Motorola Droid Razr, from Verizon, examination [Video]
Motorola’s Droid Razr mightily impresses on paper and in a hand.
The new Razr, that brings behind final decade’s famous flip-phone nameplate, is super skinny and light, and that unequivocally is a large offered point.
At only 0.28-inches thick and weighing in during 127 grams, a Razr packs in a 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 16 gigabytes of built-in storage and a microSD label container with a 16-gigabyte label included. Inside there are a common smartphone components: vicinity sensor, ambient light sensor, electronic compass and accelerometer.
Those are top-end specs sandwiched into a thinnest form cause of any 4G phone on a market. Off a bat, a Razr feels like something special — like an feat of smartphone engineering.
On a module side, a Smart Actions underline stands out, permitting users to simply module their phone to automatically launch applications or change settings after specified inputs. For example, we set a Droid Razr to launch a Pandora song app any time we plugged a set of headphones in. It worked seamlessly and it’s a underline we wouldn’t mind saying on some-more phones.
The Razr runs Google’s Android Gingerbread handling system, with Motorola’s user interface changes. An ascent to Android Ice Cream Sandwich is betrothed for early 2012.
Motorola’s heading camera strike shows adult during a tip of a Razr — a pattern evidence we indeed like. It houses a Razr’s 8-megapixel behind camera — that can fire 1080p video — and an LED flash, mini-HDMI port, mini-USB pier and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera.
The front of a Razr is lonesome in a intensely durable Corgina Gorilla Glass. I took a coop and after a flare and kitchen blade to a arrangement and not a singular blemish showed up, bringing a grin to my face.
The behind of a phone is mostly Kevlar, a strong, stretchable element used in bullet-proof vests and NASCAR physique panels — but, no, a Razr is not bullet-proof. As on Apple’s iPhone though not many Androids, a battery on a Razr is not removable by a user; instead it’s hermetic underneath a Kevlar back. That helps make for a skinny phone and is a trade-off I’m privately excellent with.
The multiple of Gorilla Glass on a front and Kevlar on a behind supplement adult to a phone that feels solidly built, with no manifest gaps or cheap-feeling plastic surfaces anywhere to be found, save for a flip-out doorway on a left side of a Razr that hides a microSD label container and a 4G LTE sim card. And yes, as always, Verizon‘s 4G LTE network is blazing quick for streaming video, loading Web pages and ubiquitous Web information consumption.
But that tiny doorway feels like it will eventually mangle off and is a diseased indicate of a differently lush design. Battery life isn’t great, though I’ve nonetheless to exam a 4G smartphone from any manufacturer that delivers good battery life.
With complicated use, we would have to assign a Razr before a work day is done. Daily charging would be a partial of life with a Razr and anyone deliberation shopping this phone should have a horse during home, work and in a car.
However, a doorway and battery life are teenager complaints compared to a Razr’s 4.3-inch hold display. Beneath a smashing Gorilla Glass is what Motorola calls its Super AMOLED Advanced qHD screen, with a 540 x 960 pixel resolution. Frankly put, a shade is a vital disappointment.
Colors demeanour oversaturated, content on Web pages mostly appears angled and rough, and altogether a arrangement looks pixelated, adding adult to a shade that is some-more distracting than immersive.
The Droid Bionic, while thicker and scarcely as appealing style-wise, has a better-looking shade (and now sells for $250 on a two-year agreement from Verizon after initial rising during a cost of $300). Even softened looking is a Samsung Galaxy S II‘s display. Top of a smartphone heap, in my opinion, is a arrangement on Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S.
Compared with these 3 tip handsets, a Razr’s shade looks antiquated and not value a $300 seeking price.
Every time we use a smartphone, you’re looking during a screen. If we don’t like what you’re looking at, well, that’s a understanding breaker. It’s about equal to hating a seats, steering circle and dashboard of a automobile we expostulate any day.
If a Razr’s shade would have only matched a demeanour of a Droid Bionic, a Razr could be severe a Samsung Galaxy S II as my favorite Android on a market. Instead, a Razr leaves me wondering what could have been and anticipating for an softened Razr 2 some day.
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— Nathan Olivarez-Giles
twitter.com/nateog
Photo: The Motorola Droid Razr. Credit: Armand Emamdjomeh / Los Angeles Times
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