Razr Envy

If you went to this year's 77th Annual Academy Awards, you may have been lucky to catch a glimpse of the special edition Motorola Razr V3 cellular phone that was handed out with the lavish gift baskets. This phone is black, instead of the metal finish on the regular V3.

Tech goodies seem to be a must with the high-profile awards these days. Previous years’ baskets included items such as a Samsung high-definition television with a one-year subscription to satellite HDTV, and a TAZ I personal video and media player from Tight Systems. Past Grammy gift bags reportedly included an Apple Computer 20GB iPod, a Siemens mobile phone and a Logitech digital camera. Still, I think this special edition Razr V3 will take the cake.

Because of its high success and popularity, it’s rumored that Motorola plans to extend the Razr V3 into a line of high-end devices sometime later this year. Motorola is hard at work on a whole family of Razr-like phones in various shapes and colors, including the Sliver, a candy-bar-shaped Razr.

As I eagerly wait to see the “Oscar V3,” for now I have to settle for the thin, sleek metallic version, which includes a bright LCD screen and a VGA camera with a 4x digital zoom. The Razr V3 is also a GSM quad-band world phone with speakerphone, Internet browsing and Bluetooth capable. The keypad is chemically etched into an electro-luminescent strip, which gives it a light-blue glow in the dark. The whole phone is only 13.9 mm thick, 2 inches wide and weighs 95 grams — truly a design and engineering marvel.

Since it hit store shelves in November 2004, Motorola has shipped an estimated 750,000 Razr V3s. It is available at all Hawaii Cingular dealers, Cingular locations, and online at www.cingular.com. Prices range from $289 to $729, depending on what mobile plan you purchase with the phone.