I kept an initial production RAZR V3 for 2 years. I suspect the reliability issues came up when they tried to amp up production for the carrier subsidy business; mine was reliable.
UI wasn't so hot, but it made calls better than any phone I had before; the RF was good, and after a minor seem edit earpiece volume was very strong.
Basically it was a good reliable phone for phone calls and not much else. A better SMS interface would have been nice, but camera, music etc; don't matter to me; in that respect I think I am a lot like your typical American, I don't mind dedicated devices and see the center of my digital world as the internet and PC, which is the hub that integrates my various tools with minimal trade offs. An integration that is very difficult to achieve with converged mobile phone devices.