Motorola RAZR maxx V6 review: HSDPA flip take two

Texters won't complain

The keypad of V6 is rather comfortable and can be easily distinguished is the dark only by touching the keys. It is made of two parts, as most modern phones nowadays, functional and numeric. The functional part has two soft keys on the very top, the 4-way navigation D-pad with confirming center in the middle and 5 more buttons surrounding it: on the left, a video calls initiating button and the green "receiver" button; on the right, correction C button and the red "receiver" button. Below the navigation circle is button which activates the internet browser of the phone.

V6 keypad

The numeric part of the keypad is standard - the lines of keys have a slight uplift which enhances touch control. The backlighting of the keypad is great and it evenly illuminates the whole keypad in a blue color.

Keypad backlighting

Joy for the eyes

The 2.2" TFT display, capable of showing up to 256K colors and resolution of 240 x 320 pixels is really great. It shows vivid colors on a big surface. The picture is very clear and the only drawback is legibility under direct sunlight. In certain light conditions, it may be very hard to see what is on the display. Other than that - supreme! The backlighting is very good.

The Motorola maxx V6 display in the dark

The external display is also of the better ones. It can display up to 65K colors and has resolution of 120 x 160 pixels which is quite good for such a small surface. It shows the time, chosen wallpaper, the battery and signal bars and the caller id or number if someone is calling. It can also display the currently played song and a progress bar. Quite nice, indeed!

The external display in the dark

Signal reception is as good as in every phone coming out on the market in the past few years. In these days, nobody can afford to have a phone with bad reception. The speaker quality is also good; no strange noises can be heard during calls.

Light effects and external display view when receiving a call • Missed call alert on the external display

There is also an airplane mode which switches off the phone features and gives you the option to play music or games where you cannot use your cellular phone regularly. There is even an option that asks you every time if you want the phone to start in airplane mode.

Aeroplane mode • Startup question on the main and on the external display

The phonebook can show either SIM contacts only, the phone contacts only or both. You may also create a new Message list or Email list with contacts you often send messages to. Searching is done by gradual typing of the desired contact's name.

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New, but still the same

If you are familiar with the old Motorola interface called Synergy, the one used in V3, you will not be very surprised with this new baby's user interface as it is almost the same. On the stand-by screen you will find the battery and signal bars, the operator name, the time and date and according to your preference you can put a cross with the applications assigned to the four ways of the navigation D-pad.

Stand-by screen with and without the cross with applications • external display stand-by

When you get into the main menu you will see a grid of 4 x 3 animated icons. The sub-menus are in list view with small icons on the left side or in text lists only. This feature is not user-configurable. The phone speed in the menu and most of the applications is not the best it could be but it is alright. There are three graphic themes available: Disco, Glow and Indium.

The main menu in the three graphic themes

Storing contacts is what it's all about

Motorola RAZR maxx V6 phonebook can store up to 1000 contacts (much like the competing Samsung Z560). You can view the phonebook in two ways: as a list with thumbnails or as a plaint text list. You may assign different field to an entry, such as First name, Last Name, Nickname, Number, Type( Mobile, Home, Work, Fax, Pager, Other) Video number, Email (type - personal, work, other), URL, Postal Address (type: home, work, other), Category, Rinder ID (Sound, Music, Voice Notes, Vibration Pattern, Silent, None), Picture, Birthday, Notes. Probably that is more than anybody would ever want.

List with thumbnails • plain list

The phonebook can show either SIM contacts only, the phone contacts only or both. You may also create a new Message list or Email list with contacts you often send messages to. Searching is done by gradual typing of the desired contact's name.

Choosing the contacts' source

The log of * and #

The Recent Calls application shows all 50 missed, received and dialed calls. God bless Motorola for finally understanding that navigation between different types of calls can be much easier with the use of the asterisk and hash keys (• & #). When you press either of those keys you switch between the different groups of calls. This function was put in the Motorola phones long ago but it didn't serve the Calls application.

Dialed Calls list • Typing a number • Calling our good friend Dexter • Receiving a call