The past month I’ve had the chance to fully test the Motorola Droid RAZR. This phone is big and thin, and it’s very nice looking. I do have to say that it’s a much better phone than the Bionic, so if you have a Bionic, I’m sorry.
The phone itself is a mix of aluminum, Kevlar and Gorilla Glass. However, it may seem tough, but the back of the phone is quite slick, so I was always afraid of dropping it, and it seemed like it was just a tad too big to feel comfortable in the hand.
On the inside, it has a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, it’s also running Gingerbread 2.3.5. It’s got both a 3G and 4G radio, as well as the usual WiFi and bluetooth. Motorola claims that the non-removable battery will get up to 8.5 days of standby time and 12.5 hours of talk time, but in my use, it didn’t even survive half a day with heavy usage. With moderate to light usage, I could squeeze a full day out of it, but as with all Android based phones, make sure you have a charger with you and plug it in when you are in the car or at your desk, and forget about getting a second battery to have with you, you can’t swap them out.
The screen is better than the bionic, but it’s still not there. There was a dark tint on videos, and it just made them impossible to watch.
The camera is like most cameras on Android devices. Photos were decent, but not great. It is capable of shooting 1080p video which is quite good. It also takes very good macro shots.
There are still some things I don’t like, and that has more to do with the carriers and manufaturers, rather than the device, but stop loading it with crapware. Luckily, most of it you can uninstall, but those branded with Verizon or Motorola you are stuck with. Please in the future let me decide if I want those apps, or let me uninstall them if I don’t intend on using them.
All in all, the RAZR is one of the best on the market. It’s far more stable than the Bionic, and I believe once it gets Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, it’ll be a lot better. If you are in the market for a new Android device, the RAZR is the one to get right now.
RAZR Specs in a Nutshell
- Screen: 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED Advanced
- Processor: 1.2GHz dual-core
- Storage: 32GB included
- Radio: CDMA and 4G LTE
- Cameras: 8MP Rear-facing; 1.3MP Front-facing camera
- Price: $300
The next big phone is the Galaxy Nexus. I’ll wait and see how that one compares.
