Motorola Razr2 V8

The first thing that most people will notice on the RAZR2 V8 is the very large external display - this is a 2" 240x320 pixel panel which is possibly the largest external display we've ever seen. Another clever feature is that the screen is touch-sensitive, meaning that media playback can be controlled by touching the softkeys on the screen. The external display has been chemically hardened to protect it.

Open the Motorola RAZR2 V8 up and you'll find a 2.2" 240x320 pixel main panel and the familiar RAZR-style keypad. The camera is a little disappointing - the RAZR2 V8 only comes with a 2 megapixel unit which is less than we'd expect from an advanced multimedia device such as this. Video capture is just 176x144 pixels which again means that this isn't a particularly great camera phone.

Of course, the RAZR2 V8 is a multimedia device that can play back a wide variety of audio and video clips. The V8 has a whopping 420MB of internal memory available to the user, and there is an optional 2GB version too. On drawback is that the V8 has no expandable memory. Stereo playback is either by a wired headset or stereo Bluetooth.

There's a pretty comprehensive software suite on the RAZR2 V8, including a web browser, email client and a new user interface. There are some improvements elsewhere too - Motorola have worked on call quality and are also using "haptics" to provide tactile feedback on the external display, audio prompts for menus and a whole range of other usability improvements.

The battery life on the RAZR2 V8 is very impressive, with up to 8 hours talktime. The V8 supports EDGE data as well as GPRS, but not 3G (the RAZR2 V9 is a 3G variant). There is also a CDMA/EVDO version called the RAZR2 V9m.

This is definitely not the original RAZR in any respect - but it shares the same styling and that is probably the biggest drawback. It is very disappointing to see that Motorola didn't try a fresh approach when it come to cosmetics and it's quite possible that many consumers will not understand just how different the RAZR2 V8 is underneath.