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T-Mobile Razr2 V8 Cell Phone Review

Mark Brezinski Published on December 10, 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 V8 represents the last Razr2 offering is the fourth and final carrier-branded Razr2 phone we've yet to . It turns out we've saved the best for last, as the T-Mobile Razr2 V8 is easily the best of the four Razr2 offerings. Despite some negatives, the V8 is superior to other iterations of the Razr2 in terms of software. The organizational software boarders on smart-phone quality. It lacks an email client, however, so it isn't a viable business device. Perhaps the most important leg-up the V8 has is its price. It provides more (in general) than any other Razr2, but does so at $150 with a two-year contract. Verizon and Sprint offer their Razr2s for $250 with contract, while AT&T's is $300. Even with a much more reasonable price, we have trouble justifying the cost of the Razr2 to anyone not in the market for a fashion phone.

The biggest new feature in the Razr2 lineup is its external touch screen. From a hardware perspective it's very impressive. What we've seen with the other Razr2 devices, however, is that it's severely underutilized. Not only is this true for the V8, but it also does the worst job of showcasing the screen's capabilities. The only program the external screen can handle is the media player. The other Razr2 screens could handle various applications, and their touch buttons changed dynamically. The V8 is also lacking in battery life, which the other Razr2 phones didn't have much of a problem with. Despite these flaws the Razr2 V8's software and interface make it easier to use than the other iterations of the Razr2 we've seen. That being said there are other phones on the market that have a good interface as well and cost significantly less than the Rarz2 V8.

Tour & Design - The Razr2 V8 is a well-built handset that certainly looks nice.

Audio Quality - Audio quality was good overall -- excellent in the case of received frequencies.

Imaging - The camera is good, the camcorder is sub-par, and it's a huge pain to get your captures off the phone.

Making/Receiving Calls - The V8 is very capable when it comes to calling, and its keypad is large enough to provide a roomy dialing environment to just about anyone.

Messaging - Messaging is a bit weak on the V8 as it lacks an email client.

Organizer - The organizational software is excellent, and provides most of the functionality of a smart phone with a great layout.

Multimedia - The Razr2 has good multimedia software, though we still don't understand why it's the only Razr2 that can't open up the media player (or any application for that matter) via the external screen.

Software - The software on the V8 is a bit above average, but there are some very odd downsides sprinkled here and there.

Battery Life - Battery life is horrible on the V8. If you plan on browsing the web at all, have a charger handy.

Connectivity - Without wi-fi or 3G and only Bluetooth 1.2, the Razr2 V8 isn't the most well-connected phone.

Hardware - The hardware on the V8 is very impressive, but the software doesn't take nearly enough advantage of the external screen.

Other Features - The Razr2 V8 can be used as a dial up modem for your computer.

Value & Comparisons - Though a better deal than its cohorts, this Razr2 has enough downsides to keep it from being a steal.

[page title="Tour & Design"]

Front Closed

The front of the Razr2 V8 is monopolized by its interesting external screen, which has a touch-sensitive part at the bottom. Above this is a small Motorola insignia, atop which is the camera lens.

Front Open

Flipping open the Razr2 V8 will reveal its internal display, which is sandwiched between more Motorola branding. The bottom half of the phone contains the d -pad, its orbiting array of six keys, and a standard 12-button keypad.

Left

The left side of the phone is textured to facilitate grip. It contains a volume rocker, the Smart Button (which is the select key while the phone is closed, and brings up the media player otherwise), and the micro USB charging/data port.

Top

The top of the phone is boring and has no important features.

Bottom

The bottom of the phone is also textured, but we're not sure why: the beveled edge means it'll never offer a solid grip. Topographical issues aside, those two blue slits are the V8's microphone.

Right

The right side of the phone features a huge voice command button as well as a lanyard loop.

Back

The back of the phone is equal parts battery cover and branding. Below that mess is the blue smile of the speakerphone.

Battery Out

Once you've removed the battery cover, you'll be able to see the SIM card slot and the battery itself. Removing the battery reveals no additional features. Unlike other versions of the Razr2 the V8 does not support Micro SD cards, instead relying on its 2GB of internal storage.

In the Box (6.0)

The Razr2 V8 comes with a ton of stuff. First of all, there are a ton of leaflets in addition to the manuals. Once you dig past those, you'll find a wall charger, a headset with four replacement ear buds, a micro USB to regular USB cable, a mini USB adaptor for the phone's micro USB port, a software CD containing Windows Media Player 11, and a svelte cloth pouch. We were happy to see that T-Mobile decided to include so many extras with the phone.

Handling (5.0)
The Razr2 V8 is a bit bigger than the old Razr, but still handles well, provided you don't have small hands. If you do, you might find the phone a bit wide to manipulate easily. It also has a good amount of heft to it for such a small device, but it probably won't be enough to turn a phone call into a serious workout. The smooth plastic case also feels nice, and the textured sides give your fingers something to hang on to.

Portability (8.0)
The Razr2 V8 retains the thin profile emblematic of the Razr series and is therefore incredibly portable. It should fit into just about any kind of pocket, purse or bag without trouble.

Aesthetics (8.0)
Like its twins, the T-Mobile flavored Razr2 is a nice-looking handset. We had a dark blue version, which we though looked more professional than the brighter colors of the old model. If bright pink is more your style, however, we're sure it will be released at some point. Until then the Razr2 V8's subtle, dignified coloration will have to suffice.

Durability (7.0)
The Razr2 V8 certainly feels durable. We twisted it around and didn't hear any sort of creaks. As a flip phone, however, the V8 comes with a durability stigma: moving parts break down faster than non-moving parts. In spite of this, however, the V8's hinge seems to be sturdy and sealed off. The only other durability issue is the external screen, which we can see getting all sorts of scratched.

[page title="Audio Quality"]

Audio quality should be one of the most important features on a phone. Calling and communication should be its primary goals, regardless of all the bonus features its carriers and manufacturers slap on it. We therefore take our sound testing very seriously and use all sorts of official equipment. The rig we strap the phone to is a head and torso simulator, or HATS, which simulates the human ear and voice. We then use SoundCheck, a professional electro-acoustic program, to analyze the sound quality. Both our hardware and software are used by many cell phone manufacturers in their own testing. To read more on our methods, click here.

Sound Receive Frequency Response (9.16)

The Razr2 V8 performed pretty close to perfect on the received frequency test. In the graph above, the blue line represents the Razr2 V8's decibel level at different frequencies of the human voice. The red lines are the limits it should fall between. The blue line comes very close to bisecting the limits, which is the ideal measurement. Though it isn't the highest score in the table below, it's definitely one of our best results in this category.

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Razr2 V8	Helio Fin (on Helio)	Samsung Juke (on Verizon)
Score	9.16	9.33	6.89
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Sony Ericcson W580i (on Sprint)	LG Chocolate VX8550(on Verizon)	LG Venus(on Verizon)
Score	7.65	8.27	7.78
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Sound Send Frequency Response (7.46)

The Razr2 V8 doesn't handle your own voice as carefully as the above test would suggest. It peaks outside the limits a little towards the beginning, and drops off too soon at the end. The beginning overemphasis will mean lower tones might sound a bit tinny. The sharper drop at the end means higher frequencies will sound a bit clipped.

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Razr2 V8	Helio Fin (on Helio)	Samsung Juke (on Verizon)
Score	7.46	8.25	8.37
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Sony Ericcson W580i(on Sprint)	LG Chocolate VX8550(on Verizon)	LG Venus(on Verizon)
Score	6.17	8.06	7.24
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Handset Side Tone (7.42)


Side tone refers to the amount of your own voice the phone plays back to you. The ideal measurement is -18 decibels, and the Razr2 V8 was a bit off with -15.42 decibels. This means your voice will sound louder than it actually is, which might make you speak more quietly than you should.

Cell Phone	Side Tone Measurement	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	15.42	7.42
Helio Fin	21.25	6.75
Samsung Juke	22.88	5.02
Sony Ericcson W580i	18.77	9.23
LG Chocolate VX8550	17.85	9.85
LG Venus	18.98	9.02

[page title="Imaging"]

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.

The Razr2 V8 measured 982 lw/ph horizontally and 982 lw/ph vertically. This is about average for a mobile phone. You can see below that we have seen better from other handsets, but the Razr2 V8 did do significantly better than several other phones. The photos won't be anything that you will want to print out, but they will be sufficient for an online slide show, at least in terms of resolution.

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)

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)

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.

We test color accuracy by taking photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart, which displays 24 different colors. We then use Imatest to analyze these photos and judge how accurate the captured colors are.

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Razr2 V8	Helio Fin	Samsung Juke
Score	4.41	5.94	5.50
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Sony Ericcson W580i	LG Chocolate VX8550	LG Venus
Score	5.61	4.69	6.00
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

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)

The V8's live preview isn't bad. It has a quicker refresh than many phones, so panning won't create a huge blur. We noticed colors seemed to be a little more washed out in the live preview than they were in the final picture, but not by much. Images also seemed to be noisy, but the final pictures were noisy as well. We were happy the live preview took up the majority of the screen.

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 V8's camera interface is very simple and neat. The top of the screen displays an icon for the current capture mode, as well as memory information. Left and right zoom, while up and down cycle through various options, like style and scene modes. The left soft key brings up the options menu, and the right soft key quits the program.

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)
The video on the Razr2 V8 isn't stellar by any means. You can capture in 128 x 196, or 176 x 144, but neither are particularly pretty. In addition to the poor video capture hardware, there also isn't a proper album for your creations. You'll be at the mercy of the file browser for your video capture management.

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.

[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]

Dialing Speed (5.80)
To test dialing speed, we begin with the phone in a closed, unlocked standby, then time how long it takes to dial one of a set of different numbers. We use a pool of different numbers in order to get a more accurate average.

The Razr2 V8 managed to dial a number in an average of 3.45 seconds. This is faster than we would have thought, as the keypad felt big and unwieldy as we were typing. This being said, bigger keys should be a boon for those with bigger fingers. We tend to prefer medium-sized keys, however, as they are big enough to allow for accuracy, but not so big that we feel we're fumbling as we try to type numbers quickly. Unfortunately, we ran into the latter issue with the V8.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	3.45	5.80
Helio Fin	3.64	5.49
Samsung Juke	2.64	7.58
Sony Ericcson W580i	3.66	5.46
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.96	6.76
LG Venus	2.64	7.58

Talk and End Buttons (6.0)
The talk and end buttons have a nice snap to them, but not much travel since they sit on a single sheet of metal -- a signature Razr feature. They also have a textured face and a raised line above and below them, but this is unfortunately the same case for virtually every key on the keypad. The best way to navigate to them without looking is by using the d-pad: the d-pad's bottom is level with the the talk and end buttons. Despite some flaws, the keys were decent.

Call Management (6.5)

        

The call log is the top center option in the main menu. It begins as just a giant list of calls, but you can further filter them by dialed, missed, or answered. Clicking on a number will display the call's time/date and duration. There are also call and data timers, along with a data volume counter.

When you get a call, an unassuming gray screen will appear that isn't particularly eye-catching. You can either answer or ignore a call. Once you've decided the incoming caller is worth speaking to, the soft keys change to options and mute. The options list is a bit short: there's just speakerphone, mute, hold, main menu, new call, and an option to check out your own number. Choosing the new call option will put your current call on hold. Once the second call is active, the options menu will allow you to link the calls into a conference. At this point, the numbers will disappear, but if someone should hang up, the remaining number will again be displayed.

Startup to Call (3.61)
This test is similar to the previous time to call test, but we instead begin with the phone closed and off. We then dial from our pool of test numbers, and average the results.

The Razr2 V8 took an average of 27.72 seconds to call this time. Most of this time was spent waiting while the phone struggled to boot up. You can begin typing in the number as soon as the home screen appears, though there is a second or two of lag before the numbers register. You can see in the table below that the V8 was on the slower side for a regular phone, though some smart phones performed far worse.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	27.72	3.61
Helio Fin	28.18	3.55
Samsung Juke	11.9	8.40
Sony Ericcson W580i	19.42	5.15
LG Chocolate VX8550	22.37	4.47
LG Venus	25.11	3.98

Ring Volume (8.55)
We measure ring volume by holding the phone two inches away from a sound pressure meter and cycling through the available ringtones. The Razr2 V8 measured 85.5 decibels at its loudest. This is an average result, but we didn't think any of the ringtones were particularly ear-catching.

Cell Phone	Volume (decibels)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	85.5	8.55
Helio Fin	85.6	8.56
Samsung Juke	85.8	8.58
Sony Ericcson W580i	85.5	8.55
LG Chocolate VX8550	85.4	8.54
LG Venus	85.8	8.58

Ringtone Customizability (6.0)
The Razr2 V8 will allow you to use your music as ringtones, whether they're Mp3, AAC, or WMA files. This is very refreshing functionality as many handsets don't allow you to do this.

Non Audio Alerts (6.0)
The non audio alerts are pretty bad on the V8. The vibration features is weak, and the splash screens that crop up are gray and motionless. They don't do much to augment the poor ringtone selection.

[page title="Messaging"]

Supported Email Services (0.0)
The Razr2 V8 doesn't have a true email client. Email clients download your email so you can view them even if you don't have network connectivity. The Razr2 has a web-based email client, meaning you do have to be connected to the network. As the phone only supports popular email services, such as AOL and Yahoo!, we have to ask: why not just visit aol.com and cut out the middleman? There really is no reason not to, which is why we don't award any points to web-based clients.

Push Email (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

HTML and Attachments (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Email Customizations (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Time to a New Message (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Email Auto Complete on Address (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Email Usability (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Supported IM Services (0.0)
The Razr2 has versions of AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. We don't award points for these services if they're charged against both your messaging account and you data transfer account. Unfortunately, this means the Razr2 gets a zero for this score.

MMS Support (8.5)
The Razr2 V8 has great integration of MMS messages, going so far as to lump SMS and MMS messages together. While writing an SMS, you can click on the option soft key at any time and opt to convert the message into an MMS. You can also send them straight from the camera, or from an album. The V8 is definitely ahead of a lot of phones in terms of MMS support.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
The V8 doesn't support smiley faces. This means you'll have to go way out of your way to access colons, semicolons, and parenthesis.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (9.0)
        
The SMS/MMS interface on the Razr2 V8 is simple and good. MMS and SMS messages are fully integrated, meaning they both share an inbox and creating a new message will allow you to make either. There is a fairly detailed list of sending options, which will allow you to set the time you want the message delivered as well as have the phone report back to you on if the message was delivered successfully or if it was read. The latter feature is sure to be a hit with stalkers and obsessive significant others alike.

When you receive a message, a dialogue will pop up asking if you'd like to read it or dismiss the notification. If you dismiss the notification, the message will still be lying around your inbox when you deign to check your messages. The inbox, as previously mentioned, will store both SMS and MMS messages. You can sort them by date, sender, size, or SIM card. The multiple select option will allow for easy mass-management. You can also create folders to further organize your messages. Very good functionality here.

Time to a New SMS Message (5.03)
On this timing test, the starting position is closed and unlocked, and the finish line is a new SMS dialogue. The Razr2 V8 managed to perform this test in 1.99 seconds, which isn't too shabby. Again, the V8 takes a bit longer than most phones to get open, simply because of its massive wingspan. Regardless, we were still able to get a new SMS entry up quickly. Accessing this application is as easy as hitting the right soft key once and the select key twice. After those three inputs, you just have to wait about 1/5 of a second for the program to open.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	1.99	5.03
Helio Fin	3.4	2.94
Samsung Juke	0.75	13.30
Sony Ericcson W580i	1.54	6.49
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.61	3.83
LG Venus	3.36	2.98

[page title="Organizer"]

Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Razr2 can only sync up music, which unfortunately does not encompass PIM information. It will therefore receive a zero in this section.

Alerts (3.5)
Alerts on the Razr2 aren't great. The sounds themselves aren't very loud or shrill enough to perk your ear. The vibration is barely enough to catch your attention in your pocket. The on-screen notifications are nice, as they give you the quick option to zoom to whatever the alert is reminding you about, but they aren't very eye catching unless you're currently using the phone. They tend to be grayish and don't take up the whole screen. Of course, if the screen is dimmed, just lighting up should catch your eye. Overall, however, sub-par alert functionality.

Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Razr2 V8 doesn't support any sort of PIM synchronization, which includes over the air synchronization.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (7.50)
For this test, we again begin with the phone in a closed standby. We then enter in a sample contact, stopping our timer when we hit the save button. The Razr2 V8 was able to add a contact in an average of 13.33 seconds. This is a fast time, made possible by the relatively easy interface for contact entry. All you need to do is type the number, and "save as a contact" becomes a soft key function. From here all that's necessary is multi-tapping out the name. We really didn't run into much menu lag here either, which further facilitated our trials.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	13.33	7.50
Helio Fin	22.02	4.54
Samsung Juke	14.57	6.86
Sony Ericcson W580i	22.74	4.40
LG Chocolate VX8550	20.5	4.88
LG Venus	14.38	6.95

Looking/Sorting/Search (3.5)


Contacts are organized by first name as a default, but there is an option to sort them by last name under contact settings. You can further filter contacts by most frequent, SIM/phone contacts, or by category. You can make your own categories as well. There is a multitap search feature, but it will only search by what you've set as the organization criteria (either first or last name). Overall, though, the Razr2 V8 provides some good contact functionality for a non -business device. The reason the score is low is because it lacks features like predictive search found in more advanced phones.

Fields (7.4)

The Razr2 V8 has 37 fields, which is fairly expansive for a non-business device. The Razr2 also has a really good tabbed menu for entering fields. It has a tab for numbers, addresses, a photo, notifications, and miscellaneous personal/business info. The V8 allows room for four numbers, two email addresses, and two addresses, and each entry has a customizable label (home, work, mobile, fax, other). There are also myriad other fields, from the names of business associates to birthdays and anniversaries and even his or her Zodiac sign. Although dedicated business devices will often have more expansive options for contact creation, the Razr2 V8 does an impressive job for a regular phone.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (2.75)
The Razr2 V8 features both speed dial and voice commands. It only allows you to set seven different speed dials for some reason; number 1 goes to voice mail, and the 9 key is mysteriously left off the list. This isn't very good, as most phones will allow you to set up almost 100 or even 1000 speed dials. The voice command software is really quite bad. If it didn't recognize what you were saying, you had to quit out and restart the application. It also only recognized one of our test names, and for those it didn't recognize it immediately thrust us into various applications that sounded nothing like the name we had said. Furthermore, we were often interrupted mid-name by the voice claiming it did not recognize the command. We'd have though an application that receives a giant dedicated button would be slightly more functional.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (6.54)
This timing test takes the phone from a closed standby to a completed calendar entry. We stop the timer when we save our test appointment and do a handful of trials to get an average.

The Razr2 V8 was able to type out the sample appointment in about 15.28 seconds. It certainly seemed as though it was faster since we crammed quite a lot of navigation into this time. First of all, the Razr2 V8 buries its calendar application three menus deep. The keypad savvy will begin to equate 6-7-3 with appointment scheduling. Unfortunately for such users pressing 3 too soon after 7 will open video capture instead. Apparently you can't navigate first and wait for the phone to catch up later, which slows down the process a bit.

Once you've managed to get inside the calendar application, the first sticking point is getting out of the title field. The phone's xt9 requires you to hit select before navigating out of the field, or else you'll just cycle through word predictions. Setting a reminder was also a pain. Our test entry calls for a reminder 15 minutes before. To do this we first had to press up a few times to wrap around to the bottom of the list where the alarm was. Once in the alarm settings, we noticed that the preset increments didn't include 15. Fortunately for functionality and unfortunately for this timing test, there was a custom reminder field at the bottom of the presets list. Adding calendar entries is a bit of work on the Razr2, but if you're used to it it doesn't take much longer than other phones, as you can see below.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	15.28	6.54
Helio Fin	14.1	7.09
Samsung Juke	13.72	7.29
Sony Ericcson W580i	14.04	7.12
LG Chocolate VX8550	6.48	15.43
LG Venus	18.87	5.30

Calendar Views (6.5)

There are three calendar views: day, week, and month. Month view is the typical 7x6 grid. In month view, if an appointment is scheduled for a day, it'll receive a little notch on the left side of the date box. It can only fit four notches maximum, however, which further limits the already limited functionality of the month view.


The week view will look very similar to virtually any other respectable week view. Apparently our society has hit the apex of week view technology and this is it. The top of the screen will display days of the week and their corresponding dates within the month. The left side displays hours. Appointments are represented by purple vertical lines that block out the item's duration. Week view is definitely better than month view, though we would've liked some sort of informative pop-up when we highlighted an appointment. Clicking on an item will zoom to that entry in day mode.

Day view contains a stack of horizontal white bars which are each labeled with the hours in the day. Appointments are dropped in after the hour-bar that represents their start time, and a purple line on the left side shows duration. The V8 only supports three such lines to be stacked on each other, but this probably won't be an issue unless you typically have four or more overlapping appointments every day. This is a slightly different interface than we're used to, and seems slightly less intuitive. If you don't like it, you can always change the day view to "day task" view, which simply lists your appointments without any graphical representation of their length. Regardless of the view, each listed entry contains the title, duration, date, location, and an icon if you've saved notes for the appointment.

Fields (10.0)


The Razr2 has virtually all the important fields we award points for. Some of the non-basic features you'll have access to are recurrence, attendees, and notes. The only field we would've liked to see was one for categories.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (6.78)
This score is based on our standard organizer software timing test: we start with the phone in a closed, unlocked standby, and end as soon as we save our test entry.
The V8 managed to get our sample task saved in 14.74 seconds. This is slightly better than average. The path to the organizer folder is still the same menu trudge from the calendar timing test. This time, however, not as much navigation is necessary once in the application itself. The only bit we found annoying cropped up when choosing a due date. Clicking on the due date field will give a menu of two items: "No Due Date" and "Choose Date". We really don't think adding this interstitial menu is the best solution, as it slows down the process. Other phones simply have a check box near the due date to toggle it on or off. This minor inconvenience aside, the V8 still provides reasonable task access.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	14.74	6.78
Helio Fin	11.58	8.64
Samsung Juke	N/A: can't create tasks	0.0
Sony Ericcson W580i	16.56	6.04
LG Chocolate VX8550	N/A: can't create tasks	0.0
LG Venus	N/A: can't create tasks	0.0

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)

There are a few options for task sorting. You can choose to view by all tasks, due tasks, incomplete tasks, or complete tasks. You can also choose to further sort tasks by due date or priority.

Fields (4.0)
Tasks on the V8 are basic. You're only provided with five fields: title, due date, status, priority, and notes. This means your tasks can't recur, and there's no reminder/alarm to let you know when the due date is approaching or upon you.

Notes

Adding Notes (3.66)
Again, our organizer timing tests involve browsing to the application and creating a test entry, stopping the timer as we save it.

In the case of notes, the Razr2 V8 received a lap time of 13.66 seconds. This is a slightly below average score. Like the prior two timing tests, this one involved a winding menu path initially. Like a few other recently reviewed phones, the V8 tried to goad us into cheating towards a better score with its smart word prediction. Our test note is, "Lunch 12pm tomorrow". Normally entering in the numbers is a bit of a bottleneck, but from the second run on it would automatically suggest "12pm" whenever we input the 1. We graciously declined to use this advanced tactic in the interest of accuracy and to maintain the ethics of scientific research. If you tend to use the same words repeatedly, however, you could churn out notes fairly quickly.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	13.66	3.66
Helio Fin	15.3	3.27
Samsung Juke	16	3.13
Sony Ericcson W580i	12	4.17
LG Chocolate VX8550	13.73	3.64
LG Venus	18.86	2.65

Note Interface (3.0)

The interface of the notes application itself is bare-bones. You can change your text entry method and that's it. Your notes are listed in the order they're created, and there's no options for rearranging them. You can, however, flag them. This gives them a red, squarish icon imbued with a white pennant on a pole. The flagging option is interesting as we didn't see it implemented anywhere else on the device.

Note Formatting (0.0)
There are no options for formatting notes.

Voice Memo (4.0)
Voice notes are about as basic as regular notes, albeit with a slightly more graphically impressive interface. In a voice note you are only privy to two options at a time. Option set A includes such gems as record, pause, and resume, while option set B will let you stop recording or exit the application. While recording you are treated to an eight-frame animation of an oscilloscope, which is accompanied by a still image of a microphone. All in all, basic stuff here.

[page title="Multimedia"]

Accessing Music Software (3.41)
It's time once again for a good, old fashioned, WirelessInfo.com timing test. The starting line is the closed, unlocked standby position, and we stop our clocks as soon as a song starts to play.

The Razr2 V8 struggled a bit, but was able to get a song playing in 5.86 seconds. In the large scheme of things, under six seconds isn't a long wait, but if you check out the table below, you can see the V8 isn't quite up to snuff. The smart key is also a dedicated media player shortcut when the phone is open, a feature which usually gives phones times under three seconds. The media player took a while to open up, however, and the song took about a second to load as well.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	5.86	3.41
Helio Fin	3.98	5.03
Samsung Juke	2.72	7.35
Sony Ericcson W580i	1.56	12.82
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.04	9.80
LG Venus	3.62	5.52

Dedicated Music Controls (8.0)
The main feature the Razr2 V8 boasts is its touch-sensitive external screen. There are three keys along the bottom of the screen: reverse skip, play/pause, and forward skip. Holding either skip button will either rewind or fast-forward. The volume key will also control playback volume. The media controls definitely shine as some of the better uses of the phone's hardware.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (5.4)

         

The music software on the V8 supports automatic library update and background play. It did not support our test album art, and there were no options for visualizations. While there was no true equalizer, you could control things like bass boost from the options menu. The phone supported tags for all our test files (Idv3, iTunes, WMP). We were actually surprised our iTunes tag-bearing file even played, because when we dragged and dropped it onto the phone a dialogue box popped up that said it wouldn't support the file, only store it. We received the same pop-up window when we tried to dump a .m3u playlist onto the device. Strangely, however, neither the .m3u or the .pls file showed up in the playlist folder. We could make playlists on the phone, though doing so was a bit awkward. Once you've decided to make a playlist and named it, adding and removing songs is handled by a checkbox system. You can select a song or album and use the Apply To > Playlist option to add tracks to a playlist. Adding songs from the playlist itself provides you with a list of all the songs on the phone with check boxes for each.

The music folder contains multiple sub-folders of your music, such as all, recent played, playlists, artists, albums, genres, and composers. These folders are bookended by the currently playing song (when applicable) at the top and a search at the bottom. The search can be narrowed down to song title, artist, album, genre, or composer, or it can be left at the default "all". You then type in a keyword or two and hit the left soft key to start looking.

Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The V8 doesn't support direct music downloads.

Streaming (0.0)
The V8 doesn't support streaming audio.

Podcast Support (0.0)
The lack of podcast support gives the V8 a hat trick of zeroes.

Music Sync with PC (7.0)
The Razr2 V8 doesn't waste any time with a proprietary knock-off software. Instead synchronization is done with Windows Media Player, or by a simple drag and drop. Just connect the phone via USB and sync, no software required. We really appreciate the simplicity, as some phones like the LG Venus make you jump through all sorts of hoops to get your music or video files on the phone.

Music Formats and DRM (5.0)
The V8 will support Mp3, WMA and three distinct flavors of AAC: regular, plus, and enhanced plus. In addition, it will support Windows Media DRM, so songs you buy off Yahoo! or Napster will play on the phone.

Music Interruption (10.0)
This section scores based on how the phone reacts when it's playing music and receives a call. Ideally the phone should stop playback and automatically resume once the call has ended, perhaps with a fade-in. The Razr2 V8 did just this, minus the fade-in.

Video

Video Software Access (2.74)
Our video software access test is conducted like our music timing test. We start with the phone closed, in standby; we stop as soon as a video begins to play. This trial took 6.99 seconds to complete. This is very slow, and for good reason: getting to the video software is hard work. It took nine button presses to get the video to start loading. In order to get to your video, you'll have to access the file manager, which itself is buried under two menus. From here, you have to choose the appropriate folder, which was extended memory. Then you have to scroll down to the video folder, and finally open up the video. Of course, like all phones, the Razr2 V8 lagged slightly when launching the video.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
T-Mobile Razr2 V8	6.99	2.74
Helio Fin	4.2	4.76
Samsung Juke	N/A	0.00
Sony Ericcson W580i	3.42	5.85
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.71	7.38
LG Venus	9.12	2.19

Video Controls (7.0)
The video controls are simple, but encompass all the functions we like to see. The d-pad dandles most of the actions: left and right will skip and rewind/fast-forward appropriately. Up will play/pause, and down will stop. Center jumps to full screen. In the settings you can set the orientation of full screen: normal or landscape in either direction.

Video Software & Organization (2.5)
The video software doesn't include an album of any kind. Videos must be accessed via the file browser. You can sort by name, date, size, or type, and opt to view by list, details, thumbnail, or preview pane. You can also create folders to help organize your files, move them around, or rename them. This is the same functionality the phone gives to all its files; videos don't get any special treatment.

Video Sync with PC (7.0)
Video can be synchronized the same as audio: either via Windows Media Player, or by dragging and dropping the files with the file browser. Again, the simplicity of synchronization is much appreciated. Thank you, Motorola and T-Mobile.

Video Formats (2.0)
The Razr2 V8 supports MPEG4 and H263 files, but only if they're encoded with AAC. If they aren't, the phone won't play them.

Video DRM (5.0)
Real video files are the only DRM the Razr2 V8 supports. Considering most phones don't support any DRM-encoded video files, this is more impressive than it sounds. Of course there isn't much Real DRM protected video out there as none of the popular video download sites support it, but hey if you do find something at least  you can watch it on your phone.

Video Playback Smoothness (6.0)
We test video playback smoothness by attempting to play a series of videos on the phone with varying bitrates. The highest bitrate file we were able to play was 160kbps. It wasn't able to play our 360 or 768 kbps files at all. Typically phones will try to play our higher bitrate files, but they'll skip a bit (or a lot).

Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The Razr2 V8 doesn't support any video downloading service.

Video Streaming unscored
We don't score this section because there isn't a set standard for online streaming video. As such, we simply test a few sites out, such as Youtube.com, Zoovision.com, and Windowsmedia.com. The V8 didn't support any of them, so the lack of reliable standards saved it a zero score.

[page title="Software"]

OS (3.0)
The Razr2 V8's operating system is a fairly basic proprietary OS. We were impressed with the menus, as they contained far more options than the basic software would've implied. The overall layout could've used some work, however. The initial main menu's grid of nine icons wasted a slot on T-Zones and a help menu. T-Zones just brings up the internet, which has a proprietary key, and help should be delegated to the manuals. There is a shortcut key on the home screen, which helps get to some applications quickly (and it's the only place we could find airplane mode). Getting to the albums was a bit of a pain though, as the phone's file browser is squirreled away in the Fun & Apps folder. Such a good application should have merited a slot on the main menu. Considering how simple the interface is, we wish it had been organized better.

In the same vein is our biggest complaint with the operating system: the insistence that there's external memory. Now, what T-Mobile did is basically hardwire in a 2GB memory card so their customers wouldn't have to bother with it. The downside is that every time you save, you have to choose between saving it to "Phone" or "External Memory". This can be incredibly confusing, as it makes what amounts to a partitioned hard drive sound like a separate entity entirely. It also means it's likely your stuff will end up split between two different locations. This could've been remedied easily with something as simple as different wording.

Home Screen Score (4.0)

         

The top of the screen contains the usual signal and battery strength, as well as the date and time. The main portion of the home screen is absolutely dominated by the T-Mobile My Faves interface. The left soft key opens up a shortcut menu, while the right soft key opens the main menu. The select key is sequestered for Fav Five duties. Left and right on the d-pad march the Fav Five silhouettes around in a circle. Up will pull out your recent calls, and down shortcuts to the contact list.

Extensibility (3.0)
Like most phones the Razr2 V8 can run java based applications like Google Maps. Although not as extensible as a smart phone like a Windows Mobile or Symbian device there are a decent amount of java application out there.

Customizability (4.0)