Motorola RAZR V3m Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 16, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (1.7)
The Motorola Razr V3m took an average of 12.1 seconds to get a song playing from the closed position. This is a fairly long time for a phone. The Motorola Razr V3m automatically connects to the Sprint music store; however turning off the data connection did not significantly change the time it took to launch the music application. Overall we were not happy with the amount of time it took to launch the music software on the V3m. The LG Chocolate, another music oriented handset, took only 4.7 seconds to access the music software.
Dedicated Music Controls (2.0)
When there is music playing on the Motorola Razr V3m and the phone is closed the volume keys allow you to adjust the music volume. Unfortunately none of the other keys provide any functionality. It would have been nice to have used one of those keys to switch tracks. Many phones today are including dedicated music keys, and we wish the V3m had them as well.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (5.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m’s music software is easily accessed from the home screen. It displays cover art when the phone is opened, but unfortunately not on the external display. It is also not possible to listen to music while doing something else on the phone, like surfing the net.
The Motorola Razr V3m’s Sprint Music Software allows you to create playlists on the handset, and recognizes standard .pls playlists. The software recognized the standard idv3 tags on our test mp3 files and also displays album art. When you enter the software you can either load all your music, choose a playlist or create your own. You can sort your music by title, artist and genre. You can also choose to shuffle your music. Unfortunately there is no capability to search through your music.
The Motorola Razr V3m does not provide a lot of functionality in its music player, however the basics are present, and we were happy to see playlist creation support, which many handsets lack.
Online Song Downloading (8.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m supports the Spring Music Store, allowing over the air downloads from a fairly large catalog of songs via the high speed EVDO network. It takes 3 steps to access the store starting with the phone in the closed position. It does take awhile to launch the store, and depending on your network situation it can take awhile to search for a song.
Once in the store you are presented with a list of featured music, and below that can browse through music based on category. At the bottom you have the option to search for a specific song by artist, title or both. Once you find the song you are looking for you are presented with the song information, including title, length and album art. You can preview the song, buy it, or choose to buy 3 songs for $5 (normal pricing is $2.50 per song).
Once a download begins it is fairly quick, but users should note that the songs you download over the air are lower quality than the ones you can download to your computer at home (home downloads are included in your purchase). Most songs cost $2.50, which is significantly more expensive than the 99 cent per song standard that you tend to find online. Once a song is downloaded you can choose to play it, add it to a playlist, continue shopping or learn how to access your PC download.
Overall we found the Sprint music store easy to navigate if you know what you are looking for. It’s much less inviting for those who simply want to browse through music as you are faced with long lists to scroll through, and key functions are often found at the bottom of the list.
Streaming (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support any standard streaming options for online radio stations. You can however purchase various streaming radio services from Sprint, including Sirius Satellite Radio. These services generally cost $9.95 per service.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support automatic subscription and download of podcasts, either over the air or via a PC. There is also no dedicated podcast organization software.
Music Sync with PC (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support direct synchronization of your music with a PC or Mac. In order to get music from the PC to the phone directly you will need to purchase Motorla’s pc sync software. You can however remove the memory card from the phone and use a memory card reader to transfer music from your PC to the card.
Music Formats and DRM (3.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m running Sprint’s music software and store is capable of playing mp3 and aac files. Aac+ files purchased from Sprint’s music store are protected by proprietary digital rights management (DRM) and can only be played on the phone they are downloaded to, and only when it is associated with the phone number it was originally downloaded with.
In addition to the AAC+ file that you download over the air, purchasing a song from the Sprint music sore allows you to download a larger, higher quality copy of the song to your PC. This song is encoded in wma and is protected by standard windows media DRM, which means that it can be transferred to other players that support wma DRM, and played on them.
Music Interruption (7.0)
The MOTORAZR V3m does a good job of stopping your music when you get an incoming call. It then resumes playback automatically at the point which you were at before once the call is complete. It does take a moment to reload the music software, which is an annoying delay. Many handsets merely mute the music without pausing playback, so we were happy to see this functionality on the V3m.
Video
Video Software Access (3.17)
To test how easy it is to access your video software we time how long it takes to go from phone closed position to the point at which your video software is launched. The Motorola V3m took an average of 6.3 seconds to complete this process. Like many phones the video software on the V3m is buried in the menu system. We wish the video software on the V3m were easier to access.
Video Controls (5.0)
The controls offered by the Razr V3m’s video software is fairly basic, allowing you to play, pause and stop the video, move to the next or previous track or fast forward and rewind. You can also control the video volume using the dedicated volume keys. These are standard controls compared to other phones, and advanced features like configurable controls are not available.
Video Software & Organization (2.0)
The video software on the Razr V3m does not provide you with many options. It does allow you to play the video in full screen, play all videos sequentially or mute the sound. These are extremely basic options for a video player, and we were not impressed. It must be noted however that the Razr V3m’s video software was likely meant simply to play videos that you create on the phone yourself, not to play video that you move onto the phone from your computer.
The Motorola Razr V3m provides few options to organize your videos. You can choose to sort videos by date, size or name. You cannot create or use playlists and there is no search feature or advanced library functions. Most phones do not offer many options to organize your videos, but would appreciate them.
Video Sync with PC (0.0)
The Razr V3m does not sync video with your computer.
Video Formats (6.0)
The video player on the Razr V3m supports video in 3gp format. It does not support windows media video or Mp4 video. 3gp has become the standard for mobile video and it’s good to see that the V3m supports this standard.
Video DRM (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support any video DRM, including Windows Media from stores such as Amazon’s Unboxed, Apple’s iTunes video DRM or Real’s DRM. The Razr V3m is not a device aimed at people who wish to watch video. We would have been surprised to see support for video DRM.
Video Playback Smoothness (2.0)
To test video playback smoothness we play back 5 3GP files and note when they don’t become viewable. On the Motorola Razr V3m the 56 Kbps file played smoothly. We began to notice choppiness and fragmentation with the next file at 112 Kbps. At 256 Kbps this was even more evident, and the 384 Kbps file was unwatchable.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support direct downloading of video to your device.
Video Streaming (unscored)
The Motorola Razr V3m supports streaming video either in 3gp format or via Sprint’s video services. It does not support streaming of windows media video or advanced streaming formats that are normally only supported on desktop computers like flash. We were pleased to see the Razr V3m support 3gp video streaming. We are still waiting for the day when we will be able to get all the content from sites like youtube on our cell phone.
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