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If there is one thing you can rely on about Motorola, it is their tendency to stick a winning design formula. This is just the case with the Motorola RAZR MAXX V6 it’s no surprise that the clamshell phone design phones are one of Motorola’s hottest selling phones especially their RAZR line.
Now the V6 is by no means, Motorola’s slimmest phone but it is still relatively slim at 15mm, especially when u consider that the phone comes packed with 3G connectivity and HSDPA. Motorola has kept its etched metal keypad styling which gives the phone a nice feel when using it. The front of the phone though uses hardened glass finish, which does add some style to the phone. Unfortunately, this also makes the front of the phone a fingerprint magnet. If you’re one who absolutely dislikes fingerprints on your phone, you’re going to have some major issues with the V6 fronts. I spent a lot of my time, constantly buffing and wiping fingerprints of the V6’s front cover.
Read on for the rest of the review.
The cover at first glance looks as if it's
just a plain façade of hardened glass, however, if you look closely you'll find
that there are three dedicated buttons for music playing just below the small
LCD screen of the phone. The buttons are almost non existent until you run your
fingers over them, at which they will light up. The only problem was that I
found the response time of the buttons rather slow, causing me to constantly
run my fingers over the location of the buttons.
You can imagine how smudgy the V6's cover
would have been by then. Slow response time aside, I found that the inclusion
of the dedicated music buttons was quite useful especially if you're going to
use the phone to play lots of music. Just be mindful though that the 50MB of
internal memory is most likely insufficient for your music needs. However,
there is a micro SD slot which allows you to give the V6 and nice memory boost.
If there is one thing I like about Motorola
phones, its how they feel when you hold them. They're just the right size you
don't feel as if you're holding a brick or a thin sheet of paper when you're
using them. The V6 is no exception. Admittedly, it is still thick compared with
the rest of the Motorola phones but personally I found that the V6 still fitted
in the palm of my hands nicely.
The keypad was equally comfortable to use with
the number spacing being just right for most hands. Add the exceptionally
bright backlight and texting in the dark should never be a problem.
One other thing you'd notice about the V6
when you flip it open is its exceptionally bright and large screen. The LCD
screen has a 240 by 320 resolution and its display is really sharp and clear.
This is especially apparent when you load up photos into the phone or when you
fire up the web browser.
Speaking of photos, as the V6 is primarily
designed to be used with 3G networks; it comes equipped with two cameras for
video calling. The main camera on the cover is a nice 2-megapixels and based on
my test shots, pictures taken were quite clear though the colours sometimes
looked quite washed out. The main camera also comes with an LED light so you
can take pictures in the dark.
The inner camera however takes VGA quality video
which, while not exceptionally sharp or clear, still suffices for general video
calls. I did like that the main camera on the V6 could be used when the phone
was shut, utilising the front screen as a view finder, just in case you want to
take cam whore pictures.
Of course in every phone, user friendliness
is of highest importance. As far as physical user friendliness go, Motorola has
managed to get that part right. Its design of the phone gives sufficient short
cut buttons and it pretty intuitive to use as well. However, its when it comes
to its user interface that Motorola tends to be less impressive. Admittedly,
the V6's user interface has improved in terms of speed and usability when
compared to precious iterations of the Motorola interface. Still there are
times when it does some of the most illogical things, like photos not being
able to be sent via Bluetooth unless you save it to memory after being taken.
However besides that, most Motorola regulars shouldn't have a problem with the
user interface and newbies to the phone won't need to go through a steep
learning curve.
The V6 being a music phone as well, support
A2DP for Stereo Bluetooth headsets and our test found that sound quality over
Bluetooth was nice, crisp and clear. Playing it off the V6 own speaker was not
so bad either and we managed to get good volume, which meant that ringing tones
would also be exceptionally clear. So no problems hearing for calls while
you're in a shopping mall. That said, the speakers also functioned quite well
in speakerphone mode.
Unfortunately, considering the quality of
the 3G line and the lack of HSDPA connections here in Malaysia, I
can't really comment on the phones web browsing performance though it was fine
on the EDGE and GPRS connection. Battery life
on the phone was ok with a rated 380 hours on standby and 5 hours on talktime.
I personally had to charge the phone once every 4 days and that was with heavy
call making. Oddly enough, it had a battery life than the V3xx when I expected
it to be worse.
Overall, the V6 is a nice and stylish
phone, if you're looking for HSDPA connectivity in a stylish package. At around
RM1200, the Motorola RAZR MAXX V6 is a pretty good buy if you're looking for a
HSDPA ready phone. You'll just have to put up with a cover that gets constantly
smudgy that's all.
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