestly tell you I haven’t ran into any battery emergencies with this V3. Pull it off the charger at 9am and it’s still good to go until about 1am from what I’ve noticed. This is also using the V3 as my main line to post on hofo, make calls and play around. I also have some light HS820 usage but haven’t left it connected the whole day yet. I will amend my review after I do that.


Miscellaneous

Organizer/office tools
One thing I like about the Motorola’s is their organizer and office tools area with it’s date book, calculator, shortcuts, Voice records and Alarm clock. Everything here is grouped and makes sense. You’ll either use the tools or you wont.

speakerphone
The speakerphone is good. You can actually use it. It’s loud and clear and gets the job done. It sounds even better when you put it on a hard surface since the speaker grill is on the back of the unit and it uses that surface to reflect the sound.

Ratings out of 10
Performance……………..…....9
Build quality……………...…..10
Battery life……………....……..9
Features…………………..…... 9 (Edge missing)
Overall……………….........……9

Pros:
Quality construction
Excellent fit and finish
Very slim. Easy to pocket
Excellent reception
Excellent sound quality
Excellent speakerphone
Attention getter
Great battery life
Excellent Bluetooth range
Customizable menu's. shortcut almost anything

Cons:
Same phonebook as VX00 series
Slow menu scroll speeds
Slow Itap predictive text

[fijbert]

nice review.. tho VERY late

[Plunger]

Another quality review. Nice to see rogers committed to brining out high-end products for the future.

[JP]

nice review.

what i like about the phone (from ure review) is the loud speaker phone and strong RF reception. good for moto

i don't like the camera quality tho, for some reason the MOTO cams all look the same to me and really darken the surrounding atmosphere.

the pics u took closely resemble those of a v600 IMO, i'm starting thinking that the pictures taken from the phone wont come close to using up the brilliant 262K display's potential

Q: is the phone worth the price?

[Notorious]

Excellent review treatz.

[anotheran]

I can't believe Rogers would bring out such a great phone to their lineup. I guess it's confirmed that V3 has good reception and not just a looker... works too. Now I just hope the HUP for that phone is like $399 range.

I was playing with the V551... that camera looks better from the phone's screen. are they the same camera? or different?

[Guest 153]

Is that you in the 4th picture?

PS. Very good review. This phone is cool, but Symbian can just do so much more.

[NeoChink]

thanks for the review....any idea as to the pricing?

[emo_mike]

700-800

[Chopz]

Originally posted by ejohan
Is that you in the 4th picture?

Nope, that's not treatz in that pic.

[Daveth2]

Hi,

Any word on when the V3 will be available from rogers. Thanks.

[carsmovies]

Originally posted by ejohan
Is that you in the 4th picture?

It's analogtrail

[hofo_mofo]

he's a very cool guy

[JwY]

hey, is there an address field in the phonebook?
i don't remember if this was in the v600

[AndyVX]

Originally posted by ejohan
Is that you in the 4th picture?

PS. Very good review. This phone is cool, but Symbian can just do so much more.

It's not Treatz... it's a member of Team Mad Seeg Bunk Feedo - AnalogTrail is his name on the forum.