The KRZR K1 - Perspective from a RAZR MAXXX V6 user (Motorola MOTOKRZR K1)

Member Name: catersyd

Product:	Motorola MOTOKRZR K1
Date:	11/04/08 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks, shape, size, familiarity

Disadvantages: Slow and fiddly, smudges, uninspiring display quality

MotoKRZR K1
=========

My main phone is the RAZR MAXXX V6. I'm not sure if that's enough Xs there, I know there's a few. It's a great phone, with one main flaw: it keeps developing faults requiring a return to Vodafone, with whom I have my contract. The second time it failed I bought an unlocked KRZR K1 handset as a backup. So my review is either tainted or enhanced by comparison with the V6.

I'm not going to talk much about features because the Technical Details tab will supply most of that information.

Physical Design
===========

The KRZR K1 is a good looking phone. It's shiny surface and slim form lend it a futuristic, sleek look. It's almost feminine. Maybe I should have been more gender-conscious in the shop...

It's a flip phone, a format I love because it protects the main display. I've had enough phones which end up with scratched screens you can't read. I've also perfected the thumb movements to open the thing with a satisfying "Star Trek" gesture and close it with a sound comparable to the door of a luxury car closing.

The down sides to a flip are possible smearing of the main display by the key pad, and the necessity of a decent external display - I use my phones to tell the time, so a flip phone needs to have a good quality secondary display on the back of the display body. The KRZR K1 suffers from these downsides. The secondary display is poorly lit and it's low resolution makes reading difficult. The keypad is close enough to the main display to demand regular wiping.

Talking about wiping, the top surface of the K1 is glass, or something like glass. with a highly reflective backing. This means finger prints are very noticeable and I'm always wiping the outside of this phone because it looks dirty... The V6 on the other hand, while having a glass-like surface, has a black backing, so smears are not nearly so noticeable.

The phone is slim compared to the V6, something I like in my hand and in my pocket but it means the display is much smaller. Coupled with a lower resolution, the K1 is less appealing to actually use rather than just look at.

Also, because it's slim, the keys are smaller and my man-fingers prefer bigger keys. They're not too bad, but I do sometimes press the wrong button on this phone.

Like the V6 there are four external keys for controlling volume, setting ring profiles and engaging the camera when the flip is closed. These operate satisfactorily.

Interface
======
The interface is much like that found on the V6. One of the reasons I chose this phone is that I didn't want to have to learn a new interface. I'm quite happy with the general features and layout of the interface on these Motorola phones.

Both the V6 and K1 are hampered by their similar predictive text systems. For instance, if I try and write "ok" Motorola thinks I mean "ml". Now, ml doesn't mean anything does it? Sometimes I write stuff and it comes out like a different language. By and large it's "ML" but if I try and write "1st" it says "1pt". I like to use ellipses quite a lot (that's "...") and sometimes these phones will make ridiculous guesses at what I could mean, sometimes using punctuation marks I can't even find on my PC keyboard. It makes me think the phones are targeted at an unknown foreign language. I don't want to make out the predictive text is useless, it's not, in fact it's good enough, but it certainly could be better.

Now, while predictive text lends speed, the K1 defeats that by having the slowest response to key presses I've ever come across in a mobile phone. It's truly painful. I am a touch typist and computer expert, I use all kinds of buttons quickly, so maybe I'm special but I'm sure kids nowadays are as fast on the text as I am on the keyboard. The K1 is a laggard and this is probably my main beef with the unit. V6 keeps up with me like a faithful
companion, while I am constantly having to slow my texting down to let the K1 catch up gracefully. This is not a texter's phone.

Making and Receiving Calls
===================
Almost forgot this section! Probably because there are no serious issues. The sound quality is acceptable though not spectacular - I have had to ask the other party to repeat what they've said more often than I do with the V6. The V6 is very clear. My hearing isn't the best on the planet but I'm fairly sure the sound quality here is average to slightly above average. There is plenty space for contacts etc. In short - no real quibbles, unless you're a bit hard of hearing.

Battery Life
=========
Despite being such a slender phone, the battery is almost as big as the RAZR's - the battery compartment is rotated ninety degrees in comparison so this helps. Also I think the power consumption of the K1 is lower. As a result I find the battery charge rarely drops to a worryingly low level. I don't normally let two nights pass without charging, in any case, so it's not usually an issue for me.

Conclusion
========

The K1 is a stylish looking handset with a familiar interface if you use Motorola phones. It's a flip - good. It's nice and slim and feels right in your hand.

But it's very slow for the quick fingered, the screen resolution is poor, it needs wiped regularly due to it's shiny silver-backed surface, it suffers from some predictive text oddities, it might be too small for big masculine hands and the sound quality won't blow you away.

Summary: An acceptable backup but I just wish my V6 wouldn't keep dying!

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Sound quality:
Variety of features: