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Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

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Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#41

Post by phakding »

sampl wrote: post #40
fierarul wrote: post #37

I think this flip phone would still sell today if they would make it. I was in a retro mood recently and actually looked at a flip phone to buy and the cheapest I could find in my country was about the same price as a low-cost Android. So, no buy. The guys selling under the Nokia brand are also rejuvenating old products but they are going too far: I don't want a Nokia with a color screen, better graphics and an app s…

I used an old-style phone a few years back. Some things I had forgotten about: - syncing contacts to the phone is near impossible - typing on t9 is slowwwww - setting up MMS etc is a PITA - no apps even for things like driving directions, simple web searches, voice recordings, Spotify

Can you not copy contacts to Sim and then copy to the new phone? I remember doing that with multiple dummy phones before I bought my first smart phone.

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#42

Post by egypturnash »

dirkgently wrote: post #36
skellera wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss phones that let you dial the letters of the contact name to pull up that contact. Example I always thought was funny was Mom is 666. But with that, it was faster to dial a contact name like that than their number.

> I miss phones that let you dial the letters of the contact name to pull up that contact. Not sure if I understand this. If you mean start dialing by name or number, I can do this on my Android.

Each number key has three letters associated with it. So you hit the numbers that correspond to the letters in the name; presumably the phone would display a list of all the contacts that matched - with the example of typing 666 to get “Mom”, first you’d see every contact whose first letter was M, N, or O, then every contact whose second letter was also on the 6 key, and so on until you were down to one and hit the dial button.

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#43

Post by Xunxi »

swimfar wrote: post #17

I just bought one a few months ago when my 13 year old Nokia died. I actually dislike the phone quite a bit and prefer my old Nokia. I have to charge the Razr about every other day, even if I haven't used it for calls. It takes too many button presses to do anything. It isn't very responsive (it takes about 4 seconds for each text deletion). If I receive a missed call or text the phone will vibrate every 5 minutes un…

Nokia has revamped its classic phones https://www.nokia.com/en_int/phones/classic-phones

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#44

Post by begriffs »

userbinator wrote: post #15

In 2003, a 14mm-thick phone cost $500. In 2018, a 5mm-thick phone costs https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Mini-Phone-AEKU-C6-Color... The level of integration has increased immensely, there's not much inside one of these phones: https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107

I had a variation of that mini phone you linked to (the internals get repackaged by various manufacturers). Mine was exactly the height and width of a credit card, and not very thick. It was lovely in my pocket, so unobtrusive. Everyone thought it was a calculator. :) Had to give it up after a while because the battery was really bad. One serious call and it was toast, and the battery got worse with age. If they made a model with a swappable battery it would be more tolerable because I could take some spares with me.

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#45

Post by arthurfm »

My first mobile phone was a Motorola V50 flip phone [1] which cost £500 in 2000. Despite being released four years before the RAZR V3 [2] it was both smaller and lighter (although slightly thicker). I reckon it would still look cool today if they upgraded the screen.

I can't remember why, but I didn't bother buying any RAZRs and my next phone purchase was a Sony Ericsson K800 [3] in 2006.

[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_v50-223.php (83 grams, 83 x 44 mm)

[2] https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_v3-853.php (95 grams, 98 x 53 mm)

[3] https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k800-1485.php (115 grams, 105 x 47 mm)

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#46

Post by erk__ »

egypturnash wrote: post #42
dirkgently wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I miss phones that let you dial the letters of the contact name to pull up that contact. Not sure if I understand this. If you mean start dialing by name or number, I can do this on my Android.

Each number key has three letters associated with it. So you hit the numbers that correspond to the letters in the name; presumably the phone would display a list of all the contacts that matched - with the example of typing 666 to get “Mom”, first you’d see every contact whose first letter was M, N, or O, then every contact whose second letter was also on the 6 key, and so on until you were down to one and hit the d…

Yeah, that still works at least on android.

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#47

Post by needle0 »

"The RAZR was the first phone to recognize that cellphones [...] were on the tipping point to becoming fashion accessories"

Was RAZR really released in 2003? Searches seem to bring up varying dates, mostly mentioning mid to late 2004. In Japan, there was the AU Design Project, a carrier-led project established in 2002 which created concept mockups and eventually actual products with a focus on industrial design and fashionability. Their first model, Infobar, was released in Oct 2004; depending on when RAZR was really released it brings the "first" mention above into question.

The project released many other products over the years, such as the Marc Newson-designed Talby or even the polka dotted Yayoi Kusama art edition, but Infobar in particular went on to release several iterations, even continuing into the smartphone era. Too bad none of them ever got visibility outside of Japan due to this being a project led by a domestic carrier with no intentions of letting the manufacturers release the same designs outside of them. https://time-space.kddi.com/adp15th/#product

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#49

Post by PascLeRasc »

robin_reala wrote: post #24
steelframe wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I miss small phones. Not quite "tiny," but pretty small regardless, the Xperia Compact line of phones is still a thing. You should check it out. A new Z5C can be had for about 150 USD, or 500 USD for an XZ2C if you can live with 5 inches. Sadly, it's not clear whether Sony will be releasing an XZ3C, so we may be coming to the end of what is arguably the only serious high-end compact smartphone out there.

iPhone SE is still supported by Apple and smaller still, and the Performance on iOS 12 is respectable. Probably not as cheap as $150 but it can’t be far off.

It's cheaper than $150: https://swappa.com/buy/apple-iphone-se

Re: Motorola Razr V3 Cellphone: The trend-setter that shouldn't have existed

#50

Post by bsder »

fierarul wrote: post #37

I think this flip phone would still sell today if they would make it. I was in a retro mood recently and actually looked at a flip phone to buy and the cheapest I could find in my country was about the same price as a low-cost Android. So, no buy. The guys selling under the Nokia brand are also rejuvenating old products but they are going too far: I don't want a Nokia with a color screen, better graphics and an app s…

I would prefer an old school "candybar" phone with a modern interface with the front being a touchscreen.

Basically, an Apple watch in a slightly larger form factor that is an actual phone.

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