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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 86 reviews
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Product summary
The good: The Motorola Krzr K1 offers good call quality and comes with Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, and a speakerphone.
The bad: The Motorola Krzr K1 lacks 3G support and external music controls.
The bottom line: Though the GSM Motorola Krzr K1 has a more attractive color scheme than the CDMA Krzr K1m, some feature differences make it mostly comparable with its sibling.
Specifications: Band / mode: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) ; Talk time: Up to 390 min ; Combined with: With digital camera / digital player ; See full specs
Price range: $99.99 - $118.09 check prices
As we said in our review of the K1m, we think the Krzr K1 is far and away more attractive than the Razr family. At 4.05x1.73x0.67 inches, its narrower form factor makes it much more stylish, and though it's slightly thicker in profile, it still captures the thin phone trend that shows no sign of dissipating. It's also more comfortable to hold in the hand, and it's slightly heavier weight (3.6 ounces) gives it a more solid feel. The sheet of hardened glass and the chrome plating on the bottom end are here as well, but overall we give the most design points to the K1 due its more appealing blue shade. Also, the blue skin attracts fewer fingerprints than the silver K1m.
Most other exterior features are carried over from the K1m. The 65,536-color external display, the spine-mounted controls, and the somewhat poor location of the MicroSD slot behind the battery cover all are unchanged. The placement of the camera lens is the same as well, and similar to the K1m, the K1 lacks a flash. Yet, there is one more important variation on the GSM Krzr: the external music controls found on the CDMA model are not present. It's a curious and an unwelcome change to say the least, particularly since the K1 still has a music player.
Inside, the phones also are quite similar as well. The navigation array and keypad buttons are identical, but, of course, they're cast in blue as opposed to silver. Here again, we much prefer blue to silver. The internal display supports 262,000 colors and measures 1.9 inches (176x220 pixels). Unlike the K1m, however, the K1 uses Moto's classic menu interface rather then Verizon's custom menus.
On the feature side, the Krzr K1 shows a few differences to the basic offerings but nothing too extraordinary. The K1's phone book holds 1,000 contacts while the SIM card holds an additional 250 names. Each entry holds five phone numbers, three e-mails, a Web site URL, and three street addresses. You can organize contacts into groups or pair them with a photo or one of 30 (24-chord) polyphonic ring tones for caller ID. Other basic offerings include a vibrate mode, a voice recorder, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, and a calculator. On the higher end, there is a speakerphone, voice dialing and commands, USB connectivity, e-mail, full Bluetooth, and PC syncing. At 12MB, the onboard usable memory is a bit skimpy. Fortunately, the Micro SD card slot gives you more room.
Though we're not really sure why, Motorola chose to bump up the K1's camera to 2 megapixels over the 1.3-megapixel shooter on the CDMA K1m. You can take pictures in just four sizes (2 megapixel, 1.3 megapixel, 640x80, and 320x240), and in another change you get a selection of three quality settings. Other options include a multishot option, brightness and white-balance controls, a self-timer, six color effects, five lighting choices, an 8X zoom, and five shutter sounds (plus a silent option).The camcorder shoots clips in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96) with sound; editing options are similar to the still camera. Videos meant for multimedia messages are capped at 21 seconds; otherwise you can shoot for as long as the available memory permits. Image quality was decent but not quite what we expected from a megapixel camera. Images were bit blurry, and colors weren't always sharp.
Unlike the Krzr K1m, which supports Verizon's 3G EV-DO network, the Krzr K1 taps out at 2.5G EDGE networks. As a result, the phone is not optimized for streaming video or for downloading large files quickly. Also, instead of a full service music player capable of downloading tracks on the go, the K1 offers a rather generic Motorola music player instead. Though it works fine and supports MP3, AAC, and AAC+ files, the interface is a bit spartan, and the feature set is limited beyond playlist creation and repeat and shuffle modes. You must load music on the phone via Bluetooth or a USB cable.
You can personalize the Krzr K1 with a variety of wallpaper, screensavers, menu styles, and color skins. If you want more options or more ring tones, you always can download them via the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser. Gamers get two Java (J2ME) titles: BlockBreaker Deluxe and Platinum Sudoku.
We tested the (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS; EDGE) Motorola Krzr K1 world phone in San Francisco using Cingular's service. Sound quality was comparable with Cingular's Razr V3 but was a tad sharper with more volume. On their end, callers said we sounded fine but they had more trouble hearing us in louder environments than on the K1m. We rarely had trouble getting a signal and experienced no interference from other electronic devices. Speakerphone calls sounded a bit hollow but with enough volume, and Bluetooth headset calls were satisfactory.
The Motorola Krzr K1 has a rated talk time of 5.8 hours and a rated standby time of 12.5 days. Our tests for the Krzr K1 blew us way with an amazing talk time of 9 hours and 14 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Krzr K1 has a digital SAR rating of 0.9 watts per kilogram.
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