Digital Trends

Motorola RAZR V3c

December 20th, 2005 | by Stewart Wolpin

Features and Design

The RAZR's most distinctive physical feature is its thinness -- 3.86” by 2.08” by only 0.57-inches thick. This makes the RAZR the easiest phone to stick in your pants pocket right next to your money clip.

Verizon's RAZR is nearly identical to Cingular's, and just as skinny. Instead of black, silver or magenta, Verizon's RAZR is shimmering gray that doesn't look as dull as it should be. On its face is a 1-inch external color LCD, with the 1.3 megapixel camera lens at the top. Inside is the bright 2.2-inch diagonal, 176 x 220 pixel color LCD screen, and below that is the distinctively etched metal keypad illuminated by a brighter and bluer electro-luminescence backlighting than the near turquoise of Cingular's RAZRs.

Below the keypad is a distinctive chin, which houses the phone's main radio transmitter and receiver. This location -- or, more precisely, relocation is significant. Most manufacturers place the radiation-emitting radio up near the top of the phone, close to the brain. Placing the radio at the bottom of the phone reduces the RAZR's SAR -- Specific Absorption Rate -- as reported to the FCC. (There have been no definitive studies that link excessive cell phone use with any adverse radiation-related effects, but then we didn't know tobacco could kill you until relatively recently.)

On the rear of the chin is the RAZR's primary speaker, used both to listen to V CAST video clips and speakerphone combinations. Again, this placement is significant. Your palm acts like a speaker cabinet and reflects the sound back at you.

There are three buttons arrayed around the perimeter of the top flap. Because each of these keys serve multiple functions depending on the application, they are unmarked. Primarily, the largest of the three is the up/down volume toggle, above that the speaker activation key and, on the opposite side, is the key that activates the RAZR's voice-dialing feature. The power connector jack on the side of the chin resembles a mini-FireWire connector, and the box includes a right-angle adapter for charging in tight quarters.

What's missing is a headphone jack. Like the Cingular version, the V3c is equipped with Bluetooth version 1.1, which is fine for conversations but is incapable of transmitting stereo (you need Bluetooth 1.2 and beyond for wireless stereo). Almost all higher-end cell phones are equipped with stereo headphone jacks for game play and anticipating their use as a music listening device. And even though there isn't music available on V CAST right now, there are music videos to view and games to play, but you'll hear them only in mono.

As with most new phones these days, the RAZR is equipped with a variety of helpful applications -- calendar, alarm clock, world clock, notepad and calculator.

Image Courtesy of Verizon