Motorola Razr V3 Black review

Motorola Razr V3 Black Review

Reviewed by: Mary Lojkine

Reviewed on: 7 September 2005

Motorola's Razr V3 was a huge hit when it was launched in late 2004. The combination of high-tech styling, a superslim profile and a solid feature set made it popular with everyone from hardcore geeks to catwalk models. The black version was originally given away to Oscar nominees at the 2005 Academy Awards; now it's being given away with £15 per month contracts.

Positives
The black Razr has the same dimensions as the original, making it only 15mm thick when closed. Once you open it, it's relatively tall and wide (165 by 55mm), but that only contributes to the appeal. It wraps comfortably around your head, putting the mouthpiece in front of your mouth rather than somewhere under your ear.

The black Razr has a smooth satin finish, making it relatively resistant to fingerprints. It has the same cut-from-a-single-sheet-of-metal keypad as the original, although it looks slightly strange set into a black surround. Overall, the black Razr is both better looking and easier to live with than the silver version -- and the ability to charge over USB can be a life-saver when you're out and about.

The Razr V3 is slimmer than most candy-bar phones even when it's folded in half

Negatives
For a phone that looks like the epitome of hard-edged high-tech, the Razr now seems disappointingly soft-centred. The camera resolution is only 0.3 megapixels (VGA), so snapshots can't compete with photographs from 2-megapixel camera phones such as the Sony Ericsson K750i or the upcoming Nokia N90. Likewise, being able to play MP3s is of limited benefit when there's only 5MB of internal memory. You can use an MP3 file as a ringtone, but that's where it ends.

Conclusion
The Razr doesn't have the same cachet now everyone has one, but it's still a great phone if you're more interested in style and convenience than high-end features.

Additional editing by Nick Hide