Physically, the device is a real stunner. It feels very solidly build, is good looking, and offers most all of the flash and style of the original. The most obvious differences between the RAZR2 and the original RAZR are the massive external display and the lack of an antenna bulge, or chin, on the newer V8.
The external display is interesting for more than merely its 50mm (2") diagonal measurement, though. Three electrostatic touch keys are built onto the surface of the glass that protects the display. Each button is approximately 6mm square in size, which leaves about 6mm of space between each of them. This spacing helps ensure that only one button is hit at a time. The lables for the touch buttons are drawn on the display, such as the previous, play/pause, and next keys seen when using the music player. These buttons could be drawn as something else for a different function, such as the camera, but I have not seen this used anywhere in the V8.
Perhaps the best part of the buttons is the vibration feedback that the V8 offers when one of the touch keys is pressed. Thanks to this haptic feedback, you will always know when the phone has recognized your intentions. I've been very pleased with them so far.
The vibration feedback is also used with the volume and smartkey controls on the left edge of the phone, as well as with the camera shutter button that is located on the right edge. I find the camera shutter button very hard to use in this pre-production unit, though. The button offers poor tactile feedback that - it feels as if the button is broken since it is somewhat loose and doesn't depress very far at all. Hopefully this is just an issue with the prototypes.
One of the changes in the design of the new RAZR2 line that I didn't notice at the launch event in New York was that they use the newly defined micro-USB connector for charging, wired headsets, and, of course, USB connectivity. I've included a few photos that show the differences between the traditional mini-USB and the new micro-USB connectors. Personally, while I appreciate that the new mobile specific micro-USB port will allow for marginally thinner devices, it seems to be quite a bit more difficult to use than the larger mini-USB connector we've grown used to. My guess is that I'll build up quite a collection of micro-USB adapters over the course of the next year, since I expect we will see them on many devices from a number of the major manufacturers.
No comments:
Post a Comment