Motorola Razr 2 V8 mobile phone

The external display is also utilised for handling text messages. When closed, you can view incoming texts on the screen, and even reply by selecting from pre-programmed standard messages with a few taps of the side key. It’s a handy extra, although actually opening the phone to read messages isn’t exactly an effort.

2mm thinner than the previous model

The external volume control and select key combo can also be used when closed to change the ringtone set-up, so you can switch easily to silent or vibrate.

Motorola has opted for a run-of-the-mill two-megapixel camera for the V8. The 1200 x 1600 pixels resolution is standard issue, and there’s only s limited amount of useful tweaking you can do. There’s a night mode, which doesn’t compensate at all for the lack of a flash, and there are a few picture effects you can apply. Unfortunately, there’s no autofocus, or macro mode for close-ups, though there is an 8x digital zoom.

Regular snaps require you to open the clamshell, although the external display can be used for self-portraits. Image quality is quite good in decent lighting conditions for mid-distance shots, offering some degree of fine detail. Lower light shots aren’t quite so successful, however, and lack crispness, while indoors images often contained a lot of noise. The lack of macro mode means close up snaps don’t work as well as they could, either.

Video footage, shot at maximum 176 x 144 resolution at 15 frames per second, looks OK on the phone display, but isn’t intended to be shown on a screen any larger than that.