Razr2 V9 on AT&T Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Mark Brezinski Published on October 02, 2007 Comment on this |
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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)
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.
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