When I killed my iPhone at the end of last year, I was only a month into my contract and needed a replacement phone to be able to use my contract sim card. Since this time, I have had the use of 2 different mobiles and now have a new HTC Sensation.

When I was a teenager, Nokia and Motorola phones were very popular. I previously owned the pink version of the Razr V3. When my phone broke, I remembered that Dad had given me his old Razr V3 to keep as a spare. I used this particular phone for around 2months before borrowing another mobile from my Dad. This mobile has been well used.

*The Important Specifications*

If you want the latest, modern mobile, a Razr V3 isn't for you. This mobile is harder to source now than it was a few years ago but is available in black, silver and hot pink. The mobile I have is unlocked to any network but most will be sim locked unless you pay for it to be unlocked. I used my mobile with a t-mobile sim card with no issues.

The Razr V3 is a slim line, flip style phone measuring approx 98 x 53 x 13.9mm and weighing less than 100g. It has a stand by time of 250hours and a talk time of 6.5hours. The display features 262k colours. The Razr V3 has a VGA camera which can be used to shoot pictures or self portraits in various pixels. It also is a quadband mobile and has bluetooth features. There is an internal memory of 5MB. Included with the phone - a charger, software and USB cable.

*Where To Buy*

The Razr V3 is priced from £44.99 on Amazon. Alternatively, a second hand mobile can be purchased on eBay from £10 upwards.

*My Experience of the V3*

Going from using an iPhone to a V3 is a big drop. With all the fancy phones on the market today, this sort of phone takes a back seat. A V3 is incredibly easy to set up. The back panel removes allowing the sim card and battery to be inserted and it is a case of setting the date and time - we are good to go. As far as mobiles go, the V3 is fairly basic but it is also simple.

The actual design of the V3 is quite good. The mobile is light yet sturdy and even after 5-6years of use, the black coating is barely scratched. I'm not keen on the keypad to be honest and it takes more getting used to that a touch screen. The keypad is flat against the frame of the mobile and is often too sensitive to touch and therefore awkward to use. The screen is an impressive size. The mobile is made of alloys and is freezing cold to the touch! The interal keypad has a shiny silver appearance which gives the mobile a stylish finish.

The V3 is fairly easy to navigate as the keys are well appointed and displayed. The main features have keys on the keypad which allow easy and quick access to the feature you wish to use. This includes the on key, the call and disconnect keys, the messaging and internet shortcut keys and also the contacts and camera keys. The slim line frame also includes a volume up and down button and a button for your camera. The keypad illuminates when in use which is ideal for using in the dark.

The V3 makes a faint, continuous noise when the flip part is open. The battery (even after so many years) still holds a decent charge which lasts for days. I like the additional screen on the outside of the mobile as I can see the time and my sons happy face without needing to open the actual handset. The downside of a flip mobile in general is that there is no locking option which can be an issue with curious toddlers wishing to dial 999!

The memory allows several pictures to be stored but I wouldn't recommend this phone for anyone wishing to save lots of music tracks as it would fill up too quickly.

*My Use of the Features*

Accessing the main menu of the V3 is done via a big key in a circle and there are direction keys to allow you to access the different menu options. It is very easy to use. Unlike my iPhone which was jammed packed with menu options and apps, there are only 9 options here with sub-options in each section.

Camera - the camera is actually not too bad given the type of mobile this is. It isn't amazing but it zooms and captures a half decent picture. There is a self timer too. The camera was fine for taking pictures when out and about but couldn't be relied on for special images in my opinion. The camera has a 4 x zoom but no flash so pictures aren't great unless in good light.

Calls - a list of people who have called you etc. Nothing exciting here! Whilst we are on the subject of calls, the call quality of this mobile isn't amazing and is often quite echoey. Reception will depend upon where you are and your network provider but I had no issues with reception as t-mobile can bounce off the Orange signal too.

Contacts - nothing special here. Contacts can be stored on the Sim or mobile with a capacity for up to 250. They can be arranged into categories and the full name and number is displayed when the contacts section is open. Adding the contacts is very simple indeed.

Messages - the V3 supports text and MMS messages. The messages are arranged into inbox, outbox, sent etc. Sending a message was fairly easy once I got the hang of the flat keypad again. There were a few entry modes to choose from including numeric and symbol. I used the normal typing mode where I could shorten words without a dictionary amending them.

When receiving messages, I would be alerted with my message tune and an icon would appear. I found it rather annoying that this phone wouldn't allow me to open certain MMS pictures claiming they were too big in capacity.

Games - the games on this mobile are powered by Java. I have the Sims 2 Pets on mine and found it to be quite rubbish on this type of mobile as it lacked image detail and kept sticking. Games can be downloaded.

Media Centre - this is where the pictures, sounds and videos are stored. There is also the option to use the video camera here but I found the camera to be rubbish as it only allowed 8 seconds of video time. The V3 supports polyphonic ringtones but more can be downloaded. The selection included are basic but more appealing that some other mobiles offer. They be specified to calls and messages but I find them to be rather tinny and annoying so I often kept the phone on silent!

Extras - a few features that every mobile should have and were well used by myself. The alarm was reliable and easy to set. I also appreciated the calender and calculator for the simplistic nature of them.

Settings - changing the ring style and ring tone was easy. My mobile was set to time out after 40 seconds which resulted in the backlight switching off to save battery life. I found the Bluetooth to be quite rubbish as it didn't pick up other devices well despite me sitting near to a mobile which had its Bluetooth switched on!

Internet and Software - the software loaded onto my laptop quickly and the USB cable was reliable. Uploading pictures to my laptop was fairly easy to do but not as quick and simple as when using my iPhone. I hated the internet on the V3 and found it to be almost pre-historic as it was so slow! Often I could barely get past the t-mobile home page and progressing to eBay or Facebook was a no go. Not a patch on a Smart or Android phone in my opinion but nor would I expect it to be.

*Overall Opinion*

The V3 is nice to look at and is fairly easy to use. It isn't a brilliant mobile but would suit someone wishing to use a simple and cheap mobile but still have the camera feature. It has served us well but cannot compete with todays market of mobile phones.

Overall 4 stars.


Thanks for reading x