Review: Motorola's Sleek RAZR V3i

Motorola RAZR V3i

Motorola RAZR V3i

Motorola RAZR V3i

Multimedia

The two displays found in the V3i seem unchanged from those in the V3, which is good and bad. The large internal 262k color 176x220 display is good, and offers good color and sharpness overall. The external display, however, is a 65k STN type LCD that lacks contrast and color saturation. It gets the job done, but isn't going to impress anyone.

While the press did not respond very positively to Motorola's first iTunes phone, the ROKR E1, carriers seemed to like using the iTunes reference in their marketing campaigns. Perhaps this is the reason that Motorola chose to replace the stock media player application with the iTunes app that was developed for the E1. Like the ROKR E1, the iTunes in the V3i has a 100 song limit. There is no connection between free storage space and song count, the 100 song limit is part of the iTunes licensing deal that Motorola has with Apple Computers, and is the source of much of the flack the company caught for the E1.

In terms of functionality, the iTunes app supports all of the playlist and song sorting functionality that a regular iPod does, including support for the random auto-fill function that is commonly used with the iPod Shuffle devices. Once synched up with a computer and iTunes, you are able to access all of your songs by playlist, artist, album, and song title. Using the V3i's USB connection and the Apple iTunes software on my PC, I managed to move over 13 tracks that totalled 50MB in about 6 minutes. Not amazing, adequate for a device that can only sync 100 songs. The iTunes app on the V3i can be minimized so that you can continue to use the rest of the phone's functions, including the camera. When minimized, the d-pad becomes a controller for the iTunes app, letting you start and stop music play as well as change tracks. Our V3i did not show associated album art, which the ROKR E1 did.

In terms of audio performance, the quality of the audio generated by the V3i through the included headphones is pretty good, but I think that a lot of people will wish for more volume in a lot of situations. When the V3i is closed, the smart button that is located next to the volume control will pause and un-pause the music playback, which is handy. The music will also stop automatically if a call comes in, and will continue once the call has ended.

The forementioned 1.2 megapixel digital camera in the V3i is a step up from the megapixel unit found in other Motorola handsets such as the V3c and V710. While it has a soft overall look to its photos, the automatic white balance and color saturation seem decent (though manual white balance settings perform poorly). The digital zoom acts smartly, cropping the full res photos to achieve its effect instead of resampling the image. Overall, the camera isn't a stunner like those found in the Sony Ericsson K750 or Nokia's N90, but it will please most people looking to capture random snapshots. Two things worth noting, however: the camera records photos in portrait format, which is unusual, and it does not focus well until the subject is around 4 feet / 1.3 meters away. This means that full frame face shots will be somewhat soft and out of focus. You can see what I mean in the sample photos here and in the Photo Gallery at the end of the story.

Sample Photo

Sample Photo

Sample Photo

Sample Photo

The one aspect of the camera that really shines is the UI. Using just the d-pad, you can very easily adjust most of the major settings for taking a picture, with the exception of the resolution and shutter tone (which can be disabled). Pushing up or down on the d-pad switches the on-screen control from zoom to exposure to color style to white balance. All of these changes can be made live, while you are looking at the subject on the display. It really doesn't get any better than this.

Video clips can also be recorded with the camera, though only in one of two relatively low resolutions (176x144 and 128x96). Video quality is not particularly good, either. Here is a sample video clip taken in one of our cars while my wife was driving.

In terms of storage, the 12MB of available built-in storage memory is decent for storing a few random photos and video clips. You'll do best to make use of the RAZR V3i's micoSD (TransFlash) memory card slot, though, which is located near the SIM card in the battery compartment. 512MB cards are commonly available as I write this, and 1GB cards should be available very shortly.