A short while ago, I dropped my HTC Desire for an iPhone 4S. It was a pretty sensible choice – aside from the higher price on my mobile plan ($20 more or so) – but I was dissatisfied with Android and its feature limitations. Plus, my phone was slow and just didn’t perform as well as I’d wanted. I mainly hinged the blame on the phone itself – it was “old”, which comes out to something like a year or so – and so it was easily outrun by the top smartphones in the world. Needless to say, I had slightly higher expectations for the latest phone I picked up, but I didn’t think I would be overly impressed with the new RAZR, even though its previous version (the flip phone) was one of my favorite phones ever. Was I right in my assumption? You’ll have to find out after the break.
The Design
Let me two main points out of the way: the RAZR is a HUGE and THIN phone.
Seriously, I had to use my entire hand to hold onto this thing. It’s probably not a great phone for the small-handed, but maybe if you get creative on how you hold it…
Anyway, onto more design features. The screen is glorious – and I would put it on par with the Retina display of the iPhone 4s. It’s also the main reason the phone is so big – this thing has a 4.3″ Super AMOLED Advanced Display with 960×540 resolution and Gorilla Glass. Translation: big, pretty screen that is nearly un-scratch-able and very rigid. It also sports a water-resistant nanocoating (so you don’t need to freak out if your screen gets a bit of water on it in the rain) and KEVLAR on the back (why the back needs to be bulletproof, I’m not quite sure), which adds some real finess to the phone’s backside.
Speaking of the backside, that houses the speakerphone, the 8 MP 1080p camera and the LED flash. By the way, the top of the phone juts out a bit from the rest of it – which is super thin. Obviously, Motorola needed more room for the cameras and speakerphone/earpiece, so the top sticks out. The thinness of the device is crazy though – 7.1mm at the thinnest point – and it feels a little scary just holding it. I was afraid that I would break it if I ever dropped it from too high (luckily, I never dropped it).
Tech Specs
Where do I start? Here’s the BIG list of things:
- Powered by Android™ 2.3.5, Gingerbread
- 1GB RAM for a fast user interface and multi-tasking
- 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization technology for crisp and clear videos
- Front-facing HD camera for video chat over 4G LTE, 3G or Wi-Fi
- 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot capable so customers can share 4G LTE speed with up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices
- Water repellent nanocoating protects the phone, and even the inside components, against everyday spills
- Remote wipe, pin lock and government-grade encryption for email, calendar and contacts as well as voice and video chat conferencing
- Bluetooth 4.0 low energy
- 32 GB memory: 16 GB on board and 16 GB microSD™ card pre-installed (actual formatted capacity is less)
- Powerful 1780 mAh battery
Is this phone really as great as everyone thought it would be? The short answer: heck yes.
I’ve used a ton of Android phones before, and while I know I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: this one trumps the rest of them. I’m very interested in comparing this phone to the upcoming Galaxy Nexus (also on Verizon), but for now this thing beats any other Android on the market in terms of power, speed and usability.Obviously, we still have the basic stats to look at: Gingerbread (with a promising case for Ice Cream Sandwich) is still Gingerbread, albeit with a Motorola covering. It comes with some junk apps (MotoCast, I’m looking at you), but it’s still the same, gingery Android that we’ve known and loved for a long while. I would’ve been appalled to see Froyo on such a powerful new phone, so kudos to Motorola for staying with the times.The on screen keyboard takes a little getting used to – especially if you have smaller hands and need to adjust the phone to make good use of it.Texting and browsing on the internet were a breeze once you got the keyboard down – and by the way, the 4G/LTE speeds on this phone are simply awesome. I cannot praise Verizon enough for bringing out this incredible, next-gen experience to users. Now if only I could get coverage on (ANY) devices in buildings… Ahem, enough about that. The 4G speeds load webpages in mere moments (rather than 5-10 seconds like 3G) and apps download in no time at all. Combine that with the 1GB of RAM and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor installing the app, and you really have next to no down time between hitting the “Download & Accept” buttons and starting a new game on Muffin Knight.
What else is there? The back-facing camera takes solid pictures and video, and again, when comparing it with an iPhone 4S, the average person won’t notice TOO much difference. The front-facing camera is, sadly, still an SD camera (VGA actually) and thus can’t be recommended for anything too exciting, but it works for simple video chat. Speaker quality is so-so: the speakerphone was one of the better ones I’ve ever used on an Android phone, but music got a bit too static-filled for my liking.
Sadly, I did not have the chance to test Mirror Mode via an HDMI cable. I hear it’s pretty easy – hook a cable to the phone, hook a cable to the TV, ready to go – but I don’t know how many people prepare their presentations on their phones. That being said, it is a useful feature to look into if you don’t use iOS and Mac OS X for creating your presentations (or Windows, for that matter).
Conclusion
The RAZR is the next step in Android smartphones. Maximizing the capabilities of Gingerbread combined with a speedy 4G/LTE network and great hardware makes this a difficult smartphone to beat. We’ll have to see what the outcome of the Galaxy Nexus review will be, but I can assure you, if you’re looking for the most powerful, beautiful Android device to date – and have decently sized hands and pockets – look no further than the RAZR.
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