I've been a Nokia diehard for years, ever since I got rid of a crappy Alcatel phone werk foisted on me. I recently switched providers and got a new phone. The Mototrola Razr V3 came with a better deal than the Nokia I was looking at, and I have to say it's really good.
I'd say the Razr is about the best looking, nicest physically shaped phone around at the moment. It's super-slim, and whilst a bit wider than many phones, it incredibly pocket-friendly (and avoids unsightly bulges ;-)
The Razr has all the features you'd expect, half of which I'll almost never use. The camera is 'VGA', so pretty rubbish, but there's also bluetooth and an (included) USB cable. It's got pictures, tunes and video, although no removable memory card to put it on. Unlike the Nokias I've ever used, the Motorola has user-flashable software. That avoids having to go to the store to get your phone's software updated (if indeed you'd ever want to do such a thing).
In actual usage, I've always thought that Nokia have been the best. Their menuing system, and the things that are "one click" away from the normal screen are pretty much just what you want. The Motorola isn't bad at it though - the menus are sometimes a little deep, and the phone book isn't accessible by simply pressing "down", but it's perfectly usable. If I hadn't been spoiled by even the cheapest of Nokia phones, I'd say the Motorola was great.
That said, Motorola should work on their software a lot more. Take a simple operation like changing ring styles from your "normal" setting to a "silent" setting. On a Nokia, you click the power button, scroll down to the one you want (which you can do with the power button, or the navigation keys), click select and you're done.
On the Motorola, you can do the same thing with the phone opened or closed. Opened it's a bit too involved: Press up on the navigator (or press the menu key, and select settings->ring styles), press "change", scroll to the one you want, press "select" or middle of the navigator. Since you probably don't want to leave it there, press the red button to go back to the normal screen. The good news is that switching this way only makes keypress noises, and possibly vibrates the phone briefly if you select a vibrating ring.
Thankfully, with the phone closed, it's easier: Press the volume key, press the smart key to scroll through the options (which are hard to read because they're not written in full on the screen - how daft!) and then press the volume button to select your ring. The problem here is that the phone will make a loud beep if it's on a ringing profile when you start, and again if you select a ringing profile (and keypress noises between times). What's with that? If I'm in a meeting or something and want to quietly silence my phone, then I don't want to draw attention to myself while doing it!
This single example shows the problem with Motorola's software. Whilst it has most of the features you might want, it doesn't implement them very well. It's also not nearly as customisable as it ought to be either. You can't change the names of the ring profiles, you can't change what the four points of the navigator will take you to when pressed, and so on.
Update: Whoops! Sorry, I'm a fool - yes you can customise the four points of the navigator. You can also have the four respective icons shown on the home screen too. I'd like to have been able to select 'vibrate' and 'vibrate and ring' profiles this way, but all you can do is go to the ring styles menu. Hey, you can't have everything ;-)
On the plus side, Motorola's predictive text capability is a bit better than Nokia's, although it takes a bit of getting used to if you're used to Nokia's. It's actually a bit more intuitive, and doesn't require you switch modes to type in some unrecognised words or numbers.
So to sum up: In general use, I'd say the Motorola Razr V3 is really good. It's got a few rough edges which could be resolved in a software update (although probably won't be!). If you're looking for a phone then the Razr is definitely worth considering. I've also heard they're going to be releasing a V3i which will have iTunes compatability - that could be really neat, although if (like the Rokr) has a very limited song capacity will probably be surpassed by an iPod Shuffle.
Update 13/12/05: I've just received a "browser update" SMS message. The phone continuously vibrated (with an almost continuous cadence, unlike normal), made no sound, and didn't stop until I read the message. Lucky I had the phone nearby, otherwise it might have been vibrated for ever. Doesn't seem like a good design feature to me... ;-)
Comments
You say you can customize the 4 points of the navigator, as if it's fairly obvious how you do this, but I cannot find this option.
I'm guessing it should be under Settings, Personalise, Home Screen, but I'm wondering if my provider (Orange) has removed this option.(:sad:)
i cannot figure out how to turn off the beep sound from pushing the buttons, nor can i turn off the song thing when i turn the phone on and off.does anyone know how?
It seems to be linked to the ring styles, which is stupid.
The only way I could get rid of the key beeps was to put it in silent mode.The should be an option, but I can't find it anywhere and the Motorola and T-Mobile sites haven't been much help.
To customise the 4 points of the navigator, go to Settings->Personalise->Home Screen->Home Keys. From there you can configure the navigator, the top two 'soft keys' and the smart key.
Incidentally, the 'bug me' feature that keeps beeping/vibrating every five or ten minutes after you receive a text or miss a call is called "Reminders" and can be configured via Settings->Ring Styles->(select a style)->(style) Details->Reminders (at the bottom of the menu). Unfortunately/fortunately, you have to set this for each ring style.
This should work.
Menu -->Settings-->Ring Styles-->Soft Detail-->Key Volume = "0"
you can turn of key sounds by the following:
Setting and tools; sound settings;talking phone settings: then key pad digits.You can turn them off or on.
I can never seem to find any other phones with the bluetooth on my V3 RAZR. Is it possible to update this software?
Hi, I use v3
when I change my Ring Style to Vibe&Ring > and click on Vibe&Ring detail it not work and back to the main screen. why
yo ive got th same friggen problem. I go to menu on my razr and to settings > ring styles > and then ring detail and it just sends me back to the previous screen. it was just working yesterday!HOW DO YOU FIX IT?!?!?!?!?
I've being trying to copy all my contacts saved on sim from a nokia phone onto my v3i - using copy sim to phone. It doesn't seem to work - none of the records have contact details. Is there a way of doing it?
The good news is that switching this way only makes keypress noises, and possibly vibrates the phone briefly if you select a vibrating ring.
Buford Kids Birthday Parties Moonwalk Rentals
Hi my english its very bad.. but i solve this problem (when I change my Ring Style to Vibe&Ring > and click on Vibe&Ring detail it not work and back to the main screen)
im feel very sad because i had same problem and i found the reason.. (really i hope understand me, too bad english) .. its for bluetooth.. when my friend want copy the sounds at his phone she dont copy the songs she move the songs... that its the reason.. if you copy again the songs with same name the phone work again..i do that and my phone work again...
en español... mi amiga queria unos tonos pero al pasarlos por el bluetooth en vez de copiar puso mover entonces como uno de esos sonidos estaba puesto para mis mensajes mi telefono no queria entrar al menu de style vibe & ring y regresaba al menu principal.. lo que hice fue volver a pasar los tonos a mi telefono y despues de eso funciono, imagino que no encontraba la configuracion y por eso no entraba al menu..
I too experienced this fault followign teh bluetooth action. So to fix it do I copy it from another phone using blue tooth?
Just got Krazr having had Razr for couple of years but can't find the 'copy all to phone' option to enable me to copy my address book. Please tell me this is an option?!! It was available on the Razr so surely is on this model. Anyone out there worked this out?
Yeah, I couldn't find this either (as I too have just upgraded to a Krazr). Also annoyingly, the Phone Tools PC application can't sync SIM entries to your PC. So it looks like there's no way to backup one's SIM.
(Handily, I have an old Nokia knocking about, so I backed up to that ;-)
I need help to edit softkeys, the menu just isnt there, it is on my friends V3 please help.
I need help with the bluetooh headset I can't set a ringer id for an entry.
Has anyone had this problem before?
- Sounds won't work when ANYONE calls. It's not on Vibrate.
- Speakerphone is on when answering a call
I've been trying to figure out how to turn it off the feature. I have no idea how it turned out like this. :/ If anyone could message me or comment with a possible solution, please do?
having the same thing! Can't find anywhere on the internet that will tell me how to fix this! The speaker phone doesn't turn on though.
this is my first phone and i'm very happy with it, but have a couple of questions.first of all how can i change the ring tone for text messaging?i know if you go to ring styles then detail but there is nothing that says texts.when i got my phone they set up another speed dial for my voice mail so it would type in my security code automatically, since then i have set up my vm and changed the code so now that speeddial won't serve it's purpose how can i fix that?also can someone explain to me about axcess apps and web. any help would be appreciated
what you have to do is this, first go to settings, then ring style, and say you had it on vibe and ring, under that there should say vibe and ring detail, click that, it should be in there
i got the voice mail figured out
How do you change the voicemail number on a V3 ? There definitely isnt an option in the menu and when I press & hold 1 - it just tells me "voicemail number not stored"
I've gone through the menus & theres definitely no VoiceMail Setupoption in the menu
Cheers?
make sure your v-mail no is stored(sim or phone contacts), open phone book scroll to vmail #, options, add to speed dial, or phone, make sure you are viewing the the book the # is in check sim & phone if not sure, scroll to manage contacts, scroll to speed dial, select position, select # from phone book, enter
Settings > Ring Styles>Style:bla blah>>on this screen choose the second line and click Change>>you are at a new menu that you can select aynthing and change it. Just did this and it works.
I love this phone, finally got Blue tooth working from vaious phones.
how do you turn the power on/off sounds to off on v3a phone, i cant find it anywhere on this phone
hi. just wondering if anyone can tell me how to update the browser on the v3xx? i can access any site on my mobile but as soon as i sign into hotmail account, it tells me i have to update before i can access my emails. but when i go to update the browser from microsoft and such sites, it tells me the file type is not recognised and will not download. any suggestions?
I am having the exact same problem with trying to update my browser!! Can someone help??
Is there a way to make this phone beep to alert me that I've missed a call or text?I've been all over my phone and can't figure it out.Can it do it?I really need this feature working.Please help...J
I like my top friends to have a seperate text tone so i know who it is coming from, where do i do this? i can set the custom ring tone, but i cant find anything about text tone.