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MSD · 06-06-2008, 10:05 AM

Due to the fact that when it was released people were dropping $800-$1000 on eBay for the RAZR, I always though it was a gimmick. Who the hell cares how thin a phone is? I saw it as the descendant of the T720, which I never really liked aside from the fact that selling one pulled in about $25 commission and another $20 for a transaction that involved someone signing a Verizon contract.

The first time my contract was up for renewal, though, I had the option of getting a KRZR for free with the NE2 discount. The sales woman pointed out its features, let my play with a live display model, and demonstrated the nearly indestructible quartz glass on the outside. I got it, figuring that I had owned two Motorola phones before and knew how to reprogram and tweak them.

I got sick of the Verizon OS after about two months and reflashed to the Alltel firmware, which was the Motorola OS with a few changes it pretty much worked, but there were minor glitches and bugs. Earlier this year, I was overjoyed when the factory firmware was leaked, even though it was BREW-only and didn't support Java. It interfaced perfectly with Phone Tools and Radiocomm, and I was able to figure out what most of the P2K and service flags do. I rewrote the power saving profile, extending my battery life to about 13 days standby, and dove headfirst into other features. It's nice to be the only one with service in a lot of places, which is no problem after disabling analog mode and boosting the transmitter to 1.5 watts from the stock half 500mW.

Unfortunately, even the durable KRZR couldn't stand up to my abuse. The quartz glass is long gone, the snap-on plastic panels are missing, and the back/rewind front panel control for the mp3 player doesn't work anymore (not a big deal since I don't use it as a music player.) I'd recommend it to hacking/tweaking fans because of everything you can do with it, but the Verizon OS on Motorola hardware is a disaster if you don't restart the phone by popping the battery two or three times a day. For my next phone, I'm porting over to a Sprint SERO plan ($30/mo for 50 minutes and unlimited data/txt/pix plus free voice and data roaming onto any US network) and getting an HTC Touch.

06-06-2008, 10:05 AM	#8 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	Due to the fact that when it was released people were dropping $800-$1000 on eBay for the RAZR, I always though it was a gimmick. Who the hell cares how thin a phone is? I saw it as the descendant of the T720, which I never really liked aside from the fact that selling one pulled in about $25 commission and another $20 for a transaction that involved someone signing a Verizon contract. The first time my contract was up for renewal, though, I had the option of getting a KRZR for free with the NE2 discount. The sales woman pointed out its features, let my play with a live display model, and demonstrated the nearly indestructible quartz glass on the outside. I got it, figuring that I had owned two Motorola phones before and knew how to reprogram and tweak them. I got sick of the Verizon OS after about two months and reflashed to the Alltel firmware, which was the Motorola OS with a few changes it pretty much worked, but there were minor glitches and bugs. Earlier this year, I was overjoyed when the factory firmware was leaked, even though it was BREW-only and didn't support Java. It interfaced perfectly with Phone Tools and Radiocomm, and I was able to figure out what most of the P2K and service flags do. I rewrote the power saving profile, extending my battery life to about 13 days standby, and dove headfirst into other features. It's nice to be the only one with service in a lot of places, which is no problem after disabling analog mode and boosting the transmitter to 1.5 watts from the stock half 500mW. Unfortunately, even the durable KRZR couldn't stand up to my abuse. The quartz glass is long gone, the snap-on plastic panels are missing, and the back/rewind front panel control for the mp3 player doesn't work anymore (not a big deal since I don't use it as a music player.) I'd recommend it to hacking/tweaking fans because of everything you can do with it, but the Verizon OS on Motorola hardware is a disaster if you don't restart the phone by popping the battery two or three times a day. For my next phone, I'm porting over to a Sprint SERO plan ($30/mo for 50 minutes and unlimited data/txt/pix plus free voice and data roaming onto any US network) and getting an HTC Touch.