Filed under: Cellphones

We can almost hear the voices of skeptical readers whispering in unison, “fanboy Photoshop,” and we’d normally have half a mind to agree. After all, the bizarre gray exterior (just a reflection, perhaps?) seems incongruent with the rest of the phone, the contents of the external display are obviously faked, and the coloration of the Verizon logo doesn’t make a lot of sense — not to mention that the concept of a CDMA-based MOTORAZR MAXX is a bit… shall we say, new to us. Alas, it turns out the picture’s authenticity is rock solid (not to say it’s not a Photoshop job, but if it is, it’s an official one) seeing how we just downloaded it off Motorola’s official site for press multimedia. We know nothing about it besides what we’re seeing here, but truth be told, the picture alone is a lot to process: Verizon gets a strangely colored variant of a high-end RAZR we didn’t even know existed. It looks like a 2-megapixel cam is in the cards, and if the specs mirror its GSM cousin, we can expect a QVGA display, microSD expansion, and 50 odd megabytes of internal storage — not a bad piece to slot in right above the K1m, if we do say so ourselves. As soon as we catch wind of availability (or catch wind that Motorola is playing an extraordinarily unsportsmanlike practical joke on us), we’ll pass on the good word.

[Thanks, Pioneer]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Well, it’s not an absolute surprise, we saw this model as an unnamed prototype floating around last month, but Motorola just officially took the wraps off of their new MotoRAZR MAXX, a purtiful followup to the V3x. At a mere 0.6-inches thick, the MAXX shaves a whole 0.2-inches off of the V3x. The new phone also adds EDGE and HSDPA in addition to the already speedy UMTS, making this handset much more likely to show up in the EDGE-friendly USA. Moto has included Bluetooth 2.0+ Enhanced Data Rate, 50MB of internal storage, a microSD slot for expansion and the snazzy glass front and touch sensitive music controls of launch buddy KRZR K1m. The 2.2-inch QVGA display is, of course, always welcome, as are the 2.0 megapixel and VGA cameras the phone has. Also, as a nice embellishment on the lot, the phone’s details glow blue when receiving a call. Motorola is planning to release the phone to unknown markets and carriers in this half of 2006, our fingers are duly crossed.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

Well, it’s not an absolute surprise, we saw this model as an unnamed prototype floating around last month, but Motorola just officially took the wraps off of their new MotoRAZR MAXX, a purtiful followup to the V3x. At a mere 0.6-inches thick, the MAXX shaves a whole 0.2-inches off of the V3x. The new phone also adds EDGE and HSDPA in addition to the already speedy UMTS, making this handset much more likely to show up in the EDGE-friendly USA. Moto has included Bluetooth 2.0+ Enhanced Data Rate, 50MB of internal storage, a microSD slot for expansion and the snazzy glass front and touch sensitive music controls of launch buddy KRZR K1m. The 2.2-inch QVGA display is, of course, always welcome, as are the 2.0 megapixel and VGA cameras the phone has. Also, as a nice embellishment on the lot, the phone’s details glow blue when receiving a call. Motorola is planning to release the phone to unknown markets and carriers in this half of 2006, our fingers are duly crossed.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, CDMA

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola

It’s hard for any phone to out-do the legendary StarTac, but Motorola’s posterchild — you know which one we’re talking about — has officially sold 50 million units. Since the Hong Kong debut way back in 2004, the RAZR has dominated the mobile scene, and with a figure like that, you have to give props to the ingenious engineering, er, marketing team behind it. The handset really hasn’t changed much over the years, and its lamentable success is due in large part to buyers’ infatuation with colors; the ability jump-start sales by varying the paint job gave Motorola a bonafide cash cow, enabling everyone and their mother (literally) to jump on the ultimate mobile bandwagon. And with the possibility of more colors on the horizon, the question beckons: when will the madness end? While the 50 million unit milestone is commendable, we’re not shy about spending our time looking towards the future.

[Via Mobiledia]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

If you’ve had any lingering questions about Motorola’s RAZR successor, the KRZR — aka Canary, aka RAZR 2 — you might shuffle on over to the FCC’s site and have a look-see. All the good stuff on the GSM variant has gone live, with unfettered access to external and internal pics plus a draft user’s manual. The KRZR does get honest-to-goodness EDGE which’ll be a fun experience for original V3 owners making the switch — but as Pete pointed out, it’s basically a glossy, slimmed down RAZR, so don’t expect any juicy specs buried in the documents. If by chance you still find yourself mesmerized by all that blue, glossy goodness, look for the KRZR at your friendly local Cingular outlet come this fall.

[Thanks, Handset Freak]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola

Filed under: Handsets, Sanyo, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

Filed under: Cellphones

The guys over at PhoneScoop have sure made the site live up to its name today: not only did they get some serious hands-on time with Motorola’s upcoming RAZR slider — codenamed Capri — they also got to preview the next version of Moto’s much-maligned Synergy UI that will show up in such models as the Canary and the SCPL. At least on paper, the Capri seems to offer a very compelling feature set that will probably attract anyone into the RAZR lifestyle- you’re getting a model only slightly thicker and heavier than its clamshell counterpart, but which sports a 2.0 megapixel camera, A2DP-capable Bluetooth, and what sounds like a greatly improved user interface. Especially noteworthy in the overhauled Synergy is an address book that seems to work much more intuitively than past iterations (remember the one on the StarTAC?), allowing you to organize entries by name and search for contacts using multiple letters. Although Phone Scoop was only testing a pre-production model, they have identified some potential problems to watch out for on the final version, such as the unusually crappy quality of what should be a decent camera, and most importantly, a spring-assisted slider that’s difficult to activate due to the raised antenna bulge so familiar to RAZR owners. Click on if you want to peep a few more snaps, but you’re really doing yourself a disservice if you don’t head over to PhoneScoop for the full gallery and a very thorough write-up…

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Filed under: Cellphones

Nothing like a lighthearted trademark lawsuit to break up the gloom-and-doom stories of hot phones that aren’t bound for US shores, eh? It seems that Razor USA – the scooter company – was understandably concerned back in 2004 that Motorola might encroach on the lucrative, burgeoning scooterphone market and penned an agreement to license the “RAZR” name through October of this year. Motorola figured they could sidestep the agreement by prefixing “MOTO” to “RAZR” and wash their hands of the encroaching expiration date. Razor — again, the scooter people – disagreed, prompting Motorola to file the lawsuit. In the meantime, Motorola “will continue to expend substantial funds to complete the transition” from RAZR to MOTORAZR, apparently confident they can overpower a bunch of kids on two-wheeled scooters. How much money can the “transition” from four letters to eight really cost, anyway?

[Thanks, CoreyTheGent]

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Filed under: Cellphones

This thing just gets prettier and prettier every time we see it. We don’t have any solid deets on specs for Canary, the RAZR’s heir apparent, but the rampant speculation mill currently has her getting a 2 megapixel shooter, 17 measly megabytes of internal storage, a MicroSD slot, and the all-important Bluetooth 2.0. We’re seeing conflicting reports on whether we’ll get UMTS, but we gotta be honest, quad-band EDGE alone just isn’t going to cut it for a high-end phone by the time Canary likely drops in 2007. More shots of Canary doing its thing after the break.

[Thanks, dk]

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

This release may not have us salivating uncontrollably like the Q did, but for what it’s worth, the V3m is a marginal upgrade to the outgoing V3c it replaces, giving you a MicroSD slot to rock the new inbuilt music player — and not much else. Step right up, folks; the V3m is available now for $149.99 with contract — but as we’ve learned, availability and price could vary nonsensically in your area.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, RIM, Cingular, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

It’s been widely known that the Motorola V3i and a variant of the BlackBerry 7130 are both expected for Cingular; the only question was when. That piece of the puzzle might be now be answered, thanks to our ol’ buddy, The Canary-uncovering, Q-exposing Boy Genius: rumor has both these objects of desire launching next week. Sure enough, he’s given us some kind of promotional literature for the Cingular-branded 7130c — yeah, it’s fuzzy, but we clearly see a Cingular logo slapped on the center of that phone. When a US domestic carrier launches a phone, it doesn’t take much to get us excited around here, but two relatively anticipated phones in one week? On the same carrier? Pardon us while we go launch some bottle rockets.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

What’s a lazy Friday afternoon without a bit of completely unsubstantiated rumor mongering? Sure, it’s possible that Ed Zander himself wrote this SCPL mockup on a napkin over a recent lunch, but we’re thinking it more likely the doings of a fanboy with too much time on his hands. Anyways, the specs are as set above: 0.2-inches thick (compared to the 0.27-inch chubster X820 from Samsung), QVGA display, 512MB flash memory, MicroSD slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio (pushing it), Bluetooth 2.0 and a titanium-alloy build. We’d be pretty happy with about half of that, but we’re sure this won’t be the last savory rumor to drool over before we find out for reals.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola

What’s a lazy Friday afternoon without a bit of completely unsubstantiated rumor mongering? Sure, it’s possible that Ed Zander himself wrote this SCPL mockup on a napkin over a recent lunch, but we’re thinking it more likely the doings of a fanboy with too much time on his hands. Anyways, the specs are as set above: 0.2-inches thick (compared to the 0.27-inch chubster X820 from Samsung),QVGA display, 512MB flash memory, microSD slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio (pushing it), Bluetooth 2.0 and a titanium-alloy build. We’d be pretty happy with about half of that, but we’re sure this won’t be the last savory rumor to drool over before we find out for reals.

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Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

As the RAZR name splinters into a seemingly endless array of variants, how can the average user be expected to know the difference between a V3i, a V3c, and a V3x? More importantly, how are we to know whether that shiny new clamshell goodness is worth divorcing ourselves of several hundred dollars? As usual, we've got you covered. This time, we have Mobledia taking an up-close-and-personal look at the V3m, the successor to the CDMA V3c. The V3m is basically a V3c that's been taking its vitamins -- the only major additions are the MicroSD slot, music playback, and location-based services. Externally, the phones are identical, so V3c users fishing for compliments on their hot new upgrade best look elsewhere. Mobledia faults Motorola for carrying over the same 65,000-color displays from the V3c, but left us with a generally positive impression of the phone, crediting it for addressing the major complaints leveled against its predecessor. If that's enough to get you excited, the V3m is expected shortly on Verizon for $150 with contract.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

Last time we checked in on Motorola's V3m -- a slight music-centric update to the EV-DO V3c -- we weren't quite sure if this was going to Verizon or Sprint, but it looks like Verizon won out in the end, and are now offering the handset for $150 with a 2-year contract. The phone features a microSD slot for music and video storage, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, but there doesn't seem to be a lot else new going on here. Music-wise, the phone is designed to work with Verizon's V Cast music and video services, but we're not sure of codec support beyond those downloads, though MP3 seems a given and PlaysForSure is likely.

[Thanks, Ryan]