The Verizon Wireless Razzle's nifty design excels at both messaging and playing music. That's because the bottom third swivels 180 degrees. On one side is a pair of powerful stereo speakers and some multimedia controls; the other side features an angled QWERTY keyboard. The design is certainly unique, and lets the Razzle stand out in a crowded feature phone lineup, even despite some minor gaffes.
Design and Call Quality
The Razzle measures 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.8 ounces. The Razzle's black plastic construction feels cheap, though considering the $19.99 subsidized price, I won't complain too loudly. The swivel mechanism itself feels nice and solid; you can fling it back and forth in the middle of running apps, and it will activate the keyboard or speakers as necessary. The 2.2-inch 220-by-176-pixel LCD looks and feels low-rent and is a slightly more serious issue, though Verizon Wireless employs a smooth-looking Arial font for menu text. Similarly, the tilted QWERTY keyboard isn't the best I've used—it's a little cramped and clicky for my tastes—but it's fine on a low-end device, and I quickly grew to like the tilted design.
Voice quality is one of the Razzle's strengths. As a dual-band 1X (850/1900 MHz) phone, the Razzle lacks 3G or Wi-Fi capability, a rarity on Verizon. Consider it a voice and messaging phone only. For voice calls, the Razzle sounded good—all Verizon phones do. But the earpiece distorted unacceptably at higher volumes. Its tone was surprisingly harsh, midrange-heavy, and too reverberant. Reception was average, and callers said I sounded fine. The speakerphone was as loud and powerful as expected given the oversize drivers. Oddly, the Razzle wouldn't pair with my Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset despite several attempts. Battery life was excellent at 6 hours and 11 minutes of talk time.
Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The Razzle offers basic mobile Web browsing, but its 2G radio and low-res display mean it's not for heavy data users or for downloading music over the air. The on-board VZ Navigator offers voice-enabled turn-by-turn GPS directions at $9.99 per month; in testing, it locked onto my location quickly and spoke loudly and clearly (yet another benefit of the big speakers). Verizon's standard mobile e-mail and instant messaging apps are on board. As usual, they're a poor value, requiring extra monthly fees for e-mail, and the IM app charges for each message as if it were a text.
A non-standard 2.5mm headphone jack sits on the top edge; that's always a bummer, since it makes it tough to find compatible, good-sounding headphones. A microSD card resides beneath the battery cover—my 16GB SanDisk card worked fine, though it took two tries—and there's 44MB of free internal storage. The built-in stereo speakers pumped music out with plenty of volume, albeit without any bass. Music tracks sounded tinny over Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones. The 1.3-megapixel camera took OK photos; they were a little fuzzy, but with natural color and decent low-light performance. The Razzle doesn't record or display video.
Nothing else on Verizon matches the Razzle's swivel design. If you're not as keen on the stereo speakers, the LG enV3 and enV Touch VX11000 deliver more powerful multimedia experiences along with comfortable hardware QWERTY keyboards. But watch the plan charges on those; Verizon has been fiddling with its data plans to eke out additional profit. On the lower end, the Samsung Intensity SCH-u450 offers nicer styling, a compact horizontal slider design, and excellent battery life, though it's not as distinctive as the Razzle and also suffers from a poor camera.
Spec Data
* Price as Tested: $19.99 - $239.99 Direct
* Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
* Screen Size: 2.2 inches
* Screen Details: 176-by-220-pixel, 262k-color TFT LCD screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 1.3 MP
* 802.11x: No
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: Yes
* Network: CDMA
* Bands: 850, 1900
* High-Speed Data: 1xRTT
Design and Call Quality
The Razzle measures 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.8 ounces. The Razzle's black plastic construction feels cheap, though considering the $19.99 subsidized price, I won't complain too loudly. The swivel mechanism itself feels nice and solid; you can fling it back and forth in the middle of running apps, and it will activate the keyboard or speakers as necessary. The 2.2-inch 220-by-176-pixel LCD looks and feels low-rent and is a slightly more serious issue, though Verizon Wireless employs a smooth-looking Arial font for menu text. Similarly, the tilted QWERTY keyboard isn't the best I've used—it's a little cramped and clicky for my tastes—but it's fine on a low-end device, and I quickly grew to like the tilted design.
Voice quality is one of the Razzle's strengths. As a dual-band 1X (850/1900 MHz) phone, the Razzle lacks 3G or Wi-Fi capability, a rarity on Verizon. Consider it a voice and messaging phone only. For voice calls, the Razzle sounded good—all Verizon phones do. But the earpiece distorted unacceptably at higher volumes. Its tone was surprisingly harsh, midrange-heavy, and too reverberant. Reception was average, and callers said I sounded fine. The speakerphone was as loud and powerful as expected given the oversize drivers. Oddly, the Razzle wouldn't pair with my Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset despite several attempts. Battery life was excellent at 6 hours and 11 minutes of talk time.
Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The Razzle offers basic mobile Web browsing, but its 2G radio and low-res display mean it's not for heavy data users or for downloading music over the air. The on-board VZ Navigator offers voice-enabled turn-by-turn GPS directions at $9.99 per month; in testing, it locked onto my location quickly and spoke loudly and clearly (yet another benefit of the big speakers). Verizon's standard mobile e-mail and instant messaging apps are on board. As usual, they're a poor value, requiring extra monthly fees for e-mail, and the IM app charges for each message as if it were a text.
A non-standard 2.5mm headphone jack sits on the top edge; that's always a bummer, since it makes it tough to find compatible, good-sounding headphones. A microSD card resides beneath the battery cover—my 16GB SanDisk card worked fine, though it took two tries—and there's 44MB of free internal storage. The built-in stereo speakers pumped music out with plenty of volume, albeit without any bass. Music tracks sounded tinny over Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones. The 1.3-megapixel camera took OK photos; they were a little fuzzy, but with natural color and decent low-light performance. The Razzle doesn't record or display video.
Nothing else on Verizon matches the Razzle's swivel design. If you're not as keen on the stereo speakers, the LG enV3 and enV Touch VX11000 deliver more powerful multimedia experiences along with comfortable hardware QWERTY keyboards. But watch the plan charges on those; Verizon has been fiddling with its data plans to eke out additional profit. On the lower end, the Samsung Intensity SCH-u450 offers nicer styling, a compact horizontal slider design, and excellent battery life, though it's not as distinctive as the Razzle and also suffers from a poor camera.
Spec Data
* Price as Tested: $19.99 - $239.99 Direct
* Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
* Screen Size: 2.2 inches
* Screen Details: 176-by-220-pixel, 262k-color TFT LCD screen
* Camera: Yes
* Megapixels: 1.3 MP
* 802.11x: No
* Bluetooth: Yes
* Web Browser: Yes
* Network: CDMA
* Bands: 850, 1900
* High-Speed Data: 1xRTT
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