Motorola SLVR L7 Tech Review
Motorola started a phone revolution when it announced the RAZR phone. They expected to sell 750K units but did not expect to sell over 2 million in the first couple of months. The amazing success of this phone prompted the next secret designs. Motorola designed and released the phone to continue the RAZR like design called the SLVR L7. The SLVR, pronounced sliver, has even more features packed into an even thinner case.
The SLVR measures 114mm x 49mm x 11.5mm which is thinner than the RAZR coming it at 13mm tall. This 80-gram, credit card shape phone easily fits into the smallest of pockets. One challenge to this incredibly thin design was how to keep it rigid. The previous plastic case would not work so Motorola developed a hybrid glass-filled body to improve strength and make it durable enough to stand the rigors of daily use. They even engineered a way to keep the buttons from protruding out. Most buttons are raised above the surface of the phone but to maintain a very thin design, the SLVR uses a nickel-plated copper-alloy keypad that has the numbers chemically etched into an electro-luminescent strip. This gives the buttons a glow at night while at the same time delivering a thin profile.
The SLVR also comes with all of the basic tools we have come to expect on a phone. The address book stores a comfortable 1000 contacts and has the basic alarm, calculator, calendar, text messaging and voice recording tools included. You can still download java-based games since the SLVR supports J2ME. Most games have a fee but some have are free to download. The camera is only .30-mega pixel while some phones today are around 3-mega pixels. This of course cannot replace your digital camera but it still works great to capture those impromptu moments.
The 1.9-inch LCD screen is very bright and crisp but smaller than the RAZR’s 2.2-inch screen. The 262K-color screen still produces great images with rich colors. Care should be taken to protect the screen against scratches since it is exposed all the time. Flip phones protect the screen while not in use, however the SLVR design is different and more care should be taken to avoid scratches.
The SLVR phone also has Bluetooth Class 2 connectivity for hands free use. You can also use the Bluetooth or mini-USB cable to sync contacts, calendar or add songs to your phone. The phone has a 5MB hard drive. A removable TransFlash memory card expands the memory to 512MB. The phone comes equipped with iTunes to store all of your music but it only holds 100 songs. This is not enough music for a long plane ride even though we all hoped that Motorola would have addressed this problem with the SLVR design.
The SLVR also gives you access to the Internet through the GPRS (General Packet radio Service) Class 10 technology. You can browse the Internet and check your email at a bandwidth of 48 kbps. This is not a blazing connection speed but it will give you easy access to the web.
The 820 mAh Li-ion battery has a max life of 6 hours of talk time and 420 hours of standby time. This is the max and normal use will prove other wise. Depending on what you do you should at least get 3 or 4 days out of the battery before throwing it back on the charger. To get maximum life of it, drain the battery before putting it on the charger. If you charge it every night you will drastically reduce the battery life and eventually you will have to keep it plugged in all of the time.
After considering that the SLVR has tons of features and a few drawbacks including the 100-song max, you will love this phone. Even RAZR owners will love this phone do to its slimmer design and an improvement in most areas. If you enjoy phones with tons of features, this is the phone for you.
