Hi, I was suprised to see no review for the Razr V3i, as I had seen several over the past few months and the phone is also not a new item, so I guess mouthshut has just put in the heading.
I got the phone a a gift and what a gift it was!My previous cell phones started with the Nokia 1610, which was brick at the time, I moved on to the "slim and sleek" Nokia 5110, and then fell for the Motorola T110, after which I swore off motorola's for ever, got a Nokia, again 3110, (I think) and then a Nokia 1100, which was just great and finally used my wife's Samsung C110.
I never had used a high end phone as I thought all the bells and whistles were just that. Well, technically the Razr V3i is a mid-range phone, as it cost my wife 11500, with bill,box and warranty, but I do remember when the original Razr came out and my jaw hit the counter when I heard the price, when I asked it at the fancy cell shop in the Forum mall, next to the Sonodyne showroom, I think.. it was all of 37K!
Well, now 11K is much better and you get load more that the original razr in pretty much the same package.
What's different?
The Camera is not VGA but is a decent 1.3 Megapixel one which is supposed to give you print quality snaps. I found the pictures pretty good on my PC, but the lighting has to be good and your grip firm for really nice snaps
Expandable memory: The original razr had 5MB on board memory, and no facility for expansion. Not good if you want to hear MP3s..more on that later...The new V3i has 15MB, plus space for a memory card PLUS a free 256 MB card.. totally gratis!
3.Free leather case, swing straps,Data cable,Stereo headphones,Ear phone covers... a lot of freebies,in addition to the free micro SD card. These alone make it a far better deal than the original razr which is going for sub 9K now, I hear. I calculate the freebies to be worth at least 3 to 4 thousand. The quality is excellent
Longer battery life. I get 3 days from charge to charge. The battery is said to be improved on than in the razr original, but do be warned,bluetooth use and roaming(repeated signal searching) eat the battery up.
Improved software: Now you can search your phone book, Apparently in the original razr, you could only reach the 1st letter. Like if you had to find,say, Anitha, you had to press A and scroll through ALL tha A's now you can type Ani and jump straight to her ; )..
Well, how do I like it?
I was thinking about the Nokia 6600 , it was too chunky though, and as GRaptor once put it, it had lost its unique position and is seen in almost everyones hands nowadays...and with my aversion for Moto after my tryst with the T110, I didn't want to burn my fingers again, but I just love this phone. I guess its all about the looks... she is sleek, she is slim ..and as Harpers bazaar so apty put it, she " is as sexy as hell". Just holding it is a pleasure. The plastic and metal build quality is phenomenal. The case snaps open with in built spring. Not at all jerky like the new Pebl, which I instantly disliked. This one opens with a flick of your thumb, not by itself like in the magnet released Pebl. I did worry about using a clamshell after a whole lot of candybar phones, But the razr is easy to open and a pleasure to use. So even if you are on your bike or eating a meal, you can open it with a single hand, with a little practice
The "aircraft grade aluminium" etched keypad is unique and is easy enough to use, and doesn't accumulate dust. Sending Smses is easy enough, but I am not sure about heavy use yet. It is solidly built.You can ascertain this by feel alone..
The free USB cable can also be used to charge the phone from your PC or laptop.. a very nice feature for those who have forgotten their charger, but have the data cable
The message system
Is different from Nokias. Unlike the T9, system in the Nokias, the razr uses the iTAP system, which I felt was pain initially, but now prefer it, You can add custom words, initially I thought it wasn't possible..my samsung C110 could not.. but this not only gives you the words you want, it offers it in word complete form, so that you just have to press the up button to complete the word you want. I do agree you need more button presses to do the same thing, but I am getting used to it.
Voice recognition:
This is a pretty advanced type of AI, but is a pain in the neck. Unlike in the simple Nokias, where you can store a voice name and call easily, here the phone recognises the names,commands and what not. You never have to store the vocie tags...Only you have to speak like a firang might.. and it recognises you only <25% of the time. But the technology is amazing. you can call anyone in your phone book without assigning voice tags to them, The phone recognises the name, if you say it right. My wife thought I was going nuts or chanting a mantra, saying "name dial" all night trying for it to recognise me, using different accents and intonations..The voice activation also can activate the camera(wonder why anyone would need that?) and also redial, voicemail and what not.
The technology is amazing ,like I said,but needs to work more consistently.
The User Interface, games etc:
Not as good as Sony erricson, or Nokia, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The graphics are pretty primitive and the games are nothing to write home about. No real profile system, which is seen in the cheapest Nokia, you can't really change the profile name or style much. But those are really minor issues, I feel..
Call clarity:
Good, I am pretty much satisfied with it. The clamshell design seems to help too as the mic is near your mouth when you speak.
Signal intensity
Also pretty good, I get more signal bars and the clarity is good too
MP3:
The itunessoftware is just the same as on my ipod and looks great, on the phone and sounds very good.. I hate the PC interface though, its not intuitive. The song clarity is very good, though not near an ipod, in my opinion, but if you haven't heard an ipod, you would be satisfied, or most people would. One gripe is the 50 song limit, regardless how large a card you install. This is allegedly because of some deal with Apple and is a pretty lousy deal at that... The stereo headphones (free!) sound just great and are really good for calls too.You get better clarity than with the bluetooth..
Other features:
Bluetooth
Quad band..you can use the phone on many international GSM networks
Screens:Large 2.2 in 252K I think color screen inside. is vibrant and gorgeous
Small color screen outside
Airplane mode:This switches off the cellphones transceiver and allows you to use it as your" iPOD " just to listen to music or play games while in cell prohibited areas like an airplane
Single USB entry port,can be used to charge the phone too, very useful in my opinion..
Speakerphone. Music on it sounds better than in any phone's speakerphone I have heard till date
Incredible packaging.. you have to see the sleek two way slide box opening to reveal the razr to see what I mean..
