24/Feb/2011 Motorola Razr V3

Mobile phones go out of fashion unbelievably quickly. Apart from many models from Sony Ericsson, I think the Motorola Razr V3 is one of the phones that still look nice after many years of its release. I have never owned one of these but I always liked the design of it.

At its time, it was the thinnest clamshell handset in the market with the thickness of only 13mm when the screen is closed. Its body is aluminum and the good thing about it is that the use of metal materials gives a mobile phone an impression of high quality. On the front, the camera lens, external display, the Motorola logo and a gap for the loudspeaker are neatly arranged in a straight line. One thing I found a bit disappointing is that the black frame of the external display is too wide, it would be extremely ugly if the phone is in a brighter colour such as silver. The length of the maid display doesn't cover the entire keypad, a very nice touch is they made the border of the display and the bottom part an arc, to balance the straightness of the arrangement of other elements on the front. Looking from the front, the chromed volume buttons, camera button and another button can also be seen on both sides of the screen.

Flip open the phone, there sits the 2.2 inch screen with an average display quality. The real special bit is the keypad. It's called an electroluminescent keypad, it is a single piece of metal with all the numbers and symbols on the keys cut by laser. It's looks very high tech and innovative at the time, but when I actually used the keypad, it gave me a very fragile feeling, I think the main problem was due to the thin body. The keypad also felt a lack of feedback compare to traditional buttons. However I think it is acceptable considering its aesthetic value. The electroluminescent thing made the keypad really clear, easy to read and beautiful in dark environments.

Since I haven't actually owned one of the Razr V3s, I can only describe it by looking at pictures on google but can't really talk about the whole design in details. To conclude, what I like about this phone are the material choice, rather unusual keypad and its neatness. A few details are not perfect but it is still a good design to me after all.