Excellent navigation software sets the handsome Motorola V325 apart from the general pack of Verizon voice phones. Though it lacks features that power users will demand, such as Bluetooth , it's an attractive, good-sounding phone that will help you get around with its GPS functions. Of course, you'll pay extra for that feature, so make sure you really need it.

The V325 is a solid, well-designed flip phone. The velvety-black, soft-touch plastic and grooved metal construction give the handset a classy, businesslike look-and-feel. The keys inside are flat but large, and the 176-by-220 screen, although not huge, is quite bright. A two-line text display on the outside shows time (but not date), battery, and Caller ID information, just like the displays on the Motorola V557 and V330. When the V325 receives a call, lights on the outside of the flip pulse seductively.

The VGA camera on the outside has no flash, but it does have a self-portrait mirror. (The self-portrait mirror is the little mirror next to the camera on a cameraphone that lets you take pictures of yourself. It's on a lot of models that don't have color external screens. If you have a color external screen, you can use it as a viewfinder; if there's no viewfinder on the outside of the flip, the mirror helps you position yourself.) Side buttons control the volume, speakerphone, and voice recorder.

Reception and call quality through the earpiece and speakerphone are both fine, though the lack of Bluetooth or voice dialing in such a car-focused phone hurts. Battery life, at 3 hours 50 minutes of continuous talk time, is in the midrange for Verizon phones.

The driving-directions service is better than Sprint Nextel's competing TeleNav software (as seen on the Nextel i605), with clear, colorful on-screen maps and loudly shouted directions.

Maps look good, and they load within a few seconds. Like Sprint's service, VZ Navigator uses a two-step process for finding its location. First it uses cell-tower triangulation to get a quick but less accurate fix on your location. Then it gets a slower but more accurate fix via a satellite GPS. I found the triangulation to be quite good even in Manhattan.

You get multiple routing choices, including the fastest, the shortest, car, bicycle, and truck options, as well as the option to avoid highways, tolls, and HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes. The "avoid toll roads" option didn't seem to avoid toll bridges and tunnels, and the "on foot" option sent me on some unfortunately roundabout routes. Still, basic driving directions were accurate, and VZ Navigator even corrected us when we went off route. A "local search" function lets you find points of interest near you, including ATMs, restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters, and anything that pops up in a Yellow Pages search, such as the Ziff-Davis offices.

The service costs $9.99 per month or $2.99 per day. We just wish the phone had Bluetooth, so it could integrate better into an automotive setup. Right now, VZ Navigator is Verizon's only GPS-enabled app; though Verizon also sells MapQuest Mobile and Vindigo city guides, these guides don't use GPS.

Otherwise, the V325's functions are basic. The VGA camera isn't very good, taking photos that manage to be dim and overexposed in the same shot. There is no video recording or playback option. To retrieve your photos, you must e-mail them to yourself using Verizon's picture messaging service. You can play MP3 ringtones, but only if you buy them from Verizon. Gaming was a little annoying because there's no way to mute the keypad sounds, though that's not a rare problem. The 33.6MB of storage has plenty of room for photos, ringtones, and games. There's no high-speed networking.

VZ Navigator makes the V325 a unique product in Verizon's lineup. But if you don't need the driving directions, this is an expensive phone for what you get. Other phones in its price range, such as the Motorola E815 and LG VX8100, have megapixel cameras and Bluetooth. Phones with similar feature sets to the V325 but without GPS navigation, such as the LG VX5200 , are generally cheaper. Pick up the V325 to help you get around, but turn to one of those other models if you're looking for a more complete or more affordable phone.