Getting a new mobile phone: Motorola Razr V3?

[Phil]

Well, after nearly 2 years of using my Sony Ericcson T610, it's about time for a new mobile for me. :smile:

From a style perspective, I must say that the Motorola V3 Razr (in Black) is my absolute favorite one, by large margin. I've looked at others, namely Samsung's and Siemens as well as Sony Ericcson ones but can't find any that I really like: either they're too chunky or thick.

I do have my doubts however with the functionality of the Motoroa. I haven't used a Motorola in ages (1999) - also the buttons seem very fragile, as does the display part which is very thin.

Then there are two very important factors to me:

- responsiveness:
How responsive is the phone when you scroll down the list in your phonebook for instance? Is it fluid and smooth or is it slow, laggy and unresponsive?

- phonebook:
Is it possible to store phone-entry within groups and manage them accoardingly? If yes, are they split into groups when you view the phonebook list or must you scroll through each and every entry if you want to go to a name starting i.e. with the letter "R"?

Any other thoughts regarding this phone? Alternatives? Anything would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Personally I would be a bit wary of a Motorola phone. My last experience of one was horrible, I owned a v66 and it had
1) A horrible user interface.
2) Poor reception
3) Poor battery life

I have mostly stuck with Nokia since, which have been good on all of the above. I am currently on a Sony Ericsson K750i which is also pretty good.
I would try and get a play on the UI before comitting to one.

Just my thoughts.
CC

 

[RussSchultz]

The battery life of the Razr is great. (or better than anything I've ever had). It also charges through a mini-USB connector that is pretty standard, so you can plug into your computer at work to charge, rather than have a charger.

My beefs with the RAZR:
-high pitch whine comes out of the ear set. apparently its a design issue.
-The phonebook is pretty lousy. Its all a single list, with different entries for each number, rather than each person. (You can get to the 'r's by hitting 7 twice, though I think that's a common solution)
-Responsiveness is OK, though I found it quicker to do 1 touch dial than voice dial.

The reception seems ok for me. No real complaints.
The device is not exactly fragile, but my boss carries his in his hip pocket (I do too) and he managed to crack his outside glass by bumping into a desk corner. I presume if it were smaller glass it might not have cracked like that.

 

[Basic]

No first hand experience here. But from those I know who have used the Razr, they all said that the user interface was horrible. But I must say that the mechanical design is realy nice (except for the keypad).

And I don't think I've ever heard any friends say anything good about Siemens mobile phones, just complaints about bad quality.

 

[sir doris]

I think the V3x is out now or very soon, just like the V3 but with all the 3G gubbins and a 2MPixel camera

or at least that's what i've been told.

 

[London Geezer]

Horrible horrible phone. Might look cool and all but it feels like playing around with a C64 all over again.

 

[Phil]

Well, the thing is, the V3 Razr would be offered to me at a special price if I continue to stay with my phone company.... but the offer is only valid until the 15th of November.

I must say Samsung's always made a good impression - now I'm just not sure which one is actually being offered to me (I can choose between 6 phones, the V3, 2 Sony Ericcson's, a Samsung and 2 Nokias).

Nokia is out of the question. Had a 8850, loved it (best phone ever at the time and most stylish IMO) - but with all the Nokia hassles, flaws and horrendous support, I swore to never get a Nokia ever again. And so I won't.......

Oh well... I suppose anything is better than staying with my half broken t610..?

 

[Mariner]

I'm quite happy with my V3 - no real complaints apart from the cruddily tiny amount of memory it has. Obviously the camera isn't too hot either and reception isn't quite as good as the blockier phones you can get. As Russ says, battery life is surprisingly good.

I've also heard that the V3x is due out very soon, by the way. My brother in law has just had to return his new V3 because his phone company accidentally installed the V3x software on it and it won't work properly! This indicates that V3x will be here sooner rather than later.

 

[MuFu]

They break and the interface sucks. No first hand exprience either but I spent all summer in an office full of people who constantly whined about how crap they are.

They look dope though - if they can nail the bad points it'd be a neat phone.

 

[_xxx_]

- responsiveness:
How responsive is the phone when you scroll down the list in your phonebook for instance? Is it fluid and smooth or is it slow, laggy and unresponsive?

Responsiveness is great and you can change lots of stuff, config possibilities are first class.

EDIT: the interface is configurable, but even the generic version is much better than anything I've seen from Sony, Nokia or Siemens. I don't get it why people whine about the interface

- phonebook:
Is it possible to store phone-entry within groups and manage them accoardingly? If yes, are they split into groups when you view the phonebook list or must you scroll through each and every entry if you want to go to a name starting i.e. with the letter "R"?

Any other thoughts regarding this phone? Alternatives? Anything would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

You have groups and it jumps to the letter you pressed.

I used my old Sony T600 until a few weeks ago since I found ALL new phones are chunky, lame-ass garbage. This one changed my opinion

If you used T610, the switch will be like night and day, it'll really make you happier.

 

[_xxx_]

They break and the interface sucks. No first hand exprience either but I spent all summer in an office full of people who constantly whined about how crap they are.

I guess those people never tried a Siemens or Sony...

 

[London Geezer]

I guess those people never tried a Siemens or Sony...

My Sony T610 was fabulous... until it stopped working after 6 months.................

 

[_xxx_]

My Sony T610 was fabulous... until it stopped working after 6 months.................

Hehe... I bought it and after I spent just a few days with it I was SOOOOO pissed off with its (ab)user interface and sloooooowness, I sold it with a loss just because it was such a POS. Awful. The T600 was the right direction, but they screwed it up with the followups.

 

[Deepak]

SE W800i or K750i? Anyway, my younger brother bought K700i yesterday.

 

[Phil]

I just checked wich phones I can get cheaper:

- Motorola V3 Razr
- Sony Ericsson K750i
- Sony Ericsson W800i
- Samsung SGH-E720


From those 4, I'd would either be the V3, or the K750i or the Samsung. I haven't played around with any of them unfortunately... but I've heard lots of great things about Samsungs in general. As a Sony Ericsson owner, I suppose the K750i wouldn't be that bad of a choice either, but I'm really not sure about the factors I named that are very important to me.

The only gripe I have with todays phones are; most of them are catered towards stupid gimmicks like games, music and camera and stupid colour displays all taking up performance and making them slow and unresponsive...

 

[Neeyik]

My Razr V3 stopped working after 2 months - I'm still trying to get it sort out with Motorola. It's a nice phone but there are certainly "better" ones out there (even if I do think it's the best looking one).

 

[MuFu]

I guess those people never tried a Siemens or Sony...

Heh, incidentally a couple of them have changed to SE's since then - a K750i and a W800i and they're much happier with them. Quite fancied one myself but took the cash instead.

 

[_xxx_]

Oh, c'mon, you have to go through 5 menue-levels just to send a simple taxt message and need to click another 5 times to choose a name from the phonebook, than confirm you will, than confirm you want your message to be sent as text and confirm again to send.

Now PLEASE don't tell me this can be described as "user interface"...

As for k700i etc., they're all as big as a PDA. Which they essentially are. Not what I'd call a "phone".

 

[fallguy]

Ive wanted a Razr for a while now. I change from Cingular to Verizon just before it came out. And Verizon doesnt offer the Razr yet. Ive heard rumors that they will, has anyone else heard the same thing?

 

[Basic]

Looks at my K700i - now that's a very small PDA.