First thoughts on the Razr V3c

Well, Verizon folks, , your wait for the Motorola Razr is finally over. It took long enough, but the Razr V3c can now be yours for a surprisingly reasonable $199 with a two-year contract. The phone offers some feature improvements upon the original Razr incarnation, including a 1.3-megapixel camera and support for Verizon's 3G EV-DO network and V Cast multimedia service. We just got our review model, so we don't have time before the holidays for a full review, but I'll share a few initial observations here.

From a design perspective, the V3c is almost identical to its predecessor, save for a few differences. Rather than silver, the Verizon model comes in an appealing dark gray, and it's a tenth of an inch thicker and a tenth of an ounce heavier than the GSM Razr. In other words, you don't even notice the change. The keypad and the controls also have some minor changes. While the flat design remains, the circular navigation toggle has raised arrows to indicate each direction, and there are small ridges separating each row of number keys and the individual soft keys. The display also shows a minor variation: Instead of Motorola's menu interface, the V3c uses Verizon's new standardized menu interface. During a short test run, the phone performed admirably, with good-quality streaming video and loud and clear calls. Overall, it looks very promising, but stay tuned for a full review after we return from the 2006 CES in Las Vegas.