Motorola RAZR V3m Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 16, 2007 Comment on this |
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Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support synchronization with your computer out of the box. In order to synchronize your calendars and contact you will need to purchase additional software and usb cable. You can purchase a package of software and cable from Motorola for $39.99 + tax and shipping. Because Wirelessinfo.com only scores items which are supported out of the box, the Motorola Razr V3m will receive no points in this section.
Alerts (5.0)
The only PIM alerts that you will get are from the Calendar. You can set appointments to begin at any time, and set an alarm to go off at one of 7 time periods before the appointment ranging from the moment the appointment begins to 2 days before. You can also choose any of the built in ring tones to sound as your alert. When you do receive your alert you can choose to dismiss it, or snooze it for 9 minutes. Compared to other phones this is a good range of options for your alerts
You cannot set a vibration alert when creating the appointment, but if the phone is set to vibrate, it will do so when the alert goes off. Similarly when the phone is set to “Ringer Off” no alert will sound, however the screen does light up and show the appointment information in all cases. An alert will sound for 1 minute and then stop, however if you miss it you will find the appointment information with the snooze and dismiss options on your screen when you open it up.
Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support any over the air synchronization options (ie. Exchange, Blackberry)
Address Book
Adding Contacts (3.6)
To test the how difficult it is to add contacts to the Motorola Razr V3m we timed how long it took to add 5 different names and their phone numbers. We found that adding a contact to the Motorola Razr V3m is a fairly simple affair. With the phone open your left soft key is mapped to contacts, the first option on the contacts screen is to add a new one. Average time to add the contact was 27.9 seconds, starting with the phone closed, and ending when the contact had been added. Despite the fact that it is a simple process it does take longer than most phones. For example the LG Chocolate took only 21.7 seconds to add a contact.
Looking/Sorting/Search (6.0)
Searching through your contacts on the Motorola Razr V3m is a fairly standard affair. Once you are in the contacts program, you can search for a specific contact by first name using multi tap, unfortunately predictive search is not present and you can’t search by last name. You can also choose to filter your contacts by name, email, categories, speed dials or distribution lists.
Access to the left soft key menu, which allows you to choose your filter, is not immediately available when the contacts program launches, you need to move away from the “add new contact” dialogue and select a contact, adding an annoying step to filtering. Alternatively you can choose to simply scroll through your contacts until you find the correct one, however you cannot hold down the D-Pad to scroll quickly, rather you are required to hit up/down each time you want to move to the next/previous contact.
Overall we were not very impressed by the Motorola Razr V3m’s features in this area. It’s one place where the old operating system hurts the Razr as many modern phones have much more functionality.
Fields (2.6)
The Motorola Razr V3m provides a fairly standard selection of fields for contacts, including up to 6 phone numbers, each of which can be identified as mobile/home/work. In addition you can add a picture, customize the ring tone, assign the contact to a group, add a web address and email address. Another nice touch is that you can add a text memo, allowing you to put in any information you deem important, such as birthday, spouse, etc.
Although the Razr V3m has some nice options in its fields, it does not provide users with many options. Our Fields score is standardized based on the number and type of fields available, and as you can see from the score the Razr’s limited selection hurts it.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (4.3)
The Motorola Razr V3m allows you to assign speed dials to your contacts, up to 1000 for those who have loads of contacts. Voice command is present on the phone, which allows you to place a call simply by speaking the contact’s name, and type of phone number without pre-recording a voice tag. For example: Call Sarah Mobile, would call Sarah’s mobile phone number. Unfortunately the voice command only recognized 3 of our 5 test names, and the Motorola Razr V3m does not allow you to assign your own voice tags to contacts, which means that your pretty much stuck if the voice command software won’t recognize the name. We were pleased to see true voice dialing available, this is not a feature that is often found on phones at the Razr V3m’s price point. However we were not impressed with the implementation.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (4.4)
To test how difficult it is to add calendar items we begin with the phone closed and time how long it takes to add a simple lunch appointment. We run this test 5 times and take the average. The Motorola Razr V3m took an average of 22.6 seconds to complete this task. This time is not very good compared to most phones as the calendar functions are buried in the Razr V3m’s menus. However it is better than the LG Chocolate, which took 29.4 seconds.
Calendar Views (3.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m has 3 calendar views, daily, weekly and monthly. The daily view lists all of the appointments for the day in chronological order, with the title, start time and icons for reminder and recurrence. The weekly view displays a seven day week, from Sunday to Saturday. The days are divided into hour blocks, and you need to scroll up/down to see the entire day. An hour block is marked in pink if there is an appointment during that time period. No additional data is provided. The monthly view displays a single month at a time, with days that have an appointment highlighted in yellow. It would have been nice to see some consistency in coloring between the weekly and monthly view. Selecting a day of the month will take you to the daily view.
Overall we weren’t very impressed with the calendar views on the Razr V3m, which is unsurprising as this feature is a throw in for a phone of this type. The daily view provides an average amount of information, but the weekly and monthly views are almost completely useless.
Fields (5.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m’s calendar allows you to enter a title, set the start and end times, add a reminder and also set recurring appointments for each appointment. We were pleased to see the option to set recurring appointments as this feature is often missing from phones like the Razr V3m. Other than that the fields provided are very basic.
ToDo/Tasks (4 score
Adding ToDo/Task (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support tasks. This is unfortunate, and as you can see it will hit the Razr V3m hard on the scoring as it gets zeros in this section.
ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
No Todo/Task Progra
Fields (0.0)
See Above
Notes (4 scores)
Adding Notes (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support text notes. This is an unfortunate omission as even a simple notes program can be useful for making a grocery list or jotting down an important thought.
Note Interface (0.0)
See Above
Note Formatting (0.0)
See Above
Voice Memo (5.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m allows you to record voice notes up to 10 minutes in length. One nice option is that you can then use these notes as a ringer for your phone. The voice notes application is found in the tools are of the menu, so it is not very convenient for everyday use unless you set it to one of your home screen shortcuts. You cannot send existing voice notes via email or MMS.
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