Motorola Razr2 V9 on AT&T review
By Alfredo Padilla
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
Published on October 15, 2007
The Motorola Razr2 V9 is the latest in Motorola’s extremely successful line of Razr handsets. These thin flip phones defined cool when they were introduced a few years ago, but in recent years they have become more of a commodity phone than the status symbols they once were. Motorola hopes to recapture the design high ground with the Razr2, and the V9 is AT&T’s version of this new phone. It is also available in slightly different variations from Verizon and Sprint.
The Razr2 V9 adds some thickness and weight to the traditional Razr form factor, but is still a very attractive handset. Under the hood it’s running the same basic interface we’ve seen from Motorola phones for years, which is both good and bad. It’s good in that it should be familiar to users, but there are gripes we’ve had about the interface we wish would be addressed by a software update. The most obvious improvement on the V9 is the large 2-inch external display with touch-sensitive buttons. We only wish Motorola had made better use of this excellent external display.
Making calls on the Razr2 V9 is a simple process – just start dialing or hit down on the directional-pad to access your contacts. You can also get to your call history by hitting the send button. The V9’s organizer provides the basic functionality you see from most phones, but it wont replace a true PDA. The address book is easy to use, and we found we could quickly add a new contact name and number to the handset.
The Razr2 V9 performed well in our audio tests. The quality of sound sent and received were both good, as was side tone, the small amount of your own voice piped back into your ear so you can tell how loud you are speaking.
The Razr2 V9 comes with a 2-megapixel camera that performed much better in our tests than the 1.3-megapixel camera found on older Razr models. Thankfully, the album software has also been improved, as it was overly complicated and difficult to use on the older Razr. Like most modern phones, the V9 supports music playback and performs well in this regard. We especially liked that you can use the large external display and touch-sensitive buttons to control your music without opening the handset. Video playback was less impressive, so the V9 isn’t going to replace your iPod video anytime soon.
Like many phones, the Razr2 V9 lacks a built-in e-mail client. Instead you use Web-based e-mail via a Java application, which makes the V9 a poor choice for those who need true e-mail on their phone. This is a shame since the V9’s keypad is roomy and easy to type on. Text and multimedia messaging is on board, and we were glad to see both types of messaging have merged instead of separated into multiple folders. The Web browser is extremely basic and we don’t recommend it. You can download a program like Opera Mini to get a better Web-browsing experience, but make sure you have an unlimited data plan.
Talk time was not very impressive because the V9 runs on AT&T’s battery-hungry 3G network; it came in at a rather anemic 3 hours and 40 minutes. If you’re thinking of browsing the Web you’d better make it quick, since it lasted only 1 hour and 38 minutes, but we were happy to see music playback time was a solid 8 hours and 47 minutes. The Razr2 V9 is no battery champion, and heavy talkers probably want to consider a backup battery or keep chargers close by.
The Razr2 V9 is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary upgrade to the Razr lineup. We like the excellent external screen and good looks of the handset, but nothing much has changed under the hood. If Motorola is hoping the new Razr2 lineup will excite people the way the original Razr did we’re afraid they’re going to be disappointed.For a more in-depth review, visit the Motorola Razr2 V9 Review at our partner WirelessInfo.com
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