Motorola V3m RAZR musicphone to be available for Verizon

Last time we checked in on Motorola's V3m -- a slight music-centric update to the EV-DO V3c -- we weren't quite sure if this was going to Verizon or Sprint, but it looks like Verizon won out in the end, and are apparently going to be offering the handset for $150 with a 2-year contract. The phone features a MicroSD slot for music and video storage, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, but there doesn't seem to be a lot else new going on here. Music wise, the phone is designed to work with Verizon's V CAST music and video services, but we're not sure of codec support beyond those downloads (though MP3 seems a given and PlaysForSure is likely).

[Thanks, Ryan]

[Matthew Fitzsimmons @ May 26th 2006 5:02PM]

This is Verizon we're talking about. They go out of their way to disable anything that would allow you to use music not purchased from them (like disabling the ability to copy music from the memory card to the phone on my V710, and since ringtones can only be used from internal memory, you have to buy their ringtones).

If it has mp3 capability, you can be sure it's hobbled in some way to make you buy more from them.

[Matthew Fitzsimmons @ May 26th 2006 5:22PM]

Not to mention the whole disabling of OBEX in bluetooth fiasco.

[niv @ May 26th 2006 6:02PM]

Did anyone ever come to the realization after using one of these things that the entire RAZR series sucks? Maybe the V3x isn't as ass-tastic...

[Moto Oda @ May 26th 2006 6:24PM]

of course sprint wouldn't bother to get us a good phone

[idude135 @ May 26th 2006 6:30PM]

Verizon sux... It's all about T-Mobile

[Tim @ May 26th 2006 6:32PM]

So what if this one can play music. The RAZR is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 2004...

[shirizaki @ May 26th 2006 7:07PM]

I understand the appeal of the razr. It's thin and not bulky. Of course I take functionality over form factor.

Of course there's going to be hacks to reenable OBEX, and the switch to MP# from DRM'd WMA is gogin to come soon.

Of course this is a moot point. Using a phone as a DAP device isn't really good right now.

[bliss @ May 26th 2006 7:29PM]

YEAH.. T-MOBILE!

[strider_mt2k @ May 26th 2006 10:27PM]

I really like my Verizon Razr, but geeze man, for the love of GOD!

GIMME MY BT OBEX!!!!

[Paul Milkes @ May 26th 2006 10:50PM]

Does anyone know if the Razr 3m will:

1. play music via bluetooth headphones/headset?
2. play MP3 and/or wave files?

[Reed @ May 26th 2006 11:26PM]

I went to the Verizon V3m page to see what the price of the phone is with no contract, and I was baffled when I saw that you need to buy it with at leat a 1-year contract. Is it actually not possible at all to buy a phone at Verizon without a contract?

[MEGAMUR @ Jan 1st 2008 4:17PM]

The wife bought me a "Pay as you go" Impulse Motorola V3m cellphone at the Best Buy store in Minot,North Dakota for Christmas. We can't use it because it is a Verizon phone and we live in Canada. The (useless low life) salesman told her that we could use it in Canada which is not the case. F%$#^NG salesman will tell anyone anything just to make a sale. We will be sending it back to
Best Buy.She had paid $140.00 for it. Hope this helped.

[core @ May 27th 2006 12:59AM]

12: Where is the Verizon v3m page? I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. Is it only available in certain US markets at this point? Can someone post a link? Thanks.

[V @ May 27th 2006 1:32AM]

i agree with the first poster- i'm a former Verizon user, and i'm still trying to cancel the rest of my family's plan. I switched to Cingular (not to advertise, but their service is great) after i found out that adding a line to our family plan added another year to each of our contracts, without telling us. their greed knows no bounds, i think.

The RAZR V3c for Cingular works fine, as i've used it. verizon's version is a completely different make, even so far as the keypad goes, and it has a significant decrease in functionality over other Razr phones distributed by T-mobile and Cingular. You can't even change the skin color on the main screen on the verizon version.

i wouldn't be surprised if the Razr could play through bluetooth, though i wouldn't count on it for the verizon version.

[Andreas @ May 27th 2006 3:50AM]

Motorola is always behind... Here in Germany we have cellphones like the new Nokia N80 which has 3megapixel camera, umts, symbian, wi-fi, usb 2, bluetooth 2, and so on... while Motorola sells only old cellphones with 2 years old specs!

[Jamar @ May 27th 2006 8:15AM]

Moto is the ultimate irony- they are an American company, yet their only non-sucky (as in- decent UI, no crippling for CDMA models) phones are sold in China and Korea, at least for CDMA (their Chinese GSM phones are better too). (Well... they actually don't have any Bluetooth phones in Korea, as far as I can tell, and only 1 in China's CDMA market, if that's the kind of crippling you are talking about). This may be another reason (apart from that e911 regulation) that Verizon clamped down on activation of Korean phones- no way to keep charging the customer for ringtones and pictures if they can get those things anywhere free of charge, right?

[romeo echo @ May 27th 2006 11:49AM]

I agree with the above comments about MP3. With Verizon, MP3 is hardly a given, in fact I guarantee it won't play them. I have an LG VX8100 I bought because it was supposed to play "music". MP3's a given right? Well, it didn't play music at all when I first got it. Finally I saw on their website that MP3 playback was supported. Rushed to call them; they said 'come on in for a firmware update'. So I did. Got done; I said, 'Where's my MP3 playback?' Couldn't find it, still. Complained that their website had said 'MP3 Playback' like, 2 days ago. So they finally caved and enabled a hidden feature. Now I have the world's crappiest sounding MP3 playback, but hey it's there. Went back to their website for the VX8100, and lo and behold, no more mention of MP3 playback.

I like verizon OK, but their attempts to hobble MP3 playback (not 'attempts' -- they've suceeded, and we've let them) just suck. Even the iPod monster plays MP3s without complaint.

And yes, I think the RAZR sucks overall too.

[Matt @ May 27th 2006 2:32PM]

iTunes?? If so I just might take the plunge, and drop my crappy Alltel service and swing towards Verizon...

[DJ Bunny Eggs @ May 28th 2006 12:25AM]

OH MY GAWD W, STOP ADVERTISING YOUR CRAPPY INVISiBROWSE WEBSITE WE DONT WANT TO HEAR IT

In fact.. I'm gonna use it all the time to use up your bandwidth because I HATE YOU

(ps, this guy is poster #2)

[BILLY @ May 28th 2006 2:09AM]

yes, its true that the only good versions of moto phones are sold in china and korea. i used to live in america with a verizon razr, now i live in china with one i bought here. not only did i buy it WITHOUT a contract for $180, but its comletely unlocked, can use any sim card i want, and no restrictions on any features.

the clear solution for all of you?
MOVE TO CHINA!

[Aaron @ May 28th 2006 11:15AM]

I agree 100% will all the Verizon hating. They make you get contracts for just about everything, and their phones don't do much at all even when they obviously have the capability. They've also been very, very misleading at times. Take their whole "IN-calling" thing. It's supposed to give you free calls between you and anyone else using a Verizon phone. However, even if your plan says you have it, it's only on the first phone, meaning that any additional phones on your plan do not have it unless you specifically ask for it. Long story short, last year I got a massive bill over $1000 because of this. They only let part of it go. The final bill was still several hundred dollars.

In Asia, cell phones do everything. They make calls, they send emails, play music... Hell, I'm sure they'd wash your car and do your dishes if you asked nicely. Why do American companies have to be so damn greedy? They slowly introduce us to "new" things simply because they know they can charge more for it.

Phones are only one example; they also do this with internet connections. High speed internet is nothing new and we could easily have much, much faster connections if the ISPs (Verizon being one of them) felt like it. But why do that when you can slowly raise the speeds and charge more for it? Act like 768 kbps is "blazing fast" and charge more for it than dial-up.

I'm so tired of this way of thinking. I think I'll move...

[LordFarkward @ May 29th 2006 12:37AM]

one word: motomodders.net

[Jason @ May 29th 2006 5:04PM]

So when exactly is nore information about this phone gonigto become available, and whne is it gonig to start being sold to the public?
I went to the Verizon website, and they are not evne sellnig it on the page that I was on. not even giving an indicatino of what they're charging for it. It also does not say when the release date is.

[Jason @ May 29th 2006 5:09PM]

P.S. sorry for all of the spelling mistakes above, my keyboard is really messed up right now.

[derrick @ Jun 8th 2006 11:44AM]

Actually OBEX is a bit overrated. It's conveinient when transferring smaller files like pictures and ringtones (so you can circumvent the fee for e-mailing them to your internet mail through Verizon's service and getting charged 25 cents a pop).

When you are transferring larger files like full-song MP3s the data cable is a little better but it is still slow because it's USB 1.1. The best way to transfer files is using the TransFlash/microSD card directly with a card reader or adapter to a USB 2.0.

Unfortunately Verizon will probably try to find ways to lock out any content that is not provided by them at a fee. I have no idea how the would lock out files from the Transflash/microSD card, but apparently they have already done something like that with the moto V710 that they used to have out.

Personally I have an unlocked non-itunes V3i with T-Mobile as my provider and I'd recommend any phone afficinado to swich from CDMA to GSM when your contract us up because you will have access to better phones.

I can do OBEX (which I rearely use), data cable transfers via Motorola Phone Tools (for working with files stored in the internal memory) and and micro SD to SD adapter so I can transfer files to and from the 1GB card via card reader.

The V3m does have some promise though if you go to a CDMA provider other than Verizon. I hear that US Cellular and Alltel don't cripple the functionality of the V3c, so it may be the same case with the V3m. I'm not sure if it's going to Sprint, but it would be cool if they get a RAZR too.

[Al @ Jun 11th 2006 9:56PM]

Does anyone know when this phone will be offered at sites like Amazon or Wirefly? They are still selling the V3c.

[Lovely @ Jun 17th 2006 7:56AM]

I will have to agree with the writers. Verizon is a joke. I hate these extended contracts. Why should I have to extend a contract when I want to buy a new phone? THis is a benefit to them!!! I am the one forking out all of the money! I recently went thru so many changes with them in order to get an early upgrade. I am getting the new Razr V3M and I am excited about it but I know when I have questions they won't have a clue in how to answer them

[abel @ Jun 25th 2006 9:12PM]

One question! How much does the v3m cost without a plan?

[Kris @ Jun 28th 2006 11:06AM]

^to the above..i just bought it yesterday full retail for 275 and sum change after tax

[abel @ Jul 2nd 2006 5:42PM]

hey kris what do you think of it? (v3m)

[mark @ Jul 6th 2006 11:43PM]

i just got a v3m a couple weeks ago for dirt cheap with the new every two thing from verizon. i have a 1 gb micro sd card coming in the mail, but ive already made use of the phone's internal memory to load a couple songs.

just a couple points i'd like to make:

1. in order to listen to the music you have to buy mini usb headphones from verizon(or anywhere but it was hard for me to find them online) unless you play it over the phone's speakerphone - which isnt that great.

2. there is absolutely no compatability with any format outside wma... and it seems to be only the format that windows media player 10 will convert it to when it syncs with the device. older formats may or may not work in conjunction with a micro sd card. (so far the internal memory will play any wma i throw on it)

3. the media player on the phone is actually decent once you get your playlist together

4. you can't use your own songs, or songs you purchase thru vcast music as ringtones (pretty much my biggest problem right now until i can figure out a way past it)

5. it is something like the 1st or 2nd best non-pda phone that verizon even has to offer... which just tells you how crappy american cell phones are.

6. overall its a sturdy design and it hasn't given me any problems as a phone itself. also it gets great reception, although the battery life suffers when im talking in an area where i get zero bars (thats right, i still get crystal clear call when i have absolutely no bars)

so in conclusion it was a great buy. work well as a cell phone... catches the eye, but is def not a fashion statement you want to be making if you are larry the cable guy. razr's aren't the best marketed (or most well designed) phones on the market... but they sure beat anything from LG and samsung. i give it a 9/10 as a phone and a 6/10 as an mp3 player (though that number will rise as hacks become available and i have time to mess with it)

[Ari @ Aug 11th 2006 6:14PM]

Any tips on getting files from the MicroSD card to be recognized by the phone? There doesn't seem to be any "copy" or "get files from" function that i'm aware of.

[Lenny @ Nov 18th 2006 4:56PM]

I have the V3m for Verizon Wireless. Although everything was disabled: OBEX, Background on outer display, and copying files by USB and Bluetooth, i was able to change everything. www.hacktherazr.com had everything i needed. 1) SEEM edit, it changes the outer display, enables file to be sent over bt and USB ( you need Motorola Phone Tools, Make sure to read everything on this section), and enables the ring and then vibrate and some other things. Also, this website has ways of changing your menu layout and many other hacks. I love the phone now!. I love the V-Cast music, the software from verizon switches wav's and mp3 to wma format.

Your able to save your previous setting just incase, but i had no problem enabling my phone.

[justalicious6989 @ Apr 20th 2007 12:12PM]

wow all i can say is quit having a fit about verizon i have the v3m you should have done some research before buying the phone, i hacked into the bluetooth wich now allows me to upload ringtones i make onto the phone without purchasing them and as for the music, sound crystal clear synching it to windows media player 11 so just next time you by a phone do some research and save a break on typing crap... thankz

[Harry @ Aug 27th 2007 1:40AM]

I want to buy motorola v3m, but I don't know where can I get that goods.
Is any one could help me

[Motorola User @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:32PM]

Seems cool!

http://www.v3mrazr.com