Motorola RAZR2 V9 Phone (AT&T)

RAZR2 9 Not Identical Across Carriers. September 22, 2007

Reviewer:  jim fawcette  (Palo Alto, CA USA) -

It isn't obvious at first (and neither Motorola nor the carriers makes it easy to figure out) but the RAZR2 9's each carrier offers are NOT identical except for the carrier's services and coverage.
The CDMA version (9m) carried by Verizon and Sprint has A-GPS for navigation, but is otherwise a stripped down, less-capable model than the V9-Mahogony carried by AT&T. That GSM/HSDPA version available with AT&T offers a processor that is twice as fast as the Verizon version's (500 MHz vs 225 MHz), 262K colors on screen (v.s. 65k), full HTML browsing vs. WAP2, and CrystalTalk, the signal-processing software that supposedly makes conversations clearer and adjusts volume (said to be quite good but MIA with Verizon). Although the amp demand is higher on the GSM/H version, it is said to have longer battery life, although I have not compared them. I believe the OS is different, but not sure if I recall correctly. A few of the interface elements, and external buttons appear different, although I haven't put them side-by-side yet.
Whether those features outweigh the navigation offered by Verizon's 9m, is subjective, but beware that the phones are much, more differentiated on the various carriers than the original Razr.

UPDATE: Nov24. The naming has been changed on Amazon and the Motorola site. The GSM/HSDPA/AT&T version is now the "9" and the Verizon/Sprint/CDMA version is the "9m". Again, the GSM/HSDPA/AT&T version is more capable.

Best. Cell Phone. Ever. September 22, 2007

Reviewer:  David Levine  (Raleigh, NC USA) -

I just purchased this phone a week ago and I have been nothing but impressed. What some of the website reviews are missing is the fact you can access the music player and camera while the flip is closed. The touch screen buttons on the external screen work great. It is also nice that the external screen can be locked so nothing is pressed accidentally.

Phone quality is excellent. I did not experience any echoing or static while on calls. Picture and music quality is also great. This phone really can double as a music player. I have never listened to a phone with such great music quality. Even Sony Ericsson's Walkman line can't touch it.

Another thing no review tells you is the fact the phone comes with a mini USB adapter so you can use the original RAZR accessories. It also comes packaged with a 3.5mm headset adapter so you can use regular headphones with the phones. Both adapters work great with no hiccups.

It is also nice that you can use the phone as an external storage device granted you have a microSD card inserted and a USB cable that can connect the computer from the phone. Because of this feature, I have been able to create my own ringtones and put them on the phone. To transfer data to the phone, no other applications are required. Just drag and drop through Windows Explorer.

Overall, this a cell phone packing every feature I would need. The only quip I have the phone is the fact that the outside smudges easily (though it can be wiped clean just as easily). Also, it would be nice to activate the speaker phone before making phone calls (like you can with Verizon phones). Other than that, this is a great phone purchase, though the asking price of $299 ($179 on Amazon.com) with a 2 year agreement can turn away some. But of course, the original RAZR was $500 when it made its debut.

Another Great Moto Phone September 27, 2007

Reviewer:  S. Chapman "Eatabullet.com"  (Florida) -

Just got this phone a few weeks ago, and I've had plenty of time to test most of the features, and it is by far the best phone I've had in a while. I wasn't really interested in getting a flip phone again, because I do like the "candy bar" style phones, but those are getting phased out more year after year, so I had to go with it again.

My last phone was a Moto v551, and this phone is better than that one in just about all areas. The internet works much cleaner on this phone, it's easier to shop for games, tones, and wall papers. You can use it as an MP3 player, with very good sound quality on it.

The sound quality is by far the biggest improvement. Wow. I NEVER could use my old phone in my home. The calls would sound like the person is about 500 feet from me, not 5 feet, as with the RAZR2.

The larger display, and the huge front display are very noticeable, and I do enjoy being able to use a picture on the front of the phone to determine if it's someone I want to talk to at the time or not.

Games and ring tones seem to work a LOT better on the RAZR2. Downloading, installing, playing takes almost no time. I love the CV thing on this phone. Being able to watch a lot of videos (including my TNA Wrestling) on the phone at a moment's notice. Very nice.

The camera, although I'll rarely use it, is nice. High quality pictures (2.0 Megapixel). It'll never match up to a real digital camera, but it's very good nonetheless.

The ONLY flaw I can see that the phone has, is not a major one. To me, anyway. The number pad isn't as easy to just dial without looking. The 5-key has a bump on it, but that's it. I guess it's due to the whole pad being one singular piece, instead of individual buttons. It's not a big enough issue for me to grant this great phone only four stars though.

One last thing..the T9 texting on this phone is GREAT. Seems to work much better than the v551, but I believe that has more to do with the dedicated "Back" button on the phone. I love that feature. No more having to figure out how to go back..it's right there. Even for browsing.

I'm not too high on the "Mahogany" color, but I had to get a new phone, and this is the only color Cingular currently offers. I know they'll have others soon (Verizon's looks really nice) but I care less about colors, and more about functionality. In all seriousness, even if the only color they had was pink, purple, or rainbow, I'd still take it. This phone is THAT good, that you care less about how manly you look carrying it around, and moreso about all the neat things it has to offer.

My Favorite Phone By Far (and I've tried dozens!) May 6, 2008

Reviewer:  - 

I can't begin to list all of the phones and PDA phones I've either tried or owned since the early 1990's when I bought my first. All of them have something undesirable about them, but this is the best I've owned. Most I try out a week or so, then return it, but this one's a keeper! I love this phone so much, I actually (for the first time ever) purchased insurance for it.

Let me start by saying that call quality is of the utmost importance to me and other features are just nice bonuses.

This phone's call quality is so much better than the others, it makes you want to tell the person on the other end to spend a few bucks and buy a quality phone of their own! If everyone used a high-quality cell phone, there'd be much fewer incidences of people having to repeat themselves.

It's extremely well-built using solid metal construction-much better than its predecessors. I like the solid feel of this phone-not flimsy and not feeling like it's about to fall apart at any time.

It has a huge external screen. Unlike the V3xx that I also currently own that has a display so dim, you can't read it, the V9 is bright and clear.

The music phone feature is great to have. Although I bought a protective case that doesn't allow the big exterior screen's touch feature to work, it works great without the case and the vibration when touched allows the user to know that it's sensing your touch. I have 350 songs stored on my mini SD card, with room left for additional storage, plus the phone's internal storage remains clear. I no longer need to carry my iPod shuffle and a separate phone.

The built-in modem came to my rescue when my high-speed internet service failed. It ran my computer, not a lightening speed, but at a rate at least 8-9 times faster than the dial-up modem would have reached. It's even faster when accessing the 3G network via Media Net.

I cannot comment on battery life being poor generally because I routinely place all of my cell phones on the charger at night before retiring. This stems back from the days a phone couldn't hold a charge from sunrise to sunset without needing a charge, but there have been a couple of times I forgot and left it in my purse for 2 days, and it still had plenty of battery life left on that 3rd day.

If, as other reviewers have stated, the battery life is less than on other models, for me, having the big, bright responsive outer screen outweighs a few hours of battery life as a priority to me. It's not like I'll be on a 2 week camping trip with no viable means of recharging. Again, out of habit from the old brick phone days, I have always kept a spare battery fully-charged and so far, have never needed it.

I suspect that some of the reviewers who have negative things to say about this phone may have received a defective handset and would possibly be pleased if they'd exchange it for a properly working model.

By the way, it also features a 2mp camera with zoom and video capture capability! The only thing missing is a flash or light to use in the dark, but I won't downrate it for that alone.

After years of searching and dozens of handsets later, I've finally found my phone, and a whole lot more!

Improvements Over the Original RAZR, Read On September 8, 2007

Reviewer:  Sharath Kollu  (San Diego) -

FIRST LOOK AND FEEL:
1. The RAZR2 is a big, luxurious slab of metal and glass that feels and drives like a luxury SUV but still thinner than the original RAZR.
2. The phone has the biggest, most beautiful external screen you've ever seen on a flip phone. The resolution is terrific.
3. They took care of getting rid of the bulk chin in the original RAZR. The RAZR 2 does not have the heavy chin and has a smooth and straight finish with is much more elegant. The unit looks a lot more streamlined in terms of mechanical design.
4. New Haptics technology. Read more in the next section.
5. Browsing is much faster and browser looks great.
6. It uses the new micro USB port which technically is same as the mini USB port but is slimmer than that.
7. Viewing TV on external display is cool. Music player can be launched right on external display. No need to open the flip.
8. Excellent sound qulaity. Great speaker for Voice, Music, TV.

NEW ADDITIONS/IMPROVEMENTS:
1. External display incorporates a virtual reality technology called haptics, which will enable the user's fingertips to receive vibration feedback when touching the phone's on-screen buttons. This is a great feature.
2. Applications like camera, Sprint TV, Music player can be run directly on the external display without having to open up the phone, directly on the flip. This prevents users holding their wrists at an uncomfortable angle in order to view the screen.
3. Browsing internet is a breeze on this handset. The new Teleca browser includes all the bells and whistles needed for a mobile phone browser.
This combined with Sprint's EVDO (Enhanced data rate) gives the user very nice browsing experience.
4. Excellent camera resolution (2 mega pixel) and it take full advantage of the external display.
5. The external keys also use the same haptic technology. You can feel a little vibration feedback when pressing any of the external keys.
6. Although I am not sure of any technology specific improvements for the call quality but I see that it improved a lot. May be the speaker is different.

POINTS TO NOTE:
1. Only limited set of applications can be run from the external screen.
2. The RAZR 2 has a new micro USB port. This might require micro USB adapters.
3. Little more heavier than RAZR.
4. I am using a Sprint RAZR2, so some features might not apply to other carriers.

Great phone November 8, 2007

Reviewer:  starburst  (San Francisco) -

I purchased this phone via an upgrade to existing AT&T service, and am very glad I did. I've had it for two days. The call quality is outstanding. Calls on busy, noisy San Francisco streets are clear as a bell. The display is great and fairly easy to navigate, even though I've never used a Motorola phone. Web browsing and the data network are super fast. The speakerphone is great, although it would be nice to be able to continue a call with the lid closed. The phone is gorgeous and very well made. It's very comfortable to hold and use. The screen is fantastic. It would be nice if the user manual contained an index.

If you want to set up e-mail from an existing pop account that isn't with an isp that is one of the standard offerings (I think the options are determined by AT&T, not sure), it takes a little work. You have to register with MediaNet and set up an account. Once you do this, it's easy to configure the phone to check and respond to e-mail. There are no real instructions for doing this included with the manual or the quick start guide, or for navigating MediaNet e-mail. I spent a while on AT&T's web site figuring this out. Figuring out how to wade through a bunch of messages and delete unwanted messages takes a few minutes. It's not immediately clear how to delete bulk messages, and the info isn't clear about whether/what a user will be charged for when messages are stored after being viewed. The MediaNet email currently charges $0.01 per Kb; it doesn't use minutes from your monthly plan. I'm interested to see what charges will be reflected on my bill. I'm not too concerned with this because I'll only need to use the cellphone to check e-mail on rare occasions.

My main concerns with a cell phone are: 1) call quality; 2) battery life; 3) being able to easily adjust settings, esp. volume; 4) a speakerphone; and 5) accessing email from my work account. The only aspect of the phone that is lacking is the battery life, but I knew that when I bought it. The fantastic call quality trumps the battery issue, for my purposes anyway. And I can carry an extra battery.

Very solid, stylish, next-gen phone September 24, 2007

Reviewer:  T. Lee 

Pros
-Bright and beautiful internal display
-Possibly the greatest external screen ever on a cell phone
-Excellent 2MP camera
-3G
-Fairly robust music player
-Good call quality

Cons
-Flat keypad takes a lot of getting used to
-Certain options and functions are either poorly labeled or buried under menus
-Doesn't really bring anything new in terms of features and even lacks some basic ones
-For several hundred dollars you would think Motorola could throw in a memory card or a mini-usb cable.

Bottom line: Not the best phone as far as functionality is concerned, but if you just want a beautiful phone to make calls and browse the web then it doesn't get much better than the Razr2. And this is coming from someone who hated the original Razr.

Soooo happy! September 30, 2007

Reviewer:  JustMe  (California, USA) -

I bought this phone through a contract extension with AT&T, and I am absolutely in love with it! My old phone was a RAZR, which I did not love at all, so I was slightly hesitant to purchase the RAZR2, but I'm so glad I did. They kept the best parts of the old model and improved everything I can think of that needed improvement. Everything about this phone is absolutely wonderful...and I am not one to normally go ga-ga over a cell phone.

Beautiful phone with lots of plusses.. but constant problems! June 3, 2008

Reviewer:  Rose M. Swinson  (-) -

I went through 3 of these phones in 2.5 months. Before I go into detail, I will say that the phone/s never got wet, were never dropped - they were well taken care of.

First phone developed an issue 5 weeks after purchase. The speakerphone element went out. Once I turned the speakerphone on, I could no longer hear them.

ATT did a warranty exchange

Version 2 of the phone entailed it not charging. It was not the charger. Nor was it the battery. It was the charging port. This was 'discovered' within 3 days of getting the replacement V9.

Version 3 of the phone was the most confusing. The phone was not on mute and volume was all the way up. Upon opening the phone to make a call, the keypad would no longer make noise. It would dial, but no sound came through the earphone and nor could I hear anyone talking. The only way to 'correct' it was to turn the phone off and turn it back on. This issue appeared within 2-3 weeks of receiving it.

I'm not going for a 4th V9. It was a nice phone. Great features and I liked the weight of it in my hand - but somehow Quality Control really messed up the lot that ATT got that I had received. And if you read the reviews on ATT's website, there are several people that are reporting the exact same issues.

The majority of people seem to get phones without issues - but I managed to get 3 duds (out of 3). That doesn't make for me giving it high marks in a review.

Much better than 1st Generation Razr November 29, 2007

Reviewer:  SEH  (Chicago, IL United States) -

I have had this phone for about 45 days now. The 1st one I received had a defective key pad (it was delaminating). No problem with Amazon, though and their excellent customer service. I just called them and they just sent me a new one. As soon as I got the new one, I sent the old one back. It was pretty simple/easy. The 2nd one has been great. My #1 concern with a phone is call clarity and the ability to hold/pick up a signal to make calls. All the other stuff is just frilly accessories, to me, that are a nice to have. As far as the peformance of this phone, it is far better than the 1st generation Razr, V-600 and several other moto phones I have had over the years. This phone is primarily used in the Chicago area where AT&T is a medeocre service/signal provider-at best. I have had no problems with making/receiving calls with this phone and it works the way a cell phone should - good reception and call quality (including volume level). It is much better than the previous phones I've had. Last week, I was in a very rural area (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) that I travel to on a regular basis. This phone worked better there than any other GSM phone I have used up there. I was actually able to make / receive calls in places the old phones would not work. Battery performance seems just fine. As with all GSM phones, if the phone is struggling to find/maintain a signal, it runs the battery down much faster. If you're playing video games or using other taxing applications, it runs the battery down. No big deal, use your head and think about it. Also, the software in this phone is faster than the older Razrs. You can flip through screens and run things much faster. Camera quality is decent for a cell phone - however, don't expect any cell phone to shoot SLR quality photos. I haven't used the video or MP3 player features. Again, I don't expect much out of them because this is - after all - a cell phone. If you have reasonable expectations, and have done your homework, you will love this phone. P.S. - Two final comments - the casing on this phone is just slightly larger than the 1st generation Razr. However, it still fits in a Razr leather carrying case, etc. Also, they give you an Mini-to-Mircro USB adapter so you can use all of your old Razr accesssories with this phone.