Razr V3X: incredibly sharp

By Rory Reid on 05 December 2005, 3:00pm

It's a sad state of affairs when Crave has to buy gadgets with its own (real) money. That's exactly what happened this weekend when all our existing 3G handsets mysteriously decided to die -- perhaps as a result of some kind of bubonic 3G plague.

Fed up, we took a trip to our local phone retailer and were surprised to find the Motorola Razr V3X -- a handset that, according to the 3 Web site and various official 3 stores, isn't available yet.

Not wanting to look a gift phone in the mouth, we snapped it up. After playing with it non-stop all weekend, we have to say it's the coolest Razr (if not the coolest handset) ever. It's got a 2-megapixel camera (with flash and macro options) that you can use without opening the screen. Better still, it has automatic voice recognition features to make Star Trek fans green with envy.

You can speak the name of any phonebook contact (without first assigning a voice recording to that entry), and the V3X will dial the number. If there are similar names in your phonebook, or it doesn't quite understand what you've said, it'll verbally ask you which entry you meant. Honestly, it makes you feel like Captain Kirk. Without. The. Weird. Intonation. Or. Lycra.

The V3X is slightly fatter than the original Razr V3, but we think it's actually a little more stylish. It's available from 3 - despite what its Web site says. We got ours free with our calling plan. It'll cost you £299 on 3's cheapest tarrif, Talk & Text 200. Buy it. -RR

Update: a full review of the Motorola Razr V3x is now live.