T-Mobile Razr2 V8 Cell Phone Review - Imaging
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Mark Brezinski Published on December 10, 2007 Comment on this |
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Resolution (4.29)
We test resolution by taking pictures of an industry standard chart and running them through our Imatest software. What it does it discern the point at which the camera starts blurring the staggered black lines and interstitial white into a swath of gray. The result is measured in line widths per pixel height (lw/ph), a measure of how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together.
| Cell Phone | T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | Helio Fin | Samsung Juke |
| Score | 4.29 | 2.77 | 0.40 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 982/982 |
790.1/766.5 | 300/295 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Sony Ericcson W580i | LG Chocolate VX8550 | LG Venus |
| Score | 6.35 | 1.69 | 2.70 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 1195/960 | 616.8/569.5 | 779.9/740.1 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (4.41)
The Razr2 V8 doesn't have the best color representation. It tends to grossly oversaturate colors, skewing them to their primary color equivalents. This misrepresentation is worse with reds and not so bad with yellows.
| Cell Phone | T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | Helio Fin | Samsung Juke |
| Score | 4.41 | 5.94 | 5.50 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Sony Ericcson W580i | LG Chocolate VX8550 | LG Venus |
| Score | 5.61 | 4.69 | 6.00 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (0.91)
The Razr2 V8's captured stills have a lot of noise in them. Typically phones with better resolutions have lower scores on noise simply because they're capturing more information. The V8 proudly continues this tradition. Especially noisy were lower light level captures, so if you're planning on using your phone in a club you'll probably capture a big, confusing mess of pixels. To test noise, we take pictures of the color chart at varying light levels. We run each series of photos through Imatest, which analyzes the different levels of noise in each.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | 0.91 |
| Helio Fin | 1.46 |
| Samsung Juke | 1.50 |
| Sony Ericcson W580i | 0.36 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 1.27 |
| LG Venus | 0.94 |
Live Preview (7.0)
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (4.39)
We begin a timer with the phone in a closed, unlocked standby. We then take a picture of said timer with the phone. The time displayed in the captured image will be the time the entire process took.
The V8 took about 4.56 seconds to capture an image, which is slow. The V8 takes longer than average to flip open and contains virtually no shortcut keys. The quickest route to the camera was the shortcut menu on the home screen, but that still required about four presses. We wouldn't recommend the V8 to spontaneous photographers.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | 4.56 | 4.39 |
| Helio Fin | 6.2 | 3.23 |
| Samsung Juke | 3.75 | 5.33 |
| Sony Ericcson W580i | 2.7 | 7.41 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 2.36 | 8.47 |
| LG Venus | 4.57 | 4.38 |
Shot to Shot Time (1.74)
This score is based on another timing test. This time we snap a picture as soon as we start a timer, then proceed to take four more pictures. The final image captured will show how long it took to take the series of five pictures. If the camera has a burst mode, we enable it.
The V8 does have a burst mode, capable of 4, 6, or 8 pictures. Unfortunately, burst mode takes pictures so slowly that it actually scored below some phones without burst mode. We even repeated this test without burst mode, because we initially thought it might be faster. We were wrong, however, as without burst mode the Razr2 V8 took almost twice as long. The fastest the V8 could snap the series of five pictures was 8.55 seconds. This equates to 0.58 frames per second, which, again, is not a good score. If you're snapping a picture of a fleeting moment, you'd better get it with the first shot.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | 0.58 | 1.74 |
| Helio Fin | 0.19 | 0.57 |
| Samsung Juke | 0.56 | 1.68 |
| Sony Ericcson W580i | 2.7 | 8.10 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 0.38 | 1.14 |
| LG Venus | 0.36 | 1.08 |
Shutter to Shot Time (5.13)
To test shutter to shot time, we snap a picture of a timer right as we start it. Again, we turn to the captured image to describe how long the process took.
The Razr2 V8 took 0.39 seconds to actually capture the image after the shutter button had been pressed, this isn't terrible, but it also isn't the best we've seen. You can see in the table below that the V8 slots in right around the middle of our comparison phones.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | 0.39 | 5.13 |
| Helio Fin | 0.6 | 3.33 |
| Samsung Juke | 0.09 | 22.22 |
| Sony Ericcson W580i | 0.12 | 16.67 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 0.22 | 9.09 |
| LG Venus | 0.82 | 2.44 |
Interface (5.0)
The options menu contains a very short list of options, including a (repetitive) capture option, video mode, timer, burst mode, and camera settings. The options menu is rather short, but will allow you alter resolution and quality of both video and still captures. You can also manage post-capture options such as capture review and auto-save.
Photo Album Software Internal (3.5)
The V8's photo album software isn't so much "album software" as it is "opening the pictures folder in the file manager". Pictures don't receive thumbnails, and are instead listed by name with a small pink flower icon. If you prefer thumbnails, you can turn them on in the view option. This view displays thumbnails in 2 1/3 rows of three (the top of the third row peeks out from the bottom of the screen). You can also turn on a "preview pane", which displays a single, slightly larger thumbnail in a sea of blackness. The thumbnail and it's ancillary void absolutely ruins screen economy: the number of listed items is cut to three.
The "album" will allow you to rename and move photos around, and there's also a multi-select option with a check box system. You can also opt to sort photos by name, date, size, or type. There is slideshow support, but you can only access it while viewing a picture. There are only three options for the slideshow: repeat, slide duration, and orientation in full screen mode.
One aspect of the album a potential buyer needs to be aware of is the process of getting pictures (and video) off the device. If you think you can simply drag your photos from the device using the USB connection and Windows Explorer, you'd be wrong. There are only two options for getting pictures off the phone that don't require figuring out T-Mobile's online hosting service: sending them via email or MMS, or Bluetooth transfer. This is a hassle that just didn't have to exist. If we're able to simply drop files onto the phone, why can't we take phone-spawned files off just as easily?
Manual Control (2.0)
The Razr2 provides a few scene modes: automatic, night, or manual. The first two are self-explanatory. We have absolutely no idea what manual does, and neither do our buddies over at CamcorderInfo.com or the phone's manual. We tried hitting all sorts of buttons, but we were unable to manually change anything, as such we are not awarding any points for it.
Zoom (1.0)
The Razr2 offers up to 4x digital zoom. We only award a single point for digital zoom because, as a general rule, it sucks. Digital zoom simply crops and enlarges a section of the photo, leaving in all the pixelated horror that results. You can perform the same essential action in the editing options with the crop tool.
Focus (0.0)
The Razr2 has a fixed-focus lens, we don't award points for fixed focus lenses.
Flash (0.0)
There is no flash on the V8.
Metering (0.0)
There are also no metering options.
White Balance (0.0)
The lack of white balance options gives the Razr2 V8 its fourth zero in a row.
Image Handling (6.0)
In spite of the preceding dearth of functionality, the Razr2 went ahead and surprised us here by offering some image handling software. It's very basic, yes, but many more advanced phones lack any editing features. With the V8, you can crop and enlarge photos, rotate them, or even add effects like coloration. There is an option to resize, but the only option is to resize to 640 x 480.
Video
Overall Video Score (3.5)
Video Resolution (3.65)
The Razr2 V8 scored 168 lw/ph horizontally and 217 lw/ph vertically . This isn't a very good score; cell phone video capture is bad in general, so poor performance translates to incredibly muddy video. As such, the resulting captures might be all right for sending in a text message, but watching it on anything larger than a mobile screen is not advised.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| T-Mobile Razr2 V8 | 168/217 | 3.65 |
| Helio Fin | 214.1/217.7 | 4.66 |
| Samsung Juke | N/A | 0.0 |
| Sony Ericcson W580i | 122/108 | 1.32 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 218.3/200.8 | 4.38 |
| LG Venus | 237/247 | 5.85 |
Video Compression (2.0)
The Razr2 V8 can only capture videos in 3GP format.
Interface (4.0)
The video interface would be similar to the camera interface if it weren't for the giant block at the bottom. This block will remind you what the d-pad can do, while shrinking the live preview to 2/3 its normal size. Other than the inefficient screen economy, everything is the same. The camera-specific options have been removed so menu navigation is a bit easier. You can also toggle audio recording on or off.
Manual Control (0.0)
There are no manual controls for video capture.
Zoom (1.0)
Again, digital zoom rears its ugly, single-point-worthy head.
Editing (0.0)
Video on the Razr2 V8 isn't privy to any of the editing frills of its still-captured counterpart.
Modes (0.0)
There isn't even a night mode for video capture.
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