Here are some customer reviews of
Motorola RAZR V3 Phone (Cingular)
: I like this phone. Quad band allows me to leverage the best of GSM in Bay Area with Cingular. The design is just so sleek. I have no complaints.
 We were so impressed by the RAZR design that our office bought six of them a few months ago (when the price was $400) and switched to Cingular. We've had trouble with all seven (a couple guys have been through multiple phones). The problems range from things not fitting properly (battery cover, key pad) to crazy behavior such as the phone rebooting every time a call is received.
Cingular couples a bad phone with bad service. To them, everything is the customer's fault. When you have a problem with the phone (which you will), Cingular grills you trying to determine if they can blame your phone's problems on you.
Additionally, and I can't speak about anywhere but Utah. If you live in Utah STAY AWAY FROM CINGULAR. They say the coverage is good. It is not even close to tolerable.
Do yourself a favor and stay as far away from the RAZR AND Cingular as you possibly can.
 First impression, surface area is larger than my current Samsung i600 which is a large phone but depth may make up for that. The phone is nice and light.
Beware, this is not cased entirely in aluminm as I envisioned from the Motorola description, it has an aluminum battery cover over the top half of the back and the front of the flip; the rest of the phone is typical cell phone plastic. I would estimate that the phone is 60% plastic on the outside when flipped open. The aluminum battery cover does not fit well and has to be forced down to cover the lower outside seams.
So far, I am not at all impressed with the craftsmanship of this highly touted flagship. I will update my review and adjust the star rating accordingly after I have charged it and had a few days of use.
ok, so I have my phone charged and have had time to fiddle with it. The reason I orignally chose this phone was for bluetooth in the smallest form factor I could find and I will give it high ranks for this. I have been using a Samsung i600 smartphone that has integrated Microsoft Outlook, Calendar, and Contacts but made for a very large phone. With this phone I can now take my HP iPaq with me when I need email and sync over the bluetooth connection and leave the bulk at home on the weekend when all I need is a phone, This is working beutifuly and I am very pleased with the functionality.
I still give the phone low grades for construction. I have had samsungs for my last two phones and a Motorola before those. As with the last Motorola I owned years ago, this one has an extrememly flimsy flip joint that seems destined to break. It already has a significant amount of play in it when opened. To make the matter worse, the phone has had all of the quick buttons that are normally placed on the sides of the lower half of the flip (where you hold the phone) placed on the top instead. Beyond thea complete ergonomic blunder, the buttons are very hard to press in and if the other side is not supported by your hand, the entire top of the unit kicks over to the side at the flip joint. Enough said in the other review about the usual lacking sense of the Motorola menu system. One additional missing feature (may be in there but I can't find it anywhere) that I thought was required in the US now is the location based 911. My last phone had this with the setting of on all the time or only when dialing 911.
All in all, it is a sleek looking phone with the great added benefit of bluetooth but packs the luggage of Motorola's deficient attention to sturdy construction and ergonomic controls. I would recomend waiting for the next version of this phone or for a Samsung equivelant if I had it to do again.
<update>
Had the opportunity to experiece two 'drop tests'. Dropped once from waist level onto hardwood floor and once onto concrete. Neither drop seems to have affected the phone although the concrete did knock the battery cover off but it went back on with no misfit. Bluetooth has amazing range; extends beyond my 802.11g when syncing to my iPaq. The woindows Pocket PC 2003 contacts menu item to dial via bluetooth works and is a nice substitution for the lacking phone contact storage when I have the iPaq handy. Still very disappointed in the Motorola menu system but this is my only lasting complaint at this point outside of the amount of plastic construction. The Cingular network is operating very well in the my area of the country and has better coverage than Verizon since Verizon gave up analog. I have had a few reception problems but not as nearly as many as I have become accustomed to with Verizon over the last year.
Pros:
This is a really nice phone. I've had it for about 2 months now. Its a real eye catcher, the speaker phone is great, I typically have great connections made with calls, the screen is amazingly vivid, the pictures are fairly decent (as long is there is ample light) and overall its one the best phones I've ever owned. It is just simply, a really cool phone. But... (and there is always a but)...
Cons:
This being said, I've treated it perfectly, placed it in a leather case, never dropped it, so it's still in mint condition. This phone has its quirks; I'm tossing them off to be software glitches because one day it will do weird things and the next day it will be fine. However, recently, the phone seems to be slowly disintegrating. First, it was just an issue with calling the voicemail; the entire screen would go white, and the phone would reset. Oops. Well, you can deal with that occasionally. Then it would do that when you would answer a call. Again, this was occasionally, so manageable.
Now I am dealing with a barrage of issues only 2 months into owning this. This is very concerning to me since im out 300 dollars if these problems don't fix themselves. I've heard the warranty for these phones through the phone carries is only 14 days. They know these phones have issues. Here is what happened to mine over the past 10 days... the blue light keypad doesn't light up anymore (which makes it impossible to press number in dim light areas since the keypad is all flat), the phone doesn't tell me when I have a voicemail, nor does it tell me when I get a text message, and the phone seems to have a small delay when opening things, like when you used windows 98 back in the day, calls are dropped and the screen goes white and the phone resets still occasionally. It's like a little child, I have to check up on it and it's becoming a major pain in the bum, but you still have to love it for what it becomes, a part of you.
Neutral:
Motorola has some user interface issues, like taking three plus menu clicks to write a text message or change the phone to silent, and super inconvenient ways to change basic settings. However, once you get a grasp of how the phone functions though, you can browse through the phone fairly easily. Just be prepared to take some time learning it.
Summary:
All this being said, it's a great phone (I just wish it would work like when I originally bought it), but I have friends that say they have similar issues sometimes as well, so these issues may be a problem with the phone. So, if you purchase, don't say I didn't warn you. Just get insurance on this, if you can. It's not worth it if you don't.
So my final advise: Buy this phone, but ONLY if you can get insurance. I hope this helps.
Sexy form... CHECK. Innovative construction... CHECK. Exclusive price tag... CHECK. In a sea of flip phones and candy bar phones that all look alike, the RAZR V3 is the Ferrari of mobile phones and stands out as such. If you're looking for a feature rich phone, then the V3 is not for you as a V600 will provide the same features for far less. But if you want a high-quality constructed phone that screams, "look at me, I'm a sexy b*tch," then the V3 is up your alley.
Actually, a better analogy would be: The Acura NSX of mobile phones. Like the NSX, I feel the V3 is a marketing tool for Motorola. It's their way of saying, "We're known for inexpensive phones, but, look, we can build stylish, well-crafted, high-end phones too!"
Unless wireless technology improves from GSM, the V3 is a phone that I can definitely keep for more than 2 years. The styling, design, and construction is just that good (I upgraded from a trusty and reliable, yet mediocre Nokia 3360 TDMA phone).
There's been quite a debate about the construction of the V3 and the best explanation that I've heard is that the bottom backside (below the battery cover) and the lower front is plastic for the antenna. It certainly makes perfect sense to me (unless the metal frame IS the antenna) as all the other areas are cold to touch (in this weather) while those areas are usually room temperature. Furthermore, it would be misrepresentation on Motorola's part to advertise it as such. Regardless, this phone may seem flimsy, but it's very solid -- there is no comparison w/ my old Nokia 3360 and my girlfriend's V551.
Mikey's likeys:
1- The mini-USB port. This is great for single-point access for data and charging -- it's simple and should be a mobile phone standard!
2- The Bluetooth connectivity. Coming from a wired hands-free setup, my Bluetooth headset (a Jabra BT250) is a godsend. I can leave the V3 charging in my home office and still be connected in the living room. (SIDE NOTE: stay away from from the D-Link Bluetooth USB adapter for PC connectivity and get the Belkin F8T001 adapter -- read my review on the D-Link for details)
3- Quad band. Doubtful that I'll ever use this feature/benefit, but those two words will certainly impress all around you.
4- The speakerphone. I've been a non-believer of mobile phone speakerphones, but I've got to admit, the V3's speaker phone is the bomb. It's loud and clear (but not loud enough for the car). My girlfriend tells me that I sound better w/ the V3 speakerphone than w/ my old Nokia 3360 and wired headset setup. When I don't have my Bluetooth headset, I'm spoiled w/ the speakerphone.
5- The internal display. Going to the V3 from the Nokia 3360 is a leap of spacial proportions and after a couple of weeks, I have found myself to be spoiled w/ large internal display. And not only that, the V3 has an ATI IMAGEON graphics accelerator! All other phones (excluding PDA phones) pale in comparison in this regard.
Mikey's no-likeys:
1- No memory expansion. I don't see myself using up all 5MB of internal memory, but an SD/MMC card expansion slot would be nice. Maybe Motorola (or somebody else -- maybe myself) will come out w/ a mini-USB adapter for this purpose.
2- Poorly written owner's manual. I have found that the owner's manual is more like a reference manual and sometimes leaves you figuring things out on your own. It does not explain how to use many common features that owners (especially ones new to Motorola phones) use. Instead, it lists all the features and expects you to put 1 and 1 together. It's like the "C++ Reference" vs "Learn How to Program in C++ in 21 Days." Maybe Motorola's technical writers are just to technical?
3- Drops and dings. Like any "Ferrari," I'll probably go into a week-long mourning the first time I drop or ding the phone. I'm hoping there will be [good] cases available to protect my V3 while it juggles around w/ keys in my pocket. (SIDE NOTE: I have heard that Cingular / Lockline is not insuring this phone, but my Cingular sales guy was hesitant sell me the phone unless I bought the insurance)
4- No EDGE. My girlfriend's $99 Motorola v551 has EDGE. Shame, shame, shame Motorola. Bad Motorola. Bad, bad, bad. Alas, it's akin to buying a $160k Ferrari 360 Modena and having a cheap $20 factory stereo system (or paying $90k for an Acura NSX and it's only 290hp).
5- Internal display colors. I was all hyped up to hear about 260k colors, but Motorola's specs after some detective footwork is 65k colors, but up to 260k colors in MPEG-4 video playback. Very, very, sneaky and mis-leading indeed.
Wishlist:
1- I wished there was a PocketPC smart phone version of this phone. PocketPC + V3 form factor = perfection.
Regarding multiple numbers for one name in the review below -- you can set the phonebook to display only primary numbers by:
1- setting the primary number for all the names that have multiple numbers (you don't have to do this if a name only has one number);
2- set the address book view to "Primary Contacts" in Phonebook Menu >>> Phonebook Setup >>> View;
3- voila, only primary numbers are displayed.
The way Motorola has implemented this is not very intuitive as Nokia's implementation (refer to my owner's manual dis-like above), but I have found Motorola's implementation to be a little more robust.
UPDATE: It's been nearly three weeks since I've bought this phone and no buyer's remorse.
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