Half an inch thin (yes, we said half an inch) and made of anodized aluminum, the Motorola flip phone looks and feels absolutely amazing. There's no dispute: The Razr (pronounced "razor") is the coolest-looking phone. Period.

The Razr is joyously thin. And though it may seem a little wide in relation to its thinness, it slips into any pocket with ease. Carrying it around is addictive; it's so much less of a bother than other phones. It mates well with Bluetooth headsets, and you can voice-dial numbers (as long as they are listed in the phone's address book). Call quality was acceptable, though not extraordinary. Indoors, the speakerphone and ringer could wake the dead.

Flip it open, and you're confronted by a vast screen that's bright enough, if not quite as bright as the Motorola V505's, and a keypad etched into a metal plate with slightly raised rubber numbers. This makes dialing very easy, but the four-way selector buttons above the keypad are a bit more slippery because of the lack of rubber bumps there.

In terms of software, the Razr is basically the same as the V505, which is a good thing. You can take pictures with the phone closed, but the VGA camera is just average (despite its glass, not plastic, lens). The V505's camera was much better. (Check out our camera phone gallery online.) There's a WAP browser, an AIM client, a basic e-mail client, and up-to-the-minute Java game support (including a nifty golf game), although there's not enough horsepower to support much action gaming. We synced contacts, calendar, pictures, and MP3 ringtones with a PC, via both Bluetooth and a mini USB cable, using Motorola's Mobile PhoneTools ($29.99) software.

Of course, fashion plates are notoriously quirky, and the Razr is no exception. Without the backlight on, the external display is virtually impossible to read. The case isn't easy to scratch, but if you do, scratches really show. Still, these minor nits won't stop the Razr from being the phone to be seen with this winter.

< back to