Review: Motorola RAZR2 V9

Motorola RAZR2 V9 Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: The RAZR 2 V9 is a superslim 3G clamshell phone that uses premium materials in its construction to give a quality look and feel. A poor camera lets the phone down in imaging terms, but the music player is fantastic, with touchscreen controls, plenty of memory and support for Bluetooth stereo headsets. The only problem with the phone is its below-average battery life.
Best buy: *Free* from 3 or Vodafone (use voucher code VODABLUE1 to get a free Bluetooth headset when you buy a V9 from Vodafone by following this link)

The Motorola RAZR2 V9 is almost exactly the same as the RAZR2 V8, except that it's a 3G version, with a high-speed HSDPA implementation of 3G, enabling fast downloads at up to 3.6 Mbps. It also allows you to make video calls on a 3G network and can accept a microSD memory card.

The RAZR2 V9 is about the same size as the original RAZR V3, and looks very much like the original. It's built from premium materials - stainless steel & chemically hardened glass - with a two-tone soft-touch housing, and looks and feels like a quality product. The RAZR2 is a much higher-spec phone than the original RAZR though. There have been some design improvements too - the flat keypad is nice and responsive - and the external screen is the largest of its kind and is touch-sensitive. The external touchscreen can be used to control the music player, and also to read and reply to text messages. When not in use as a touchscreen, the external display shows information such as the date and time, or incoming calls. It's a multi-tasking phone, so you can use the music player whilst accessing the other phone functions.

The V9's camera isn't that brilliant. At 2 megapixels and no flash, it's well below average for this class of phone. It supports low-resolution video recording plus 3G video calling. The music player on the other hand is great. The touchscreen controls enable the music player to be operated without having to open the phone, and there's full support for managing playlists on the go. The media player is Windows Media Player® 11, which supports virtually all music formats and enables easy synchronisation with a PC. The internal memory is limited to 45 Mbytes, which isn't very much for storing music, but the V9 can take microSD memory cards up to 2 Gbytes, which is enough to store around 500 tracks. There's full support for wireless Bluetooth headsets, and also microUSB 2.0 connectivity, for fast data transfers from a PC.

Another nice feature in the V9 that first appeared in the RAZR2 V8 is CrystalTalk™. This is a new technology that improves call quality by automatically adjusting the audio to take into account of background noise.

The only thing that we don't like about the V9 is the battery life. The V9 is a slimline phone with two large screens to power, and 3G too, so it isn't surprising to find that the battery runs down pretty quickly. If you're a heavy user, we'd have to say that this isn't the right phone for you. But if you can live with the battery, you'll find the RAZR2 V9 to be a very stylish and feature-rich mobile.

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Features of the Motorola RAZR2 V9 include:

• 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom
• Video camera (176x144 pixels, 15 frames/second, MPEG4 format) plus 3G video calling
• Internal display: 262,000 colours, 320 x 240 pixels (2.2 inches)
• External display: 262,000 colours, 320 x 240 pixels (2 inches)
• Music player (MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, AAC Enhanced, WAV, AMR NB, XMF, MIDI formats)
• Hands-free speaker
• CrystalTalk™
• Automatic answer (headset or car kit needed)
• Speaker independent voice recognition
• Conference calling
• Voice recorder
• Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, email (POP3/IMAP4/SMTP)
• Pre-loaded games
• Caller id with image
• WAP, GPRS Class 12, EDGE Class 12
• Opera web browser
• Calculator, Alarm Clock, Wallpaper, Screensaver
• Memory: 45 Mbytes plus microSD memory card slot (up to 2 Gbytes)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0
• Quadband (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) plus 3G HSDPA 2100
• Weight: 125g
• Size: 103 x 53 x 13.3 mm
• Talktime: 3.5 hours
• Battery standby: 260 hours

Motorola RAZR2 V9 Consumer Reviews

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Average rating from 20 reviews:

Reviewed by alison from scotland on 28th Jun 2008
hi , never owned motorola mob until v9. must say so far i.m pleased with everything..except can someone tell me if there is a way to lock on to (secondarytext mode) predictor text or do i have to change over from primary each time i text? think i've tried all ways. maybe i'm missing something. thanks. x
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Reviewed by a. from serbia on 14th Jun 2008
can someone tell me is it even possible to change the image on external display while phone is open? (that bluish Motorola logo, it's perfectly annoying and ugly :( )thanks!! and about the phone: super fast, perfect connection with pc, beautiful design!!! minus: delivery report & camera flash..
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Reviewed by Patrick from UK on 14th Jun 2008
Having previously owned an earlier version of the RAZR which died before its time, I was a little apprehensive about the V9's construction quality. Having used it for a couple of weeks, I am happy to say the V9 is reassuringly well made. It's pretty intuitive to use and all functions operate well. The voice commmand, however, does take time before responding to an instruction which makes its value a bit questionable. The HSDPA addition, however, is a big plus if accessing the net is important - a big jump in data transfer speed. Yes, overall, the downside is shorter battery life but that shouldn't put off prospective buyers who prefer a well made feature laden flip phone. One more thing, a reviewer stated that you are restricted to the RASR's in built ringtones. Wrong! You can load your own with ease.
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Reviewed by Becky from UK on 27th May 2008
I had problems with the battery on this phone. It was easy to use, although it was quite big and heavy to use for long periods. When I contacted Motorola they were great and very helpful, but I found the phone a bit useless and with no great features.
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Reviewed by Michael from UK on 22nd May 2008
nice looking phone but the batery life is way below standard, aroung 5pm I usually have no battery life left.. Michael Bukowski
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Reviewed by brian doyle from scotland on 19th May 2008
i recently got the razr2 v9 and some of the comments on this site bemuse me the phone is pure dead brilliant very sexy and as for the battery life thats what chargers are for and when you read the detail about the phone it runs a 512mhz processor not many phones do and if you noticed the battery it is a lithium battery not your usal battery back to the phone no faults yet mp3 player top class windows media 11 bring it on sony
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Reviewed by Henry from UK on 9th May 2008
I'm on my 2nd V9i with the same fault. It is unable to lock onto a weak signal (anything below 3 bars). The screen says "searching for Network" and thats it. No texts in or out or phone calls. Other phones (V3i and V630i) work perfectly with the same simm and number. I do not recommend this phone for people living in weak signal areas until motorola sort this issue out.
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Reviewed by Ben from Canada on 29th Apr 2008
As some of you might have complained about the battery has lasted very short. I had the same experience. But I was actually amazed. So yesterday my phone started showing the low battery signal 13 hours, as I use it for listening to music and make few occasional calls, this is pretty short. But when I was talking to my GF for over 45mins with the low battery signal on. I guess this has to be a faulty battery reading?
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Reviewed by Paul from United Kingdom on 29th Apr 2008
Got one to replace my V3i, it's a nice phone fast start up etc, more features etc. But......... has a few niggles 1st the battery life very poor, 2nd is it now has a none standard USB connection, so I have to carry an adaptor lead or the one that came with the phone, 3rd you still have to take the back off to change the memory card (but at least you can use 4gb cards now!) There are many good points though, so don't let this put you off. You can pick them up cheap on e-bay as a lot of people have upgraded then decided that they don't like it.
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Reviewed by Ben from Canada on 23rd Apr 2008
I just got this phone. I already fell in love with it. Its so good. This is the replacement for my V3x(which I loved as well). The software is easy for me to use, because it is similar to the V3x software. Other than being a fingerprint magnet, I don't have anything to complain about it.
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Reviewed by Garry from UK on 19th Apr 2008
Took delivery of V9, guess what? None of the above actually works. Major connectivity issues using USB connection. My reccomendation? Don't bother.
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Reviewed by David Heasman from uk on 17th Apr 2008
Great phone for style ,but to me the battery is rubbish, I wonder if motorola will make a better battery for this model in the future. I am not a great user but if I wanted to use a mobile a lot this phone would not be the one unless they can improve the battery
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Reviewed by Jessica from USA on 17th Mar 2008
I bought the motorola v9 and i love.
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Reviewed by sarah from australia on 17th Mar 2008
i think motorola phones are the best phones on the market. Out of all the phones that i have owned i found the motorola to be the best so far. I bought a nokia 6280 about 6 months ago, and its absolute peice of junk. I invested in a sony erricson s500i...and its not much better! There are 2 cracks in the keypad and i have found recently, too that when i phone people i get a static noise, which makes it hard to hear what the person on the other end is saying. Im seriously looking into getting a V9! I don't care what other people say, motorolas are the best phones on the market. I have also noticed people are saying the battery life on the V9 isnt very good, just a peice of advice, before you even put your sim card in or switch your phone, leave the phone on charge 24 hours before you use it. Don't worry about what it says in the manual. That goes for all mobile phones!
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Reviewed by Shwiggie from USA on 14th Mar 2008
Got one from Amazon the other day as an upgrade to my old Motorola V551. The difference is like going to a Lexus from a Chevy. Battery life isn't too critical an issue, as I'm not one of those phone whores with their phones stuck to their ears everywhere they go. I got it for the CrystalTalk function, which made the whole package worth getting, but stayed for the music player. And while the camera got a poor review, it's a far cry from what I'm used to, so I'm still pleased with it. If I could change anything, it would be to make the navigation keys more textured, or "dished", to make them easier to use without looking. I'm prone to accidentally hitting the back and menu buttons since it's tough to feel where the nav and select keys should be.
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Reviewed by stella smith from UK on 13th Mar 2008
First phone: faulty battery, having to charge every few hours. 1 10min call to vodafone to ask for replacement and lost 1/3rd of battery life. Vodafone store did take off the 3g in case that was draining battery, and I had all the usual settings to conserve battery life, but that had not helped. Second phone arrived yesterday 12th March. Battery seems ok but awful distortion on 4 out of 5 calls, again including 1 to vodafone when it just died on me! So have asked for a different make and model. Given up on Motorola V9 which is a shame because I loved my old v3.
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Reviewed by lou from egypt on 4th Mar 2008
I bought this phone about a week ago and i can say i loooooooooooove it high quality build,gr8 screen inside and out the music quality is very clear but i only wish it was a little higher very beautiful only 2 things i don't like: flat side keys u realy have to look 2 make sure u r pressing them and the battery life is a little disapointing but it's also understandable being 3g and having 2 large screens STILL i highly recommend it and i wouldn't change it 4 any other phone WELL DONE MOTO
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Reviewed by tina from uk cheshire on 21st Feb 2008
Had a v3 and loved it so brought a v9 off ebay also got a memory card which is gr8 as the v8 doesn't have the ability to take one. I love the keyboard love the camara and it looks so nice very posh sleek and easy to use BUT as it is an AT&T (02's american sister company) phone it wont do multimedia messages as the software isn't avalible! so i can't send or recieve photos which is so annoying for a phone i paid £200 for! also it wont let u set a song as a ring tone or txt message alert it just has a few rubbish factory ringtones and txt alerts.so sorry i'm not that happy with it but i'm sure i would of been if it was the uk version. [Editor's comment: I think this is a good example of why you should always buy a mobile phone from a UK retailer. Even then some networks insist on messing up phones with their own software. Grr.]
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Reviewed by Tanusa from Bangladesh on 13th Feb 2008
great mobile, awesome! and sexy!
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Reviewed by moto v9 review from uk on 26th Jan 2008
hi i just got this phone last friday and it is very good as i have just ugraded from my old motorola v3 i was thinking about geting the razr2 v8 but the razr2 v9 is 3g but it is a bit more expensve than the razr v8. i love the v9 it looks just like the the v8 but on the specification it is a bit diffrant whith the adding of 3g to it. the v8 and the v9 are thiner than the v3 11 millermeters infact. i have to addmit i still love my v3 but now it is well outdated as i did by it at the end of 2004. both of the phones have been outstanding 4 me. now there is one thing i do not like about the phone is the keybord so that is why i am downgrading the phone to on star.
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You can read more Motorola RAZR2 V9 reviews at RecommendedBuys UK.

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