Review of Motorola's RAZR V3

Motorola RAZR V3Over the past 24 months or so, few newly launched devices have elicited as many "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" as Motorola's aptly named RAZR V3. And rightly so. The RAZR lives up to its name, sporting one of the thinnest profiles of any phone on the market - let alone any other clamshell phone. In fact, the bottom half of the RAZR, where the keypad and battery reside, is a mere 8mm (.31") thick.

Wow.

The body is even made of metal, furthering the kinship with a razor blade. But fear not, this RAZR won't cut you.

RAZR V3 Physical Design

The physical design of the RAZR is probably its biggest selling point. This thing just begs to be touched. Its body is covered with smooth, soft lines, and the metal body is cool to the touch. At its thickest point, it measures only 15mm (.59"). The other dimensions are perhaps a bit less dramatic. From a top down view, the RAZR appears to be a bit larger than most other clamshell phones: 98mm x 53mm (3.86" x 2.09"). But that's perfectly ok because the RAZR's thinness and reasonable 97g (3.42oz) weight make it comfortably pocketable in just about any kind of pocket - including jacket and shirt pockets.

Due to the extreme thinness of the lower clamshell half, all of the RAZR's chromed side controls have been placed on the upper half of the clamshell where the display is. The volume control rocker switch is on the left side, as is the smartkey button. On the right side you will find the switch that does double duty for voice dialing and voice memo recording. On the flip side of the physically large 2.2" main 262k TFT display you will find the 4k CSTN 96x80 sub-display, the VGA camera's lens, and a pretty little embossed Motorola logo. The rear of the device is where the speaker for the speakerphone is located. The power and data connector on the RAZR is a bit of a change in direction for Motorola. The RAZR has an adapter that uses a mini-USB connector, not the normal Motorola connector. This mini-USB connector is located on the left side of the lower half of the clamshell. It is worth mentioning that you can charge the RAZR from any PC using a mini-USB cable, too, though it only worked when plugged directly into my PC, not when attached to a powered USB hub.

One of the things that allows the RAZR to be so thin is its unique membrane keypad technology. The keypad is a bit hard to describe unless you are familiar with some of the old calculators and home computers, such as the Atari 400, from way back when I was a kid. Basically the keypad is a metal membrane placed over a matrix of bubble switches, such as those you would find under the buttons in a traditional keypad. The keypad, made of a nickle-plated copper alloy, is totally flat, but when pressed will click slightly. It is more than adequate in terms of feedback, but doesn't lend it self to extremely fast usage. The d-pad controller works the same way, and is probably the weak point of the design. The d-pad's center button seems to require a bit more accuracy when being pressed than I am comfortable with - but it works. Dedicated mail and carrier buttons (ie. Cingular) are useful, especially since they don't get in the way. The cool blue luminescent back lighting looks very pretty, and is a light enough shade of blue as to still be very easily read. The keypad design is a compromise, but one I am willing to accept in order to get a very thin form factor.

 

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