Welcome to the PhoneArena.com review of the Motorola RAZR2. The RAZR2 as evidence by the name is a follow up to the original RAZR, a design icon by any standard and the most successful handset of all time. In creating a successor, Motorola had no short task in creating a follow-up to the RAZR. In style they have most definitely come through but often this is at the expense of software. Unlike the original exclusivity of RAZR, the RAZR2 has been launched on every major carrier and today we’ll review the Motorola V9m as carried by Sprint.
There are many designs in this RAZR2 not the least of which been the unprecedented 2- inch QVGA display found on the outside. At the bottom of the screen you usually find three icons. These icons will change what each carrier but what this Sprint version we can launch the Sprint TV service, Sprint Music Store and the camera simply by pressing and holding the outside display buttons.
As you can see the outside is very glossy. This is due to glass and stainless steel finish. On the back of the phone you’re going to find the soft touch finish which makes the phone much easier to hold. On the left side of the phone, there is a volume rocker and the multifunction button. At standby the multifunction button launch with the voice command feature. On the right side of the phone, there is a singular camera button. Now we already noted that the soft key on the front of the screen launches the camera which means the Sprint has chosen on top two buttons on the outside of the phone launch the camera.
This duplicity is found on several variants of the RAZR. It can only be blamed on the carrier. On the back of the phone as noted you find a soft touch finish much like many of the variants of the Q. There is no mechanical button for the battery door instead the usual slide the door up and pop it off. Underneath this were the batteries as well as the microSD slot. This means that microSD slot needs to be accessed by taking the battery out. This is something that is carried over from original RAZR and also something that I really like to see changed.
Whereas the RAZR differentiated its cell phone thinness, the RAZR2 enters the market where thin is in and even with under 12 mm there’s no one near the finish handset on the market. Well, the RAZR2 will shine is a 2 inch QVGA outside this way. Here we want the TV application by pressing and holding the icon on the bottom of the screen. The user is rewarded with a nice, quick, haptic feedback.
However, the same short vibration is felt when touching the side keys, something we find is unnecessary. As you will see in this demonstration the entire Sprint TV application where we launch and control without opening the phone.
With the display of this large we find this to be a very attractive feature and something that was found on nothing else in the market. The year is able to open the phone and will find the same controls on the inside and then close it again and continue to watch the programming on the outside display.
However, there are glitches with this if the left multifunction button when held should act as an in button. Indeed it will close its way. However, when opened or when tried to launch from the outside one will find that the application will not again launch. This is rare with the Motorola KRAZR will find themselves right at home with the RAZR2’s keypad. You’ll find out right and left soft key, a five way directional pad, the back, send and end button and 12 key dial pad is actually as it is on the KRAZR.
In fact the only difference is that the KRAZR’s camera key has been replaced with the RAZR2 speaker phone button. When the keypad is crafted with the same slippery sand steel found on the outside and throughout the phone, there is a raised rubber feel to the separators, the numbers, and the letters which make filling between the keys, rolled to it easy. Down with one hand is not too bad however. For text message of any length is preferred to use two hands as the phone is extremely wide.
Above the keypad when we’ll find the 2.2 inch QVGA display. Like the outside this displays only 65,000 colors something we prefer to be 262,000. This will make the display sharper however, it is bright enough to be seen in direct sunlight as the outside. Another drawback is that it is only 2.2 inches and given the relatively real state of the RAZR2 we would like to see in at least of 2.5 if not higher. To be in on Sprint can watch the camera in three different ways.
The first is via the touch and some control in the outside. The second is from the hard button on the outside and the third is from the pictures menu in the main menu. In this menu you can launch the camera, camcorder and the other picture layer options such as the check picture mail and view your albums.
Here we’ll see that the camera loads relatively quickly and the images capture pretty quickly as well. Call representation is overall pretty good, although indoors it can be a bit muted. In order to take a second picture the usual must set to the back button with some delay from multi-shot functionality.
The phone touch has a multi-shot mode and you can jus take two or four pictures in succession, the video can take 320x240 videos which they’re a little bit choppy are better than most videos taken by camera phones. Overall we are pretty pleased with the camera function of the Motorola RAZR2 V9m.
The original RAZR2 shoot the wireless industry to score. The longer that the phone has to larger and bulky to include the latest features. Motorola approved that design can be on the forefront. The RAZR2 expands on the original. It’s even thinner than the RAZR and done is a polarizing comp at the bottom. The front is almost the same as blend glass is the same as steel but the small 2 megapixel camera sitting at the top and on pressing it a 2-inch QVGA display.
Not only is the display beautiful but it’s also functional with the touch screen buttons at the bottom. When working as it should the RAZR is quick and snappy. The Sprint beyond them runs a Sprint operating system. It’s not quite like Verizon’s mandated dashboard system but Sprint definitely does have some commands for this system. Motorola still seems to be having issues with this and there are plenty of software glitches which unfortunately to track from the overall experience on the phone. In fact this front display right now is only staying lit because of a glitch.
When programs are close from the outside display the user cannot launch him again and said they must restart the phone. The first time we took the phone out of the box it hung on the start up screen. There have been several times when the phone needed to be reset in order to be used. The RAZR2 V9m has a lot of promise. It definitely is a beautiful phone and has a very solid feature set. However, until Motorola pays is a little bit more attention to their software integration they will continue to struggle with their sales.
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