Moto Krzr lands at Verizon Wireless

OK, I admit it, this one caught me off guard. Just yesterday I heard from a reliable source that the Krzr wouldn't hit stores until next month, but as of today, the newest Motorola slim phone is on Verizon's Web site. The Krzr K1m (the CDMA version of the device) has a price of $199 with a two-year contract and $299 with a one-year contract. And incidentally, don't be surprised if another major CDMA carrier follows suit with its own Krzr K1m very soon.

When I first heard about the Krzr earlier this summer, I was just beginning to grow tired of the thin phone mania and Razr clones. Sure the Krzr looked attractive in the pictures, but it didn't promise anything new in terms of features. And in all honesty, some of the design touches it promised, such as a "plate of hardened glass," sounded somewhat gimmicky. Yet there's something to be said for having low expectations, because when I finally saw the Krzr in person at CTIA this month, it didn't look quite like it did in the pictures. In fact, it looked better.

As I said at CTIA, the Krzr K1m is far sharper than the Razr, and we like the narrower form factor. (From what we hear, female users thought the Razr was too wide.) The glass front is interesting, though it attracts more fingerprints than a crime scene. Motorola promises the glass will stand up to cracking and scratches, and indeed the phone feels quite solid in the hand. And though I prefered the blue coloring on the GSM Krzr K1, the K1m is still very pretty. Its demensions are 4.1 by 1.7 by 0.7 inches and it weighs 3.6 ounces.

Features on the EV-DO handset include a 1.3-megapixel camera with video recording and playback, a 262,000-color display, a Micro SD card slot, a digital music player, a wireless browser Web browser, text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, and support for Verizon's VZ Navigator GPS service. Bluetooth is onboard as well, and Verizon is now offering photo transfers via that feature.

So it's like I said earlier. The Krzr K1m is very pretty, but it doesn't do anything other cell phones can't. And of course, we'll have to wait to test its performance before we give our final verdict. For a close look at the Krzr, check out our video.