Motorola Razr V3m review (silver, Verizon Wireless)

The Motorola Razr V3m is the successor to the Razr V3c, both of which are exclusive to Verizon Wireless. The most notable improvement is the addition of an integrated music player, a Micro SD card slot, and support for VZ Navigator, Verizon's GPS navigation service. Otherwise, the Razr V3m looks and feels exactly the same, and it has many of the same features as its sibling. The Razr V3m retails for much cheaper than the V3c--about $119.99 for a two-year contract and $169.99 for a one-year contract--but unless you want an integrated music player on your phone, you shouldn't feel compelled to upgrade.

As we mentioned, the Motorola Razr V3m is identical in look and feel to the V3c. It boasts the same sleek profile (3.9 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches) and shares the same gray coloring, external display, controls, flip mechanism, and so forth. The Razr V3m also has the dedicated camera and video recorder key next to the navigation controls. While there's nothing wrong with keeping the design elements, we were a little disappointed that Motorola didn't increase the screen's 65,000-color output or add a camera flash. Another complaint we had was with the Verizon menu system (also found on the V3c), still a little confusing to us. For example, the music player and camera functions are hidden in the Get It Now submenu rather than having dedicated icons in the menu.

Now, we hate to sound like a broken record, but the Motorola Razr V3m is very similar to the V3c, even in terms of features. It has a 1,000-contact phone book, caller groups, picture caller ID, and ring-tone caller ID; 25 polyphonic (72-chord) tones are included with the phone. Other features include text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, Bluetooth, voice dialing and commands, a voice recorder, a vibrate mode, an alarm clock, a calculator, a note pad, and a world clock. The 1.3-megapixel camera on the V3m also mirrors that of the V3c, with many of the same settings and options. The only new item we noticed with the V3m was the addition of a self-timer function. Like the Razr V3c, the Razr V3m took pretty decent shots but nothing great. You can read about all the other camera options in our review of the Razr V3c.