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Motorola SLVR L7
May 2, 2006  
The Motorola cell phone brand sure is popular these days. They've been coming out with all kinds of new and flashy phones for consumers. Slim and sleek cell phones are definitely the "in" thing right now and that's evident from the huge success of the Motorola RAZR. The new Motorola SLVR L7 is a remake of the RAZR. We'll take a look at it to see if it's as good as it's hyped up to be. The SLVR L7 is what you would call a "candy bar" phone, which means that it isn't a flip-style phone, but rather one flat device. The SLVR L7 measures about 2 x 4.5 x 0.5-inches (smaller than a Hershey's chocolate bar) and weighs about 3.5 ounces, which is about an ounce heavier than the RAZR. It's by far one of the most portable cell phones on the market that feels sturdy as well. In fact, it feels much more sturdier than its sister, the Motorola RAZR. Now if you have big hands, the SLVR might be a little difficult to get a good grip on. The very vibrant LCD display measures 1.8-inches and displays 262,000 colors. The above average size makes it excellent for viewing pictures. The display performs excellent in any condition except for direct sunlight in which it becomes a little "washed out." Located on the face of the SLVR L7 there are the standard alphanumeric keys, dedicated talk/end buttons, a 4-way customizable navigational toggle, and a select key. Since this phone is Apple iTunes supported, you would think that there would be a dedicated button for iTunes, but there isn't. We also would've liked to see a key for direct access to the phone's digital camera. The keys and toggle on the SLVR are flush with the phone's body, so using them takes a little bit of practice at first, but it wasn't bad. Located on the outside of the phone is a digital camera lens (no flash) and a speaker for music or speakerphone use. On the right-side of the SLVR there's a TransFlash card slot, which is excellent for such a slim phone, and a 512MB card is even included. As with higher-end cell phones, the Motorola SLVR L7 comes with Bluetooth connectivity, a WAP 2.0 Wireless Internet browser, and even Apple iTunes compatibility. The interface of the iTunes for the SLVR is just like that of the previous iTunes phone called the ROKR. Owners of an Apple iPod will also recognize the iTunes interface. Opening iTunes takes you directly to the music library, where you can organize songs by playlist, artist, name, and album. When playing music, the phone goes into standby mode while displaying onscreen controls and album art. When you receive a call, the music automatically stops and allows you to either answer the call or not. You can only store 100 songs on your SLVR even though the phone's memory allows for more songs and all of the songs must be stored on a TransFlash card because the phone itself only has a 5MB internal memory. In addition to the iTunes player, there is also a separate Motorola-designed MP3 player that supports MP3, AAC, WAV, MIDI, and DRM AAC files. The 1.3-megapixel digital camera that the SLVR L7 has is not terrible, but it isn't the best either. Test pictures taken and viewed on the phone look excellent, but when viewed on a computer, they are a little blurry and grainy. They are also no where near printable quality. Currently, the Motorola SLVR L7 is only available and compatible with Cingular Wireless. The call quality with the SLVR L7 was excellent. There was no audible distortion or any static during any phone calls made. The speakerphone was quite loud and sometimes so loud that the sound became distorted and muffled. The transfer of music files from iTunes on a computer to the SLVR L7 was very slow. It transfers at about 0.20MB per second compared to the iPod Nano's 4.3MB per second. Other than that, the audio performance of the SLVR L7 was very good. In fact, it was comparable to the iPod Nano, which has excellent audio quality. Battery tests also show a talk time of about 8 hours and a standby of about 13 hours, which is very impressive. In conclusion, the Motorola SLVR L7 is another welcomed addition to the sleek line of new Motorola cellular phones. It's excellent for anyone who wants to have the sleekest and coolest looking phone as well as have portable audio capabilities as well. Pros: Very sleek and futuristic looking, easy to use, nice LCD, excellent call quality, Bluetooth connectivity, iTunes audio player, TransFlash storage card slot
Cons: Small internal memory, mediocre camera quality, slippery controls, slow data transfer Editors' Rating:  Check prices on the Motorola SLVR L7 View Images of the Motorola SLVR L7  
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