After the great success of the RAZR, Motorola have decided to use the award winning idea for a thin phone and as they remodeled the conception the SLVR line was created which consists of thin phones in a candy bar design. L7 is the most advanced SLVR for the moment, and besides it, the L2 and the L6 are members of the same line. In relation to the RAZR V3i, the L7 is smaller and thinner (11 mm for the SLVR and 14 mm for the RAZR), having the sizes of the keypad and the display reduced, and other advantages, such as the relocation of the memory slot to the right side, instead of next to the battery.

There is no doubt that the most important advantage of the L7 model is its slimness - mere 12 mm. The other two dimensions are a bit larger than what is acceptable in the group of small phones, but even so Motorola SLVR L7 can be regarded as a very small device. In other words, 114 x 49 x 12 mm. The phone weighs 85 grams. The L7 model is narrower compared to Motorola Razr, due to which it goes perfectly onto one's palm. All areas of the keypad are easy to reach by thumb.

Motorola L7 has a perfectly elaborated construction. It would not give out a single creak, even if pressed quite hard. The lock of the rear cover is located at the very top of the back side, above the camera, and is thus very strong. The phone didn't show any spaces or margins during the tests. The construction benefits a lot from the absence of removable covers too.

The entire phone is made of thin metal plates, except for the keypad and the display. It looks like aluminum but polished in black. Unfortunately, finger prints remain pretty visible all over the device, including the display. The top button line of the keypad is located right below the display, so the chance that fingerprints may be kept away from the display surface is minor. You will have no other choice but to wipe it again and again. In this respect, a special wiping cloth would have come in extremely handy, if included in the original package of the phone.

The design outlook of Motorola L7 catches the eye immediately. The front side of the device is totally flat. The only elements that bulge slightly are the main control button and the logo of the manufacturer located above the display. The same logo is to be found on the rear side of the phone, which also constitutes the battery cover. The grid of the loud speaker is located beneath the logo. The lens of the built-in camera is seated in a black trapezium with a silver frame in the very top of the rear cover. Btw, it is not protected and will probably get scratched quickly.

The Motorola Slvr L7's 262,000-color, 176x122-pixel display measures 1.8 inches diagonally, making it large enough for the phone's size. It's great for scrolling through the menus, viewing photos, and playing games, yet it does disappear in direct light. Be warned that it also catches finger smudges easily.

After seeing the 1.3-megapixel camera on the Motorola Razr V3c, we wanted the Motorola Slvr L7 to come similarly equipped. Unfortunately, the VGA camera takes pictures in just three resolutions: 640x480, 320x240, and 160x120. On the upside, we liked the useful camera options. A meter keeps track of how much storage space is left, and you can switch between the phone and the card storage with three easy clicks. For photo-editing features, you get a choice of six lighting settings, an adjustable brightness control, a 4X zoom, a 5- or 10-second autotimer, and a selection of five shutter sounds, as well as a silent option. The MPEG-4 video recorder takes clips about 30 seconds in length, with sound in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96), and you can choose a lighting setting. Photos and video were about what you'd expect from a VGA camera: Objects were fuzzy, and colors didn't exactly jump out. When finished with your snapshots and clips, you can send them in a multimedia message or save them to the phone. You can also save your work to the TransFlash card, but you'll probably want to keep that chunk of memory for your music.

The battery life is probably the SLVR's weakest point. It'll last about 4-5 days. But it all depends on what you use...example: If you leave bluetooth on all the time it will wear down your battery; if you always have it set on vibrate, it takes more power to spin the motor than it does to play a sound. And make sure you turn it off at night, or you will only get about 3 days out of it .

For music on the go, or anywhere you take your phone, the SLVR can hold up to 100 songs. The limitation is imposed by the phone's software and not the card capacity, so a larger card won't get you more tunes. But if you're a jogger with cell phone in tow and want some music to make the miles easier, the SLVR isn't a bad choice. You need not burden yourself with several pieces of gear, and those 100 songs should last for 6.5 hours of continuous playback. Since the phone syncs to iTunes on the desktop (both Windows and Mac work), you can change out your music at any time, and need not live with the same 100 tunes forever. If you don't already own an iPod or have iTunes installed, you'll get a copy on the included CD. The SLVR's USB 1.1 port makes for slow syncing speeds: it takes about 25 minutes to fill the phone with 100 tunes using iTunes and the included USB cable.

The phone comes with a good quality stereo earbud headset with mic. Plug in the headset and the SLVR will automatically switch from the phone's speaker and vice versa. The headset has a mini USB connector and it plugs into the phone's multifunction mini USB port. Should you wish to use your own set of headphones with the Moto, plug them into the included 3.5mm to mini USB adapter. Sound quality is OK, but not as good as the ROKR, a good PDA or the Sony Ericsson W600i "Walkman" phone. Bass is muffled below 100Hz and trebles can be harsh when using a good set of headphones such as Sennheiser's PX100 or super.fi 5 Pro earbuds. iTunes will not play through a Bluetooth headset. If that's important to you, wait for the ROKR E2 which will support stereo Bluetooth headphones as well as headset playback.

The SLVR can play music in the background, which means you can use the phone's other features while playing music. The display sleeps when using the phone as an iPod, and upon waking it you'll see the scrolling track title and small album cover in the upper left hand corner (if album art is available). The iTunes interface is almost exactly like that on Apple's iPod, which means it's intuitive and efficient. A few iPod features such as play by genre and multiple smart playlists are missing. You'll use the d-pad to control music playback, even when the phone is in the standby screen with the player running in the background (large on-screen symbols show you which direction to press to gain a desired effect). Should you wish to listen to music on the plane, turn on flight mode under Settings.

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

A miniUSB port is available, which is also used for the charger and the headphones. Besides that, there are no other ports. For connecting and synchronizing with a PC you need to use the software that the manufacturer provides with the phone. Without any software whatsoever the phone is recognized as a mass storage device with most modern operating systems and files can be transferred directly from the computer to the microSD card. The phone can be charged through the USB cable as well while connected to the computer, which may keep you from carrying a charger.

Using Bluetooth we easily connected a wireless headset (Jabra BT250) and there were no problems using voice commands and dialing through the headset. There were no problems transferring pictures to another phone neither.

The Motorola SLVR L7 supports Java based games, and our Cingular branded test unit came loaded with three of them in demo versions: BlockBreaker Deluxe, Jewel Quest, and Tetris. The games that a SLVR L7 bought from another carrier would contain would very likely be different. In general, the games seemed to perform pretty well. None of them seemed to lag ever, and all of them were pretty fun to play - even though they were demos.