Hands on with the RAZR V3m
By Ryan Block 
posted Apr 5th 2006 9:00AM
posted Apr 5th 2006 9:00AM
posted Apr 5th 2006 9:00AM
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Does anybody know if the Motorola RAZR V3m is GSM? because i want to unlock it.
"You can easily switch phones with CDMA without needing a sim card."
Okay how?
I looked everywhere for an answer but I could not locate.
Unfortunately with all the US carriers trying to charge for song downloads, I am sure they (Verizon) will find some way to cripple such a welcome addition to the RAZR line.
So where exactly is the MicroSD slot? Because there is no SIM slot on the V3c since it's CDMA. I'm looking at my V3c and trying to figure out where the could put it.
Uh guys, CDMA phones for the US market don't have SIM slots. Were you possibly playing with the V3i instead?
How about some body putting Audible.com's codec on a phone! Please! RAZR with Audible support would be awesome.
Its called the iphone.
If I have a Razr and it has the problem that many of the Cingular Razrs had, do you think they'll let me trade in my regualr razr (with the problems) at cingular for this razr or do u think id have to pay more?
My bad! I meant to write "where the SIM slot used to be", it's beneath (but not below) the battery. Thanks!
Best, Ryan
Sprint (possibly) carrying a RAZR? Goodnight A900...
Intresting how they have the V3m to play with and add speculation as to which US carrier will get it... I'm still waiting on cold hard facts about the V3i... but i'm not going to hold my breath on either...
When are Motorola going to realize that they need to give it a QVGA display and Windows Mobile OS? :D
Those are pretty much the only circumstances under which a RAZR seems desirable to me.
What?!? Why doesn't the phone have a SIM Card?!? I am from the UK and have never heard of a phone that doesn't have a SIM Card! How do you transfer your numbers and phonebook between phones? How does your phone know its number? This seems very odd. Do all American phones not have a sim card?
America uses 2 different cell phone technologies, CDMA and GSM. GSM (Cingular + T-mobile) uses sim cards, but companies like Verizon and US Cellular uses CDMA which do not use sim cards. CDMA phones are programmed so they do not need sim cards. You can easily switch phones with CDMA without needing a sim card. The RAZR V3M is a CDMA phone. It will not work with any carrier using a sim card. Only a company like Verizon (or any CDMA carrier) is capable of supporting this phone. So if you have Cingular, T-Mobile, or whatever you are out of luck.
You mean that American CDMA phones don't have R-UIM slots? Here's one place where China is ahead of the US- here there are R-UIM cards for CDMA phones, and they work quite well for moving phonebooks and messages between phones, as well as making the ESN irrelevant for any more than inventory purposes. I hope that slot will still be there when it gets here though- a KDDI phone will have its memory card slot replaced with a R-UIM slot if it moves here (like Toshiba phones).
I would like Ryan or any other review to talk about the menu structure since the HORRENDOUS motorola triple lined menu button is GONE. I've heard they were migrating away from it to more 'Nokia-style' context based softkeys, but never thought they'd do it on the RAZR. Hopefully they'll make it into an article about the hands on.
To "Iain": What you and most of the rest of the world are used to is GSM (or global system for mobile communications) which gains its phone number from a SIM card placed into the phone to activate it. In the US, there is also CDMA (or code-division multiple access) used by Verizon and Sprint which just embeds a special code into each phone that is purchased. This phone is made for the CDMA network and thus it will most likely to go Verizon when the service comes out.
Which leads me to respond to you, "Ryan." There will be no way to trade in your Cingular branded RAZR for this RAZR because this RAZR will not be used on GSM networks--which is what Cingular uses. Tough luck, yeah, but remember that the Verizon phones are required to run horrendous Verizon software--in some cases worse than the Motorola software. So switch to Verizon, or wait for the V3i, which is a GSM phone, to come to the American market. You will not get your money back, either, for your current RAZR (V3 i presume), and you will have to pay full price if you want a next generation phone.
Oh I checked this phone out at CTIA as well and found out that it is NOT Bluetooth Stereo compatible (A2DP and AVRCP NOT supported).
Bummer. I was hoping to have a cool Verizon phone that worked with my Motorola HT820's. Oh well.
I'm bettin' this phones for Verizon and I have really good hunch that the V3i (w/iTunes) will be coming to a Cingular near you sometime soon.
If Motorola is using Trisha Yearwood's music (see above picture) to promote this phone, it has to be awesome!
The Razr V3m is not gsm.
The font on Verizon new UI is immpossible to read for anyone in there early 40s and up.
Verizon has chosen a "one size fits all" user interface. So basically when you go to pick out a phone at Verizon, if you don't like the one choice, you need to find another provider.
I could care less about music. How is it as a phone?
Sprint needs to stop carrying Sanyo phones and start carrying Motorola. I haven't had a problem with any of there Samsung phones but the Sanyo's simply suck!
sprint has them 2 u know
alltel is the best.
I have had a Cingular V3 for two years now and have been 95% satisfied. I thought i would try Verizon since i get a weak signal at home with Cingular (thats the missing 5%). There are features that are locked out on the Verizon V3m that i have with the V3. I am unable to set the ringer to Vibe-then-Ring. I am unable to edit the menu buttons on the home page. There is an annoying red bar at the top and bottom of the screen that is not changeable and is taking up valuable screen real estate. The speakerphone takes 3 seconds to enable or disable via the side button and guess what? Can't change that either. You dont realize how much of a conversation you miss in 3 seconds until you get this phone. The Middle menu button that i have on the V3 is not on this "newer" V3m.
I will be sending this one back.