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"Very Nice Looking, Solidy Built, But Some Quirks..." on by SRT4Chris401
Pros: Beautiful looking phone, and nice solid feel in your hand. Touch screen is cool, and the ability to watch Sprint TV without opening flip is nice.
Cons: Battery life is about the same as the Moto Q, you'll need the chargers with regular talk use. You can only use a bluetooth headset here, no cutting corners with the wired ones. OS has a few quirks.
Summary: Well I have had this phone for 2 days now, and I'm liking it alot. But as with all Motorola phones that I've ever owned (except for the v551) there are some issues with it. In case anyone is wondering what is packaged with this phone, practically nothing. You get the manual, charger, and a 256m mini SD card with adapter. Really barebones, oh and uh with typical Moto styling, they've decided they also want you to buy new data cables and new extra chargers for this phone and its siblings as well cause it's ovaled shaped. So your old RAZR chargers won't work here. 2.0mp camera, but no flash (that will prbably out on the V9m3). It still takes very nice pictures, but a flash has almost became standard issue on phones so I don't know why they didn't include it. Even though Sprint and Verizon get the slower 225mhz proc for the V9m (500mhz for the V8 and regular V9) the Linux and java OS allows the handset to run quite smoothly most of the time. I have seen issues with the screen switching between the front and main. It doesn't lock up the phone or nothing, and you normally just re-open and close the flip to correct it. Large apps take a little bit to load. I have Sprint and Sprint TV comes in nice when it get's full to mid reception. Oh and because it's the internal type antenna, it doesn't get as good reception as say my SCP-8400 did in my doctors office. I got no reception while I was in there. There's no support for wired headsets, which really blows cause I don't feel like paying between $99-$129 bucks for S9's and I may not even like how the damn things sound. Lastly, the battery sux, just like my old Moto Q 1 day lifespan with normal use. So I'm hoping they'll release an extended battery for this phone. Even less for me, cause I wake up a 11am and I work all night till 5am. So by about 9pm I got to recharge to make it through the night at my work, and charge it while I'm working out to make through to 9pm. Oh and another quirk which really pisses me off when I'm at work and using the Sprint TV and I don't want to keep recharging the phone every 2.5 hours is the phone goes into car mode. So it's looking for a hands-free speaker. Meaning your speaker on the phone itself won't work for any type of audio sound. Overall it's not a bad phone, it could some patch upgrades to fix the problems OS and work on getting an extended battery out and it should be good. I hope this helps with anyones decision. Thanks.
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"Great Phone, with One Pet Peave..." on by jjkrogs
Pros: Many, see others...
Cons: Battery-sucking free advertising for your phone service.
Summary: US Cellular's version of the RAZR2 V9m does just about anything you want from a non-Blackberry. 2.0 mp camera (best so far), solid MP3 player, removable memory card, etc. Most of the reviews will tell you everthing there is to like, so I'll tell you what NOT to like.
1) The biggest pet peave about this phone is that, while in use (clamshell open), the large, exterior screen does nothing but backlight a huge advertisement for US Cellular. The large screen, which is touch-sensitive, seems like it was under-implemented to the point of being more of a gimmick rather than a useful function, and I wonder if the advertisement factor was the primary reason for its implemenation in the first place. Pretty sneaky, huh? This is even more frustrating when you consider the standard battery isn't that great, so sucking up yet more power to broadcast free advertising for my phone service really bugs me. Had I gotten the phone for free, I'd have no complaints here, but I paid around $300 for it. To save precious battery power, the exterior screen should completely deactivate when you open it up for use. No excuse, here. Had I known this before I got the phone, it may have been a deal-breaker. It's a matter of principle for me as I hate being cattled into forced-advertising for ANY company.
2) As mentioned already by some, I don't understand why they chose the ring-then-vibrate function without a ring AND vibrate. The way it's currently setup, it vibrates too long (about 2-3 rings), so when you finally get the audible ring, scramble to answer, etc, your caller has already hung up or been transferred to voice mail. Frustrating, but very minor complaint overall.
3) The side buttons are difficult to find and activate. Could have made them rubberized or slightly more offset from the phone's frame. It will be frustrating if you use speakerphone regularly. Again, a very minor complaint.
Other than the aforementioned issues, the phone is very, very nice. Good luck! -
"finally.... a pretty phone that just WORKS" on by mlclark2
Pros: design, feel, bluetooth ease, much less lag than other motos
Cons: battery life (sorta), micro-usb, afraid to drop it :)
Summary: here's what i've come from in the last year
samsung a900 -> treo 700wx -> HTC Mogul -> RAZR2
this is by far the best of the 4. with my recent experiences with windows mobile and vista, i'm being driven entirely away from microsoft. it's 2007, and phones should not have to be reset 3 times a day and they should work flawlessly with bluetooth!
i really wanted to like this phone, and i'm so glad to say that i love it! you can't beat it's form and the materials used. it has a steel internal frame that gives a little vibration every time you open or close it. i love it! both screens are gorgeous, and the vibration feedback from the external buttons is great, it vibrates when you hit ANY external button, not just the buttons on the touch screen (useful for changing volume).
this is the most solid phone i've ever held. the hinge is like a rock.
applications take a moment to load, but they are good as well (music player / tv / email).
i was surprised to see it supports push email from pop accounts like gmail (sprint email is a free download). it's not the best, but for a great phone, it's nice to have the option.
bluetooth is sweet... i have the h800 (slider) and it links immediately when i open it (as motorola is known for). not the best sound quality (h800), but i love the integration with the phone.
the move to micro-usb is annoying, but an adapter is pretty cheap.
the battery life is decent... with moderate use you can make it all day w/o charging.
this is a great phone, especially if you are like me and weary of smartphones that just don't work.
i would buy this phone for a family member
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"Overall really nice phone" on by Spyderm311
Pros: Extremely thin, amazing fit and finish, great features
Cons: kinda-sorta big when open
Summary: Just got this phone two days ago online (wont be available in stores till sep. 4)so I've had about a day to get to know this bad boy. (Just something to keep in mind when reading this review) So first impressions...wow it's freakin thin! open it up...wow it's freakin huge! Measures about 7 1/4" long when fliped open. Despite this my overall opinion of the phone is great and it is deff. growing on me. Fit and finish is the best iv ever seen, you feel like your holding $400 phone (which you are). Navigating through the menus is fast and intuitive (no worries from past razr slowness). My only other neg. comment is that bc its so thin it's actually more difficult to hold than most phones I'v used in the past but if ur used to the old razr this shouldn't be a problem at all for you. As far as sprint TV goes, Cnet had some issues with streaming video which i did notice on occasion but it actually is very impressive most of the time. Both interior and exterior screens are gorgeous (265k color or not) its utterly rediculous how they fit these things on such a thin piece of material. Phone quality is superb as is the camera, very sharp image. I'm really very impressed with how balanced it feels when texting or entering a number, its when you hold it up to your ear that it gets alittle akward for me although i'm sure i'll be used to it by next week. Touch screen buttons work better than I expected and are pretty cool to play with (iPhone jealous?) Anyways, I've been playing with this thing all day and it still has a bar left which means i have more messin around to do, hope you found this useful.
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"Form Over Function" on by hobienut
Pros: Sturdy, svelte, thin
Cons: Everything else.
Summary: I'm amazed at the good reviews this phone's been getting! Makes me wonder if they've actually ever used a cell phone before. Due to the great reviews, I went to the Sprint store a week ago and got one. I REALLY wanted to like this one. I often turn off my phone (I fly a lot) Rebooting takes 48 seconds!!! Also, during the reboot process, it often doesn't find the micro SD chip and comes up with an error. Want to listen to music? How about another 10 seconds to "load" the application. Want to make a call while the player is running? Forget it. Exit the music player (always confirm this with an "are you sure"), and wait while it exits. Want to use this as an alarm clock? Guess what, if the flip is closed, you'll get no alarm until you open it! Whats up with that? The power plug is "protected" by a flimsy, chicken _hit plastic cover, that, despite my best efforts to the contrary, came off and was lost forever within 2 days. As long as I'm venting about the power plugin, the AC adapter (included) had a small power plug, but was connected to the phone by a flimsy, easy to knot, low voltage small gauge power wire. It looked and felt like those cheap Christmas Tree light strings...Oh, and the connector to the phone LOOKS like a standard mini USB connector, but, nope! Proprietary, and when I bought the phone, even the Sprint store didn't have a car charger, or even the USB cable to connect this thing to your computer to upload music to it. Don't plan on getting one at the big box stores either. The operating system is glacially slow. Come on, this guy just hates everything. Nope, I loved everything about my previous Sanyo MM5600 (except its size and its lack of Bluetooth). I just despise design that places form over function. Yes, the Razor V9M looks great...yes its very thin, yes it feels sturdy. But this POS is the perfect example of what happens when programmers sit down at a table and say, wouldn't it be cool to animate this little icon that shows when a call has ended"? Problem is, this little useless animation goes on for nearly 10 frustrating seconds. Oh, and the buttons? They've spent so much time designing the case without any of those nasty useful buttons protruding from the svelte case, that there is virtually no tactile feedback. This applies to the side mounted volume keys, and virtually all of the keypad buttons. All of the included ringers are musical. I don't want music to play when someone calls. In a noisy environment, I want to hear a RING! Sorry, no RING included. I suppose I'm expected to pay to download one...if I can find one. Sprint TV, I don't want it. Cool screen with touchscreen on the phone front, I don't use it. Camera? I could care less...I just wanted a highly usable phone that would make and receive calls clearly, keep the connection, play my music on a Bluetooth Stereo headset, and not look like a tumor on my side in its holster or pocket. This thing failed on the first requirement. It is as "highly usable" as a football bat. And, after 5 days with it, I wanted to take a bat to it. Aside from the fact that I actually was able to make a few calls with it, this has been the most frustrating week that I've ever had since the advent of the integrated circuit. The only saving grace is that Sprint has a 30 day money back guarantee. I can't wait to get rid of it.
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