In a market dominated by the iPhone and Blackberry, you would have to have a very good reason for choosing something different. Looks alone are certainly not enough where technology is concerned. So the question with the Motorola Razr is, does it do enough to warrant not going with the big 2.

The first thing to mention is that the Motorola Razr brand maybe new to the smartphone market, but they are no mugs. They have a long and successful history in the standard phones area, indeed I owned two which were everything you ever needed and more. So for tradition and excellence, Motorola know what is required.

Now I did say that looks alone shouldn't win you over, but this will go damned close. It is slinky at only 7.1mm thin with a 4.3 inch screen. Black is definitely the colour with the rear coated in what looks like a mock carbon fiber weave. The screen has a resolution of 960 x 540 producing clear, crisp and extremely colorful images which are vital for taking pictures. It has an 8MP camera and can record in full HD, and uses the Android 2.3.5 operating system on a 1.2GHZ dual core processor. It weighs only 127g which is quite amazing when you think of all the tech stuffed in there. Compare that to the iPhone which weighs 140g. Slightly concerning however, is the weight distribution which gives it a top heavy feel, so you won't be loosely holding it in the palm of your hand if you want to maintain its looks.

You have only four buttons on the phones front and three on the right hand side giving the phone the uncluttered, clean look that makes it so attractive. The top of the phone has three ports for headphones, micro SD card and an HDMI lead.

Interacting with the phone is done easily enough, you can rush through the home screens without issue and open and close apps at will without and lag, no matter how many you have open. The most important factor on a phone though is its ability to call people and the Razr manages this brilliantly. The sound quality is great and will maintain your calling signal without issue. I can vouch from personal experience that it is better than the iPhone 4 in this area having seen the efforts of people using said Apple device. Not a pretty sight!!

Messaging is a piece of cake and comes with the added benefit of being able to put all you messages from various sources such as Facebook, twitter, web-mail all in one inbox. No other phone does this at the moment.

Internet access is good. In terms of reading the pages, the definition on the screen allows crystal clear quality and the speed with which pages are accessed is as good as you would want. However, on occasion it can be a little difficult and decide not to do anything. But this happens only occasionally.

The media apps are perfect for the device allowing for excellent photo and video capture whilst the sound on the mp3 player is good enough for day to day use.

One issue of concern is the battery life which does seem to be a little weak. I have to recharge this pretty much every day for constant use, but when you measure that against the fantastic way it performs and very rarely lets me down, I have to say it is certainly a worthy addition to the Razr family. As for the initial question as to whether you should get this ahead of the big 2, I would say yes. And that is before the most important point, the price. You can get this phone on contract at prices starting from £21 per month. In comparison to other smart phones, that represents excellent value.