The Motorola RAZR2 V9 comes in the form of a sleek & stylish clamshell opening 3G handset. The RAZR2 V9 is a member of the RAZR family which is a popular Motorola family which oozes style & sophistication. The RAZR family includes other mobile handsets including the Motorola RAZR V3, Motorola RAZR V3i, Motorola RAZR V3x, Motorola RAZR V3xx & the Motorola RAZR2 V8. The RAZR2 V9 is a multimedia focused 3G phone which comes in a strong & durable casing. The phone comes in a rich red coloured casing which is made from stainless steel & has an eye catching effect. The 3G clamshell phone comes with dual colour screens which provide the user with two high resolution screens which are viewable both internally & externally. The external screen provides the user with one of the largest external screen in its class which is 2 Inches in size & comes with a screen resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The external screen provides up to 262k colours on the display & the screen comes complete with touch sensitive music keys. The internal screen is slightly larger measuring 2.2 Inches & comes with the same colours & screen resolution as the crystal clear external screen. The user can enjoy high quality displays of their wallpapers, screensavers, video clips & photos on both of the phones screens.
Design
The V9 is very similar in design to the V9m. In fact, with the exception of the color difference, the casual user would never notice a difference. However, the V9 comes in at 1.6mm thicker and 7g heavier that the V8 and V9m, and the size and especially weight difference are noticeable when holding the two units.
Front Display. The front display is 2”, with a QVGA resolution and 262k colors. The increased colors make the screen noticeably crisper than the one found on the V9m. The touch sensitive strip along the bottom is still present, but it is much less functional on the V9. More on that later in the review.
Inside Display. Opening the phone reveals a 2.2” QVGA display. Like the front one, the inside screen features 262k colors, again making it crisper than the V9m.Despite its actual 2.2” size, the screen looks much smaller because of the abundance of dead space around it. We feel the display could be significantly bigger, even up to 3”.
The keypad is in the same vein as the V9m, but has been reworked a bit. The directional pad is a bit smaller to make room for a back key underneath it, in-between the send and end keys. Underneath the left soft key the user will find the AT&T globe, which launches the web, and on the right side a shortcut for Cellular Video. The keypad is still very wide, meaning two handed operation will be preferred for typing out messages.
Interface
Mororola’s Synergy UI powers the V9, and anyone who has used the UI in the past several years won’t find much different. There have been add-ons to the interface such as Cellular Video and AT&T Music, but the basic premise is the same and we can’t help but feel that the system hasn’t evolved since our nearly five year old T720.
The menu is arranged into nine top level icons: AT&T Music, Messaging, Recent Calls, MEdia (sic) Net, AT&T Mall, Cellular Video, My Stuff, Address Book and Settings. They can be displayed in Icon (3x3 grid) or List view, and rearranged by the user. Menu items must be selected with the d-pad, keypad shortcuts do not work on the V9. There are several personalization options, including the d-pad and smart key shortcuts from the home screen, although soft keys cannot be reassigned from their Options and Main Menu default.
For years the Synergy UI has been criticized for simply tacking new features onto the interface rather than integrating them or even rewriting it all-together. The V9 is a perfect example of this, as the system is downright bloated. My Stuff is pretty much a catch all for multimedia items that don’t get their own main icon, but thrown in there with the Camera and Games submenus is Tools. Honestly Cellular Video, AT&T Mall, AT&T Music and MEdia Net could all fall under one category. The Settings menu is a mess of dislogic (what, you’d expect backlight to be under Initial Setup and not something like Display?) and there are 15 (!) submenu items under it. Synergy is nice and customizable, which was our complaint about the Verizon V9m, and the it is plenty stable and quick, our main issues with the Sprint V9m, but honestly we’re not too happy with any of the three. The 3G-less V8 runs Motorola’s new JUIX Java/Linux platform, and perhaps that will be the holy grail UI we’ve been looking for. One can only hope.
One major complaint we have with the V9 is that it will not allow you to grant network access to unsigned Java applications. While this may be an extra level of security, it means that every time programs such as Google Maps attempt to send data you will have to grant network access. This is annoying, to say the least, and makes even staple programs almost unusable.
Features
Phonebook. The V9 phonebook can hold up to 2000 contacts. Each entry can be assigned a personal ringer and/or picture and has room to accommodate 7 numbers and two emails, and has room for extras such as nicknames, websites, postal address and notes. The phonebook can be sorted in many ways, such as by assigned groups or entry type (email, etc.)
By default contacts are stored to the phone, but in the options users can change that to the SIM card, or individually transfer a contact to the SIM. The options menu allows the user to send a message (SMS, MMS) to a contact, as well as send them a voice message. In typical Motorola fashion send message and send voice message are two separate menu items, even though a voice message is simply an MMS sent without a picture. One nice feature is that the user can send a contact via Bluetooth or MMS, or just a single number from your phonebook via SMS.
Messaging. The RAZR2 V9 allows users to send SMS and MMS messages. There is nothing groundbreaking here, and predictive text is done via Motorola’s iTap. The V9 has a decent built-in email client. It offers quick access to Yahoo, AOL, AIM, Windows Live, AT&T Yahoo, BellSouth, Comcast, Earthlink, Juno, MindSprint and NetZero email accounts. However, the user cannot configure other email accounts such as Gmail and Road Runner accounts. If you have one of the supported email services the client works well, alerting the user of unread mail and giving the option to reply and compose messages. It’s a nice though, but we’d like to see support for any POP3 or IMAP account.
Organizer. The calendar is a basic calendar, not quite as nice on the one found on the V9m. It allows the user to add appointments and set them to repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly if desired. Holidays are not preloaded. The alarm only allows for five alarms, and they cannot be set to repeat at any interval. Like the calendar and alarm, the calculator is dummed down as well and only offers basic functionality, as well as currency conversion.
Calendar Calculator Alarm Clock. Another disappointment was the voice command software. Although it utilizes VoiceSignal, the software is old and out of date. Instead of simply saying “call Ginger Sling mobile” or “call 2 1 2 7 5 9 5 5 5 5” the user must preface the request with “name dial” or “digit dial.” Motorola has been utilizing the newer VoiceSignal software in their CDMA handsets for years, so we’re really at a loss as to why it doesn’t find its way into their flagship GSM unit.
Internet and Connectivity
The RAZR2 V9 utilizes HSDPA 3.6 for high speed data on the 850 and 1900MHz bands. The phone was tested in an area that is, according to att.com, blanketed in 3G, but we could not connect to the 3G network with the exception of a few times it indicated 3G then went to EDGE just after a power up. Our data experience with the phone was ok, WAP browsing was speedy enough, but we’d be lying if we said it was frustrating to be crawling along at EDGE speeds. Web browsing is handled via Opera 8.0 for Synergy, which means that HTML pages are rendered well. Bluetooth was a much better experience . The phone supports the latest 2.0 +EDR standard, and has support for the HSP, HFP 1.5, DUN, FTP, OPP, A2DP, AVRC, BIP and BPP profiles. While pairing with a non-audio device wasn’t as straightforward as we’d like it to be, we were able to freely transfer all types of files via Bluetooth.
One major complaint we have with the V9 is that it will not allow you to grant network access to unsigned Java applications. While this may be an extra level of security, it means that every time programs such as Google Maps attempt to send data you will have to grant network access. This is annoying, to say the least, and makes even staple programs almost unusable.
Multimedia
The RAZR2 V9 has robust codec support, and can play MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, AMR, WMA, and RealAudio files. The internal memory is limited at 45MB, but it supports microSD cards up to 2GB. The music player can be launched with the flip closed by pressing the smart key. The user can scroll through their collection by song, artist, album or load a playlist. The touch strip on the outer display appears for the first, and unfortunately only, time when the music is playing, providing track forward, back and play/pause functionality. The touch strip is really the only thing that differentiates the RAZR2 from other handsets, and given its functionality on the V9m it’s a shame that Motorola did not implement it more on the V9. Playback was good enough through the external speakers, and when paired with the Motorola S9 stereo Bluetooth headset listening was enjoyable.
Like audio, videos are handled by the native media player . The orientation can be changed from vertical to widescreen, but otherwise the options are sparse. Since our review unit was a prepaid phone we were not able to test the Cellular Video service on the phone, but just loading the page was painfully slow so we can’t imagine video performance would have been any better.
Conclusion
The Motorola RAZR2 V9 is a good phone, though we can’t help but feel underwhelmed. When it comes down to it, there just isn’t much to get excited about. It’s larger and heavier than its CDMA brother, and the build quality isn’t quite up to par. The outside display is nice and large, but it just doesn’t do anything to set it apart from other phones in AT&T’s lineup. The 2mp camera is good, but lacks advanced features such as autofocus or a flash that would bring it up a notch. The software is quick and stable, but bloated and disjointed. Even the burgundy finish takes away some of the sex appeal found in other RAZR2 variants, and at the end of the day we can’t find a reason to get excited about the V9.
