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Razr2 V9 on AT&T Cell Phone Review

Mark Brezinski Published on October 02, 2007 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

The Razr2 V9 is AT&T's version of Motorola's latest Razr cell phone. The major carriers are offering different iterations of the device. So far, we've reviewed the Sprint and Verizon versions and found them to be disappointing, to say the least. Will AT&T's take on the Razr2 fulfill the phone's potential? As this burning question has undoubtedly pushed you to the very edge of your seat, we'll answer it right now to avoid any posture-related discomfort: no, no it won't. Again, the AT&T version fails to fulfill the potential of the phone; the software that AT&T loads on it doesn't take full advantage of the hardware.

But despite these repeated inabilities to take advantage of its hardware, the Razr2 still contains many improvements over the old Razr. The most prominent new feature is its external screen, which is as good as the main display we see on many phones, and has a touch-sensitive area in its lower quarter. AT&T's V9 only offers music functionality on the external screen, unfortunately. The buttons provide pseudo tactile feedback by vibrating the phone slightly when a touch button is pressed. The V9 also has much better battery life than the old Razr, though battery life for Web browsing is downright abysmal.

The V9's price will be another sticking point for some. The phone costs $399 with a contract from AT&T, or $499 without one, meaning that both the Sprint and Verizon versions are less expensive and offer similar functionality.

Tour & Design - The Razr2 V9 is certainly a good looking phone, and we found it to be sturdy; it should stand up to rough treatment.

Audio Quality - Here we test the V9's audio quality. It does well on all our tests, producing clean, accurate sound.

Imaging - The V9's 2-megapixel camera takes surprisingly good images, but the camera software is just south of mediocre.

Making/Receiving Calls - The Razr2 V9's keypad makes dialing a breeze, and its call management software is one of the phone's strongest features.

Messaging - The messaging features on this phone are really inconsistent. The phone integrates MMS and SMS, which is a great step forward, but the Web-based e-mail client is bad, even for Web-based clients, and is inexplicably hidden in the Games & Apps folder, as opposed to the Messaging section.

Organizer - If all you need is rudimentary organizational features and don't make plans outside the business day, the V9 should suit your needs adequately.

Multimedia - The V9 handles music well,  taking advantage of the external screen to make controlling music easy. It doesn't handle video nearly as well.

Software - The software on the V9 is sparse, and the phone isn't nearly extensible enough to make up for these shortcomings.

Battery Life - The V9 performed well on our battery tests. This is one of the Razr2's best qualities.

Connectivity - The Razr2 V9 is a quad-band GSM phone that supports Bluetooth 2.0.

Hardware - Hardware is where the V9 is blessed. Its external screen is better than most phones' primary screens.

Other Features - The only additional feature the V9 has is the ability to act as a tethered modem.

Value & Comparisons - The V9 is a great piece of hardware that's been afflicted with suboptimal software.

[page title="Tour & Design"]

Front Closed

The very top of the front of the Razr2 V9 is home to its camera lens. Below that, to the top left of the Motorola insignia, is a small LED that glows green when the phone is charging. Below this is the external screen.

Front Open

The top half of the open Razr2 V9 is dedicated to the main screen. The bottom half starts out with the d-pad and its entourage. The top row of buttons consists of the two soft keys. The next row down sports shortcuts to the browser and cellular video, and the last row is where you can find the send and end keys on either side of a back/clear key.

Left

The left side of the phone starts with the volume rocker, below which is the "Smart Key." The Smart Key is the external screen's select button and unlock key. At the opposite end is the data/power micro USB port.

Top

There's nothing on the top but the phone's casing.

Bottom

The bottom has a couple of slits for the microphone.

Right

The right side features the shutter button.

Back

The only notable feature on the back of the phone is the battery cover.

Battery Out

With the battery cover off, you can see the Micro SD and SIM card slots. Removing the battery doesn't reveal any particularly interesting features, but is necessary to get to the SIM card.

In the Box (3.0)

In our other reviews of the Razr2 we pointed out that, for an expensive phone, it really doesn't come with much in the box. In an interesting twist, our AT&T-branded Razr2 came with no box at all; it came inside a plastic sandwich bag. Inside our Ziplock was the phone, its charger, and a USB cable for micro USB ports. It didn't even come with any manuals, but we're assuming AT&T will at least include a few advertisement flyers in your plastic bag. Of course, if you were to receive your phone in an actual retail box, you'd find everything we did, plus manuals and a 3.5mm headphone adapter.

Handling (5.0)
The new Razr has a bit more heft to it than the original did. It feels really solid and fits comfortably in the hand. While the front and back do tend to feel slippery, the sides have a texture to them that should help with grip.

Portability (8.0)
The Razr is just as portable as ever, sized to fit in pockets, purses, and bags with equal ease.

Aesthetics (8.0)
The Razr2 V9 looks good. It's nothing flashy like the iPhone or E90, but that's what happens when your design sets an aesthetic standard; subsequent renditions come off as a bit ... standard. The huge external screen helps a lot in reinventing said standard, however. While you won't run into any obnoxious case colors at the moment, we're sure your hot pinks and retina-burning oranges will be available once again. One knock against its aesthetics is its shiny metal casing and glossy screen, since they do nothing but showcase hand grease all day long. The new Razr is the greasiest phone we've reviewed since the new Chocolate. Again, however, keep it clean and it's quite the looker.

Durability (7.0)
The Razr2 seems to be well constructed. It's sturdy overall, though the halves can move parallel to each other slightly in the closed position. Moving parts are always a concern, but the Razr2 seems to be solid; the hinge feels tough enough to stand up to extended use. Compare this to the Samsung Blast if you wish to assuage any durabilty fears.

[page title="Audio Quality"]

Regardless of the extras handsets come packaged with nowadays, a phone's primary job is making calls. Audio quality will most likely be the feature of the phone you'll notice most. And for outgoing calls, if you've ever been told you sound completely different on the phone then you understand that initial moment of, "Wait, what do I sound like?" Here we try to clear up those issues before you have an important interview hang up because your voice sounds like an impostor. We test audio quality using the same equipment and software manufacturers use to test phones. Our hardware, HATS, is a head and torso simulator that simulates human hearing and speech frequency. Our software is SoundCheck, which analyzes the frequencies and measures them against industry standards. If you want to know more about our testing, click here.

Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.85)

The V9 did a good job relaying the frequencies it received. As you can see from the graph, the line stays in between the limits right until the very end, where it drops off a bit before it should. This means the highest frequencies might sound slightly muffled, but you probably won't notice. Overall, a great job.

Cell Phone	Razr2 V9	Sanyo Katana DLX (on Sprint)	Nokia N75 (on AT&T)
Score	8.85	5.46	8.73
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung Blast (on T-Mobile)	Helio Fin (on Helio)	Apple iPhone (on AT&T)
Score	5.56	9.33	7.58
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Sound Send Frequency Response (8.28)

Again, the V9 performs admirably. Though the graph isn't as close to bisecting the limits as the first one, the line still remains within the limits throughout. Phones typically do a worse job with your own voice as opposed to that of an incoming caller, which is why the V9 was able to perform worse and still outscore all the comparison models. Again, however, the graph takes a plunge near the end, which means that your voice might sound a little clipped.

Cell Phone	AT&T Razr2 V9	Sanyo Katana DLX (on Sprint)	Nokia N75 (on AT&T)
Score	8.28	7.80	7.57
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung Blast (on T-Mobile)	Helio Fin (on Helio)	Apple iPhone (on AT&T)
Score	5.56	8.25	7.58
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Handset Side Tone (9.72)

Side tone refers to the amount of your own voice the phone plays back to you over the speaker. If you can't hear your voice you have a tendency to speak louder, and if it sounds too loud, you'll feel as though you should whisper. The ideal side tone is 18 decibels, which the V9 comes incredibly close to with 17.72. This score rounds out a great set of results from the V9.

Cell Phone	Side Tone Measurement	Score
Razr2 V9	17.72	9.72
Sanyo Katana DLX	20.23	7.77
Nokia N75	14.85	6.85
Samsung Blast	19.56	8.44
Helio Fin	21.25	6.75
Apple iPhone	8.80	0.80

[page title="Imaging"]

Resolution (4.72)
We measure a phone's capture resolution by taking a series of pictures of an industry standard resolution chart. We then run them through Imatest, which analyzes the images. In the case of resolution, the chart depicts multiple series of alternating black and white lines of varying widths. Here, Imatest analyzes the point at which the phone stops rendering lines and instead blurs them together into a shade of gray. This result is measured in line widths per pixel height, or lw/ph. The Razr2 V9 measured 1031 lw/ph horizontally and 812.5 lw/ph vertically. This isn't a bad score by any means, especially for a 2-megapixel camera. 

Cell Phone	Razr2 V9	Sanyo Katana DLX	Nokia N75
Score	4.72	0.45	1.14
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	1031/812.5	316.6/249.4	505.9/698.8
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung Blast	Helio Fin	Apple iPhone
Score	0.68	2.77	4.18
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	392.1/345.6	790.1/866.5	970/879
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (5.66)
To test color quality, we again capture images of an industry standard chart and run the results through Imatest for analysis. In this case the chart is a Gretag Macbeth color chart. Imatest measures the resulting capture against the ideal colors and determines the difference. The first graph below depicts three things: the bottom layer is the image the phone captured, the larger inset rectangles represent the colors adjusted for luminance, and the smallest, innermost rectangle represents the true color.

The second graph plots the information present in the first graph on a color gamut. The squares represent the colors the phone captured, which are attached by a line to a circled area, which represents what that color should actually look like. The longer the line, the further off the color is. While the V9 did a relatively good job representing color, it does tend to undersaturate colors. Also, most of the lines radiate inward at an angle, meaning the colors are misrepresented slightly; if they were purely undersaturated the lines would point directly at the center of the graph. Some blues will appear greenish, and some reds will appear more purple.

Cell Phone	Razr2 V9	Sanyo Katana DLX	Nokia N75
Score	5.66	6.54	3.47
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung Blast	Helio Fin	Apple iPhone
Score	4.48	5.94	5.22
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (0.83)
Given the relatively low resolution of the V9's camera, we weren't surprised that it had a slightly lower noise score. Phones with higher resolution typically have more noise than those with lower resolutions because the former captures more detail. Still, the V9 isn't far off from its lower-resolution competition, as seen in the graph below. Unless you're taking pictures in a dark environment, you most likely won't run into much trouble with noise.

Cell Phone	Score
Razr2 V9	0.83
Sanyo Katana DLX	0.41
Nokia N75	1.44
Samsung Blast	1.46
Helio Fin	1.20
Apple iPhone	0.86

Live Preview (4.0)
The V9's live preview was a bit sluggish, blurring whenever we moved the phone. It did a decent job reproducing colors, however. We were happy the preview took up the whole screen, but the translucent bottom margin made it hard to judge if we had framed our captures correctly.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (6.27)
Here we try and approximate how quickly a user could expect to whip out their phone and capture an image. We start a timer with the phone closed, then take a picture of said timer, using the time displayed in the captured image as the result. After a few trials, the V9 showed it could take a picture in about 3.19 seconds. This is on the fast side of average, and the V9 was helped out by its dedicated camera shortcut button, fast software boot up, and quick shutter response. 

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	3.19	6.27
Sanyo Katana DLX	3.10	6.45
Nokia N75	4.70	4.26
Samsung Blast	3.75	5.33
Helio Fin	6.20	3.23
Apple iPhone	2.43	8.23

Shot to Shot Time (2.47)
To measure how quickly a phone can capture multiple images, we again point the lens at a timer. We take a group of pictures, using the final captured image as the total time the sequence took. The V9 captured its last image at 6.07 seconds, which is about 0.82 frames per second (fps). This is pretty fast for a phone that doesn't have a Burst mode. Most phones with Burst mode wind up managing somewhere between 2 and 3 fps. So, the V9 wouldn't be  fast enough to capture a football play, but it would be good enough to capture a kid's soccer game.

Cell Phone	FPS	Score
Razr2 V9	0.82	2.47
Sanyo Katana DLX	2.10	6.30
Nokia N75	0.43	1.29
Samsung Blast	2.11	6.33
Helio Fin	0.19	0.57
Apple iPhone	0.40	1.20

Shutter to Shot Time (9.09)
To measure shutter to shot time, we take pictures of a timer one final time. Here, we start the timer the instant we press the shutter key. The resulting image displays the time it took the phone to register the command and snap the picture. The V9 had a very fast shutter to shot time, at 0.22 seconds. Chances are you won't miss a spontaneous moment with a capture speed this fast.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	0.22	9.09
Sanyo Katana DLX	0.38	5.26
Nokia N75	0.73	2.74
Samsung Blast	0.35	5.71
Helio Fin	0.60	3.33
Apple iPhone	0.40	5.00

Interface (6.0)

AT&T's Razr2 sports a generic interface. The top has a few graphic reminders, such as the current capture mode and memory card capacity. The bottom contains a translucent menu bar with the soft key shortcuts Options and Back. Above this is a picture of the d-pad, which allows you to zoom, fix lighting, toggle exposure, or choose a color filter. The Options menu is really sparse, allowing you to set up a timer, go to the album, and not much else. There is a camera setup option in that menu, where you can change the resolution, quality, or shutter tone. You can also toggle Mirror mode on or off. Overall, a very basic interface with easy, intuitive controls.

Photo Album Software Internal (5.0)

The "photo album" software on the V9 is just a fancy name for "file structure." You have an initial file where all photos get stored, and you can move them around individually, but you can't organize them all in any way (other than to filter by if those stored on the memory card and those stored on the phone). Adding them to an album simply puts them in a different folder that you can name and is kept separate from the initial file dump. Once you have an album, you can create simple slide shows. You can opt to have your slide shows repeat, set the interval at which the pictures cycle, and set the portrait orientation (either 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise from the normal orientation). The inclusion of the slide show feature is the only thing that makes the V9's album more than a file tree without any sort of mass organization functionality.

Manual Control (2.0)
You do have some manual control options with the V9. You can change the color filter from one of six presets (black & white, sepia, etc.),  alter the exposure levels (range: -2 to +2), or use one of the five lighting presets. Only the lighting presets are significant enough to garner points, however.

Zoom (1.0)
The V9 has digital zoom, which we only award one point for. This is because all digital zoom does is crop and enlarge the photo, often distorting the image and lowering its quality.

Focus (0.0)
The V9 has a fixed focus lens, which we don't award points for.

Flash (0.0)
The V9 doesn't have any sort of flash, which is why we didn't award it any sort of points.

Metering (0.0)
The V9 doesn't contain any metering features.

White Balance (2.0)
As mentioned above, the V9 has five presets for white balance, aside from the default automatic setting. These settings are Sunny, Cloudy, Indoor (Home), Indoor (Office), and Night. This is not a vast array of options by any means, but still enough for the V9 to score a few points.

Image Handling (0.0)
Here we award points for things like red-eye correction and other photo-editing features. Unfortunately, none of these can be found on the V9.

Video

Overall Video Score (3.0)
The video on the Razr2 V9 isn't good. The V9 can capture 3GP videos in 320 x 240 resolution, but the result looks bad. We would have liked to see some additional capture formats, but most phones stick to 3GP. The quality of the videos the V9 can take is good enough for your screen, though the result will be somewhat choppy. Anything larger than the phone's screen, however, will most likely depict a garbled mess.

Video Resolution (2.35)
We test video resolution much the same way we test still capture. We take a video of our industry standard resolution chart, then pull multiple frames out of the result and run them through our image analysis software. Again, this process determines the point at which the phone stops seeing individual lines and starts interpreting them as a swath of gray. The V9 was able to discern 186.7 lw/ph horizontally and 125.8 lw/ph vertically, which really isn't good. Except for casual videos, we would recommend you stick to your camcorder.

Cell Phone	lw/ph horizontal/vertical	Score
Razr2 V9	186.7/125.8	2.35
Sanyo Katana DLX	200.5/181.2	3.63
Nokia N75	315/348.1	10.97
Samsung Blast	107.1/129.2	1.38
Helio Fin	214.1/217.7	4.66
Apple iPhone	N/A: can't capture video	0.0

Video Compression (2.0)
The V9 captures video in 3GP. You can't capture in other formats such as MPEG-4.

Interface (5.0)
The video interface on the V9 is slightly different from the camera interface. The most noticeable difference is the giant black bar at the bottom that takes up about a quarter of the screen. Other than that, the interface is identical. The d-pad functions remain the same, only the on-screen d-pad display remains on screen. Again, however, the interface is simple, if a bit sparse on functionality. 

Manual Control (2.0)
The same manual controls from Camera mode are found in Video mode. Again, however, only the white balance settings are significant enough to merit points.

Zoom (1.0)
The V9 has a 4X digital zoom, but again, we only award one point for digital zoom because it has a big cost in terms of quality.

Editing (0.0)
The V9 has no video editing features. If you mess up a video, then you'll need to reshoot it; you can't edit or trim videos after then have been recorded.

Modes (4.0)
There are three video quality settings: good, better, and best. There is no documentation to clarify exactly what these arbitrary labels mean. Examining the files reveals the labels refer to the bitrate; all are recorded at the same resolution. There is also an MMS mode, which limits the recording time to 30 seconds.

[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]

Dialing Speed (3.35)
We test dialing speed by timing how long it takes to input each of five different test numbers. We then average the times. AT&T's Razr2 V9 scored about the same as its other iterations, taking about 3.35 per phone number. This is a good time for a flip phone. The large buttons mean you probably won't make any mistakes while dialing. 

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	3.35	5.97
Sanyo Katana DLX	3.76	5.32
Nokia N75	3.34	5.99
Samsung Blast	3.36	5.95
Helio Fin	3.64	5.49
Apple iPhone	3.96	5.05

Talk and End Buttons (6.5)                                    
The talk and end buttons are located on the bottom left and right corners of the d-pad array. They're quite large, and have distinct textures to their icons, so they should be easy to find by touch. As you'll read in the hardware section, none of the keys on the phone have spectacular travel, since all the internal buttons are printed on the same piece of metal. The problem is especially pronounced toward the edges, but by no means will it ruin your Razr2 experience.

Call Management (5.0)

    

The Razr2 V9 keeps its recent calls in the top right of the Main menu. Dialed, received, and missed calls can be viewed by filtering the initial list. Each call entry contains the name, number, time, and date of the call. The phone also keeps call timers for all calls, as well as individual dialed and received calls.

In a call, the soft keys link to options on the left and speaker phone on the right. The Options menu holds old standbys like mute, hold, and new call, but also includes options to view your recent calls, use Bluetooth, enable TTY mode, remind you of your telephone number, open an application, or look at "other info." Other info clues you in to your Flex and S/W versions, or lets you know if you're data or browser-ready. The smart key, shutter button, and Media net shortcut all perform their intended functions, but apparently Cellular Video is off limits.

Conferencing is relatively easy to initiate, as when you have two calls on the line the right soft key changes to "Link." Once you've started a conference call, though, individual numbers and names are lost in the mix.

Startup to Call (14.75)
Here we score a phone based on how quickly it can turn on and make a call. The Razr2 V9 took 14.75 seconds, which is much quicker than the Sprint and Verizon versions of the phone, which took 37.90 seconds and 22.82 seconds, respectively. This is just an example of the difference software can make on performance. Potential users should note that numbers can be input during the AT&T animation while the phone boots up, which makes dialling quicker.
 

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	14.75	6.78
Sanyo Katana DLX	24.26	4.12
Nokia N75	40.56	2.47
Samsung Blast	21.48	4.66
Helio Fin	28.18	3.55
Apple iPhone	26.12	3.83

Ring Volume (8.48)
To measure ring volume, we hold the phone up to a sound pressure meter to find out how many decibels each ringtone is. The loudest ringtone on the Razr2 V9 was 84.8 decibels. This is a bit weak, and we noticed none of the tones were particularly ear-catching. If you get the V9, you should be prepared to pay close attention, or else you could miss calls.

Cell Phone	Volume (decibels)	Score
Razr2 V9	84.8	8.48
Sanyo Katana DLX	85.7	8.57
Nokia N75	85.3	8.53
Samsung Blast	85.5	8.55
Helio Fin	85.6	8.56
Apple iPhone	84.9	8.49

Ringtone Customizability (2.0)
While you can't use songs as ringtones, you can use voice clips. You can also purchase ringtones from AT&T for $2.50 each. That's rather expensive; we give more points to phones that let you use the music you already own as ringtones.

Non Audio Alerts (6.0)
The V9's vibration is fairly weak and easy to miss if it's in a pocket. If it's in a bag, it'll be a missed call virtually every time. While vibrating, the external screen lights up and shows you the incoming call's information, but if you can see the screen chances are the phone is on a table or in your hand, and you'll hear or feel the vibration anyway.

[page title="Messaging"]

Supported E-mail Services (0.0)
Like the Sprint and Verizon takes on the Razr2, AT&T's vision of the device doesn't have a built-in e-mail client. Instead, the V9's e-mail is Web-based. The main problem with a Web-based e-mail client is if you're in a no-service area, you're totally cut off from your e-mail; you can't even write an email in preparation for when you get a signal again. Phones with built-in clients download your e-mail to the phone so you can read them at any time. We don't award points for Web-based clients.

Push E-mail (0.0)
N/A: no built-in e-mail client.

Multiple E-mail Accounts (0.0)
N/A: no built-in e-mail client.

HTML and Attachments (0.0)
N/A: no built-in e-mail client.

E-mail Customizations (0.0)
N/A: no built-in e-mail client.

Time to a New Message (0.0)
N/A: no built-in e-mail client.

E-mail Usability (0.0)
N/A: no built-in e-mail client.

Supported IM Services (0.0)
The V9 does support Instant Messaging, specifically AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! services. Like on Verizon and Sprint, however, each message sent and received is charged as an SMS. This means you'll still be charged even if you have an unlimited data plan, which is a ridiculous practice. As such, we don't award points for this service.

MMS Support (9.0)

It would appear AT&T is taking a step forward in MMS support by integrating MMS and SMS messages. Most phones keep the two separate, which means if you start writing a text message, you can't attach a picture later and call it an MMS. This isn't so on the V9, which we were very happy to see. Of course, you can also create an MMS straight from the camera or from an album. This is very good MMS support.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
The V9 doesn't support smiley faces. It does give you the option to insert "graphics," which is separate from pictures. Unfortunately, our graphics folder was empty, but you can buy a whole collection over at the AT&T Mall. The exclusion of smiley faces and graphics is odd, especially since other carriers choose to at least include some small graphics for free.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (6.0)

The SMS/MMS interface is really basic. The only field shown is the body of the message. The title and recipient's addresses can be input through Sending Options, under the left soft key's menu. The inbox itself can be sorted by time, subject, or message type, as well as filtered by phone or SIM card messages. The default sort is by date, with newer messages at the top. The interface is easy to use, and again, the integration of MMS and SMS messages is definitely a step forward. 

Time to a New SMS Message (7.87)

We measure the ease of creating a new SMS message with this timing test. We begin with the phone closed and unlocked, then stop our timer when the new SMS entry dialogue opens up. We repeat the process five times, then average out the times. Thanks to its home screen shortcut, the Razr2 V9 only took 1.27 seconds to get to a new SMS message. This is a great score for a flip phone, which takes about a half second to flip open in the first place.                      

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	1.27	7.87
Sanyo Katana DLX	0.94	10.64
Nokia N75	1.84	5.43
Samsung Blast	1.35	7.41
Helio Fin	3.40	2.94
Apple iPhone	2.62	3.82

[page title="Organizer"]

Synchronization (0.0)
The Razr2 V9 can't sync PIM information out of the box. You can purchase synchronization software from Motorola here.

Alerts (2.0)
Though it has some interesting options, the alert functionality on the V9 is fairly poor. First of all, the reminder can be set to any time, but there are also three presets (five, 15, or 30 minutes before) to save input time. The alarm itself can be set to a sound, music, voice note, or vibration. Though the V9 recognized the files our songs were in, we couldn't set them as ring tones. The option is definitely there, though, as you can sort by genre and artist. We're guessing this refers to ring tones you download from the AT&T store. In the case of vibration, you can set the pattern you want.

Where the alert really began to fall down was when it came to actually alerting. The phone will sound its alarm exactly once. Also, there is no snooze option. All you can do is view the event or choose to ignore it. If you don't choose anything, the phone won't alert you again, but it will keep the reminder up on both screens (presuming the external screen isn't idling), which will light up for a few seconds every five minutes or so. You can choose to ignore it from the external screen by pressing the smart key, but you can't view it here, which is just one example of the software not taking advantage of the hardware. If you leave it, every five minutes the screen will light up again, but it won't sound its alarm. The lack of a snooze is quite an inexplicable exclusion. We were very disappointed in the V9's alert functionality.

Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Razr2 V9 doesn't support over the air PIM synchronization.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (6.06)

This score is based on how easily you can add contacts to your Razr2 V9. We measure this by timing how long the process takes. We begin with the phone closed, and end once the contact is saved. We repeat this process with five different sets of information, then average our times. The V9 took about 16.5 seconds per contact, which is faster than many phones. The way we inputted contacts was to dial the number first, then use the right soft key to save the number as a contact. We otherwise would have had to dive through a few menus, which would have added to our time substantially. 
                                    

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	16.50	6.06
Sanyo Katana DLX	23.36	4.28
Nokia N75	22.84	4.38
Samsung Blast	19.45	5.14
Helio Fin	22.02	4.54
Apple iPhone	20.86	4.79

Looking/Sorting/Search (2.0)

Contacts are organized alphabetically by name. The name used is based on a tier system: nickname has the highest priority, but if none is provided, the phone goes by first name. If there's no first name, then contacts are sorted by last name. You can cycle through a contact's different numbers/e-mail/website using left and right. You can also choose to filter your contacts by category, all of which you can edit. There is no active search.

Fields (3.0)

The Razr2 V9 from AT&T has 15 fields for contacts. These fields include sub-field classifications, such as identifying an e-mail as personal, work, or other. You can also set a ringer ID, picture, category, and birthday. You can also add additional numbers, e-mail addresses, URLs, and postal addresses.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.0)
AT&T's Razr2 V9 offers the same functionality here as the Sprint or Verizon version. Contacts are limited to eight choices for speed dialing, which is disappointing since many phones support button combinations. There are no voice tags, and the voice command software only recognized four of our five test names.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (5.52)
To test how quickly you can add a calendar item we time how long it takes to go from phone closed until we have added a simple lunch appointment with a 15-minute reminder before hand. The Razr2 V9 took an average of 27.18 seconds to add a new calendar appointment. This is a pretty poor time, as you can see from the table below. Our biggest issue was that we had to manually adjust the start and end times for the appointment and turn on the alert manually. Some phones add a 15-minute alert automatically. We were also hurt by the fact that the calendar application is buried in the menus. This is not an impressive performance by the Razr2 V9.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	18.12	5.52
Sanyo Katana DLX	15.22	6.57
Nokia N75	19.20	5.21
Samsung Blast	26.46	3.78
Helio Fin	14.10	7.09
Apple iPhone	18.92	5.29

Calendar Views (4.0)

The V9's calendar has four views: month, week, day, and an agenda view. The first three are standard. The month view shows six weeks. Days with a scheduled item have a blue triangle in the bottom right corner. Sundays, for some reason, have red numbers for dates.

Week mode offers functionality that is slightly more uncommon, but not in a good way. It is set up like most phones, with days listed across the top and hours from top to bottom. Events are represented by a blue highlight on the appropriate chunk of time. All-day events are handled by a blue circle in the top hour box. The only weird portion is that the day runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and there's nothing you can do to change that. We tried scrolling down, but that just browsed to the next week. We scheduled an event from 5 p.m. (before the 7 p.m. cutoff date) that lasted until 9 p.m., but we couldn't scroll down. We then scheduled one from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., but that day just showed up as a blank. We could understand this (maybe) in a business device, since it's feasible most business users would predominantly be using their week view to schedule work-related items. This isn't a business device, however, which means the calendar will most likely be used for scheduling social events. As most social events won't occur during the workday, the V9's week view is quite poor.

With the day view, the V9 jumps back up to average. Individual events are organized by their start time, which is displayed along with their title. Also displayed is a small icon depicting what "type" of event it is, such as a party, lunch, or meeting.

The agenda view is called Organized Events, and breaks down all upcoming events into groups. The first two options are to view upcoming events for the current and following week, and also display the number of events that fall into either. Underneath, it breaks events down by their type and ends with "Unfiled Events," or events without a defined type.

Fields (9.0)

AT&T packed some decent fields into the V9. You'll find the standard subject, location, start/end times/days, and alarm. Some more uncommon fields include recurrence, notes, event type (category), and an "All Day Event" switch. Most normal phones don't support categories and all-day events, but then again, the Razr2 isn't priced like a normal phone.

To Do/Tasks

Adding To Do/Task (5.25)
Unlike the Sprint and Verizon versions of the Razr2, AT&T's contribution to the lineup is able to create tasks. This section is where we score how fast a phone can create tasks. As with all our timing tests, we begin with the phone closed. We stop our timer when the task is saved. The V9 took 19.05 seconds to create a task, which was a bit on the slow side. This is because the task function is integrated into the calendar, but requires additional delving into menus.                             

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	19.05	5.25
Sanyo Katana DLX	17.96	5.57
Nokia N75	14.36	6.96
Samsung Blast	14.53	6.88
Helio Fin	11.58	8.64
Apple iPhone	N/A: can't make tasks	0.0

To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
Tasks are managed via the day view, and are organized by the order they were created in. They are stacked on top of any events for that day. You can view them by type/category, but otherwise you'll have to settle for alphabetical order. You can also give them a priority, but you can't organize them by this.

Fields (9.0)
Tasks on the V9 have seven fields to edit. You can give them a name, status (in/complete), category, priority, due date, reminder, or even jot down a note or two.

Notes

Adding Notes (0.0)
Strangely, AT&T's Razr2 V9 doesn't have a dedicated notes application. This is a fairly commonplace application in modern phones, and its absence -— especially on what is supposed to be a mid-range phone — is noticeable.

Note Interface (0.0)
N/A: Can't create notes.

Note Formatting (0.0)
N/A: Can't create notes.

Voice Memo (4.0)

You can make voice notes on the V9. They can last up to 6:22 in length, which is a seemingly arbitrary length; it's in no way related to remaining space. The V9 fully supports sending voice notes, and you can attach them to a message either from the memo program itself or when creating a message. Like other voice note programs, there is a total lack of organizational features. Notes are just dumped into a folder, where they are listed in the order they were made, and can only be filtered by their storage location (on phone or on a memory card). You can rename them or assign them a category, but you can't opt to sort by either. The only other noteworthy aspect of the voice memo program is its interface. While you're recording, a continually pulsing sound wave is displayed. It is in no way related to any noise you're making, and is somewhat distracting.

[page title="Multimedia"]

Accessing Music Software (6.10)
Here, we give a phone points based on how quickly it can get its music software up and running. We start the timer with the phone closed, and stop it when we get a song playing. The V9 was able to complete this run in 3.28 seconds. We didn't even need to open the phone, as hitting the smart button opened up the music player on the external screen. We performed the same test without using the smart button shortcut and it took nearly twice as long. This is a fast time, but slightly slower than most music handsets, or those with a dedicated music shortcut. 
                                   

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	3.28	6.10
Sanyo Katana DLX	11.86	1.69
Nokia N75	4.04	4.95
Samsung Blast	2.61	7.66
Helio Fin	3.98	5.03
Apple iPhone	3.10	6.45

Dedicated Music Controls (10.0)

The Razr2 had quite a few dedicated music controls. When music is playing in the background, the d-pad gets remapped to have music control functions. Left and right become forward and backward skip, and holding them down rewinds and fast-forwards, respectively. Up pauses, and down opens up the media player's Main menu. Shutting the phone lets the external screen flaunt what little functionality it has. Here, the three touch buttons perform identical functionality to the left, up, and right d-pad directions. Regardless of the phone position, the smart button opens up the media player's Main menu, and volume alters the loudness of song playback.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (6.2)

          

AT&T's Razr2 V9 has some decent music software. It supports playlists, which are easy to create and edit. It also keeps a playlist of your most recently played songs, which was a nice feature. The V9 also supported the main three tag formats: Idv3, iTunes, and WMP. Songs can be viewed by title, artist, album, genre, or composer. There wasn't an active search, however, which is becoming a standard feature in music devices. You can enable a bass boost, but there wasn't an equalizer. A few other features we would've liked to see were a rating system and visualizer. The music player was very easy to access, however, with the dedicated button on the phone's left side.

The V9 supports background play, including when the phone is closed. In fact, when the phone is closed you can use the external touch-sensitive controls. When using the external controls, you may notice one of the most obviously bad design choices on the phone. Whenever you fast-forward or rewind, the song's timer disappears. Normally this is how you know when to stop rewinding or fast forwarding, as it tells you exactly what point you've skipped to in the song. In the case of the V9, it just informs you that you are, in fact, rewinding or fast-forwarding, by replacing the missing timer with those words. We're not sure why AT&T chose to implement this revolutionary new Russian roulette-esque skipping method, but we are sure it is a giant step forward for unintuitive design.

Online Song Downloading (0.0)
While you can download ringtones of a few popular songs, there are no options to download full versions.

Streaming (0.0)
The V9 doesn't support streaming audio.

Podcast Support (0.0)
The V9 also doesn't support podcasts.

Music Sync with PC (7.0)
You can sync the V9 with your PC by connecting it with the USB cable as a mass storage device and going through Windows Media Player.

Music Formats and DRM (2.0)
The only files the Razr2 supports are MP3 and AAC files. This means DRM-encoded files won't work on the phone. Since AT&T's Razr2 seems to be focused on music playback, this sparse file support is disappointing.

Music Interruption (9.0)
The V9 handles music interruption almost exactly how we'd like. When you get a call while listening to music, the song automatically pauses. When the call has ended, the song resumes playing. The only minor aspect we would've liked is a fade-in feature, such as the one on the iPhone. This is an especially welcome feature if you tend to listen to loud music; if the phone conversation is a bit long the sudden playback could be jarring.

Video

Video Software Access (3.76)
Most phones usually don't have video software as good as its music software. For this reason we test video software access separately from music, as the times can often be very different. The Razr2 V9 was able to get a video playing in 5.32 seconds, which isn't bad. More dedicated media devices often have more accessible video players, but most phones squirrel away their video functionality under heaps of menus.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Razr2 V9	5.32	3.76
Sanyo Katana DLX	8.54	2.34
Nokia N75	13.12	1.52
Samsung Blast	2.69	7.43
Helio Fin	4.20	4.76
Apple iPhone	3.20	6.25

Video Controls (7.0)
The video controls are basic. Left and right skip and fast forward or rewind. The select key pauses and resumes. Up enters Full Screen mode and down has no function. When playing in Full Screen mode, these controls shift 90 degrees counter-clockwise — up assumes the duties of forward skipping and down does likewise with reverse skipping. In Full Screen mode, left does not revert to normal playback, and pressing right won't do anything, either. Regardless of the screen orientation, the volume rocker controls the video's sound.

Video Software & Organization (3.0)
Like most phones, the Razr2 V9's video software is nowhere near as good as its music software. Files are organized by name, and can only be filtered by where they're saved (memory card versus phone memory). You can skip around your video files, but there's no way to organize a playlist without just renaming the files. There is also no active search or background play.

The software itself is easy enough to use, with straightforward directions printed below the playback. First time users might be slightly confused by the shifted controls in Full Screen mode, but the 90-degree transposition is by no means cryptic. We would've liked video playback to be more accessible; as it is, it lies buried under several menus, including the oddly named "Media Finder" menu, which sounds more like a search application than a media folder.

Video Sync with PC (7.0)
As with audio, the Razr2 V9 can sync up with your PC via Windows Media Player, provided you connect it as a mass storage device.

Video Formats (10.0)
The Razr2 V9 could play all our 3GP test files, but wasn't able to play any MP4s. Also, when we attempted to play files the phone didn't support, we were prompted to delete them, and the V9 claimed they were corrupted. This is a bit misleading, as the files weren't, in fact, corrupted. V9 users should keep this in mind, and not delete their perfectly good video files just because they won't play on the V9. Other formats received similar treatment, such as Windows Media, QuickTime, Real, and Flash.

Video DRM (0.0)
The Razr2 V9 doesn't support any video DRM.

Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
The V9 supported all our test files, with bitrates extending up to 768 Kbps. You should have no issues with playback smoothness.

Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The V9 does allow you to download short clips from the AT&T Mall shortcut. These are often very short, and cost $2.50. Unfortunately, most of the content is less than substantial, and available elsewhere for free.

Video Streaming unscored

We don't score this section as there aren't any industry standards we could compare the phone to. The Razr2 V9 supports streaming video, however, and many short clips are available for free via the Cellular Video shortcut button.

[page title="Software"]

OS (1.0)
Like the Sprint and Verizon versions, AT&T eschews Motorola's new Java/Linux-based operating system for an old proprietary one. Just as on the other two phones, the OS feels vapid and inappropriate for the hardware. Like its brethren, this Razr2 can't play videos on the external screen. Unlike the other Razr2 phones, however, the external screen can only handle music playback; the other two phones have a few applications that can be run on the outside display.

    

Also, some of the applications are hidden away in locations. For example, e-mail isn't included in the Messaging menu, and can instead be found in the "Games & Apps" folder. The same goes for IM. Though a passable OS in a lower-end phone, it simply isn't appropriate in a mid-range device like the Razr2. The OS's insufficiency is compounded by the availability of a better operating system and advanced hardware that isn't being taken advantage of.

Home Screen Score (5.0)

    

The home screen on the V9 is standard. At the top you'll find signal strength and battery life. At the bottom is the time, as well as the soft key descriptions, which are Options and Main menu. The select button also opens the menu. The four directions of the d-pad also have default shortcuts: up links to a new text message, right boots up the IM client, left opens up mobile e-mail, and down brings up the address book. The mobile e-mail and IM shortcuts are really useful, as both programs are otherwise hidden in a nest of menus. We would've liked the shortcuts to be visible at all times, or for the right soft key and select to handle different functions, but other than that, the home screen is good for a non-business device.

Extensibility (3.0)
The V9 isn't very extensible. You can install some Java applications, but third-party programs aren't supported.

Customizability (3.0)

    

The Razr2 V9 has a few options for customization. There are three skins that come with the phone. The default is full of pastel blues, the alkali skin makes everything black, and the plush skin makes everything pink. There are also themes, but they all cost money. You can also change the background image, or the home screen d-pad shortcuts. The icons in the Main menu can also be reordered. This is a standard level of customizability we'd expect from every phone. 

OS Responsiveness (7.0)
The OS is fairly responsive, and we didn't experience much lag while opening menus or applications. We liken the Razr2's ability to handle its OS to a state-of-the-art gaming rig being able to run Minesweeper. Though it's faster than the previous Razr, we can't help but wonder what else the Razr2's hardware could have handled. We normally reserve scores above 7 for phones that are capable of running complex applications smoothly. While we're sure the Razr2 V9 could've done this to some extent, there are no such applications currently available for it.

Browser Features (7.0)

         

The Razr2 V9 runs Opera 8.0, which is a solid browser for a mobile phone. It can handle WAP, HTML, images, frames, and cookies. It also allows you to save websites and has URL prediction based on your Web history. You can store bookmarks, but there isn't much offered in the way of organization. The phone does support Javascript, but had some problems with our test Javascript sites. The browser lacks password management or encryption, and was unable to handle Flash or Java applets. There also isn't any support for feeds.

Browsing Interface (5.0)

Web pages are reformatted a bit to fit on the Razr2's display. This might make the text appear small at first, but the zoom in function allows you to change the font size (Note: this doesn't actually zoom; images remain the same size). There aren't multiple view options, but getting around is fairly easy with the "Scan Page" scroll setting enabled. The screen can't be rotated, however, and you can't view Web pages using the external screen.

History on the V9 is a bit of an urban legend. Though alluded to in menus, no one has actually seen this "Internet history." The same is true of the cookies and cache: although you can choose to clear them, you can't actually view them. Just about the only tangible hint there is of a history besides being able to empty it is the predictive URL entry. Also, the last URL you've typed in is saved in the URL entry form, and must be erased in order to type in another one. We found this incredibly annoying. Bookmarks, on the other hand, are very simple and to the point. Newer bookmarks just get dropped at the bottom. While there isn't any file structure you can create, you can organize your bookmarks somewhat via a grab and drop system.

Though a bit basic, the V9's browser is certainly easy to use. Our main gripe was the URL entry's memory. We also would've liked to see more advanced functionality, given this phone's class. As it is, some lower-range phones have comparable browsers.

Browser Access (5.0)
Unlike our other timing tests, we measure the speed of browser access in steps. We would normally use time as we feel it more accurately captures complexity, but browsing, carriers, and reception could drastically affect the score. Again, we begin with the phone closed and unlocked, then count how many input steps are necessary to open a website. We count opening the phone (if necessary) and entering in the URL as one step each. The V9 managed to get a Web page up in 8 steps. Once opened, we pressed the browser shortcut key. From there four steps were spent in menu navigation bringing up the URL entry dialogue. Once you've deleted in the old URL and entered in the desired one, all that's left is hitting OK.

Cell Phone	Steps	Score
Razr2 V9	8	5.00
Sanyo Katana DLX	8	5.00
Nokia N75	8	5.00
Samsung Blast	6	6.67
Helio Fin	6	6.67
Apple iPhone	4	10

Gaming (5.0)
The V9 actually has a decent array of games. Granted, they're all trial versions, but they aren't all Tetris, Breakout, or Bejeweled rip-offs, which is refreshing. One of the demos is for Diner Dash, which is basically a multitasking game that has you pressing buttons that correspond to a table, food, or patron. It also has a ridiculous combo system where you can chain together actions for more points. There are the typical bowling/golf/billiards games and lounge games, as well as a Tetris and Bejeweled knock-off and a Scrabble game that's more like Boggle than anything