Motorola Razr2 V8

Whether you like it or not, there’s no denying that Motorola’s RAZR series was a hit with the general crowd. Since the first RAZR was introduced in 2004, several iterations have been released but they remain largely similar to the original. To the layman, it appears that the company is milking its worth with the series.

Subsequently, the Motorola RAZR2 was launched at a time when the company was facing sharp criticism from the industry and it spurned off speculations that if Moto wants to regain its footing, it has to come up with something more than just another rehashed RAZR.

And that’s where the RAZR2 comes in.

The latest series comes in two flavors, the V8 and V9. There’s also a V9m but that’s for the CDMA market which we’ll not talk about here in Asia outside of Korea and Japan. When we compare the differences between the V8 and V9 (the V9 is everything the V8 is but with HSDPA connectivity and a microSD card slot), it’s almost a no-brainer that we should get the V9. So it boils down to the price difference when the pair becomes available.

Design-wise, the RAZR2 V8 still doesn’t break out of that familiar RAZR shell, but it scores points for beauty and a slimmer profile. When the technical set arrived in our office, we had to admit we liked what we saw. The bulge at the bottom of the unit, which was used to hold the antenna in the earlier RAZRs and which some call the chin, is no longer there. Plus the glossy steel casing gives the V8 a high-quality feel.

Although the V8 is 2mm slimmer than the original RAZR V3, we didn’t find it any more difficult to flip open the clamshell due to the groove between the two connected pieces, unlike what we experienced with the Nokia N76. The edges of this RAZR2 are made from a grid-like mesh that improves the grip of the phone. If you look at it from the bottom edge where the onboard speakers are, it actually resembles the front grilles of a car, which is pretty nice to look at.

We had the prototype with us for a few days and one of the things we noticed about the V8 was the buttons on the sides of the unit which are flush with the body. So it may be difficult to blindly feel for the keys when the phone is to our ear. Fortunately, the handset releases a short vibrating pulse when the buttons are pressed, so that the user will know when he hits one.

The 2-inch external display is also a huge improvement, making the outer screens on earlier RAZRs seem miserable, and has the potential of putting the main LCDs on other phones to shame. When we’re listening to music on the V8, this LCD morphs into a touch-sensitive panel so we could pause, fast forward or back-track a song. A common complaint about touchscreens is the lack of tactile feedback. Motorola appears to have answered that by including a vibration feature when the keys are punched. It’s not breakthrough technology but we think it’s a well-implemented one.

Uses of the external display, however, are rather basic. It works primarily for the music player although we could also read text messages as they were delivered to the inbox and send a quick reply with default messages in the Templates folder. When the 2-megapixel camera is activated via the internal screen, the display doubles as a viewfinder for self-portraits. Like we said, there’re very limited uses with this screen, but it’s still a good start on Motorola’s part to include such a feature.

One of the biggest differences between the RAZR2s and the earlier RAZRs is the missing bulge at the bottom. We got mixed opinions on this. For some people, the bump actually helps them hold the phone better, but removing the said part gives rise to a larger keypad. The keys are flat, which is not surprising in order to retain that familiar RAZR feel, but the larger buttons mean ease of typing. It’s a joy to be able to use our chunky thumbs to punch the keys instead of at an angle and on a smaller surface area.

The quadband RAZR2 V8 runs on the new Linux/Java platform similar to the ROKR Z6. We liked the user interface on the Z6 and we feel the same with the new V8. What’s disappointing is that the V8 uses a micro-USB port instead of the more common mini-USB. The bundled cable connects directly to the port which is fine, but the charger requires an adapter (included in the package) before we can connect it to the unit; a step we felt was totally unnecessary.

Other features on the V8 include an Opera 8.5 Web browser, Bluetooth stereo and Exchange ActiveSync capabilities.

According to Motorola, there are two versions of the RAZR2 V8 worldwide. One is the 512MB (approximately 420MB are available to the user) version which we have right now for testing and the other is a 2GB model. The V8 with 512MB of onboard memory will be available in Singapore in July and across the region in the coming weeks. The 2GB model will be available in selected markets this fall though Motorola was unable to advise which countries this would be offered in.