Motorola RAZR2 V8 review: New edge to RAZR

User Interface

Motorola RAZR2 V8 runs on the Linux Java 6.5 platform, which proves to be stable and fast, a conclusion supported by our extensive testing of the phone. More and more handsets are expected to come up with the LJ platform, and this seems to be the right direction for Motorola. However the recent announcement that Motorola will be acquiring 50% of UIQ from Sony Ericsson makes us think that a good number of UIQ-based phones will be on their way, too. Don't let the Linux designation fool you since the V8 is not a fully-fledged smartphone and it only allows installing Java apps. The very fast response and multitasking of the Motorola V8 had us wonder what processor it uses. Some reliable, yet uncorroborated sources claim it is a 500 MHz chip. Enough smart talk though, let's see what's on the menu. Motorola RAZR2 V8 has a standard home screen with options on the left soft key and main menu key on the right. The Options menu grants access to several important applications and settings, such as take picture, create message, change alert style, enable airplane mode, as well as customize home and set alarm. The Customize Home submenu allows for changing themes, shortcut keys, clock style, and date visibility on the home screen.

The home screen • Options menu

The main menu can be viewed as a 3 x 3 icon grid or as a list. The sub-menus display in list view only. The main menu icons can be reordered or even moved to submenus in the Office tools or Multimedia sections. Creating a new folder in the main menu is just another handy option at your disposal. Detailed information about memory is available too. Three tabs show battery status as follows: the first tab provides a snapshot of memory usage; the second tab (phone memory) displays details about the memory used by contacts, messages, installed applications, pictures, music, videos, etc. The third tab is for the data memory and offers similar information.

Main menu • A detailed memory information

Motorola V8 comes with two themes preinstalled - Alkali (default) and Plush, both fully customizable - call ringtones, message, email and IM alerts, as well as the calendar alarm can be modified. The same goes for the wallpaper, screensaver, power on/off screen and additional skins, if any.

The tender Plush theme • editing the theme menu

Phonebook is on par

The V8 offers a very nice and friendly phonebook. The maximum capacity is 1000 contacts (much like the Motorola maxx V6), which can be sorted by either first or last name. Contacts are displayed as a list or thumbnails. In thumbnail view up to 5 contacts are shown with a photo, if any, on the left. In list view, 8 contacts with no pictures display on the screen. If you have a vast list of contacts but you use certain entries more frequently, filtering with the "Most Frequent" option will be of great help. Contacts can also be filtered based on email address and category (family, friends and work are the predefined contact categories, but users can create new ones too).

Dexter contact revealed • calling Dexter • Dexter on the external display • thumbnail view of contacts

Motorola RAZR2 V8 runs on the Linux Java 6.5 platform, which proves to be stable and fast, a conclusion supported by our extensive testing of the phone. More and more handsets are expected to come up with the LJ platform, and this seems to be the right direction for Motorola.

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When saving a contact, the user is offered five tabs for different fields. The first one is the Contact Details tab, which holds the first and last name, five different phone numbers, two emails, instant messaging ID, as well as an ICQ or Skype alias. It's this tab where contacts can be associated with a category too.

The second tab stores two postal addresses with fields for town, country and postcode. The next one is the Picture ID tab, which stores a contact's photo only. In the Alert tab you can set custom notifications. An interesting option available here is the "Private Contact" checkbox. Ticking it will keep the contact in the phone only and won't get it synced with a PC. The last one is the Notes tab where - quite conveniently - a voice note is at your disposal too. The other fields are standard - company, title, manager's name, assistant's name, URL, nickname, spouse, children, birthday, event alarm, anniversary - with alarm too - and zodiac complete the tally.

Contacts: creating/editing a contact with four of the five tabs available

In the Options menu under Contacts, there is a Create tab. It lets you choose the storing location: SIM or phone. A nice surprise lies in store though. Two other resourceful options are included: Create Message list and Create Email list. Both are there to make multi mailing or multi messaging a piece of cake. When creating a message list you are prompted to set the list name, add members, as well as assign category, if necessary. The list is stored in your contacts alphabetically. For example, if you named the list "My friends" it will appear among contacts starting with the letter M.

Creating an email list step-by-step reference