It’s probably fair to say that the original RAZR from Motorola (christened the V3) was one of the most revolutionary mobile phones of its time. In the 3 years since then, Motorola have rested on there laurels and deservedly basked in the success of this particular model by releasing minimal updates to this universally appealing design. Amongst these were the bug-ridden V3i and the 3G V3X, but of late the mobile phone market has moved on considerably and it will take an awful lot for the V3 RAZR’s successor to have anything like the same impact.

The successor to the V3 is the RAZR2 V8 comes as something of a surprise as it was expected by many to be just an updated and possibly even thinner version of its parent phone. It seems that Motorola have gone in a direction that is likely to split opinion much more than was to be expected as some genuinely clever features have been added to give the new RAZR and EDGE.

The Motorola RAZR2 V8 seems noticeably larger than its ancestor but stunningly, some of the dimensions have actually been reduced. The width is still exactly the same at 53mm, but the thickness of it is actually less than the V3 which was 14mm, whereas the V8 measures just shy of 12mm thick. There is a difference in the basic height of the phone itself but that is just 5mm which may not seem like much but that’s put into focus properly when the phone is opened up.

Put simply the main screen absolutely dominates the rest of the phone. A 2.2” screen in what is meant to be a relatively compact mobile phone is a little bizarre. The biggest problem with this is the that the weight of the screen helps to tilt the phone out of your hand, which is strangely exactly the same problem that appeared in the Nokia N76.

Though it is an issue, once you’ve got a feel for this phone it doesn’t cause as much of a problem as first thought. The overall layout and build quality is pretty decent but with a slight lack of imagination (with one exception.) The main keypad is a bit too similar to the original RAZR which although isn’t necessarily a bad thing (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it) but is just slightly underwhelming.
Much better though is the set of controls located underneath the main display. What you’ve got is a set of 3 music keys which are both touch-sensitive and Haptics enabled for better responses. These controls may only be used for music playback but are still worth applauding just for how responsive and well-implemented they are.

The basic features aren’t really a major innovation from the V3 as you get GPRS, Class 12 EDGE, a 2 Megapixel camera, and compatibility with Bluetooth headphones thanks to the A2DP profile. Memory is only internal and has been limited to just 512MB with the forthcoming V9 supposedly coming with microSD compatibility, but it is a mystery why such an eagerly awaited mobile phone has been limited in such a potentially crippling way.

At the end of the day and when not looked at through rose-tinted glasses, the Motorola RAZR2 V8 is a lower/mid-range handset with plenty going in its favour (looks being one of them) but is let down in some crucial areas. Its still worth a look at though.