Motorola has high sales in the clamshell segment. European phone users got acquainted with the clamshell phones due to Motorola. The company is a pioneer in this field and have had several popular products of this design. For example, everybody remembers the StarTac and other clamshells of V-series. All clamshell models were made with the same style typical for the company with base functions and classical clamshell design. The market has strong competition and the company tries to find new niches.

The peculiarity of the new phone from Motorola is that the creators developed the thinnest clamshell phone on the market. It is made of exclusive materials, mainly metal alloys. The developers named the project that created the phone 'Razor'; therefore the full name of the phone is V3 Razor. Here is our review.

At first glance, the phone appears like a small PDA. It is rather wide but not high (comparable with current clamshells by this feature). When you hold the phone you will immediately see and feel that it is very thin (less than 14 mm). When opened, the phone is even thinner, especially the top. The top edge of the phone is very sharp.

The unique feature of the phone is the material from which it is made. There is not much plastic in the phone The phone is made of metal and has small dimensions. The has space alloys that are differed by lightness and durability. The phone has good protection against drops and falls because of its make-up. The weight of the phone is not more than 100 grams.

The only phone we can make reference to that has a similar outside is the Nokia 8910 that has a titanium body. This model doesn't have unique dimensions but has a rather good opening mechanism that fits the phone for the class. The model contains a chrome keypad made of plastic to reduce the weight of the phone.

Motorola Razr V3 has a keypad made of metal alloy and is one third by height of the smallest keypad presented on the market. The first impressions from the keypad can be strange as there is no movement from the keys because of the keypad. The whole keypad of the phone (soft keys and alphanumerical keys) is made as a touch panel making keying rather tight. It will more than likely take several days to get used to the keypad and began quickly type SMS messages. With further practice, tests showed that the keypad was convenient.

The keys has a light-blue luminescent backlight that looks very stylish. The backlight is not strong, but it seems strong enough in most of cases. The external display is a color screen that is capable of supporting 4096 colors with resolutions of 98x64 pixels. Up to 3 text lines can be contained on the display. The external screen displays the information about incoming calls and events. Unfortunately, the photo call function is only available for internal display. The phone is equipped with STN external display but it is not visible in a sunny day. This makes it just fashionable and not functional.

The internal screen is large with resolution of 240x320 pixels. It is capable of supporting up to 262000 colors. The Motorola Razr V3 has one of the best screens today. The number of text lines remains the same in the Motorola Razr V3 as Motorola's previous phones, but the fonts were enlarged. This is also true for the icons and other elements of interface.

On the side of the phone can be found the control keys. A volume key and a key provided access to voice commands (the same key activates the recorder during the talk) can be found here. The side keys are harder to press so it makes accidental pressing harder as well The phone has a mini-USB connector, to which the phone charger can be connected. The standard kit includes a small charging adapter.

The speaker is on the back cover of the phone. We felt that the speaker was clear and could be heard even on a busy street or situational setting. You can download your own MP3 melodies.

The back panel also covers the battery compartment. The phone has a Lit-Ion battery of 750 mAh capacity which should provide up to 200 hours in the standby mode and up to three hours in the talk mode. Field tests revealed the phone worked a little bit more than two days in case of using the phone and about one hour per day in the talk mode (MTS network) and up to 25 minutes of using other functions (mainly bluetooth). Fully charging the phone takes less than two hours.

The Motorola Razr V3 has Java applications. The phone has a 3-dimensional phonebook. You can input up to 9 phone numbers in it. A photo can be assigned to each of them; and shown on the one side of the cube. You can choose that cube you need and rotate it with a help of the navigation key. Each side of the cube is assigned with its own number, for example, if it is rotated to the left, you can see an office phone. The concept is very interesting. This book is synchronized with the general phonebook, and it checks all notes while loading. The main disadvantage of the 3D phonebook is that it can't be loaded quickly. Also, there are games on the phone that one can play. There is a nice billiard game that is pleasant to play it because of the large dimensions of the screen. The same is with golf and Stones.

The Motorola Razr V3's memory is 5.5 Mb. The Motorola V3 does not have expansion slots for memory cards either. The connection quality of the Motorola V3 Razor is quite good. The ring volume is high, but the vibration-ring is rather weak. The advantages of this phone over others is its internal antenna, large internal screen, improved ring volume, and the metal alloys that were used to create the phone. The Motorola Razor V3 is a fashionable phone, made to emphasize the social status of the owner. Today there are no similar phones with its features in this segment. The manufacturer is not going to reduce the price greatly for quite some time so it may continue to cost 500 USD in the end of its life cycle.

For more information about the Motorola-Razr V3 and possible sales items, please visit www.motorola-razr.com.