With the release of the MOTO RAZR 2 V8, motorola has yet again raised the bar for stylish cell phones. In fact, just”stylish” doesn’t do it justice-it’s stunning!in its second iteration, the body of the MOTO RAZR is built from exquisite materials; it comes with two large screens, a revamped keypad, and a great music player.

The RAZR 2feels slimmer than the original RAZR, thanks to a less pronounced chin. The 2.2-inch LCD on the flap is the first of its kind on any phone-it’s sharp, and the clarity is amazing. Near the bottom of this screen are touch-sensitive electrostatic keys. All the keys on the new RAZR, including the touch-keys, vibrate when pressed-this, we think, is good in terms of haptic feedback.

The interior of the V8 are pretty similar to those of the original RAZR except for the keypad layout and the overall feel. The main display is similar to the one on the flap-2.2-inch,256k colours. The display is sharp and completly legible outdoors. The keypad has changed for the better-it has more feedback, and the backlight is much better than on the original RAZR.

The most significant change, however, is in the user interface. The phone is based on the linux+java platform, called MOTOMAGX. The interface is visually more refined and definitely better than the older motorola phones the multimedia, especially the music player is excellent. Playback can be controlled without opening the flap,thanks to the touch-sensitive buttons. Audio quality is excellent, and the bundled earphones are good. The phones supports the MP3, AAC, and ACC+ formats, but there’s no FM radio. Also, bundled memory is just 512MB, with no expansion allowed-lame, from a media player perspective.

The camera is reasonably good-about as good as any other 2MP cell phone camera. Indoors, photographs turn out dark; colours also get affected in low-light conditions. Video recording is strictly okay.

In our tests, signal reception was good in all conditions we put the phone through. Voice clarity was good, with no crackling or echo when we used the speakerphone. Battery life, when compared to the earlier model, is much better: with nominal usuage, the phone remained alive for two days.

The motorola RAZR is expensive at Rs16,799;you can get a better-featurd phone at that price point. However,there ia a RAZR fan following, and the new phone strikes the right chord.

The MOTO SLVR line features typical, nonsense, slim candy-bar phones with a reasonable amount of features. The SLVR L9 is the successor of the L7; in the looks department, the two are nearly identical.

Despite it being entry-level, the fit and finish of the L9 are surprisingly good. The pearl-grey finish is a good as that on the more expensive RAZR 2.The back cover is finished in rubberized material, and therefore offers good grip.

A 2-inch, 256 colour, 176* 220 LCD is more than enough for this phone. The screen is sharp and bright, and stays perfectly legible out-doors. The navigational keys consists of a roundel and two buttons.

The keypad is well-spaced, with each key being separated from the other by small ridges; however, the tactile feedback isn’t as good as that on the new RAZR 2, despite the visual similarities.

We had no problems as far as signal reception goes, but the speakerphone clarity could have been better. Battery life is strictly okay- we got around two days with nominal usage. At Rs 8,399 the L9 is reasonably-priced; however, we can’t see any compelling reason to recommend it to anyone.

The KE770 is the second phone in the shine series from LG.  It’s a candybar; “sleek and shiny” is the best way to describe it.  At 9.9mm, it’s slimmer than the motorola L9 phone (on which it is modelled). Built from stainless steel with no moving parts, the KE770 excludes the built-to-last feel.

When the display is in inactive mode,the mirror-finished display screen can be, well, a mirror. The well-lit, flat keypad is a joy to use, with distinct tactile feedback. The navigational keys are well-spaced-out and free from the glitches you’ll see on the KE970. The Call End button is placed near the top and to the side; it also acts as a power down switch-strange placement,we’d say,but effective for one-handed operation.

The volume control buttons,camera/MP3button, and USB connectors are on the same side. Internal memory s 70MB, which can be increased via the micro SD card. The memory slot is placed below the battery, and it isn’t hot-swappable.

The 2MP camera with the photo-assist light and self-portrait mirror is on the back of the phone . The camera is similar to the one on the KE970, and the performance is similar, too. Indoors shots lack tonal accuracy,and are often overexposed. Outdoor images retain tonal accuracy but lack crispness.

Music quality is not really great,but given that it isn’t touted as a music phone,we’d say the music capability is reasonable. There are no external playback control. MP3, AAC, AAC+, 3GP, and MPEG4 are supported, but files need to be copied to the right folder on the phone -else the media player can’t search through to them. Video playback is just about okay-it is seriously limited by the screen size.

The phone has good bundle of applications: MS office file viewers, PDF readers, a health chart,and a data wallet. The phone also support the lost mobile tracking system(LMTS). You’ll also find regular applications such as clock,calculator, games, and more.

Signal reception was good ,but voice clarity could do witha lot of improvement-especially that of the speakerphone. The volume is too low,and it crackles as well. Flight mode figures,and that’s a plus. Battery life is around a day and a half with nominal usage.

Aprice of Rs7,990 means the KE970 is a good buy if you are looking for a sleek, cool-looking phone. If you’re planning on using multimedia features on a regular basis ,we’d suggest you look elsewhere.

Samsung makes the best slider phones,and the G600 would make you agree. It is a quadband 2G slider; the fit and finish are exemplary. At 105 grams,it’s light,and the proportion are just right-the phone fits snugly in one’s palm.and it looks good, too-you might say “sophisticated”; it sports a black-grey combination with silver accents.

The front facia is dominated by a (large)2.2-inch display capable of 16 million colour. The display is sharp and the Scrisp. Outdoors, the screen goes pale,but it remains perfectly legible evenin direct sunlight. The navigational buttons are well-spaced-out and the call and end keys are huge. The five-way roundel is superb, and can be used to navigate the menu without looking at the phone.

The spring-loaded slider can be operated with the minimum of force; it’s the best slider mechanism we’ve yet seen. The keypad is large and tactile, and therefore easy to use. But here’s a damper: when you enter a number, the digits on the screen appears as if written using a calligraphy pen( complete with the “scratching” sound)!

The G600 is equipped with 40MB of internal memory with support for hot-swappable microSD cards. Samsung doesn’t bundle any, and the internal memory is too low (for the camera or for the music player).

The G600 joins the rank of the Nokia N95 and the Sony Ericsson K850i by cramming in a 5 megapixel camera. During our tests the camera performed well; the images were clean,and the tonal balance good; outdoor photographs were better than indoors. A good camera overall ,but it’s not quite close to those on the Sony Ericsson or Nokia. The camera is on the slider, and it needs to be opened before you can click; though it protects the lenses, clicking snaps with the slider open isn’t practical.

The G600 supports most music formats,and has a great media player. The headphone connector is, unfortunately, proprietary, so replacement 3.5-mm-jack earphones can’t be used.

Performance-wise, the response of the G600 is good; skipping from menu to menu is fast. Signal reception is great and so is voice clarity. The speakerphone is loud enough, and doesn’t suffer from echo problems like those on most phones do. Battery life is healthy-two and a half days with nominal usage.

Retailing at Rs 18,000, the G600 seems reasonably priced. As phone, it shines in all departments, but if you want a multimedia device, we should say there are better options. If what you really want is a quality slider phone, the G600 should fit the bill.

The LG KE970-also known as the shine- is aptly named , because  the first thing you notice about the phone is the brilliant shine from the brushed stainless-steel body. Even the main display is mirror-finished, and when the screen is inactive ,you can actually use it like one!

This tri-band phone is based around a slider design. The slider mechanism feels smooth; opening the phone takes just a nudge.  Build quality is good, and the phone is comfortable to hold. The (largest 2.3-inch high-resolution display looks brilliant indoors;however, it pales outdoors-this can be attributed to the glossy screen.

The volume control button are on the right along with the shortcuts to the camera and music player. To use the memory card slot, you need to remove the battery cover, but it is hot-swappable. The phone’s 50MB of internal memory can be augmented using micro SD cards.

The keypad is flat but ease to use because the individual keys are large. The navigation keys aren’t the best we’ve seen, though.  The rocker in the middle scrolls though the menu and can be pressed to activate the menu. The adjoining keys allow horizontal movement but they are small and tight-uncomfortable, we thought.

The 2-megapixel camera, though good, cant match the ones on entry-level sony ericsson models such as the K550i. The auto-focus system requires delicate use of the dinky shutter release key; a little clumsiness, and you’ll see blurred, washed-out photographs. Tonal accuracy isn’t that great either; the photos are generally overexposed. Outdoors, the camera fares better,and the colours are more natural. Video recording is strictly okay; it is limited by resolution and fps.

Music on the KE970 was good; the phone handles MP3, AAC, and ACC+.  The inline control with 3.5mm jack allows you to connect different pair of earphones, though the bundled pair is okay. With our reference bose in-ear phones, the volume level was good and the quality crisp,but there is still room for improvement.

PhotoID, bluetooth, mobile e-mail, USB mass storage, and a document viewer for MSword, excel, powerpoint, and PDF are some of the other notable features.

On the performance front, the phone is snappy, with no apparent lag in the user interface. Signal reception is good; however,voice clarity could have been better. With nominal use, the phone goes two days before the low battery alarm pops up.

The LG KE970 is a stylish phone, and is resonably priced at Rs 11,900-if you can put up with the operational glitches and the extra bling.