A Phone That Fits This Busy Mom's Lifestyle - Motorola MOTORIZR Cellular Phone

For the past few years, I've been using the T-Mobile MDA Smartphone and bemoaning my decision to put nearly $400 and an extra $40 a month into a poor stand-in for a laptop and a simpler phone. Aside from the QWERTY keyboard and the ability to surf the web (or rather, crawl the web), the MDA was not a good fit for my working mother lifestyle.

When it was finally time to upgrade, I opted for the Motorola RIZR phone in rose. It was slim, had a much better speakerphone and offered fun features with an intuitive menu. As far as checking email and sending intricate messages to friends - well, I have a laptop for that.

Design

The RIZER is about half as thick as a deck of playing cards, and just as long (when the slider is shut) but only 3/4 the width. The weight is also comparable to half a deck of cards. It tucks easily away in a small pocket in my purse where I keep my lip balm, ID and a few credit cards.

Those who like the features of the RAZR but don't like the wide construction will appreciate the compact design of the RIZR. The slider phone makes it easier to respond to calls, but I have lost several in the shuffle that don't register in my recent calls list for some reason. The screen is also smaller, so the text and camera-happy folks may be disappointed by the display. The backlight is much brighter than that of the RAZR, which is nice when you're digging the phone out of your purse in the middle of the dark but not as nice if you prefer a dimmer display.

Like most phones, the RIZR battery and SIM card are hidden in the back of the phone encased in either a steely blue or rose, depending on your color choice. Unlike my MDA though, the memory card is also in the casing so it is more difficult to access. I don't mind that because I can do what I need to do with the USB port which also serves as the battery charging outlet.

The side of the phone features volume control, a camera and a speaker phone button that are very easy to manipulate. The only side buttons I often accidentally press are the volume control buttons, but I can correct that without too much trouble. I often launched the camera feature on my old phone without intending to which was a hassle to exit, so I don't mind a slight change in the volume nearly as much. It doesn't disrupt my conversations or take me out of my spot in the menus.

When closed, the phone allows you to answer calls, access a quick menu and scroll through your pictures and media. It does not allow you to easily turn the phone on vibrate for meetings which is annoying. How could taking a quick video be more useful than quickly turning the phone on vibrate? The shortcuts are nice but I have not been successful customizing them so I use them very rarely.

Sliding the phone turns on the backlight and reveals a simple numerical keypad. Dialing numbers is far easier than it was on the MDA Smartphone, but the buttons don't protrude from the casing at all so they are a little bit difficult to depress even after some use. I sometimes have to dial a digit two or three times in order for it to take, which a problem when I'm frantically trying to access my short-term memory for a number I received from Directory Assistance.

The floral print that appears on the back of the inside case when I slide the phone up makes me feel like I have a girl's phone. This isn't embarrassing at work because it's a subdued design but people who want their phones to convey that they are serious, hard-working types may cringe at the vanity of it all.

Features and Fun

After using a phone that was so serious it couldn't even play new ringtones, I was excited to have something with a few of those silly, expensive features that make me feel like I can get a little more creative with my electronics. A 2.0 megapixel camera (at least a half of a megapixel more than you get with many phones) and a 128 MB microSD memory card allows me to snap candid headshots of my callers and assign them to their profiles.

I am a big, big fan of customizing ringtones for callers (though I'm not a big fan of T-Mobile's $2.49 price tag - buy a six pack for $9.99 if you want to download customized ringtones). This is not only silly and fun but it makes my life simpler because I can tell who is calling from across the room or while driving my car. If Blondie's "Call Me" begins to play, that's my significant other and I jump. If "52 Girls" by the B-52's starts to play, I know it's one of my girlfriends and they will understand if I have to call back because I'm in the middle of changing a soiled diaper. My work contacts will get another ringtone. Organizing my calls in this way saves me a significant amount of time and headache. I no longer risk breaking limbs to retrieve a call only to find that it's from a boutique to tell me about an upcoming sale.

The sound is exceptionally good on this phone. Recently, my phone rang when I was with a friend who thought that a radio had been turned on. The music player is touted as one of the premium features on this phone, but I'm not the type of person who wants her cell phone to do all things. My iPod plays the music when I want to hear a tune. The phone is for ringing.

The speaker phone is good - I was hoping it would be a little louder and clearer, but really it's very good. I believe it's a two-way speaker because I don't have strange, staggered conversations. The caller and I can interrupt and talk over one another effectively, which helps it to feel more like a live, if dysfunctional, discussion. Unlike another reviewer here, I don't have problems hearing my callers on the phone. It's probably just a function of the design working well with my petite face, but my conversations are no longer peppered with "What?"s and "Huh?"s.

Text messaging is now a disaster since I'm so accustomed to the QWERTY keyboard. The built-in predictive text feature works relatively well and does get better with time, but I wish it wouldn't include the ringtone titles searched for on the web in the word options. Instead of accepting "I" or "I'm" (frequently used in my text messages), it surmises that I'm typing the song title "IMoveChickens" by Gucci someone or other because that's the ringtone my 15 year old near-stepdaughter wanted me to download for her. I'm just waiting for the time when a friend opens one of my text messages and reads, "IMoveChickens at the coffee shop," or "IMoveChickens running late."

I can take about 4 minutes of video if the mood strikes. I've played with the video recorder and it isn't difficult to figure out, but it's very easy to close the video without saving it so I will use caution if I'm capturing something particularly important. The phone also has the capacity to take voice notes and comes with Java Powered games like World Poker and Gameloft Hits that prompt you to choose whether or not you want sound upon start up. Midnight Pool, Block Breaker Deluxe, and Platinum Sudoku come installed on the phone and you can download new games in full color just as easily as you download ringtones.

Practicality

I can synch it up with my computer easily but I was not successful turning songs from my iTunes library into ringtones or importing my contacts from a .csv file upon first try. I will have to tinker with this more in order to make the synching more functional.

Aside from the poorly reasoned shortcuts, I have no qualms with the menus. They are simple and should be easy enough for most people to figure out and access. The calendar feature is little more than setting alarms, which is disappointing for someone who is used to having an Outlook-based calendar on her previous phone. I can't have email pushed to this device and longer text messages can be cumbersome to read, but I made the decision to sacrifice that for a compact phone.

Overall, I would highly recommend the Motorola RIZR Z3 phone for people who are busy but don't want something as complicated as a Blackberry or a Sidekick to manage calls. I'm segmenting my electronics for a while until they come out with a phone that has all of the features of this and my old MDA Smartphone combined.

Four out of five stars.

View additional details here or visit the Motorola website for product specs.