Motorola Razr
The Motorola RAZR V3 ("RAZR" pronounced "razor"), at 13.9-mm thick, is an unusually thin clamshell camera phone, released in November 2004. The phone was initially regarded as an exclusive fashion phone, with a high price tag to match, but in 2005 the phone entered the mass-market as a mid-priced phone. As of February 2006, the phone markets in the UK for £89.99, making it an upper end-budget phone.
Two of the phone's most characteristic features are its thinness and the positioning of its internal antenna at the base below the mouthpiece.
By July 2005 Motorola reported to analysts that the RAZR V3 was the most popular clamshell in Europe, something that it owes almost entirely to its distinctive looks and small size. It was one of the first phones to have a 2.2 inch (diagonal) LCD screen which supports 262,000 colours. The phone itself has been criticised on its functionality; its memory capacity is small at 5.5 MB and it has no slot for TransFlash storage cards, the phone's camera is low-resolution (0.3-megapixel), and the interface has been described as clunky.
Motorola released a CDMA version of the RAZR with Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL on December 7 2005, called the RAZR V3c. The V3c was adopted by Canadian carriers Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility in Febuary 2006. Upgrades to the CDMA version include a slimmer form factor, more internal memory (50 MB)), a better 1.23-megapixel camera, and EV-DO support. However, the V3c has a smaller 2-inch internal screen which only supports 65,000 colors, and the weight has increased from 95g to 99g.
Motorola has also announced the Motorola V1150, which was renamed as the RAZR V3x, a phone with two cameras and support for TransFlash. The phone is not the successor; Motorola has confirmed that "RAZR V3x" is simply a new name for the existing V1150 and the phone will not be released in the US.
Technical specifications
The quadband GSM phone sports two color displays, a VGA camera, long-range Bluetooth, MPEG4 video clip playback and recording ( with firmware upgrade ), and Java 2 with 3D graphics. It also has a 22 kHz speaker for playing MP3 ringtones.
- Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz ('Quadband') CDMA 800/1900 Mhz ('Dualband')
- Connectivity: Mini-USB, Bluetooth 1.1 (Class 1)
- Dimensions: 13.9 × 53 × 98mm (closed)
- Mass: 95 g
- Internal display resolution: 176 × 220 (57mm diag.)
- External display resolution: 96 × 80 (27mm diag.)
- Operating system: Custom Motorola with J2ME
- User accessible memory: 5.5MB (10.5MB with some features removed)
- Chipset: i250S1
- Talk time: 200-430 minutes (3.3-7.2 hours)
- Standby time: 7.5-12 days
Models
V3
The original RAZR V3 GSM phone is carried by Cingular and T-Mobile in the USA, Rogers Wireless, Fido and Telus (since 2006) in Canada, and by many companies in other countries.
Black version
A black version was produced for distribution in the 77th Academy Awards gift bags, and was released in early May 2005. As of September 2005, the black version is available in the USA only from Cingular and in Canada only from Rogers Wireless. The black version of the V3 available in the US shipped with updated firmware that included support for recording videos, a feature which earlier versions did not have.
The black V3 is the standard version of the phone in the United Kingdom.
Pink versions
The first pink version was released in November 2005, and as of February 2006, is available in the USA from T-Mobile (as RAZR V3 Magenta, after the T-Mobile—and its parent, Deutsche Telekom's—corporate color), Cingular Wireless (in a different shade), and Verizon Wireless (in a third shade). It is available in Canada from Rogers Wireless, and in the United Kingdom from the Carphone Warehouse.
V3i
The successor to the RAZR, initially described as the "RAZR 2", is the RAZR V3i, and addresses some of the faults of the previous phone, including a better (1.23 megapixel) camera, support on some models for iTunes, a slightly better external display, and support for TransFlash/microSD cards. The phones looks have also been slightly tuned, and the initial colour is brushed metal. [1]
It was announced on December 8, 2005 that Motorola had teamed up with Dolce and Gabbana to produce a Special Edition Gold Razr V3i. Only 1000 of these have been made, and sold for a high price.
RAZR V3c
On December 7, 2005, a CDMA version of the RAZR, known as the RAZR V3c, became available to Verizon Wireless users. This phone shares similar features to the GSM RAZR, though Verizon Wireless disables Bluetooth object transfer (OBEX)[2]. ALLTEL Wireless released their own CDMA RAZR (just a few weeks prior to Verizon's release) on November 21, 2005. Alltel's version of the RAZR, unlike Verizon's, provides OBEX support. The CDMA RAZR provides EV-DO support. The Verizon Wireless version supports Verizon's VCAST service, which allows users to watch video content on their cell phones. The phone can hold up to 30.8 MB of memory.
A pink version was released by Verizon Wireless in January 2006.