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By Frank Lewis, CNET.co.uk
Feb 22, 2007

Motorola has become the Stock, Aitken and Waterman of the mobile phone world--like the pop-producing team, it's found a formula that works and is sticking to it religiously. As a result, the MAXX looks remarkably like the previous incarnations of the RAZR design. Thankfully, though, it's not just a reheat of yesterday's leftovers because under the bonnet it's tuned for speed, thanks to its support for the super-fast 3G standard HSDPA.

Editors' note: This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.co.uk. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published.

If, however, you haven't experienced Motorola's menu system before, you'll find it unintuitive, and you'll also have to spend some time adjusting to its iTap predictive text system, which is significantly different to the more common T9 system found on rival handsets.

Still, this remains a very stylish handset that's great for connecting to the Web on the move, thanks to the large, brightly lit screen and its support for speedy downloads. The phone is currently available for as low as S$348 (US$232.88) with a two-year plan and S$698 (US$467.11) for the handset alone.

Design
Motorola really hasn't strayed far from the original RAZR design with the MAXX. At 15mm thick, it's still super slim, especially by the standards of 3G phones, and it retains the stylish keypad, which is made from etched metal--although this time the keys are slightly wider.

The only major design update is the hardened glass finish on the front. This covers the small external color screen and also hides three dedicated music buttons for fast forward, rewind and play/pause. Like the touch buttons on LG's Chocolate phone, these only light up when you run your finger over them. We found they can be a bit slow to respond, though.

If you want to use the phone for music, you'll need to boost the 50MB of internal memory using the microSD card slot. Unfortunately this isn't very easy to get at because it's hidden under the battery cover. We would have much preferred to have it tucked away on the side of the handset like Samsung managed with its equally slim Z560.

The keypad itself hasn't changed all that much from the original RAZR, but that's no bad thing as the keys are well spaced out and easy to use for texting. And, unlike keypads on some rival models, the back light is very bright so you can see the keys in the dark.

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