What is it? The Droid RAZR MAXX
What Carrier? Verizon
Does it have a predecessor? Well, it has a brother – the Droid RAZR
Is it 4G/LTE or 3G? 4G/LTE
The Tech Specs:
4.3″ Super AMOLED Advanced qHD (540×960 Resolution)
KEVLAR backing and Corning Gorilla Glass
CPU: 1.2 GHz Dual-Core Processor
Storage: 32 GB (16 GB internal, 16 GB microSD pre-installed)
Camera: 8 MP HD P2P automatic 8x digital zoom (back), 1.3 MP 720p HD video (Front)
Battery: 3300 mAh
OS: Android 2.3.5, upgradeable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Tell me more!
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- As you can see, a picture taken with the RAZR Maxx is very faded compared to the HDR photo of an iPhone 4S.
The Droid RAZR MAXX is the newest iteration (read: brother) of the still relatively recent Droid RAZR. The MAXX is nearly identical to the RAZR in size, form and usability. In fact, I’m literally to forward you to my Motorola Droid RAZR review that I did just a little while ago: you can read up on the original RAZR right here.
So what is the difference here? Well, there’s a few things. First of all, this time around, you can upgrade the RAZR MAXX to Google Ice Cream Sandwich, which is wonderful. ICS has a lot more to offer you in terms of a new user interface than previous versions of Android have, so I recommend you upgrade your phone immediately before installing any apps or customizing all that much. That’s the first big thing. The second big thing accounts for the slightly new form factor of the MAXX compared to the original RAZR (the smartphone, not the epic flip phone) – the improved battery. The new 3300 mAh battery is probably the highest capacity battery I’ve seen on a smartphone, and it is DEFINITELY the largest battery I’ve ever seen on a 4G/LTE smartphone for Verizon. Now, when I say large, I don’t mean the phone becomes incredibly bulky – on the contrary, the phone is still a thin 8.9mm thick. It might sound like a big deal in comparison to the original RAZR, but the phone is about as thick as an iPhone 4S, which makes it very thin in the phone world.
Now, what about the battery capacity itself? 3300 mAh doesn’t mean much to the average person. Motorola quotes 21.5 hours of talk time on a full battery charge. Translation? This phone can last a LONG time, no matter what you’re doing with it. Okay, I take that back – 4G/LTE usage still sucks on the battery, but not nearly as bad as other phones I’ve reviewed. The first time I downloaded apps on the device, I downloaded about 9-10 of them and the battery level didn’t go down at all until I brought the phone out of standby two hours later. Battery management is still essential – made easier by Ice Cream Sandwich’s task manager – but you will definitely get more battery life out of this phone than most others.
In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that this phone gets as-good-as/better battery life than my iPhone 4S. Take that, Apple.
Again, this is really just a Droid RAZR with a bigger battery. The original Droid RAZR is upgradeable to ICS as well, so the only difference here is the battery. If you aren’t dying to show your friends THE thinnest smartphone ever in the original Droid RAZR (and in doing so you’d be cutting your battery life in half), you’d do yourself a favor by picking up this better-battery-life version. It combines the best features of the original RAZR (minus thinness) and brings in the battery life to support it. Great phone for anyone looking to enter into the smartphone world or for people who want excellent battery life on a 4G/LTE device.
