Motorola RAZR V3m Cell Phone Review - Software
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 16, 2007 Comment on this |
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OS (1.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m runs on Motorola’s proprietary operating system, which has received limited updates over the past few years. The operating system is not very responsive, difficult to use for many tasks, and not very intuitive. We found ourselves frustrated by the lack of features and the inability to complete simple tasks.
Home Screen Score (5.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m’s home screen presents you with basic data, including indicators for battery, signal strength and alarms, amongst others. You also get the current time. In addition to these indicators you get a menu that indicates what applications are associated with each of the 5 directions on the D-Pad, and two soft keys.
Extensibility (3.0)
Running a proprietary OS the Motorola Razr V3m has limited opportunities for adding third party software. You can add java applications, which you can purchase from Sprint’s store or download from the internet. Compared to advanced operating systems like Windows Mobile or Palm OS that allows you to install a wide range of third party programs, the Razr V3m’s operating system is fairly limited. That being said, there are some nice java applications available nowadays, such as google maps and the opera mini web browser which can add significant value to your device.
Customizability (2.0)
For those who wish to customize the look and feel of their phones, the Motorola Razr V3m does not provide you with very many options. Aside from assigning a screen saver from any of the built in graphics or any photo that you take, there really are very few other options. You can change the clock on the home screen from digital to analog, or get rid of it altogether. You can also get rid of the home screen graphic that displays your D-Pad shortcuts and you can enter a custom banner that displays when the phone is started. You don’t have any options to change things like font type or size. The Razr V3m has poor options for customizability compared to most other phones.
OS Responsivness (3.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m’s operating system is not very responsive even when dealing with simple tasks. It can demonstrate significant lag when attempting to access advanced features. This is exacerbated by the fact that many of the V3m’s key features (such as music) are tied to Sprint’s network, which means that if you are in an area with limited service the time to connect and launch an application can be significant. We were not impressed with the responsiveness of the Razr V3m’s operating system when compared with other phones.
Gaming (2.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m comes with demos of several games; unfortunately none of these provide much functionality. The fact that there is not a single full version game included with the phone is frankly rather cheap, you would hope for at least one game that you could kill some time with on the subway.
The Razr V3m can play java games, which can be purchased online or from Sprint. The controls on the Razr V3m don’t lend themselves very well to gaming. The flat directional pad leads to too many errors, especially when trying to hit the center button. Compared to other phones the Razr V3m is a basic gaming platform.
Browser Features (5.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m uses the Obigo mobile browser, which provides a good range of functionality, but misses out on high-end feature. HTML, WAP and xHTML are all supported, as are functions such as cookies and encryption. Advanced features such as RSS subscription, frames and password management are not supported. Compared to browsers found on most regular cell phones the Razr V3m’s browser does an average job. Compared to browsers found on advanced smart phones, or something like the excellent Opera Mini browser, it is sub par.
Browsing Interface(3.0)
The phone browser allows you to adjust your fonts, but does not include options such as searching the current page, zooming or opening additional tabs/windows. The browser does a good job of formatting pages to fit on a single screen width, but it does have trouble with complicated pages and there is a lot of scrolling involved with such pages. What it does it does well, however the dearth of features on the V3m’s browser compares badly with other cell phones
The Motorola Razr V3m’s browser allows you to set and delete bookmarks, however you cannot edit them once set. History is available for your current session, but is reset when the browser is closed. No other advanced features are available. The browser on the V3m does the basics, but a few extra features such as folder support for the favorites would have been nice. It would have also been nice to be able to save your history from session to session as this saves you from re-entering long url’s.
Browser Access (3.08)
To test how easy it is to acces the browser we counted how many steps it takes to launch the browser, enter a url (we count the actual entering of the url as one step) and go to the web page. We choose to count steps rather than timing this procedure because many phones are required to interface with the network in order to launch their browsers, and we wanted to remove this variability.
It takes 13 steps to reach our test page with the Razr V3m. This is an average amount of steps for a feature phone, for example the LG Chocolate takes 14 steps to reach our test page. More data centric phones like the Motorola Q however take on 6 steps to reach our test page. Given how much access to the web on your phone is being touted, we wish that manufacturers like Motorola would improve access to the browser on their devices.
Calculator (4.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m’s calculator application provides basic addition, multiplication, subtraction and division functions. We were not able to run our advanced test formula that calls for taking the square root of a number. For those who simply want to calculate tips or do some quick and easy calculations the Razr V3m’s calculator will be helpful, anyone who wants to use the V3m for advanced calculator functions will be disappointed.
Alarm (8.0)
The alarm program on the Motorola Razr V3m allows you to set up to 5 different alarms, each of which can be turned on or off. The program allows you to set one off alarms, or create repeating alarms that go off daily, on weekdays or on weekends. You can also set different ringers for different alarms. We had no problems setting our test alarms; the interface is intuitive and easy to use.
Document Software (0.0)
The Motorola Razr V3m does not support viewing or editing of documents.
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