It’s finally time to retire my trusty old Sony Ericsson T616 mobile phone. It served me well, even though it tended to frustrate me with the overly tiny buttons and the need to constantly lock and unlock the keypad.
I was a long time AT&T Wireless customer and was recently absorbed by the Cingular Wireless buyout. The buyout went smoothly for me. The signal coverage grew and seems to be a bit more reliable in the Boston area. I’ve travelled all over the Midwest and North East parts of the US without any troubles. A recent trip through France proved that Cingular’s international service works as advertised.
Anyway, a couple of days ago I got tired of recharging the aging battery in my T616 every day, more often if I actually had a long phone conversation. So a trip to the local Boston Cingular store produced a shiny new Black Motorola RAZR V3 GSM
This is one nice phone! The buttons are nice and big. I prefer the flip phone design so I don’t have to lock the darn keyboard. The screen is actually bright enough to see in sunlight. It is flat and light enough to put in my shirt pocket or pants pocket without really noticing its there. If you’re into gadgets, it definitely has the cool factor going for it.
I do have a few complaints though. The included ring tones stink. I realize you can buy ring tones everywhere these days, but come on. This is $200 phone. Include some decent ring tones. Games, what games. This is a fully Java capable phone. The menu has a section for games. What games to they ship with the great $200 phone? A limited demo of Bejeweled and a slide show application? My Sony Ericsson came with a several fully featured games. Now, I’m not really a phone gamer, but if I’m sitting in an airport waiting for a delayed flight, I may want to whip out my phone to play a quick game or two to pass the time. Now I have to buy some? Come On!
These are minor issues, really. But I can’t believe that Motorola couldn’t afford to include a couple of decent ring tones and one or two decent games with their phones.